Happy BIRTHday baby Jacob

My newest grandson, Jacob Benjamin Royer
Born 12/31/09
2:10pm
7lb9oz
19.5 inches long

Mom and baby are doing well.

Come and gone

Christmas has come and gone. My tree was up for less than a week, decorated for less than three days. I don't think I had any Christmas Spirit this year. I have learned my lesson though. I will not take any orders after Dec 1st. I think I just over-extended myself and I didn't have time to enjoy the whole meaning of the Holiday. Being in business for yourself, by yourself has it rewards and I certainly didn't expect to have such success but I have to say, it just didn't feel like Christmas to me. In fact, I have not sewn a stitch since Tuesday night and I feel like something is missing. I walk around the house and know that I need to clean but I feel like I should be sewing. Sewing for 6 hours a day and working my real paying job for 8 hours a day for the last few months has gotten me into a mindset that I am having a hard time breaking free from. At this very moment, I feel so unproductive, except that I may now have time to keep up with blogging. My plan for the upcoming year is to have some sort of inventory on hand. The items that sell real well will of course, be my primary inventory and then I think I may be looking for opinions from all of you to help me know what other items I should have on hand. I am thinking of offering new items at a special introductory price then after a month or so, increasing the price. My plan is also to make a line of clothes for each of the historical dolls. If any of you think of outfits that you think I should make, I am open to all suggestions. You may click on the link at the right to go to my website so see what I have already and what I can/should expand on.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas eve and the house is now quiet. We had our annual family Christmas Eve get together, just Me, Brent and the girls and their families. We missed Jeff this year. We will fly him home shortly after Kim has her baby so he can meet his new nephew. Although we miss him tremendously, we know this year that he is with someone he really cares about and that makes it a little easier.

We had our traditional dinner, Mom's meatball soup, ollibollen, rolls and ham and this year, I made boterkoek. We also had the chocolate fountain with all the yummy stuff to dip into that.

Tomorrow, we will go to Brent's parent's house. Jenny wants us to go with her and her family to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squequel.

It's been a very unexpectedly busy past couple of months. I feel bad for not sending out my Christmas cards this year but I want everyone to know that you are in my thoughts all the time and Brent and I do wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prospersous 2010. We love you all!

It's not my idea of "clean it up"

Brent was supposed to finish the floor in the hallway over the weekend. It didn't happen. Sunday evening, he decided he'd better do something so he "cleaned up" the living room so that we had somewhere to put our Christmas tree. Nice big empty space for just the tree.


Then, I went to put a toy away in the grandkids toy room and this is what I found


I have no further comments :)

More special orders

Here are the final special orders of the season. A cheerleading outfit, made to match that of her daughter's and the purple dress I mentioned in an earlier post.


Now that I have those out of the way, I can concentrate on the final 5 orders I have left to make. I took a day off from work yesterday to try to catch up. I need the rest of the week off too.

Ewe

No, that's not a picture of a medical glove blown up, those are my feet. This is how they have been for about three weeks now. Looking at my feet now, a week after I took this picture, they are even worse. I can barely get shoes on.I try to get up and walk around but I don't have time. Maybe after Christmas they will deflate.

I'm still here

Don't forget about me. I'm still here. I barely have time to read anyone's blogs all the way through, let alone write in my own blog but in about two weeks, I will be done with my sewing for the holidays and will be back into blogging. It's 10:35pm and I am just now unwinding. (I used to go to bed at 9). Business is good, at least better than I ever imagined. I made over $400 just last week alone. I never in my wildest dreams would have expected anything close to that. If I didn't have a full time job, I would take on more orders. My husband saw my version of the Eloise outfit and asked how much I charge for it. I said $13 and he shook his head and said, "You should charge $20. I bet people would still buy it". I have been looking at other seamstresses online stores and I probably could raise my prices. I will have to re-evaluate this all after the holidays. My house still isn't decorated (course, my living room is still not finished and I have no furniture so why put up a tree?)

OK,, my legs are falling asleep as I sit here on my bed typing so Good night for now. I will try to catch up again soon.

Special orders

I am someone's new best friend. One of my customers has requested that I make her daughter's doll, holiday dresses to match hers. Now, you have to know, This little girl is 4 years old. This woman buys dresses extra big so that they come to the floor since they don't really make formals in little girl sizes. It started with one dress, then she brought another and another. These people celebrate in a big way and dress to the 'nines'. Here are two that I have completed so far.

