Grandma would be so proud!

I have a pride issue. A pretty big one, in fact. And as you can guess from the title of this post, my pride is probably hereditary. {that's seriously just a joke - my grandma is probably one of the most humble people I know!}

When I was growing up, my grandma would have what she called "girl's week." This was a fantistic ritual performed annually in the summer, where all the girl cousins {there were 6 of us} would get together at grandma's house for a week or so and have a grand ole' time together! It was a wonderful tradition and to this day all of us will reminisce fondly of the times we spent together. Almost each time we went, we could just about count on Grandma having some kind of sewing project for us to complete, whether it was skirts or pillows or whatever, we always learned something about sewing at Grandma's. My grandmother is an avid and accomplished seamstress. This past Christmas she made every single person in the family a lap quilt. Every single one of us {they had 6 children, all of whom are married, 16 grandchildren, several of whom are married or engaged - there's a lot}.

I never did sew much except at Grandma's. My mom has a machine, but when you've got 8 kids {all home-schooled}, how can you find time to teach your daughters how to sew? I pretty much only did it with grandma. After we all started growing up and moving away from home, we stopped having girl's week, and hence, I stopped sewing.

Then Dan bought me a sewing machine.

I've started sewing again.

And you know what?

I've actually missed it.

But since it's been years since I have sewn anything at all, I've forgotten how to read a pattern. So I've mostly been just messing around and playing with ideas in my mind. And now I'm proud. My efforts have been paying off. I've made an apron. And golly, am I proud of that apron!

Dan asked me if I could make him an apron. We only had two {which should be perfect but ...}, one of which was a bit too small for Dan and the other of which made Dan feel a bit too "girly." So I bought some denim looking fabric and went to work. Now we joke that this is Dan's "I'm gonna go grillin'" apron {spoken in a deep, gruff voice} and he won't have to wear the "I'm going to bake a pie" apron {spoken in a high-pitched "girly" voice} anymore. Silly Danny! :)

Here's Dan modeling his new apron!


















This is what it looked like on the floor. :D















I also made this tablecloth. Not quite as proud of it - I didn't measure very well so it's not as long/wide as I'd like it to be. But it serves it's purpose and really isn't too bad.













And I made this bag for my mom for Mother's Day. It also didn't turn out the way I wanted it to . . . and since making it I've discovered another way to make a bag that works better. But I thought it was pretty cute - especially with the pink flower! And my mom loved it {her fav color is yellow}. So that's all that matters!

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If you read this post about Mother's Day, you know I decided that in each post for the whole month of May I would highlight a woman who has made a difference in my life. These highlights are not made in any particular order of importance; the point is that these women have helped shape me into who I am today and they deserve to be highlighted with a little feature. If any of my highlights remind you of a special woman in your life, please comment and let us know who it is! I would love to hear your own little highlights and I'm sure the women in your life would appreciate it as well!

Woman Highlight - Roommate Edition:
It is difficult to highlight all the great roommates I've had {which, I guess compared to a lot of people, isn't very many since I got married a year after I started school}, but I figure I'll give it a go {yes, this highlight may be a bit long. I apologize - I'm sure someone somewhere will appreciate it!}

Lindsey Palmer
Linds and I met at the “home-school graduation” in Utah. There we discovered that were both attending the same college. Over the next year or so we would occasionally e-mail back and forth and got to know one another - we became great friends! Lindsey rescued me from my housing situation {which was a rather unhappy one} and we were roommates for a semester {I think I also have to thank you for getting me into Greenbrier cuz that's how I met my wonerful hubby!}. She’s invited me into her family circle and I’ve been blessed to meet her entire family {who are all super cool, btw}. She’s taught me things about cooking and people, we’ve had lots of conversations, and she has been an all-around gem of a friend! How grateful I am that she has been my friend!

Hannah Hopkin
Hannah is everything everyone wants to be. She has more friends than I can count {just for the record, Han, how many facebook friends do you have?} and she loves people. She always sees good things in people that I often fail to catch. She’s genuine and caring and it’s always easy to talk to her. She is also a wonderful pianist, and was my accompanist for my senior year, right up through my senior recital. She pretty much saved me by always complimenting me, giving me pointers when we’d practice together and helping me to be calm before a jury or my recital. She’s really an amazing person!

Amy Barrus
Ah, Amy, how I love thee! Amy is like this little ball of sunshine on a cloudy day. She always made me happy. She always gave me some great perspective to problems I was having and she was one of the most empathetic people to my busy state - she knew plenty of people who were music majors and how crazy-busy they were. She was a great support system for me! I also picked up lots of crazy things from her, like "Don't judge me" {only funny if you've seen it!}, "wight wight", "lah you" and the ability to find humor in almost every situation!

Laurie Summers
Actually, we all called her Louie. I don't remember why. Perhaps it was this crazy thing we all tried to do - give everyone a nickname and her's is the only one that stuck. We often called her Lou. I wish I could remember how came up with that one {help guys!}. And it's still stuck for me. Everytime I see her I think "Lou." {actually, I'm not even sure if she liked that nickname . . .} Lou is the cutest girl ever! She is one of those sunshine people too. I admire a lot - she studied math education, something I could never and would never do. She's absolutely amazing. A genuine peacemaker, a great example and a wonderful friend!

Dessee Ragsdale
I would probably describe Desee as the "mother" of our group. She was a go-to person, the one who always made sure the apartment was clean, the one who could compliment me when I felt miserable and make anyone's day better - she was also the one who always sensed that someone was having a bad day and had a way of just talking to us to make everything better. She is the one who would call roommate councils and encouraged us to have devotionals {even though I'm not sure any of us were considered "morning people" and we always went to bad after!}. She's a great example to me.

Michelle Perroni
Shelly! Ok, so this roommate had a nickname that stuck too . . . we always called her Shelly or Shell. Whichever was quickest. She was my room-roommate and we became fast friends. We would talk and laugh. She is very honest and tells you what she thinks. She's a wonderful cook and we loved it whenever she'd cook for us - though many times we teased her about the meal being "heart attack on a plate," or as Amy would say as she sink her teeth into another delicious creation by this woman, "Mmmm. I can feel my arteries clogging right now!" And none of us cared because her food is delicious. She is a fabulous friend and I love her a lot!

Melanie Crooks
Sad. Melanie is now married and I can't even remember her married name. Heck, I can't even remember if that is her real maiden name! Mel was a spiritual giant among us and a great example of always doing what you should because you love it and you love God. She was an elementary education major and she was crazy busy all the time. She amazed me at the number of books she would haul up to campus everyday and the amount of time she'd spend doing homework. What an example of perserverance!

Well, I'll be honest - I have a pretty bad memory sometimes. If I missed a roommate and one of my old roommates reads this - please tell me!! I know a couple that I don't feel like I got to know very well since I was only there for half a summer. But I would really hate to leave someone out - especially because once I got engaged I hardly paid attention to my roommates anymore. How horrible of me. I'm really sorry guys! But please know I love you all!