For all those who come to this happy place, Welcome!

just giving an update... I'm in the trenches of writing my thesis (yeah!) Hopefully the first draft will be done tonight (or tomorrow at the least). I need to email it to the brave women who offered to be readers for me and on Wednesday (22nd) I will turn it in to one of my peers for their evaluation. The following Wednesday (29th) I will turn it into my advisor and do a presentation for the class. My semester is over. My grad career as a Master's student ends in just a week or so. How weird to be at the end of something.  I've been going to school for the last ten years. I think I've only taken 2 semesters off (and had a couple rocky ones after the birth of both older kids), just taken two or three classes at a time. It's crazy to think it will be done within a matter of weeks. I'm excited, but wonder what I will do with myself. You hear that question so many times and always reply with a pithy word or two. But now it is real. I'm not sure about preschool i...

"Who knew that sewing would make me ... feel happy, feel like myself , give me a sense of accomplishment and purpose, help me be more patient and content. Who knew some simple stitches could complete your life? :) Maybe that's how it is in life, you need to find your own "stitches" whether its cooking, sewing, writing, organizing, scrapbooking, it's something and its YOURS. So, I'm grateful today that I was able to enjoy some simple stitches last night that put a smile on my face." - Stacey Reed

(all prints are from the black apple - you can find her blog link on the side)  working on the surveys for my thesis - I've been reading a lot of definitions of friends. Here are a few I liked : 1. "Somebody that is there for you when you need them or will help you even when they don't know you are struggling... (so I guess "Betsy" isn't a friend, I help her, but she never really helps me. It is a one sided friendship and I'm okay with that). 2. Someone that cares about you and wants to know your okay... spends time with you, calls, checks in, goes out to eat with you - and just spends lazy time together... 3. Someone who shares your history , feelings, and you can depend on. 4. Some one who likes you as much as you like them. 5. Someone that makes you a better person. Someone you spend time with little or long... Friendship should be easy. 6. Someone that sticks with you through everything, loves you, argues with you, gets over it and holds you up whe...

This entry was written by my sister Allison's bff "Shana Darling" - I had to share... it is too funny not to. The original post with her kids pics can be found here . Side note: in my church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints aka Mormons) our youth group for girls is called "Young Women or YW" - Maren "I think the church does a great job telling the youth NOT to have sex until they are married. I think the church does an even better job telling already baby-hungry girls how wonderful motherhood is. So while the young women know they aren’t supposed to have sex until they are married, they also know it’s like the best thing ever to have a baby and they can hardly wait to do it. And they do cute little service projects like making baby quilts for all the newborns in the Ward.  And they babysit all the perfect Mormon barbie housewives’ perfect little children in their perfect little Mormon homes and the girls are ready to get married by age 16. I...

We opened our Etsy shop today - and to celebrate we are giving away this apron. Just go over to the SSC site and leave a comment . In fact you can enter up to 3 times . Leave a comment on the SSC post, email a few of your friends to tell them about it, and or blog about it. So cool.  Here is a link to our Etsy site.   Christie & Jill have made a bunch of cute things! I haven't made anything for it yet. I have 4 half-finished aprons and I will post them once I finish up with school (I have to stay focused - as hard as it is sometimes)