The Elder Geeks!

Dave, Ed and Chip

With full stomachs, the Easter dinner discussion turned to computers, cell phones and book readers, and there we old fogies were still sitting at the table comparing notes! I took this photo with my new Android cell phone and I certainly will need to figure out why my photos are all rather blurry when I'm using an 8 megapixel phone. I admit that I am a bit overwhelmed with all the electronic gagetry to learn about. My fairly new Panosonic Lumix camera has so many bells and whistles that I haven't figured out how to take a decent photo with it either. It has more features on it so that I can't even begin to remember how to do what. My cell phone has been beeping at me since I got it and I finally just this afternoon figured out why all these alarms are going off. Now if I can figure out how to sync my cell phone with my computer on Outlook so I can have my calendars match and my contact list. Right now it is running on Google since it is a Google phone, not Windows. Which reminds me that I better run my computer protection program to clean up all the ads and stop any bad viruses from infecting it. And I haven't even mentioned all the software that I have for my sewing/embroidery machine that I need to learn. And I've stopped all extra learning with my Adobe Photoshop Elements program.

We had a very pleasant Easter Sunday. Shauna and I did our best to counter all the testosterone in the room. We were outnumbered 6 to 2, not counting Hailey & Charlotte! Here are a few more blurry pictures of the Easter egg hunt in the living room instead of outdoors because of the rain.

Gardenias! LOVE the fragrance

I bought this gardenia plant several months ago from Valley Medical Center's gift shop (where I volunteer once a week) and this is the 2nd time it has bloomed. Look at all the blossoms!! I remember my first corsage was a gardenia and I've loved the smell ever since. Indoor plants are something I've always had and I've tried my hand at many different ones and some are stand-outs in my mind. Unfortunately after awhile some of them bite the dust. Another favorite is the Hibiscus plant. Such lovely flowers in pretty colors. I may need to get another one soon. The downside is that if you go out of town for more than a week and there is no one available to water them, they don't do well.
 
Right now I'm watching my Betta fish closely. Poor little guy. Remember that I posted a picture of him a month and a half ago and I thought he was dying then? He's still alive and I usually find him in the morning lying on the marbles at the bottom of his "tank" and when I wiggle the container he moves his fins and looks at me. So sad. One day I know I will have to flush him.....

Progress! Dresses for South Africa

Yesterday was the sewing session at church from 2 until 8 pm (dinner included.) I could only stay until 5:00 because I told Shauna I would babysit the girls so they could go out to dinner with friends. Even so, I managed to make several dresses during the 3 hours I was there. Ladies came later in the day so I didn't feel too bad about leaving early. Besides, I brought the 4 dresses I already made and volunteered to sew extra at home if the group didn't get all 100 dresses stitched up. There is another group of people who volunteered to provide T-shirts for the girls to wear under their dresses and I discovered that these dresses and shirts will not be traveling on their way to South Africa until September. Plenty of time to finish!

I had purchased about a dozen pillowcases from the Goodwill (Wednesdays are 20% of days for seniors) so instead of $.99 each, they were only $.79. My friend, Kim, scoured through the stash that her church sewing group has accumulated and donated 5 partial bolts of fabric, but our church group didn't need any more fabric. Now I'm thinking! Another friend, Tamie, suggested that she and I begin stitching up a bunch of these sweet dresses (some out of pillowcases and some out of yardage) and find a missionary group that would like to provide dresses for needy girls. Shorts are super simple to make for boys so don't know why we couldn't work at that too. Might even find several more friends to help with the project. I will keep you posted about our progress in finding a mission to work with and PLEASE, let me know if you would like to be part of this. I feel like I'm putting the cart before the horse, but I have had this in mind for several months now. Just need the right venue! I know God has something in mind.

Here are some photos of yesterdays sewing. Notice all those dresses hanging up? By the time I left at 5:00 there were over 30 complete and many more in various stages of completion.

This is where I set myself up. Patty showed up about 45 minutes before I left and she sat at the other end of the table. I LOVE my nice little 12 lb. "travel" sewing machine. It is a Babylock Audrey model. Of course, I still had to make 2 trips in with all my stuff!!

Up and down, cut, sew, iron, find the binding, sew, iron, sew, iron and on and on!

There is the beginning of our finished handiwork.

Some ladies set up their sergers, some used sewing machines and some ladies only wanted to iron.

And yes, where there are women, there is lots of talking!

Wouldn't you know that I skipped going golfing with Dave and Dave and Sharron so I could go swim at the pool at 11 am with Kim and spend the day sewing at church. We didn't take into account that it was Spring Break and there were too many kids in the pool making it too crowded for us. There was no crowd on Monday and we got a good workout in, so don't know why it was so busy yesterday. Then after all the rain we have had, the weather got SUNNY!! And here I was stuck inside. The upside was that I got to spend the evening with Shauna's girls and that was fun. I am a blessed grandma!!

Dresses for Africa!

This Friday our church is having a special time for those who sew to gather together to make dresses for African children. Pretty neat! I have made a few pillowcase dresses for Annika and have several pillowcases that I had purchased from thrift shops so I have spent some time yesterday sewing 4 pillowcase dresses. They are SO simple! The white eyelet fabric needed to be lined and that was a simple fix. I still have 4 more pillowcases as well as some other fabrics from my stash that I will be taking with me for Friday's sewing adventure.

It feels so good to make these little dresses and imagining the little ones who will benefit from my efforts. Won't those white dresses look fabulous against dark skin? I will be stopping by my local thrift stores tomorrow to look for more pretty pillowcases. They take just a bit less work than making these dresses from yardage. The goal on Friday is to make 100 dresses. I hope that lots of ladies show up!!