A week in photos

This is a peice of my week in photos, Tads new jeans and his lasso-he is practicing you understand to lasso his sister...), a very sweet baby that we babysat and lastly, some very cute new hats I made this morning.As a side note, Tad wants his own baby... That baby is spoiled by him and he just met her!

Shopping

The kids and I went shopping and man was it fun!(NOT) We spent 6 hours in Sams Club and Wal-Mart. Nathalie had a shopping card from Grandad to spend and she used it up on a pony, a dog, a barbie and a strawberry shortcake baby. Thank you grandad! She has been super happy since then playing with her things.
We have been trying to buy a lot of food at once as it saves money and time. Gas is so expensive these days, and the nearest real shopping area is 45 minutes away. The kids can push a cart together while I push a 2nd one and we were able to shop for about 10 wks worth of food.



Keeping meat has been a challenge, its a pain to divide it all up and individually wrap it. So we have tried a new technique. I cut all the meat up into portions and freeze it on a tray for a couple of hours, then put it all in one big plastic bag (by animal of course ie beef, pork etc.) I got the idea from ice glazed chicken breasts bought in a bag, its a great idea and so much easier. I can pull out 3 steaks without thawing a whole bunch, or unwrapping them all and defrosting.
Fruit works the same way, we bought a lot of fruit on sale that was ready to be eaten. While bananas make great bread, what to do with the rest? I cut it up and freeze it just like the meat and bag it for smoothies, muffins, crisps, pies, or even just to snack on frozen.





Next we hope to do a winter garden, and can a lot of food from this. Canning is a better idea as a loss of electricity can cause you to lose freezer food. My friend Amanda in california (I dont know how to do the link thing but her blog is http://www.harmonyacres.blogspot.com/) does a lot of canning and gardening and its a fabulous way to save money and shop less. Who wouldnt want to grow their own groceries???

Me

This is a not so great picture of me. I once again realize that there are not many pictures of me at all. The last person who really took pictures of me was my mother and I was 12... My husband took this while messing around with my new camera. This is the window area of our rental house dining room, and consequently my "office," which is in the corner of my sewing area.

Review

Just posting a review on a fabric company, there are some great ones out there but this one... not so great. I think maybe its just too big, its a huge company and they may have lost their personal care.
www.fashionfabricsclub.com I believe is merged with Denver Fabrics. I bought some corduroy (which wasnt in the pkg), some twill, denim, ribbed knit and interlock knit. The dark brown interlock is a deep purple, but soft. The light blue ribbing doesnt have any stretch, I mean zero! Ribbing is supposed to be super stretchy 2 way. One of the "cotton twills" is the old polyester knit my grandma used to wear, feels really nasty. And the "chocolate brown twill," a color I normally love, is an icky color of cat vomit. The "dark navy denim" is striped with light blue all over, looks very girly but definitely not a solid navy as the picture showed.
The other fabrics, some ribbings, denim and twill are usable, relatively nice fabrics but it wasn't worth all this waiting! I definitely recommend against using this company. They kindly said I can send the unwanted pcs back, which is nice, and they will refund my shipping back. I still wasted shipping money getting it here and I planned on these pieces for outfits so I now have to find them elsewhere and wait.
On a better note, I definately recommend using www.sewzannesfabrics.com. She is fabulous! Her fabrics are true to photo and very high quality at competitive prices. Her customer service is astounding, she once sent me the wrong piece and more than made up for her mistake and did it happily. She has made no other order mistakes, her fabric is flawless and lovely. Her shipping is faster than any other company I have used. I get her items within 2 days even though she is in California and I used to live in South Carolina! The only reason I cheated on her lovely company and ordered from another is because she was out of some colors I needed... I learned my lesson!

Just pictures

New Projects continued

These are the things Frank has been working on this week. He made 3 fabric frames which allow the fabric to be rolled off of the bales onto the 8 ft cutting table. He made the table similar to an old dining table that my grandfather made over 45 years ago. It is a very sturdy table! The pads that are under the table and foam and plastic and the plastic portion allows the table to moved side to side or front to back very easily. Even Nathalie, my recently 6 yr old daughter, can move this heavy table.
He is going to make 1 more frame, I have enough fabric bales to cover one frame plus a few! We are house hunting right now and making sure that the new place includes and entire fabric room.

