Progress and a Cute Little Sewing Machine!

My dad, who is an extraordinarily creative and skillful artist, is making a few of these little sewing machines for an upcoming crafts fair! This is his own design.(He has also made little tractors, cars, etc.) What you can't see from the photo is that if you turn the wheel, the "needle" (also wood and not too sharp) goes up and down. What little girl wouldn't be thrilled with a machine like this! It is about 10" or 11" wide - a perfect size for a wantabe seamstress! I think it would be a cute addition to some of our sewing rooms!
As far as progress after the fire,I am still filling out contents lists for the insurance company. This is probably the most difficult task so far. Could you remember every item in your house, when and where you bought it, and how much you paid for it? 
 I'm still doing fine emotionally and I still feel that everything will be fine in the end. Doug and I are safely tucked away right in the heart of family and the people around us have been amazing! My sincere thanks and appreciation goes out to all of you who have written encouraging emails and cards. Some of you have sent packages and I have had so much fun opening them up and discovering the contents! Early Christmas! I plan on putting all your cards in a scrapbook so that if I find myself bogged down in discouragement, I can pull out the scrapbook and see what an amazing group of people God put in my life! Thank you so much!!
Hopefully, I will have more to show you when all this insurance business gets behind me, but I wanted to give you an update.

 Since I showed my house after the fire, I wanted to show some pictures of it before.
                                                 
                                              

                                                       
  

A Real Set Back, But NOT a Tragedy!

I haven't been able to access my blog for a week now, but I have an excuse. Our house burned to the ground last Tuesday night. Here is a pitiful photo from my phone. This is from the garage side looking in to the house. The shell of a car was my husband's fairly new car. I'm told that coming back from a fire is a long process, so I'm hoping that blogging a little about it will help me.

                                                     

The fire started in the garage and quickly spread to the attic in the house. Our garage, although detached, was connected to the house with a breezeway and roof. We were told that our attic was on fire before we even knew there was a problem. We saw our lights flickering and looked out the window to see the garage on fire! We grabbed the cat, my purse, and the hard drive and ran out barefooted.  Poor little Sugarplum, the very talented cat you've seen in previous posts, was in such a panic she fought me really hard to get out of my arms, but I managed to hold on to her.
Our house was a total loss. Since we live out in the country, the volunteer fire department couldn't get there in time to save it despite their heroic efforts. Fire departments from four surrounding counties came. There just wasn't enough water to control the flames.
I stood among MANY friends and family who showed up to support us. Our sweet neighbors brought us shoes to put on and water to drink. It is very surreal to stand and watch your house burn. I shook uncontrollably for several hours despite the heat. I kept thinking, "This is not the kind of thing that happens to ME!"
Thank goodness, God took care of us and we escaped unharmed. We are so blessed to have family nearby. My parents have a little apartment above part of their house and we are very comfortable here until we can rebuild or find a house. We are keeping this in perspective, too. This is NOT a tragic loss. Losing a child or a spouse would fall into that category. We will come back from this and be just fine. We have each other as well as family. We don't need anything except patience and a clear mind to deal with the aftermath. Insurance will eventually replace most of what we needed. We're sad, but not grieving the loss of material possessions.
I am not writing this to gain your sympathy. Many of you out there are suffering losses much greater than this and I DO realize that! I'm so thankful for all my blessings!
I will participate in the Wicked blog hop started next week. My projects are gone, but I had a couple of photos during the process that I had taken with my phone to show my sister what I was doing. I will show those. You won't see them in their finished state, but close enough that you can use your imagination!
Thank you so much for being here, reading this, and coming back in the future. I will get back on track. My camera will be replaced as well as my computer. (I am borrowing one now.) In the meantime, blessings to you!!!