WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited, I got through to Dave Ramsey today and got to scream "We're Debt Free!!!" on the air with my three older children! It was just a quick conversation and I really didn't get to tell much of "my story", but still I pray that I've given inspiration to some other listener. Hearing those debt free screams has given me so much motivation and now it's my turn to pay it forward. Thank you Dave for the opportunity to shout out to the world! :-) You'll be able to listen to my call by going to the Show Archives. It's the show from July 6th and I'm about 15 minutes into the first hour (I'm the second caller).

In the sewing world, I am still working on my Vogue 8386 dress and I have to have it done by tomorrow night - eek! It's been a little slow going with DH's birthday, the 4th of July holiday, and then a friend coming to visit yesterday, but I really have it mostly done. Since I'm a member of the IBTC (aka small boobs), I'm having a really hard time getting it to fit in the chest. I guess that is why they have recommended body types on the envelope and mine was not one of the recommended ones - oops! Hopefully I can salvage it to wear tomorrow night.

The safari jacket is finally finished!

Gosh, I feel like the safari jacket has taken forever to finish, but finally it's done!!!! The fabric is a bit more wrinkly than I'd like it to be, but live and learn is just going to have to be the case. It's a 100% cotton twill from Joann's ~ I think something with a little stretch in it (or poly) would have helped with the wrinkle factor). I posted a review on PR ~ it has another picture showing the jacket with the belt.

Since I was on a roll, I also made myself two pairs of shorts using a pants pattern from the May 2007 issue of Burda WOF. I am so ecstatic at how well they turned out! Pants are a major struggle for me - getting them to fit that is (sewing is the easy part!). I was so delighted that they turned out to fit so well and will definitely be using this pattern again and again. I posted a review of these as well. They are #112 in that issue (the picture at the top with the jacket is one pair of the shorts I made).

I started working on Vogue 8386 last night for the wedding that is coming up next Saturday. I'm a little late in starting it, but so far it's going together well and hopefully it will fit well once it's completed. Keep your fingers crossed!

In other news, DH finished his last work weekend of overtime today and now will be officially debt free (not including the house) on Friday when he receives his paycheck! I'm so excited and plan to call Dave Ramsey on Friday to scream "WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!" on the air. The other time I called his show I got through on the first ring, not sure if I'll be that lucky this time - I sure hope so. I find it so motivational to hear people call in and share their stories about getting out of debt. According to my excel spreadsheet, we have paid off right at $90,000!!! The number is actually a bit higher because I didn't include all the interest we paid that I didn't keep track of. That is some serious debt reduction and sacrifice in the last 14 months ~ I'm so proud of my DH & myself for being able to keep focused and kick our debt to the curb. Thank you honey for working so hard for our family ~ I love you more than you'll ever know! XOXOX

Burning the midnight oil...

Yesterday was a busy day. My youngest son turns three on Monday and I really wanted to take him to get his pictures done yesterday while the older two were still in school (their last day is Monday). I figured it would be way easier to have two kids in tow rather that four so we headed to the "city" to JCPenney. We didn't have an appointment so I prayed the whole way there they could get us in pretty quickly. Fortunately we were about to get in about 1.5 hours after we arrived which worked out perfectly since I had some other things to do at the mall as well. And sweet Andy did a wonderful job getting his pictures taken, which was a huge relief since last year he was much less cooperative.

As I posted in one of my early posts, my family is working on becoming debt free after being inspired by Dave Ramsey. When we started last spring, we had some credit card debt, two auto loans, a small loan on our home equity line of credit, and a balance due on our new mattress which we purchased on a "one year same as cash" deal. As much as it seemed like it was going to be a very overwhelming task to pay all this off, we have really tried to keep our eyes on the prize and keep our budget in check. Well fast forward to yesterday and we are now almost entirely debt free (with the exception of our home which we hope to have paid off sooner than later). We just need to pay off our bed and that will be done next payday (in two weeks)!!!! I was very excited once our home equity line was paid off and our credit card debt, but I'm even more jazzed that we have no car payments anymore!!! Now if my lovely minivan will last me until my kids graduate from high school (I probably shouldn't hold my breath, but it is a 2005 so it should last right???).


