2010

You say good bye 2009, I say hello 2010.

It's been a year filled with new beginnings, and all came to a close right before the new year and I'm glad. A fresh new start to a fresh new year, that's the way I like it. I always give myself a little extra time to set my resolutions because my birthday is the fifth of January.(just like my Auntie Rosie) I like to start fresh on my birthday as if it were the new year, because for me it is. A new year of age and knowledge, awareness and direction. 2009, a year of starting out and trying. We started staying with Jon's grandma Vena, to help her out. We moved from Grass Valley to Yuba City. We got Nugget the Chicken, our latest family member. Went to Price is Right with Vena in LA. We became obsessed with Wii band, singing games and attempting to keep the grass green. We are excellent at Wii, not so excellent at grass greening! Lets see what else, oh yes this blog, the shop and facebook are all new this 2009.

SEW, for 2010 what's the plan, first up vacation for my birthday. I'm going to travel to Huntington Beach to visit my family. I can't wait. After the relaxation period I'm going to get to work on the shop. New items and posts and pictures are coming. My goal, to save money. I would love to be able to visit my family that is not in California and see the world. Vena has always wanted to see Hawaii, and being 82 years old I feel I should help her get there, plus I've never seen it either so it must be done. Hawaiian cruise here we come soon! Organize this place, I'm currently in the mist of combining Vena, Jon and Me into one house. Each of us has a large quanity of items and keeping it all in one house is hard work. Vena has 82 years of memories in the form of dust, papers,books, pictures, and clothing that fill this house to maximum capacity. While Jon has a large amount of music items, guitars, amps, cable, foot peddles etc. that currently take half the living room and half the guest room. My problem clothing, fabric and wall hangings. How does one combine three peoples lives in to one house and still make it functional. The answer, I don't know. YET! but I will, and when I figure out how to have a music room, craft room, memory room, and rooms for us to sleep and live, I'll fill you in. Until then however, I'm focusing in on the vacation. We no longer have our cottage in Grass Valley. Which is sad and happy at the same time. I'll miss the place, but not the people. Seven years a long time to be in one little house. Memories fill each tiny room of that place, some precious and long lasting; others tumultuous and not worth the effort to recall. Yet, all worthy of one last recollection for old time sake.

It's a new year, a new place and a new time. I am ready to begin this newness and start fresh with life's bounty. Here we come 2010 smiling and with shiny aspirations for you and your many days we will soon fill with productive choices and memories we will cherish forever.

Sew,

cheers to you all

Happy New Year

I hope this reaches you on a sunny day, filled with laughter and love.

have fun !

*winter

Tis the season

Its the snow filled season

I took this photo last week at the house we just moved out of. I'm going to miss the beauty of the creek in the back yard, the giant blue bird that stopped by twice a year, and being able to walk anywhere from home. I loved that little house. Good bye sweet memories of time spent. You will be missed and fondly thought of when talked about in tales of the old!

This season has been slow for me. Why, I'm not really sure. Perhaps the mix of holidays and our moving has sucked all the joyousness out of this time of year. I hope not but I do feel a little down in the holiday spirit department. I still have too much shopping to do, and cleaning and decorating... AHHHHH! the lights, I almost forgot about hanging the lights!! It feels as if I have a never ending ,ever expanding to do list... and it just expanded again!!

Thanksgiving feast!

Sew Much Food!

This year was my first to cook a Thanksgiving dinner all on my own. I made the turkey and all the fixings.

Our Turkey: stuffed with stove top stuffing. I mixed in apples and raisins for moisture and fruity flavor. The turkey is rubbed with virgin olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and honey. Our fabulous veggies, zucchini, carrots, onions, artichoke hearts and apples, were cooked right there with the turkey in a butter, Chardonnay mixture. After it was all cooked I lightly salted and peppered the veggies.

Our spread was divine! Candied yams: a mixture of canned yams, banana, and raisins topped with sprinkle of brown sugar, dab of butter and covered in a marshmallow crust! My favorite. Red potatoes, mashed with garlic powder , butter and splash of milk. Our veggies from the oven and our apple, raisin stuffing. Some biscuts and a balsamic vinager and virgin olive oil romain and tomato salad and of course the family favorite pork n beans! We ate so much we all quickly fell into a food coma as we played our favorite game Dominos. Coffee and pie pushed us over the edge and we had to stop our game in the middle because Vena was so full she had to go to sleep. All in all we had a great night and have some fabulous left overs for the rest of the weekend!!

