04.30.07
Meet Jordy
aka Queen Interfacer
She is also Queen of the horse show
04.25.07
Field Trip
Today I went on a 3rd grade field trip. I haven’t been on a field trip for the past two years so it was nice to get to do it again. Cole had preschool and then went home with a friend so I took advantage of it.
The trip was a visit to The Kelton Museum which is a historic house built in 1852. It was part of the underground railroad. I had a really good time learning more about the underground railroad and what these families went through. The Kelton house was so interesting. My favorite part was hearing the stories about the family. They said that hundreds of runaways came through the house but one day Sophia Kelton was looking out her front window and saw two little girls in her bushes. She brought them in, they had made it all way from Virginia by themselves. The Keltons took them in and offered them shelter. They were the about the same age as a lot of the 3rd graders. One was very sick and couldn’t go on but the other continued on her quest to Canada. The Kelton’s sought medical attention for the sick little girl and then raised her as one of their own. She eventually married a carpenter that worked for Sophia Kelton’s husband. Together they had two children and her son Arthur went on to be the first African American to graduate from the Ohio State University school of medicine. How cool is that? The coolest thing though was that the sister’s reunited when they were in their 90’s.
Here are a few pictures of the house
I didn’t get any good pictures of the cellar where they actually housed the runaways because the lighting was terrible. Apparently there a about 5 houses here in Worthington, some only a few streets away that also were part of the underground railroad. I believe they open them up around Christmas so I am hoping to get to do that tour as well.
Cool stuff.
04.23.07
Love this house
Better Homes and Gardens is usually hit or miss with good house ideas but this month they had one that is exactly how I want my house to be. Check it out.
I could stare at these pictures all day……
04.20.07
Bad Words
I would like to know who made up bad words and what was the point? To annoy parents? We went through a big stage a couple years ago when the boys started school and started hearing that there were “bad words” out there that they were not supposed to say. We started hearing things like, “I know what the “s” word is or I know what the “d” word is”. Blake would come home, not to be outdone and say, “I know what the “J” word is.” But as they get older of course it gets more complicated. Austin came home the other day and asked if there was an “n” word. I told him yes. He asked if it was worse than the “f” word. I said that in my opinion it was worse because it was hurtful and disrespectful and just well WRONG.
Fast forward to yesterday. The boys were on the trampoline, and got into a fight. One landed on the other one and the other one pushed him off, and so on it goes until they are hitting each other and whipping each others shoes way out into the ground cover. Blake comes in crying, Austin smashed his arm. I get a little fed up with the rough housing that turns out wrong- it’s the price they pay as far as I am concerned. Unless there is blood, I tend to blow it off. But Austin stomps in all mad because Blake told on him and he tells me that Blake did something bad the other day. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what it was. I asked if he hurt someone, no. SO he finally tells me that he wrote something bad on a piece of paper. I told him that I didn’t think it was wise for him to rat out his brother but that just made him want to tell me more. So he said, “Blake wrote “Let me tell you a story about that damn bus 87″ on a piece of paper.” I stared at him for a minute trying to keep a straight face. I have no idea why Blake would write that. The only thing that comes to mind is that last year while walking home from school they saw bus 87 run over and kill my neighbors Golden Retriever. But still…..
As I sat there trying to figure out what to say, Austin got more mad and said, “So it’s ok if I go around saying bad words too???” At which point he started saying the “d” word over and over and then Cole joined in saying it too but he actually said “bam bam bam” because he didn’t get it.
Let me just add that I was trying to get everyone ready for LAX practice, which is always a crazy time trying to find pads, cleats, sticks….
Blake went to his room and hid. I told him that he can’t write the “d” word any more but he already knew that.
We all had another chat about bad words and by that time my head hurt. We also had a little chat about ratting out ones brother over stupid things. Then I pushed them all out the door because Andy actually got home in time to take them to practice and I enjoyed an hour of quiet which are few and far between! Well quiet except for the hum of my sewing machine.
But the good news is today is Friday and it is going to be a warm warm sunny weekend. Got lots of soccer games and LAX games, maybe a cookout or two, flower planting, and the best news- the architect is coming to finalize front porch plans. YIPPEE!
04.15.07
And so
another weekend comes to an end. A cold one up in these parts. Boys soccer and LAX were both canceled so we spent a weekend indoors. The good news in that it was the perfect sewing weather so I spent most of the weekend inside sewing with a short break to take the boys to the dollar theater- which is always a crack-up because the popcorn, drinks, and candy cost so much it more than makes up for the $1 movie ticket.
The weather is looking up next week and I am sure we will go right into summer without the wonderful spring that we normally have. At this point I don’t care, bring on the warm weather. What a wacky winter and spring we have had.
