The Sewing Mom

Amazing! For 52 weeks, that’s a full year, Fun, Crafts and Recipes has been hosting my favorite meme, Four Foods on Friday. I love this meme for several reasons, but, besides the fact that it’s all about food, when it’s time for this meme, I know it’s time for the weekend to begin!

This has indeed been a stressful week, 3 softball games, a band competition, a visit to the vet for our puppy, and a parent meeting on sexual abstinence which led to a one on one conversation with my 12 year old daughter this morning on that very subject. That last event makes me want something strong in my coffee, but, no worries, I’ll just take cream this morning!

Anyway, back on topic, here are this weeks questions and my answers:

#1. Name something you use cream cheese in/on. Well, I do put it on bagels, but I can’t remember the last time I had a bagel. I also use it in tuna casserole, it gives it a nice tang and takes away the fishy taste.

#2. Do you use yogurt in any recipes? I can’t think of anything I use yogurt in except parfaits and smoothies. Seems like there should be a cake or something that uses yogurt. Maybe another participant will have that!

#3. Macaroni salad. What do you like/put in yours? My macaroni salad is similar to my potato salad. I use elbow noodles (of course), mayonnaise, mustard, celery salt and pepper. I like a little pickle relish in the mix too.

#4. Share a recipe that you use sour cream in. Now, I know I’ve got a cake recipe that uses sour cream and it’s delicious! Darned if I can find it though. If I do, I’ll be sure to post it.

If you’re here to drop EC, please click through to my guest blog’s site as well! 

I don’t normally do this, in fact, I’ve never done this, but I know that advertising prices have been quite high at EC lately and I always like those blogs who have paid EC to advertise on my site to get their “money’s” worth.  Unfortunately, today, I am not advertising very heavily and so won’t be getting many click throughs myself, which in turn means, the widget on my site probably won’t be getting many either.

Either way, thanks for stopping by!

Weekends are supposed to be a time for relaxing, spending time together, and just enjoying each others company, right?  So, why do I feel like our weekends are becoming all about chaos and trying to get things done on the fly?

We started yesterday morning with a softball game, then breakfast at a local diner, all before 10 a.m.  Once we got home, I got my stuff organized and I headed out one direction to run errands and my husband headed out the other.  My bright spot was getting to go the quilt shop to buy some fabric.  Unfortunately, with my recent job loss and the holidays looming around the corner, I didn’t have the heart to spend my money on fabric that I didn’t have a specific project for, so, I bought the one yard I needed to finish a tote bag and headed back out.

Next stop was the grocery store, a task I loath.  We were out of just about everything, so I knew this would be a cart filler of a shopping trip.  I also decided it’s time for some extreme value shopping and I left things on the shelf that I normally would’ve bought because they weren’t on sale or I didn’t have coupons.  I managed to get everything we needed (I forgot to get the sour cream), and, after all my coupons, I was very pleased to have purchased an entire shopping cart worth of groceries for only $156.  There were only 3lbs. of hamburger in that purchase, I tend to buy our meet at a different store, so I still need to go do that.

After coming home, I spent quite a bit of time trying to drop EC.  I was never able to get the inbox to load, so I had to drop through a variety of means, most of which took much more time.  I even tried going through Favorites on the EC toolbar, but that didn’t work out either.  Not sure what’s going on at EC, but I hope they’re able to get it resolved.

I managed to stitch two of my appliques on my 12 Days of Christmas blocks before I was just overcome with the feeling of being tired.  I received a book in the mail that I need to read and review, so I went back to attempting to drop EC’s while reading.  Eventually, my daughter wanted to play Wii, so that’s what we did.

I finally finished dropping my 300 EC’s, and that was the last straw, I went to bed.  I’m hoping today will be an improvement.  I realize I got a lot done yesterday, I just have so much more to do.  I have sold one tote bag and need to make another so that I can deliver both to their new owner.  First though, I have to cut all the strips of fabric.  So, that will be my first task of today, cutting.  Hopefully my daughter won’t mind if I don’t attend her 3 hour softball practice this afternoon so I can keep working.

