Now what?

Okay, i got it. Now here is the question. I bought this at the far end of "what will i pay for it?" sort of with the intention of selling it. This is how I convinced my husband to let me buy it.

Me: "I'll buy this one at a max price of x. Sell it and make a $400 profit which i will turn around and buy a low end Bernina because this one is way too good for me." I just can't buy something that much for myself. I just can't.

* I honestly think/thought that. From the reviews i've read everyone says it's THE best machine and a workhorse especially for machine quilting. I barely have time to sew but i want a good machine for quilting but i think someone else should have this that will use it more. This lady hardly used it either. Sooooooo, now that i've seen this beauty and have it in my possession, i'm terrified of it. It's soooo much machine!

The lady was an embroiderer and an amazing one. She never had kids which for some reason i'm finding so sad although you can see she had a very happy life. Fabric was so so. I only bought 2 small pieces. But here's a bummer. I forgot a bag (i didn't pay for it but still it had small simple things i really wanted...a box of buttons, trims etc), and an iron (she had about 10 irons???). LD was really into the antiques sigh and it took everything i had to protect that house from him. They had some serious antiques. There was even a policeman on guard. One thing i would have loved to have is the tile game Mahjong i think it's called? The tiles that match up. I love that game. It was made of bone ivory and had beautiful hand painted pieces sigh. $300. There was plenty to drool over and i did but didn't end up buying too much. A few quilting mags, a couple knitting patterns, a box of sewing notions, a few pieces of pyrex (one of which is going straight on ebay). I finally have some hem guages. Yay. I can guage my knitting now cause i was too lazy to go upstairs and get the tape measure to measure guage. We might go back on Sunday to get that bag i forgot if they'll keep it for me.

But here's the question. Do i keep this lovely machine or sell it and get a lower end ($450) Bernina basically for free? I called my husband and asked him. I said "i want to keep this machine now". He said "well there's your birthday, eid, mothers day, gifts for the next year." :-) Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. What would you do?

highs and lows

It's been a rough couple of weeks for me. Not going to go into the what's but there have been some real high moments and some real low ones. God doesn't give us more than we can handle though right? I can say right now i'm filled up to the brim with what i can handle. Sadness.

Anyway, don't have anything too substantial to say and am actually thinking of ending this here blog. Thinking, not doing. yet. I just don't have anything interesting to say and it seems people aren't interested in what i have to say (i know there are the few of you who do but that just means you get more emails from me instead :-)

Today should be a good day. I heard about an estate sale in Princeton, about an hour from us, from a very very wealthy couple. She quilted and sewed and has two rooms full of fabric and a top of the line Bernina. This machine is selling on Ebay right now for about $1,000. There's one on there now at $912 with 3 days left. They won't tell you prices ahead of time but LD and i are going to head over first thing this morning before hitting story time. Long drive but I'm a hoping and a praying that the machine is selling for a decent price because it's an excellent machine for quilting. I'm also hoping there's a few pieces of fabric with my name on them.

I had a good thrifting day yesterday. I found this huge clean ginormous good priced thrift store and couldn't even make it through it but found a few great pieces of Japanese China and a Japanese hand painted teapot. I also got a few brand new Vera linen napkins. The ladybug ones. Very nice ones. I'm going to sell one set on Ebay and keep the other. Also a radio flyer tricycle for $3. Brand new without any scratches. He has a big one we just got him for Eid with the handle and everything but this one is small and he can ride it around the house for practice. I'm hoping today is like yesterday and the deals are a plenty. I love the hunt. It's just fun. I don't mind paying good money for good things but there's something very satisfying with finding a treasure amongst non treasures and the fact that the money goes to charity instead of China is also alluring.

Watch the story of stuff. Eye opening of how much our consumerism hurts our planet. Go thrift stores!

Here is the smock...

Smock front.
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

Remember last week...was it last week? I've been selling stuff on ebay and working on a new quilt and trying to finish up a book review and trying to purge/organize/clean. All of which are getting only a few minutes a day making it seem like an overwhelming long process but anyhoo....

