Updates and some new stuff...

First update... My uncles funeral was on Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony, and really sad. He was 90 years old, he lived a good life and had a lot of loved ones and great stories to share. I was sad he was gone but I was more sad because I really never got to know him as well as I would have liked too. I have very few memories with him as a child, he was always very nice to me but nothing really stands out. At his funeral all his grandchildren and great grandchildren stood up and told stories about him, he seemed like such a fun guy. I lived in the same town as he did my entire life, how did I not get to know him better? My 2 older sisters have more memories than I do, I guess by the time I came around he had other things going on? I remember a few times riding my bike to his house, but that was mostly to visit my Aunt Wilma, after she died (I was only 8) we never went over there much. I left the funeral a little mad at myself for not getting to know my uncle more, which I never expected to feel that way and it's a very strange feeling to have.

As for my BFF's baby shower, it went great! I was freaking out about the entire thing, I usually do for things like this. I guess its my little defense mechanism, I fear the worst so that whatever happens is never as bad as I thought it was going to be. First thing I freaked out about was the cost, we started going a little over budget and I got a little worried about that. So instead of having it catered I decided to make the meal myself, which was baked ziti, my other friend throwing the shower with me brought a salad and dinner rolls. So instead of spending $75 on food, we spent about $20... thankfully Publix was having some killer sales! We opened things like plates and napkins as we went along, now we have a ton of stuff to take back that we didn't use. Between the two it helped bring our cost down about $100 which is great! Then I started to worry about the weather, there was a 90% chance of rain today! EEK! The whole reason we decided to have this at my teeny tiny house is because we have a huge back yard and the party was supposed to be outside! We expected about 25-30 people to show up, 40 showed up instead. Of those 40 people only about 15 actually RSVP'd... *insert eye rolls* But that's ok, it didn't rain until this evening and the party went really smooth. My ziti was a big hit, got lots of compliments. My friend had a great day, which was most important to me, and everyone had a great time! I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

As for some new stuff, I'm attempting to turn my uncrafty self into a craft-o-holic! I'm starting to learn how to knit and I'm so excited about this. My BFF's mother-in-law and I were talking today and she mentioned that she knew how to knit. I immediately lit up because I've been looking for someone to help me learn. I've been trying to take classes but every time they come up I'm busy that day. I've tried several DVD's but I'm not a visual learner, I'm a hands on learner, I couldn't figure anything out. I hate not having someone there to critique me when I have no idea what the heck I am doing, obviously a DVD couldn't do that! She told me to get my pattern and give her a call, she'd have me knitting in no time! So Awesome! After I get the hang of knitting I'd like to start getting into sewing too, but that's going to take some time since a decent sewing machine is very expensive and I'm not sure when I'll be able to afford one. That's the nice thing about knitting, you can really save money and all you need is some needles and wool. In the mean time I am going to keep my eye out for a good used sewing machine.

Another project I'm attempting is to make growth charts for the boys. I've been wanting to get new charts, one for each kiddo. I had an idea in mind so I started searching online for what I wanted. The growth chart we have now is fabric and its not supposed to be written on but I write on it anyway. It's difficult to do and doesn't look very nice since I'm writing on fabric with a marker for 2 children, its meant for only 1 child. I was looking at wooden growth charts online and while they were all very cute they were also very expensive. Most of them were hand panted tho, mine won't be that elaborate but they will be very cute... I hope! If I were to have bought the wooden ones online it would have cost me about $175 for 3 charts. I couldn't fathom that, so I went to Lowes, got them to cut up a nice piece of plywood for me. Then I went to Michaels and got the paint, wooden letters, already painted animal wooden cut-outs, and paint brushes. Total cost was about $65! Much better! Plus mine will be more personalized where as the online charts weren't.

I'm excited about all of this, I can't wait to start all these projects. My goal is to eventually open my own online store selling everything that I can make by hand. I see so many other mama's do this and they make a decent living. I'd like to know how to make wool longies, shorties, cloth diapers, mama cloth, and maybe some children's clothing and other children items. Along with the growth charts. My goal is to get this accomplished within the next 3 years. Seeing as I don't know how to do any of this stuff yet, and I have 2.5 kids at the moment, I think 3 years is reasonable. That will give me time to learn how to do these projects and master them so that I can actually sell them too. We have a lot of craft shows in our area so I could even set up shop there. It would be really great to sell cloth diapers locally and get the word out about how awesome cloth is! I feel really good about all of this and am so excited to start learning.