Sew what's Up?

I love to craft, I have always been crafty. Going to my grandmother's house was a treat because we would be sewing, or making crafts with fabric. My mother encouraged any art work, bought me a sewing machine when I was in grade two or three.

I always thought that when I had a baby girl I would sew her anything and everything...I would be one of THOSE mothers....well life got in the way or rather work did.

In the past few months I have been crafting up a storm, I started making hair bows, started sewing for my daughter for the FIRST time...

I am such an oddball around people I know due to the fact I owned a sewing machine, I was excited that I got a serger for Christmas...and I knew what a serger WAS!

Then I discovered CRAFT blogs!! I was so excited!!! I am still excited when I see a new post!

So I have been having a little bit of fun, learning new things, getting new ideas, trying new things and going out of my comfort zone.

My projects so far:

The headband from Prudent Baby had me grinning, I whipped my version up for Kathleen and she was quite happy with my results, not perfect but we love it:)

My next project was pure excitement because it followed a long day of trying to figure out my new serger...only to find out I was doing it correctly. 

So, I had to tackle the pillowcase dress, and yes, I did have this fabric just laying around because it was so pretty and girly...and I bought it before Kathleen was born...

Only picture I have of her wearing it...the blond twin cuties are not mine but cousins of my kiddies..cute huh?
I cannot wait till have have some free time and energy (aka no cold...) I have some BIGGER plans in mind...and I need to learn how to use power tools (told you I was going out of my comfort zone!)...Josh is scared!

Baby Power

Someone very dear to me is trying to quit smoking. Now, I have never smoked and have no idea how hard it is but I obviously understand that the struggle is tough.

She called yesterday trying to hang on to day three, she has helps in the way of meds but it was a difficult moment.

Straight to the point I asked the REAL reason why she was quitting...well she wants a baby and feels strongly about having her body clean and home clean for her child. So, as much as she LOVES cigarettes and as much as her body craves this one desire she was giving it up, making her self miserable, cranky, irritated...she wants her own family.

To give her mind ease we talked about babies, names, clothes, supplies...she felt stronger and then I had inspiration. I told her if she could hang on ONE week...just four more days, I will bring her a baby gift and a nice tote to start packing into. I will keep adding to this gift stash and when the scent and desire of smoking feels too much, go and open the 'Baby Box', smell that baby scent, look at those items and and feel the strength that you have!

When we got off the phone she said she was alright, excited and fine till the next round.

I lover her to death and I am excited to start shopping for this much wanted baby. I know there is a little one waiting and cheering her on across the veil.

Go..No, RUN!!!

I never win stuff. but here goes to hoping! I love blog's, I love what people say, what the create, how the reacte.

If you love beautiful homes and such go to the House of Smiths, her stuff is AMAZING!! Makes me wish my house were more beuatiful!

Better yet she is having a nice giveaway a lovely Silhouette!! It is on my list of things I GOTTA have!! Oh the things I will make!! I already have big plans...like a church shelf (not revealing what I totally mean till I get one!!)

The best part about the Silhouette? They will take your house from boring generic to one of the homes you sigh when you enter from contentment! I have always wanted a home that was memorable for GOOD reasons...(at the moment no one is forgetting the half finished reno's or the the falling plaster walls...

So run over and enter and hope *I* win;)

Hockey Hookey and other Ramblings

I hate hockey...really loathe it...not the game itself, that is exciting, fun to watch, fun to cheer on! But the practices!!! UGH!!!! Josh is gone three nights a week to his games...i wish he was home but the alone time is nice and he gets out with his friends. It does get annoying when he has been working like crazy and I have not seen him in a while but he has to run out to hockey!!
Peter also plays...he is cute, so little, he loves it!! When Josh takes him, he volunteers as a coach, the kids LIVE for Tues nights and Sat mornings.
But when Josh is working? Oh the fun! I have to rush home from work (some days it is harder then others), pick up the kids from daycare, scrounge some food.
I can say I am now pretty proficient about getting him in his gear, that I can do quickly but it is interjected with Peter telling me I am doing it in the wrong order...but he cannot remember the order either...
Once he is on the ice, I then have the fun hour is freezing in an unheated arena, entertaining a 2 year old and a 4 yeard old...who only want to run the length of the bleachers, to the annoyance of the the other watching parents. They fight and throw tantrums, complain they are hungry, whine they are cold...
Other parents give me the 'look', you know the, 'If they were MY kids...' look. Majority of the parents have one of two children, that are respectively spaced 4-5 years apart. if I only had to watch one, it would be a different story but two??
They are tired becauyse hockey ends AFTER their bedtime...and we have not even had supper...home we go, supper is quick and usually toast.
Bedtime is filled with the sounds of howling and yelling.

