Update

Well, we moved.  Our youngest daughter up and left us...sigh..she moved out a few months after graduation and stayed gone for a long enough time (and just last week decided to move to Georgia) that we decided to downsize our house and our payments.  We stuck with a 4 bedroom house but it is considerably smaller than the last place and there is no pool here I'm sad to say, but that in itself will save us a ton of money. I still have room here for my yarn studio and my dye lab and I even have an office (I can move out of the office and let the youngest move home if she wants). I have even converted a bedroom into a dressing room.  I'm, of course, still buried in boxes, but I will get there a little at a time.

I have been working a lot more lately, and now the oldest daughter is working, so I am helping out with babysitting the grandbabies while she is working.  It is challenging, but I will do what I need to do to help them out.  I love spending time with my granddaughters.  Hubby has been traveling a lot too, I miss him.  I have to say that our relationship has gone to a whole new level now that it is just the two of us here.  We certainly enjoy our time together a lot more often now.  It's almost like we're newlyweds again!

Hopefully by the end of the year I will have the rest of my stuff unpacked, that is my goal anyway!  I'm trying to stay positive and work as steadily as I can.  I am soo not good at this kind of stuff you know.  I suck at housework and organization. Any suggestions will be gladly accepted (hint hint)!

I will try to check in here occasionally and give updates, not that anyone but me reads this, but I really need to start getting stuff outta my head and onto paper or screen, digital age and all that. LOL

Peace!

Jules

Princess Dresses and Overcoming Fears

Yesterday I was cruising Walmart with my mom and we happened upon the fabric section.  I have been purchasing fabric from there lately for sun dresses for my youngest daughter and myself.  But yesterday I found some really cute smocked fabrics that were the perfect length for my granddaughter Jayde!

The thing I love best about this fabric, is that it is just one simple seam and you are pretty much done.  I also opted to add some straps because in my mind 4 years old is too young for a strapless dress.

 First I pinned the fabric where I wanted the seam. 

 

 Then simply sew the seam straight.  This particular piece of fabric was a little less than the half yard that I wanted for the dress, so I sewed a fairly scant seam.

 

 

 And further down the dress...

 I then decided to try something I have never tried before.  I wanted to serge the seam.  My wonderful husband found an awesome deal a few years ago at a yard sale.  He got me a Brother 1034D for just $40.  It didn't have the box, but it had the instructional dvd and the guy who sold it to him said his girlfriend had never been able to figure out how to use it.  I spent an additional $75 to have it tuned up and the blades replaced TOTALLY WORTH IT!  But, even after that, I have never really attempted to use it.  My oldest daughter Mariah has always been the one to use it.  So, last night I swallowed my fear and watched a video on how to thread it and gave it a go!

After a few tweaks to make sure I wasn't going to break my thread, and another peek at a youtube video, I was ready to go! 

 I opted to keep the blade in the on position for a neater edge.  It leaves a little pile of scraps and quite a bit of dust.

I loved how neat my seams/edges ended up!  Thread color doesn't matter because they are inside.  

I then used some ribbon that I had laying around and added some straps so she could be comfortable and not worry about losing the dress.

And the final result is...she loves them!!!

 This was a simple project with great results and I learned to use my serger and not to fear it anymore!  Oh...and Jayde absolutely LOVES her dresses!

He got me!

Well, my husband finally got me!  He got me all caught up and involved in another pc game!  It has been years since he got me the first time. I spent several years deeply involved in a game called Asheron's Call.  

I loved it, it drew us closer together...I have missed it for a long time.  I have tried to go back to it but it is just not the same as it used to be.  Or maybe I am actually not the same as I used to be.  Either way it just doesn't work for me anymore.  

 

 Paul has been trying to get me to play Diablo for a long time. Used to be Diablo II and I tinkered around there for a little while, but I never really could get into it.  

I guess the geeks of the world have been waiting around for more than a decade for Diablo III to be released and this is the year.  Paul got in on the beta testing and it kept him pretty busy and out of my hair for a while, and then on May 15th they released the full version.

O! M! B!  You would think Menudo was having a reunion tour!  

He was so excited!  He came home from work on the 14th and ate dinner and went straight to bed, then he woke up at 1:30am so he could download it right at  2:00am when it was released in our time zone.  He played until he had to go to work the next morning.  Sigh...I sure do love that geek of mine!

So, finally I said I would try it.  I really did not think I would enjoy it, in fact, I didn't want to enjoy it!  But, I like it!  I get such satisfaction out of killing all the demons and defeating the bosses.  I like doing the quests because it gives you a list at the side of the screen telling you what to do next on your quest and when you have done it, it marks it off and gives you another item on your list!  I LOVE LISTS!!!

The worst part about D3?  It is a time suck!  I should be doing other things but I'm sitting down on my computer playing a game.  I need to haul my butt outside and clean the pool so we can use it this weekend but I am chained to the computer!  I have started setting a timer so I don't lose track of time while I'm playing.  I didn't set the timer the first couple of times I played and ended up losing about 3 hours each time! 

Okay, now I really want to finish this post and go down to finish my quest, but I am going to go outside and work on the pool.  It has a ton of leaves at the bottom of the deep and I have to get them out of there so we can play!  Then as a reward for all my hard work I will go down and play for 1 HOUR and no more!!! 

