When words aren't enough...

I heart my family.   

Truly.  

My husband is amazing.  

My children are amazing.  

They are brights spots in my day and in my life.  

I thank God for my family.  

I LOVE them.  

I want to do everything in my power to be the Proverbs 31 woman for them.  

Proverbs 31:21-22 says:  "When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple." 

With that being said - I cannot and I repeat - CANNOT - make fine coverings for my bed when my sewing scissors are used to cut things that are not fabric.  I was down to one decent good pair of scissors that I had tried in vain to keep hidden from my husband children.  So, when I found my one remaining pair in the bag of horse grooming supplies, I had to resort to drastic measures.

When words aren't enough..... 

When "Please don't use my sewing scissors" sounds like this when it comes out of my mouth:   

And when my family looks at me like I am crazy and just told a dumb joke and then they roll their eyes and wait until I am not looking to cut their cardboard.  Or horse hair.  Or who knows what else.

So this morning, my husband posted this picture on facebook with a sad face:

I grinned an impish grin.  I laughed an evil laugh.  Then I jingled the key ring on my desk, shook my head, and thought "tsk, tsk, tsk."

Victory is MINE!

XOXOXO

~~Gena

P.S.  - I am working on a table topper for St. Patrick's Day.  And my scissors cut like "buttah!"

Thoughts on pasta.....

The "crud" has hit our house and is making its rounds, so productivity is more or less out the window.  I HAVE managed to get the ruffle onto my girl's skirt for her banquet.  Cuteness!  She has a petticoat with a white circle skirt trimmed with a 30 foot pink gingham ruffle.  The pink gingham sash is coming.....I just haven't made it that far yet.  As a matter of fact, I was in bed last night by 7:00.  Sheesh.

So, since I feel like I have been run over by a Mack truck and since I am not being very productive I will share what Santa brought me for Christmas.  I got a pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer!  

Not long after Christmas I watched some youtube tutorials on how to use the thing and immediately cranked out some garlic fettuccine!  

I used that pasta to make some chicken alfredo and it was delicious!  We also had enough that we were able to share :)


Next I decided to make some spinach pasta, and the batch of pasta was so much that I had filled up my pasta rack and was out of room.  At that point, I decided I would just make lasanga noodles.

I learned something very important with this batch of pasta..... The lasagna noodles needed to be on a piece of screen or something similar in order to dry evenly.  Otherwise, they just dry on one side and they curl up, which makes it a pain to try and store a bunch of curled up noodles.  

Out of that batch of pasta I had enough that we have had two meals with the noodles - one with marinara and one with a cream sauce, a pan of lasagna, a pan of lasagna in the freezer, noodles still in the pantry and I have even given some away.

Now here let me state that I use that Kitchenaid almost daily and it is well worth every dime that they cost and I would cry for a month if anything ever happened to it, because it is my best friend and assists me in bringing culinary joy to my household, which makes me happy.  Me and the Kitchenaid are tight.  We are buddies.

However, as expensive as the pasta attachments are.....and they are incredibly expensive.... how many meals or batches of pasta does it take before it pays for itself considering a pack of spaghetti is only a buck or so?

I think if we went to the Macaroni Grill (or that other "Italian" place with the olives that has HORRIBLE  food but tasty salad and breadsticks) we would probably spend anywhere from $50 - $80 ish dollars on a meal dining out with our family.  (Or maybe more than that? - I don't dine out much.)  So if I think in those terms as opposed to the actual cost of buying pasta at the grocery store I suppose it may have already paid for itself?

Now if I could just find out how to grind my own flour.............

Yours Truly,

Coughing and Hacking and needing desperately to finish my sewing before the banquet next weekend and tired of being loopy from all the cold medicine -----

XOXOXO

~~Gena

Some January sewing :)

It isn't often that my office is closed, but since it is near the end of deer season, my attorney employer decided that MLK Day was a good day for him to hunt, since the Courthouse was closed anyway.  I hunted too, but the only movement that I saw in the woods was the family of squirrels doing zumba beneath my shooting house. Ha!

