Insurance Problems!

This morning has already started on a bad foot. I am 31 weeks pregnant with twins (and any of you who have had twins or know someone who has - you know that means really they will come very soon and COULD come any day...) and I've been dealing with insurance coverage problems!

Because of a mistake within the insurance offices, my insurance termed before it was supposed to, and I have basically been without insurance for the entire month of June. This means, basically, that any place besides my doctor's office keeps canceling my appointments because when they run my insurance the day before it's showing no coverage - Even though, when it processes, it will date back to May 19th.

But they don't know that. So, I spoke with a lady today to see if my insurance was reinstated today, and it hasn't been. She asked if I spoke to someone Thursday and I told her I did, and that person told me to leave my case worker a message and that someone checking her messages should take care of it "within 24 hours" and this lady tells me "Well it hasn't been 24 hours yet." Ok... And then I ask her, just to make sure - "If I go to my doctor's appointment today and my insurance has not been reinstated yet, will my insurance back date and pay for the appointment once it DOES go through, or will I be billed for the appointment." She started to go on about how she's not an eligibility worker and can't confirm whether I will be eligible or not, that it's an income based program (because I am on a state assistance insurance right now...). I told her, "I know I will qualify because I don't have a job and I am pregnant." and SHE replied "It doesn't matter if you are pregnant they base it on your income, and I cannot guarantee you will qualify."

OI! So I say, "I'm not asking you to tell me if I will qualify. I already know that I will qualify. I don't HAVE any income. But forget that. I don't need you to say I will or won't be eligible. I am just asking - WHEN I DO qualify and get my insurance reinstated, will my insurance back date and cover my appointments between the date stamped on my paperwork from when I applied, to the time it gets processed?" Which was pretty simply a yes answer.

It's just been this huge hassle. I just need my insurance before these buns in the oven decide they are done cooking and I end up getting thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical bills that should not be billed to me! I am under way more stress over the insurance than I should be! I provided the info they are asking for back in December, and they are asking for it again now because the Salem office never received a copy of it from the office here in town, so they think I'm not pregnant!

I PROMISE I AM! :( Okay. I am done. Haha. *sigh*

Sew & Tell #3!

I did it! For this week's Sew & Tell Friday at Amylouwho's blog, I finished Ben's shirt! After I decided to sit down and just do the sleeves - as everyone suggested - I realized I wasn't even going to be done yet. I did the dive-in thing, and felt so proud once the first sleeve seemed to look right, and then I remembered the even more daunting and unfamiliar task of... BUTTON HOLES! I was a little bit freaked out, but I persisted. Late this morning, Ben got to put on his shirt. Now he doesn't want to take it off! I'm glad it turned out and that he loves it so much!



The button holes and buttons were the only part waiting to get done this morning, so I jumped right in and didn't stop until it was finished. I was terrified that I would cut through the stitches on a button hole, or that I would stitch it all wrong. The last time I was supposed to use button holes, by direction of a pattern, I gave up and just sewed the buttons on and decided it couldn't come unbottoned. I was too scared to mess up the so-far-so-good project to go and explore the unknown. With a button-up shirt, it turns out it's not so simple!



And I took a close-up to show the design and color a little better, too!



So far, this is my most accomplished Sew & Tell! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's finished projects this week!

New Project... Sort of.

So, since before last Friday I've been "working on" - okay, fine, STALLING on - a shirt. It's a button up (think Hawaiian style) for Ben, and I kind of came to a halt when it came to putting the sleeves on. I am really nervous that I will mess up and ruin the whole thing! I've only made one shirt, for my mom, and it didn't have sleeves. I've made sleeveless dresses. I've never had to do sleeves. I am FREAKING out. I want to finish it before THIS Friday, because I'd like that to be this week's project (and if it isn't, I won't have one, because Lord knows I haven't been able to think about starting anything else!), but I am so worried about the sleeves! It's really paralyzed my work!

Any tips on getting confident (or putting on sleeves)? Oi.

Sew & Tell #2!

So this is my second week participating in the Sew & Tell at Amylouwho's blog! I really wanted to finish something a little more climatic than this, but I'm in the MIDDLE of that project, so I'll have to post what I made yesterday for our kitchen! I've seen these on tons of different blogs and craft sites, and I finally decided to make one myself. It was a quick project to do while I was waiting on a load of laundry from the dryer, and it came in handy a couple hours later when I came back from the grocery store and emptied my bags. So here it is, my plastic bag dispenser!

I could not get the lighting right in there for the life of me, and our kitchen walls are a little more yellow than that (it's true, MORE yellow!) so I did my best to edit the photo for some clear visual, but it wasn't working out in my favor so much! The bottom fabric is starry.

I also made a lot of progress in that garage - but I'll wait until it's completely finished to share that! Happy sewing!!

"Take it easy!"

I'm, oh, about 7 months along with twins, and I keep getting told to take it easy. The fact of the matter is: I feel healthy. I don't think I've had any contractions, my babies stay active, I eat well. The only issue I have is getting tired or having my lower back or feet get sore from the extra weight. Otherwise, I feel about normal.

So, today I ventured into the "garage" if that's what you want to call it. It looks like a garage from the outside, but if you take the time to peer inside, it's actually like walking into Narnia instead of what looks like a wardrobe. Except it's a garage that leads to a heaping pile of junk and dirt! I've got a big task ahead of me, but I felt pretty good about filling our outside trash can and making a path to the washer and dryer finally. It's much less scary entering the garage now, but it's nowhere NEAR done!

Sewing Chores!

