Want to buy a BAG?

That is the question... Saturday every one's answer was NO. At the open house I only sold one bag... and that was to my good friend Malinda! Thanks for the generosity Malinda - she felt bad for me. We split a table together at the show. She sells Avon (if anyone needs a catalog, let me know and I will get one for you!). She said she did not need all her space and I could have half... well in the end I got a little corner of the table, she just about pushed me off! Luckily I did not need much space and I am just teasing her! The turn out was slow in the beginning but it picked up as the afternoon went on. Thanks to Trish for stopping by to see my display (see her comment in the post below!). I still had fun hanging out with the girls and meeting new people - a BIG thanks to Melissa Weller for putting it together.

Here are some medium totes I stayed up late on Friday finishing for the show. The black swirl one is the one Malinda bought for her sister. That was definitely a popular one. Alexandra also likes it, so I suppose I should WHIP one up for her birthday this Saturday. My oldest baby is going to be 14! WOW!

OK, on to a more humorous topic. Whenever there is an entertaining story to tell, it usually comes from Olivia! She is such a funny 5 y.o.! I came home from my walk tonight and was immediately greeted at the door by her. She was demanding I come and sit at the table for a family meeting! She even had water poured for me in a little tea cup. It appears that someone ate the candy corn off her brownie that she won at Trunk Or Treat last night. She gathered the family around and wrote our names down on paper. She proceeded to question each of us to determined who ate the candy corn. She would put an X through their name if she did not think they did it. This discussion went on for a while. We could not agree on how many candy corn there was on top, but did come to the conclusion that Curt and Anna each had one, but there should of been some left over. Olivia commented on how all this is very "sub-spicious"! She even put on her "inspection goggles" and investigated the brownie. It was also found out the Alex ate a corner off the brownie, but no candy corn. They also all pointed the finger at me, but I reassured them that although tempted, I did NOT eat them! It ended with everyone apologizing for nibbling on her brownie, including her dad who ate her first brownie the night before without asking! Then she gave what was left to Maria and she had a piece of pumpkin pie! Too funny!

M & M - Mercedes and Maria

A Little bit of This and That!

It is 10:40 on Thursday and I am up trying to get a few more bags done for this weekend. I thought I would take a break and write my blog tonight. I know I will not have time tomorrow, for Friday is a busy one!

Can anyone figure out the message my 12 y.o. son wrote on or frig with magnets? I love it! He was very proud of himself for being so creative with all the different letters.

Check out these adorable jeans I have jazzed up! I got this idea from my good friend, and mentor, Trish Preston! Although I do not have the fancy sewing machine that does all this gathering for you, I still managed to get the ruffles done! Trish, has offered use of her machine to make these, but I think her machine is not free for a moment (she also has a thriving handbag business... you can check it out her blot at http://twopeasinapoddesigns.wordpress.com/). So, thanks Trish for letting me steal your jean idea. I made the animal print one for my cute little niece, Maya, who is 2 and a half years old. Unfortunately they are quite long, so I will try to sell them, if not she will have jeans to grow into. Kathy, I will get her a new pair soon and get them in the mail! The other two, my girls picked out the fabric. I figured if they like it other 3 and 5 year olds would too. These are both up for sale and will be at the open house this Saturday in Canal. If they do not sell, my girls get some new jeans - win/win situation!

Mercedes' Picture of the Day:

