The Little Red Coat

Here is a blog I wrote several years ago and I wanted to repost it today..I was reminded of it when I saw Marshall walking around in this very special little red coat as we got ready to go to the Christmas parade last week...Betsy told me that people are always asking her about it and commenting on it when they see it....what we do goes on and on and on....a good thing to remember....

This little red coat is more than 30 years old.....I made it  for my son when he was a little boy..it has a hat that matches and I will show it to you later...I don't really remember much about sewing it other than I did make it and I must have spent a lot of time on it because it is made very well and has lasted through 5 boys and still looks new.  :-)

So here is the lesson I am learning...things that we do last a lot longer than we ever imagine...it is important to do things well and to think about what we are doing as mamas...they can most definitely effect the next generation...
I really, really wish I had a picture of Jon in this little coat but I don't..maybe that is a hint at how much I didn't think of this coat at the time....
At some point I had loaned the coat to my sister and I guess her boy Phillip wore it..I don't remember and there is no picture to remind me.....when she gave it back to me a few years ago, it was like an old friend returning....I had no idea it still was around.I hung it in my closet and then magic started to happen..

.Betsy had a little boy...and by the time I remembered it, the coat fit him perfectly...who knew....one day there would be a Will to wear this coat that a new mama in her early twenties was making for her small son..one day her grandsons would wear this very coat..it would keep them warm and show up in many pictures around Christmas time..

Yesterday as I saw Betsy put the little coat on her middle son, it started to be an 'aha' moment..he didn't want to wear it so it only lasted a minute..LOL gotta love Mac...got  a mind of his own....then she quickly put it on the baby..and rolled the little sleeves up..the hat was perfect for a very cold Atlanta day...and we were off to ride the Pink Pig (another post, another day)...

Marshall is the youngest to wear the little red coat..he is probably the biggest at this age...so it all made me start thinking....so here goes.....
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There are things that we do as young women that have very far reaching effects on our families...some are GOOD and some are bad...I like to keep the GOOD column FULL and the bad column empty..but that is not always how life goes...I made this coat for my young son because I loved him and enjoyed sewing....I did a good job because I liked what I was doing.....I chose the fabric because it was probably close to Christmas and it is my favorite color...I do remember that is was from a Vogue pattern...so it was special from the beginning...I just didn't know
that my actions as a young mama would reach through the generations and touch each of my grandsons like this....it has made them look awesome in pictures and has kept them warm when it is freezing outside....

Our actions are important..doing what we love is important....we don't do things well if we don't like what we do..
This  is hard to put into words..I am struggling with making my thoughts clear enough for you to understand...

Maybe to simplify what I am trying to say.
....many years ago a young and inexperienced mama sat at  her sewing machine making a little red coat for her little boy without any thought past 'he will look cute in this when I am finished'....
Thirty three years later...the little red coat is still around..she helped to put it on her third grandson yesterday to protect him from the freezing weather and it protected him just fine......

The moral here, girls, is this...what we do has much further reaching benefits than we  ever realize at the moment we are doing them..it is who we are that makes a difference and then, out of the abundance of our heart, the generations are protected and kept warm...so live life intentionally...and love yourself so that the overflow is GOOD and we can smile when we see the next generation wearing the little red coat we made in our younger years.....

thank you for coming down this path with me...I hope you get something that you can take with you as you read..

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The house is almost finished with decorations...Only the outside remains and the weather is supposed to be nice enough on Wednesday to do that..

This weather is PERFECT for sewing..and I have been doing a lot of that..well, I feel like it is playing because I love it so much..I am learning a monogramming program and surely needed some practice..wink, wink...and since Applique Corner had a great sale, I got some applique patterns with  Christmas designs...
But I am an extreme novice so it is taking me F.O.R.E.V.E.R to do even one design....I think I will have to put this away until after Christmas...but got a few things done for the youngest 3 grandchildren....

These are my very first attempts at applique and monogram combined.  I loved doing it..had way more fun than I had imagined...

