It all started at the youth silent auction at church...

That's right. Back in the spring, the youth at our church had their annual silent auction to raise funds for their summer mission trip. I had almost forgotten about the auction. Luckily, we attend The Road service at church which meets in the Fellowship Hall instead of the sanctuary. When we walked in for service, I saw all of the auction items displayed and decided to give it a quick glance to see if there was anything I was interested in. And there it was...sitting behind an empty sheet (that's right - no one was bidding on it!) was a sewing machine. I had always been intimidated by the thought of sewing. It seemed like something that would present a bit more of a challenge that I was ready for. But a few weeks earlier, I had found instructions for making my own wrap to use for wearing/carrying E. And I could make it for only $20! That's a huge savings when you consider that the cheapest ones sell for upwards of $80 and the really nice ones over $100! Thanks to E's Great-Grandmother, Mamaw as we call her, who shares his birthday, I was able to stitch a piece of fabric together to reinforce its strength and my beautiful orange wrap was born. And my curiosity for sewing was sparked. What I had always thought looked so intimidating was actually not that hard and kind of fun! I mean, how cool is it to take a plain ol' piece of fabric and transform it into something useful and beautiful!? After that day with Mamaw, I told J that I might like to have a sewing machine for Christmas. I knew it was something we would need to save for, so I didn't want to rush it...

But there she sat. No bids. I could set the price. Knowing it was a youth fundraiser, I didn't want to "steal" it, but I knew we didn't have much money to spare that month since we were saving for vacation. J and I talked it over and decided to bid $25. I know it doesn't seem like much. But it was a used machine. And getting $25 was better than getting $0, right? We left that afternoon knowing the auction had several hours to go and wondering if anyone else would take interest in this little gem. Oh how relieved I was to find out that no one else was interested in the machine. I immediately started searching for free patterns and sewing ideas online. Even though I got a great deal on the machine, I had to have some material and instructions to use it. But I knew my spending money was limited. E and I hopped in the car on Monday and headed to church to pick up my new toy. Then we went straight to Hobby Lobby to get some fabric remnants. I came home and started making bookmarks. Yes, you read that correctly. I made over a dozen bookmarks. And then I decided to experiment with some appliqués. My friend Sarai has a small business where she makes items for babies and children. Her stuff is sooo cute! One of the things that she makes is a cute onesie with a neck tie appliqué. She also makes adorable fabric embellished burp cloths as well as appliquéd bibs. My cousin D's baby shower was coming up and I needed a gift. So I went to Wal-Mart and found some cute fabric that had a butterfly paisley print. I picked up some coordinating ribbon and started experimenting. After a few hours of work, I had 2 burp cloths AND a cute bib with a "K," the first letter of her daughter's name. And I had a neck tie onesie for E. Then I decided to continue experimenting to see what other appliqués I could create. Fortunately I have two nephews and a niece which made excellent recipients for my early works.

After practicing on some gifts for them, I decided this was something I could do. And Sew You Needle Little Gift was born. My product selection is growing every week, and so far I have had 6 orders. And my "shop" has only been public for about 2 weeks! If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, you should take a moment to visit http://sewyouneedlelittlegift.blogspot.com/. I am excited about the possibilities it holds and praying that it will take off soon. It is a great way for me to continue to stay home with our precious little boy while still making a financial contribution to the family. And it is something that I am really enjoying, which is great! I created several cute fall items this week including some football, Halloween and Thanksgiving themed appliqués. I am hoping to work on some Christmas items soon as well, so check back often to see what's new. There are even some reusable sandwich bags in the works. Who knows what I will come up with next!

Blueberry Fun

Blueberries are one of E's favorite foods. Being outside is one of E's favorite places to be. So we decided that blueberry picking would be a wonderful activity for our family! So we headed just down the road to a local farm to see what he would do.

He wasted no time tasting these beautiful blue beauties.

We picked for about half of an hour. Mommy and Daddy picked just over a pound of berries. We will never know how many E picked because all of them ended up in his belly. He definitely enjoyed this activity, even though his bucket was empty at the end of the evening!

With a full belly, we headed up to the house to pay for our produce.

He enjoyed blueberry picking so much that we decided to go picking two more times at two other blueberry patches in the area. We have brought home about 6 pounds of berries, some of which we have eaten and some that we have put in the freezer to enjoy this winter.

We will definitely be making a visit to the berry patch an annual excursion!