Moms Night Out

Moms Night Out. Have you seen it yet? If not you are missing out on one funny movie! I was out shopping yesterday and I stumbled upon the movie as I was browsing the isles. I remembered it coming out in theaters and that I had wanted to see it so I took the chance and purchased the DVD. 

Sammy and I sat down to watch the movie last night after Grayson had went to bed. I had to stifle my laughs a lot of times as to not wake Grayson. I really figured that Sammy wouldn't like it but after it was over he actually said that it was one of the best movies that he had seen in a long time.

 As a new mom I look around sometimes and feel just like the main character Allyson. She is a mom to 3 young children, wants a spotless house, and is a germ-a-fobe. As moms sometimes we feel like we have to do it all and if we don't we're a failure. I'm finding more and more that this notion is furthest from the truth and that's what I loved about this movie. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone. 

Christmas Time is coming, Christmas Time is coming......

Guess what? There are less than 18 weeks till Christmas! Gasp or Sigh as you like but I love Christmas and would have Christmas music playing all the time if my loved ones wouldn't shoot me. I've started working on some new Christmas Ornament Patterns. Here is a sneak peak at my first one. It's called "The Southern Star Ornament." It uses super duos, 3mm and 4mm bicones, and size 11 seed beads. This was my first sample to play with the design. I've started another one in teal and lime green that I'm really excited about. I'm going to write my pattern by that one. This pattern will be for sale on our website starting Wednesday September 10th. I'm not going to do a video for this one but don't worry because I've already got another design in mind to do for a video in October. It will use super duo's too. 

Graysons 1st Hair Cut

Yesterday was a monumental day at our house. Grayson got his first ever haircut! I've never been one to be superstitious but I can't tell you how many people told me that it was best to wait until after his first birthday to get his hair cut. So we waited. I have to say that I was worried but in the end it was a great experience! Because Grayson has been around her a good bit we decided to let Laurie, one of our employees at the shop who is also a hair dresser,  cut his hair. She did a wonderful job and Grayson loved it. He was quite ticklish though. Sammy doesn't get his hair cut so it was a new experience for him too!

Here is Getting suited up and ready to go. We decided to let Dada hold him while I took pictures.

He loved Lauries bracelet so off it came to give him a distraction.

 A little off the top and sides.

He was one happy boy to get some of that hair off. 

Pattern Writing

 I get asked on a weekly basis about how I write patterns, how I come up with my designs, and why don't I come out with more quicker. I get asked so much in fact that I decided to address it today.

1. "How do I come up with my designs".
A design can derive from inspiration I see online, in life, nature, etc. Basically I get an idea in mind and what beads I want to use. I then go and find the beads, sit at my bead mat and start playing. Designing is a lot of trial and error. You have a design in your head that you want to achieve and have to work and take apart over and over again until you reach your end result. A design can take anywhere from 1-40 hours to complete depending on the difficulty of the project. Once I am happy with the design and have worked out any kinks it time to write the pattern.

2. "How do I write patterns?"
To write a pattern I try to use the same language that I would use if you were sitting right next to me and I was teaching you one on one how to do the project. You have to break down steps so that someone who hasn't beaded a lot can understand what you are trying to tell them. Sometimes I succeed at this and sometimes I miss the mark. I use Microsoft Word to write all of my patterns. A lot of designers like to use Coral Draw to make their diagrams. I find it just as easy for me to take pictures using my digital camera on a macro setting. This is a function that allows you take take good up close pictures. Once I have figured out my design I then come up with a name for it and this serves as the title. I then have to figure out exactly what supplies are needed and how much for the materials list. From there I start on #1 and try to explain how to do the project. As I do each step I take pictures of everything that I am doing. Typing the pattern and taking pictures can take anywhere from 1 hour to 8 hours. Once the pattern is complete I then plug my SD card into my computer and use Photo shop to crop and edit my pictures. Depending on how many pictures I take this can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Once I am satisfied with the pictures then the process begins of plugging them into the pattern. This process takes anywhere from 1-2 hours to complete. Once all of this is complete I save it as a PDF and then its ready to go off into etsy land or on our website.

(Pattern Picture In Process)

3. "Why don't I out with patterns or videos more often?"
As you can see from the pattern writing, a pattern is a lot of work. An average pattern takes me about 1-2 compete days to finish. Once the pattern is complete then I try to work on the video. The video takes me the total amount of time that it takes to complete the project. Sometimes this is 30 minutes, other times this is up to 3 hours. I make the entire project in the video sequence. Videos are not made at my shop because when I'm at the shop I'm helping customers, putting inventory in the computer, making room for new beads, etc. I have to find time when the shop is closed for the video. Once the video has been completed by me it then goes to Sammy to edit and upload to YouTube. The editing process takes about an hour and then he uploads it which can take an hour or more. So, total process time for pattern writing and video can take 2-3 days.

There are only 7 days in a week so it's become an impossible process for me to crank out a new pattern and video every week since the birth of my son. I love my shop but I love my family more and I try to spend every second away from the shop with them. Before Grayson was born I had all the time in the world and would sit up all hours of the night working but as you know, Life Changes. We can either adapt or suffer and I have chosen to adapt. I still love to bead and I do it as much as I can but at the end of my life I want Grayson to be able to look back and see what his mom was "present" in his life and wasn't always focused on work. You only get 1 chance to do things right.

