Me and the boys Christmas 2006

Me and the boys Christmas 2006, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I thought it would be fun to set the timer on the camera and take a picture of me and my guys I'm kind of surprised it turned out OK, now I should have dressed us up in cute clothes :)

Gnome hand embroidered t-shirt

Gnome hand embroidered t-shirt, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Here's a little gnome I stitched a few months ago because I just love gnomes!
I took 2 pictures I found on the net and put them together, drew them on the shirt and stitched it on.
I think I could have done a much better job on the hat and maybe filled in the red on the mushrooms but after doing such a sucky job on the gnomes hat, I decided to just leave the shrooms outlined.
And the shirt is really white, I guess that's what you get when you're too lazy to set up a table top light box for photographing items when the suns down. :)

Happy 70th birthday Mom

My Moms Christmas drawing, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Today would have been Moms 70th birthday, she was only 2 months away.
While my sisters and I went through her fabric stash I came across some of these Christmas drawings that she had done from a pattern, what's so funny was that it was intended to look like a little kid had drawn the pictures but with the way Mom wrote she was able to pull it off.
I think she did this at a time when she was wanting to craft and we were all too busy to want to do any crafting with her and so she did these.
Drawn on muslin (the correct color is in the bottom picture) with permanent fabric markers and colored with crayons.
I think these are just adorable. I'm going to add some Christmas fabric around the edges and make it into a pillow.
I think the pattern was something like Brown Paper Bag or something like that, I searched and couldn't find them any more.
Here's a close up of the Santa. :)

It's all about the legs

Baby legs are the current rage so I thought I would try my hand at making a pair for Gus, come to find out, Jaden really likes them too! These started out being a pair of toe socks I picked up at Target then I cut some knit from an old t-shirt and made a cuff and sewed it on the end!

All together it took about 5 minutes! The reindeer are grippy so they are great for traction.

here's Gus sitting in front of the Christmas tree modeling his new leggings!

Now here's a pic of Jaden, I had to find something else to put on him because he wanted to wear the leggings because Gus was wearing them.

These are tattoo sleeves that I got for my hubby for Halloween. Aren't these funny?
Jaden thinks he's cool beans!

Do you ever do stupid stuff?

OK, so I buy a package of Andes mints mini chips for making cookies or whatever with, with the full intentions of just nibbling here and there on them. :oD And I put them in the freezer in a zippy bag along with a metal spoon and not thinking much about nuthin' I go into the kitchen and pull my little "treat bag" out, scoop up some bits and put the spoon in my mouth and WHAM! the stupid thing sticks to my lips and tongue! stupid stupid stupid (note to self: use plastic spoon next time) Just add this to my latest stupid stuff I've done list.

On to something that isn't stupid....

Here's cute site that I ran accross www.Jelene.com she makes the cutest pictures I especially love the dog in a banana car!

Have a great week everyone. xoxox Julie

Sunday was a bad day

It all started out well enough. I washed 3 loads of laundry, 1 load of dishes and vacuumed all before noon (this isn't normal for me to clean that much in one day!) I was feeling pretty good until I tripped on my canister vacuum and sprained my toe. ouch! I thought maybe I broke it but I didn't thankfully!

THEN... I was getting ready to go into my Mom's house to help out with the estate sale and Dan had pulled my mini van out to weld something from my Moms house for me and when he finished I put it in the van through the back hatch and decided I should pull the van into the garage because with the wonderful Kansas wind I didn't want Gus to get sick, so I finished putting the welded item in the back, pushed the close hatch button on my key fob and heard the beeps that say the door is going down and got in the drivers seat and started to drive into the garage....BAM.... the hatch had not gone down and I hit the garage and broke the back glass and wiper blade mechanism on my new mini van!!!!

Tempered glass shards went everywhere, I put a small dent in the top of the garage door frame. shoot! (OK, so I said a few more choice words then that!)

I started crying and went inside to tell Dan and went back out to clean up the mess.

THEN... Gus woke up and fell off the bed. He's fine, nothing a little breast milk wouldn't fix. I felt like a clumsy stupid dumb a** and a bad mother all in a matter of an hour. I used to have a real problem with letting myself get into a real lather and spiral into a bit of a mild depression when stuff like the van and Gus getting hurt happened, I would start badgering myself, telling myself how stupid I am and so forth. But I realized one time that if I was my own best friend I would be sitting there telling myself "OH STOP THAT!!!! your not stupid or a bad mother!!!!" and that has helped me a ton. I find myself getting over things allot faster and being more apt to just getting up and getting on. Good advice for anyone.

