Buttons!

I love old buttons. Whenever I see a button-filled jar at the flea markets or yard sales, I make a beeline for it. I finger them and mentally pick out the best ones. I have lots of buttons. Pretty ones, glass ones, metal ones, utilitarian ones. I blame my high school sewing teacher for my love of buttons. Never cared or noticed them before, unless I had to button up a shirt.

I was a star sewer in her class. I would finish our appointed projects ahead of schedule, so she let me have individual projects on my own. I picked out a vest pattern I wanted to make, and she let me pick out these beautiful satin-y fabrics for the back and lining, and a lovely rose pattern in rayon for the outside. I wanted something different for the fasteners on the vest, but scanning the racks at the fabric store yielded nothing. Then my sewing teacher broke out her special buttons. It was a lovely tin full of them. She explained the history of a few and I was surprised to learn that some were from civil war uniforms and some had human hair woven into the centers! I never knew that buttons could tell so much about a time period until she showed me her collection.

After I admired her buttons and picked out the ones I liked, you know, you pull aside the pretty or unusual ones and pass by the ones that you don't really care for, she did the unexpected. She let me have them. I picked out 5 I thought were special and put them on my vest. She also had vintage buckles and she let me have one for the buckle in the back of the vest. It was perfect! Just the look I was going for. Sadly, I no longer have the vest, it disappeared when I was traveling and I've not seen it since. I do, however, still have my love of buttons.

So when I saw this idea a while back on someones' blog, I knew I would try it myself. She used hers as pins and I think she even suggested adding magnets for the fridge, but I thought they'd make lovely ornaments for the tree.

Button Flowers!!

Pick out your buttons, arrange them, then glue with Aleene's Glass and Bead glue (I found mine at the craft store).

Middle made that big one from metal buttons.

The kids did the arrangements, I did the gluing. Crack a window or turn on the ceiling fan when you use the glue, it's pretty smelly.

You could use new buttons, they sell bagged ones at the craft store, or use what you have. I admit, I had a teensy bit of an inner struggle with myself when the girls picked out a particularly nice button for their flowers, but I refrained from saying anything. In the end, it makes a pretty flower, right? We used a mix of old and new buttons. When some of my Mom's clothes got ruined in the fire, I snipped off the buttons! Many of these were from Mom's clothing.

After the glue dried (I let it sit overnight), I strung embroidery thread through the button holes to hang on the tree. Some flowers had no exposed holes, so I glued a fuzzy wire twisted into a circle on the back. You could also use a paperclip twisted into a hook, or use an extra ornament hook. I'd like to make more and use them as fridge magnets. These would make such cute gifts! The girls had fun and I have a little more room in my button jars now!! :o)

Finding Myself- Part 2

**This is taking me longer to finish than I thought it would. Next time I do something like this, I'll make sure I have all the photos I'll need first. I still haven't found that one photo album I'm looking for-- the years between high school and marriage. I did manage to find other albums I forgot about, so I'll go ahead and continue where I left off. **

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After high school, I stayed home a year.

I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do and if I were to be honest,

I think I was depressed.

I spent a lot of time in my Mom's apartment watching TV, reading books, smoking cigarettes and just living a basic existence. After a while, my sister kicked my ass and told me to fill out an application for college. I did with her help and I got in the following fall of '92.

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I'm missing pictures for this part, but college? Wow! I had some serious fun!

I still didn't know what I wanted to major in, but jewelry design sparked an interest in me. My financial support vetoed that, saying it wasn't a financially supportive career and to look for another major. But they didn't tell me that until after they dropped my funding for the 2nd trimester and I got a bill from the college. That was the end of that.

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I left school in the Spring of '93 and spent the summer working at the beach. Again, missing pictures here, but it was the greatest time of my life. Of all the jobs I've ever held, working at the little gift/jewelry shop for $5/hour was the best job!

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After that summer, I kind of bummed around. I stayed in the dorm room of my best friend while she was enrolled in another college in DC. Whoo! You wanna talk about parties? We Par-Tayed! We went to all the coolest dance clubs and never paid the entrance fee. It was just like in the movies, where there was a line and the bouncer just waved us in! We got to know the bartenders on a first name basis and I don't recall ever paying for a drink. Oh the stories I could tell!