This is her Thanksgiving Dress. The woman tried to embroider the waistband but when I told her I found the embroidered ribbon, she was thrilled, even though it wasn't exact.
The dolls dress that I made.

Then there is the Family Portrait and what she will be wearing on New Years Eve dress

The dress was about 6 inches longer but because the woman couldn't find the same fabric in the store and couldn't find another dress like it for me to cut up (more on that later)then she had to settle for a dress that comes mid calf in order to use what was needed for the dolls dress. The original also had a thin black velvet ribon across the front of the bodice seam and she didn't like that so she asked me to make a pink sash:


Next will be the Christmas dress. I will post that when I am done.

I currently have 8 orders that I am working on. All have multiple outfits in them. I think it may be slowing down though because my ad on the local tv website expired and I don't think I will be posting it again before Christmas...just so I can finish what I am doing and enjoy my holiday.

Where has my weekend gone?

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went my daughter's brother in law's house. My daughter volunteered me to bring brussel sprouts and cooked apples. Brussel Sprouts, you say? Well, yes, my mother always had brussel sprouts on Thanksgiving. Of course she also had the traditional corn and green beans and such but she loved brussel sprouts so she made them mostly for her and my dad so as it turns out, it has also become a tradition of mine when I cook dinner. My son in law told me that he never liked them until he ate mine. The only secret ingredient is nutmeg and plenty of butter. Another tradation for Thanksgiving is to make my mom's cooked apples. My mother always made them from the dried apples. I tried to do them from fresh one year but they just didn't taste the same so instead of changing the non existent recipe, I learned to just do what mom did. Unfortunately, since I only make these once a year, I never remember how many packages I need and I always end up making way too much. I came home with more than half a pot full.

Since I forgot to bring my camera, trust me when I say, the food was delicious, and the company was pleasant. My daughter's in laws don't feel like inlaws at all. We're lucky to be able to call them all "family".

I have been busier thann I ever expected with my doll clothes business. I have been getting multiple orders every day. I am a little concerned that I may not be able to keep up. I thought that for sure over my 4 day weekend, I would be able to complete all my existing orders and for the most part, I have. I did end up wasting about 4 hours on Friday though. I had made my list on Thursday evening for what I needed to purchase at the fabric store to complete the orders I had in the works. I got to the store at 7 am, pulled a cart and proceeded to gather the items on my list. Then I got the cut counter. I pulled my number and realized that I was over 100 numbers away from what they were on. As I waited for my turn, it became apparent that I would be there a while. Holy cow, there were women with carts of flannel and fleece. I was told the flannel was on sale for $1.50 per yard. I didn't ask about the fleece. Many women were leaving with shopping cars full of cut fabric, some even two carts full. No wonder, by the time I got home, it was 11:30. Had it not been for my coupon only being good until noon that day, I would have put my stuff back and gone another day.

The rest of the weekend has been spent sewing, sewing and more sewing. (Oh, and my Sunday Morning bowling league which I totally stink at lately). I have had to stop taking spepcial requests for orders. Making up a pattern is too time consuming and time is something that I am running short on. The only reason I am not sewing at this very moment is because I completed two special orders today and I need a break.

So, now I am going to watch Desperate Housewives then go to bed so I can get up at 5 and sew for a couple hours before I have to start my real paying job.

See you all next time :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I am still here! I have been so busy with my doll clothes business that I just haven't had time to post. I am getting about an order a day and most include multiple outfits. I am so glad I have a 4 day weekend coming up...Oh wait, one of those days is Thanksgiving. Thank goodness I am not cooking this year so I will be able to sew part of the day.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

It's finally happening

Back in March, we finished our kitchen. Within a week, we tore up the carpet in our front room and trashed the furniture. All in preparation to lay the new floor in there. Well, Spring left, Summer came and went and Fall arrived. Nothing had been touched in that room or the entry hall. I have lived with roofing paper in my entry for over 7 months and as far as the front room goes, all I can say is I am glad we don't really use that room. Unfortunately, when people (namely my customers for doll clothes) come by, that room is the first thing they see when they come in and for some repeat customers, my excuse of "don't mind the mess, we're remodeling" was getting old.

So anyway, it's finally coming together. Brent has been working so hard, all by himself on this. He and I did the kitchen together but I have been so busy with my doll clothes business that I have not had time to help him. Here's what I'm talking about:

This is a before shot of my front room. I have the worst eye when it comes to color selection for paint. The walls were supposed to be tan and they turned out peach. This mistake was made twice over two paint jobs. Whatever possessed me to get green carpet? We had it when I was a kid and I thought it was so pretty. What possessed me to get green furniture? Well, it looked comfy, I didn't pay attention to the color! By the way, it was not comfy once we got it home.