Kind of like "don't cry over spilt milk".

I was going to take pictures of the broken window for all your pleasures but didn't take the time and just decided to get that baby to the car fixin' doctor.

Baby Gus is fine, I WILL NEVER PUT HIM ON ANYTHING ELEVATED TO SLEEP AGAIN! I already made a little quilt pad to put on the floor for naps. If anyone knows of something that would work better, please let me know. :o)

Oh, I thought I might add that we co-sleep so I don't have a baby bed and our new mattress from my Mom is a double pillow top so the bed rails hardly ever go about 1 inch above the top of the mattress. The problem so far on putting him on a pallet on the floor is we have laminate floors and even though the house is a comfortable temperature it's cold on the floor. I guess it's still better then falling!

Oh a little happier note, we just about have everything ready to go at Moms house for the estate sale and I brought home 3 large storage tubs of really great fabric!!! I think Mom would be happy I'm keeping it.

Take care everyone!

She's still taking care of me :o)

The other day I went to my Mom's house to help my oldest sister go through all the things in the house because we're going to have an estate sale and she needs my help, well my sister took down a bowl off the top shelf in the kitchen and priced it and started to put it back towards the back but it bumped against something so she asked me to reach and see what it was. I pulled down another small glass bowl and said "maybe I should check farther back" well.... I touched some paper and pulled it down and there in my hand was an envelope with my name Julie wrote on it in my Mothers handwriting and inside was $50!!!!!!!!

You see my Mom had a real nack for saving money and she would save mine for me if I needed her to (whether I wanted her to or not!). Apparently she had asked me at one time or another if I wanted her to save said money for me and I said yes. Well I started crying and said "Thank you Mama!" and my sister was hooting, hollering and saying that we should split it 3 ways! I THINK NOT! :O) IT HAD MY NAME ON IT!!! LOL!!!

She really is still taking care of me I guess, because when we brought her home from the hospital with Hospice she had been really out of it and sleeping non-stop and my sister went through the kitchen and cleaned and lined the shelves with paper and ran out just when she got to the shelf that had my money on it. strange!

I'm trying not to dwell on my Mom's passing and boring you all, but I wanted to tell you about what had happened because it made me happy.

Also, Mom came to me in a dream the other day during a nap and I simply talked to her and told her I missed her dearly and asked her how Heaven was and she said she was temporarily set up in a nice little room kind of like a nice hotel room but she would be moving to a really nice home close to all her family. She spoke like she was having a wonderful time and I got a since that she had lots going on and she didn't have time be sad missing us, then the phone rang and woke up. shoot, I was having a nice conversation with her, maybe she'll come back and visit someday.

No I'm not nuts! Remember I talked about my Grandmother visiting me around the time she died? Who knows but I like the visits, so keep them coming Mom! Now what to do with the money???? Pay bills? Naw... how bout some food? :o)

Halloween Puppy

Halloween Puppy, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I know it's a little late..but here's Jaden in his Halloween costume.
He's a puppy!
I'm glad that I picked this type of costume because it was down right cold outside that night.
He's wearing black sweatpants and a black sweatshirt with little furry cufts on his wrists and ankles then I made a furry neck band with ribbon that looks like a dog collar where I put on a couple of keychain circles and a tag that says "Puppy", I then took a black adult stocking cap and cut the top and sewed some floppy fur ears and sewed them in. I was able to put a coat on under the sweatshirt and some little black gloves so he was as warm as a flea on a poodle!
I hooked the retractable dog leash around his waist and he barked as we walked down the street. Too cute!

Baby Gus fell asleep in Dad arms so he didn't get go to the festivities in town, but when we got home he was awake so we dressed him up in his teddy bear outfit and went to Grandma CJ's house.
All in all we got just the right amount of assorted candy so it was lots of fun.
It took Jaden a few times to get the say "trick or treat!" to get the candy. He wanted to do the trick part! I would say "sit puppy" and he would sit. Silly pup!

You'd be mad too if someone was getting sick on your head!

Pumpkins, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I actually got a pumpkin carved today! Can you believe it?
I know, not very original but Jaden and I had fun, he pretended like he was the pumpkin and was asking me to be careful and gentle while cutting out his features. Silly boy.
I decided to make a little pukie guy, I guess the little guy is scared of heights and got sick on his Pa. Hahahahahahahahaha!
I have 3 more that can use a carving so I think I might look around the net and see what I can come up with...
I'll post updates if I get anymore done.... now off to roast some punkin' seeds...yum!

