The Sewing Mom

The Olympics are almost over and then it’s time for football season! This is truly my husband’s favorite time of year. He’s been attempting to watch NFL preseason football games on television, but it’s difficult when we’re all wanting to watch the Olympics at the same time. Of course, I’m always on the computer while watching t.v., multi-tasking is what I call it. This would definitely not be a time when we would want to be without our television or internet service!

Do you have a good high speed cable or satellite service? If not, or if you’re thinking of changing providers, this is a great time to check out Charter Communications and their Back To School Deal. Order any Charter service online now and be entered automatically in the Charter Laptop-a-Day Giveaway. That’s right, Charter is giving away 30 HP Compaq Presario C770US Laptops, each one valued at over $600. Here are the computer specs:

New HP Compaq Presario C770US Notebook
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor
15.4″ WXGA Screen
2GB RAM -160GB hard drive
DVD Burner
Built in Wi-Fi and Ethernet
Plus a NEOtec Laptop Backpack!

Not only that, if you sign up online for one of Charter’s services, you will receive a $100 prepaid Shell gas card. With gas prices the way they are, who couldn’t use that?!

Check out the complete Sweepstakes Rules.

Tags: Charter, Charter Communications, Compaq, high speed, laptop

After staying up extra late the past 2 weeks watching the Olympics, I had to get up early this morning to get my daughter out to the ball fields.  Softball tryouts were today.

Maybe because we’ve been staying up late, or maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, today did not go well.  She just looked like she was dragging.  No enthusiasm, no energy.  I was sort of hard to watch and it went on for 3 hours.

I’m very sad for my daughter, I thought softball was what she wanted to do.  She tells me it is.  She loves the game.  She plays so very well.  But when it comes to a tryout, she just can’t seem to pull it all together.  She looks like she’s miserable.  Today, for the first time, I felt like I was forcing her to do something she didn’t want to do.

I’m going to try to let it go for now.  She will have to decide what she wants to do.  The one thing she lacks is confidence.  She has the skills and the talent, but she never thinks she is as good as she is or can be.  I don’t know how to build her confidence.  It makes me want to cry.  How can she be so gifted and not know it?

It makes me even sadder to think that she may not choose to try again and all of her talent will go to waste.  But, in the end, it is her choice.  I just have to give her room to make a decision.

Tags: softball

Before I purchased my current sewing machine, I did my homework. I compared features of various machines, looked for those features that were important to me, the quality of the machine itself, and a good warranty to back up the product. After all, sewing machines can be quite expensive and I didn’t want to throw my money into a lemon of a machine.

As I travel the web reading blogs every day, I often see people questioning their choice of web host and wondering if there isn’t a better web host out there. Just like when I bought my sewing machine, it’s a good idea to check out a web host’s features and quality. Check out webhosting ratings to check for customer service and options.

In fact, just the other day a fellow blogging friend asked my opinion on domain names. I am going to refer her to the article I found titled Tips for Choosing a Domain to aid in attempting to choose a domain name.

Whatever you’re looking to buy, whether it’s a sewing machine or a web host, do your research first, it will save you headaches in the long run.

Tags: domain, web hosting, webhostingrating.com

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I’ve spent the last two weeks staying up until midnight or later, every single night, watching the Olympics! Even so, I find I miss things. For instance, did you hear that the women’s softball team did NOT take the gold medal? I was shocked and very disappointed that I hadn’t even seen them play a single game. Why was it not televised? Or was it and I just missed it?

Anyway, I’m glad it’s Friday and I find out I’m not the only one with the Olympics on my mind and on my television set! Valmg has also been watching and with the Olympics in mind, has come up with this weeks Four Foods on Friday theme.

This weeks questions and my answers:

#1. What do you drink to rehydrate in the heat or after working out? I typically just drink water, but sometimes will add a Propel packet to my water to give it some flavor.

#2. What do you eat to help boost or create energy? I really like to grab a piece of fruit for the natural sugars, but will also eat a cereal bar now and then.

#3. What’s the healthiest snack you eat? Fruit. No question, it’s fruit.

