Sesame Street Live: Super Grover Ready for Action!

Today the boys and I went to see Sesame Street live with our MOPS group. We had lots of fun! We all have colds, Mardie was probably feeling the worst of us all. He had a few rough moments, but overall enjoyed himself. 

Super Grover looking for his missing supperness and the rest of the cast. 

Kay and the Fabulous 5: Elmo as Captain fuzzy, Telly as Triangle boy, Zoe as Wonder Zoe with Rocky asher side kick, Rock Rock and Rosita as Muchacha Fantastica! 

Cookie as lord of the farm. 

"Kay" stand in for the letter of the day as Ole' McDonald as some of the other characters including her lammies break it down in a little river dance. Cookie gave a challenge to Michael Flately.

Me and the boys at the show. 

Elmo, aka Captain fuzzy in Oscar's World. 

Patterson Farms Pumpkin Patch

I took the boys to Patterson Farms Pumpkin Patch on Monday with my MOPS group. We had a lot of fun. the boys went to their peting zoo, helped to stuff a scarecrow, then we took a tour of the whole farm on the hayride. Finally we picked out pumpkins to take home. Mybatteries died before I could catch a picture of the pumpkin selection, but here are some pictures of our other ventures.
Here's Charmie looking at some bunnies.

Charmie's favorite annimal in the petting zoo, the bunnies! 

Charmie at the petting zoo with the goats. 

Helping stuff the group's scarecrow "spud" 

the kids stuffing our scarecrow. 

Charmie, Mardie and some of the other kids in our group crowding around "Spud" 

Charmie with our group scarecrow on the hayride. 

Me and Mardie on the hayride. 

actual crafting progress report

BTW, I thought I'd give an update. I have completed the sashing on my sewing notions paper pieced wall hanging and am working on the borders. I have sewed some of the border but am unsure as to whether or not I like it, and if it needs something else. I found a link for scrap quilts so as I was working on this project during my boy's nap today I started sorting my scraps. I have some extra binding/sashing cut from previous projects and I'm hoping to make a quilt some day from those scraps. We'll see. the idea of a big pieced quilt is still scaring me. I am however wanting to make some bedding for our Mesa.

Treasure!

I have recently found myself frequenting Value Village a local thrift shop, and while I am there I look for goodies. Today while meandering down the wall of grab bags (basically where they bag up all of the tidbits that they don't want to individually price or have people rifle through) I found these! They were extremely reasonably priced at less than $1 for each so I snagged them. They don't allow you to open the bags in the store so it wasn't until later that I found out how cool my daily VV find was.
I LOVE VALUE VILLAGE!!

Hemstitcher

This unfortunately had no manual like the other attachments do. I do believe it is complete though. There is the main attachment and then a darning plate and screw to hold it down. I will have to look online to try to obtain the instructions for this. The box says that it performs a true hem stitch and also picot edging. Once again this is for my low shank straight stitch machines.

Adjustable Zig Zag Attachment

This will allow me to perform zig zag stitches with my low shank straight stitch machines. It has an attachable guide for sewing on lace or ribbon shown to the lower left.

Two thread Embroidery Attachment

When I saw this attachment it actually scared me. It's very weird looking, but basically the two pins sticking out from above my finger hold two spools of decorative thread. When you sew they are secured down as the attachment scissors the curved arms in and out. It also twists them. This looks like a fun one to try to use.

Singercraft guide

The 4th in the lot of attachments I got today, this one allows you to sew down loops of yarn, thread, ribbon, etc to make rugs or other pieces fiber of art. It also has a blade to cut through one side of the loops if you choose to, or you can remove the blade to leave the loops. I wonder when I see all of these who had the time to sit there and think up a way to make a sewing machine be able to do these techniques.
I also am amazed as to how many of these functions are internalized in modern machines with any number of stitch functions.
Each day that I continue to collect more I learn more about the history of home sewing machinery.

Singer low shank Walking foot

I saw this a few days ago in a grab bag at my new favorite store Value Village. I figured I'd blog it since I'm telling a Value Village advertisement story here. . .
It was in with a ton of other sewing thngs that were quite nasty to say the least. This was however in a cardboard box and then this case. I discarded the nasty box and the rest of the grab bag. The few dollars I paid was well worth just this one foot. This little guy works with my low shank machines and will be wonderful for quilting. The mini manual reminds me of Genie's instruction manual so I think they were probably printed around the same time.

Kenmore Circular Decorator

Since I'm blogging sewing accessories I'll tell you about this one. I got this right around the time I got Baby Kenny. It was an eBay win. Unfortunately it doesn't work with my new Kenmores or BK. The holes to screw it into the sewing machine bed don't match up. :( I haven't tried it with any of my other machines yet as most of them sew straight stitch.

A present from the brown truck fairy

Mind you the brown truck fairy is a guy. . .Here are my two new goodies that came today. I had forgotten temporarily they were coming so it was a treat to look out the front of my house and see the UPS truck, and then see my fairy leaving no body else's home but mine! The mat is for my travel sewing bag, hence it's small size. It's 12x18 and barely fits without bending.The crop-a-dile is my new snap setting tool. It does several other functions like setting gromets, cutting holes, etc. I was browsing www.JoAnn.com with their online discounts and free shipping and it caught my eye. I tried it out and it's easier for 1/2 of the snap than my other pliers and harder for the other 1/2. I think I need to just practice and I will figure out a trick. . . It's super easy to use. I used the hole punch to punch thick cardboard and it cut with minimal squeezing effort. A great burly, yet feminine (in pink;-}) tool! Rocky saw it and was impressed. Finally real tools for serious girls!

Diego's first bath

Our new puppy Diego getting a bath. Charmie and Mardie had started to strip down to join in the fun especially since it was their pool, but it was too chilly for them to be getting wet outside and Diego had quite a bit of grime and dirt so I was glad they weren't playing in it! 

cuddle time

does this photo really need any more description?