If you need a new blog to check out, look at this one called Creative blogs. It is new and features creative people doing what they love.
I am off, to enjoy the last fading moments of the weekend.
04.12.07
studio guests
Today I got to have guests in the studio. My mom and niece came in for the day and helped out cutting and interfacing. Jordy was so excited to help and it’s always fun to see people learn how bags are made. They are always surprised at how time consuming the whole process is. And exhausting. I am still surprised at how exhausting it can be, and not the good exhausted where you just worked off your ice cream from the night before. More mental.
Jordyn didn’t like to cut- found it too stressful, but she was a master with the steam press and so I am going to name her “Queen Interfacer”. She and my mom cut and interfaced 5 bags and it took all day. And that wasn’t even any of the special requests that come in with the party orders. The days may be numbered for special requests. Andy came down at 8:30pm to lend a hand, started cutting the party orders and immediately started complaining. I decided it was time to turn off the studio lights.
When I was in Florida earlier this year the hotel gift shop was full of Vera Bradley bags. Never having looked at one up close I decided to take a peek and see how they were made. Mass produced. That is how they are made. Have you ever looked inside one? Each part of the bag is mass produced, and then when they put them together all the seams are showing on the inside (under a piece of bias tape to match). No wonder they can whip those things out! More power to them, seems to be working just fine for them.
So we don’t do mass production in our little studio here in the heartland. And therefore they take freakin’ forever. But they are fun and I still love doing it so we plug along. We did add another industrial sewing machine to the biz, I am hoping that it can be picked up tomorrow. Exciting stuff happening around here. Hopefully this new machine and it’s trusty operator will help with the wait time. As in make it less.
And lastly the coolest thing happened yesterday, I got a sneak peek at the new website. LOVE IT. Can’t wait for it to be up and running. Look for it soon……..
Be Careful what you wish for
Lately I have been getting a little fed up with the puppy house training. I don’t remember it taking this long with my other dogs. Yesterday Shiloh pooped and peed in the house twice. Then again this morning. I kept telling Austin that I was going to give her away (half joking- ok I would never do that but I after I stepped in a pile of poop I was little frustrated).
Today I took her with me when I took Cole over to his friends house and then stopped at my friends house to drop some things off. I put her in my friends backyard which is down the street from my house. Within 5 minutes she was gone.
Of course at this point I just knew she was gone forever and Austin was going to think that I did on purpose. We kept calling her name but no Shiloh. I got in my car and drove home and there she was, trying to get under the back gate. When she saw me she ran up to me crying non-stop. I told her I loved her and that she was a good girl for going home. I was very relieved. I don’t want her gone.
But wouldn’t you know she pooped and peed in the house again as soon as we got home!
04.11.07
I don’t know why
but I crack up every time I see the Subway commercial, the one that shows the couple at the fast food drive thru and the man orders “thunder thighs” and the woman orders the “ba- donka donk butt”
Must have something to do with living in a house full of boys.
04.08.07
I’m bringing jewelry back, ye-ah!
Sung to the tune of a popular JT song.
After many requests it looks as if we will be bring some jewelry back to the site. Mainly possible due to the new website that will hopefully be up sometime this month, we will now be offer mostly one of kind creations in addition to the bags. I can’t wait for the new site. I know I have gone on and on about this before, it will be so nice to have more control, ready made bags, etc. We are now pushing a 4-5 week wait for custom bags so having ready made bags may help relieve some of that. That and hiring on more sewers. I am on the fence about how many extra sewers we should add. It’s hard to let go of all the control.
The people that are doing the new website sent me some questions the other day that I thought were kind of fun. One of them was “if you were a crayon what color would you be?” I said “Green Day”. Oh wait, that’s not a crayon color. Well it should be.
Hope everyone had a nice Easter. I am ready for the boys to get back into their routines tomorrow so I can too.
04.07.07
Why it is good to scrapbook
Today my kids went to get a haircut, even my oldest who has been refusing to cut his hair forever. When they got home they told me about going down to Longview Barber shop to see Dave and started questioning me about how long he has been cutting their hair. Forever, I said. And I have the pictures and scrapbook pages to prove it. Blake wouldn’t let anyone cut his hair and when he was one year old we had a block party on our old street in Clintonville and Dave came and gave haircuts on the street. Blake got his first haircut that day, kicking and screaming and I photographed the whole thing. I love that kind of history, I love that those little facts that can easily be forgotten have been preserved and I can pull out a book and show them memories that they were too young to remember. I haven’t scrapbooked in forever but was inspired to get back to it after this conversation. Besides, I really need to record what Austin said next, “you know mom, Dave looks a lot like Billie Joe Armstrong“.