The walls all got a fresh new coat of paint. This time it's the right color. With the exception of the paint,this is the way the living room looked for 7 months. Tools and furniture I did't know where else to store. This is the entry hall. See the black roofing paper? It's kind of sticky. I lived on this for almost 7 months. He's making progress though. This was one day of work for him alone. Yes, he's slow but at least he has started. This is the finished entry hall. Beautiful, isn't it? Now I have to paint the door and the window trim.
Progress into the front room. This was about 2.5 days worth of work.
This is the hallway to the bedrooms. We only tore the carpet up here a few weeks ago but it's hard on the feet. I can't wait to get this spot done.

Then there are the stairs to the basement. This will be his last part of the project. Although he says it will be done over the weekend, I don't think it will be. It may be another 7 months before the stairs get done.

Looks like we made it!

I'm not a very creative person when it comes to writing. I say this because what I was planning on writing for my subject today has already been written, almost to the exact words that I had in mind. So, rather than repeating myself, If you're curious, you may go back to Nov 5th 2008.

But,I will repeat myself in saying that on this day, 32 years ago, I married the love of my life. My soul mate, my friend. I love you Brent. Thank you for sticking with me all these years.



The odds were against us. It was a month after my 18th birthday and I was a senior in high school. Regardless of the fact that I was pregnant, I graduated high school with honors(except I missed the ceremony because I was in the hospital, having just had our baby girl). We bought our first home just after I turned 20 and two weeks later had our son. By the time I was 23, we had our third child. Things happend quickly for us and we've beat the odds. Life hasn't always been easy but it's always been worth it. Thanks honey, for being there, every step of the way. I love you!

Paisley's new spot

This little cat doesn't like people and will only let me pet her on her terms. She usually spends her days up in my bedroom snuggled into my pillow. Today as I was in my office, I got up to get something from my closet, opened the door that was already ajar, and this was the first thing I saw She blends in so well with all the other fabric. Can you even see her? She's sitting on top of the blue fleece fabric.

Back to Holland

Friday May 21, 1999
Today we went to the cheese market in Alkmaar. There they have the silent bids between 2 or 3 vendores for the cheese. When the bidding is done, the runners put the cheese on the "boats" and strap them over their shoulders and run them to the hand carts. From there, they go to trucks for delivery to the stores. After I finished watching that, I watched a cobbler hand carve a wooden shoe. He did it from a block of wood to a shoe in less than 6 minutes. He knew I was video taping him and I think when he heard me say the time, he was a little dissappointed. Maybe that wasn't his fastest time but I was pretty impressed! As we were each doing our own thing while there, I headed off around the open market to look for some more souveniers. I bought a cute little hand painted silk screen and, oh yes, can't forget the poffertjes. Oh the butter and powdered sugar on top of the warm poffertjes, I can just taste them now (I think I will make some when I am done here.)
On the left, is the poffertjes pan I bought while in Holland. The one on the right is one that you can buy here in the states (Target, Walmart). It's called a pancake puff pan. Similar but deeper so you can fill them with jam or custard or whatever your imagination can concoct.

Anyway, after Alkmaar, we headed to Vollendam. This quaint little fishing village is now quite a tourist town. Here I purchased Kim's windmill and my mom and I got our picture taken together in the typical village costume. Something I will treasure forever!

Maybe it passed us!

I got the following email from my brother today. He lives just outside of Denver Colorado in Highlands Ranch.

"Terrie, Got you beat on the snow for today. We have gotten at least 18-20" since yesterday. Here a shot looking out from the back door. Some snow drifts are 4 feet. I got stuck backing out of the driveway so I stayed home from work. Julie made it with the 4Runner. Our neighbors Fire station crew came by this morning in the big fire unit and got stuck. So did the garbage truck. I helped him get out with the shovel. "

Well Rick, I just hope it blew passed us and over to you and not the other way around. It's freezing here though so I expect it any day now.

Say it isn't so!

This is what I am seeing right now as I look out my office window!



Oh, say it isn't so. I know it's only a skiff but we haven't had enough of the pretty fall colors yet. I am not ready for the cold winter!

A great photographer

My grandson Jase just loves taking pictures. He's almost 2 1/2 years old and has figures out how to turn on my camera. He knows to take off the lense cap and where the picture taker button is too. He's such a smarty pants that he even knows how to unlock his mom's cell phone and take pics with her cell camera.