So, for me, Sunday is a day of catch up, not so much a day of rest.  However, if I make headway, I do feel better about myself and isn’t that what Sunday should be about, sort of?

Oh my, it’s not even 7:30 and I feel a huge panic attack coming on. I simply have way too much to attempt to get done today and it starts off first thing this morning with my daughter’s softball game. I’m not sure who’s responsible for scheduling games at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, but I’d like to give that individual a piece of my mind!

Besides softball, I have grocery shopping to do as well as going to Target for some much needed cleaning supplies and laundry detergent. Once I’m finally back home, I’d like to sit down at my sewing machine, I’m really enjoying working on my 12 Days of Christmas project, but, before I do, I’ve got letters that need to be typed on the computer and blog posts that need to be written, as well as comments that need responded to.

One letter I need desperately to write is to cancel our lawn fertilizing service, they’ve done a horrible job. We’ve had five lawn treatments since early spring, and truthfully, my husband and I feel our yard looks worse now, with more weeds, than it did before we started the program.

I know I’ve talked about it before, but I really do need to get my hands on the Dragon Naturally Speaking software, which uses your voice to type, would allow me to multi-task, and, at the least, allow me to get all this typing done at a much faster pace so I can get on with other things. I found out just how much faster the typing would be when I took Dragon’s typing speed test! The Dragon software was at least 3 times faster than what I was able to to with my fingers, and, it was accurate! The only change I would have to make when speaking is to actually speak the punctuation, such as “comma” or “period”. The software can even be used with Blue Tooth noise cancellation microphones which is great if I want to go sit outside and enjoy the nice weather we’ve been having here lately.

If you’ve never seen the Dragon Naturally Speaking software in action, you really should watch at least one, if not both, of these videos.

I am thankful I made it to Friday. It’s been a week that I don’t care to repeat, except for the fact that I poured myself back into my sewing and am finding some psychological healing in my sewing room. In celebration of it being Friday, I am so happy to be doing my favorite meme, Four Foods on Friday. If you would like to join in, head over and check it out at Fun, Crafts and Recipes.

This weeks questions and my answers:

#1. I passed Costco and saw gas at $2.84 and have had Costco on the brain since. Share a cupcake, muffin or cookie recipe. Not sure how Costco and muffins fit together since I don’t shop there, but I’ll play along! My muffin recipe consist of following the directions on the back of the box for Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix. Eat them while there fresh from the oven with some butter on them and a cup of hot coffee.

#2. Cupcakes, muffins and cookies require something to drink. What do you drink with them? Whoops, I gave that answer in the above question, but I like a cup of hot coffee with my muffins.

#3. Which do you prefer, mini muffins and cupcakes or full sized ones? I prefer full size, but wont’ turn down mini!

#4. What type of muffin or cupcake pan do you use? Silicone, disposable, etc. I use the old fashioned muffin tins and put the paper cups in them. I mainly use the paper cups to keep clean up easier.

Last night I was doing an online survey. The qualifying questions related to the consumption of beer and alcohol while at restaurants or other public venues. Neither my husband or I drink very much, but he does like a beer a few nights a week and I do have the occasional glass of wine here and there. Well, we had gone out for dinner the other night and he had a beer with dinner, just one. So, the survey gave me a bonus 200 points for qualifying and continuing on with the 25 minute questionnaire and I agreed.

The survey then began to annoy me because it repeatedly was asking if I drank to feel good, party hard or get a good buzz! I have to tell you, I can’t remember the last time I EVER drank for any of those reasons, if I ever did, so it was annoying. One beer with dinner does not a party animal make!

Since moving to Dallas, I can honestly say I haven’t even been to a bar or club of any kind. We do go to restaurants, but they are family friendly and I don’t want to go somewhere I’ll be around a bunch of drunken slobs. That’s not my idea of fun.

Truthfully, the last party I think we went to was a corporate sponsored event for one of my husband’s previous employers. I remember it well because it took place downtown Chicago and it was super cold and super windy. We drove our big van down there and had to park quite a few blocks away because many of the downtown parking lots can’t accommodate larger vehicles. Then, we had to walk, in the cold gusty wind, to the party. My hair looked like it was doing a dance all its own by the time we got there.