I noticed when I added these pictures that some of the lights in them are blinking..LOL  I have no idea why!!  Oh the mysteries of the internet....

I just wanted to pop in and say hello and share a little love...and Merry Christmas spirit....

I have been thinking while I was sewing...serious stuff. LOL  I wonder what you all use to keep up with other blogs.  I use Bloglovin and am not really in love with it.  I feel like I am missing a lot of blogs since the Reader went away this summer.  I never have gotten the hang of this new way...Can y'all give me some suggestions?  What do you use to keep up with everybody?  please help me with this....

Thank you for stopping by...
Love, Mona

I will share this with Inspire Me Tuesday

Sometimes It Turns Out Really Good

Lately, I have been learning more about my sewing machine.....it's about time..I got a real fancy embroidery machine about 5 years ago....a Husqvarna Viking Designer ..bought it straight out from the dealer..researched them online and went in and told her what I wanted....my reason for not buying this same machine from ebay was that my dealer was only about 4 miles from my house( I could have saved a LOT of money buying from ebay)......I was so excited to get this new computerized machine....and I had a lot to learn but with a teacher right there, well...it would be easy........and guess what.........in just a very short time, she closed her shop....UGH!!!  before I had had the time to take the free lessons that came along with the purchase of this magnificent sewing machine.......so NOW WHAT??????  I am a pretty experienced sewer...Mrs. Bolton and Mrs Lark taught me well in home ec and I have kept it up for many, many years....but this one was way over my head.....I have learned easily how to use it for sewing and a little bit of embroidery...mainly monograms...when I could figure them out..LOL..frankly, this machine kinda intimidates me...but I have a fresh wind of determination to learn it a lot better so that I can get the benefits from having such a wonderful sewing machine to use.......so I am telling you all of this, as if you are interested, to say this.....I made some placemats for my daughter last week...and I was so pleased at how they turned out...I wanted to keep them    mailed them to her so she could use them ....I knew she would love how they looked on her black table..I took a few pictures before packaging them up so you could see how pretty they turned out.......yes, sometimes things turn out better than we expect...a little encouragement to keep up the learning of this sewing machine.....researching monogramming programs is my job right now....so I can add to my experiences..........STILL...cannot believe my dealer closed so soon after I bought this sewing machine......the nearest one is now over an hour away and they never seem very helpful when I go....sigh......thankful for youtube and the internet.....and google........determined to learn this thing.......

So, here is my latest project..........

shoulda used something besides my smartphone camera...sorry about that....but you get the idea.......really sophisticated looking black and white toile.....she has beautiful white dishes that she uses in the summer...can't wait to see her table..

Doing something for others is sometimes just the motivation we need to get us going....when we are stuck.....when we are not familiar with something.....focus on being generous..that will always help......

Happy Sewing to all my fellow sewers.....

Happy Tablescaping to my fellow table setters......

and Happy Giving to ALL of you..........

thank you for stopping by today....hope you enjoyed this table setting.......

the plates, napkins, napkin rings and silverplate were all found at thrift stores or estate sales......

goblets were Dollar Tree finds...

Mona


sharing today at

Table Top Tuesday

Tablescape Thursday

Knowing myself...

The older I get, the easier it is to know when something is out of sync in my life...maybe that is one of the beauties of aging gracefully..my home reflects my personality..shiny glass objects, dust, and all of the collections....as hard as I try to be just a simple woman, I CANNOT!!!!..I have too many interests to be that way....I like the idea of living simply, but it just never quite works for me......

Here is my kitchen window taken on just a random day so this is how it looks 360 days out of the year...and then I try to clean and straighten it..it lasts for about 4-5 days at the most.  LOL
then it automatically goes back to this...

