Today, me and my hubby are celebrating 31 years of marriage. Yay us! If you ask my loving hubby howwe've been married so long when so many have failed, he'll tell you this: "It's because of me (meaning him). I'm wonderful." Well, he is wonderful but I think I might have had something to do with it. Maybe a little....... :o)
Then, remember (seems like 100 years ago!) me and my daughter spray painted that patio set? Well, I used my Joann's coupon and finally bought some new foam for the cushions. Then I made these new cushions. 
It is our baby girls 24th birthday! She wanted baby back ribs for dinner so we went to Tony Roma's. Yum!
She wanted a Wii. Our oldest Kelley and her guy Jason went to Target at o'dark thirty to get it. lol That is a little glimmer of Ashley's boyfriend Dave. He is a sweet boy.
Jason however, is a silly, silly guy.
It's so nice to have a friend with big girl toys like a super industrial monster embroidery machine! Sherrie, yes the infamous Sherrie who gave me her old serger, also has a beast of an embroidery machine. We took a class together to make a serger cover (so I could remember how to thread the dang thing! lol) and the instructor had this download for the thread spools. The class was a bit of an ordeal, partly because we're a couple of tards and partly because of a bad list of supplies. We were supposed to take quilted fabric and Sherrie had a bunch of sandcastle-type and thought that would be okay. It wasn't heavy enough so we left the class and went to Joann's and got this white stuff. We were supposed to have accent pieces for the handle, pockets and bottom trim but it didn't say that on the supply list. Lord knows, I have 10 million yards of cute sewing fabric but nooooo, I had to buy this Debbie Mumm fabric at Joann's! Then, since it's a serger class, I thought it was obvious that we would sew it together with our sergers but noooo again. We were to use our sewing machines. I didn't bring a sewing machine. I brought my serger! Afterall, wasn't that the whole point of taking classes, so we would remember how to use it! lol 
So here's a picture of the side pocket. If you have a Babylock you can store your cheater card here. I have a Pfaff and can fit my book right there. Cool huh?
And this other side could hold your accessory box or whatever. The instructor sewed a seam down this side to make two smaller pockets but I wanted to try it on my machine first to decide. I think I'll leave it one long one. :o)
Other then making an apron, I haven't used one of these tissue paper patterns in forever. I'm making a skirt for my boss's daughter. She is a faith program for her school and she will be the "pineapple". All I have left to do is hem it and I can get back to the real sewing....quilt blocks! :o)
This is the coolest stitch my new serger does....double hems. Woohoo! this is the hem to my t-shirt. My plain white shirt. I could put a spiffy label on it like "Liz Original Plain White Tee" and let people think I was wearing a couture t-shirt! LOL Do you think the fact it's Joann's fabric would give it away that it didn't come from Nordstroms? hehehe
Here's the finished t-shirt. This is after I wore it to work and got stuff on it. I'm such a slob. My boss laughed at me that I was so excited to make this. I'm sure she was jealous, don't you think? ;o)
Monday I left work early to take a class on how to thread this baby. Little did I know that sergers are unlike any other machine I have ever tried to operate. Threading three or four spools of thread can be kind of tricky. In class, we did an overlock stitch, a rolled hem and another stitch you can use for garment sewing. I doubt I'll use that much but it was included in the lessons so I tried it. I'll probably use the serger for home dec. projects and finishing seams on simple clothing items. Tonight I'll try putting a rolled hem on this panel I found.
It's about card-table size. I thought it was so pretty, I had to buy it. Now I can serge the edges and wah-lah, a tablecloth!! :o)
My buddy Sherrie had this old suitcase. When she bought it, it had blue and mauve birdhouses on it. (I wish I would've taken a before picture but I didn't think of it. DOH!) Her decorating style has gone more primitive and deeper colors, like burgundy, gold and black. She asked my artsy daughter Kelley to paint it. She did the basecoating, the background, saltbox and willow trees. She asked me to do the house so I added some shading, the windows and some details like the star on the roof, numbers on the house and smoke from the chimneys. (chimnies?) Oh well. I'm just waiting for her to come back over with her gummy eraser so we can erase the pencil marks and then I think we'll add some stain to it and grubby it up some. Maybe I'll just drag it through the dirt. :o)
And last night was our sewing night but nobody could get together. I have a million other things started but I cut out most of the pieces for the Lakehouse quilt, Afternoon Tea, me and my daughter Stephanie want to make. Such cute fabric! I think I have enough fabric left over for a couple small baby quilts, which I think would be adorable. I guess I'll just cut those out too so they're ready to go, whenever that will be. I only need to live to be oh, say about 120 years old to get all these things done that I've got started! Sigh..........
We had a busy weekend. Friday night we went to Whittier for a car show at Ruby's. It was hot when we got there but there was a nice breeze blowing so it made it tolerable. There was a good turnout. My SIL and her hubby joined us and that was nice to hang out.
We took these two cars, a `34 Ford 3 window coupe and a `72 Chevy Chevelle that we're trying to sell. Our daughters used to drive it but now it's an extra car and we don't need an extra. We have a `55 Chevy too that is in the garage getting an automatic transmission put in. See why I get to buy fabric!!!!! :o)
Here it is all painted up purdy. I need to get wood cut for the seats and then I think instead of attaching cushions, I'll just make tie on cushions. I can't wait to finish this. It came out way better then I thought. And like anything that was made years ago, it's so much sturdier than anything we could find today (unless we wanted to spend a small fortune). Stay tuned for a cushion report. :o)