And here's another pic of little Baby Gus in the jumper I made for Jaden for his first Halloween, it fits Gus great and my Nephew wore it last year! I wonder how many more babies will get to wear it before it gets retired?

I also made a decorated shirt for Jaden this year, I'll post a picture of it soon.

My Diaper Keyring Fluff

My Diaper Keyring Fluff, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Now what do you do when you want to show your cloth diapers but it's getting cold outside to pull your babies pants off and show them off?
Well you carry it around on your keyring that's what!
I made this little darling just like it's big brothers only miniature, It's even washable!
I'm thinking about selling them in my Etsy shop!
Whatcha think?

My first fancy AIO cloth diaper

Well, I know I can sew but sometimes I don't give myself very much credit.

I bought this pattern for the Very Baby Very Basic All in One cloth diaper pattern recently from The Diaper Shop and I've been just looking at it for a couple of weeks, and with all the sad things going on I haven't been motivated to clean my house just so I can start sewing so I finally cleared a pile and cut out the diaper. I think it turned out pretty cute, it looks just like the pictures on there site minus the little Very Baby tag, so I was pretty surprised! I tried to sew with Jaden around and he just can't keep away from the mesmerizing magic of a sewing machine in use so it was a little challenging to say the least! LOL I was reading in the Mothering.com diaper making forums that one mom suggested sewing while the children are sleeping and I think this is a grand idea, but today Gus went down at 11 till 3 and Jaden went down for his nap at 2 and he'll probably be down for 2 1/2 hours so today that just ain't going to happen, but that's OK. I was just too motivated.

Here's Gorgeous Gus modeling his new diaper, I think he approves. :o)

I wanted to make some like this so my husband can't say that "Cloth diapers are just too complicated for me!!!" (he builds airplanes for goodness sake!), this style is called an All in One because it works just like a sposie but you wash them instead of trashing them. Now what's his excuse? :o)

I made it with an outer layer of PUL fabric which is a waterproof fabric on the inside and a soft polyester on the outside and the inside is 2 layers of Super Flannel with a flannel double that has I think 6 layers so I think this is going to work really nice. I have enough fabric to make probably 4 more just like this.

I should have got in gear earlier this summer so I could have made some really cute prints and just put on a t-shirt so I could show off my cloth diapers! It's really fun to see peoples expressions when I say I use cloth diapers. (she must be really stupid and/or poor!!!) Well, not stupid or poor, just on a tight budget with a huge imagination and a sewing machine! ;o) The premade Very Baby diapers retail for about $18.50 on the net!

I'm also going to go Saturday to check out a shop in a nearby town that rents space in their gift shop so I can sell my baby items locally without going to craft shows to do it. Man those craft shows are a ton of work and with Baby Gus now I don't see any craft shows happening very soon!

I'm tired

We had her funeral Saturday and I couldn't believe how it seems like time was standing still, we had only been there an hour or so but it felt more like 6, I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I didn't even dream when I went to sleep which was probably a huge blessing! We all went to bed and forgot to turn off the computer or the living room lights and we left the front door unlocked!

I've held up pretty good, but this morning I opened the closet and there was her jacket hanging on the hook from one of her last visits. So I cried while I brought in my share of the flowers. The jacket is a pink fleece so I was thinking about making a little pillow to put on my bed to sleep with. Mom would probably be mad that I cut up a perfectly good jacket though! :o)

My 3 1/2 yr old has been doing really great but I wonder when he's going to notice that Grammie isn't anywhere. She wasn't moving or talking for about a month so who knows. When we were sitting at the grave site the pall bearers rolled her casket on the stand and he said "cool" wouldn't it be nice to be able to handle this stuff with stride like little kids? I think if he asks where Grammie is I'll just tell him that she went to heaven and leave it at that. I don't want to get him all worried about that sort of stuff if I can help it.