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On any given day I will most likely spend time on the computer, garden a little, sew a little, read a little, play with the dogs a little, read as much as I can get in, write some, cook, shop, PRAY!, then, as little housework as I can get by with, and rearrange some of my collections and that is honestly a typical day for me..so maybe SIMPLE is only a concept that I am fooling myself into believing is attainable for me...maybe I don't really even like simple....I don't think I do...I had rather have multi layered things....I like line upon line....complex, many, many different all at once...THERE!   maybe there is hope for me after all..I have admitted to being a complex woman...LOL
So today, here are a few of the layers of things in my home that make me smile...I hope they make you smile too..one time a friend told me that crows are drawn to shiny things so I am revealing the 'crow' side of me today.  I LOVE shiny things.....and especially shiny, happy people....

And I really appreciate you my readers..thank you for reading along...tomorrow is a BIG day here so come back and see what it is.. 

A Little Bit Crazy

I have always been fascinated by crazy quilts. They are made from seemingly random pieces of beautiful fabrics like silk and fine cottons..and then they are embroidered along the seams and other places to make it really a work of art. and they usually have a homely muslin foundation onto which all of it is sewn. I have collected and stashed away all manner of silk fabrics and other fabrics so that one day I can put together a beautiful crazy quilt. I have books on how to make one and magazine pictures from decades of drooling over them...I have tried to make the precisely cut kind of quilt but it just doesn't do it for me....I like the freedom represented in the crazy quilt....

 This morning I have been pondering all over the place and settled on this..I think the crazy quilt is a good representative of my life and who I am as a woman...
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Bits and pieces have been put together into a seemingly random design but as a whole it is a thing of beauty...and when the embroidery is added to the seams to make them stronger and more decorative, it just enhances the beauty of the whole....we don't get life all cut out in precise little pieces and parts and all put together perfectly in a straight line with exact measurements that always match up to the piece before......this is the beauty of life...It is alive..it moves and breathes...sometimes it just looks plain CRAZY!..but it is all fitting together to make a wonderful, beautiful end product......we just have to keep on letting the Master Quilter fit the pieces together in a seemingly random way and trust Him that it will turn out as an original masterpiece..a work of art....one of a kind....a unique CRAZY QUILT....

 The quilt in these pictures was put together by My Grandmother Lewis.....I have looked for this quilt for years and when I found it when I went to Daddy's a few weeks ago, I actually let out a happy sound of excitement.....LOL

While redesigning my sewing room, I have been able to put all of my silks and other crazy quilt fabrics in one place...and I have quite a bit...no surprise there...hmmmm...THIS YEAR..I will start on my own crazy quilt....and realize that it represents my life..enjoying the journey but knowing that each day is just a part of the whole...every day is important but it is in the finishing that we reach our goal.....We should live in the NOW but be aware that each and every NOW adds up to a WHOLE....I want to finish WELL....I want the Whole to be a thing of beauty...lots of mistakes along the way.no perfection here....but all covered up by this beautiful embroidery and in the end, you can't even see the misses...just the sum of all the parts......

thank you reading along..and being a part of my crazy quilt life......wouldn't it be fun if we could all bring our own life quilt and have a quilt show??  so we could each appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of each other??

Collections

I just love this saying...and I try to think about it often......it is NEVER too late to be what you might have been..
this is a shelf in my family room... 

this is another little shelf...I have collected metal flower pins for a long time...one here and one there...I just love them....

                                  this is a good reminder, too...    BE YOURSELF

here is the little cabinet in my bathroom.....more of my flowers and jewelry.. I am so glad I am a girl..
 

I don't know what made me first start collecting things.  I have always liked the search and these flower pins and little feminine touches are spread throughout my house..

they remind me to celebrate being a woman.....that pretty things are fun to look at...that they make you smile..

what do you collect?  is it just whimsical like mine or are you really serious about it?  I really am a collector of collections...

in the process of thinning out and going through and deciding what really makes me smile and what is past it's prime in my life...time to change it up around here.

we are also in process of dismantling my sewing room and Bryan's office and switching them..he is going to have an official OFFICE in our house..not just a shared room with a desk in it.. I have decided to embrace it..that he works from home...and that is that....pictures will most certainly follow at some point because I plant to do it up right..LOL

thanks for reading along.

