madmommy

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys...

Ah, it's that time of the year again. Abbyville Rodeo Days 2008. A day of fun and sun, parades, ham n' beans, barbecue, bingo, and lots of rodeo action. I've been to the Abbyville Rodeo almost every year since I've moved to Kansas. It helps that my in-laws live just a block away from the rodeo grounds.

This year was the Munchkin's third year. It seems strange that one of the first posts I ever wrote on this blog was about his first rodeo, and the overalls I made for him. Wow, have my sewing skills improved since then! When I take out those old overalls and look at the seams, the buttons, I actually wonder how I completed it in the first place!

Well, another year, and another sewing adventure. This time, a cowboy shirt with yoke, pockets, and buttoned cuffs. Next time I decide to do something like this, take me out and shoot me. I finished up the shirt at 2am the day of the rodeo! But with the hat, and the boots, we had our own little cowboy. Maybe next year he'll be ready for mutton-busting (for those who don't know, mutton-busting is the little-kid version of bull riding--riding on a sheep!).

Happy weekend, y'all!

Mother's Day Shopping Spree

Ok, technically today is not Mother's Day. At least, not the "official" day.
But it might as well have been, because I had a tremendous treat.

For Mother's Day, hubby and munchkin gave me cards and chocolate. Better yet, he also told me he'd ordered the ruffler foot attachment for my sewing machine. Oh, and here's $50 to blow on fabric. And I thought he wasn't paying attention! Apparently, after I came back Saturday morning from a (cancelled) sewing class at our local sewing machine shop, he and the munchkin went back and placed the order for the attachment (after hearing me talk about it for "at least two months").

But, this being Kansas, no fabric stores are open on Sunday. And he had to work late yesterday.

Today, I ran out of the school, jumped in my car, and drove 20 minutes north to this wonderful, wonderful quilt store, the Button Hole in McPherson, KS. Seventh heaven...aisles of fabric, patterns, notions, and a coffee shop attached! I didn't know where to start. But we do have a rodeo coming up this weekend, so my first priority was finding an appropriate western shirt pattern and fabric for the munchkin. The pattern I chose is the Kwik Sew 3146.

Here's the haul I finally ended up carting out the door.

And to think, this place has been here all along...

I Heart Freddy

In case you don't get the chance to listen to Kidd Kraddick in the Morning (a syndicated morning radio show out of Texas), you need to check out their link for Freddy.

Read Freddy's story, then download the really catchy, can't help but love it single, "Defying Gravity" and let's get Freddy on the music map!

2nd Blogoversary

Wow, what a revelation.

Has it really been two years? I feel like I'm still new to the blogging world.

Some of the things that have happened in the past two years...

*Buying a new sewing machine
*Moving twice, and buying two homes
*The Ice Storm of December 2007
*Being diagnosed as Bipolar
*Switched from a SAHM to a Working Outside the Home Mom
*Water softener leak and massive under-kitchen-sink-leak disasters
*The death of my Grandma Tiedt, my last surviving grandparent
*I learned to sew all over again

And, as of today, my hubby is now a Sergeant First Class (E7 rank in the Army). I was a little disappointed, as munchkin and I could not attend the big event. His new unit is three hours away, and gas prices are too prohibitive for a drive out and back, especially in our truck! But they did take photos with a digital camera, so hopefully I'll be able to post those soon.

I Quilt Pink for the Cure

Today was our high school's quilt show (isn't that cool! I've never heard of a school that had a quilting class before). This year's theme was Quilt Pink for the Cure. The students all proudly displayed their quilts, and a class quilt done in white, black, and pink is being raffled off. All proceeds are going to breast cancer research.

I've talked (numerous times) about the patterns at You Can Make This!, and I received special permission to create a She Loves Me Knot handbag to donate to the silent auction at the quilt show.

I thought it appropriate that the handbag should be in the same colors, as well as having some pink ribbon fabric incorporated. Let's hope it does well in the auction!

Here's the munchkin enjoying the event...

I'm not sure what Daddy will have to say about the pink beads, but I guess the munchkin is secure enough in his manliness to carry it off!

Feeding the Geese

Not Cultured Enough?

Following in the footsteps of dioramamama, I took a look at the AFI 100 Top Movies of All Time list, and marked through all of those I've seen. Not bad, I've seen 48 out of 100. I guess I'll be putting quite a few movies on my Netflix queue after today!