On a little happier note, I took the kids to see Disney on Ice with my niece and great nephew and it was pretty good. What I hate is how expensive all the toys are and how they shove them in our faces! The tickets were $18 each with $3 for parking and then they were charging $18 for a small bag of cotton candy and a cheap 101 Dalmatian dog mask! Now I don't know if I've made it clear that I am a rather new tightwad but I just about choked at the prices! Everything at the show was $15-$30 and I seen kids with costumes on and arms full of toys. geez I told my niece that if we do this again we need to go to the Disney store and buy some stuff on clearance and pack it away for the next show! :o) My mama would be proud of my thriftiness. Oh and talking about being tired, me and the boys laid down for a nap at 1:30 and didn't wake up till the phone rang at 4:30 and the show started at 5!!! Thank goodness my husband helped me get the kids dressed! I realized after we got home that I had put Jadens tennis shoes on the wrong feet! I really was tired. ;o)

Take care everyone and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your sweet and heartfelt kind wishes for my family and I.

God Bless you all. xoxoxo

She's gone

Mom passed away this morning at 7am peacefully in her bed in her own home. My sister was with her and noticed that her breathing had gotten labored so she quietly told her that it was OK to go and that we would all be alright and she died a short time later.
JoAnn Oaks will be missed more then I could ever put into words.
My mother was very strong and knew how to take care of herself and her family and we were her life.
I had a chance to tell her one of the last times she bounced back from being so close to dying that I was so proud of how she raised us girls all on her own and how grateful I was for all the hard work she always did for us and that I loved her with all my heart so I was at that place where I could let her go to heaven to be with everyone she missed.
Mom would have been 70 on December 5th this year, way to young to be taken but she had a good life and has a family that loved her very much.
We decided to bury mom in a pretty red fleece top with her fanny pack purse that she ALWAYS had one and her hiking boots so she can go camping on Heaven Mountain instead of Colorado this time. I'm going to put a fresh pack of her favorite Wrigley's Double Mint gum in her fanny pack so she has it if she needs it.

I love you mom, I'm sorry about putting this picture of you on the net, but I think you look cute in your little cover girl pose. *wink wink*

Little found dog

How cute is this little doll?

This little lady appeared on my doorstep about a week and a half ago with just a little collar on but no tag. My Hubby had picked up Jaden from my Moms house where I was staying over night and when he got home she was on the porch shivering.

Dan actually put her in the garage with a dog bed, food and water, he must have really felt bad for her because he's the kind of guy that would prefer that ALL pets stay outside, but alas he married a woman that would have ALL pets stay inside sleeping in a huge double king sized bed...kids/pets/parents and all! LOL

Well after I spent the weekend staying with Mom, I got home and took a look at her and she just followed me in the house like she was home. She had obviously rolled in most likely horse poo and she really stunk so I gave her a bath in the kitchen sink and she was very well behaved. Monday morning I called Animal Control and told them I had her so if anyone was missing her they could come and get her, if I had had them pick her up they will destroy her in 3 days and I wouldn't let that happen so I just gave them my info.

She slept on the floor in the bedroom on a towel and even in Jadens bed one night and she is totally potty trained!!!!! Quite the sweetheart.

Well anyways, our friend put an ad in the little local paper for a found dog, and her owner put an ad on the local cable channel saying she lost a dog only we don't have cable so we didn't see it, she even called AC and they said they didn't know of any dogs by that discription!!! So just as luck would have it someone seen both and called her owner and then she called me. 9 days later she was returned to her family! The lady was really grateful to have her back and I mentioned how great the instant engraved dog tag machine was at Wal-mart but being so thrifty I offered to make her some Shrinky Dink dog tags...

We had temporarily named her Lucy...as in "I love Lucy" but come to find out her real name is Nikki, not to far off I guess. It was so cute to here Jaden say "come here Woosie!"

The dog tags aren't perfect but they will certainly do! I made her 3 just in case they don't hold up but I think they will, Nikki only goes outside to potty.

This wasn't the first dog to show up lately,about 3 weeks ago a large black and white dog showed up and I called AC and 2 days later his Mama called and they came and picked him up. His name was Jack, do you think Jack told Nikki that our house was the doggy safe house? "bark bark... go to that blue house with the white fence and they "bark" will help you find your way home!"bark bark" Who knows.....bark!

Prairie Mouses Needlebook

Prairie Mouses Needlebook, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Here's one of the little gifts that I made for my blogpal Louise from New Zealand.
I almost forgot to take a picture of it before it was shipped and that day just happened to be cloudy and the picture is a little crappy. LOL
The main fabric of the needlebook is a faux linen with a antiquie moss green polka dot on the tab, inside and mushroom.
I drew the little mouse with a little needle, thread and embroidery hoop and Louise's initials. I didn't want to use the machine to make the button hole so I just made one with my needle and thread!
I hope you like it!