Happy turkey day and remember the kindness of the Native Americans and that we all suck because we killed them off !

Have fun!

*winter

halloween is fun!

Happy Halloween from all of us!

Vena said she had not decorated her house in about five years... so I suggested we should probably decorate, in the typical fashion. Pumpkins sweetly carved by myself and one by Jon. and a few cob webs to boot! We didn't have many trick-or treaters but we have plenty of candy to eat now!!

We, on our regular walk trough the mall, stopped in the arcade. Vena said she had never been in there, and I love skee ball so I figured she would too! She liked bowling and you know it's almost the same thing only smaller.
I think she liked it. she was surprized by the tickets and we got some plastic fishes, which are rad!

Keep having fun,

*winter

Sew Fall

SEW fall

Fall is my favorite time of year, not to hot ,not to cold, just right for loading on layers.
Of course my favorite colors are orange, brown and yellow and nature at this time just lets me have it. AHHHHH! piles of leaves in my favorite colors, the pumpkins are out and I just can't wait for the costumes to take shape!! I still haven't decided what to make this year for Jon and I. I had some free time when it down poured briefly here and made some short capes with hoods and a draw string for my wearing pleasure, both fully lined and one waterproof, just in case of another rain storm . I am now prepared! I found some fabulous vintage hats and orange gloves I can't wait to sport!

Isn't my family sweet, everyone sported a cape just for your viewing pleasure!

Just a reminder

Sew Awesome!

Here we are again, now with one item in our shop, more to come of course. It took me a while to get a photo program, then a while to figure out how to use it. I did it though, and now our shop is open with one item but more to come!!

Thank you for stopping by and thank you to all those who came out to the NEO yard sale and checked us out! They really appreciated all your support.

Just a reminder you can find some of our creations on this facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yuba-City-And-Grass-Valley/Sew-Thrifty-Collection/112467334149?ref=share.
leave us a message or stop by our shop
Now Open!!
SewThriftyCollection.etsy.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7812647
Look for us, we'd love to hear from you!

* winter

First timers

Sew unbelievable!

As I have mentioned before Vena Nelson is eighty-two years old.

After dropping a few hints that maybe she would like to bowl, I took her this afternoon. Today, for the first time ever she bowled.

She had a blast. The first game, bumper free, with a score of 31, the second round, with bumpers she beat me 79 to 87. Hearing that she had never bowled shocked me. Our bowling experience induced memories of my Gramma Jesse and Auntie Rosie.

All these feelings rushed through me, reminders of a time pasted. Times when we would spend hours with my Gramma and Auntie bowling. I may have taken all those nights and tips my Gramma and Auntie gave me for granted. I didn't want to listen yet, I tried to remember, secretly, all of the moves to win. Follow the arrows, don't twist your hand, look where you want the ball to go. Even with all those tips I still wasn't very good, and claimed everyone telling me how to bowl was the reason for it. With my snotty teen attributes and poor skill, I still truly enjoyed the quality time with my Auntie and Gramma. They, on the other hand, were excellent at bowling, traveling for tournaments and all. We, as bratty kids, often forced my Auntie to bowl left handed, she still won. Every year for family holidays we bowled. All of as a family at the bowling alley party. Such a strong tradition I hope we can still maintain through time. It will not be quite the same without Gramma, but in her honor I hope we will all remember how much fun we have had because of her. Vena reminds me, from time to time, that we will all get old someday, and need someone to be our friend who can help us achieve even the smallest of life's experiences. Luckily, she has me, just as my Gramma had my Auntie.

Check out Vena's bowling! I love the little dance she does when she hits the pins!



We had a good time and we got some free socks! At the Nu Generations alley when you rent shoes they give you a free pair of socks, how rad is that! It's also funny, since we had stopped at Ross just for some socks before hitting the alley.

Another great thing about the bowling alley, it's right next a small thrift store called My Store. Which has a great assortment of fabulous finds. Today, purses were half off and I couldn't pass this one up.

It feels like carpet, and I love that!

Well, have a nice day!

*winter and vena