1. Citizen Kane, 1941
2. Casablanca, 1942
3. The Godfather, 1972
4. Gone With The Wind, 1939
5. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962
6. The Wizard of Oz, 1939
7. The Graduate, 1967
8. On The Waterfront, 1954
9. Schindler's List, 1993
10. Singin' In The Rain, 1952
11. It's A Wonderful Life, 1946
12. Sunset Blvd., 1950
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957
14. Some Like It Hot, 1959
15. Star Wars, 1977
16. All About Eve, 1950
17. The African Queen, 1951
18. Psycho, 1960
19. Chinatown, 1974
20. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, 1975
21. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
23. The Maltese Falcon, 1941
24. Raging Bull, 1980
25. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982
26. Dr. Strangelove, 1964
27. Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
28. Apocalypse Now, 1979
29. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, 1939
30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948
31. Annie Hall, 1977
32. The Godfather, Part II, 1974
33. High Noon, 1952
34. To Kill A Mockingbird, 1962
35. It Happened One Night, 1934
36. Midnight Cowboy, 1969
37. The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946
38. Double Indemnity, 1944
39. Doctor Zhivago, 1965
40. North by Northwest, 1959
41. West Side Story, 1961
42. Rear Window, 1954
43. King Kong, 1933
44. The Birth of a Nation, 1915
45. A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951
46. A Clockwork Orange, 1971
47. Taxi Driver, 1976
48. Jaws, 1975
49. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969
51. The Philadelphia Story, 1940
52. From Here To Eternity, 1953
53. Amadeus, 1984
54. All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930
55. The Sound Of Music, 1965
56. M*A*S*H, 1970
57. The Third Man, 1949
58. Fantasia, 1940
59. Rebel Without A Cause, 1955
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981
61. Vertigo, 1958
62. Tootsie, 1982
63. Stagecoach, 1939
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977
65. The Silence of the Lambs, 1991
66. Network, 1976
67. The Manchurian Candidate, 1962
68. An American in Paris, 1951
69. Shane, 1953
70. The French Connection, 1971
71. Forrest Gump, 1994
72. Ben-Hur, 1959
73. Wuthering Heights, 1939
74. The Gold Rush, 1925
75. Dances With Wolves, 1990
76. City Lights, 1931
77. American Graffiti, 1973
78. Rocky, 1976
79. The Deer Hunter, 1978
80. The Wild Bunch, 1969
81. Modern Times, 1936
82. Giant, 1956
83. Platoon, 1986
84. Fargo, 1996
85. Duck Soup, 1933
86. Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935
87. Frankenstein, 1931
88. Easy Rider, 1969
89. Patton, 1970
90. The Jazz Singer, 1927
91. My Fair Lady, 1964
92. A Place in the Sun, 1951
93. The Apartment, 1960
94. Goodfellas, 1990
95. Pulp Fiction, 1994
96. The Searchers, 1956
97. Bringing Up Baby, 1938
98. Unforgiven, 1992
99. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, 1967
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942

Bear with me, and great offers!

First of all, I'm trying to update the look of this blog, so "please excuse our creativity" here, it might be messy for a little while.

But the great offer I alluded to in the title of the post. Do you see the adorable new link I have to the right, for my all-time favorite pattern site "You Can Make This!"?
You may remember the adorable Cars pants? How about the "She Loves Me Knot" purse?

If you click through and sign up for their two newsletters, "You Can Make This" and "You Can Sew This", you will receive a bundle of free ebooks (all of their patterns are pdf files, meaning instant gratification!). They are also supportive of the "boutique" industry, and the new movement towards cottage industry.

Plus, you can be supporting further installments of this blog! For every purchase you make through this site, I get a small portion, hopefully towards my dream of starting a podcast this summer about being a bipolar mommy, and the challenges, struggles, and successes!

If nothing else, check them out for the freebies! They have the greatest freebie patterns. Often, the patterns are available to newsletter subscribers first (for free!), and for a limited time, before they go on sale. The support is excellent, the instructions are superb, and they also offer a lot of ways to give back, such as crocheting caps for preemies, and donating doll clothes to last year's Toys for Tots Drive (with full approval from the US Marine Corps!).

See you there!

New email

Yahoo was just getting too full of junk, so from now on I'm moving over to gmail. The new address is posted to the right, on my sidebar. The old yahoo address still exists, but I'm trying to organize my blog/etsy/sewing stuff under on email client, and leaving the "junk" behind. Just another way of letting you, faithful readers, know that I've got your back.

Barred Owl of the woodshouse

This has been a long winter for most parts of the United States. I haven't lived in Kansas long, but many of the folks who've grown up here have commented on how tough it's been. Three ice storms, one that knocked out our power for a week, and a lot of snow and cold temperatures had us pining for spring.

But some have had it worse...

My mom sent this photo from "the woodshouse", her beautiful home in Northern Wisconsin. Apparently, the abundant snowcover this winter was preventing the owls from feeding, and many were dying of starvation. Word went out to put out food if these barred owls were seen in your area, but this one didn't get to that point. She told me how soft the feathers were, and how light it felt.