# 404 - A Rainy Day and Old Skills Kept Alive

It's Monday. It's President Day. It's been raining. The humidity is heavy in the Texas air.

Our neighbors across the street sold their house and have officially moved out, so that means new neighbors will be moving in. Eek!

We had someone new want to put a contract on our house, but they needed to put a Contingency Contract in place that says they will follow through with buying our house once they've sold their house...big problem...they didn't even have their house up for sale yet. Answer from us...Come back once your house is on the market and you have a serious buyer.

But, I am still enjoying my roses that my husband gave me for Valentine's Day.

This evening, we have more buyers coming to look at the house. So, I've been doing laundry, dusting and preparing. However, I need that buyer who wants a big house. Then, I can move out of this big house.

Along with hoping the house sells, I am celebrating the gift of life every day because my oldest daughter, Heather, is expecting her first child. Heather and Henry are going to have such fun being parents.

I am going to be very happy to be a grandmother. It's weird to me that I am going to have a grand-baby; it doesn't seem that I'm already hitting this phase in life, but I'm about to be 45 years old.

Me...this week. Hello to my Blog Buddies!

It's a good age to be a first-time grandma.

Then, I realize, one day, most likely, both my daughters will be mothers, and this means I'll have more wonderful grand-children to spoil!

While she was growing up, my youngest daughter, Stefie, would always say that she wanted ten children. I remember negotiating with her, trying to get the number reduced to a manageable level. However, I must say, I think she'd be a great mom of one child or of ten children.

She might find two or three kids fairly manageable.

As for me, having a grandbaby on the way is pulling me back into certain things I enjoyed as a mother of younger children, things such as sewing. In preparation for being a grandparent, I've been drawn back into the magical world of Hancock Fabrics.

I have to provide some back-story...as a mother to young daughters, I was constantly sewing. Mostly, I sewed to create adorable outfits for my daughters because my husband and I produced children who were super skinny and extremely long-legged, which made it difficult to find certain outfits at a department store.

In the photo below, my daughters are getting to walk around in the dresses I made for them as they have fun beneath their little umbrella during a light rain.

Stefie and Heather wearing dresses I sewed.
They had so many clothes sewn by me through
the years. Soon, sewing
became a family project.

One of the most fun parts of sewing for my daughters had been the creativity they enjoyed by their involvement in selecting favorite fabrics for their new outfit. They also got to pick out patterns they preferred. Later, as they grew into teenagers and wanted to shop in department stores for their clothes, they would still want something sewn for them every now and then. However, they graduated in the creative process to the point of drawing out their own design instead of using a pattern, selecting their fabric, then HELPING to sew their outfit.

These two girls literally grew up around a needle and thread. I even purchased tags that said, "Lovingly Sewn by Mother" to put into their clothes. Sometimes, their friends wouldn't believe that their outfit was custom-made, so they'd have to show the tag.

Part of our sewing committee.

Well, now I'm drawn to sewing again. Perhaps not the same things, but I am being pulled toward making some very unique things for my grandbaby that is on the way...things that can be enjoyed whether the baby is a boy or girl, items that will be one-of-a-kind. It's important to me.

Deputy Dave is very supportive; he goes with me to Hancock Fabrics and he's well versed in how to search for certain items in a pattern book. He's the BEST at knowing exactly what I'm looking for...often, he finds it before I do and he knows precisely how to go to the pattern drawers to retrieve the pattern I'm ready to buy. I think that's awesome. Not many husbands would know how to do such things, but he is sharp, and he cares about this part of my creative side because he enjoys it as well. He likes to help and to be part of the process.

As for sewing, my Nanny, my great-grandmother (pictured below) was a professional seamstress.

She and her husband owned an upholstery shop in Madisonville, Texas for many, many years. I grew up with much of our furnishing custom-upholstered by my great-grandmother. She helped me develop a love for sewing. Often, she'd make a few articles of clothing with left-over fabrics that were suitable for clothes. She'd make the drapes in our house from remnants. To this day, I always have an urge to re-cover certain pieces of furniture because it's in my blood to have this urge; I grew up with this kind of craft being utilized as a profession.

So, I feel very at home in a fabric store. I could be happy there for hours. In fact, for our grandbaby-to-be, I have gone several times over the past few weeks to pick out fabric, and Deputy Dave was on task, helping to find perfect fabrics and materials for my projects. He may not want to handle a needle and thread nor does he want to put a pair of scissors to fabric because he could not cut a straight line if his life depended on it, but he helps in various other ways that are important.

So, this week, I will be spending time conducting a comfortable, timeless skill that I learned from my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and that I helped to further teach myself.

Perhaps the tradition will continue as the grandbabies arrive; there is no doubt that I will do my part to maintain family appreciation for the needle and thread.