So all this to bring me to the title of my post "burning the midnight oil". As we got ready for bed last night, the phone rang and it was DH's work calling him in because something was broken (he's a millwright at a newsprint mill owned by Weyerhaeuser). The beauty of his job is that he can get just about as much overtime as he wants, but the bad thing of signing up for weekend duty is the potential to be called into work in the middle of the night. So here I was home alone and I have a horrible time sleeping when DH isn't in the house. So I decided since he was going to work, so was I! Down to my sewing studio I went to work on my safari jacket. I don't feel like I got a lot accomplished, partly because I had to tidy things up a bit before I could start working on it, but I got a few uninterrupted hours of sewing time and now have the collar on and the sleeves ready to be set into the jacket. It's really close to being completed. So I sewed until shortly after midnight and listened to my Dave Ramsey podcasts to keep me motivated. Thankfully DH came home and saved me from myself, I really am a slow sewer in the wee hours of the morning and definitely needed to go to bed before I screwed something up.

Let's Try This Again...

Well as much as I really wanted to enter the world of Blogging, I just didn't have enough drive to keep it up apparently. I have several blogs I like to read regularly, so I made a decision that I would try this again. Even if no one ever reads this, I still subscribe to the thought that I will enjoy looking back on what I've accomplished.


So what have I accomplished??? Well today I made a ribbon board to hang over my computer. I have so many cute pictures of my children, nephews, and friends' kids that I want to hang onto them and enjoy them, but my fridge is looking like a terrible mess with pictures hanging everywhere plus pretty artwork thanks to my children (how sad it will be when the day comes that they don't want to draw pictures for the refrigerator anymore). So I decided that a ribbon board would be the answer. The wall over my computer is bare, so it's the perfect spot since I can see them from the kitchen and enjoy them while I'm computing too.


To make the ribbon board, I started with a base of 1/4" plywood from DH's wood shop (it measures about 2' long by 3.5' wide ~ just a scrap that he had in there and the perfect size for the wall). I took some thin batting I had and covered the front of the plywood and stapled it to the back with my staple gun. Then I used a piece of fabric from my scrap box that had grape vines all over it (coordinates with my kitchen) and covered the front in the same manner as I did the batting and stapled it to the back. Once the wood was covered, I divided the board into sections and secured ribbon 1/4" ribbon across the board in a diagonal fashion (secured to the back via more staples). Unfortunately I have run out of ribbon, so I must make a run to Joann's later so I can finish the board. Once all the ribbons are secured, I will hot glue buttons onto the front where the ribbons intersect each each to cover the staples I used to secure each little "X". And just like that I will have a really cheap ribbon board! The cost of this baby will be the price of a spool of ribbon and maybe a package of buttons if I don't have enough in my stash. Pretty good considering Pottery Barn Kids wants $59 for one half the size! I will post a picture of mine as soon as it's finished.


In other news, my last post (albeit 9 months ago) was about my favorite financial expert Dave Ramsey. I'm so excited to say that we are almost DEBT FREE (except for our house which will hopefully be paid off fairly soon - maybe 5ish years from now)! We paid off my van a few weeks ago (it has never driven so good by the way! LOL) and will have DH's truck paid off before the end of June. Becoming debt free hasn't come without much sacrifice tho, but I can hardly wait until we only have a house payment and our regular utitlity payments every month ~ it will be so wonderful to have no consumer debt or automobile loans - woo hoo! :-)


I guess that is it for now. I have been busy sewing lately. I made my oldest son a new pair of jean from an Ottobre magazine and myself a knit top from New Look, a swirl skirt from Butterick, a twist top from Simplicity, and an awesome wrap dress from Burda World of Fashion. You can peek at my reviews at Pattern Review to see photos and detailed information about the garments.


Until next time!