But before I went hunting, I decided to do some sewing.

And let me state here that I had previously made the decision to participate in the Swoon Along.....

But before I could start another project, I knew I HAD to finish something I had going otherwise my fabulous most amazing, sweet husband would say something about me never finishing a project before I start a new one and so on and so forth and I knew he would be right and I just couldn't let THAT happen!

So - I decided to finish something so I could Swoon :)

(And let me apologize for the poor quality pictures.  I took these with my cell phone.)

I have been working on this off and on for a while.  It is a terrible wonky mess and has LOTS of mistakes, but generally I am okay with it because I learned a lot about what NOT to do when you are making it up as you go (and why you might should write stuff down if you work on it and leave it alone for a while):

I have all kinds of seams that don't match and had to add sashing because I was way off, blah blah blah.

I am going to add 18" of white all the way around so it will be a full queen size for the bed.

This is going to be the backing:

The picture has a funky hue to it, but it is just the lovely glow of the indoor lighting.  I love the farm print.  It is perfect.

I am going to send it to the quilter just because I have no desire to quilt a queen size quilt on my Singer and because she will probably get a kick out of trying to straight line quilt something that doesn't have matching seams.  And because I have no desire to attempt straight line quilting on something that doesn't have matching seams and because the quilter probably needs a challenge like that. :)

And I have throw pillows forming in my head with some coordinating fabric and some AB Temple Tulips.  Aaaah.

And now that I have that out of the way......

Hope Valley for the Swoon Along!

YAY!!!

And I have some County Fair that I bought for $3.49/yd that I will be using for the backing.  YAY!

I am also working on clothes for the Valentine Banquet.... Hannah will be in ice cream white and pink gingham.  I will be all decked out in sparkly black tulle in a skirt inspired from the Tinseltown line from the Shabby Apple website and courtesy of a 50% off deal and Joann gift card I received for Christmas.   I will post pics of those projects once I get them finished.

Here is the inspiration for my get up:

I ordered my red gloves this morning :)

xoxoxo

~~ Gena

SWOON ALONG!

I suppose I am a glutton for punishment....


But I have all this fabric that needs cutting up into pieces......

Fingers crossed that I can pull this off and finally do something with all that Innocent Crush that I have been hoarding stashing.

 :)

xoxoxo

~~Gena

2011 - a year in review

Year in review – 2011

I was a terrible blogger for 2011.  I will resolve myself to being more disciplined for 2012 (HA!).

Just a quick run down of 2011 –

January – It snowed.  A LOT.  As in, there was snow on the ground for a whole week.  IN MISSISSIPPI. 

February – My super fab hubby MADE me a bottle tree for Valentine’s Day.  I also hosted a formal table for a valentine’s banquet, helped make costumes for the children’s skit for said banquet, helped make desserts for said banquet, and provided musical entertainment.  

March – We worked on building the greenhouse.  I also whopped my knee on a tree while horseback riding.

April – My stepsister passed away on April 22, 2011, (Good Friday) and Papa lost a cousin in the tornado of April 27, 2011.  Not such a good week for us. 

May – Jacob graduated from high school L  Sniff.

We also took a trip to Chattanooga.

June – I had surgery on my knee and all of my green things died.  It is hard to utilize a water hose whilst managing crutches and painkillers at the same time. L

July – We had our annual 4^th on the Porch at my house for the first time ever J

August – Jacob started college L  Sniff.  I also had to have surgery for a kidney stone.  UGH.

September – I went on an amazing retreat in Fort Payne, Alabama, with some ladies from my church.  My girl was baptized.  Amen.