Friday night, Jenny, Jase and their dog Harley spent the night while Matt was out of town. Jase, of course is all over the house on his own, playing and getting into things. He came up to where Jenny and I were and he had my camera in his hands. It's a bigger camera, not just a little pocket one and it has some weight to it so Jenny jumped to grab it, afraid Jase would drop it. Luckily, all was OK and Jase was ready to pose. He sat right in front of me, smiled, I snapped a pic, he changed positions, I snapped again and so on. At one point, he got so close to the camera as I was taking the picture, this is the result.



Here are a few more of the poses:



Yesterday as I was loading my pictures from my camera onto my computer, I noticed that he'd taken a few pictures of his own. They were of my office. I didn't save these because it only showed what a mess it is down here right now.

Just a little "online" humor.

'Daddy, how was I born?' The father answers, 'Well, son, I guess one day you will ne ed to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, and googled each other. There your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:

"You've got Male"

Holland - March 19th and 20th 1999

Wednesday March 19th
Today we went to Rotterdam. For the most part, we saw the big city. A modern City in with shopping malls and all. Most of the older part of the town was bombed in WWII. While in the city, mom, Rick and Hans had their herring sandwiches (ewe, gross). We walked to the end of the main road to the harbor. All I wanted to do was sit and absorb the beauty of the old building along the harbor. Then off to see where Hans, Ron Ed and Linda were born. The Birthing house was no loner there but we did find their apartment they lived in. #20 Landman Straat. Mom said this used to be a nice area.
Back to Harlem, we visited with my cousin Fritz. Fritz is 7 years younger than mom so she would go to his house quite often. They were more like brother and sister than nephew and aunt. (19 years age difference from mom to her brother Jan). Fritz grew up in this house. It was over 100 years old. Mom said it sure seemed a lot bigger back then.

Thursday March 20th
We started the day today expecting to see the flower auction. This is where all the growers go to sell their flowers. We got there too late. The auction started at 6:30 and went until all the flowers were purchased by the vendors.

We headed off to Delft where, of course a lot of the pottery is made. I was surprised to learn there is an actual town called Delft. I loved this town. Every part about it seemed to be picture perfect. We toured one of the facilities there and everyone purchased a few pieces. I only bought what I could take home in my suit case. Rick and Glen purchased some larger plates and had them shipped home. After the tour, we stopped at a little roadside diner. Glen said this was one thing on his list to do. "Eat at a roadside diner". Rick coming out of the diner.

On our way out of town, we saw a big beautiful church. Michelle and my mom wanted to see what it was all about so we parked and while they went into the church, the rest of us walked around the market. There were some awesome shops (I love knick knack shops) and an open market. I bought 2 lbs of Dutch licorice but I think it really ended up being about 5 pounds. It cost me only 5 guilders, which I would pay 10 times that here. I also found this real unique store that sold pewter so I bought two pewter shot glasses. The Church, Michelle told us, is where all of the Royalty of the "House of Orange" are buried. Hans and Penny

It was getting late in the day but we wanted to make a couple more stops on our way back to our bungalow. We went to Kinderdijk. This is a stip along a canal that has windmills on both sides. People still live in these windmills too. Legend has it that the area is named because after a flood, a baby and cat were washed up on shore. (Kinder=child). Just me and the horse

Finally, we went to the beach in Scheveningen. They were having a sand sculpture contest. Each sculpture was about half a mile from each other so we only saw a couple of them but they were amazing. It was getting too late to try to see the others. We had dinner at one of the many restaurants that they have along the beach and by the time we got back to our bungalow, it was 11:30 pm. What a long day but oh so fun.

Snuggie?

We are so busy at work that I have been working a few hours OT every day. Usually in the morning because I am a morning person but last night, I stayed late too. My cats begin to feel neglected when I ignore them. Taz usually will come and stay with me in my office. Last night, he had been scooching this box all over the floor, trying to fit inside it. Finally, this is where he ended up. Right next to my chair.

October 3rd

I turned 50 years old last Saturday. I've always been told that I don't look my age. My job requies me to be on the phone a lot and sometimes you get to know the people you call on a regular basis and they too are shocked to learn that I have grandchildren. They say, "I pictured you to be in your mid 20's". There's no point to the comment above. It was just a way to start out this post.