Today, just a list of a few things I don't really look forward to doing (but often need to do) in terms of sewing!

• Ironing. I have a small card table for a sewing table, and no ironing board, so the width of the fabric is more than the width or length of my table, and it has to be shifted all around the table to sew. Small pieces, fine! Bigger pieces... More than a yard really? PAIN!
• Binding. Maybe I haven't discovered some way to make this feel easier, but every time I've bound something I've had serious difficulty. It seems like if I don't use a really wide binding, then while I'm sewing it on some of the fabric in my fabric sandwich gets loose and doesn't sew into the binding properly... I have some pretty messed up pot holders - we'll put it that way!
• Cutting patterns. This always seems like it's quite more difficult than it should be. Does everyone cut their patterns as exactly as I do? It takes me forever to cut out a pattern! And I find that it's more difficult to search out which pieces I need for the piece, so I just cut every piece of the pattern on the first go so they're ready for next time... Am I making this more of a task than it should be?

I'm sure there are more things I could think of, but for now... Those tasks are my sewing enemies! What are yours?

Busy Days!

I keep meaning to come on and post about something, but end up getting too tired by the end of the day to do so! Ben is directing a production of Cabaret at the local community theater, and I have gone to the last three showings of it - I'm taking tonight off! I was just too tired to get up and go see it this time, but I'll be back there tomorrow! Ben, in fact, had to fill in for his Emcee last night because he had a prior commitment, and same goes for next Friday. Poor Ben got more than he bargained for, signing on to do this show! He has to cover the Emcee twice, and then his Customs Officer/Nazi Guard will be Clifford Bradshaw tomorrow afternoon for the matinee, and Ben will be filling in as the Officer and Guard, plus do all of this guy's scene change duties. Then, the last week of the production his Victor will have left to New York, so in the last 3 shows, Ben has to fill in as Victor. It's been very difficult for him to direct AND try to rehearse and learn all these parts just so he wouldn't have to look for more fill-ins or understudies!

On another note, I went to a yard sale yesterday - with the hopes of finding a girl car seat - and ended up finding a box full of scraps, patterns, and notions for $4. In the end, I threw away a LOT of trash pieces - bits that weren't even a patch, but just a tiny bit of trim off what I assume DID get to be a patch somewhere, and a lot of stained fabrics. But the amount that I KEPT from the box was well worth over $5. There was a very Easter-y fabric (about 5 yards of it) and probably 3-4 yards of a sort of Halloween flannel fabric. Not sure what I'll use them for, but those alone were worth more than $4 if you consider yardage and condition!

On the flip-side, I went to SEVERAL garage sales today (DID find a car seat finally for our little girl!) and found only one with fabric, which was asking about $1 a yard. It was cute fabric, but I could go to Joann's or somewhere and shop clearance for the same thing if I wanted, so it doesn't seem appropriate for a garage sale to ask that amount. They also had an opened pack of preemie diapers for $6. Again, I might as well go buy a brand new pack if I needed them! They had some (less than attractive, in my opinion) fat quarters marked at $1 apiece, too. Again, if I were at Joann's or somewhere retail, I might have considered this... But at a yard sale?

Anyway, no new pictures today. I'd really like to start on a shirt I promised Ben, but I lost the pattern somewhere and need to find it! Oops!

Sew & Tell!

This will be my first time participating in amylouwho's group project "Sew & Tell" I'm a day early, as it won't be posted there until Friday, but I think the point is just complete something each week. And, wouldn't you know it... I completed something!

About a month or so ago, I made a little dress (intended for the little girl in my belly). I was pretty proud, as it was my first baby item I've made. Well, I decided I wanted to make little shoes out of scrap fabric I had, since I have SO much, and while I was trying to decide which fabric to use, I thought it'd be cool to make some little shoes to match the dress! So, as you can guess, that's just what I did!

This is the dress that I made before:
And this week's finished project - the shoes:
I was really nervous about making the shoes because they're one of those things where you really want them to match, and let's face it - handmade things can be hard to match up perfectly! But I'm really happy with how they turned out, and glad they are the same size and look the same!

I Need Help!

Whether it's with my organization in my small craft area (OI!) or with my addiction to buying fabric whenever it goes on clearance, (whoops!) the fact remains, I need help! But I'm still content with my addiction, so we'll just refer back to that organization thing.

My craft area is so jumbled! I am limited on space (My stuff is set up in the soon to be nursery, so I can't expand much further than where I am right now) and I need to figure out the best way to use the space I have and feel like I have some sense of stability in my tiny sanctuary! It's the one place I go where it's really my area. I'm sure many of you girls know exactly what I'm talking about!

So right now, we're looking about like this:


And this is after spending about half an hour trying to get some order going on just earlier this afternoon. Does anyone else have a really small sewing/crafting area? Any tips for keeping organized or using the space better?!

And now, for some ultra-cute fabric that is new to the shelf:

Puking Pastilles!

I just found a new internet love. *Sigh* It's SO dreamy! I went to Puking Pastilles (Don't ask how I stumbled upon it, I tend to find things by random happenstance!) and found that not only are there tons of useful and fun things on the site in general, but they are having a giveaway aaaaas we speak! And, if I am reading correctly, it looks as though they do it on a [gasp!] weekly basis!

Okay, first of all they have sewing tutorials and a Learn To Sew 101 (And I am still fairly green to the sewing world as you may have guessed so this gets me all giddy!) and further, they have CUTE patterns available for REASONABLE prices on their Etsy shop! I'm off to enter their giveaway (and you probably should too!) for some hot new & old fabric!

Go see Puking Pastilles now!!!