College Outside The Box

Clay's new film for the College Plus! scholarship competition has just been released! Just 3 minutes and 17 seconds; nope, you won't be wasting your time. Quite the contrary, it is informative, funny, and creative! The video with the most views wins an iPad, so feel free to watch it more than once. :)

Do you have to go into debt to pay for college? Watch Clay's video to find out...

http://www.collegeplus.org/scholarship/vote/videos/claygibson

New Years

No. We didn't go out and party on New Years Eve. No. We didn't watch the ball drop. No. We didn't 'hang out' with friends...until the next day. It sounds like we didn't do anything. But guess what! We did do some fun things! #1: we had a pink ham, black eyed peas, cabbage, and cornbread! The traditional meal for everyone except us. Daddy asked for this meal and so that is what we fixed. I guess I'm out of it because I was clueless as to the fact that it was a tradition for New Years Eve. Sorry. #2: Most of the family played a new game Benjamin got for Christmas and so we had a very peaceful, relaxed evening. #3: At midnight we had sparkling grape juice! Oh, I love sparkling grape juice!

New Years day we had some friends over to shoot, play games, eat, and have fun! We shot for four hours. We played Taboo. We got rained out of our supper on the patio. We had great fellowship. And we had fun trying on hats! The whole day was a great opening to 2011!

We started off with pistols...

Who cares about ear plugs?

I do!

Camera wars!

A different side of my sister :).

...and we finished with rifles.

Molly Elizabeth

P.S. Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of when everyone was here for dinner.

Same Song, Second Verse

By the second day we were over it. We were surrounded by staples, batting, shredded fabric, and the ghost of what had once been our lovely red couch. At this point we were wondering what had possessed us to tackle a whole couch as our second upholstery project. We also asked ourselves why we had chosen to squeeze it in between a week long trip to New Orleans and company arriving for Thanksgiving (one week). We had allowed ourselves two days (yes, we know; we're idealists); it was the second day and we had one piece back on. However, there was no turning back at this point; we picked up our staple gun and went back to work.

This is the before shot. It is a little bit hard to tell in the picture, but the fabric on the cushions was shredding. Notice the white patches of exposed batting across the front.

A close up of the fabric off of one of the cushions. Do you see the seam I took across the middle to close up one of the first holes?

When we took the back off we found a product that forever changed the way we'll finish a project: curve-ease. This metal strip is used to finish an edge and replaces the much more tedious method of sewing it shut by hand. Just stuff your fabric into the open teeth, and hammer shut. Done.

All things do finally come to an end. We finished...on day five.

The finished product!

As you can see we redesigned the couch a little bit (we can't do things the easy way). We took the skirt off of the bottom, revealing the legs, and made the back one solid piece (instead of three individual pillows). We love our new, brown couch!

With every do-it-yourself project you learn something new. We're glad to have added to our knowledge of upholstery. It isn't something we want to do everyday, but would we do it again? Definitely.

~Susan Liana

Note: we didn't actually do any work on the couch on day three (Wednesday). I had to work and mama was doing some other necessary things around the house. It was a much needed break.

P.S. I know that it has been a month and a half since this event took place, but please remember that very shortly after finishing we had company arrive for Thanksgiving, and then we had more company, and then another set of company, and then we decorated for Christmas, and then, well you get the picture. I just didn't want you to miss the opportunity to see our brand new couch. :)

Snow, Snow, SNOW!

We didn't have a white Christmas, but we almost did! Snowing the day after the renowned holiday is close enough for us southern, born and bred, Georgians. I was all full of anticipation Christmas night when I looked at the 30% chance of snow on the Weather channel for the next day. If you are south of the south you get excited when there is the tiniest chance of snow. When we moved up to Savannah 5 years ago we were thrilled with the thought of snow every year. Our hopes failed us. Savannah apparently doesn't have much of a temperature change from SOUTH Georgia. I was assured by my neighbor that "Oh! yeah! It snows every year." Her assurance made us assured...until we found out for ourselves that that was only a dream for Savannah.

However, we were blessed with snow on Mama's birthday this past February. We have a new ornament on our tree with "Snow" all over it because it is 'the year of the snow', for us. Little did we know that the day after Christmas it would snow from 8:00 a.m.-7 p.m.! 11 hours! It was a phenomenon! Unfortunately it didn't stick this time, but it started to about 7:00 p.m.

Each snowflake was gorgeous! They each had their own design. Everyone of them looked like a mini, glass version of paper cutouts. God's detail was minutely perfect!