The day started at 7:30 am. This is sleeping in for me as I am usually up by 5. Brent and I went to Breakfast, then we met the kids and grandkids at the bowling alley. The rest of the afternoon I was on my own, searching fabric stores near and far (far being about 10 miles away)for a particular fabric. I couldn't find it. I can't remember where I bought it so I had to shop all the stores to look for it again. When I got home about 3 hours later, Brent decided we needed to go out to dinner. We both love Texas RoadHouse so that's where I picked. Dinner was delicious as usual. After dinner, a friend from California was in town so she came to visit. I had a wonderful day.

What I got:

Brent bought me a brand new pair of bowling shoes. I didn't need a new pair but I saw them and just had to have them. My daughter said they look as though they were made just for me.

Homemade cards from my daughter Jenny and from my grandkids Zach and Aubrey. Both made cards with pictures of us bowling together. Kim gave me a singing card to the toon of "Bye Bye Love" It has a bunch of old ladies on it and says "Bye-Bye youth, Bye-Bye Memory, Bye-Bye spicy food, I think it's time to cry...)

Zach, Aubrey and Mollie gave me this Snuggli. It's great for those chilly days at my desk in this cold office of mine. Kim and her husband and Jenny, her husband Matt and my grandson Jase gave me money to buy another American Girl doll. This will be number 5.

I bought this for myself. It's a high definition, full 1080p digital video camera with 10 mega pixel camera. It's about the size of my cell phone. Now I can take video and put it on my blog. (If I can figure it out)

Weekly bowling scores

I have been forgetting to post my weekly bowling scores. But, we have joined a league so we'll see if my scores improve or get better. I never was into the competition thing. I've always hated sports so I am a little nervous that being on a league will make me feel too much pressure and I'll choke. Our first week, my average was 135 and Brent's was 145. Last week, (the second week)we forgot to write it down but I think it was pretty close to the same.

So, I just may post averages now, unless of course, either one of us gets above a 200 because that's worth bragging about.

Another Linda update

Bob just called. Linda is finally out of surgery, in recovery and coherent. He said the doc removed about 50 more of those little nodules. The doc thinks it was fluid from the tumor she had removed so many years ago. There doesn't appear to be any muscle or nerve damage.

EVERYTHING IS LOOKING VERY GOOD!

Bob said "Thanks for all your prayers".

Linda update

I just heard from Bob, Linda's husband. It's NOT cancer!!!!!!!

They took out the nodules that were near the surface and also took a sample of the gland and it's all ok but there are about 30-40 more nodules under the gland they have to get out. They have to disect the nerve to get to them. I am not sure what that will affect but Bob sounded cheerful. She is still in surgery and he will call me once she is out and awake.

Haarlem

Journal entry for Monday May 17th, 1999:
We started the day with a buffet at the hotel restaurant. Abit of scrambled eggs, bacon, flaa and lots of bread with applestroop and hagel slaag. Ummm, my favorite. (Applestroop is an apple jam with a very tart flavor and hagel slaag are little chocolate sprinkles that look just like the cake or cookie sprinkles. On bread or toast with butter, mmmmm, delicious!).
Today, our main goal was to tour around Haarlem, to see where mom was born and grew up. We stopped along one of the larger canals called the Spaarne. If I am not mistaken, this is the main canal in Haarlem.
We also saw the Amsterdamze Poort.. This structure was built in 1274 and used to keep the enemy out of the town. Obviously, there must have been either a wall to either side for it's purpose to be effective but that is gone now.
Next, we went to the open market. I loved going to the open markets in the towns we visited and I sure wish we had them here (I guess we do but call them swap meets, never been to one here).In the middle of the town center was the town hall. This is where Mom and Dad were married. There was a wedding going on and mom told us that back then, if you were rich, you were married on the right side of the building, if you were poor, you were married on the left side. The were married on the left side.
After spending money at the market, Mom wanted to show us the house she grew up in. We drove around for over an hour trying to find it. Finally, we asked for directions. 72 Voor Zorg Straat. She didn't recognize it because the street leading up to the house used to have a canal running through it. During the winter it would freeze up and she would go ice skating there. The canal was gone, now a paved street. On the corner of the street used to be a catholic school. That had been converted to an apartment building. The front of the house had been updated too with new windows and doors.
We had to be checked into our bungalow in Zaandfort, a little tourist town located close to the beach before it got too late. I was sad to see our day end so quickly but was glad to be able to have the time to explore the shops in the little area we were staying in before they closed. Everything closes early in Holland. I don't think anything is open past 6pm.