So, here I sit. I am so tired, work was what I call a failure. Half of the clients called on Sunday and cancelled, I go into work on Tues so I arrive and half my pay is gone already and no time to rebook. I am over tired from Kathleen being up half the night, slightly shaky from not eating (there were 6 pieces of bread left...the kids got two each, you do the math). The kids all went to bed howling, the boys are cold and tired, the house is cold from the fire not being tended all day.

I wanted to play hooky!! OH I SOOO wanted to!!! But I played hooky Saturday morning, and he missed that practice...and Josh was NOT happy. He called me this afternoon to make sure I took him down.
(***Please note that Josh has NEVER taken all three kids to hockey, directly after daycare, or working all day***)

I know my kids LOVE their activities and I want them to be involved but it is hard working a physical job (with a bum  shoulder...nother vent for nother day), on 4-5 hours of sleep, having a messy house that I have no time or energy to clean, no meals made because their is not enough time to even throw a crockpot meal together...

I should add the roads were horribly slippery because of the snow that is coming down rapidly...summer tires just aint cuttin 'it!!

I am really living for my weekends...I love the money I bring in but on days like today...I made no money. The kids are unhappy, I am unhappy...this evening would have been 100% better if I could have laid down for 15 mins, had a decent lunch, cooked a nice supper and we all ate early, little ones bathed before we left, homework done. That I could suffer out, coming home to a nice warm house, kids could go to bed knowing that if they are tired in the morning no biggie cause we have no reason to be up at the crack of dawn.

I got through my day thinking of exit strategies! I am going to start packing up the stuff that has accumulated at the shop and is not needed! I am pushing dear Joshua to get the plans ready for the home shop, I have to call my landlord and find out what steps need to be taken to leave my rental (thankful I have NO lease and it is month to month!!!)

I am trying to keep my motivation going by thinking about the things I want to buy. I need to order some stuff for my crafting. I just scored a Sizzix BigKick for $32 at Michael's! Still in original package, never opened...there was a little plastic doo-hickey that was bent and kinda broken, but when I was looking at it I realized it was a cap that comes OFF and you insert the handle into it!! I was SOOO excited because I have been price shopping and trying to find the best deal on these babies!
I did not buy any dyes yet, I am going to order them online (so much cheaper then what our local store was selling them for). I also need to order some felt...I did my research and I want wool, not the fake stuff...wool. Now the hunt for the best price and quality...

I need to order my ribbon (of course!), desperately need to get my flower stock back up (It is VERY low), order some tulle...oh ya! Craft show season is coming up...I have two shows in May...then November I have three major ones and one minor.

But my next big toy? I want a Silhouette!! Oooh!!!! Oh the fun I am gonna have with that!!! I have some BIG plans! Christmas Gifts are going to be 100% handmade by ME this year!

Where am I going to find time? Well since no one I know reads my blog, I am going to spill the beans...we are planning to start trying for a baby in April! I am REALLY excited! My baby is now 2.5 yrs, I miss having someone who wants to cuddle all the time, or can walk (I really love'em when they are immobile!)

Some people in our families do NOT want us to have more kids, we constantly get glares or speeches of why we should not have more kids, why it is a bad idea and not to dare tell them we are expecting.
With the way things are now, I can see their point, we are too busy (well I am)...but my big worry of course is the morning sickness. When I was preggers with Peter, it was not an issue, with Charlie...well there were a couple of weeks that were rough but Kathleen? it was BAD! I know I cannot go through that again and try to work.

Josh of course wants me to work till he gets the new shop completed (around August), i am thinking of a different course...more like get my orders all completed and set for craft show season, get my entries all paid. Set a wee bit of money aside...by then I will was TTC...slowly clean out my shop, have my exit plan in place. So, if and when morning sickness hits, I will be OFF, DONE, KAPUT! I would rather suffer it out at home, in privacy, then try to function as a human being working with the public!

Maybe I am jinxing myself and I I will not get MS at all? Doubt it! My gut feeling is saying I will be the same as last time.

And is all truth I want OUT!! I am not a budget er by any means but I would rather learn to be frugal and learn to budget them keep working outside the home and try to raise the family.

My mother kept saying, 'you are not superwoman', she is 100% correct, I am tired of trying to pretend I am. I know what I truly want and that is to be home with my kids. I won't mind making a little money on the side with my crafts and grooming from home but not at the pace I am going at now!

Waiting for Silence

It snowed last night, the sticky stuff that froze this morning. The roads are nice and slippery...I am not brave enough to venture out in our van. Summer tires are just not cutting it, the new tires are due to arrive this week. Doesn't make the driving less treacherous but it does give me a little more of a chance.