We might not have gotten a white Christmas, but it was as close as we could wish for! We are hoping that since it is only December, that we may get some this winter, early in the new year!

Happy New Year!

Molly Elizabeth

What we were doing for the past two months

Just in case you are wondering what we did for the past two months or more then keep reading.

Way back in the month of October, almost so far back that I almost forget that we did it, Clay went to Challenge Extreme and I went to some old friends, the Hobsons, in Alabama, for the the week! We had lots of fun watching Enchanted, Sense and Sensibility(the new one), and Ella Enchanted, but watching movies wasn't all that we did. We played on the trampoline for hours on end.

Doing tricks on the trampoline.

In the middle of the week we went down to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to see their cousin, watch the parade (I think it was homecoming) and view the campus. It was slightly against my principles since I'm an Auburn fan. Altogether we had LOTS of fun, especially staying up to 3:00 o'clock in the morning.

Grace and Molly Elizabeth in the dorm.

Clay, well, he was out surviving in the wilderness without a camera. He said he had fun. I will take his word for it.

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Mama and Susan Liana went to Endeavor that next week. Mama was in charge of the kitchen which was a big undertaking. This was the 4th Endeavor for Mama, and Susan Liana was so happy to be asked to help in the kitchen with the mothers. I missed them, but they were having fun together in north Georgia.

Mama and Mrs. Martin at Endeavor.

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Our family attended the annual Fall Family Fun Night event provided by our church. This year they added pony rides to the regular events. There is candy, free popcorn and cotton candy! Oh, it is fun!

(photo credits to Miss Kay)

Susan Liana running the cotton candy machine at Fall Family Fun Night.

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Daddy, Mama, Susan Liana, Clay and Molly Elizabeth got to go on a mission trip to New Orleans with our church. It was such a blessing working with Redeemer Presbyterian there on the houses in the area.

This is the group that worked with the St. Roch church on a house down the street.

The girls doing a photo shoot by a square in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

Mama and Clay installing windows.

Molly Elizabeth in the same photo shoot.

Anna and Molly Elizabeth on the last day after we had finished our painting project.

The girls at the Cafe DuMonde, waiting for our beignets.

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Then Molly Elizabeth's birthday rolled around. For my party on the night before my birthday,I had a hayride and bonfire. We played Taboo after a supper of BBQ sandwiches and Brunswick stew. Unfortunately we forgot to pull out our camera. Therefore, no pictures. We had a dance on my birthday as well, so you could say I got two parties! I got to choose the dances and have a birthday cake there. I am now fourteen.

(photo credits to Miss Kay)

Waiting for the dance to begin...

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Thanksgiving came fast like everything else. Granddaddy, Uncle Steve, Aunt Celesta, Audrey Kate and Evan got to come enjoy it with us! The usual turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, and every other casserole you can think of were on the table. We all dug in and Clay ate 9 of the rolls! It was a very memorable and happy time.

Making pumpkin muffins!

Thanksgiving dinner.

Granddaddy teaching Susan Liana how to dance.

Susan Liana reading the Dr. Seuss Sleep Book.

Audrey Kate and Evan at the park.

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Our friends, the Martins, got to come spend one night at our house the Sunday after Thanksgiving. They are friends from Teenpact. We talked, played games, ate and had fun.

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Another Teenpact family came the next week. They too stayed for one night and all of the kids played lots of Telephone Pictionary while the mamas talked up a blue streak. They had a little baby that was 6 months old and he was always being held by someone. Adorable little children.

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Our youth group had a progressive dinner which was fun. Mr. Brad read The Night Before Christmas and every time there was a "left" or "right" said you passed your gift that way. I ended up with a Starbucks gift-card. I was pretty happy about that.

Everyone who attended the progressive dinner.

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I am going to end this post with our Lessons and Carols service. Clay and Molly Elizabeth were in the choir and Mama read the Seventh Lesson. Susan Liana helped serve the buffet. I love Lessons and Carols and can't wait until next year!

(photo credits to Miss Kay)

Susan Liana helping to ready the buffet line.

Merry Christmas!

Molly Elizabeth

Upholstery 101

I was raised by an idealist, do-it-yourself kind of mother. I don't think she ever met a project she was afraid to tackle. Mama doesn't believe in paying someone else to do what you can do yourself and she has a pretty firm belief that if they can do it, we can do it. She's also not a perfectionist and a firm believer in teaching your children to be hard workers. My brother, Benjamin, says that that's the attitude that made us painters. Painting was probably one of the first life skills we learned. In fact, I think we were almost grown before it dawned upon us that not everyone painted their house themselves. We've been known to paint rooms on the spur of the moment (see Mom's bedroom in a previous post) and we've gotten pretty fast at it. When we painted our living room (it was a dining room at the time) we did it all in one day; I'm talking having the pictures hung back on the wall before we went to bed. But, painting is not what this post is about. I bring it up merely to illustrate the fact that Mama has instilled in all of us children a firm belief that we can "do-it-ourself."