I really like the way it turned out. The purple is very purple but not quite so shiny. All vintage materials. The lining is like the pocket (pocket has stitching down the middle creating two pockets). It's also reversible. The dragonfly side has a purple pocket with appliqued dragonflies from the dragonfly fabric. I should have taken a picture of that side as that's my favorite side!

I love dragonflies because i was horribly afraid of them as a kid. I grew to love them later. I just love the way this turned out and now i want to make a bunch of them and sell them. Oh yeah, i'm also doing that...any possible takers you think or am i wasting time?

Here is the back...

smock back!
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

Now I need a little girl to give it to. Anyone want to give me one of those? Oh well... I guess i just might have to give this one away...

Replaced.

Replaced.
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

This is what i walked into last week. I had been replaced by Pooh. He never puts his animals to sleep. He usually has them snug around the neck hugged close, close to strangulation much as he attacks his mother in the night. He seriously sometimes sleeps on top of me. I remember my cat from years ago doing that to me. You wake up and can't breathe and wonder if it's your last breath.

Thought this was cute.

Cute!

This has got to be one of the cutest video's i've seen.

WOW!

For the longest time i couldn't get my son to touch art tools (crayons, pencils, chalk, markers) or at least use them on paper. He always would pick it up and tell us to draw him something but would never try himself, usually it was trains over and over and over again but you could see him studying us drawing. That's how he does things. He studies us. It's the same with the alphabet. I started teaching him but he wouldn't repeat anything i said quite stubbornly so i just let him be. Then two weeks later he practically said the entire alphabet. All without practicing.

Now he has seriously wowed me with drawing. He's been drawing circles for a couple weeks because that is what he loves - wheels that go round and round. Well the other day he drew mommy complete with eyes, nose, hands etc and yesterday he drew a train with train tracks. I'm seriously blown away. It come on so suddenly although he has always been very interested in drawing - he just always wanted us to do it. I miss him asking me now! Ugh, i used to think it was a task to draw for him trains over and over.

Look at this great train...i love the line of smoke. I'm kicking myself for writing the word train on it. But i label and date the best of his work and save it all so he can look back at it.



I've been curious if he's going to have that artistic streak since i'm a bit creative and my mil is a well known artist in Pakistan. We will see but it's exciting in any case to see such budding talent. It's all he does now. Draw draw draw. I bought him a new notebook today because he flies through them now.

The other big surprise is since yesterday he says "thank you ami", "don't do that ami!" "no ami i don't want to" "please ami" and is only using "daddy" for me when he's calling for me. So dang cute to hear him come out with this on valentines day. T-O-T-A-L-L-Y melted my heart. I already miss him calling me daddy. My boy is growing up!

Cute!

Here's the side detail.
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

I don't usually go to antique stores and prefer to dig in thrift stores. Mostly because of price. But i went to an antique store this weekend with my neighbor and look what i found. This has got to be the cutest thing. I don't usually buy nick nacky things but i couldn't leave this behind especially when it was 50% off. Love the detail. Looks Japanese but it's not. It's from Denmark. It's going on my special shelf of "toddler do not touch these" - there's only 5 things there now but things that i truly find wonderful. I need to take a picture of that shelf.

Look at how small it is! And dainty too.

I was going to use it but i can't. I just can't.

I also got this miniature tea cup. I wanted one for the table to put a candle in.

Book It!

Carol at Carol for Peace tagged me for a book meme. I always love seeing what people read.

Here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the 5th Sentence
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 5 people.

I had 3 books on top of each other so you get 3.

1. Footsteps by Umm ZakiyyahThat was the best way to begin. A question would allow her to find the right words, if she would have to convey what she suspected her daughter wanted to know.
"I mean was that important to Dad?"

2. Son of Stitch n Bitch - Seam top of hood using 3-needle BO. Work stripes on hood as for sleeves. Ribbing - With RS facing, larger needle and CC1, starting at base of hood, PU a multiple of 4 sts evenly around edge of hood and across front neck. (Ironically, this is the only pattern in the book i want to try but that won't be for a while apparently. Library book.)

3. Teach me to do it myself: montessori activities for you and your child - You respond with "Which numeral is the same as nothing?" Point to the numerals on the floor and she should pick out the "O". Help her to pin it to the empty bag. (another library book).