Peter had a difficult morning and we finally convinced him to go outside with his brother. They love the snow and I think if they never got wet or cold they would stay out till bedtime. Last night they begged to be allowed to play in the dark, didn't happen, maybe some evening when their father is home but not now. I worry too much about them, plus it is hard to watch them from the windows if i cannot see them.

Kathleen is fussing and wailing only like Kathleen can. She is miserable because of some molars trying to peek through her little gums. My kids have never been 'easy' teethers but Kathleen takes the cake. She is miserable, feels rotten and is making sure everyone knows it!! Trying to get her to nap it like trying to cuddle a porcupine! It can be done but who wants to go through with it?? The alternative of letting her stay up? No, I prefer MY sanity!! By 5pm she will start screaming that will last till 6:30pm...IF she falls asleep or we go into the realm of over tiredness...then the game is over and no one wins.

I only had to work three days this week, one day I cancelled due to another snowstorm. I LOVE staying home!! I really do! I never get bored, I have so much to do, things get done, laundry get folded and put away, dishes washed, yummy suppers concocted. I thinking today I would love make doughnuts...I have not made them since university days. I only made them once and they turned out but I have yet to even try them again.

Josh commented the other day that the number of loaves of bread we consume is staggering...I mentioned it would probably be cheaper to make it...another project for when I get to stay home permanently!

I do feel guilty about the thought of staying home! I am always wondering what my good and loyal clients would think? They have been coming to my shop every 4-6 weeks, faithfully staying with me and keeping my business going. But my shop is 40+ minutes away from my house, the drive is getting to me, my babysitting fees are over $800 a month, my rent is going up, I pay over $100 a week in gas, wear and tear on the car...I do make a good income but I could work from home and do only 20% of the work and make more money.

But some grooming injuries are showing up...back issues, a rotary cuff that is damaged, carpal tunnel, sciatica (and to think that while pregnant I worked and worked HARD with all these fun ailments!)...it is getting worse and worse and I do not want to rely on pills to get me through the day...knowing if I just stopped working like I do I wouldn't have problems.

Sad, us groomers love our jobs but the job doesn't love our bodies:(

While writing this post Kathleen feel asleep to the rhythmic sounds of me clicking on the keys.

The Couch War

You would think that a blog,as such titles, would be referring to couch space, who takes up too much room, or the kids fighting on the couch...but no.

This fight is between me and the dogs. (I gave up on the cat, cause he is down right evil and never obeys).

Before we had kids we had dogs, two cute little yorkies...and then we started our family and added a standard poodle...and more kids...
We spoiled our dogs because we, frankly, felt guilty. Guilty because they don't get walked as often as they should, don't get played with are often ignored and hushed and pushed aside due to the two legged children coming first. So, we let them on the couches. They cuddled with us, kept our spots warm, snuggled in blankets on the couch and made us say, 'Awwww!' at their cuteness.

No biggie? Well, now a new problem has emerged...and it stinks. Well. the couches stink. They smell like dog...and it is GROSS! I will admit I was nasally (is that a word?) blind. I could not smell it...I mean I work with dogs all day, and my dogs are probably slightly cleaner then the dogs I groom daily. Coming home I never smelled a thing.

Then we renovated and the couches were moved temporarily into a new room and for some strange reason my nose woke up in the strange surrounding and could smell the couches!

I think I turned red...and I was alone...I was THAT embarrassed!! How gross! How nasty!! I hate doggy smells!! ( I know someone is scratching their head wondering if I hate doggy smells that bad why I work as a dog groomer...well I make that gross smell go away!!). My girlfriend has a house full of dogs and cats and it NEVER smells doggie, it just smells clean at all times.

There is only one solution, get the couches professionally cleaned...but what would be the point if the stinkier-then-I-realized dogs get back on it...

I went to Costco and bought a nice large round dog bed, all for $22.47 (gotta love a deal) and brought that home...and officially BANNED the dogs from the couch.
Sounds easy?

Well my dogs are spoiled, and daily, hourly, ever 10 minutes...defy my orders and jump back on and I yell, 'OFF!' and they glare, I then stand up and stamp my foot and yell again and sometimes they stand up (hoping I will forget what I just said) and turn around and lay down again to go back to sleep...

But the key to training a dog is to be smarter and more stubborn then the dog.

The battle continues...I keep kicking them off the couch and they keep trying to get back on...it is working a little, now and then they voluntarily go to the huge dog bed by themselves without me ordering them there and now they get off the couch at one command because they know I am not letting them get away with nuttin...

I am a sad little woman cause I am so excited to get the couches all clean!!!

My Day Sucked...

Today was the first day back to work...I should have been elated to get out of the house! I should have reveled in the child free time! I should have been excited about making some money!!

I really should have stayed in bed!