(My favorite photo from our most recent beach trip)

Method to my madness

Back on January 1st of this year my main goal was two fold...first, try 52 new recipes and, second, eat at home more to see how much money I could save. While browsing pinterest one day I found a great meal planning strategy. It was a pin by RubyGirl that was a meal planning board where you planned a whole months worth of food and put it on a monthly planner. At the bottom of the planner you added all the recipes for that particular month on an O ring. I went to RubyGirl's website and there was a template you could purchase to get you started. Back in April I decided to give it a try. I was already well on my way to trying all my new recipes but I wanted a way to plan better. So, I purchased the template and haven't regretted it a single moment! It has made my life so much easier.

I built my planner from the template and basically what you do is start out with a calendar white board. I purchased mine at our local Staples. Then you print out the dates and months and add magnetic strips to the back of them so that you can change them monthly. You then print out little stripes of paper that have all of your favorite meals on them and add them to the board. As an extra glittery bonus I took flat back rhinestones and glued them to round magnetic pieces to use as my holders for the meal ideas. Who needs a boring magnet when you can glitterize? RubyGirl also suggested printing all of your favorite recipes on recipe cards and hanging them on the board for easy access. I must admit that the first month or two I was wondering if it was really worth it because I felt like I was spending a whole lot of time getting recipes typed and printed.  Now, almost 4 months later though, I don't know how I lived without this for so long!

This board works out great. Especially on days that Sammy is off or gets home before me because all he has to do it look at the board and see what's on the schedule to eat that night. He then goes right to our little recipe ring, finds the recipe with ease, and cooks us a great meal without once ever having to call me or ask questions. The board also works wonders when grocery shopping. By making out my meals for the month I already have a good idea as to what types of groceries I will need. I simply sit down on Friday night and look at all I plan to fix for the next two weeks. I then go the recipe ring and look to see what ingredients I will need. Once I have a pretty good idea of what I need, I  then look in our pantry to see what we already have that I won't need to buy. This has worked out great in the fact that before I was meal planing like this I would spend $100.00 or more a week on groceries that would go bad because I had no idea what I was going to fix. Now for 2 weeks worth of groceries I am spending less than $60.00 and we pretty much go through all the food that I buy. If it's not on the list, we don't buy it.

Saturday is my grocery shopping day. Right after work on Saturdays my first stop is ALDI, a local discount grocery chain. I get all that I can purchase there and I then  go to Ingles, a larger grocery store, to purchase the rest. At first I was anxious and nervous to try some of the food from AlDI, especially food that I had been used to eating for a long time that was name brand. In the end though I found that most "generic" brand food that I found at ALDI was really good. Now, because of my list, I'm in and out of the stores in no time and I have saved lots of money because I didn't buy name brand. I used to hate grocery shopping but my meal planning and food lists have made shopping a lot easier. Another great reason I love grocery shopping now is because most of the time I go by myself. I stick my ear buds in and listen to my latest book on audible. Before I had Grayson I would sit for hours on end reading but since he's came along reading has gotten complicated. Audible has allowed me to still be able to "read" while I'm grocery shopping, cooking, beading, etc. I found out recently that our local library offers free ebooks that you can "check out" so I'm going to try that out too!

If you've ever thought about meal planning I would highly recommend it. I wasn't disappointed and neither will you! Like I said, the first few months can seem overwhelming and daunting but after you get the hang of it, it works great! I tried to find RubyGirls website so that I could share the link to the food board but it says that the website has been taken down. I hope that you can get the gist from my pictures.

Goodwill obsessed!

They say that the fastest way to start the road to recovery is to admit that you have a problem. Well...My name is Kelly Dale and I'm obsessed with the Goodwill stores. It all started a few months back.

I was sitting at home one afternoon with Grayson watching 19 Kids and Counting. Now weather you agree or disagree with there choice to have so many kids, one thing is for sure...I love their family and christian values. This episode lead me to read their second book which talks a lot about how they are able to live and raise 19 kids. One thing that they spoke about was how they never buy clothes new. They shop at thrift stores for all their goods. I sat and started to think about the last time I went shopping and how much I spent on clothes. Being plus size I have to pay more for clothes and Lord help me if you shop at Lane Bryant or other name brand plus size stores where the cheapest shirt you can buy is $39.99! So, Goodwill shopping started off as a challenge to see if I could find clothes my size and if so how much money could I save.

After my first "real" shopping trip to Goodwill I was hooked. I found quite a few Lane Bryant pieces, a super cute Duck Head polo dress, and a few Cato brand shirts. I got all of these pieces for a fraction of what I would pay for it new. My new yellow Duck Head dress cost me $6.00 and I would have paid almost $50.00 for it brand new. It started out as a once a week trip. Now it seems like every time I pass a Goodwill I have to stop!

Above is the yellow Duck Head dress that I found on one of my first trips to Goodwill. I'm pairing it with white leggings that I found on Amazon, white strappy sandals from Shoe Show, and jewelry that I made. I'm wearing the Lovely Laurie hoops that can be found on my youtube page and a crystal cuff bracelet that was designed by Cathy Lampole. Both are made using Swarovski Turquoise 2xAB crystals.

 

 

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First project from Bead Along Finished!

Knowing that the next few weeks of my life are going to be crazy I sat down over the weekend and worked on the first project from the new Bead Along Book...Shaped Beadwork and Beyond. The Diamond and Rivoli Earrings are found on page 99. The earrings are pretty easy to make and quick. I made the pair in about an hour and a half. All the project takes is two 12mm Rivoli's, size 11 Delica's, and size 15 seed beads. For those of you who are going to do the bead along you may want to take note that there is one thing that needs to be corrected on the pattern. On page 100 Row 8 you will Peyote 4 with A's. The pattern says to Peyote 5 with A's but I made both earrings and you can only peyote 4. 

This project isn't due until August 25th so get busy and then send me your finished project pics when your finished!