The party was inside the corporate offices. I thought that was pretty boring. Apparently, so did most of the other people attending because the party came to a pretty early end. Too bad individuals who planned it didn’t have better corporate event ideas Chicago to plan a better, more worthwhile event.

The party had potential, it just need a better location, something more along the lines of Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar. This place isn’t your typical bar, it’s got great live entertainment taking place all night long. There is also audience participation and the wait staff gets involved too. Instead of the boring corporate party we attended, it could have been a high energy affair that everyone would have enjoyed.

The company my husband is currently with here in Dallas is doing some major cutbacks right now, so I highly doubt there will be any sort of holiday party. Maybe we’ll have to make our own plans and visit the Howl at the Moon Piano Bar in San Antonio or Houston instead.

While I haven’t been sewing much lately, now that I’ve lost my job, I feel renewed and re-energized in the sewing department and am back to creating totes and other items. Over the weekend, I created a beautiful (at least I think so) tote bag that I’ll be sharing with you soon, and yesterday, I cut the fabric pieces to start sewing my 25 Days of Christmas project.

I sell my items directly from this website and from my Etsy shop and a big question is always if I will ship internationally. My answer is, absolutely yes! While it does take more effort on my part and the shipping cost is higher, if someone wants one of my tote bags or purses, I’m going to do what I can to get it to them. What I usually end up doing is getting the recipient’s mailing address, taking my package to the local post office and getting the exact shipping rate. I then provide that information to the buyer and they can make their final decision, which, so far, has always been YES!

Another method I could use would be to ship the item to mail forwarding located in California, who would in turn forward it on via USPS Priority, Express or FedEx with big discount. I will be checking into this to see if it could save on shipping costs for the buyer.

In the mean time, I’m anxious to get sewing and I’ll be posting my progress!

Since moving to Texas, I feel fortunate in that I’ve been able to stay home and work on my sewing and blogging “businesses”. I don’t make too much money doing either, but I do enjoy them both and want to continue on those paths. I recently was fortunate to find a part time job that will allow me to work from home, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Not only will I be able to continue what I’ve all ready been doing, but I will have a regular, steady (I hope) income to supplement the small amount I do earn from blogging. This will allow me to buy even more fabric and do even more sewing!

Obviously, there are many ways to make money from home and everyone has to find something that works for them. Whatever it is, it needs to be something you enjoy or you won’t do well at it. Working from home requires commitment because no body is there looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re doing your job. If you don’t enjoy it, chances are, you’ll set it aside. I looked at many opportunities before deciding on what I’m currently in training for (more details later), and that’s why I know there are all kinds of work from home opportunities available.

Something many choose to do to earn money from the comfort of home is to use a proprietary email marketing system. Before doing this, you definitely want to verify the information on the company using testimonials and and any other data you can find. Success2u offers a free 7 day trial that can provide you with easy to use email marketing software, a built in list of email addresses, ready made templates and access to products among other things.

Oh my, I’ve been so busy lately that I really feel like I’m falling behind on just about everything. I’m even having trouble keeping up with posting on my two blogs. Some nights it seems as if I have to choose between blogging and cooking dinner. Well, if you have a family, I’m sure you know which one wins out. Unfortunately, I can’t chop veggies, brown meat, and get it all put together while typing blog posts or any other writing tasks.

I recently went so far as to take Dragon’s typing speed test! typing just to see how I could do. There was someone speaking the words at the same time, so that was a bit distracting. I wound up with these results:

So, I’ve been hearing a lot about a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking and did some checking into it, including reading Dragon Reviews. It’s a program that allows you to speak into your computer’s microphone and then the software does all of the typing for you. It allows you to type at the same speed that you speak. Sounds great to me! I would be using the PC program (it is also available for MAC) and I could get so much more done, talk about an opportunity to multi-task!

There is a novel writing contest, NaNoWrimo, beginning November 1. If you’re interested in entering, you should consider using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for NaNoWrimo as it would allow you to type so much faster and get a better flow to your writing. Check out these videos for more information.