The day started fine, I was a smart girl and had made lunches the night before, laid out clothes, did shop laundry, piled everything I need to take with me in the morning. So we were moving along fine. Peter had a mild meltdown when getting his outdoor gear on but I was ready for this and had his favorite shirt set aside for him to wear, a special lunch and we chatted about his friends and the possibility of sliding at school.

In all honestly I was horribly sad and depressed driving him to school and then the little ones to the sitter's. I was so down about leaving them, I wanted to turn around and drive home! But I needed groceries and I have obligations to meet, people have been waiting for their appointment for months.

I arrived and had some tummy troubles...now this is a problem when you work alone! Rush to the washroom, pray your client doesn't arrive, pray your tummy settles, curse the entire issue!

But alas no client...and they never showed. Another NO-SHOW! Now for anyone who has missed an appointment for their hairdresser or dentist, please go in the washroom, look in the mirror and slap yourself.  I know things happen in life and we miss appointments but please put yourself in that other person's shoes. Imagine going to work daily (or your spouse), and then payday comes and GUESS WHAT!! You are not being shorted 4 hours of work! Yay!!! Know why??? Cause the person who was supposed to pay you didn't, cause they never showed up (I know YOU were there to work and had set aside the time and realized 15 mins into the appointment timing slot, they were not showing and now cannot fill that spot)!  Lovely huh?? I have about 2 no-shows a week (or last minute cancellers)...that averages about $5000 a year in lost income...so folks try taking THAT off you yearly paycheck, and smile about it! Kinda hard to do? ya, me too.

So, needless to say I get really twitchy with no-shows. Today I had three. Great start.

The dogs that did shows up? One is lovable but crazy as she barks and screams constantly and jumps around when you are scissoring.

And a puppy...

Someone out there is thinking, 'OOOOHHHHHH!! PUPPIES!!!! YOU PLAY WITH PUPPIES ALL DAY!!!!! HOW FUN!!!!!!'

Please allow me to burst your bubble. Puppies are NOT fun to groom. They looks cute but they are babies, usually very spoiled babies and I am a meanie and I am going to tech and train them to stand still. Folks, when you picture a puppy, I know what your mind sees...a bouncing, frolicking little dog!!  You are so right....now picture that sweet little furball having a temper tantrum, yup. BIG fun. (that was dripping in sarcasm)

This puppy hates water so he yodeled and screamed when the water was running (it had not even touched him yet) and them he started doing back flips and clawing my arm and hand (which was holding on to him safely so he didn't injure himself). Every second he behaved he got praise but those were few and far between.
The groom was no better because he was not having anyone touch his head...so lots of training and clawing.
One nail went through my thumb, which is now nicely infected only hours later.
My arms/hands look like I put them in a lawnmower.

I had 57 messages to answers.
I had 4 people who I had to call and tell them I don't take new clients and then listen to two of them give me an ear full because it was a DOGGY EMERGENCY!! (they were not thrilled when I told them it was not, it was just dog hair)
I had clients that were late and then come to pick up their dogs early.
I had dogs that barked the whole time.

I had one dog who is usually cranky and nippy, be an angel and give  me some comfort. I was so tired and discouraged. I was finishing his groom and I sighed...that 'I may run out of here screaming but I am too tired' sigh. He leaned against me and rest his head against my own. When I looked down at him he gave me a look with those brown eyes and then snuggled in a bit more.
Those are moments that make me love my job.

Got my mail and found a lovely notice that my shop's rent is going up, but not high enough that I can say it is insane and time to close! Just enough to make me gripe.

I braved the grocery store. There is normally two large grocery stores in this town but because of the flooding we are down to one and it is a nut house. After massive lineups I was feeling a wee big lightheaded and realized I had forgotten to eat lunch (heck, I forgot to pack a lunch) and I didn't buy anything to snack on...off to pick up kids, rush home, rag Peter to get ready for hockey, massive meltdown, wake Josh up (who is taking Peter to hockey)...poor Josh has been working straight since December and has no days off in sight.

All the while all three kids are wailing because they want supper...which is yet to be cooked because the groceries are still in bags...

While making supper Kathleen dropped a glass (which her brother shared...how can I get mad at him for sharing?)...while trying to clean it up I sliced my hand...the dogs are trying to lick the broken glass, supper was burning...

STICK A FORK IN ME! I AM DONE!!!!

Kids are in bed, no baths, dishes are not getting finished because my poor fingers are aching and hurting, cut and bruised. I need to do the shop laundry (the towels are brought home each night), clean, put away groceries, feed dogs, play with dogs, etc ....ugh!!!!!!

I am cold, whiney, stinky (the irony of dog groomer's...dog's leave smelling good, we leave smelling like they did when they entered), sore and discouraged.

A hot bath is calling my name!