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That following summer, '94, found me in Maine. A close friend of mine lived there and invited me up for the summer. It was supposed to be just for a little bit, but I ended up falling in love with the place and when fall came and it was time for her to go back to college, I stayed behind at her Mom's house. Her Mom took me everywhere. We were kindred spirits and had much in common. We went places on weekends, exploring the state and she let me play with her 35mm camera and I discovered I loved photography. Pictures missing- argh!

I got my own apartment and started making friends, but come Spring, it was time to move on. I hated to leave, but I knew I had to.

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Summer of '95 found me and 2 of my best friends back at the beach again. I was turning 21 in the fall and I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

There was a possibility of working at a group home not too far from the beach, but the girl that was supposed to be our roommate kept flaking out on us, so I ended up going back home to Mom's at the end of the summer.

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I went to my best friend's Maw-Maw's house for a weekend and she put us to work helping out in the garden. I fell in love with canning tomatoes. I loved getting my hands dirty, picking tomatoes and then learning how to skin them, can them and seeing all the pretty rows of tomato-filled quart jars on the table. I was happy that day.
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At the encouragement of my Mom, I applied for a job in the Post Office. I took the test, was hired, and began work on 11-11-95. Little did I know, a fellow co-worker that began on the same day would be my future husband.

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I think this is the very first picture of the two of us together. This was either the first or second time I went to his parent's house and this was about a month after we started dating in November of '96.

I have never brought a boy I dated home before, and by the time my Dad met him, we were already engaged. He proposed to me on Jan 2, 1997 and we moved into an apartment together shortly after. We went to my Dad and his wife's house to gather some things for my apartment and I only introduced him as a friend who was helping me move. I wanted to tell them in a formal way, so we invited them for dinner and when I told Dad and his Wife that we were engaged, my Dad's exact words were, "I didn't even know you had a boyfriend!"

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I still didn't know what I wanted to do with myself. I knew I wanted to marry my fiancee, but the Post Office was not where I wanted to be. I hated that place. Good money, good benefits, I met my husband there, but the job was hell. It was a physically taxing job with supervisors that ignored me unless they wanted me to work elsewhere.

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We got married in '98, moved to a bigger apartment, moved to a house in the country, and then, I finally discovered what I wanted to do:

Have babies with my Husband!

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to be continued next Monday...

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving

from

my Family

to Yours!

Taking a little break, be back on Monday with more on 'Finding Myself'.

It's coming!!

Eeek! I can't find my 2nd photo album to continue the "Finding Myself" post!! I am hunting it down, it's gotta be somewhere around here! I just hope it isn't in the basement *gulp!* After we made room for my Mom's boxes down there, we sort of shoved our stuff to the other side, and haven't gotten around to reorganizing down there. Might be time to do that now... sigh. The kids swear up and down that they don't know where it is, and I believe them. They like to look through our photos, but don't usually put them back where they got them, so it might have gotten misplaced in one of our 'hurry-people-are-coming-over-let's-clean-up-quick!' cleaning sprees!

As soon as I find the album, and I cannot rest until I do, I'll continue where I left off. Thank you for all your positive comments. I enjoyed reading them and look forward to reading what you'll say on the next installment.

On a funny side note: I bought the Husband a bag of chocolate-covered raisins. It's sitting on the pantry shelf in plain view of the kids. Oldest asked me if she could have some, and I told her to ask her dad, they're his. So she bounds out of the room to find daddy. Hubby came out laughing, he said she asked him if she could have his "chocolate grapes"!!! He had to think about that one a bit before he realized what she meant! Don't you just love kids and how their minds work?? :o)

Finding Myself

Every kid goes through that period where they are searching for who they are-- their style, their signature, that thing that tells the world they are who they are. At 13, when I went into high school, I wasn't too sure of who I was, except that I was a deaf girl about to enter a school for the deaf, and for the first time, I would be equal to my peers. I hoped that I would no longer have to endure taunts from hearing classmates or be picked on for my K-mart clothes or be teased for not saying a word correctly.
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This, was how 14 year olds dressed back in 1988.
Please note that the jeans and the jean jacket are K-mart issue.

How are today's 14 year old girls so gorgeous??? None of the girls I knew back then look like the girls do today!

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The buttons on my jacket ranged from:

"SSDD- Same Shit, Different Day"

"I'm not Deaf, I'm ignoring you!" (ha-ha!)

