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.