Going Slowly

So, the past several times I have started blogging I have gone at it full blown.  It worked for a week, a few days...once or twice, but I just couldn't stick with it.  I would get blog block and not be able to think of anything interesting to post, or I would get busy and not post or I would decide I needed to scrub the bathrooms from top to bottom and therefore did not have time to blog (btw, I hate cleaning, so this is obviously just an excuse to avoid blogging because I'm a big fat coward).  

This time I am going slowly.  I have my blog mentors who are awesome and post daily or at least several times a week and they always have something interesting to say.  I have been trying to be awesome like them.  Well, I have decided that I need to be awesome like me!  I am going to set a weekly blogging goal to start.  I think I need that to keep from getting overwhelmed and being scared of my blog.  I know I can come up with at least one interesting thing a week that has happened.  So, that is my mini goal.  I am not going to be perfect,  I may skip a week or I may blog more than once a week, but I am going to try to be more consistent, but I will forgive myself if I am not perfect. 

I love this part!

I love it when I feel rejuvenated and just feel like making a clean start!!  My mom just bought a new house and I was over there helping her today and it was just amazing to walk into a clean house with a clean slate!  There was just a few pieces of furniture, and it just felt so fresh!  We were over there cleaning the house so she can move her household in.  

So, now I am motivated to clean out my house and get rid of all the things!  I am going to have a yard sale in June, that will give me enough time to help get mom moved, and get my youngest through her high school graduation and give me time to clean up and clean out my house!  I talked to hubby and he agreed that our possessions are a burden to us at this point.  We need to get rid of stuff.  Even if it is something that we think we may need someday.  If we need it later, we can either borrow it or re-buy it at the time of need!

So, this is me, starting over once again.  I lost my job a month ago and this past month has been pretty difficult adjusting, but I am thinking I am going to be okay.  I think I can figure out how to save money by not working. I am cutting out the unnecessary spending and just going full ahead on living frugally!  I am reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette right now, I'm sorry, did I say reading, I mean memorizing!  Some of the stuff is out of date and a lot of it isn't relevant to my situation because I don't have young children at home, but I am pulling out all the little tidbits I can find!  If anyone knows of any other books that will help me on my stay home venture please leave me a comment  and let me know which ones to check out!


I am also going to be working on building my yarn biz up some more.  I have let if fizzle out this past year and that is just not helping at all!  I just have to be strong and make lists and stick to them!  I love lists!  


I'll let you know how it goes!


Jules

 

Bad Bloggy Blogger Girl!

So...I have been neglecting my blog.  But don't worry, I berate myself about it daily.  I have even started admonishing myself in my journal at night.  I figured a small post now might just get me started again, so here's hoping.

• I'll have you know I have not been sitting around doing nothing while I have been absent...I prefer to recline on the sofa, not sit! LOL!

• Seriously, I have been busy!  I have been pinning like crazy on Pinterest ..I have been making stuff and cleaning stuff and knitting stuff and spinning stuff and I have been working and napping...and other important stuff!  I even created a new board on Pinterest of the neat stuff I have found on there and have made or tried.  I call it Pinned it...Made it . 

 

• I am also working on my triangle loom that I have been wanting for ages!  I should have it done by this weekend thanks to the constructing and measuring of the man! I am in the process of hammering in 661 nails...let me tell you, that is A LOT of nails!  I took video of it the other day because I knew I needed to blog about it and was just way to lazy to type it up so I recorded a video of it.  But I need to do a bit of editing before I can upload it.  I also have started processing a super gianormous bag of raw wool that someone has given me.  I think there is about 100 pounds of wool in it and processing it will be a lot of work, but not as much as I feared in the first place.  I am really excited about it!

• That's about all for now, I will get the video uploaded and some pictures uploaded this weekend. I am dyeing yarn this weekend so I will get some pictures and/or video of that and get it posted.  You might like to see what the process looks like from my end.  

•  Thanks for reading!

Jules

The best intentions paves a road...

Well, I have every good intention of getting stuff done over the weekend, and it just didn't happen.  I guess the planets didn't align or something, but I was never able to meet with the organizer and I just stayed busy all weekend!  I do have new lists though!  I made lists of things that I want to get done around the house for each room and I have goals.  I just need a timeline incorporated now.  Here is a little of what I want to do, I am not going to give you all of it at once because it is a lot.  I have a list will 12 different rooms and then I have a sub-list for each room.  I don't want to overwhelm you (I do that to myself enough already).  So, I will just give you a few rooms and a few lists at a time! (translation:  heeeyy, I can totally stretch this subject out to a couple of different blog installments!).

• My list (and yes my sub list):

•   Room that I want to tackle:
• Living Room
• n
• The Sub list:
• Living Room
• Clean off seating areas
• Clean off tv trays and put them away
• Place coffee table
• Clean off media center
• Put away Christmas totes (yes, everything has been taken down and is in totes in the corner)
• Clean off bookself
• 

 
**edit**  I had the dining room and kitchen here too, but then I felt too overwhelmed and had to remove them.  That is what gets me in trouble in the first place, trying to do too much at once.  

So, that is the beginning of it, I can't believe I have had the guts to show you the before picture, but hey...I warned you that I am a hoarder and I am working my way out of it!  Hopefully this will motivate me to hurry up and show you the after pictures!

Until next time...don't let gravity get you down!!!!

Jules