If I had been sitting across the room, the books would have been a bit more interesting. LD's library books would have been fun too if they weren't less than 123 pages. ;-)

I tag my regular to semi-regular commenters. I always look forward to hearing from each of you.
1. Organic Muslimah
2. Qalballah
3. Gulnari
4. Farhana
5. Zack

Valentines.

Making Valentines on a snowy day.

Guess what we are doing today?
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

making valentines
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

Finished valentine and present
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

Some for his class and one for his baba and the vase is for a teacher he really likes for a program he's in.

Fun.

talking weather with a 2 year old

LD: Wassthaaaaat???
Me: It's the wind honey.
LD: Look. Look. Look! The sky is broken. Leaves upsidedown.
Me: It's okay honey, it's just the wind. The wind is really strong today. It's a little scary isn't it?
LD: Need a screwdriver and fix the sky.
Me: You need a screwdriver?
LD: Yeah! Fix the sky. Sky is broken. Moon fall down. Uh oh. (points to sky). Look, moon fall down.

LD hands me the remote.

LD: Need to watch the news. Sky fall down.

I turn on the tv. It's on the news already. Obama is giving a speech and people clap. LD claps (lol) and says "come on" (clap too). Ah, to have the beautiful mind of a two year old.

:-)

Been sewing.

Time these days seems so rare. LD needs/wants his daddy (he calls me daddy still) all the time. I find myself enjoying our time together more because it's more focused instead of trying to distract him while i can get something done too. So now I just don't get anything done. The house is a mess and dinner is a last thought thing. He's happy though and it makes me happy.

Speaking of the daddy thing. I forget sometimes because I'm so used to him calling me it. Weird that he calls me mommy and ami to my husband but when he's with me it's always daddy. He knows i want him to call me ami but he will only do it if he's really after something. Mind games i tell ya. But the other day i was at the store and he said "daddy daddy daddy" and this 50-ish woman just looked at me so strangely. He did it at the library one day too and a few minutes after said "two mommies" and held two dolls up. A a couple of the mom's gave me strange looks. I realized maybe they think i'm of another persuasion. Kinda funny.

I have been sewing though during naptime sometimes. The result of which are several pairs of pants, the cutest thing i've ever made - a girly smock, and a few things for the little dude. I'll show some pictures soon. I hide things from my little one and then can't find them, the picture cable being one of them. He's into everything. Yesterday he cut the cords off our blinds and now we can't use them. This after i carefully hang them up so he can't reach them and strangle himself. Chairs are evil. He thinks he can do anything so long as he can get a chair there.

My finger is healing too from a sewing accident a few days ago. Can't knit or do much of anything since then. Want to hear a nasty story? My husband can't even look at my finger without cringing. I sewed through it with the machine. Yes, all the way through. It's just the tip but it is pretty gross. Pictures soon!

chopsticks for kids

Love this video on how to make chopsticks kid friendly quickly and easily. Can't wait to try this out. I think if i let him eat with chopsticks more often he'd eat more focused instead of running around between bites.

Go Obama!

For the first time in my adult life I'm voting for someone I believe in. I think Obama is an amazing person. He's brave too. I'm sure he knows that there will likely be an assasination attempt on him but he knows it's worth it. I really do believe he believes in America and that's why I believe he'll be a good president. Even little dude is running around today saying "obama-ada" :-D

One Voice

Great book for kids...er um you.

We always bring a canvas bag filled with books from the library every week. Sometimes I enjoy a book better than LD. And this one is one I really loved this week: Farmer Brown Shears his Sheep: A Yarn about Wool. You knitters and crocheter's will love it too.

2 completely unrelated questions

1. Has anyone ever flown Air India and just how awful was it? :-)

2. Has anyone adopted a child from a Muslim country and how hard was it, how was the experience, etc.? If you prefer to email instead of commenting here, please send me an email at WayfarersJourney@gmail.com. We're interested in possibly adopting a few kids but have no idea of where to start.

Baba Ali

Ask Baba Ali is back with a new season. I love these videos. If you haven't seen the older ones, do check them out!