Right Corneal Transplant

"Hey, Can I have some more of those numbing drops?" My husband asked as he awoke from his right corneal transplant. "Sure, let's get some of those over here," The doctor stated as he was finishing sewing up the last of the stitches.

That morning had been a long morning. Probably my longest ever. We woke up before the sun rose and drove to the first surgery center. While I waited in a room, Dr. Bowden cut my husband's right cornea in the other room. They left it in place, patched it up and we went to Baptist Surgery Center to complete the operation. While I drove my husband, I asked him, "How do you feel?". He said, "Well that was a weird experience. But they did give me some valium." It was funny, he was relaxed. I on the other hand was nervous and scared about the major procedure about to occur. Why did he have to get his eye cut at one place? Well, the doctor wanted to do a zigzag cut that would be more precise and allow better healing when the new cornea was installed. We both know he was the expert, so we didn't question the procedure.

When we arrived at Baptist Surgical Center, We waited in the waiting room. Dr. Bowden had to finish up with the patients at his center, then also drive to the surgical center. I think we waited an hour. My husband was number 3 in line, but he was the only corneal transplant that day. When they called my husband back, they prepped him to wait in the back before the surgery. They placed an IV in his hand, a heart monitor complete with stickers to the chest, a gown on his upper body and placed his shoes in a bag. He was ready! I looked at the doctors board and noticed he was an hour behind. I could see the other two patients ahead of us in make shift rooms as there were only blue curtains between us. And so we waited...again.

Over an hour later, we were still waiting. It was lunch time. The nurses were warming their lunches in the breakroom and the smell of chinese food caught wind. Sniff...Mmmmm. We were both hungry. My husband jokingly asked where his was and the nurses laughed. "It's wrong you know to have a patient lose 65lbs just to have surgery and on the day of, you decide to smell the hallway with food smells!" He stated. We laughed about it and continued to wait. Finally the anesthesiologist came to my husband and introduced himself. We also watched the two other men go back to the operating room and then go to the recovery room. The time had come. I knew I had to slip out to the waiting room and wished my husband well with a kiss.

An hour passed and I was still in the waiting room. Two hours passed. I went to the nurses desk to ask if the procedure was over. "Not yet, Mrs. H. We will call you back when it is." They told me. I called a few family members and friends to talk about my husband's status and to check on my girls. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they called me back. When I approached the back, he was patched up and sitting up. He was eating graham crackers and drinking water. The nurse stated he would be ready to leave in about 15 minutes!!

As I said, this was a long day on August 4, 2014. We woke up at 5:30am and didn't return to our home until 2:30pm!! I had a headache after only eating a pop-tart, coffee, some crackers and a lot more coffee!! My husband needed help up the stairs and Grammy still had the girls. I called her to check on their status as my husband soon fell asleep. Whew..my 3 year old had just laid down for a nap. So I decided to take one too after this long day. As they say, now the real work begins as my husband's restrictions are to do...NOTHING! And I will talk later about how he is currently doing as well as his eyesight in a later posting. For now, gotta go...come back Sew Hungry for More.

De-cluttering some fabric and supplies

Do you ever just feel you need to let go? Well, I'm starting to weed out my fabric stash to let go some of the materials that I just can't use right now. I have a lot of vintage materials and supplies and I feel it's just time to start listing more of them. If you are interested, they are available in my Etsy shop, ARaneeDesigns.

If you look at the listings, I will try to include a suggestion on how to use the material. I know sometimes it takes a look and then thinking through ideas. The bad part about my stash is I have an idea for everything!! Hahaha. But I realize that I will never have the time to put all of them to work! So for now I will let go of some and keep trying to finish what I've started..

Included in this post are some pictures of the materials on my site. Feel free to click above on the hyperlink to purchase! Thank you all. And don't forget to come back, Sew Hungry for More!

Surgery update and homeschooling!

Our phone rang the evening of July 6th at 7:30pm. "Hello is Mr here?" I handed the phone to my husband, it was the surgery center calling. "We can't do the surgery, Dr. Bowden believes that the cornea is to far damaged and there are no more in the tissue bank that meet his specifications!" Needless to say, we were all prepared...but it just wasn't in God's time for my husband to have the surgery. They tried booking another surgery center, but low and behold, our insurance would not pay for that location. We are now waiting til August 4, 2014 for his next surgery date.

I know my husband was disappointed. I mean this time, he even did all the medications for three days prior to prep for surgery. His weight was good...we had all our ducks in a row. But as we were informed about the bad cornea, I reminded my husband that it was better the surgeon found out there was a mistake BEFORE the cut was made! I mean after all...this is your sight we are talking about here. The last thing you want is to do the surgery twice because the surgeon messed up the first time, right? He agreed and so we have been waiting and praying for our next surgery date.

In the meantime, I've been busy. I am homeschooling our eldest daughter and last year was our first year in school (kindergarden) and our first year homeschooling. This has been quite the task with everything else life has thrown us this year...but with God's grace, we finished and got her portfolio evaluation completed. (Insert Mom with smile here.)

This summer has been filled with small "Stay-cations" as we have been trying to stay on task for my husband surgery. But it has given us time to do the little things with our children, even if it's a walk on the beach. I have been planning diligently for next year as this time I will have my three year old doing some pre-reading work and my six year old doing first grade work. It all helps keeps things in perspective and makes our family think about what really matters.

My sewing has taken a back seat for a while, but I will be working on some blog postings as we start back school. I have some changes in mind and will be praying which way to take them. God Bless and come back, Sew Hungry 4 More! AH

Update on that outfit I traced..

By the way, here is a picture of my daughter's outfit that I used for the "How not to cut tissue paper pattern" tip. She wore it to a church Easter egg hunt.

Enjoy and come back...Sew Hungry for More.
Amanda

Organized Sewing Room...Sort Of

Like many other bloggers...I have a sewing room. My husband sometimes kindly refers to it as my "junk" room! Because for some reason, it always ends up messy...the creative part of me sometimes doesn't care. Then other times the OCD in me says "Get your room clean!" So for now, it's clean, organized (for the most part) and ready for me to start sewing a little more. (Of course, I drafted this article a few weeks ago and I now have homeschooling books and things to sort through in boxes on the floor! Ugh..a Moms work is never done!)

Here's a few picture of the main ways I do organize the room. My friend gave me this older entertainment unit. I found out that my plastic containers fit really well inside once I took out the shelf the TV was orginally on top. I organize a lot of trims, ribbons and other craft like materials in the drawers.

I use these metal racks to organize all my material in the room. It's not the "purdy" way, but for me it's the practical way. You can purchase this huge 5 shelf racks at home depot for $75 to $100 each or find on craigslist for cheaper. They are strong, they have wheels for moving and being against the wall securly, I know they can't fall over like bookcases of fabric would.

I do make use of some spool holders and I have an older sewing table with a bench. Both of which I hope to repaint/refinish someday. As you can see, I have some patterns on my desk and measurements pinned to the back wall. I own a Janome machine which I actually got for FREE when I bought their serger one year! It works and has an automatic buttonholer so, I'm happy!

What you don't see is that I probably have like 40 projects that are unfinished!! YIKES. That happened when we stored our stuff after our first move. I couldn't find half of the projects I started! So I just opened another box and Viola...UGH...Baby projects I no longer need for my babies. (sniff, sniff) I am hoping I can recycle, up-cycle, or even finish for a baby gift. After all they have been cut out and some were even started on. I guess in hindsight, I need to cut out less and sew more. Finish more. I need to be more OCD on my UFOs! (Un Finished Objects!haha)

But I do have plans for most of my material. It's all in my brain somewhere. And I also will be sewing for my daughter's Bible Camp in July. (I sewed last year but didn't get any pictures from the camp...this year, I'm bringing my camera.) Our theme is Pirates, so we will see how that goes.

Boy...Life just gets the best of us around here!

I thought I would sit down to write a little bit today. A LOT has happened of late. My husband has been running around with doctors appointments for his upcoming surgery. Our family is also helping out at our church since there are many needs to fill. Then 2 weeks ago, my mother called...My Dad had a stroke...This has been very hard for all of us but he is now in recovery and doing well with physical therapy.

There has been much prayer around our house. My husband had his weight loss goal moved, (again!) so we are working on that each day so he can get his surgery on July 7th. I have been running around town helping my mother since Dad's still in a rehab facility 24/7. We have been trying to finish up our homeschooling - kindergarden. My oldest daughter also started piano lessons so we are trying to give her time to practice at either Grandparents house since we do not own a piano. My youngest is also potty training. It's been hecktic to say the least.

But through everything, I know my God is there.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit." Jeremiah 17:7-8

Right now I know my blog is well..so so. I'm a beginner so sometimes finding time for it well, takes Time! (haha) But I do have plans for the future and I'm praying about them. As it was once told to me "If you do something or start something...at least do it well and finish it." I do have ideas and hope to share some different ideas as well as sewing projects and tutorials. So keep my site bookmarked and come back Sew Hungry For More!!

Sewing Tips for Tuesday: How to buy fabric on the cheap

I have family members and friends who are amazed (or shocked) at how much fabric I truely own. Right now My fabric room is full and I have about 30 huge rubbermaid containers full out in a shed! A few years back, I hit a deal - the motherload so to say. I went to an estate sale and scored an entire 3 car garage FULL of fabric. It took two truck loads to transport all of it in garbage bags! I felt like I was rich that day, but truth being told...I paid $60 for the ENTIRE LOT!! No coupon at Joanns would have helped me purchase that! So I thought I would list some tips for those of you out there who want to score some good purchases of fabric.

Tip One: Buy used and shop around. I look everywhere for fabric and I usually find it. Some thrift stores keep it in with the linens and sheets if they have no place to put fabric. Some estate sales have fabric in the linen closet. Craigslist is always full of deals. I also subscribe to a local estate sale e-flyer. They take pictures of items in the sale and email them out. One way to look for fabric is to see if there are any sewing machines or notions in the picture. Don't forget yard sales as these are sometimes good deals too.

Tip Two: Buy the entire LOT! Ok, some of you are telling me that's not within your budget...well think again. I find that most people selling the fabric have no idea what it's worth is and secondly, they don't know how to sew! Most inherit the fabric and then WANT to get rid of it. So if you see some fabric at a yard sale..ask the question: "What would you take for ALL of it?" I always ask and then most of the time, I am pleasantly surprised at what the answer is. (Take for example the estate sale...I was thinking the guy wanted a few hundred for the lot and was prepared to buy it for just that...but he wanted to get rid of it and it was the last day of the sale! So $60 for him was what he expected to make just to get rid of it!!)

Tip Three: Ask around for fabric! I have friends at church who now know I sew for my family. In the past year, I have been blessed to have them hand me fabric at no cost because they didn't need/want it! Now granted, you never know what you get but I never seem to find a problem with having material to sew! And since the types of fabric I own are like the rainbow...I always seem to have material for each type of project.

Tip Four: Know a little about WHAT you are buying. (Ok, I probably should have mentioned this secondly as it is very important.) When you buy a lot of fabric - SORT THROUGH the piles. LOOK at the quality. Are their stains? Does the material have a smell or odor? Does the material look in good shape - no rips, etc.? I will say you do have to be careful and examine most of it before you buy. Bugs and other things can and will hide in fabric. This is the reason I bag fabric in trash bags first when I purchase them. If I feel I can wash the fabric with little or no problems - then I will ask the question. BUT if it doesn't look good, then it IS better to pass it up. No one wants bugs in their sewing room eating the fabric and causing issues in their homes. I also sort through the fabric on the porch before brining it into my home. I wash it and fold it, then insert it in my fabric room. This ensures I have no funky smells and more importantly no bugs!!

So that is my tip for today. Hope you are able to find more fabric for your stash. And always come back Sew Hungry For More.
Amanda