Handmade Gift Giving

I don't have to tell you how commercialized Christmas has become. And it didn't just start recently: it started decades ago. People may say that they believe in the message of Christmas: joy, peace, goodwill to all--but those are the same people that also get in the Christmas spirit by spending, spending, spending. This is the reason why the holiday has become commercialized. Of course retailers LOVE it! And why shouldn't they? They probably make more money this time of year than the rest of the year.

Now you may hear people complaining about cheaply made manufactured items. Their kid opened it on Christmas day and by the next day it broke. Or it never worked in the first place. Well, instead of complaining why don't they just buy handmade. I mean just think about it: handmade items are not assembled in a factory they are made by hand in someone's home one by one. Talk about quality control! I know when I make my items, I don't let ANYTHING go out the door without first making sure it's well made. Do they do that in a factory? yes, but still damaged items slip by. I know there's still a bit of a stigma out there that handmade is "cheap". Well, this is not the 70's anymore and to be honest, handmade is of better quality than the manufactured items people spend tons of money on. 

Or here's another idea: make gifts yourself! Sure, why not? Ever heard of Pinterest? Why there are THOUSANDS of ideas for easy crafting!! And you don't have to be a "crafter" to make them either. To me, handmade just means more. It's been made especially for that person who is receiving it. The giver has actually taken time and effort to make it--and that just means much more than going to the store and buying something. Handmade is so much more personal.

Personally, I have been making things for my family every Christmas (and b-days) for YEARS now. And do you know what---they LOVE the things I make. So much so that one year I ran out of time and bought Christmas presents and my little nieces (I mean LITTLE--like 3-6 yrs old) were so disappointed I didn't make their gifts that they actually made me feel bad about it. I never made THAT mistake again. Even tho I'm usually late getting presents to them on time, they still love that I make them. And that makes me feel good. My time and effort is truly appreciated--apparently more than my time and effort of going to a store and buying something. 

So this year for Christmas--why not try making gifts. Or if you don't have time or just don't know how to craft, buy handmade. There are so many handmade sellers out there now and so many selling venues specifically for buying handmade that there's no reason you shouldn't! 

Handmade Artist of the Week: A Bead Thing

If you read my last blog post you will see that I belong to a very special handmade group called Handmade Artists Forum. As a member I decided to join a blog ring for the first time. What's a blog ring? Well, it's a fun way to find new blogs from interesting people for one thing. For another, it's a great way--in this case--to find new handmade enthusiasts! I'm very excited about this because I love meeting new people--especially ones in the handmade community. You will never find more helpful or nicer people. 

As part of this blog ring, we have to feature a different crafter every week. This is the part I'm excited about because I'll get to meet crafters I've not met before and get to see new and exciting things they make!! So, let's get this party started shall we?

Our first artist is Pam from A Bead Thing. She's a retired realtor who lives in Florida and she makes beautiful jewelry. Here is an excerpt from her profile that tells you how she got started:

One day I was to go to a Halloween party and asked my daughter to take some of the beads and make me something to wear. She did and that was the beginning. She began playing around with the beads and we began to buy more and more beads. The more I watched her play around, the more intrigued I became until one day I started playing around with them again. This did not take long at all and I was hooked. I have not stopped since. I began researching techniques and learning all I could about beading and checking out what others were doing and then realized that I was no longer depressed and that God had been working in my life with those beads for many many years. He continues to guide me and provide me with inspiration and I am thankful that He did not give up on me.

If you'd like to see what Pam has for sale you can view and purchase her items in several locations:
http://handmadeartists.com/shop/beadthing
http://www.abeadthing.com/

You can also take a look at her blog: http://www.abeadthing-pam.blogspot.com/
Or look her up on FB: https://www.facebook.com/ABeadThing
and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/abeadthing

And here are some of her lovely creations!

Handmade Artists Forum

For those of you who know me, you know that I have been selling online for quite some time. I also sell at a few handmade venues. One I would like to talk about today is Handmade Artists Forum (or HAF for short). I have belonged to this group for a few yrs now and it's a GREAT group--very supportive (as most of us handmade artists are) and quite friendly (yeah, we're that too) so you can just imagine how excited I was when they decided to open up a handmade selling site! 

