Family & Friends
A Few Wedding Pictures & SMS Giveaway Winners
Whew! What a wirlwind of a weekend! The wedding was beautiful, and I’ll have lots of pictures to share over the next week or so. In the meantime, I know you’re all waiting for results from my Sew Mama Sew Giveaways!
Up first is the Charlie Tee pattern giveway and the winner is . . .
. . . Desiree of Wee Share.
And, the winner of the doll clothing from Sewing Hope for Asia is . . .
. . . Crissy of Crissybell’s Musings.
Congratulations to Desiree and Crissy! I’ll get an email out to each of you to gather your information so I can send off your winnings. Thank you so much to each of you who entered!
Now, a couple of family pictures from our oldest daughter’s wedding. I was so crazy busy that I only ended up with a few pictures from the day on my camera. These, of course, were taken by someone else since I’m in them. I handed off my camera to a friend of Morgan’s who snapped a few pictures while the professional photographer was setting things up. Here’s our family from left to right: Jamie with my husband, Ray, Me, Morgan, Allen, Sean, and Samantha holding Charlie.
We all look pretty much together, don’t we? I laughed until I almost cried, though, when I saw the next picture because I think this is how we really felt most of the day: “Huh? Did you need something?” . . . “Who’s stepping on my train?” . . . “Will someone please hold the baby for a minute?” . . .
Getting Closer to Wedding Day!
Last minute wedding preparations are well under way. Friday is Wedding Day!
Morgan’s shower was yesterday. Our dear friends, Carol and Rhonda, put everything together beautifully! The food was amazing.
Morgan was blessed with many gifts that I know she and Chad will enjoy using in their new home.
And, the games were a blast, especially the newspaper wedding dress challenge. Here’s the beautiful bride-to-be in her incredible (and recyclable) dress with her winning designers.
Home, again, grown-up pattern and a peek at some holiday decor
We’re home from our whirlwind trip! Thank you all for your prayers for our travels and speaking engagements. It went very well!
We enjoyed a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving dinner at home. Now we’re excited about getting our home ready for Christmas and our oldest daughter’s holiday wedding. Our younger children are working on a little project with me that I’m planning to post as a tutorial tomorrow. The strips above are a little sneak-peek.
AND, the Charlie Tee in Adult and Teen Sizes is available in my store now! I finished it up just before we left on our trip, but held off on releasing it until I was home and able to ship it right away. This is my first adult pattern, and I can’t wait to hear how you like it!
A Little Blog Vacation
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers on our trip!
I had great plans for blogging about our trip and sharing as we went along, but, as I’m sure you already know, life does not always go as planned. I need to take a bit of a break from blogging for the rest of our trip to focus on family and ministry. I’ll still be taking pattern orders (and sending off pdfs, if you request them), and I’ll be available by email if you have any questions.
I’m looking forward to catching up after Thanksgiving!
Our Visit to the State Fair
Remember our Texas State Fair submissions from a few months ago? You can see them here. We got to spend a great day at the fair last week. Charlie, above, and Jamie, below, had a blast pretending to be farmers for the day.
“I have five peaches, Momma!”
Samantha and Allen enjoyed a few rides.
Then we checked out the Creative Arts Building. Allen was sad that his Lego exhibit didn’t place–there were a lot of entries in that category this year–but he enjoyed helping us find our other submissions anyway.
Samantha was so excited to find her beret and its red SECOND place ribbon! (And, she taught herself to knit, less than six months ago!)
My Texas Applique Charlie Tee received a fourth place honorable mention ribbon in the children’s apparel category, and . . .
. . . my Giddy-Up Jamie Jumper won FIRST place in the infant apparel category! I’m so excited that I get to find a place to display that pretty blue ribbon in my sewing room.
Upcycled Big Brother Fan Shirts
Our two oldest boys, Allen and Sean, both play football, and we love to go out to their games as a family to watch and cheer them on! We usually just buy one or two team shirts for the grown-ups because with a big family, t-shirt costs add up really quickly. This year, though, everyone had Desperado team shirts to wear to Allen’s games except for Jamie and Charlie. Being the sewist that I am, I knew just what to do.
I started with Daddy’s well-loved but still useable three-year-old shirt and the Charlie Tee pattern.
Original Shirt Front:
Back:
I ended up with two little brother Desperados shirts . . .
Jamie’s top:
Charlie’s top:
. . . and two very happy little brothers!
