10 ways I have been Blessed in February

I have to be honest, I don't like February. And no it is not because of any pink-tinged holiday. Crazy and sometimes tragic or really difficult things seem to happen to me in February. This year was really no exception but last night a couple of my friends sent an update email titled "10 ways we were blessed in February" and I felt convicted. Maybe I should focus on the things that went right in February and not the things that went wrong. So here goes:

1. The weather. I know this seems like a lame way to start. You are probably thinking that if my first good thing about February is the weather then the other nine are going to be like watching those awkward and excruciating auditions on American Idol. But seriously doesn't good weather just put you in a good mood? The weather we are having recently has been making me feel like the winter is over and spring is on its way, metaphorically as well as physically.

2. My sweet friend Catherine, who doesn't live in Greenville, got one of her friends who lives here to WALK to my apartment complex and leave flowers on my doorstep on Valentines Day. I am very difficult to surprise but this one had me floored!

3.My aunt does not have rabies! Yes, I know how that statement sounds. My poor aunt got bitten by a stray cat and the doctors were worried the cat was rabid. You can't tell if an animal has rabies without killing it so the vet had to keep the cat and watch it for about 10 days to see if it showed signs (my aunt did not want to kill the cat!). If the cat was rabid my aunt was going to have to have a series of painful vaccines so my family is overjoyed that the cat and my aunt do not have rabies!

4. I got to sped a couple of days with my favorite twins! My good good friend Amantha  let me come stay at her house for a few days and help her take care of her twins, Micah and Yarah.  They just turned one on February 28th! I can't believe the world has had those sweet children for a whole year but I am so glad we have!

5. I found the coolest suitcases at an antique store (store is a strong word for this experience, it is more like a large pile of antiques inside a building) I got such a good deal on them I almost sprinted out of the place so the owner couldn't change his mind.  I have some plans to make crazy furniture out of these suitcases.

6. I have had a lot of new ideas and dreams for my business, Sew Sew Lovely. I am not quite ready to share those yet but exciting things are coming!

7. My dear dear friends Stephen and Christina are having a baby! I have known them since college and while they have been married for 6 years it was just such a surprise. They are going to be such AMAZING parents and I can't wait to meet their new addition.

8. I have had some really sweet times with friends this month. I have had great lunch dates, talks over coffee, phone calls and visits at my kitchen table. I have really felt loved by my friends old or new, here and far away.

9.  My friends Katrina and Kyle went to Africa this month. They will be there until August doing great work and having crazy adventures. Every time I think about what they are doing I am motivated to do big things and live the life I have imagined.

10. I have done a lot of things this month that I was scared to do or never would have done in the past. One example is that I have been dancing a lot more lately and I am loving it!  I have really been trying serve the world with the light that inside me.

So there you have it! Even though February has been a hard month, there  have been blessings and lessons.  I am determined that this February was the last of the terrible Februaries.  Its just a month and in the words of  Florence and the Machine  "The dog days are over!"

My New Frienemy: The Ruffler.

I was home a while ago and my mom gave me an attachment (they are called "feet") for my sewing machine. She said it was a ruffler and wouldn't fit her machine but she thought it would fit mine. So I took it home and it has become my newest frienemy (friend + enemy for those of you who are not familiar with the term).

The ruffler, on one hand, makes perfectly even ruffles. With other ruffling techniques, the ruffles slide around, threads break and ruffles sometimes come unraveled.  However, the ruffler produces perfect even beautiful ruffles, every single time. In this picture I would even say the ruffler looks angelic as it gathers and pleats.

So what is the problem, you may ask? While the ruffler is busy making perfect ruffles, it also stelthly and mysteriously unscrewing my needle. Sometimes I can catch this early enough and there is no harm done. Sometimes this is not the case and the momentum of the sewing machine sends my newly liberated needle crashing into the side of the ruffler.  Consequently, this breaks the needle and causes the sewing machine to make a noise similar to your molars chomping on gravel.  My heart suffers a similar fate as this noise never fails to convinces me that my sewing machine is broken forever.  Once I can breathe again and a new needle is in place, the ruffler starts once again making perfectly flawless ruffles, as if it didn't just cause momentary crafting chaos.  One end of the ruffler is also very sharp. It is hard to explain but the ruffler uses this sharp part to scrunch the fabric as the needle sews over the pleats. My deepest fear is that the ruffler will one day make waffle fries out of my fingers.