October – Papa went on the same retreat.  I heard tell that he may or may not have gone swimming in his Superman boxer briefs because he forgot his swim trunks J

November -  A BLUR.  Papa and I were both trying to finish up for final exams as well as deal with everything else and get ready for the holidays.  Oh.  And I also went and saw Breaking Dawn with my niece and daughter J

December – A hustle and bustle of activity.  Christmas goings and comings and parties and gifts and Christmas cantatas and Santa.  And on the very last day of 2011, we lost my mother-in-law after a very short but brutal battle with  metastatic breast cancer. L 

But we also lots of laughs and hugs and kisses throughout the year.  Quiet nights with a roaring fire, game nights with friends from church, birthday parties, birthday cakes, lots of time in the hay field, football games, cheerleading, softball, singing songs, Papa making amazing things (as usual), and just all around general memory making. 

2012 holds lots of promises for us.  We have lots of irons in the fire and plans and hopes and dreams for this year.  Bring it on, 2012! 

Here are just a few things I would like to see come to fruition this year.

1.      I hope to get some ventilation going in the greenhouse so that it does not get to be 130 degrees in the summertime.

2.      I hope to have lots of beautiful green things in the greenhouse

3.      I hope to put in some raised beds in the greenhouse for wintertime gardening

4.      I hope to finish my bluework star quilt this year.  Good grief.

5.      I hope to see my hubs walk across the stage in a cap and gown in May!

6.      I hope to see my sad little rattling go-cart make it until that point J

7.      I hope to be able to go horseback riding all year and not injure myself and spend the better part of six months recovering.

8.      I hope to spend lots of time camping and cavorting about.

9.      I hope to see the beach at some point this year….. it has been so long since I have been to the beach.

10.  I hope to spend lots more time sitting at my sewing machine this year.  I miss it.

Sort of a frivolous list for the year, but hey, I am sure there will be lots more packed in between all that stuff.  And there is no telling what Papa has on his list...

xoxox

~~Gena

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S

Happy New Year from 

our family to yours! 

XOXOX

~~Gena 

Be careful what you ask for

I went to a retreat this past weekend with five other girls from my church in Fort Payne, Alabama.  It was in the mountains and there was rock climbing and rapelling and canoeing and zip lines and night hikes.  We had a worship service in a cave.  I have absolutely no words to describe it.  To hear 100 women singing with the natural acoustics provided by the cave....It is the closest thing I can imagine of what a choir of angels must sound like.

(This band is called Owing Adam.  They have amazing talent)

Women spoke to our group of women about women's issues.  One of the speakers was talking about how hectic our lives are (can I get an AMEN?).  She said that finally she had prayed that the Lord would just clear her schedule.  I thought --- that is the most ingenious thing that I had ever heard!  WHY haven't I ever thought of that?  It was such a weight lifted.  It was a breath of fresh air.  YES!  A prayer that was the answer to my prayers!

With that being said, we knew that August to December was going to be brutal in our house.  And so it is.  We walk around in a daze from the blur of our days/weeks.  We are both exhausted.  Papa is so exhausted he is not only walking around in a daze but doing it with the sniffles, so I spiked our good southern sweet tea with echinacea and elderberry and astralgus root.  Two gallons of immune boosting goodness so hopefully he will get to feeling better and to keep the rest of us from falling like dominoes.  Homecoming, tests, sniffles, hay, cheer practice, church, work, practice for festivals, football games, iffy heating element in the dryer, internet people coming on Friday, loading horses and tack for pony rides for a little boy's birthday on Friday.  Saturday is the opening day of bow season.  Papa will be hunting and then in the hay field.  I will be cheering for my cheerleader from 11-12.  Singing at a festival from 1-2:30.  Then we will be driving an hour away to watch our boy march at halftime at his football game because it is the only Saturday game he has and the only one Papa will get to see because he has class on Thursday night. 

Lord.......clear my schedule.

I have been repeating that prayer over and over and over and over.  So, guess what happened?  My car died.  As in, I am borrowing a vehicle to get back and forth to work.  DIED.  (We suspect it is the alternator.)  I guess when I asked for my schedule to be cleared, I should have been more specific. Instead, I just laughed and said, "Well, that's one sure fire way to do it."

Never doubt the Lord's sense of humor and timing.

xoxoxo

~~Gena