Let me start by saying that I love Susan Mallery’s writing. I just finished the second book in her newest trilogy about a town called Fools Gold and it was a great read. I do a ton of reading and this book at the end brought tears to my eyes. It isn’t often that a book has that effect on me and this one did, there were several times that I laughed out loud and others that just about brought tears.
The book is about a single mom who gets an email from a niece that she never knew she had and picks up her son and heads to her hometown of Fools Gold. There is a history there that she really doesn’t want to relive but endures because she has to for her little family. Her sons father tends to be a self centered jerk but in the end actually seems to grow up.
Start with the first book in the series “Chasing Perfect” and move on to this one, it gives a bit of the back story on the town and why Ethan is considered the golden boy of Fools Gold and why the town people tend to be a bit protective. Even jerks can change their ways and do the right thing for love.
Continue reading Susan Mallery’s “Almost Perfect”
I woke up this morning and made the long commute down the hallway to my office, the traffic was awful, 3 dogs in the way. I sat at my desk to check email to see what happened in the time that I was off in lala land dreaming of whatever it was I was dreaming of and about fell out of my chair! Why is it that your family can tell you something looks good and that you did a good job, yet it takes a complete stranger wanting to know if you sell the creations that you have made for you to think “Hey, maybe I can do this and people will like them”?
I learned to sew many years ago from my Mom and from a home ec teacher in Jr. High, I walked away from it for years and after letting my sewing machine collect dust, I finally dusted it off and have been happily sewing along again for the last little bit. My sister is the one that got me started on the purse/bag thing because she bought a panel that was to be made into a bag for my daughter for Christmas and I ended up making it. I have such a hard time finding a purse/bag that I will pay the money that the stores want for them, it’s a chore and I hate it. I usually carry a purse for years until it falls apart and I have no choice but to replace it. Now I have taken a pattern and changed it so much that it is now mine and seems to something that others are starting to like. I’m saying I have reinvented the wheel or anything, but it is something that is evolving and keeping me busy. If you read my blog called “Bags, Bags, Bags” you know what I am talking about.
Back to the purpose of todays blog, believing in yourself. I want to think that I can do this, I actually know I can do this, but I am so hard on myself that nothing seems done correctly and I will pick it apart until I am ready to throw it away. Take the diaper bag, cart cover, quilt and pacifier holders that I have made for a friend of Megan, I’m putting it in the mail to her and it’s killing me to do it, I don’t think that they are good enough for someone to use, never mind pay me for making. The seams aren’t all straight, I changed things on the pattern, that type of thing, I can spot the flaws and just know that everyone else can too.
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It’s not just the sewing, it’s the taking care of the family, cooking, cleaning and that stuff. Is anyone ever really satisfied? Am I just way too hard on myself? No one is perfect right? Why do we seem to think that we need to be when no one else is or can be? The eternal question every wife/mom/child asks themselves thru the years I suppose.
Continue reading Believing in yourself…
Being on MySpace and Facebook has started me thinking about old friends the last few days. How do you and should you try to reconnect with those friends that you made in high school and beyond? Do you try to make amends for things that you did that may have hurt someone or do you just let it go forever? Do you try to connect with someone that hurt you back in your younger days?
I have reconnected with a couple of people that I hung out with in high school, others I have friend requested and not heard from ever again. I am enjoying getting to know people on a whole new level, without all the BS that was school, jealously and the rest of the garbage that we all put up with in our teenage years. I am the first to admit that I did things back then that I’m not proud of and I hurt people that didn’t deserve it at all, honestly, haven’t we all? Your first case of puppy love, your first true love, your best friend in high school, those are the ones that I’m talking about connecting with all over again. Should you let it upset you if they choose not to be “friends” online or should they at least take the time to see what kind of person you have actually turned into since you last spoke?
My very best friend from high school is online, she is friends with a couple of people that I’m friends with online and still I’m afraid to send a friend request. Rejection hurts even online, real or imagined. I don’t expect to be best friends ever again with those that I was close to when I was a teenager, I don’t want to go back there, but to catch up and to talk about those memories that weren’t all bad would be nice. I love my life now but sometimes it would be nice to remember the things we used to do and be amazed that we are still here to talk about them.
I am amazed at the things I have in common with some of the friends I have reconnected with in the last couple of years. There are things that I never in a million years thought that they would like doing that I enjoy too. The experiences are similar in our lives too. I envy those that can go thru life and not lose their best friends, those that can move past the stupid things we do in our younger years.
I guess my biggest question is, how can you, if you can, make up for things that you did? Can you really do anything to erase the pain that you caused?
Continue reading Friends and other elusive creatures…
About a month ago I decided to try my hand at making a bag for my daughter, she doesn’t carry a purse and loves a bag that I had made her out of a panel of fabric that her aunt had gotten her. This original bag was flimsy and started to look really bad after carrying it for a year or so. What I didn’t know was that this was going to be the start of a journey that is keeping me busy these days.
What started out as a bag made from a pattern has evolved into a pattern of my own with different features being added every few bags. Not only have I made bags for my daughter, I have made them for my mother, my sister, my son’s girlfriend, one of her friends and even one of the ladies that works at Hobby Lobby in the fabric department.
Continue reading Bags, bags and more bags!
Welcome to my adventures in quilting. Don’t let the name fool you, this will feature more than quilting, I do sew other projects for friends and family. Hopefully we can all learn something together.
I love country music and have plans to review music and talk about things happening in the genre today and from yesterday!
Kathy
Continue reading Hello world!
