Caroline, almost 15, arrived yesterday from Florence, SC, to spend a few days. She had a hard time "working us in" this year as she is starting to high school in August and working out with her soccer team, getting ready for soccer. She has spent a week at 4-H camp at lake Marion this summer, another week at Florence Elite Soccer Camp, and this week was free so she came to visit us. We met her in Atlanta on Tuesday (half-way) and will take her back to Atlanta on Sat. to meet her dad to go back home.
Caroline wants to sew and bake a cake while she's here. Today we shopped for fabric for a dress and found just what she wanted.
Guess where we found the fabric? At the drug store in Opp!! This drug store is so unique. You go there for so many things. Computer supplies, beautiful cards and stationery, jewelry, purses, gifts, books, and beautiful cotton fabric and sewing supplies. Oh, and they also fill prescriptions and sell medical supplies too. I suppose that's why it's called a drug store or pharmacy.
In a small town, you can find almost everything you need. You just have to know where to go to find it! Like fresh ground gourmet coffee from Coffee Co. Roasters (Emerald Coast Coffee) can be found at a local florist. The clerk at a local service station orders my husband's pipe tobacco for him. I guess nobody else in Elba smokes a pipe.
If we can't find what we need, we order it on the internet. The UPS and Fed Ex trucks are often stopping at our house. People probably think we have a home business!!
I gave Caroline a teddy bear I made for her out of an old baby quilt that was her dad's when he was little. I made each granddaughter a bear from an old quilt and gave to them when they were around 16. Caroline is the last one to get a bear. I made hers a couple of years early while I can still see to sew! I will admit that I am starting to age a bit and find things harder to do than in the past.
We will do some more sewing tomorrow and maybe finish her dress in the morning. Then she wants to make a skirt. She brought her sewing machine with her because she is used to using it and knows how to thread it, etc. I draw the seam lines on the fabric and she sews the seams together. She even puts in zippers. I think she is learning something that she will use for a lifetime. I learned to sew when I was about her age. My grandmother taught me to sew on an old treadle machine in the 1940's.
Caroline made a dress last summer and wore it to a school dance this spring. She was so proud of her creation! She even made her older sister a dress last summer also.
I love my granddaughters and have so many happy memories of the times we spend together on holidays and summer visits. I just wish I could see them more often. You don't just hop up to Florence, SC or to Austin, TX and spend the day. That's why we spend a lot of time sending email and on Skype talking to each other.
