Lucky Dorito

I am making plans to go to Guatemala again in January 2012, just a mere 10 weeks from now. Once again, I’m taking orders for t-shirts that will help me raise funds for my trip. The shirts will be black with the writing in white except for the word LOVED – which will be in aqua.

{The shirts were designed by my friend Shannon. Didn’t she do a great job?!?!}

I can send you a link to the order form if you’re interested. Just email me at luckydorito@gmail.com for a copy!

I was having a particularly bad day yesterday (if you didn’t notice by my post). I was definitely out of patience with so many things in my life. I went to bed very sad and discouraged. I slept poorly – which almost never happens to me.

This morning, the first thing I saw when I went to Pinterest was this:

Wow.

If that wasn’t a swift kick in the pants, I don’t know what is.

I spent today reflecting on the things that upset me yesterday…. what my role had been in those situations, how I could have responded differently to diffuse the situation, and why I let those stinky things bother me to begin with.

Ultimately, I don’t have a justifiable answer.

I am human. I react when something hurts me – usually by venting on my blog. Or by talking with Mr. Lucky. Or to a close friend.

But….. the Lord has truly been patient with me over the years. I need to remember that, huh?

I don’t necessarily mean that literally……….although, sometimes some people do stink. Literally.

More to the point are people that say one thing and yet clearly mean another. That stinks.

Or people that tell half-truths to keep from hurting my feelings – when in reality, knowing the truth would hurt less in the long run. Maybe their half-truths are in an effort to make themselves look better. Either way, it stinks.

It seems far too often lately, I’ve encountered people that I struggle to like. That’s a harsh statement… I usually like everyone. But I’m not as easy to fool as I once was. I can now see when people are putting on a “show”. I can now see when people say one thing and then act differently.

Oh, there are times when I am still gullible, don’t get me wrong. But finally, after 45 years of life, I realize there are people in this world that will take advantage, if they can. And that truly stinks.

I am thankful for the Lord for opening my eyes when necessary. It’s sad that there are so many people in this world that seem to live for hurting others. What is UP with that??

My oldest daughter and I had a funny, yet enlightening conversation via text a few days ago. She and I haven’t always seen eye to eye on various issues, as some of you may recall from years past….. so you’ll know how much I appreciate these words from her.

(Some of the conversation is overlapped in these images, but you can follow it well enough.)

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(it’s a puzzle she’s putting together)

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So right at the moment, I’m in a plane (aisle seat) en route to Austin TX to visit with my friend Shannon for the weekend. I’m in the third row from the front – which means its a long trek thru the plane to the itsy bitsy stinky winky bathroom. This I know because I just returned from there. Let me just say – Stacy – you would sooooo not like that one!

I don’t really have anything of importance to say but I just wanted to take advantage of the fact that I CAN.

We had a good chuckle at work the other day of this photo I found with a quote from Betty White. It is really funny and honestly….. kinda true.

But Betty White may be the only one that can get away with saying it. 

I just watched a man a row in front of me get up and go to the front of the plane. I had to lean of out my seat a bit to see where he was going….. duh. Turns out there is a bathroom up there too. Color me stoopid. lol

Anyway, back to reading my book. Just HAD to say “howdy y’all”.

You ever feel like you’re in a million places at once, busy busy, but at the end of the day – don’t feel like you’ve actually accomplished ANYTHING?

That’s the story of my life these days. I feel busy but I don’t really have much to show for it.

But….. my girls sure aren’t cute, aren’t they?

I found a tutorial via Pinterest on how to take a plain tshirt and turn it into a ruffled thing of beauty! I’ve been in such a slump lately that I figured a little hands-on project would do me some good, both emotionally and creatively.

Now, I promise my instructions below will in NO WAY COMPARE to the lovely tutorial I followed at Tea Rose Home – hers is simply FANTASTIC (as are ALL the tutorials I’ve read through on her blog) but I’m gonna give it a whirl anyway.

After reading her tutorial a few weeks ago, I kept thinking about it in the back of my mind. I didn’t really plan to try it so soon but I was at Walmart one day, getting groceries, when I happened to notice a clearance rack of tshirts. I grabbed two of the same color to use, although I wish I had other color options to choose from but for $3 each, I couldn’t pass them up!

You use one shirt as the actual base shirt and the other one is to cut up to make into ruffles.

