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Snow Day 2015!

It's nice to be able to spend time enjoying the beautiful snow with my Max-Man!

ORGANIZATION: Sewing Machine Feet

People that know me, may call me a bit anal! I am a little "particular" in regards to everything having a place, organized is probably a better term or like I learned in culinary school, "Mise en place ".
 My craft room is my sanctuary- I love spending time in a creative place surrounded by papers,fabrics,paints,markers etc. I will eventually do a full post on the whole space but for now I am posting a recent organization project. I had purchased an inexpensive sewer foot set to try out some different sewing techniques and I wanted to put all the feet in an organized container and label them. I took a trip to the Container Store and found  the perfect case! There were 32 feet in all so I was able to divide each drawer in two. First my supplies:

I then made labels with my label maker and copied the cardboard cover of all the feet so I could also put a picture of the foot in each drawer in case I couldn't remember what was what (which can seriously happen after a glass...or two of wine).

From there I just put the labels on the front of the drawers and used double sided tape to put the picture of the feet inside the drawer...

 Voila! There you have it, organized sewing feet! And because I had some laminating sheets lying around I went ahead and copied the whole chart listing all the feet and minimized it so I had a quick reference guide to put on top:

Let's Start with Nana, shall we....

 

I feel like I have thought about this “first post” for way too  long, laboring over what to write,how to write it,how to start this blog that I so desperately have wanted to start and put effort in to. I have so many projects that I want to document and share but I HAD to get this FIRST post done…so I decided, why don’t I just write like I talk or better yet-write the thoughts in my head….I mean this blog is mine so I can do whatever I want,say whatever I want,have major run on sentences and I DON’T CARE because this is MY space! So here goes nothing--
I had an awesome childhood.
I have so many vibrant memories of Holidays with family surrounding a big table and watching the adults play penny poker after the meal while drinking sambuca. The kids ran wild, building forts, playing bartender, singing out of Nana’s song books. In the summer months there wasn’t a weekend when friends and family didn’t gather at Walker Court for pool time and bloody marys…again while the kids ran wild… this time dodging lawn darts or horse shoes outside. Nana had her “hen parties” with all her grand daughters and we would skinny dip under the moonlight and then be woken up waaaay too early to clean the house…but even waking up to clean held a special memory. The smell of sprayway window cleaner always makes me think of Nana and I will most likely never wash my windows with anything else….
Nana was really the only grandparent I had a relationship with growing up because my father’s mother passed away before I was born and his father was in Texas so we didn’t have  a relationship that was anything more than birthday cards and calls at Christmas. My Granddad, Nana’s husband died the year I was born so I didn’t know him either but from the stories I hear, I know we would’ve had a great time together.
The stories Nana would tell of her childhood were always saddening to me, I guess because my childhood was so different…and she was a huge part of so many happy memories.
Emaline Theresa Pye was born April 30, 1929- she was an only child. She often spoke about her mother and the “lack of love” she received- her father was deported back to Canada  when she  was 8 or 9 and she never saw him again, I think I have seen 1 picture of my great grandfather but I heard many stories about how much she loved and missed him…. When Nana went to boarding school she was called by her middle name, Theresa…I vaguely remember her telling me that she was made fun of for having the name, Emaline and that’s why she changed it. I guess “Theresa”is a better name when attending a Catholic school.
Talk about someone who lit up a room….that was Nana- you couldn’t help but smile around her, she had a radiating love and laugh and a pretty sick sense of humor which just added to the smile because she would definitely say “the unexpected” or “inappropriate” always.
Nana ALWAYS fed my creativity. If I wanted to paint, she bought me an easel and I painted canvas after canvas of happy little trees with my fan brush and each one she treated like a masterpiece…When I said I maybe wanted to be a chef she took me in to the kitchen at the horseneck tavern ( a local pub we all went to for any occasion) and told the cook to show me how to make chicken piccata…she bought white mailboxes for her gardening tools but had me  paint flowers on them first  , I sang” Hello My Baby” and other favorites out of her old songbooks. We shopped flea markets , drank guinness on benches while enjoying picnic lunches,  she was always a cheerleader and whatever you were interested in she tried to feed that and inspire  the next interest… I love the story of how my parents met at Block Island…my dad on a fishing trip, dirty and in need of a shower, Mom there with a girlfriend  for a get away girls weekend… he yells to my Mom on a balcony…ends up convincing  her to let him shower??! (GINGER??) They spent the next two days walking around Block Island,Eating steamed clams, drinking beer, falling in love…. My mother came home that weekend and told Nana, “I met the man I am going to marry this weekend.” Nana said “Well what does he like to do?”
“Golf”
“Then you need to sign up for golf lessons”….and Mom did. My parents will be celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary this July!- and they golf….A LOT.
Nana joined the party in the sky on Feb. 16, 2014-and what a party! she would have LOVED it!! She meant so much to so many and that day you truly felt it.
I could probably go on for days and write stories and memories. BUT INSTEAD I start this blog. I call it Emma Pye after Nana with an extra M thrown in for Meaghan…I can post projects and thoughts and things that inspire me or annoy the crap out of me!  I can reminisce about memories growing up and also the adventures of raising a 3 year old superhero.

Thanks for listening (or at least pretending to listen while thinking of something else)
Meaghan