THE VEST

Yep, the vest has been completed, now Hubby has a shirt, a vest and a pair of shoes for his 1860's clothing. He has decided to order a pair of trousers, and I am SO GLAD!

Both garments have been a challenge, but the vest was a set-by-set process with lots of reading of the direction and looking at the illustrations on the pattern instructions. It has three pockets and I've never sewn anything with pockets, so that was certainly a learning experience.

A picture, or two, are worth a thousand words. Hubby's head was cut off on purpose, he didn't want his hair showing, because his hair was not in order. Oh, the buckle on the back is some type of authentic type buckle that was special order.

LET'S TRY THAT AGAIN

It's been so long since I last posted I posted a title without any narrative.

My computer can't "see" my memory card from my digital camera, so I haven't posted because I think a blog without photos can be, shall we say, boring.

I just discovered that I can run a cord from a port on the front of my computer to my camera and it can see the memory card. Miracles do happen. Don't you just love the technology we have today. If only I knew how to use it.

I haven't made an article of clothing in years. Probably since, oh the 1970's when we were putting together our Rev War (Revolutionary War) clothing until the past few weeks. I dusted off the old Bernina and got to work.

The sweet Hubby has decided he wants to volunteer at Stately Oaks in Jonesboro, but he needs Civil War era clothing, which he didn't have. He purchased a very complicated historic pattern from some internet site that I just wouldn't tackle. He did borrow a Simplicity historic pattern from one of the ladies that also volunteers. I'm not sure how simple this pattern was, but it was a lot less complicated than the other one he has purchased.

We have here yet another article of clothing from history, this time, it's 19th Century. I'm reading the pattern for a vest with pockets--three pockets and some type of chest padding. I might need some help on this "simple" vest. I don't think 18th Century clothing is this complicated. This simple shirt had eight (8) EIGHT gussets in it, at the neck, under the arms and at the shirt tail. The small photo with the hand is the tiny gusset at the tail of the garment. There's nothing like looking at some one's arm pit. Now I'm off to study the vest pattern.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

ANOTHER HOBBY?

My sweet husband has had all sorts of hobbies over the years. They range from money making to money taking ones.

He had a photography hobby that turned into a nice little money making deal, however, it was hard work. I'm telling you wedding photography is torture! After he lost his job and we started our own home inspection business, which was not a hobby, but a necessity, we couldn't keep up both, so we sold all the photographic equipment. He had lots, I mean, LOTS of equipment--two Hasselblads (those are cameras--expensive cameras) and several lenses to accompany those bodies, lights, light meters, backgrounds, props, I telling you lots of stuff. Those Hasselblads? You buy them in parts, the body, the lens, the view finder, the film advance handle (I'm not kidding), and they are all expensive, very expensive. Anyway, we sold all that stuff just about the time digital was taking off, so we were very fortunate in that respect. So, we took that money and exchanged the photo studio in the attic for a theater. Rather nice exchange.

During the bicentennial, way back in the early to mid 1970's he decided he wanted to do living history (reenactments), so off we go on that little hobby. This was Revolutionary War reenacting, which meant he had to have all the clothing that went along with this living history deal. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but I wanted to be with him, so I participated as well. Understand that when you do living history all your clothing and accouterments MUST be authentic, which means that all this research had to be done as to what a particular soldier would have worn. So, with the help of other members of the 2nd Georgia Battalion we start to gather our clothing. My camp follower clothing was rather easy. By the way, a camp follower was not a loose woman, she had to be married to a member of the unit and if he died or was killed she was booted out of the unit. Not an easy life for these people that fought for our independence from England! Anyway, I had to have a chemise (18th century nightgown, underwear and bathing suit), a petticoat (skirt), a bodice (basically your bra worn over the chemise), mob cap (keeps your hair out of the fire and smoke out of your hair) and an apron. All of this had to be made of linen (remember authentic to the period). The mob cap and chemise had to be made of handkerchief grade linen, which was rather hard to find, but the other clothing was just regular linen and easily found back then. However, hubby's clothing was not quite as easy. He had to have overalls (pants), a waist coat (vest), a shirt and a frock (coat), neither of which I was capable of making, well I could have made the vest, but didn't. My Mom sewed lots, in fact she made my wedding dress she was so good, and she volunteered to make his clothing. She didn't have any difficulty with anything except those overalls, which were a nightmare. Eventually, we did get all the clothing necessary to be AUTHENTIC with our Rev War living history events. We did this from about 1973 until 1982 when we participated in a huge event at Yorktown, VA reenacting Cornwallis' (England) surrender to General Washington. It was a grand event with over 4,000 participants. After that we decided nothing could top that event, so we "retired" from Rev War reenacting.