Seven Days

WEll, well.....it is exactly one week before Christmas...I do NOT know where this whole year has gone...mama said it would be like this as I get older....time flies..

I have a whole pile of fabric and such...

and a head full of ideas....and one week to get it all accomplished so that I can use this....

and put them here.....

and then I will write a letter to myself, written in the midst of this last minute flurry so it will really mean something to me when I read it later and make me not wait until the last minute next year when I read it in the summer when I have plenty of time to work on and finish all sorts of wonderful Christmas projects...WHEW! no, WAIT!! I wrote those letters to myself already in years past.....and didn't read them...I will just make a note to self...READ the letters about getting Christmas DONE before the last minute...IN JULY!

we'll see if I get these projects done...but at least the gifts I am buying are bought and under the tree.....so I am outa here...and into crafting land....

Thank you for reading along....Merry Christmas...

My legacy and Barbie

Sometimes I get a thought or a memory and I am very surprised by it.....this morning I woke up as usual and it was pretty normal...as I was drinking my coffee, the memories of Atlanta and Rich's and Henry Grady Hotel when I was a little girl started flooding my mind...hmmmm.what is this all about?? then one of the most treasured memories of all my life came back to me....The very first time I ever laid eyes on a Barbie doll display in the toy department of Rich's in Atlanta...it had to be either 1959 or 1960...I know, I know...but it was a magical moment in my life..LOL  all I had ever seen were baby dolls and I dearly loved them..well, maybe Miss Revlon doll and Madame Alexander  but that is beside the point...Barbie was DIFFERENT.....they were all lined up on top of a glass display case and I was mesmerized..!!!  hang on, I am going somewhere with this....LOL  her clothes were amazing to me..and the accessories...wow..

Here is my real Barbie and her friend Midge....I guess I wore out the blonde haired Barbie and the Ken too...I have had this one put away in a trunk for about ..well, a LONG time....she is from the 60's...

As I was pondering this morning, I decided to get down the Barbie case and look to see what was there....As I looked through all of the clothes, it hit me...this doll caused me to learn to sew....so THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!  her case is full of clothes that I sewed for her...I don't guess I have ever thought about it like this...my daughter never cared about playing with her so she is in really good shape and the clothes are great...I have some that I bought but MANY that I sewed myself...I remember spending hundreds of hours designing and making her clothing..RIGHT THERE..that is where my love of sewing began...and I still have some of my handiwork..

Ok, so legacy...it is a stretch, isn't it????  well, here is the commonality here.....my Mama was a clothes horse..she loved fashion and she was a beautiful seamstress...I can remember her in her mink stole and dangly rhinestone earrings dabbing Chanel No.5 behind her ears..this was passed down to me or maybe sparked in me because it was there from birth...it was in her and she gave it to me..it was in me.....and Barbie brought it to the surface for me..maybe this doll was the opportunity I needed to start living out part of my legacy..that is why the first sight of this doll is etched in my memory so deeply..it wasn't about Barbie at all..it was about ME!  and the igniting of a gifting in me that is active to this day....even more so now because I have many years of experience of using this gift...

So here it is.....LEGACY.....what I will leave to future generations....part of it is my love of fabric and sewing...my daughter is a really good seamstress and my son's career is..you guessed it...FABRIC...he runs a company that laminates it...even Will has sat with me at the sewing machine and watched while we made embroidery....
Every one of us has a 'Barbie moment'...in our life....think about it...what has sparked a passion in your life?  what is your passion and what are you doing about it?  not trying to copy someone else's because that will never work..We can never be as passionate about someone else's gifting as about our own...
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Take some time and ponder....what have I always loved to do and how does that fit into the legacy of my life? 
I hope you have enjoyed remembering Barbie with me..it has been eye opening for me this morning...glad I stayed with this crazy memory until I 'got it'..thank you for reading my blog......