What Makes Me Smile

As I'm doing laundry, I take a good long look at the shirts I'm ironing for my boys. 
Seven days worth of shirts and each shirt I'm taking the wrinkles out of, is one we made together. There are no brand names tops, there are no shirts with snazzy sayings. However, there are a lot of shirts we made together. In fact, this week, every top was homemade. 

This makes me smile. 

A $4 shirt from Michael's ($3, if you catch a sale), some fabric paint and a few hours together making memories. 
When I look at the shirts, I can see the day clearly. The laughter and excitement on the boys faces as I bring out new shirts, and paints. We debate what they want (as I have to trace it out and my skills are not fantastic) and get to it. 

 Each shirt has a memory - whatever was important to them at that time in their life. Perhaps one day, instead of throwing away the shirts when they're outgrown, I can make them into a quilt or something. 

But for now, I'm happy they don't want expensive brand name shirts. That they're happy (and proud) wearing something we've made together. 

This makes me smile. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can you help me choose?

Image
I'm working on re-blurbing a novel. I've come up with two and I like them both, but for different reasons. Which one do you prefer?? Help me decide which one to use. (#1 or #2; This one or That one). Charlotte doesn't think she deserves happily ever after... And she's determined to prove it. She believes in true love about as much as she believes there is life on Jupiter. After all she’s dealt with in her nineteen years, she’s unwilling to further expose her soul to more heartache and surrenders the idea of ever finding eternal happiness. Until she meets him . Andrew Wagner challenges everything Charlotte ever thought she knew about love. Taken by his charm and patience, she becomes drawn to him in a way she’s never known and doesn’t understand. However comfortable and at peace with him she is, she struggles with her intensifying feelings.  But Andrew wants more than secrets and stories. He wants a piece of her heart. With every assurance he’s ...
Read more

Duly Noted - Chapter 1

Image
Chapter One The laughter died in a split-second. No one saw it coming. Metal snapped, scrapped and twisted. The air reeked of something salty and mercurial. Life changed forever. May 24. 10:17 p.m. The rain poured down, blanketing everything in its path with a cold wetness that chilled to the bone. The dark sky blew up with arcs of forked lightning, lighting up the area for miles. In the distance, sirens wailed, getting louder on approach. Gasps and inaudible sounds came from the onlookers who stood around drenched yet watching. Unable to help. Unsure of where to start. *** Aurora drove through the pounding rain, with her momma in the passenger seat, and Carmen behind her. Normally Carmen would drive, as she attended the University there, but tonight she let Aurora take the wheel. They enjoyed a perfect girl’s weekend– eating more than normal, staying out late and shopping. Laughing, and singing off key to an old country song on the radio, they headed back to their...
Read more

The original ending went like this...

Image
Back when I first typed out SERVING UP INNOCENCE, and long before it had a title or was even thought to become part of a series, I finished the ending in a less than ideal way. Shayne didn't get the guy she really wanted. She ended up not growing and made decisions that ended up being better for everyone else. It wasn't right and it didn't work. Rereading the original ending on a second and third pass, I knew it didn't fit her character as there was no character growth. I gave my own book a 2 star rating at that point. LOL. There wasn't even a real Happy Ever After, which if you write Romance, is expected (just like finding the killer is important to murder mysteries but more on that later). Reading the original ending, I knew what was going to happen... it was clear as day to me. So, why not then change the ending to reflect that? And in three short clicks, the ending was cut out and re-filed into a folder where I store my cut material (it makes for some inte...
Read more