So you can see how the love/hate relationship with the ruffler has emerged.  Right now we have come to a momentary compromise. While the ruffler continues to make beautiful ruffles, I pause periodically and retighten my needle (I really can't understand how it unscrews it...) and most importantly I keep my fingers out of the way.  Today I had a perfectly delightful experience with the Ruffler. I used it for a full ten minutes with out breaking a single needle. I am a little worried that if I get to comfortable the Ruffler (doesn't that sound like a villain on Batman?) will sense my complacency and strike again. I am also afraid that it can smell fear. But for now I am just content and grateful for its exquisite ruffling abilities. And I am thankful for my fully intact fingers.

What do you think?

Sometimes when I am crafting I am positive that when my newest creation gets "released to the public" someone is going to come take it off of my hands and take it straight to the Paris runways.  The demand for my new design will be so high I will have to hire some people to work for me and I will get to quit my other job. Then I post my masterpiece to Etsy and no one seems interested. It gets very few views and no one feels compelled to make it a "favorite".  I am strong enough to take this rejection because usually there is someone out there that falls in love with my craft, it just takes a little while for that person to come forward.

So I am asking you, my loyal readers for your opinion on a new design for a bag. I had a bag similar to this when I first opened the store and it seemed really popular. I am playing around with different designs, colors and textures and have a few other bags in the works but I would love to know what you think. Should this bag be a Sew Sew Lovely staple? Or are my dreams of someone asking a celebrity "What are you wearing?" and the answer being "Sew Sew Lovely?" completely lost on this flop?

This bag is hot off the presses and I did not edit the picture like I usually do, but you get the idea. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

 Would you secretly love something from Sew Sew Lovely for Valentines Day? Even if it is a custom bag or cuff ( let me know the colors or patterns you would like). Drop some hints. Anything in my shop would be a great way to show someone (even yourself) how much you love them!

Leaving no Rhinestone Unturned

 This has come up in conversation a lot recently so I feel like I am ready to be open about it. For a pretty long time I have been a big fan of Dolly Parton.   If you know me pretty well you know this doesn't seem to fit my personality but I have always just appreciated that she is proud of who she is. Sure she is slightly outlandish but she is her own person and she has enough sense of humor to make fun of herself once in a while.

My admiration for Dolly began at a fairly young age but has hit a growth spurt recently.  Every Christmas for as long as I can remember we listened to the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton Christmas album as we decorated our Christmas tree. And we listened to this on our record player. I mean with a cover like this one who could resist adding it to their Christmas playlist? 

 My first Dolly Christmas Miracle occurred during my freshman year of college. I went to Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania for a year (very far from home). I was shopping in the local CVS and wonder of all wonders, I found the Kenny and Dolly Christmas album on CD for sale in that CVS! The other girls I was shopping were at a loss for why I was so excited and because I was still pretty shy about my love for Dolly, I did not really explain it to them.

This year my Dolly Christmas Miracle was beyond my wildest dreams.  First, I had heard that Dolly stared in a lower budget Christmas movie called "A Smokey Mountain Christmas". I was disappointed that I couldn't get this movie on my Netflix but I was willing to let it go. Then Christmas day what should be showing on CMT but "A Smokey Mountain Christmas". I was no cinematic masterpiece and there was this weird plot twist with a witch but all in all I am glad I can say I have seen it.

Not impressed with that chain of events? Just wait.  Before Christmas I entered a radio contest online to win tickets to see "9 to 5 The musical" at the Peace Center in Greenville. If you don't know "9 to 5" was  a film staring Dolly that became the highest grossing comedy of 1980.  I figured I hadn't won the contest when no one contacted me after Christmas.  Tuesday morning I woke up to my phone ringing,  I put on my best "awake voice" and answered it. The nice lady on the phone informed me that I had not only won 8 tickets to "9 to 5" I had also won dinner for 8 and a limo ride to the show!  The only catch was our tickets were for that night! So my sister and I called our fellow Dolly fans (yes there are others out there and they know who they are!) and we had a truly magical night. I don't know if you are used to riding around in a limo, but I am not and the "where did I leave my limo?" jokes really didn't ever get old.