Mercedes Shining Glow

Meet Mercedes Sims! Ever since Sidney died, we have had a void in our house. It was nice not to have to think about taking care of a dog, but it was also lonely. You could often find Alex, Bill or I on Petfinder or Craigslist looking for a puppy. We would find the cutest ones, but I always said not now. It just seemed like so much work! Our friends recently purchased a yellow lab puppy and I watched as they put so many hours into training her. The energy from them is enough to wear anyone out! So I started talking to the troops about getting an older dog that already has some of the training done. They agreed as long as I would promise we would get a puppy at a later date. We were thinking about adopting a "cell" dog from a humane society. Those are the dogs that are shipped to prisons and the inmates obedience train them, then they are sent back and put up for adoption. However, we never did go and see any, because Bill came across an ad for Mercedes on Craigslist. It was hard not to get a dog from the pound or rescue, but in a way we rescued the family we got her from. She came from a family that had 3 small kids (3, 2, 1 y.o.) and one child had a heart condition. The kids were taken care of by the dad as the mom works and he even admitted he was not a dog person. So Mercedes added a lot to his plate! On Monday night Bill and I made the hour trip down to Chillicothe to "check" her out, knowing quite well that once we saw her we would bring her home. That we did! I had visions of when we first went to pick out Sidney at the pound, how she jumped 4 feet into the workers harms. That should of told us what we were in for... a dog that can jump to great heights! When we got out of the car Mercedes was barking and running around ... I did not think that was a good sign. But once I approached her and she started to love on me, I was hooked! So home she came!

She is such a wonderful dog and addition to our family. She is a 1 1/2 y.o. Weimeraner. She is full of energy, which is a good match for my 5 kids! She knows her basic commands and listends quite well. There are a few things we have to train her on, not to bark at every little thing and to drop the ball if she wants us to throw it again! The kids are busy taking her for walks and playing in the backyard with her. They even strap on their roller blades and run with her! (we got that from the "Dog Whisperer") Bill has taken her to a field every night and played catch with her. I am sure she is not use to all this exercise and by the evening she is very tired. She is crate trained and we have had no problems with her at night. I bring her downstairs in the morning to let her out and play with her. When I stop playing with her, she goes upstairs and sniffs Bill's face until he gets up! He has actually been to work on time the last few days! Alex shows her the most attention and is really on top of the training! It is nice to have another set of "hands" to help us out with her. Mercedes has settled in well with all of us and has already become PART OF THE FAMILY!

Fall camping in NY

Only God can create something so beautiful! I said that I would write about their camping trip so here is the scoop. They could not of asked for better weather! It was in the 60's during the day and not too cold at night (well too cold for me to go!) The timing was perfect to catch the leaves changing color. This camping trip is done every year. Bill arranges to go with his brother - in - law and a group of his friends. They are all die hard campers - some only take a sleeping bag and a tarp to sleep under (at least that's the legend!) Bill will usually take as many kids that want to go with him. Curt and Anna love it so they always go and it appears that Olivia is now a lil' camper too. Alex does not like it anymore (after the near death boat ride back to their car one year) so she opts to stay home. This year I was making plans to do some shopping and visiting some parks with Maria and Alex, so it totally surprised me when a few days before departure Maria announces she wants to go. She wavered quite a bit, thinking that Alex and I were going to make cookies and not leave her any, but we assured her we would. So Bill sets off with 4 out of the 5 kids. The kids are great for the 5 - 6 hour car trip. They pack a few play things and they always listen to audio books. This trip they listen to Ramona and Her Father, The Egypt Game and Rabbit Hill. You get so involved in the stories that time flies!

Every year Bill comes back from camping with some big story to tell. Like the boat ride I mentioned above (sometimes they canoe to their sites and on the way back a storm picked up quickly and about tipped them over) or some encounter with an animal (raccoons getting in the tent or a bear rolling the camping kitchen box down a hill). One year the story was about it snowing on them (that was the year Bill sucked it up and slept in his brother's camper!). This is the first time they came back with out any big story. The kids still talked my ear off about every little detail and I LOVED IT! I love hearing them get so excited over the rocks they found or about the talk around the camp fire. Everyone that goes just loves the kids being their. They always tell Bill what good kids we have, in fact Bill said someone from another camp site down the road stopped and told him what good kids they were. I think Curt and Anna collected some fire wood for them or something like that. They are all right... I do have fantastic kids!

The kids love going to the Bear Caves while they are there. I do not know if they are called that because bears occupy them at some time (I do not want to know), but they are huge rocks that the kids can climb on. Of course Curt and Anna spent hours exploring the forest by the camp site and finding all sorts of things. They took hikes by the creek as well. It is nice to hear that they spent 4 days in nature and not hooked to some game system. Although I did notice one picture with Anna sitting around the campfire playing DS. I was told that was banned from there on out! I think in this world our technology has taken over kid's lives and they forget how to just go outside and create their own adventures.

