Happy Thanksgiving

Right now I am sitting in my jammies drinking a cuppa joe and doing a bit of surfing on the web before I have to get ready for the festivities. I bought 4 pumpkin pies from Village Inn and plenty of creamy recipe coolwhip. We are picking up my folks at 2 and heading over to my sister's home (she has a beautiful home with a very large kitchen and dining area, so hers is the designated holiday house). I made a cherry flip salad (with marshmallows, pineapple, almonds, creamy cool whip, sweetened condensed milk and cherry pie filling--very easy) that my sister's hubby adores. And I am bringing the cranberry sauce and the fixin's for the traditional green bean casserole.
My brother is bringing the bread and rolls and his girlfriend makes a mean sweet potato casserole with what I suspect has bourbon in it. ;D My little sis is supplying the turkey and the rest of the trimmings. My other brother is going out of town with his wife and kids, so we won't be seeing them this holiday, but he promised to visit Mom and Dad tomorrow and bring dessert.
I am looking forward to a nice day with my family. I hope not to forget my camera as I am trying hard to capture these memories with Mom and Dad now that they have gotten older and a bit more frail.
I took the day off for tomorrow and I was thinking of venturing off to the mall and try to get into the spirit of the holidays. On television, the local Penneys and other department stores are advertising they will be open at 4 AM. Can you believe it? I think that is insane! I used to work in a department store (a toy department no less) and it was tough enough opening at 8 back in the day. I feel so sorry for the store employees. I will be lucky if I get to the mall by 11 AM or even 1 PM. Is this a result of our economic troubles? Have the business establishments gone mad or is it desperation? Am I being foolish to not hit the mall at 4 in the morning? What do you think? Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Sew & Sew

Today I got brave and did something that I have been wanting to do for years. Years ago, my aunt gave me her sewing machine when she was moving into a retirement facility. It is a Kenmore from the 1970's--and my dear sweet auntie took very good care of this machine. Now mind you, I am not crafty at all. I took home economics back in 1973 and I did not do very well in the sewing projects. The sewing machine has been sitting in my computer room collecting dust. I looked at it from time to time and got frustrated because I could not figure out how to thread it. I could not find the book to it-so I set out looking for the companion book on Ebay and other corners of the web-to no avail. Then I went back into the boxes of my dear auntie's sewing things a second---maybe a third--- time--and lo and behold--I found the booklet in prestine condition. Boy was I relieved! :)

This morning I actually put the sewing machine on my kitchen table and read the little book on how to thread it. After fumbling here and there, I finally got the hang of it. Then I took the bobbin out of the machine and read the instructions about re-threading that! Yeah!!! I did it! I did have some trouble putting it back in--the mechanism kinda fell out---but I wiped the sweat off my brow and reread the instructions. When Hubby came home, I had him find me a phillips screw driver so I could tighten the mechanism. It worked!

I then found some scraps and started practicing sewing straight lines--which is a big challenge since I can't even DRAW a straight line. After getting bored with that, I then dug through my rag pile and found a piece of green patterned cotton that was once my dear mother's pajamas. (She ripped a big ole hole in them a while back and wanted me to sew them up--but that hole was way too jagged and those pj's were just too far gone, so I took them home after I bought her a new pair of pj's). Then I dug into my Good Will bag (a bag of clothes I collected when I changed out my closet for Fall). In there was a lovely cornflower blue Evan Picone 100% Ramie top that I loved at the store when I bought it, but I've hated ever since! (I am sure some of you know just what I mean. It looked nice when I ironed it or picked it up from the dry cleaners, but 2 seconds after I put it on and moved a little bit, it would wrinkle like there was no tomorrow. It was down right embarrassing the last time I wore it to work. My boss looked at me as if he thought I was crazy. I should have just messed up my hair and told him I slept in my clothes because I certainly looked the part!)

Anyway, I took that shirt and I cut out part of the back. Then I measured and ironed both pieces of fabric--and I sewed it together. The seams are not the straighest---but I now have a little pencil pouch. I had been looking for a pencil pouch for my sketching pencils and I could not find one that I liked. This one will mean much, much more to me because the one material is from Mom's old jammies. And Mom is the funniest and most loveable person I know. What a good day! :)