A picture of Spuds McKenzie

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I remember how I felt most of the time that year.. like I was a fat kid with braces. I had an aunt and uncle that always told me that if I wore make-up I'd be so pretty and to dress better, which only made me more painfully aware of myself and I figured I must not be very pretty for them to say that to me. I remember pulling my already big shirt out to be sure that you couldn't see my tummy when I sat down and my long bangs would obscure half of my face.

I did manage to get my first kiss at 14. Some of us girls and boys would go behind the dorms and have make-out sessions. I don't know about anyone else, but I never went beyond kissing.

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This is me at 15, the summer between sophomore and junior years. We were dressed up for a Sadie Hawkins party and this was my version of country bumpkin. It was fun that day, but then I was caught in that anxiety of trying to "catch" a guy and hoping he would have fun with me and not be all depressed that it was me that got him. I never did figure out if he was cool with me-- after our "marriage" we went our separate ways.
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At just-turned-17, I was still searching for my style. I was wearing a shirt from a guy I liked. It was Homecoming weekend at the university and he was a freshman and I was a high school senior. I stayed overnight in his room. Nothing happened- I slept on the floor, but the next day, I needed a shirt, so I swiped his. I wore that shirt out. How many times have I thought I was the coolest chick wearing a boys' shirt??? I figured out here that I liked silver jewelry, so I had the big hoops and silver rings and necklaces. I was all about the silver!
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I went stag to my senior prom. No one asked me. I wanted to go, it was on a cruise ship, so me and 2 other girls decided we'd go together and have fun anyway. I was starting to discover my style-- hippie chick. This was my prom outfit. I felt so daring, wearing a see-thru blouse, belly showing, mini-skort. I went to Georgetown to buy this outfit at all the hip shops. I had on dangle-y daisy earrings, a peace necklace, my hair parted down the middle... I felt like I was in my element. I was also kind of nervous, what would people think? How would they react?

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Looking at this picture of me, about to head onto the boat, I looked so sexy! Look at those legs! I wish I had more confidence in myself back then. I wish I knew how beautiful I was, instead of worrying about what other people thought of me. I wish that when I worked up the courage to ask a guy out, only to get told that he just wanted to be friends, that I said to him, "your loss", instead of feeling crushed and that girl inside of me just wanted to wither away and disappear.

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No one danced with me that night. I spent a lot of time topside, smoking my cigarettes (yes, I smoked then) and watched the sun go down over Potomac River. I took pictures for other people, posed for a few, but I didn't dance a single dance.

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After graduation, my sister and I participated in a 'Bike Across Virginia' ride. My sister was an avid biker, and I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be athletic like she was, so I tried out for the basketball and volleyball teams because she played, but I never made the teams. I could ride a bike though, so we signed up and spent 5 days riding the Shenandoah Valley with hundreds of other riders. It was a great trip, I learned I didn't have the stamina my sister had, but we had so much fun together.
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I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school. I found my style, but now what was I going to do??
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--to be continued
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What Are They Saying?

**Edited to add::

I went ahead and watched my copy of the dvd movie UP and it IS captioned AND has English subtitles!! It has no [CC] symbols on the back and no subtitles info, but it IS captioned!! I have heard from various people that the rental versions aren't captioned, dunno what the deal with that is. So my apologies, the plain dvd version of UP is ok for us Deaf people to watch!! Yay!!


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A friend on Facebook posted that the UP dvd movie did not have captions or subtitles. My heart skipped a beat as I ran to go check my copy and sure enough-- no captions or subtitles. There is French and Spanish subtitles, but not English. I went online to the Disney website and did some searching and I found they released 3 versions of the UP movie-- Blu-Ray, Digital, and regular DVD. ONLY the Blu-Ray version has English subtitles for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing viewers.

Why??? First, the Blu-Ray version costs more, and you need the Blu-Ray player. Secondly, why would Disney choose to leave out the captions or subtitles on any version of their movies?? I like watching movies, too! My kids could still watch it, but I won't be able to understand anything. Have you ever tried to lip-read a cartoon??? I'm a good lip-reader, but not that good!

I'm upset about it. I already opened the movie to clip out the proof-of-purchase tabs to redeem a rebate on the movie. I don't know if I'll be able to return it. I did get it for free after the coupons, but it's the principal of the thing-- had I known there were no captions or subtitles on it, I wouldn't have bought it. I hardly ever check for captions or subtitles anymore.. almost all the popular movies released on dvd have captions or subtitles.. it's usually the older copies or lesser-known movies that are hit-or-miss with captions.

