kaylee's a poser..

Never content to have sis steal her spotlight, Kaylee begs for a photo

The Swim Nazi

I love, love, love the girls swim teacher. So please take that title with a grain of salt. It, I assure you, is meant as a total term of endearment!

For 4 years, the girls have had swim camp in her backyard, and under her loving care they have blossomed into what I consider remarkable swimmers. (Hold off on those Olympic trials just a wee bit longer...)

With Kat in both swim team and lessons this year, her progress has been especially noteable. Her teacher has worked on her with diving starts, backstroke push offs (real name?) and form-- while her coach has worked on endurance, endurance and endurance.

Her swim teacher, with her sweet, southern accent.... does not take any excuses. She is so drippy sweet and confident, but she just won't accept failure. (This is why we have coined her the swim Nazi. ) Today I was reminded of again, how special she is to us. Heaven help me the day they outgrow swim camp... it will be a sad, sad day.

When they cry..

There were tears today. Again. Kat has figured out she can cry, and they won't make her swim all her swim team laps.

This is completely maddening for so many, many reasons.

Because she is capable. Because it is manipulating. Because it is so.... dishonest. She's robbing herself of the experience. And..... and this is a really, really tough one for me... she's getting to be known as the (gasp...) "cryer".

I tried to explain this on the way home. I hope some of it sank in.

The Old Switcheroo! Is this not the blog you expected?

I keep 3 blogs.

One, http://rubberdollar.blogspot.com is dedicated to being cheap.
Then They Keep Me In Stitches about adventures with my girls and how they make me giggle, and finally Keeps Me In Stitches which has my tutorials, reviews, my own projects, and links to free embroidery designs.

I had to rearrange a bit-- in an effort to allign the keepsmeinstitches.blogspot.com name with my business related stuff.

So if you are suddenly finding yourself wondering "why am I linked to this person's children???" the blog you are realy looking for is here.

Sorry about the mix-up. You'll need to "re-follow" (okay, that's not really a word...) to be following the correct link from now on.

Fall on the Mound September 26

Fall on the Mound, September 26

Mark your calendars north Texas for my favorite craft fair of the year. This year on September 26. Everything has to be homemade, and there is always a huge variety! You can look for me (& possibly ubermomof4 (etsy) to be sharing a booth in the Ministry center.

See you then!
September 26, 2009
Trietsch Memorial United Methodist Church
6101 Morriss Road
Flower Mound, TX 75028
(just north of DFW airport)
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The New Website

Wow! That took a while!

Complain about the job someone else is doing and you get... to do it yourself. This is the curse among crafters (C'mon... you know you do it...)

I spent a little time learning about style sheets. (I am still far from an expert!) but after the fiasco of trying to buy a website I needed to take a little control.

...go ahead, call me a control freak...

The lady who built my site is no longer operating her site. Perhaps she took a step back to educate herself. I hope so, anyway.

I did learn about a SUPER DUPER web tool that is (trumpets blaring dunt-dunt-dunt-dahhhhhh!!!!--- FREE!) Now those of you have ever checked out Rubber Dollar know that very few things get me as excited as the sign of the free.

The program is called zencart and it's everything you need to run your on-line store. You still need to know some basic style sheet knowledge-- but it is leaps and bounds above what I overpaid for last year.

I also learned how to add some really great features like the ability to save your cart (the whole thing is SSL-- never fear..) and mail to another person if you'd like to send a gift. You can even sign up for my newsletter and get fun discount codes! The whole thing is incredibly feature rich and run by the most remarkable group of very helpful, downright friendly people. You should definitely check it out.

I'm finally finished with the drapes over in Tealwood Est. - - she had the most beautiful fabric choices. I really love how she decorates.



Also finished a little apron and chef hat for a birthday gift, DD went to a party Saturday.

This week we're all a little under the weather, but I managed to complete two tutus promised to the girls- one with pink ribbons for Valentine's Day dance class.