Charlie (yes, he is standing on his own already!):
Jamie’s back (the front is at the top of this post):
So easy . . . and really cheap!
Tags! And a Few Updates
Look what came in the mail yesterday! I’ve been waiting as patiently as possible for these to arrive from Fancyweaver in Hong Kong. They did such a beautiful job with them. I’ll have some of these listed in my store later today in case you want to grab some to sew onto the things that you’ve sewn from Fishsticks Designs clothing. I’ll also be including one tag with every pattern ordered as a “Thank you” between now and Christmas. And, I just might be sewing one of them onto everything in my house that doesn’t run away when I approach it with a straight pin . . .
I am sewing, and I’ll have some things to show off soon. I’m working on one top secret little sewing project that’s due in to an editor (gasp!) in a few weeks, but I won’t be able to reveal what it is for a few months. I’ve got two new patterns that I’m hoping to have finished up by the end of October: The Charlie Tee in teen/adult sizes and The Inside or Out Pocket Pants. I’ll have previews of those up soon. I’m also sewing a few things to stock as a guest at The Apple Orchard for October. I won’t have as many things as I’d originally hoped, though, because things are a bit busier here than I expected when I first signed up. Along with those first three projects, I have a GFA project that I’m helping out with, and, in case you haven’t heard, my oldest daughter is getting married in December! It’s funny that as much as I love sewing and know that I need to get things done, I can’t stop myself from constant wedding planning. Oh, and in case that wasn’t enough, we’ll be traveling to Florida for three weeks in November to visit our ministry supporters and to spend Thanksgiving with my family.
Wow! I need to quit blogging and get moving!
A Few 40th Birthday Pictures
I promised 40th birthday pictures, but yesterday was a crazy busy day with meetings, homeschool, orders and two football games (both boys’ teams won, by the way!). I had such a nice birthday which included wonderful family and friends, all of whom made me feel so loved and appreciated. The flowers on the left above came from one of my oldest son’s friends, Kirstin, who tracked us down at a local restaurant at dinner to give them to me, along with the sweetest handmade card. The ones on the right came from my momma who is far away in Florida. They remind me so much of her–it was like having a little bit of her here to celebrate with me.
On Saturday, a few days before my birthday, my friends, Maray and Michelle, took me out thrift shopping and then we had a lovely Mexican lunch. Here we are with our three boys who are just a few months apart:
On Sunday evening, the lifegroup that we’ve been a part of for many years came to our house for our regular Bible study, dinner and cake. Someone apparently thought it would be amusing to have everyone dress in black. (I think I got the last laugh, though, because most of them are older than me . . . and they always will be!)
On Wednesday, my actual birthday, I got my four youngest kids up early, and we went to IHOP for breakfast. We had chess club in the afternoon, but we went out for ice cream at Braums after. That evening, my whole family gathered together to celebrate with another Mexican dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants, Angelina’s.
I received some wonderful gifts including this pile of handmade pillowcases to donate to ConKerr Cancer! Aren’t they sweet? (And you thought I was done with pillowcases, didn’t you? I am now . . . for at least a little while!)
The whole day was full of phone calls and visits and wonderful memories. I have to share one of my favorite moments, though. A friend called and her 5-year-old and 3-year-old sang Happy Birthday to me. When they finished, her 5-year-old daughter asked to pray with me, “Dear God, please let Auntie Bonnie have fun today–Andrew, stop that!–God, please let Auntie Bonnie have fun today and let this year be a good one for her.” I love it–the memory is bringing a huge smile to my face even as I’m typing. Thank you, God, for filling the last 40 years with joy, sadness, foolishness, wisdom, blessing, mourning, friendship, solitude and so much love.
Thank you, my friends and family, for joining in my celebration. I’m so excited to see what the next 40 years bring!
A Quick Sewing Lesson Produces A Stack of Pillowcases
Friday afternoon, we had a group of friends from our local homeschool group over to sew pillowcases with us! I think everyone had a great time, and we turned out a slew of pillowcases. The kids each made two pillowcases, one to keep and one to give. My hope is that the pillowcase that they kept will remind them to pray for the sick child who receives the matching one.
Folding
Cutting
Pinning
Sewing
(I love this one of me sewing with Jamie!)
And, the kids, each showing off one of their finished pillowcases:
We used the Hot Dog Pillowcase Tutorial with a French seam to make these, and they turned out great! The donated pillowcases will go to ConKerr Cancer’s Miles of Pillowcase Smiles project.
{this moment}
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama
