Cute Vintage!

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I am in the process of downsizing all of my fabric. Gee,I did not realize I had so much! Ok,Ok,yes I did know I had this much. Everything I buy has usually been for some great project I wanted to make but have not found the time to make it yet.

As I mentioned a few posts ago,I am listing all my fun project fabric stash stuff on my Etsy Shop Dragonfrye Supplies and if it is still around when I want to start a particular project I will just unlist it. It will be sort of like actually shopping wouldn't it?
I have 113 things listed so far and a lot of it was just from my stash. A few things I bought specifically to sell but most I had grand plans for.

While I was looking through my material I came across the very neat fabric panel. I know this has to be at least from the '80's don't you think?



You just have to see a close up. Cute Sunbonnet Sue!



What seems to usually happen as I am going through my fabric and see such fun pieces I forgot about I think "Oh, I just need to save just this one" and before I know it my save pile is so high and my sell pile is so tiny. So I decided list everything that could be usable and come back to it if I have time.It would be a shame if it all just sits for years in a bin not being used by anyone don't you think?
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Happy 11th Cyrus!

It is amazing that our Cyrus is eleven! Wow! I remember this frightened skinny tiny little 8 year old fresh off the plane from Liberia. Here he is eleven already.

Cyrus you are a special young man!

Happy Birthday!!!



Yes,you see right. Cyrus requested a pineapple for his birthday. It brings back special memories with his mother back in Liberia. They planted a pineapple tree together and he would water it every day after he came home from school. He entered the orphanage before the pineapple that had been growing on the tree was ripe. He once asked who we thought his mom shared the pineapple with when it was ripe. I am sure if she ate it she probably had tears because she remembered how well Cyrus tended to it and how much she loved and missed him.






A few behind the birthday scene pictures

Lily was a little confused when the balloon stuck to her.



Joel and his girls. What a gentleman he is!




A rare picture of my two oldest together. Have you ever heard that oil and water do not mix? Hmm...it could be the same for these two at times.



Why dirty another bowl when the carton works just fine! I think my gentleman disappeared for a bit and bachelor Joel showed up.




P.S.

If you have made it all the way through the pictures I posted Thank you!! for being such loyal friends! I need that right now. So for you few, you deserve to have a small update on my hard last few days...the update is just that I am still pretty blue about everything. I should not get so caught up with what others think about us or me. If we were not willing to make our lives messy looking for the sake of the children God had planned for us we would not be celebrating a special 11th birthday with Cyrus today. What a great young man he is. We would have missed it all. But I am still somewhat sad about things. Nothing more would I want to be doing right now than being a mom and wife in this family. I just wish others could understand. I will get over it soon.

Hey, guess what I dug out of the closet last night? My heating blanket! So cozy! That is where I am heading in a few minutes.

A Very Overcast Day

It's been a little bit overcast here at my house the past few days. * sigh* I feel a tad battle fatigued right now, just need to set my armor down and rest just a bit. We have had a little more grief from different neighbor yesterday. I am thinking that it is not just the cats that a few of the neighbors have issues with. Nothing has been said outright but I just get this feeling by little comments that are said here and there. Could it be the size of our family and all the noise that comes along with it? We do generate a lot of noise. Could it be the color of the skin of some of our children?

A neighbor yelled at our (Liberian) children the other day to stop staring at her and her son. It was a different neighbor than last week,although this neighbor has issues with our cats as well. I spent most of last night crying. Today, I am just sad. We are nice people,a nice family,our children love the Lord. They are good kids. We are not the all put together large family that maybe the Jeubs,Duggars, or the Large Family Mothering family are.I wish we were. Most times I think our family is just too messy to be much use for Christ. Maybe, I do not want us to be lights,anyway. I don't know. I have even been thinking if we just kept our family at a nice and tidy number...Anyway, I just want to raise my family in peace. I'm very worn out today.

All Things Tiny

Look at the great find over at Walmart!!!!

Introducing Whimzy Pets!

Ok,I am just a sucker for anything cute and tiny. Probably why I enjoy having so many children underfoot!

A few years back Target had a group of tiny stuffed Animals called Furyvilles or something like that. I bought most all of them but they were lost over the years.

We frequent Walmart these days and I was VERY exited to see these little Whimzy guys in the toy isle. SO VERY CUTE! I think I will need to collect all of them at some point. For the time being I bought the giraffe and the frog. For the record,these cute little guys are mine and not the childrens but I will let them use them. Am I just the meanest mom ever?




After Lily had fun playing with the cute little stuffty guys she needed a little hug from dad..



and then a little chat about the day.

Another Frye Brothers Film

I know that you might not be interested in another Youtube creation, but this is the boys newest video.It is not one of my goofy kid clips. They are really doing great with their video skills especially with the meager video equipment and editing equipment we have. There is even a little old fashion special effects in this one. Can you guess where?

Just A Small Dose Of Frye Sweetness

Lily and Anya

Happy Birthday Ekie!!!

Ekie turned 8 today! She has been a part of our family since she was a little 5 year old girl. She has grown into a very lovely young lady right before our eyes.

Happy Birthday Ekie!

What Do You Think?

A little behind the scenes movie of the sibling dynamics over here at the Frye home.
Impressed? Maybe we should write a book...




Excuse the mess in the background. Have you ever heard the saying the camera adds 10 pounds? Well, the same rule goes for background mess on film. It quadruples.

Finaly, They Are Finished

It has taken a few weeks to find the time to finish the bags I had waiting but I did it. Jeff took the most of the kids to the park this afternoon so I could have a few hours to sew. Well, I am done making bags for a while. It was fun but five is a good amount.





What's next? I have a few quilts I need to quilt and then I thought I would make a few more baby blankets for my My Little Dragonfrye Etsy shop. I think I will back these fabrics each with off white silky fabric (the polyester silky kind). Not the most practical of receiving blankets but great for a baby to cozy with.




This cute owl fabric would look great as a pink minky backed receiving blanket,wouldn't it?




A few other eventful happenings this weekend? Just one really.

Our elderly neighbor had been having issues with our roaming cats. She has called a few times about it. She is not a cat lover. We really try very hard to keep the cats inside but with so many little children coming in and out of the house all day it is hard. The cats have been fertilizing her garden (icky,I know) digging up her plants (most likely in the process of fertilizing her garden),and hanging out by her bird feeders terrorizing the feeding birds. I totally understand her irritation. Really,I do. What more can we do about it? We have not taken her complaints lightly,we really have not. There is just a lot of traffic in and out of the house all day and I can not stand guard all the time. The only solution would be to get rid of our cats, to the devastation of many of our children. We could do that,I suppose...

Well,once again our neighbor came over.This time with the support of a not so nice busy-body advocate who is not fond of cats or my children. They (not so nicely) confronted us in front of all our kids lecturing us on how unsafe we are making the neighborhood,what irresponsible pet owners we are,etc... They got some of the kids pretty upset.

How did we handle it? Jeff was bothered but did not let it show much.He said their arguments were built on straw. Me? um... it took only God himself to hold me back from tackling this elderly neighbor and her busy-body friend to the ground. I did not physically touch them (I was SO VERY close,though) but I was SO mad I yelled at them very loudly and then cried right there in front of them. My big whopper of last words to them? "you are just the meanest neighbors in the world!" as I stormed into the house. I bet that will make them think twice about messing with us. Hm...

It was not the cat roaming issue that got me so mad. I understood that. It was their assumption that we were not trying to do anything about it because we had been.That got me mad.But the very biggest thing that got me SO irate was them treating Jeff like he was the stupidest person on earth. Nothing gets me more upset than that. Mess with Jeff and you mess with me. Just ask certain relitives...or...maybe...Door County camp ground workers. That is when the Weiss side comes out very fierce and loud. No apologies. I'm proud of that Weiss streak that runs though me.

Enough of that...you just might not want to be my neighbor or mess with Jeff!

White and Nerdy

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Note: for the children reading, you should not click on the link below unless your mom says it is ok.

I keep going back and forth over this post. Being a mom of white and black children I am not sure if this should get me bothered, but it does not... I'm sorry, I just think it is SO funny. Does that make me a bad mom? I'm a fan of "Weird Al" and ran across this very funny video. Sorry, Youtube will not let me embed it so her is the link if you are curious.

"Weird Al" White and Nerdy


This is Weird Al's version of Ridin' Dirty by Chamillionare

Now (if you watched it) what is funny about it is this... some of the boys and I were actually discussing whether we liked Kirk or Picard better not long before I saw this video! (We all agreed Picard was by far better).

The boys have many sword fights around here. The Star Wars,Lord of the Rings,Narnia,Medieval,and many other sword fight versions.They even have an armory down in the basement filled with stick swords,homemade armor, capes, the works!

ALL of the kids would love that scooter thing...so many similarities. The interesting thing is we are raising all of our kids to kind of be 'nerdy' if we compared our family interests to the song! For us I guess it would be called "Black and White and Nerdy" !

For the record,though...a few of our boys thought they would rather be viewed more gangsterish than nerdy.

It is just a funny video. Did you notice Donny Osmond as the dancing guy in the background?

Barb, what are your thoughts on this?

A Lily Photo Shoot

It is hard to keep Lily in her clothes (or diaper) these days. She is fascinated with getting dressed and undressed which will explain why her shirt is pulled around her waist so excuse her immodest attire. She is just so darn cute in the little vintage hat.








Thanks Elena for helping with the pictures!

A Little Plug For....

Apple Valley Natural Soap

I am always pleased with Natalie's soaps. I was trying to make the picture all professional with the fabric under but the picture ended up a little blurry. Sorry about that.

The Chocolate Orange Twist Bar smells so good.Both Grant and Alan requested a bar for Christmas. Natalie, I am thinking you will be making a lot of this bar this fall/winter. I bet it will be very popular. I have been using The Minnesota Winter Lip Balm every day since I received it. I am a chap stick addict and very picky. I am a Carmex,Blistex kind of person. This lip balm is very good! I had not tried the Lotion Bars until now. I was thinking that they were soap with lotion in them but they are actually lotion in a bar form. Very neat! I just love this Lavender Vanilla Lotion Bar. I bet it will be great for African skin, much more wholesome than the grease the kids use now (We currently use plain Vaseline).

A Few Fun Finds

Now the fun finds I will be showing today have nothing to do with sewing. Hard to believe,I know. I am pretty pleased with these homeschool gems. Thanks to Amazon used books, Exodus Books, and Ebay.




Here is a quick peek at the first few pages of The Wall Chart of World History. It is just SO neat.





The Genesis Record by Henry Morris
Useborne Complete First Book of Nature
Sumer and Babylonia by Milliken Publishing Co
Geology by Milliken Publishing Co
Heat,Light,and Sound Milliken Publishing Co
Magnetism and Electricity Milliken Publishing Co
Noah's Ark and the Ararat Adventure by John D. Morris
The Wall Chart of World History: From Earliest Time To Present ( ok just up till 1985 but still works for what I need it to)

Rock the River

Just like I promised. Here are a few highlight pictures of Rock the River. Elena,Grant,Alan,and Jeff spent the afternoon at Rock the River with the church youth group. They had a lot of fun! I heard there were SO many people.I might have heard over 23,000 people attended!I'm kind of glad I stayed home. Despite so many people Jeff ran into two old time friends, Byron Anfinson and Andy Gray from The Urban Refuge church. Pretty fun! Anyway, Elena and her friend stood in a line for pizza for 3 hours and did not even end up getting any! Poor hungry girls. The actual performers were far away for the kids to see but luckily everything was shown an huge screens.I will not even guess as to the bands in these pictures. I might guess that the ladies are from Super Chick but do not know who the man is. Any guesses?

Higher Ground

Yesterday Jeff took Elena and her friend to attend Higher Ground up in Winsted,Mn. Elena saved up months of paper route earnings to attend. She was SO exited. They could only stay for Friday but the had a lot of fun! Elena took close to 200 pictures but I think I narrowed to down to a nice sampling for you. I'm sorry if I get the band names mixed up. I'm just a mom you know...

Elena and her dad



Elena and her friend Tanyce with Stellar Kart



Kutless performing



Elena getting autographs from Kutless



Jeremy Camp performing.




Sunday, Jeff,Elena,Grant, and Alan are heading up to Rock the River in Minneapolis along with the church youth group. I will have a bunch of Rock the River highlights to show, I'm sure!


P.S. Today was a big day for us...we entered the cellular world! It took us until just last year to upgrade from dial-up Internet to broadband (or is it broad ban?) use and then came the lap top computer and now cell phones! What is next? Cable? We would need a TV first but who needs a TV when we have our laptop DVD player and Netflix. I figure not having a TV is not the oddish big deal it was years ago before all this fancy technology. We are not so archaic anymore.

Another Frye Brothers Film

for your enjoyment!

Sorry, no DJ Baby staring in this movie,not even a cameo! The entertainment industry is just so fickle.

DJ Baby

Hm...so this is what goes on when Grant and Alan are in charge of Lily. I guess she is not fussing so I will not complain!

A few Things

I had this big long post on my blog for a little bit yesterday elaborating a little (a lot) on chores around here. I decided it sounded dumb so I took it off but for the few of you who read it, I'm sorry I put you through that.

In truth, I am very insecure and I sometimes (ok, a lot of times) struggle with wanting to sound all important and stuff especially around those who I have spent years feeling like I am the little sister to, feeling a zillion steps behind them and running to catch up but not quite getting there. I decided will never be a book writer of that is for sure. Besides,I really do not have a whole lot of smarts in the area of large family mothering anyway. Don't let the number of children we have fool you, I usually feel like I am barely treading water. It is only, I mean ONLY, by God's kind grace that Jeff and I keep plodding along. If we have anything going for us it is just a great desperate willingness to follow God where ever he is leading us.

Enough of that! On to other things,things I actually know something about. Fabric!


I have been picking up fun and unique fabric here and there usually with the intention to make something but not really getting around to it, so I thought "hey! I will just list it all on my Etsy supply shop and if it is still around when I want to use it great otherwise I will just buy something else!" Heh Heh. Some of it you might recognise but oh, there are some cute fabrics!

Here is my pile. So far I have listed ten items.



I picked out a few of my ultimate favorites from the above pile.

This is a VERY fun fabric book. It has a few pages that one can add applique photos that have been printed on fabric. One page even has a cookie recipe.I wish I could have found more than one of this fabric book.



As you know, I just LOVE anything Mother Goose.



I am not usually fond of yellow but isn't this SO cute? I am guessing it is kind of vintage-ish.Maybe from the 1990's. Yes, I know 1990's are very vintage.



Here is one of my sleeping beauties. Anya fell asleep on the couch while I was taking pictures of my fabrics tonight. Notice here very messy plied hair? Joyce spent hours yesterday plying Anya's hair.Lots of little braids. Too bad it did not stay in very long.It was very cute.

Sweet dreams my little beauty!