#4. Share a recipe or instructions for your ideal three course meal. Well, that’s certainly not easy, because the only time I would eat a 3 course meal is if I go out to eat! But, my idea of a healthy 3 course meal would start with a green salad topped with almonds and strawberries and dressed with strawberry vinagerette dressing. Then there would be a broth and noodle soup of some kind, not a cream soup, too heavy. The main course would be steak and steamed vegetables.

Okay, now I’m really hungry, but if you’d like to join in on Four Foods on Friday, head over to Fun, Crafts and Recipes to give Valmg a shout out.

Tags: Four Foods on Friday, meals, meme

I really do enjoy a good glass of wine, do you?

I’ve enjoyed drinking wine for as long as I can remember. When my husband and I live in Southern California, we enjoyed going out to the hill country and touring the wineries while doing wine tastings. We never made it up to Northern California, the Napa Valley area, but I would still love to visit the wineries in that area. Some of our favorite wines come from California.

As we’ve moved around the country and visited other states, I’m always amazed to find small, family owned wineries just about everywhere we’ve gone. I have to say, there are some really delicious wines coming from some of these places. We’ve visited wineries in Ohio, Connecticut, North Carolina and Texas, plus many more. Of course, there were a few I wish we had passed on! In fact, here in Texas, we’ve enjoyed the wine so much that I joined a local wine club that brings us only wines from Texas wineries. I’ve been amazed at the quality and taste of these wines and it’s fun to be able to taste the variety of wines from right here in our own state.

Another very good wine club is the CA Wine Club which, just like the TX wine club, finds local, mostly family owned wineries in California and delivers those limited production wines to its members. Each month the club features a new winery and delivers to its members 2 bottles of award winning wine and their magazine publication “Uncorked”. Members also receive discounts of up to 50% on reorders, remember, their wines are typically not available in stores. The California Wine Club has been in existence for 18 years, so I have to say, they must be doing something right!

If you’ve ever considered joining a wine club, or, even if you haven’t, this is the time to do it. Join CA Wine Club now and receive your first month free, pay only the shipping charge of $13. That is a savings of $34.95, now that’s a good deal.

Tags: California, California Wine Club, CAwineclub.com, wine

I have purchased a new project that I really would like to get started on. The problem is, I have other things and responsibilities to get done before I can really go into my sewing room and have fun with my new project. So, to help me get a handle on what I need to do and feel better organized, I decided to make a list.These are my 13 things I need to do before I can hide out in my sewing room to work on my new project.

1. Get started on the two load of laundry that need to be done today.
2. Submit husband’s rebate form online to Staples
3. Gather and mail copies of utility bills for online survey ($5)
4. Make my bed
5. Clean kitchen counters
6. Dust and vacuum family room
7. Fill out forms for junior high to turn in at Expectations Night tonight
8. Water potted plants
9. Clean off desk - again
10. Balance checkbook - again
11. Vacuum t.v. room
12. Do exercises on Wii Fit (I’m 3 days behind)
13. SEW!!

Tags: organization, Thursday Thirteen, to-do list

School will begin again on Monday. Summer vacation is all but over. So, what’s the next major even on the calendar? Why, Halloween of course! I do believe that Halloween is the favorite holiday of both my husband and my daughter. My husband loves decorating the outside of the house and making everything appear to be very scary. His favorite thing is watching from the front window as the the trick-or-treaters approach the front window and listening to them scream or panic from all the scary affects he has created. My daughter loves all the decorating too, but she really loves picking her costume and going around the neighborhood to collect her bucket loads of treats.

The past few years my daughter has decided way in advance what she wants to be and I have made my daughter’s halloween costumes myself. I’ve created everything from intricate Egyptian queens to simple candy costumes. This year however, she’s still undecided. I’m thinking that we may be purchasing her costume instead of me making it. If I were choosing a costume for her, I might pick the Geisha costume from Pirates of the Caribbean.

My daughter has grown out of the kids costumes so we’re looking at adult (not too sexy) and teen costumes to give her a lot of choices. I know it seems really early to be thinking about Halloween costumes, but if we wait too long, the better costumes will sell out. Plus, if we order before October 10, we can use coupon code PPP05BLOG2008 to receive 5% off the price.