If you sell online, I would HIGHLY recommend giving them a try for these reasons:
* Great support *
* Forums where you can find help on any subject *
* Friendly atmosphere *
* You meet great new friends who all have something in common (making handmade!) *
* Very affordable (just $5/month!) *
* Easy to open a shop and list *

Those are just SOME of the great features of selling on HAF!! And of course, even if you're not a seller, you can buy some beautiful, high quality items you certainly won't find in stores! Here are just a few I found while window shopping:

A Bead Thing sells pretty jewelry like this Pearl Bling Ring

Reef Botanicals sells hair care products, soaps, scrubs and even hard-to-find men's produts like this beer soap.

Marilyn Kelley Art sells beautiful original handmade art and painted items like this vintage sewing box 

You can even find things for baby like these beautifully crafted moccasins by Thunder Rose Leather

These are just a few items you can find at HAF. So if you're looking for something unique to buy or maybe you'd like to sell your own handmade items, please be sure to stop by and have a look around!

Local Work--Finally!!

This has been a busy three days for me. For three years I've been trying to get my little handmade business noticed locally. It's extremely hard to do if you don't have the funds or means to open an actual brick and mortar store, which I don't. So I've passed out cards, brochures, pinned them on every bulletin board in town--everything I could think of. Unfortunately I've only had a couple decent jobs from this: dog coats. I made over 50 of them for two businesses. But that was last year. 

This year I did the annual Kids Day event but only made $27. Needless to say, I was getting a bit depressed and began to think I would NEVER get noticed locally--or get any more local business. Until this weekend.

On Saturday, a local embroidery shop called asking if I would be interested in a sewing job. I had gone to this shop a couple of months ago and left my card in case they were looking for any help in the future. She had 60 lab coats that she needed the sleeves hemmed on. She was willing to pay me $3.50 per coat. Well that adds up to a nice little chunk of change. Only drawback was she wanted me to come in there and do them. So I told her I would stop in Monday and take a look at her setup and talk it over.

On Sunday, Mike came home with 13 smocks for a friend of ours' beauty shop she needed embroidered. After 30 yrs, she's decided to redo her signage so she wanted her smock design to match. So that was another local business order! 

My only dilemma was: how was I going to get these smocks embroidered AND sew those lab coats in a timely manner when I couldn't bring the lab coats home. To my surprise, I got both orders done in three days. I started the smocks on Monday afternoon and managed to get all but three stitched out. So, Tuesday morning I finished the last three then went to the embroidery shop to work on coats. I got half of those done in 4 1/2 hrs (pretty good I thought). I came home, got the smocks and took them out to the beauty shop (got paid--most important). This morning I went back in to the embroidery shop and finished the rest of the lab coats in three hours. 

So, needless to say, I'm quite impressed with myself! Best part is: Artie (who owns the beauty shop) was so thrilled that her smocks turned out great and that I got them done so quickly that she'll probably be recommending me if anyone ever needs embroidery work done (she knows a lot of the local business owners). So I'm crossing my fingers that this little job is an in for me finally locally! 

Oh, and the lady that owns the embroidery shop also said she'd call me if she ever has any more work--another plus.

Just in case you're curious--here is one of the smocks.

Tomato & Chicken Pasta

Tonight I decided to do something with the chicken breasts I had taken out for dinner. I really wanted a baked pasta dish but didn't have any mozarella cheese (which most call for) so I had to come up with something else. I am always throwing things together and sometimes I come up with some pretty decent dishes. Mark this as one of them. It was so easy and took ingredients I usually have in the pantry.

Tomato and Chicken Pasta 

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts

Italian dressing

2 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves if using fresh)

2 tsp oregano

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes (drained)

1/2 cup vegetable broth (chicken broth would also work)

1 cup half and half (do use this and not milk)

Peppers (I used green and red) chopped

Mushrooms (chopped)

Salt to taste

Pasta of your choosing (I used ziti)

Directions:

Cut chicken into chunks and marinate in dressing for at least 30 minutes.

Put about 2 tsp olive oil on a pan and add chicken and dressing.

Cook chicken until done.

Add all other ingredients (except pasta)

While chicken and sauce is simmering, cook pasta according to directions

When pasta is done, add to sauce mixture, let simmer about five minutes.

Serve with parmesan cheese and bread if desired.

*Note* I like my sauce on the thicker side, so if it's a bit too runny for you, before you add the pasta you can mix a small amount of cornstarch with a bit of water and put that in the sauce to thicken it a bit.

Halloween Super Heroes

Today I finished the accessories for my niece's and her two little boys' (referred to as Tater Tot and Monkey) super hero costumes. If you don't recall, or didn't see, I wrote a post about their super hero capes  that I had made them some time ago. They were SO excited when they got them and my niece thought it would be really cool if they were all super heroes for Halloween. 