New projects

Check out what my husband made for me! Tomorrow is my b day, though he says this is just because. He has talked for some time about making racks for my fabric. He used 2 x 4s to make this, and the wheels all pivot. They are large industrial wheels that even roll on the stone sidewalks outside. He made it so that it fits through a standard door way for moving purposes. Its the appropriate height for standard ceilings. Very well supported through the back, its quite sturdy. Each frame will fit 4 large bales, by large I mean big around. A frame for bales of PUL could fit 5-6, not sure yet. He can make narrower ones for bales of fabric that are tubular.

The bars going through the bales are metal conduit, and they can hold shorter bales fine. He is building a table for cutting, that will be hip height and the bale can roll right out onto it and he bought multiple wooden measuring sticks to nail down to the table... This will make cutting fabric so much simpler!

princess and the thug

The princess and my thug, this is one of my sons best friends. She is the daughter of my best friend, my friend who has been my best friend since she was 13 and I was 14. She has 4 beautiful children and my have co grown with them. This is Faith, her second born, and my son Tad. They love to dance together and are quite good at it, Nikki (faiths mother) dances very well and has taught her children. In turn, Tad has learned from Faith. She is wearing a pretty new skirt nikki made for her, he is in Calobs last winter pants and a new fleece I made for him. I loved this picture, I havent had much time to blog since the photos were taken. I have a lot of photos from this summer, and with our move havent had much time. I will keep posting updates on our lives, but this picture just had to be shown.

Blond moment

So I just had a serious blond moment, I am not saying these are not (relativly) common for me. We have been switching from plastic to glass and stainless steel in the kitchen. There is quite a bit of research on plastic leeching in our water supplies as well as into our food via microwaves. This causes a lot of problems, some research says this causes some autistic symptoms, or may contribute to autism. My son is high functioning, though he isnt autistic. We lead a natural lifestyle for many reasons, and he is a big one of those reasons.
Anyways, so as I surveyed the kitchen today while unloading the dishwasher, I was thinking about how we have moved completely from plastic tupperware like items to pyrex storage dishes. There was a glass lid in the dishwasher, that goes to a pot. I thought to myself, wow! We dont even use plastic lids on the pots! Um, duh. They would melt right? Of course I realized this and thought how glad I was I hadnt said it out loud.
Once again, pictures on the way. I have figured out how to take them with my new camera, but not how to get them on here.