Well! Now Hubby has decided he wants to volunteer at our local history center, which is Civil War, well actually pre Civil War, because Sherman burned everything around here. We live near a very famous Civil War area just south of Atlanta. Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" made our town very famous. In fact, the battle fought here was a turning point in the war. We have a Confederate Cemetary right at the edge of town and a very good Gone With the Wind museum at the old Depot. Actually, did you know Tara didn't exist? Margaret Mitchell had relatives that actually lived at Lovejoy and it's believed she fashioned Tara after their home place. There was a big battle at Lovejoy as well. Anyway, we have people coming here all the time looking for Tara, so the historical society purchased and moved an old house and out building in, restored them and now have guided tours of a pre Civil War farm for those looking for Tara, which is a really nice exhibit.

The historical society is always looking for volunteers and guess who has volunteered, ya'll? Yep, my dear sweet husband. I've opted out of this era, I'm not interested in gathering all the necessary items to "volunteer". He does chair making demonstrations and loves every minute of it. Once again this has necessitated more authentic clothing, so I've "volunteered" to make his Civil War era clothing. It's civilian clothing but it has to be authentic as well. I'm not creative enough to just make them, I have to have a pattern! One of the ladies in the volunteer group loaned me a pattern for the pants, shirt and vest. Last night I started this project. I took me FOUR HOURS to cut the pattern out. When you purchase a pattern it comes printed on these huge pieces of tissue paper and you have to cut all those pieces out so you can place them properly on the fabric to cut that out in order to start sewing the garment. This is NOT going to be an easy project. I've made clothes for myself in the past, but I've never made any men's clothing. I'm going to tackle the shirt first, then the vest and then hopefully by the time I get to the pants I will have tuned by sewing skills to the point I'll understand the pattern instructions.

Stay tuned for the next project. Oh, by the way, we are going to start painting the outside of our house, so when do you suppose I'll have time to sew? Maybe by Christmas I'll have this sewing project completed.

LOST, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN!

In February 2003, Hubby lost his Ultra Stinger Flashlight in the crawl space of a house in Peachtree City, GA while doing a home inspection. Check out the light at: http://www.streamlight-flashlights.com

He was sick, I mean sick, about losing his flashlight because it was a very good light and secondly it was expensive. Like $100 is a LOT to pay for a flashlight by most standards, but since he was making his living with the light it was certainly justified. He needed two at all times, one he was using and one charging, so he had to replace that lost light. I went back and pulled the records and it cost him $75 to replace just the flashlight. He already had all the adapters to recharge the light so he only had to purchase the flashlight.

Yesterday, August 24th, he received a strange telephone call from a gentleman identifying himself as Martin O..... (I'll not fully identify Martin for his sake) saying he needed to talk to him he had something very interesting to tell him. I immediately said, "NO" don't return the call because of all the scams going on with phone calls wanting to "verify" your personal information. Shortly after the first call the Martin called back and said, "I failed to tell you why I called, but I found an Ultra Stinger Flashlight registered in your name." Well! Hubby called him. This gentleman saw a flashlight along the road close to his home. He stopped and retrieved the light and realized it was a really nice light. He saw the serial numbers on the light and called the Streamlight people and found out it was registered to Hubby under our home inspection company name. So this Martin called Hubby.

When Hubby talked with Martin he found out he lives in NEVADA! Hubby's flashlight was found in NEVADA, ya'll!!!!!! How did it get from Peachtree City, GA to a nice area of NEVADA?

Martin is going to mail the light to Hubby. Hubby offered to pay the cost, but Martin said no, because recently he left his wallet on the bumper of his truck which was found by some nice gentleman and was returned to Martin with all his credit cards and money in tact. Martin offered to give him a reward but the person said no, just do something kind for someone in the future. I suppose this is paying it forward.

We just want to say THANK YOU, MARTIN O. for your honesty and kindness. We are excited about this event, we just wish the flashlight could talk and tell us how it ended up in Nevada.

THANK YOU AGAIN, MARTIN!!!!!

SUMMER IS FLYING BY

It has been way too long since I last did a post. Seems like the summer is just flying by, it's half over. I consider July 4th the half-way mark of summer.

The following is a list of things we have been doing. I was going to post photos, but my computer can't "see" the card out of my camera, so I'll just list the things we have done.

• We (this means Hubby and me, because I don't have a mouse in my pocket) went fishing at Stone Mountain and our local water authority pond.
• We finished up facilitating our Financial Peace University classes the end of May. We had 13 families to pay off over $300,000 of consumer debt during the 13 weeks of class. It was a great class.
  
• We went to the gun range for target practice. I have my target on the refrigerator. I wrote, "we call the morgue, not 911". I threatened to put this on our back door. I did really well, I can hit that target's heart every time.
• We helped take photos of the Joy Prom at a local church. This is a prom for young adults with special needs that would never get to attend a prom without this event. It was a wonderful experience. There were three Chick-fil-A cows at the prom. They were all dressed up in their dresses and special flowers.
  
