Sewing for Cherubs

2:20 a.m.

Superman recently had another foot surgery, and pain management has been a challenge this time around. We are now three weeks post-op, and his pain is definitely improving, but he still wakes up at least once every night needing comfort and medication.

I'll admit it, this return to a newborn sleep schedule has been hard for me. I am discovering that there is a reason why most women don't have babies at my age (42). And actually, I do remember this sleep deprivation being pretty darn hard to deal with when I was in my 30's too!

Tonight was just like any other night. At 2:20 I was roused from a deep sleep and a weird dream by the sound of my child crying. I quickly dragged myself out of bed and staggered to the bathroom while shouting a quick word of encouragement to Superman. I turned on the light, shook the cobwebs out of my brain, and got the medicine. I carefully walked down the hall, trying not to wake all the other sleeping members of my family (lucky dogs!). Superman sat up, ready to take his medicine. After he took it, his face brightened as he realized it was after midnight. A huge grin appeared on his face and in that sweet voice that I love so much he said "Happy Mother's Day!" I gave him a huge hug and a sincere "Thank you!" And I meant it.

In that moment, even though of course I would have rather been sleeping, I felt like the luckiest Mommy in the world. And I thought of all the Moms out there, young, old, and somewhere in between, who were awake at that moment for various motherly reasons. And I silently wished them a Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to you all.

Goldfish Sewing Sneak Peek

Here's a little sneak peek of what's going on in my sewing room this week!

I adore this Heather Ross fabric. It is very HTF (hard to find) these days, but I bought it a long time ago. For years I've been alternating between hoarding it and sewing it up a tiny bit at a time.

The bits of progress shown here will eventually become a baby dress and a bib. I'm probably going to list them at Hyenacart, and then move them to my Etsy shop if they don't sell at HC. More about a potential Hyenacart stocking as soon as I figure out when it will be!

 

Irony Looks Like This

This morning, Radar (age 10) woke me up at 3:30, 4:30, and 5:45 to tell me he couldn't sleep. Then, at 6:15 he came in and told me I really shouldn't be pressing the snooze button because it's not healthy.

Sewing Room Makeover

I recently completed a facelift for my sewing room. Working with a very limited budget, I made some small changes that had BIG impact! Here are some photos of the transformation, starting with a before picture.

Above is a before shot of my sewing room. Nice space, but several problems: big machines on a very rickety table (the whole thing collapsed on me once while sewing!), cramped/crowded storage area, nowhere to store/display my beautiful fabric (it was all hidden upstairs in a closet), not much natural light, and my printer (not visible here) was precariously perched on top of a small file cabinet.

 

The first step in the transformation was finding better storage. This small, narrow closet next to my sewing room had never worked well for jackets or toys, and it had become very cluttered over the years. I cleaned it out completely, donating old items and finding better places for everything else. Now it holds my sewing supplies perfectly!

After I emptied it of every bit of furniture and "stuff" (oh my aching back), the room got a much-needed facelift with new paint. I chose a bright white color (SW Greek Villa) to maximize natural light in the room. An added bonus was the white paint made this small room look much bigger!

So, about that rickety table that once collapsed on me while sewing. It had to go. But on a shoestring budget, I wasn't sure what to do. I randomly walked into Goodwill and I couldn't believe my luck when I found this table. It was very worn and, well, not pretty at all, but for the $10 price tag I could see its potential. A fresh coat of paint and a good scrubdown later, here she is! Perfect. There is just enough room on either side for me to roll my chair from machine to machine. I have had a lot of fun sewing with this new setup!

Perhaps the most exciting part of this project... My fabric moved in! All the inspiration is right here now, instead of hidden away in an upstairs closet. I added some hooks to display some of my work, too.

And finally, here is a panoramic picture of most of the finished sewing room. You can see on the far left that my printer is now on an actual printer stand! I used to have my coverstitch machine there. The big table (my Goodwill find), which fits all three of my machines, allowed me to rearrange things in a way that makes a lot more sense. Printing is much less of a chore now that I can neatly organize all my papers, card stock and labels in one place. To the far right you can see the little craft table that used to hold two of my machines. It is now much more useful for crafts and small projects. My cutting table is not shown in this picture, but it is right behind where I was standing when I took this picture.

With a relatively minor facelift, this room has really transformed into my Happy Place. Thanks for visiting!

Most Popular

Today is May 4th, which means it's Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you, get it?). We love Star Wars in this house, and that love has led to a lot of fun over the years. It also led directly to my most popular blog post EVER.

Five years ago I set out to make an R2-D2 cake for Radar for his 5th birthday. I decided to take pictures of the process and post a how-to. Little did I know just how many people out here were looking for these instructions. To this day, it brings many clicks to my blog from Google, and I just found out today that it went viral on Pinterest. It is a really weird feeling to have MY baking project all over Pinterest! 

If you'd like to celebrate May the Fourth by baking an R2-D2 cake, please take a look at my humble little tutorial (linked below) and feel free to share it with a hundred or so of your friends.

R2-D2 Cake

 

About Tetherball

My kids are a lot older than they were when I first started this blog, so they don't say as many unintentionally funny things as they used to, but they still make me laugh every day.

Every once in a while though, we have a conversation that I just know I ought to write down.

The other day, Radar told me all about tetherball:
"Tetherball is a game where the ball is tied to a pole and you throw it around. One time I threw it and it hit me in the head. I don't play tetherball anymore."

Three Years

Yes, three years.

That's how long it's been since I've blogged.

A lot happens in three years of a family's life. I see that I need to change my blog banner because tiny shoes, baby toys, and cheerios are not what my life is about anymore. My three children are now all "big kids" in school, and we have all the chaos and delight that comes with that. In the past three years, we have survived (and thrived) in the transition to middle school for my oldest child and made it through another foot surgery (just two weeks ago!) for my youngest.

We have accomplished much; I looked back at this post about beginning as a runner and was so amused, because although I never blogged an update, I DID actually run that ten-miler I was dreaming of, and after that I also ran a half-marathon and went on to run two more.

It's also been interesting to see how the blogging landscape has changed in three years. When I started blogging over six years ago, the "hot" bloggers were crafters/artisans/DIY'ers. Now it seems that the lifestyle blogger has taken over - and that's okay, I have a billion of them in my Feedly and I read them religiously! The "skinny-blonde-Southern" blogger has become a "thing" now. This is interesting to me because although I am definitely Southern (born and raised, y'all), I am neither skinny nor blonde.

With that in mind, I don't expect this blog to hit it big anytime soon. That was never my expectation before, either. I just look at this as a little creative outlet for my musings about family and life, and also a place to show off some cute things I've sewn. I don't plan to change that format. Onward!

Hello World!

I let my blog get very, very dusty.

But my shop is still humming! (See over there to the left. <-------)
 
I am going to try to remedy the blog situation.
 
Stay tuned.

Spring

A bucket of soapy water to clean off a long-unused table...

 

A trek into the woods...

 

A few wildflowers gathered...

 

And suddenly, it's springtime once again.

 

Time for lots of dinners on the deck!

The Whole World

A conversation with Superman from earlier today:

Superman: "I love you, Mommy."
Me: "I love you too, Superman."
Superman: "I love the whole WORLD!"

(I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it's supposed to work, by the way. Our children love us, we love them even more, and they take that love and pass it on to the whole world.)