What am I doing now to deal with post-magical Dolly/ Limo night letdown? (that feeling you inevitably feel when you wake up the morning after a fun night and you don't find a limo waiting to take you to work). Besides being unable to get "9 to 5" out of my head, I  discovered this gem of a book.

 This really is a great read and I am gathering so many priceless Dolly quotes. My favorite so far: "It costs a lot to make a person look this cheap". True that Dolly. True that. 

Need a Last Minute Christmas Gift? I have one for you!

Right now my Shop is filled to the brim with bags. Bags of every shape and size, perfect for someone on your list that you haven't got anything for yet.  So go ahead and check them out and if you buy before December 20th I will make sure it gets to you before Christmas.

Here is a few of them. See them all at www.sewsewlovely.etsy.com

The Word Eat is in Meat

Once a week my sister and I play a "game" that we call the grocery game. Some might not call it a game but they have not tasted the sweet victory of coming up under budget and being able to put the extra money in the "eating out jar".  Long story short we have a budget and we use an app on my Ipod to add up our grocery prices as we shop. If we are over budget we have to put something back.  We have become very savvy shoppers and sometimes go to three different stores to get the best prices.

We do allow ourselves one luxury: sliced deli meat from the meat counter. This may not sound like a very price conscience decision but once you have a sandwich with fresh sliced meat, it is hard to go back.  We have had several very memorable experiences at the meat counter. Recently, most of them have surrounded the grocery store employees trying to coerce us to buy items from the bakery. There are two reasons why trying to entice us with stories of cinnamon rolls on sale really is a futile attempt. First, as I said before we have a very tight budget and cannot be distracted by cinnamon rolls unless we are willing to give up something necessary like milk or shampoo. And second, my sister is gluten and lactose intolerant and cannot have wheat or dairy.  A simple sneaky cinnamon roll could mean a three day cycle of exhaustion and severe indigestion for the poor girl.  And yet every week as we walk away from the meat counter those carefully instructed grocery employees inform us that pastries are two for one or something like that.  A few weeks ago we thought we had gotten away when the girl behind the meat counter actually shouted at us in a desperate final attempt, " RED VELVET CAKE IS ON SALE!"

Our favorite meat counter experience happened this week though.  We go to the same grocery stores on the same day every week, so we see a lot of the same employees and they have gotten to know us.  One week a few months ago my sister and I were approaching the meat counter when she so obligingly noticed that something was on my face that had once been in my nose. As retribution I brought up another time when her bodily functions had been humorous and we dissolved into semi-hysterical laughter. This did not stop as I ordered our thin sliced Pesto Parmesan ham. The male employee behind the counter also got tickled at our laughter and he began to laugh himself. All in all it was a pretty jolly trip. That brings me to this week. We were once again getting our meat thinly sliced for sandwiches by our jovial friend from a few months ago. It did not seem like he remembered us and my sister and I were very thankful that he hadn't tried to get us to by some gluten saturated treat. But as we walked away he yelled out " I will never forget you guys!" Neither will we, Meat Guy, neither will we.

7 years..Doesn't it go by in a blink?

Seven years ago today I had brain surgery to fix a malformation of my brain called an Arnold Chiari.

Longs story short my brain is positioned in such a way that there isn't enough room for it in my head. So my brain is shoved down the hole in my spinal collumn where your spinal fluid is supposed to drain.

Seven years ago today some very talented doctors fixed that for me. And I will be grateful for them for the rest of my life.

I am also grateful because God used this opportunity (and the months of bed rest following) to change the direction my life was going in. He used this opportunity to show me His love in a way I had never experienced it. And people were brought into my life that I can't imagine the last seven years without.

So here I stand seven years later, in awe of what has happened and excited about what lies ahead...