It is interesting every year to see what is popular in costumes. The boys always like the scary, demon like characters. It’s the girls that always seem to go more trendy. To keep up with what’s new and interesting in the world of costumes you can check out Halloween Costume News and who knows, maybe you’ll get an idea of what you want to be for Halloween.

Tags: costumes, Halloween

This isn’t the best picture, I was taking a photo of the book with the patterns in it. If I used the flash, I got a lot of flashback, so I turned off the flash and this is what I got.

Anyway, I bought the book and the fabric to make these cute Countdown to Christmas blocks. I also purchased the metal rack to hang them from. Now, I just need to get busy sewing!

Tags: sewing, Wordless Wednesday

Last week I splurged and I bought my very own Wii Fit. I was hesitant, after all, it is a video game, but I decided it might be fun even if it doesn’t help me to get fit. I’m here to tell you, after only one week of using my Wii Fit, I am not only hooked, I actually enjoy and look forward to working out!

The Wii Fit is super easy to use and this statement is coming from someone who is technically challenged. I turn the power on to the t.v., turn the power on to the Wii system and insert the Wii Fit disk. That’s it, it does the rest. The system charts your progress each day that you use it. The body test measures your BMI based on your actual age, weight and a few selected simple exercises. On the first day of use, I input my personal goal of losing 10 pounds in 3 months. The system now monitors this for me and lets me know how I’m doing. I love seeing the line on the chart take a slow downturn as I progress toward meeting my goal.

I can then choose whether or not I want to do any exercising for the day. I have chosen to exercise every day in the last 7 days except for 2. The exercises include yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance exercises. My favorites are the balance and aerobics. All of the games utilize the Wii Fit board and some also use the remote control which is very easy to operate. My daughter and I tend to do the workouts together, switching back and forth between our Wii characters, but it is not beyond me to go use it on my own. This will be a huge plus for me when she goes back to school.

Over the weekend, I was suffering from a headache that I simply could not get rid of it. I was feeling very blah, and decided to give the Wii Fit a go to see if would get my energy level up and diminish my headache. After a 30 minute workout, it worked. I felt better and my headache, although not gone completely, was much better. I’m very happy to have found a way to increase my energy level that is enjoyable.

OF course, an alternative to the Wii Fit would be sublingual B-12 which is an affordable and painless alternative to a B-12 shot. Vitamin B-12 is known to increase energy levels as well as help those fighting diabetes and dementia. So, if you need exercise, try the Wii Fit. For other diagnosis, you should try sublingual B-12 today.

Tags: sublingual B-12, sublingual B12, Wii, Wii Fit

I just want to go on record to say that I am completely disgusted.  You see, we’ve been having a problem with these little bugs getting into our food that is in our pantry.  These bugs are larger than a weevil, but I do believe they are more than likely related.

Two months ago, I completely emptied my pantry.  I tossed any food that was in open packaging and discovered what I thought was the source, bags of chocolate chips.  I then put anything that wasn’t all ready in Tupperware into containers or ziploc bags.  Even boxed mixes that had never been opened I slipped inside a ziploc bag for protection.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, my husband found these little buggers in the container of bread crumbs.  We promptly tossed it out and I went through the pantry again.  I didn’t find anything else, so I thought maybe it was just something I had missed.   Today told me I was wrong.

I found a ziploc bag, completely sealed with 2 never opened boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix inside the bag.  Bugs everywhere inside the bag.  I am pissed to say the least.

I proceeded to go through the entire pantry, again.  I found the bugs in sealed bags of cereal and an open box of pasta.  I have thrown it all out.  Apparently, ziploc bags aren’t good enough for fighting these bugs.  I prefer Tupperware, but since I can’t afford it right now, I’m heading to Target to get some Rubbermaid containers.  I’m going to try to find a large square or rectangular container that I can set boxes of mixes inside of and then seal with a lid.  I’m also going to get some containers for the cereal.

Food is just way to expensive to have to be throwing it out.  In case you’re wondering, living in Texas, it’s routine to have your home exterminated on a regular basis.  I have our house done every 3 months.

Tags: exterminator, Rubbermaid, Texas, Tupperware, weevil