I've actually been sewing a little

Baby name blocks, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I had an order for these adorable blocks and I finally got them sewn.
Sandra (the lady that ordered them) has an adorable little baby boy named Joey and she asked if I could put his name on them and stars be stars I actually pulled it off! :O)
I just cut rectangles all the same size and freehanded the letters out of fleece.
Now I just need to make some for my own kids!
Now that the orders are done, I think I'm going to start making some cloth diapers and recycle some t-shirts and sweatshirts into pants for Gus Gus.
Talk to ya all later, hugs...

She's doing better!

Mom's doing better, bless her soul! She kept asking when she was going home and then proceeded to stop declining so they said we could take her home!
She's now at her house and between my 2 Sisters, my Aunt and I we are there around the clock.
I stayed over this weekend and she actually was quite alert and talkative which is really a change and this morning I asked her if she wanted her regular toast with butter and jelly and she turned up her nose and said she wanted an Egg McMuffin from McDonalds!
Now this is the lady that's hardly ate more then 2 bites of anything.
She's a real trooper I tell ya!
I know she's not going to get "better" but every day that I get with her is a treasure. xoxo
I wanted to thank everyone for the sweet and caring words you have all told me, I really can't express how much it's means to me.

Mom

My Mother was put into a hospice care facility yesterday, her health is getting worse and she's not responding to medications.

In the past whenever she's had an "episode" that ended her up in the hospital she would snap out of it and be a little worse for the wear but still able to talk and carry on a conversation but this time she went in for an IV to get her magnesium and sodium up and it didn't do her any good so she couldn't stay in the hospital any longer and this was just the next step.

I am the youngest of 3 children, all girls. Our Mother raised us all by herself because our Father was an alcoholic who abused her and so I really don't have any memory of him living with us, just him coming for a wonderfully home cooked meal that she was gracious enough to serve him. He never paid any child support. I never remember feeling like I didn't have what other people had because Mom was a great Mom. She even drove the school bus so I could be with her while she worked, I have some wonderful memories about that bus. She would make my sisters and I matching blouses for Valentines day and other holidays.

They don't think she's going to last very long . She's had lung cancer for 2 1/2 years now. The cancer stopped spreading but now she has some sort of syndrome that makes her lose her electrolytes and that makes her not be able to stand or stay awake. She's been having problems taking meds and eating too.

I realize the end is near and although I've cried quite a bit I think I'm ready. I used to talk to her on her lunch hour and for 3 or more hours in the evening every single day but sense she hasn't been able to work and living with my sister she didn't have the energy to sit on the phone so that seems to have made it a little easier to handle. I once had a counselor tell me I need to ween her from calling me all the time. I told her that she just didn't understand my relationship with MY Mother and that was just the way it was. :) I think if this had been like this way a year ago I wouldn't have been able to hold up so well.

The picture above is from about 2 years ago, about 6 months after she found out she had cancer and started chemo and radiation this is her in her first wig. I think she was more upset about losing her hair then anything. She didn't look the same but she still looked nice.

I love this picture because it was spring and we had picked some flowers from a bush and made a halo and Jaden was having a good time on Grammies lap.

Mama,I hope you don't suffer. I love you with all my heart.

911

remember when this all happened 5 yrs ago it was a very sad time, I was working and just remember wondering what was going to happen next. Here in Wichita, Kansas we build lots of planes and have a large Air Force Base and everyone speculated that maybe we could be hit if it was a really huge attack.

I just remember feeling weak in the knees and thinking I just needed to call everyone and tell them I loved them. I couldn't help not crying.

My first born son was born just around the time the troops were sent to Iraq and I wondered why I was bringing a child into a world like this, but a child is a blessing and a gift from God and he made me see the joy in the little things.

I don't know what I would have done if I had been working and had kids in daycare that day.

Well, I want to take a minute to thank all the hero's involved in that day and to say a prayer for everyone effected from that tragic event.

I have a little brother-in-lay that is on his second tour to Iraq in a very dangerous area, I'll be praying for you Tyler!

May God bless you all!

xoxoxo

Just plane cute banner

plane_banner, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Fun huh? You can make your own at Glass Giant.com.
Then you should also go visit Fodey.com they have the coolest newspaper story generator that looks really convincing!

Have fun! xoxo