I'm going to try and take back the movie, but I think the chances will be slim that they refund my $10 CVS bucks.

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Shopping Frugally

Money is still an issue for us. Hubby is still working at his part-time job, and we are ever so grateful for it, knowing that there are many others without work. We have been doing alright, we have our moments when we have only $17 in the bank and we are left holding our breath until the next paycheck comes in, and sometimes, almost as soon as it gets deposited, it's spent already.

It helps that we don't keep up with all the newest toys and fashions, we are a low-tech family, which means we don't have any video games or ipods or any such electronica. We only have a computer, a TV with a DVD/Video player, and a plain and simple cell phone for Hubby. Oh, and an old handheld nintendo game player that gets used only in the bathroom. We are happy this way, with a simple lifestyle and less distractions that take away our time as a family.

It also helps that we raised maybe 30% of our own food-- hopefully more next year. I am still figuring out the balance and how much to plant to feed our growing family; for example: I planted 45 potato halves which gave us about 150 pounds of potatoes, and that lasted about 2 1/2 months. Definitely need to plant more next season.

That said, since my Dad's wife taught me some coupons tricks last August, I have been learning how to shop all over again. I've always used coupons before, but it never saved me much, maybe $10 at the most here and there, but still, it helped. I always wondered how those "coupon ladies" got $150 worth of groceries and only paid like $5 bucks! How did they do that??? I am slowly learning how!

I found out last week that Target was having a sale on a children's game-- connect 4x4. It was on sale for $14.99. There was a coupon out for $5 off, plus Target has a store coupon for $5 off. That makes it $5 after coupons. Then, I also had a $5 giftcard from buying something at Target, which made the game free and all I had to pay was the tax, which was 49 cents! Now, I have a game for all of us to play and I can put it under the tree this Christmas, and it didn't break the bank. Heck! It didn't even crack the wallet!

Do any of you shop at CVS? I never did. I thought it was an expensive store and I only shopped there if I needed something real quick, like cough medicine or a soda and a candy bar. Turns out, there is a trick to shopping at CVS... Get the membership card, cut out coupons in the Sunday papers, shop wisely and CVS will pay you to shop there! No, really! I'll show you-- this week, CVS is offering a nice selection of candies on sale.. buy $15 worth, and they'll give you $5 back on your receipt, which you can use to shop next time you go in. So here's the scenario:: Get 4 bags of chocolate kisses for a total of $12, 2 XL hershey bars for $3 which equals $15; use 2 $1 coupons for the kisses and a CVS coupon for $3 off $15. Ok, that sounds confusing, here...

4 kisses -- $12
2 XL bars-- $3
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equals $15
2-$1 coupon -$2
CVS 3 off 15 -$3
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total is $10 and CVS gives you $5 to use next time you shop!

So say next week, they offer the candy deal again, you now have $5 CVS cash along with whatever coupons you have and they give you more CVS cash for next time! It's a great little trick to keep you coming back, but when you use your own coupons, you actually kind of trick them a little bit. I don't know how they can afford to do it, but it works for me, so I'm not complaining. By using this way of shopping at CVS, I was able to get the newest Pixar UP movie on DVD for free! There goes another present under the tree this year! I also now have candies to use for my holiday baking-- the kisses go into cookies and the XL chocolate bars will be turned into fudge.

Last year, we could only afford one present for each child and then one present for all of them to share. On the one hand, we didn't mind, we wanted to teach them to appreciate their things and not get materialistic; on the other hand, we really wanted to be able to give them more, but just couldn't afford to. This year, we'd like to give each child 2 presents-- a new pair of jammies and one item, maybe a book or a toy, and then the game and the movie for them to share. With the money I am saving with my new way of shopping, I can see it happening.

I'm not super coupon lady yet, but I am getting there. It's a lot of work on my part, to search out online coupons and match up the coupons with the sales to make a good deal. I try to limit my computer time to a couple hours during the day and then a couple of hours after the kids go to bed. I am grateful that Hubby helps out and doesn't mind using coupons, too. He was the one that picked up the free game at Target for me last week and came home pretty pleased about it. We now have a little game we do with each other after I get home from the store and I point out something I got for free. I'll hold it up and we say "fuh-ree!" then laugh like crazy! Wait til he gets home tonight and I hold up the new UP movie... "fuh-ree!" then we'll cackle like a couple of crazy old loons!

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