So I am thankful for my dear husband for taking them on these wonderful camping trips and letting them just be kids!

Fall Fun & another bag done!

I have to admit fall is not my favorite time of the year! Yes, I love the colors and getting to wear my good ol' sweatshirts, but it also means winter is right around the corner! As time goes by we never seem to get all the "fall activities" done that we use to do. No time for apple picking, pumpkin patches, and our annual Halloween party. How sad! My poor little ones are getting jipped out of fall fun. Luckily a coworker of Bill's has some apple trees and gave us this large laundry basket full!

So we are pulling out the apple recipes. Curt has become "Curt the applesauce man". He is in charge of making applesauce! Got to love it! He is really getting into helping out in the kitchen - he will make a great husband one of these days. Of course to make our sauce all you do is feed the apples through the "apple peeler, corer, slicer" and then cook them for 5 hours in the crock pot with a little water and sugar. The first batch he made was with 12 apples and filled half the crock pot... to his surprise it only made enough for one serving each at dinner. So this time he filled our extra large crock pot using 20 apples and it made a nice batch. We served it over our ginger honey pork chops last night and it was soooo good! If anyone else has a QUICK and EASY apple recipe post it in the comments!

I do manage to do some fun things with Livy and Ria. I got a great idea for a fall game from Amy Anderson's great web site for preschool activities. A few minutes to cut felt into a scarecrow and to make a spinner and you have game that will keep them busy for at least a few minutes! Love it!

The day ended with me finishing up a bag! This is one of my favorites and definitely is popular with my daughters! Too cute and up for sale! I am hoping for a bag a day from now until next Saturday's show. I really do not think that will happen, but I can dream! I have some larger hobo bags to produce and some large weekender bags and those take me much longer to produce. I will be lucky to get two of them done by then. It is about time I teach Alex how to sew - she is just about 14 so does that count for child labor? Ha!

Welcome to the Livy Marie Blog!

I love blogs! Every morning I sit down with my coffee and read a few of the dozen that I have marked. I do not even know these people but I am intriqued by their lives. I guess you can call them my internet friends - a friendship that is one sided, since they do not know that I read about their lives everyday! Actually I love their creativity and photographs! I will share some of the neat things I find on other people's blogs another day. There are some real innovative people out there!

Another reason to start my blog is to update those Livy Marie customers with what is new! I am on a sewing frenzy and I am starting to produce lots of bags. It is time to get them sold! So check out the slide show in the side bar and it will show you all the bags I have created in the past and present. You can also go to my portfolio at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31265463@N06/. Check out the selection and let me know if you see a bag you must have. I can also customize your bag - so pick a style and a fabric and in no time you will have your one of a kind bag! For those of you living in the Canal Winchester area, I will be selling Livy Marie product at an open house on Oct. 25 at the community center from 11-3. There will be lots of direct sales companies there for you to get some early Christmas shopping done! Speaking of Christmas, a Livy Marie bag makes a great gift! Get your orders in soon - I will quit sewing by December so I can enjoy the holidays with my family!

Here is a sneak peak at some of the bags that I have to offer and will be selling at the open house. I should have a lot more done considering Bill took 4 of the 5 kiddos camping for 4 days. I expected to sew the whole time and have a least 20 bags done when he got back. Things did not work out that way! Between me trying to get some much needed cleaning done and taxiing Alex around to her horse events, not much got done. I also checked out 4 movies from the library and I had a hard time trying to watch the movie and sew at the same time. It is also hard to hear the movie over the loud hum of my OLD machine! So when they pulled in our driveway at 6pm I only had about 7 bags done, two of which were orders needing to be filled! So I have a long road ahead of me in the next week! With all that being said, I had a fantastic 4 days! It was wonderful to be here with no little ones to look after. I love my children but the break was much needed. One thing was missing - the NOISE! Ok, two things - the MESS! My kitchen actually stayed clean the whole four days! Of course when they got home they begged me to go next time... I don't think so! I will blog about their camping trip another day!