• Hubby is making bird houses like crazy for a craft fair we are doing in two weeks.
• Hubby has worked really hard in our garden.
• I've canned 24 pints of green beans, we have eaten lots of cucumbers and squash, the tomatoes are about to ripen all at once and we have one lonely bell pepper. I managed to freeze about one-half bag of okra.
  
• We spent the day with good friends in their home on top of a mountain in western North Carolina. Beautiful place timber frame house.
  
• Attended a wedding, the son of Hubby's best friend growing up.
• Took Mama on a tour of Turner Field (Braves home field). She was invited to a VIP tour by the Director of Customer Affairs. We were the only guests, it was a really great tour. He picked us up at the gate in a golf cart and we went from the top to the bottom of the stadium. Mama even went out on to the field and down into the Braves dugout. Then we were escorted to the spot Hank Aaron hit his 715 home run. It's is now part of the parking lot at the new stadium. This was a real BIG deal for Mama because she is an avid Braves fan. At 91 she keeps up with all of baseball.
• We had a dear friend from Winston-Salem, North Carolina visit us and we were introduced to his girl friend. He lost his wife to cancer about three years ago and his sweet girl friend lost her husband last year to a stroke.
• We went to the Civil War reenactment of the Battle of Resaca which was just north of Calhoun, Georgia.
• We went to a craft fair in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Lots of stuff, all of which I can live without.
• We have watched a Carolina Wren raise four babies right in front of our bay window. Hubby cleaned out the nest after the babies flew the coup, and they built another nest and are now raising another family of babies. I don't know just how many yet.
• We had several ladies from the church come over, well, actually they invited themselves, but they brought lunch. We had a really fun time lunching on the patio. That was before it got too hot to eat outside.
• We are trying to sell our Mustang. It's at a really good price, very low miles. We have had it, we have enjoyed it, but it's time to downsize. It is so much fun to drive, but it's just not practical to drive in traffic with it being a 5-speed and only two passengers are comfortable and there is absolutely no trunk space in that vehicle.
• We bought us a little scooter car, a little Toyota Corolla. We love it. Found a great deal, low miles and very well maintained.
• Hubby has joined the local hysterical society, I mean historical society. He will be doing chair making demonstrations at the restored house in town. He loves it. I'm not participating in this activity. I did 18th Century living history with him, but decided not to get involved in the 19th Century.
  
• We participated in the activities at a local historic farm. In the process of digging out our 18th century clothes the top rack in the off season clothes closet fell knocking down the lower rack, so on the 4th we replaced all the hanging space in one of the upstairs closets. Such fun. It was an all day project with several trips to Lowe's to buy supplies and a couple of trips to return supplies not used.
  
• I have several friends I meet for lunch. We all worked at the same place for 30 years so we get together to catch up on what is going on in each others lives.
  
• Oh I almost forgot, I work a day or two each month. It's a great job, gets me out of the house, I make a little money and helps keep my brain working.

That about sums up all the fun filled activities here is the sunny south. This is pretty pathetic, I had to look through my photos in my camera to remember all the stuff we have been doing. Sad I know. I think we try to cram too many activities into a short period of time. You would never know we are retired and can slow down.

Money Changers in the Church

Leading up to the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, which is this coming Sunday, April 12th, we have been reading all the scriptures in the Gospels concerning the last week before Jesus was crucified on the cross. The reading started with Palm Sunday which was Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem and the remainder of the week will be what happened the week He was cruisfied and will end with His glorious resurrection on Sunday.

Yesterday we read about Jesus casting the money changers out of the Temple of God. He was mad! He ran everyone out that was buying and selling in the Temple, he even over turned their cash registers. The people were celling doves to the people in preparation for Passover, which by the way, starts tonight at sundown. This was a very important celebration for the Jewish people, remembering their deliverance out of the terrible bondage and slavery they were under in Egypt. God miracleriously delivered them from the death angel, if they had the blood on the doorpost of their homes. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, and the Pharaoh released God's people. Moses lead them out and this is when they crossed the Red Sea, yet another miracle.

In a couple of weeks there is going to be a craft show and lunch at the church to raise money for a mission project. My question, is this right? Anyway, Hubby has made three bird houses he plans to have at the craft show.















The big white one is a replica of the Fayette County Courthouse, the oldest courthouse in Georgia. Our church is in Fayette County, so this should be a really big hit, it's one of a kind, I'm sure. The green house has been painted to look like an antique finish, all cracked and the little Americana house has an American flag painted across the front of it. The roof is covered with dollhouse shingle. This is a wonderful collection of really nice bird houses, but is it right to sell them at the church?