my newest cupcake jeans...painted and sewn together...

These are for one of my good customers...not quite finished among the craziness of my life, but this gives you all an idea of what I have been up to creatively recently. More to come, I am loving the combining of paint and fabric!

Kym

I am heading to the allergist today to talk about my allergies and how to get out of the tailspin they have put me in lately. Thanks for all the help! I will keep you all updated! :)

friends

Dear Friends and Family,
You have been so sweet beyond words during this time of craziness for me. I have been completely caught off guard with this allergy to soy. I feel as though my life got turned upside down and each time I think it is getting back on track, I eat something with unknown soy....and I am topsy-turvy again. Thank you for your kindness and patience with me. Continue to pray for me and send me links and recipes and ideas for food without soy! Yesterday my sweet husband brought me home sun chips and soy free mayonaise. Now, to find something to make with the mayo!:) Tuna, in water, is actually Tuna in soy...and if it is oil...that is soy as well, so I may wait for some yummy chicken salad! :)

Validation

I have several blogs I like to look at for inspiration for fabric and sewing and just being creative. Sandi Henderson's blog is one of those. This blog post from the other day really got me this morning. Hope you will take the time to watch the video here. It is worth the 15 minutes! :)

more fall....

I finally got the kids out to get pictures and so here are some more! We have had the prettiest week...cool weather, foggy mornings followed by crisp cool air and SUNNY afternoons filled with the sights and sounds of fall. Leaves rustling on the trees, pumpkins everywhere, apples of every kind, sweaters and jackets for the evenings....can you tell I am a fall junkie?

As for the picture of Kiley, she was having a great time, she just said, "Mom, take a picture of me going like this..." and made that face. So, here it is...just for Kiley!

The woman in the long red skirt and green top is Maggie, of Maggie Valley for those of you who are not familiar with her. She is the woman our town is named after and she is always out on the street waving at cars. She happened to walk by as we were taking pictures, so we asked if we could take one with her as well!

Folks are very friendly here in the mountains. If you have never visited the mountains of North Carolina, make it a priority. They are amazing. I have seen many mountains and they are all wonderful in many different ways. I love these mountains! High enough, but not too high, lots to do, not too hot or too cold, and beautiful everywhere you look. I feel like poems run through my head while I drive the kids to school and back. They are bad poems, so they will not appear on my blog in in print anywhere, but that is what the mountains around here do to me. They make my heart sing.

Have a happy day. Wish you were here.

Happy Fall Y'All!

Yippee! I live in one of the coolest places! On the first day of fall, I watched the little town come together to decorate for fall. First the big truck went around and left piles of corn shucks at all the lamp posts up and down SoCo Road, then another truck went by with hay bales and pumpkins and gourds and deposited them in between each of the lamp posts all along the length of the town. Next, people in a little 4 wheeler went along and tied the stalks to each of the posts. The next day out came the scarecrows! Meanwhile each store owner got into the act...each store is festooned in the trappings of fall while Maggie herself parades up and down the strip waving and smiling at everyone. There is no way to drive up or down the length of Maggie Valley without a smile on your face and wonder at the seasons change! It is quite a fun site to behold...I will get the camera down there this afternoon with the kids and get some good fall shots...sunshine, kids, and fall, what could be better than that?

Random thoughts from my kids...and about my kids

I was whining (something I am doing way to much these days) to Maddy, and she reminded me that boys and girls are NOT the same. For example, she said, "When I take off my clothes I put them in the hamper. If it is full, I go empty it. The boys, however, just toss theirs in the general direction of the hamper and never even look to see if it actually makes it in. They think nothing of taking it down to the laundry room, they just think that their clothes will magically appear clean in their drawers!"
Well, if any of you know me, the clothes will NEVER appear in their drawers(they are still piled in my closet waiting on me or someone to fold them). I did think that Maddy made a pretty good comparison between the sexes.
I have been making a deliberate effort these days to let the kids know how much I love them. Not in a cut out cupcake and note in your lunchbox way, but just in a hug or smile and looking into their face way. I feel like I have gotten so caught up in the getting everyone ready for school, dealing with sick me and allergies that I have neglected really taking the time for what is truly important to me.
So, have a happy day and let those around you know how much you love them!

