I have been a TERRIBLE blogger lately!  I have not been sewing either. I will tell you what I HAVE been doing because I'm not lolling around eating chocolate ;)  As a matter of fact, I'm not eating much of anything but meat since I started the Paleo lifestyle but that is another blog post entirely.  And I'm being very overly-dramatic...I actually enjoy the paleo diet...mostly.

What I have been doing is decorating, kind of. At this time of year for the past 2 years I have had the privilege of combining two of my passions...adoption and decorating.  I mean, how many people get to do what they love AND contribute to a really worthy cause at the same time??!?  I am honored and humbled by the opportunity.  I am also scared out of my wits that I cannot pull off the look on such a large scale.  I am talking about our adoption agency's annual fund-raising event...this year the theme is "ONE"

Oddly, I have not mentioned my passion for adoption on this blog.  Mainly because the blog started out as just about my sewing and I didn't think it really fit.  But, what I'm learning is that this great PASSION is integrated into my sewing and every other part of my life.  And now, this blog is really about lots of little random pieces of my life because I get so busy doing all the "random" things that I don't have as much time to sew and blog about it.

So, for a little background...

We started our first adoption journey early 2006 and brought our daughter, Eden, home from China on April 2, 2008.  It was a long, beautiful, painful, amazing 2 years!  I would not trade a single day of that journey.  God has been so amazing to us in every detail.  About 6 months after we returned home with Eden, we started the adoption process again...this time we believe God has 2 boys waiting for us in Peru.  We are on day 1074 of that journey now. 

So, for the past couple months, I have been staying busy, along with a whole bunch of other amazing people, planning how to decorate the MASSIVE ballroom for this event.  We are having a blast!  It is so exciting to me to see everything coming together!

When we get together for "work days", I keep getting asked the question..."so, do you think this is the most tedious part?"  And my answer is that none of it is tedious to me!  It is invigorating and fun!  I feel like I am ALIVE when I am decorating, even during the seemingly "tedious" parts like cutting letters or spray-painting something.

I think the banquet hall decorating so very closely resembles the actual adoption process.  There are a lot of little things that HAVE to all come together in one BIG thing.  But it is a PROCESS.  It doesn't happen all at once.  It takes time, patience, work, waiting, cooperation, HELP, letting others do their part, lots of help, humility to ask for HELP, prayer.  Last year we all agreed that watching it all come together was such an amazing picture of the body of Christ...everyone doing what they were called to do and it all just fit together and it WORKED! 

So, as I look at these piles of "stuff" all over my porch, 

what in the world could this be???

and sewing room,

and overflowing into my husbands office...

I get an adrenaline rush thinking about how it will all come together on November 8!

Sarah Gray, Editor-In-Chief of my favorite magazine, Country Living, penned my exact sentiments in her editor's note this month when she said, "...in other words, I fear opening the door to scrutiny.  Like most nonprofessional decorators, I vacillate between out-size pride in my interior-design endeavors and crippling doubt: Does the whole thing read as offbeat genius or just, well, off?


Come and see for yourself!  November 8, Birmingham Sheraton...be ONE.

I am in LOVE!

I actually finished the skirt yesterday!  It is completely and utterly beautiful!  Now I am wishing I had taken my "free" day earlier in the summer so I could have worn it all season!  No worries, it will make an awesome fall layering piece.  I can't wait to show it to my friend, Thea, who is coming today (how fortunate).  She is the layering queen and can tutor me on what to wear with it :)

This was my inspiration picture.  I saw it in a catalog this spring and knew I had to make one. I went to the Free People site to find better pics and then just copied it.  Theirs says it is nylon chiffon, but I found silk chiffon on sale in a perfect silvery color (heaven!).

 For the skirt top, I used a really fine jersey knit I had on hand.  I bought it early summer because it was on sale and I couldn't stop touching it...it is so soft and smooth.  The mid section is chiffon lined with jersey knit and the bottom is a single layer of dreamy silk chiffon that you could read a newspaper through. 

This can actually be worn as a dress with the waistband unfolded like the top photo or folded down to wear as a skirt.  To be honest, I didn't really think that through and plan it, it just happened that it works. 

Now, I have to go shower and TODAY...I style my hair ;)  really.  i am going to do it.

Last week I got a new haircut.  Well, it's a tiny progression toward my goal haircut really.  Anyway, I'm sure it is really cute if I would only take the time to style it.  How is it that I have had a new haircut for over a week and have not even styled it yet???  What has happened to me???  I just keep finding bigger and better things to do with my time like paint and sew and play.  Right after my haircut it was a sweltering, pre-tropical storm Lee Labor Day weekend...my sister and her family came to town and we camped and hiked and canoed (well, THEY camped and we went to the campsite to eat one night...that almost counts, right?).  I mean, there is really no way of knowing who has a cute haircut when everyone's hair is plastered with sweat to their head.  It is not a pretty sight and I'm not about to waste an hour doing hair and makeup to end up looking like that.  Sorry, Clinton & Stacy.  Good thing they were not trolling at the State Park last weekend.  I say all that to say that while I was walking this morning, I was noticing how beautiful it is outside.  It inspired me to style my hair.  today.  before bedtime tonight.  maybe even right after my shower (what a novel idea).  And then I realized that I haven't blogged in a month (again), and today is a semi-free day, which really only means that if I take a break from the quilt and the banquet decorations and the laundry and the ironing and the cleaning and the painting and the puppy training and the sewing for clients, I can actually finish the skirt I started for myself at the beginning of summer.  I think I can still wear it for fall with boots instead of summer with flip flops.  I can see the outfit in my head.  I am going for it.  Sooooo, no hairstyle today. again.  There is always tomorrow.