Back to School Bags! Sale at my Etsy shop!

It is that time of year, ok I am posting this a bit late, most of you probably have your back to school shopping done..... For those of you that don't,  I am having a sale at my Etsy shop now through Sunday, August 25.  Use coupon code SCHOOL30 for 30% off your purchase.  That is a huge deal! 

I don't know about you, but I like to be different.  I don't like to buy the same school bag everyone else got at Target too.  Check out my gypsy section in my shop.  Here are a couple of my new bags and I have a few more I am working on...

Brown corduroy with vintage fabric flowers.

 

 

 

Brown corduroy with vintage fabric flowers.

               Canvas with a vintage tie and mustard ruffles.  Straps are vintage upholstery.

 Canvas with vintage yellow ruffles.  This bag is on ebay right now, and not etsy.  Starting bid is at 30% off price so no further discounts would apply, email me if you want the link.

A pink velvet heart is on the side of this bag, it is so cute. Interior is Heather Bailey cotton in bright green.

Other than that, are you all ready for school??  I am really excited because this year I will be homeschooling all 3 of my girls.  I have a senior, a 6th grader, and a 1st grader.  Looking forward to this adventure!  And I have a gut feeling I have a few more adventures ahead of me....

I'm back with new idea's and a sale!

I've missed writing.  I feel a bit out of the loop.  I think December through February are my "hiatus from sewing" months :).  I always need that break to gather my thoughts and come up with new idea's.  We usually go on vacation to see my  husbands family during February anyway. 

We arrived home from vacation on Sunday and it was a brutal slap, this cold weather.  This morning it was -4 as I was driving to coffee with my sister.  I was coming from 81 degrees, tropical loveliness.  Oh well.  I saw the cutest tote while on vacation and it's so simple.  I thought why have I not done that?  I'm going to make a line of Lollitotes at an affordable price.  Who doesn't need affordable???

I noticed when I went grocery shopping on Monday, the food prices have taken a serious hike!  I really cannot believe the price jump.  In light of that I am having a sale at my ETSY SHOP use code SALE35 for 35% off.

On Tuesday I turned 41.  Sophie says to me crying... I don't want you to be 41!!!  Well Sophie, I don't really either but what can you do?  However, I am grateful for another year and for my health and my family and what else is there?  Sophie is scared I am going to turn into a grandma.  I dont' know if she thinks I will automatically age 35 years and get short gray hair and be all wrinkly?  But I am trying to assure her that I am not a grandma yet and don't plan on becoming one anytime soon.

My girls love to bring out their alternate personalities... Lauren's other self is called Juanita and Portia is Juanita 2.  Hmmmm I wonder where they get it from?

Ya, I am going to leave that picture small :)  But I love that I have a ton of goofy pictures with my girls, we have so much fun together!

 

 

Next up is spring!  I'm so excited!!

20 years

Today I have been married for 20 years.  I do not have a lot of photo's from our "wedding"  because we went to the courthouse one day and got married.  In this old photo (1994), we had been married for 14 months.  The boys are 3 and 3 months. This was my first trip to Hawaii to see his family.  You never think you'll reach the day when you look at old photos and say..."Wow, look how young we look!"  and "Boy we sure were skinny!". 




All the changes!  Now our family vacations are only with the girls because our boys are out on their own!  It is truly bittersweet.

What is love?  The one thing I've learned over 20 years is that love is a choice, not a feeling.  An even better description is a conversation from my favorite old movie, the original Yours, Mine and Ours  with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda (1968).  One of the teenage daughters was upset that her boyfriend Larry kept pressuring her to "go farther".  She is asking her father for advice.  This is what Frank Beardsley says to her as he is helping his pregnant wife get to the hospital to give birth:

~I've got a message for Larry, you tell him this is what it's all about, this is the real happening.  You want to know what love really is?  Take a look around you, take a good look at your mother, it's giving life that counts.  Until your ready for it all the rest of life is just a big fraud.  All the crazy haircuts in the world won't keep it turning.
Life isn't the loving, it's the dishes and the orthodontist and the shoe repairman and ground round instead of roast beef and I'll tell you something else, it isn't going to bed with a man that proves your in love with him, it's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful, everyday world with him that counts.~

Well I couldn't agree with Mr. Beardsley more!

God is faithful, even when I'm not.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us RUN with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:1-2

That, may be my favorite verse of all time.  It is always good  to remember all God has brought you through.  Oh I so easily forget!  You know, I still drive around Minnesota and think, wait..... I'm in Minnesota??  I had forgotten all the miracles that God did to get us here.  So I read them again, here.  I'm so glad I did, because I have been really wondering why we live in this frozen tundra.  I've been saying... this weather is not fit for humans!  We must be insane to live here!  I really, really do not like winter.

But, I'm so very thankful.  I have many things to praise God for.  This Minnesota life is not perfect but we are blessed to have it.  I want to keep my eyes FIXED ON JESUS.  I pray God will help me throw off all that hinders and not be entangled in sin.  Thank you Lord for all you have done for me!!

Happy New Year!

Another year gone.  There are things to remember, things I'd like to forget, things I am happy I did.  I do not like new years resolutions, but rather,  *decisions*.    In 2013 I've decided to be adventurous.  Being adventurous started for me back in 2006, (or maybe 2002 when we moved to Oregon)......  One day I decided I should take my kids (4 of them at the time) on a road trip.  We lived in Oregon and I wanted to drive to San Fransisco. Just me and the kids.

Hubby didn't like the idea but I was set.  We did.  We just took off one day and drove to California!  The kids were 15, 12, 10 and 4.  We listened to 80's hair bands all the way down.  We stopped at roadside wonders, ice cream shops..... the kids still remember the science museum in San Fran... I didn't have a digital camera back then or I'd show you my pictures.  It was a blast and I was hooked.


When Lauren was 12, her and I took a mom/daughter trip to Idaho. The next summer Lauren and I drove to Idaho again to sell Lollibags at a barn show. We got chocolate shakes at every meal.

This is the morning we left for our first Idaho adventure.

 

I promised Portia we would go on our own adventure this summer as soon as school is out.  I have a state in mind......  I am very excited!  I love adventures, our greatest adventure was moving to Oregon.  It was a blast, something I'll never, ever regret.

 

So here's to the New Year!  2013~The year of Adventure!