kondike bars and allergies

I am sitting here eating the last Klondike bar and feeling sorry for myself. Last fall my allergies kind of went haywire even on the great meds and Baylee convinced me to go have the allergy testing done again...I have been avoiding eggs since my flu shot and breaking out in dots, so I finally went in last week. In addition to being really allergic and getting the "Wow, come look at this!" reaction from the nurses, I did find out that I am NOT allergic to eggs. Yippee! Pecan Pie, here I come...I am not allergic to pecans either!!! I am allergic to everything else...well, almost. The most insidious, and the one that was probably putting me over the dotty edge, is soy. Did you know they put soy in almost everything????? I do, because I am eating this Klondike bar knowing that my lip is going to blister (yes, I am feeling it) and my face will probably have a new zit-like itchy spot that will give me away to my kids, but I couldn't stand it anymore!!! AND it was the last one, so now the evil is gone from this house!!!
I have been able to eat bacon...no soy, eggs...no soy...water...no soy....and a carefully prepared chicken dinner that David spent hours making because he could not use any Chicken flavoring...has soy, he had to make bread to eat with it, because the store brands all have soy...or at least the ones he read do...and I know I am using too many dots, so I will stop! On top of the NO SOY issues, we got a virus that kept us home from Florida this weekend. I got it Sunday, so I felt bad and not like cooking or running to the grocery for food. That is when David got to take up the "NO SOY" mantle.
If any of you out there have good ideas on how to eat modern day foods that do not include soy, or raw veggies (they make my face and throat itch...and I eat them anyway, except David has to make homemade salad dressings because store salad dressings all have SOY!) and raw fruits do the same thing! Also, if any of you have had the allergy shots and they have worked, please let me know!
Thanks!

Okay already, enough is enough....

Today is the beginning of a new 'phase' for me. I am not sure what to call it. It is kind of an interesting one in that it is the "Last child went to kindergarten for the first time today Day", but for me this has new and significant meaning since I have homeschooled all and/or part of our seven kids since Baylee went off to kindergarten in 1995. So I have had someone home with me since she was born in 1990. I have loved having the kids home. I have loved homeschooling them. I think that David and I have done a great job homeschooling them. There is not one reason for not homeschooling them other than following what we believe is God's path for them...and right now that includes them being where they are. That may change, but for now sending them to public school is good too. So if any of you want to ask homeschool/public school questions...all I can say is, "Pray, be united as a family, follow what is best for YOUR family, and don't let the opinions of every distant relation and supermarket employee make the decision for you." That is the best thing I can tell you on that. I have been truly blessed with seven great kids. I also have invested a lot of myself in them and that is what it takes to raise kids, no matter where they go to school. So, I know that having them all in school does not mean that I will lay around eating bon bons all the time (but Tami, I will sometimes!)
And I do know that I will probably spend some time mourning that I don't have a little one or ones home with me...the kleenexes are ready. However, I have YEARS of projects that I have stored away, both in my shelves and in my mind, that I am looking forward to pulling out and either finishing or getting rid of. That excites me! I have places to go...like all those "breakable" stores that I avoid with multiple kids in tow...so I plan on taking a few of those in. I tried to volunteer in Ron's classroom and his teacher (wise woman) told me not to rush things, but to spend some time, like the next year, deciding what I wanted to be when I grow up! So for all of you who are also somewhere on this journey, rejoice! Embrace your baby, your teenager or your mom...life is good.
It is especially good because I got to eat a whole Margherita California Kitchen Pizza by myself today!

Hiking on WaterRock Knob

Today we had another mini-vacation to WaterRock Knob. It was an awesome hike and a nice family time! Walker and I lagged behind, but we actually made it to the top. It was a great day and the Park Ranger and Volunteer were full of information and they filled us with lots of ideas for our next adventure!