~~My Sewing Binge & the NEED to get ORGANIZED!!~~

~~My 31 year old Singer has been sing-ing this week & I've been a ~Happy Girl~! The blog world just passed me by as I measured, cut, picked out lace, buttons, stitched, ripped, ironed, & stitched some more! I finished a pillow, almost finished a purse, & am working on 2 more pillows. I have really wanted to sew lately but if I start "blogging" I only get as far as turning on the iron! So I resisted & got busy & it felt good to create some new things. I get so much inspiration from the "creative corners" I see on other blogs & I have been trying to get organized for years. My bright & sunny sewing room is also our guest room, & computer room so I have to make every inch of my space count. Almost every piece of furniture in this room is from the curb & every drawer is crammed full of unorganized fabric! My son Ryan found the antique table that I use for sewing on the curb in front of a little house he rented during college - it has great wood detail & drawers & I was so proud that he called me to come get it ~ he knows his mama! I loaded up the jadeite green antique dresser from a curb & transformed it from a very dirty white - the top drawer is a jumbled mess full of laces, crochet trim, fringe, etc ~ the bottom 2 hold fabric. The little white dresser came from a curb by a dumpster, the white mirror behind the sewing machine came out of a dumpster, the white antique armoire has bakelite handles & was a $20 garage sale find that I repainted. (The mannequins perched there are going to ebay & are just in the way but no place else to put them!!) All of these dressers hold fabric, patterns, fringe, & a mess of sewing "stuff". I am a "fabric-fanatic".....most all of it comes from yard sales & estate sales & I love every little special piece that I find. My problem is I can't get it organized!! I love my sewing room but it's a mess! What you can't see is the shelves high on the wall stacked with fabric, bins under the bed full of fabric......fabric stacked on the floor & in the way.....some of it is big bulky pieces like bedspreads & even clothing that I want to use so it's just in piles. I can't part with it, I want to sew it ALL!! But I need to find the answer to organizing it. I won't blog all the mess but it's there! ~ I will be grateful for any ideas or suggestions. I spend alot of time in this room working on ebay & working with fabric so I want to make it all work better for me. I know the fabrics I have & want to use but spend alot of time looking for them. I finally found some thread racks so at least they're outta the drawer & the one thing I do have organized. The bed is my cutting table ~nutty but true ~ I use a hard plastic board underneath a cutting board ~ and between Cabo, Cookie, & Kharma Kitty someone is always taking a baby nap on top of what I'm working on! Our Vacation starts Saturday so maybe I will come back refreshed with new ideas! Aren't there some good books about making places to create more "neat & workable"! Let me know! Happy Evening!

~~Dogs**on**Blogs!~~

One of my favorite things to look for when I see a new blog is the adorable animals! These two little guys are at my feet or in my lap almost every second of the day keeping me company. It was hard for Cookie being the "new kid on the block" when he came to be Cabo's baby brother. And as you can see by the "tug of war" Cabo had a hard time sharing his monkey. These guys literally walked through the house, (& I followed not believing my eyes...lol) a monkey arm in each chihuahua mouth, neither one willing to let go! A year & a half later Monkey survived still wearing both battered arms & my little rugrats love to wrestle & play together.....by the end of the day they are best of friends ~~ & Oreo Cookie will always be the "baby"!

~~A Beautiful Mother's Day~~

I hope everyone had a Beautiful Mother's Day! Mine was very special & I had a wonderful Mother's Day visit with my lovely mom. There she is as a little girl! She & my dad raised 4 happy kids & she is THE best mom in the whole world! Left to right is my sister Linda ~ she works at Starbucks in Washington! My brother Paul ~ movie cameraman in Los Angeles! My brother George ~ bass guitar player with 70's rock band Black Oak Arkansas! And lastly there is me ~ a very long, long time ago, probably 1960. I was still sewing on buttons yesterday morning but I did finish it in time ~ the Bluebonnet purse I made for my mom.......I hope you enjoy it mom......I LOVE YOU! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

~~Wildflower Drives~Mother's Day Project~& ETSY~~

This is a great year for wildflowers, again because of all the wonderful rain we are getting in north Texas. These are just down the road from our house ~ fields & fields of color! We do wildflower drives often & I can never resist picking a bouquet!