Learning to upholster has been on our to-do list for quite some time; Mama and I have talked about it for years. Then, we started talking about it with our friends, the Boatrights; that was about two years ago. About three weeks ago, out of the blue we decided to stop talking about it and actually do it. We set the date on Sunday at church, and on Friday morning, bright and early, Caroline and Mrs. Jane showed up at our house and we got started on our very first upholstery project. Or, maybe I should say, Molly Elizabeth, Caroline, and I got started; Mama and Mrs. Jane got side tracked.

We decided to do a wing chair that had belonged to my Grandmother. It was still in pretty good shape, but it's mauve-faded-to-pink color didn't really match our decor. Using the basic upholstery directions that Mom found on-line, and with the confidence born of many years of do-it-yourself projects, we set to work ripping the fabric off of a perfectly good chair.

When you are taking it apart you always start with the back.

You take the fabric off of the chair in the reverse order that it was put on. So, you start with the back and work towards the front. Keep each piece as intact as possible, because you'll use it for your pattern piece to cut out your new fabric. Also, take pictures as you go along so that you can refer to them if you have questions about how to put it back together.

These metal strips run down the sides of the back piece and are what attach the fabric to the chair. Make sure to save them; just straighten them out with your pliers and use them again!

Use a flat head screwdriver along with needle nose pliers to remove all of the staples. I recommend working with a sheet under the chair, because there are a LOT of staples to remove, and it would make clean up easier (we're still finding staples). Also, make sure to save the piping that you take off; you can reuse it.

Make sure to mark each piece so that you know where it goes and which way is up.

Leave the stuffing in place as much as possible. This front piece is the last one to come off and the first one you put back on.

Lay your old pieces down on your new fabric and cut out the new pieces. The fabric we used was a reversible fabric (creamy white on one side and pink on the other) that Mom had picked up on clearance a while back. She bought the whole bolt for $15 so we weren't really worried about messing it up. I don't think I would pick any really expensive fabric for your first project. Make sure to take note of where any sewing was done. For instance, we had to make darts on the very front piece and we had to hand sew in the half circle-ish piece that goes over the arm.

These darts were sewn on the machine.

For the first piece, we hand sewed it to the seat of the chair and then pulled it tight and stapled.

Mama taught Caroline how to make piping. Reuse the old piping and it will be exactly the right length!

Some of the pieces slide all the way through to the back of the chair to staple.

You need two pairs of hands to upholster: one to pull it tight, and one to staple.

If we look tired it's because it was late!

When we ran into a problem with the back piece at 1:00 a.m., we had to call it a day. We finished all but the back piece and the cushion. I finished those the next day. I had to hand sew the back piece across the curve at the top, because we couldn't get the staple gun in close enough with the curve. We've since discovered they make a metal strip called curve-ease to go around such curves. It has little teeth that you push the fabric into and simply hammer it shut; we'll have some of that next time!

Our finished project!

I must say that Caroline and I were pretty pleased (almost ecstatic) with the way our first project turned out. In fact we're already planning our next one!

Upholstering really isn't that difficult, and I think next time it will go much faster since we now know more about what we're doing. Remember the first rule of being a do-it-yourselfer: if they can do it, we can do it. If we can do it, you can do it.

Happy Upholstering!

Susan Liana

Free Pears

Now, that is a sign that would grab most anyone's attention. It certainly caught ours.

So, yesterday, Mama, Clay, and I decided to go pick some. We made a bee line to those pears like bees to a honey pot and asked the man outside if we could pick. He told us where to go, so around the corner we went to the pear-laden tree. It didn't take us long to pick about 40 pears, a good basket full. Well, let me back up, we didn't pick them all. Most of them were laying on the ground, perfectly ripe, so that all we had to do was pick them up! However, the yellow jackets were swarming about all of the luscious, fermented pears on the ground; I wasn't about to fight the yellow jackets for their mushy nest around the base of the tree! I guess that is why I only had 7 pears in my bag, while Mama's and Clay's bags were bursting their seams. Just know that it is faster to pick pears than strawberries, peanuts, or other small edible items. You should go pick pears sometime; it is very satisfying =).