10:22 and 24 seconds

I have no new pictures for you, I havent figured out my husbands laptop. Our desktop is dead consequently.
As shown by the previous pictures, we moved to Ks just in time to endure a tornado! We bought a home in Chapman Ks and spent some time at a friends house, and a few days at a hotel waiting to close. We closed on our new (beautiful) home on Tuesday June 10Th, at 10 am. Our things were moved in that same day, and we spent Tuesday and Wednesday unpacking. My loving husband stayed up all night Tuesday night unpacking for me as he knows it makes me feel more at home.
Wednesday night were were sitting on the porch shortly after 10 pm enjoying a far away heat lightening show, not a lot of wind, no rain. Perfect night... our children were in bed. A firetruck went down the road with the sirens on which brought the children downstairs screaming as they thought it was a tornado siren. I tucked them back in promising if there ever was one, we would go to our basement. Within 5 min, they were sound asleep. And a couple of min later, sounded the first tornado siren. We stayed on the porch, surely this is a drill. Police and firemen are now going up and down the streets, sirens blaring. Frank goes to the van to listen to the radio, I begin moving children down 2 flights of stairs. They don't want to wake up. Another siren sounds, still police and firemen and their sirens. I go back for blankets. Frank comes in and says a tornado has been sighted in the area, coming our way. I go back up for pillows. He goes for water, he comes down and moves their blankets and pillows to the far wall. Why didn't I think of this? Because of course this is a drill. We sit on small toy chairs, the children are laying down. The electricity goes out, Frank gets up and lays down between the children. I get up and he says, "Where are you going mommy?" He doesn't call me mommy. He sounds comforting, and knowledgeable. I realize its really coming. That's why our electricity is gone, it took it coming towards us. The lines are down. He doesn't want me to go back upstairs, he wont let me. I wasn't anyways, I lay behind Nathalie. We are in a row. I cover her ears. All of this is happening in seconds, I know this later. But it feels slow. There is a noise, like playing chicken with the train. Loud and hurting, and you cannot move away from it. Even if you tried. Then there is a very big sound, Frank says that was a window. It wasn't, it was our chimney crashing into the house as its torn off. In a comforting voice, he sounds calm. Then he gets up, its over with and my mouth and eyes are full of something and Nathalie is coughing and choking, it hurt my ears. My head aches. Frank goes upstairs, "My F---ing Garage is gone!" Oh hell. We bought this for the garage... "Its on my Camaro!" He still sounds funny, is he serious? "Hey baby girl, I am going to need you to come up here." I say no. And the children cry. He says them to. And he comes to get one of them, I carry another. The 2 of them and myself are in a nightgown, well them in Franks shirts. No shoes on them. Me in flip flops. I carry their pillows, I don't know why but I cant get past things with them. Frank says put them down.
My house is a mess, glass and stuff everywhere. Things are broken, and gone. I can see out the back door, the garage is indeed in pieces where the camaro was previously parked. There is a man on my broken porch, with no shirt on. He has a large black dog. I cant see anything but him, he has come to make sure we survived. Are we okay? He knows we just moved in. My house is okay, come on, come on. I will take you there. We walk across the street. I turn to look back, my house is broken. But partly there. My roof, my whole top floor is gone. The kitchen nook, Nathalie's bed porch. Oh we almost didn't go down! We thought it was a drill. Now I want my mother. And then I am crying and frank is calling her. Then another one is coming, I wait in the neighbors basement and then it goes around, or goes away. I don't know which. I am not sure of the rest of the night, its sort of surreal. We stayed in their home, the children asleep on the couches. I fear Nathalie will wet their couch. Frank goes back for things, important papers, clothes, the laptop is full of water. The clothes are dirty but glass free, they were in the basement. Some are clean but wet. We wear them anyways.
The next morning at 4:30 I wake up curled next to frank on the couch, very cramped. But very alive. And grateful. Thankful to God, and to my husband. I go out to walk around town. The red cross is here, and the salvation army. And I watch from the porch as 9 humvees roll by, with soldiers in them. How I love to see soldiers! They are safe and strong. I walk around town, and its broken. Many houses are pick up sticks. People are already in their yards, looking for things. Looking under things. Sitting with their dogs. People speak softly and sometimes touch each other, reach out and touch another persons arm or hand, goodmorning. I am glad you are okay, were you in the basement? Are you okay? Do you need anything? Your house is destroyed... And you ask do I need? What amazing people!
By 7 am their are chain saws, more people here to help. All night the police and firemen and rescue workers from our town and surrounding Ks towns were going house to house, checking each house in the town. Marking them for occupants, checking over and over to be sure no one is trapped. Those who were trapped were dug out. I don't know much about this, I know that everyone was okay. Except for one mama, 21 yr old mama. She died trying to go for shelter. One volunteer was critically injured. His name was Leon Lerouche and her name was Crystal.
The police are still working, all of the rescue workers haven't stopped all night. People are asking if I am okay a lot, I wonder at their worry for others.
I am okay, losing things is nothing. Being alive, saving my children's lovies. Finding some of their toys, finding hand made blankets and a few pieces of their baby clothes. My family and friends from everywhere are calling. Everyone wants to know what they can do. My mom is coming to get the kids and the cats. Even my Evil kitty cats are okay. Mama was downstairs with us, and little weathered it somewhere. I guess in the main floor, because I don't think she would have made it in the children's room where she sleeps.
I am grateful to the people in town, to my family and friends. To God, for watching us. To my husband for being the strongest man I know and to my children for their bravery and acceptance. At 10:22 and 24 seconds, we lived. for that I am grateful.