Sidenote: When I was a little girl, my granny was on a kick making Raggedy Ann dolls for each of us girls. She also made the clothes for the finished dolls. When I went to visit her for a few weeks in the summer, she sat me down and taught me how to make ruffles in fabric. I’ve always remembered that lesson and it came in handy for this shirt! I’ll try to explain it in a bit…. you’ll definitely need to know how for this shirt.

The first step is to cut off the sleeves and then cut up one side of the shirt, from bottom edge to armhole.

By the way, don’t ask me WHAT is going on with the color in these images… I didn’t have my flash on so the only thing I can figure is as the room got brighter in the morning sunlight, it changed the look of the light. Duh. I was so engrossed in working that I didn’t even notice it until I downloaded the images to my laptop.

Using a ruler, I cut 2 longs strips the width of the shirt 1 1/4  inches wide and then 6 more 2 1/2 inches wide and cut them in half.   **I sort of deviated from her tutorial on Tea Rose Home here – she said do make those 6 strips 12 inches long…. I left mine longer because she mentioned that her shirt was an X-small…. and mine is…. well, not. I decided I’d rather leave my strips longer so that my ruffles would be more proportionate to my shirt. **

Next, take each strip and sew 1/4 inch from the edge with BIG stitches – making sure to leave a little excess thread on either end of your strip because you’ll need those to gather your ruffle. You grab hold of one of the thread and hold it tight, while pushing your fabric toward the center of the strip. The fabric will begin to ruffle up as it gathers together. (Sadly, I didn’t take a photo of this step but I have another project I also worked on that I did photograph so here’s what it looks like to ruffle:)

Each of the 2 1/2 strips were gathered until they were approximately 9 inches wide across the top. For the thinner strips, I actually sewed both of them together and made one reallllly long ruffled strip that will go around the collar, leaving a 9 inch space for the first of the wide ruffles.

I sewed the collar ruffle on first and then began adding the wider ruffles down the front of the shirt.

I pinned each additional ruffle in place to see how it layed before actually sewing them all on. I think for a $6 investment, it turned out pretty darn cute!

Have you noticed how owls are all the rage these days? I think they are super cute and have loved owls all my life.  They do have a special place in my heart since I was a young girl because my mom had a painting of four owls that she said reminded her of me and my sisters.

A few days ago, I found myself in Goodwill, looking for gently used shoes for my next trip to Guatemala (I’ve been collecting shoes to take with me to donate to all those that don’t have any). And I came out with something I totally did NOT need but fell in love with anyway.

Ugly owls + crazy-spraying white paint = lovely white owls

Now I just need to find the perfect spot  for them.

My dad left us three years ago, in the blink of an eye. No illness, no accident, no warning whatsoever -

a massive heart attack that took him in an instant.

I think of him almost daily now  – probably more often than I did when he was alive, if the truth be told.

That sounds harsh, but it is true. Often wrapped up in my own life: raising my kids, working full time, trying to stay above the ever-threatening-to-collapse  mountain of laundry, and just living my life – some days would pass without a thought to my dad.

Funny how that has changed now.

*****

A few months ago I watched a movie titled “Rabbit Hole” with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. It was a sad movie about a couple dealing with the death of their young son. There was a scene in which Nicole Kidman’s character (Becca) discusses death with her mother (played by the fabulous Dianne Wiest), who had also lost a son many years before. It went like this:

Becca: Does it ever go away?
Nat: No, I don’t think it does. Not for me, it hasn’t – it has gone on for eleven years. But it changes though.
Becca: How?
Nat: I don’t know… the weight of it, I guess. At some point, it becomes bearable. It turns into something that you can crawl out from under and… carry around like a brick in your pocket. And you… you even forget it, for a while. But then you reach in for whatever reason and – there it is. Oh right, that. Which could be awful – not all the time. It’s kinda…
[deep breath]
Nat: not that you like it exactly, but it’s what you’ve got instead of your son. So, you carry it around. And uh… it doesn’t go away. Which is…
Becca: Which is what?
Nat: Fine, actually.

*****

I’ve thought of that conversation from the movie many times since then. There is a part of it that rings very true to me…. I can almost put it out of my mind, like a brick in my pocket – and then I reach in for something and find it.

It makes me sad for all the things left unsaid.