~I am so excited about my Mother's Day project for my mom. She LOVES Texas Bluebonnets & years ago I found this fabric knowing that someday I would make something special for her! Well I've been sewing & working hard this week to get it all put together ~ by Sunday I will post it finished & I know mom's gonna love it! I will take her a wildflower bouquet too!..............And***I FINALLY have my ETSY SHOP up & going!

~~Evening Garden Tours & Much Needed Rain~~

Rain has been a rare thing here in north Texas the last couple of years but this spring we have had an abundance of it which has done amazing things for our gardens. We have so much blooming now & just about every evening we take a "garden tour" ~ anxious to find every new bloom & taking time to enjoy them. This is the first year my pink "Fairy" Rose has fully bloomed & I'm hoping she climbs that arbor fast this summer. "Isabelle" peeks from underneath the purple Larkspur & a pink rose & "Abbey" stands guard beside a red rose. Our Texas shed which we call the "Alamo" was a smokehouse when it was built in 1891. After taking the picture of the pond a couple of days ago I have had to pull out 3/4 of the water plants - they have overgrown the surface so much that we could barely see the water or fish. Thunder earlier this morning & more rain expected the rest of the week.......I'm loving it!

~~Me? Tagged? Okie Dokie!~~

Looks like it's my turn to be "tagged for weirdness" by Arlene at Lil Cottage Shoppe!

1. I don't like to eat the ends of french fries ~ I snapped green beans this morning for supper & as I snapped the ends off I realized this must be related!

2. I learned how to type in high school in the 70's so have typed on typewriters for years & before computers. Even when I'm not on the computer my fingers are "typing" ~ especially when I'm watching TV I type what I'm hearing. I'm usually not aware of this but my husband always tends to notice!


3. I would rather be outside digging in the dirt, planting, even pulling weeds than inside cleaning house.

4. I think I need "blog school" because I'm still lost in how everything works! You all make it look so easy so I know I must be missing something. I would love to make a pretty header but I haven't figured out how. I have a terrible time writing a post because nothing ever lines up right - everything shows up all jumbled up instead of neatly on top of each other......lol There must be some simple tips or tricks & I AM going to figure it all out!

5. Anytime I find a bug inside the house I take it outside & set it free - especially crickets - I could never step on one. If a wasp comes in I wait till it lands, put a cup over it, & take it outside.

6. I have always poured my dishwashing liquid into honey bear bottles to sit cutely on my sink!

7. One of our new spring baby chicks got attacked by a raccoon & lost one of her wings. She had fallen over & had been trampled by the other hens. I didn't think she would live so just to keep her comfortable in her last day or so I kept her inside the house for 2 weeks, wrapped warmly in a blanket, petted her, played soft music & sang to her. I named her HOPE & today she is out there with her sisters flapping her one little wing! I couldn't believe she would survive with one wing but she surely did. I can go out & call her name or sing to her & she KNOWS I'm talking to her! I don't think this is weird but most people would think it's weird to sing to a chicken! She's an Americana & will someday lay colored eggs. In the top picture Hope is in the middle!

Just about everyone I've met has been tagged so anyone new that might visit can feel free to tag yourself!

~~A little COTTAGE in the KITCHEN!~~

I am SO enamored with Cottages that they "live" in almost every cobweb corner of my Cottage! Some of my most loved Cottage Treasures are here in my kitchen. I can pretty much honestly say that the only "new" place I ever shop is for groceries or flowers! I rarely set my toes in a mall or shopping center - only if I have to.......for years & years & years & still today I only shop at any place that sells old "stuff", vintage, & already loved with "worn around the edges" character. My "Cottage Cupboard" is laced with what I call Cottage China~ cups & saucers, vases & gravy boats with cottages & gardens that I have found here & there, sometimes few & far between but at estate sales, antique stores, & thrift stores. Each little piece, although worn with crazing & some even with cracks, means more to me than anything I could ever find in today's manufactured world. Most of them could never be replaced because they are one-of-a-kind although years ago they were probably sold by the dozen. I love to walk by the glass doors & focus on a single piece that I might not have looked at in a while, then pull out a cup or creamer to fill with a tiny bouquet for the bathroom or kitchen table, with a candle close by to be sure that I notice it in case I've neglected to really "see" it lately. These are the Treasures that make my Heart Happy & I cherish each one!

HAPPY MAY DAY!!~~