So, I have been busily making their matching masks, wrist cuffs and belts (niece deferred a belt and wanted a headpiece instead). I had made them masks when I made their capes but I thought for Halloween I could amp it up a bit and make some really cool ones! 

They were easy enough to make in and of themselves but took some time because I had to design the logos. Then I had to figure out what style of cuffs and belts I wanted to make. After I cut out my niece's headpiece I thought the cuffs might look neat if they had that rounded top on them too, so I just made myself a pattern using it. You can find the headpiece (and cape pattern) at FuddieDuddies on etsy.

For the belts, I decided simple would be best so I just cut out some felt 3" wide x the length of my nephews' waists plus an inch (i.e. Tater Tot has an 18" waist so I cut it 19"). Then I just attached velcro to the ends. For the "buckles" I cut out shapes on my Slice machine and then embroidered their logos onto those. I used heat 'n bond light (if you're not embroidering them you can use heavy) to fuse them onto the belts (no sewing!).

As for the masks, I found a great tutorial on Cutesy Craft's blog. She had Thor, Batman, Ironman, Wolverine, Spiderman, Hulk and Captain America. I used Wolverine for my niece's and Ironman for Monkey's. 

And that was it! I hope they enjoy their costumes and I can't wait to see them in them!

Back in Business

The past few months have not been pleasant as far as my embroidering goes. I have had problems with my machine for quite some time. The first time I had a problem we took it to a place in Erie (40 miles away) and they adjusted the tension and timing. Brought it home and it worked great for approximately 4 months. Then I had troubles again. So, back it went. When I got it back this time it worked for about two weeks. Got it back, same thing. So up to Erie it went again. This last time all they told me was to watch my threading. Well if I were threading it wrong then why did it work ok for those four months? I was getting suspicious that they didn't really do anything with it.

This suspicion, I believe, was confirmed this week. I called a Bernina dealer in town just to see if she could work on a White. I was told by a local Janome dealer that they couldn't work on anything that wasn't a Janome because the different brands of embroidery machines all operate differently. So I assumed she would tell me the same thing. I really didn't want to take it back to the place in Erie. To my surprise she said she could work on it. So we dropped it off Thursday morning. She plugged it in, tried it out and noticed right away it wasn't working correctly. So she said she'd take a look at it.

To my surprise, she called back that afternoon saying she had got it working again. I was shocked to find out what all was wrong with it:

1) Parts were put back in the wrong order
2) There was a bar or something bent where the upper thread goes.
3) Bobbin bracket was bent and rubbing on the bobbin thread causing it to bunch up
4) There was sticky gunk in it (she said probably from the thread or something--she wasn't sure what it was)

With all that wrong with it, it's no wonder I'd been having so many problems! This leads me to believe that the other place probably wasn't even looking at it. Surely they could've found SOMETHING with all that wrong with it! I'm just happy they weren't charging us every time we took it in (except for the 1st time when they actually did fix it). Makes me wonder if they were waiting for the year warranty to run out so they could charge to fix it again. Needless to say, I will NEVER take any machine back there.

Now, for the fun part! When we took my machine into the local shop, she showed us an older model Bernina embroidery machine that a lady had traded in. It was almost identical to mine. Both were made by Brother. It took the same hoops, card, and was the same format as mine. It also came with two hoops, the manual, a dust cover and 13 design cards (which cost from $60-$100 EACH). She wanted $350 for the whole shebang. So Mike said we'd think it over.

We decided that was a pretty good deal so when we got my machine on Friday, we brought home two of them. Now I have a backup! I tried the Bernina out when we got home and it works beautifully. AND it's not nearly as loud as the White. I have yet to plug it in and try it out since I got it back but I will do that soon. I may just use it as my backup and the Bernina as my main machine.

The New Bernina

Design cards I got with it

Stitch out on the Bernina. 

                                     

D-Day in Conneaut, Ohio

Yesterday me, Mike and his buddy Kevin went to a D-Day reenactment/event in Conneaut, Ohio. If you're not familiar with the area, it's right on Lake Erie (which looks like an ocean when you're sitting there looking at it). They have this event every year but this is the first year we've attended. I'm glad we did. It was pretty interesting seeing all the equipment and guns not to mention the campsites and how the soldiers had to live then. Of course there were plenty of those dressed up (along with women) in uniforms walking around. They had over 750 reenactors this year! We didn't get to see any of the battle reenactments as those are going on today and we won't be attending.

If you'd like to read about this event, here is a link D-Day for you to click on.
Also, here are some pictures I took while there.

