All About Me...

I've never done a blog before and I'm not sure where to really start with all of this - so I decided why not tell you a little about myself. To start way back at the very beginning, I was born in Provo, Utah to my parents who were finishing school up at Brigham Young University. When I was 2 years old, my parents were finished with school and we packed up and moved to North Carolina. So I always say I am from North Carolina :D

I ended up being the oldest of 7 children! Below is a picture of all 7 of us, in order from oldest to youngest, at my niece's wedding in August of 2020...

It makes me feel wonderful and blessed to say that we all grew up to be close - not perfect or without disagreements and arguments at times - but we always have the underlying will to stay friends. I would say we had a great childhood - again not perfect - but to focus on all the wonderful parts: we played all day and into the evening outside, watched Saturday morning cartoons, went to church every week, had fun camping and fishing trips, traveled across country a few times to Utah and Spokane, Washington area for my mom's side of the family reunions, helped my mom can and put up the best fruits and vegetables you've ever tasted and loved acting out Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and Scooby Doo episodes outside in our backyard and wooded area.

For me, I loved my dolls - baby dolls, Barbie dolls, stuffed animals. My mother always sewed for us - clothes and toys. The most favorite thing I remember her making us are little finger puppets made of felt. We'd stand by her while she sewed them until our fingers were filled up with them! By the time I was probably about 8 years old, I really wanted to learn to use her Singer sewing machine. So she started letting me play around with it and try sewing straight seams and things like that. By the time I was 9, I was tracing my Barbie dolls and using any and all scraps of fabric from the dresses she made my sisters and myself to create my own doll clothing. I have the first official dress I ever made in the pictures below (circa 1980)...

I've definitely improved since this dress (LOL!)! This early beginning of sewing though led me to make clothing for myself and my sister when we were teenagers. I went on to attend Brigham Young University where I took a few sewing classes. To this day, I still love sewing - clothing for myself and grandchildren and my daughter, doll clothing, little coats for my little 5lb. chihuahua, quilting and just about anything else that comes up!

So - I met my husband at BYU and we were married while in school, had our first 2 sons and when our boys were 2years and 9 months old, our little family moved to North Carolina! We lived in the Charlotte area - actually in Concord (NASCAR country if you're into NASCAR - we were about 10 minutes from the racetrack). We had our daughter in North Carolina and raised our 3 children there. Our oldest son went on to serve a 2 year mission for our church in the Japan Kobe mission. He returned home and majored in Japanese at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Now he has his own family of 3 children! Our younger son went on to serve a 2 year mission as well in the South Korea Busan mission. He returned home and majored in Software Engineering at BYU. He also has his own family now with 3 children as well! Our daughter graduated from high school and went on to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and earned her BA of Music and Anthropology. She is now working on a Masters program at Appalachian State University for a degree of Music Therapy.

In 2019, my husband and I left North Carolina to move to Maricopa, Arizona for his current job. While we enjoy our new life here in Arizona, we sure miss North Carolina! Thankfully we are able to go back a few times a year for visits and our children and grandchildren are able to come out here at least once a year to visit us. And I have to mention the wonderful use of technology for Facetime!

So this brings me to where I am now. During our COVID years of 2020 and 2021, I accidentally ended up with a face mask making business on ETSY! Back story, while in North Carolina, I worked for 25 years in the hospital usually in adult critical care units and as an administrative assistant to our Director of Critical Care. When I moved to Arizona, I didn't go out to find a job and focused on staying at home and sewing and to be honest had a lot of boring days since I didn't know anyone. But when the shut down occurred in 2020, two of my sisters who are nurses and several of my friends from the hospital started contacting me and asking me to make them face masks! Well this developed into a little side business where I sat at my machine for hours every day sewing masks. I loved having the ETSY shop and the relationships that were created with people from literally all over the world who bought from my shop. After the mask business dwindled, I started putting some of my 18 inch doll clothes on ETSY and had a wonderful time with that. I have always wanted some sort of little sewing school. I have taught a few people through the years to sew and actually really enjoy it! It is so fun to see how excited people are as they learn a new skill and how they love making things they can use or that they can give away as gifts.

I hope that as I begin this journey, I will be able to help you obtain your own sewing goals. And I will definitely look forward to gaining new friendships!