American Bike

Helmet resting on the rifle

Sherman Tank: smaller than I thought theyd' be

Tank Specs

American Tents

Sitting on the table are a typewriter and camera

On the crate is a phonograph player

Inside the tent

WASP (Women Airforce Special Pilots) tent

Just thought this hand sticking out of the tent was funny.

Kids Day Event

I am sad to say that I didn't do very well at the Kids Day Event yesterday. I made a whopping $17 after booth fees. To top it off, I froze half the day. That's right--I FROZE in AUGUST. The weather wasn't too great--68º, damp, cold and sometimes a bit rainy. It didn't seem to stop people from coming out tho. I believe there was just as good a turnout as last year. People just weren't buying for whatever reason. The only vendor I saw that did well was the one directly across from me. They were selling homemade cheeses.

David, the man who puts this event together, suggested I try a couple more of the events. You're allowed to sign up for three of them (there are a total of five I think) and it doesn't cost any more than signing up for one. So maybe next year I will try that. In the meantime, I'm either going to have to get a regular job or find more events to sell at if I don't get any sales soon.

Here are pictures of how my booth looked at the event:

I will be listing unsold items in my Lilyshop this week.

Practice Run

Tomorrow is my kids day event show so a friend of mine (thanks, Deb!) came over yesterday to help me figure out how to set up my booth. I didn't do a good job of it last year I don't think. I had too much stuff, it was too congested and biggest mistake: I closed off the front of the booth. So, to make this story short: here is how the practice booth turned out:

Lay-out. Scooter approved.

On the left peg board are all my cupcake toppers.

To the right of that is a small table and my purse/bag tree.

On the right pegboard are a variety of items:

hair clippies, boo boo bags, taggy toy sets, hanging baskets

and tooth fairy bears.

Little table for glasses cases & checkbook covers along with my signage and cards.

Where I will sit and table in front of me. 

Table has tissue cover cozies, notepad holders, couple of random kids' items 

and eye pillows

Head scarves. 

I-Pad, E-reader and book covers in baskets.

On table are coffee cozies, bibs/burp cloths and coasters

On quilt rack are bib/burp cloth sets and doll blankets

In basket are more blankets and cupcake & ice cream wall hangings.

I also have more purses, aprons, and some embroidered onesies that I will hang on the canopy. Now all I have to do is load it all in the car. 

Shops Closed/Craft Show

It seems that etsy found it necessary to close both my shops. I won't get into the reason why (ok they said infringement issues). So now I only have my website (which has had no sales yet) and I also opened a site on Lilyshop's site.

Now it's back to the drawing board and having to start all over again. Trying to get people to find you is the hard part, getting them to buy from you is even harder. I'm crossing my fingers that people will find me in either place and start buying. I want to do as well as I was doing when etsy closed me down. I really hate the thought of going back to no sales at all or very sporadic sales. Really adds to the stress level if this is what you do to earn a living.

In the meantime I'm trying to get ready for the Kids Day event in a couple weeks (August 11th to be exact). This is the show I did last year that I did pretty well at. I'm hoping we have a day of great weather and there will be a nice turnout. Crossing my fingers I do as well as last year.

I have decided to sell other items as well as my kids items. Last year you were only supposed to be selling what the event was focused on (i.e. kids products) so I didn't take my other items like accessories, bags, etc. This year I'm going to have quite a variety of things. Hopefully parents will stop by my booth and find something they want. Figure I'd cover all bases.

Recipe: Stuffed Turkey Rolls

I used to work retail before I started my little online business.  During that time we always had to work Black Friday. It wasn't as bad as you may think. One reason being that the customers were generally in a great mood because they were just starting their holiday shopping. Another reason (my favorite) was because we had a potluck lunch. Everyone would bring something in to either eat or drink. One of my favorite things that a fellow coworker brought was stuffed turkey rolls. They were so good! Plus they looked relatively easy to make. So tonight I decided to give them a try--and they were just as good as Debbie's! And they were also as easy as I thought they would be. I thought I'd share the "recipe" for those of you who may be looking for something quick and easy to fix for dinner.

Ingredients:

1 box of stuffing (I used turkey flavor but you can use whatever you like)

1 can of turkey gravy

1 lb of thick sliced turkey (mine was thin so had to use 2 pieces for each roll)

Directions:

Cook stuffing according to directions. I substitute water for chicken broth. This is entirely up to you.

When stuffing is done, spread it onto a slice (or two if it is sliced thin) of turkey.

Slowly roll up turkey being very careful not to tear it. You may have to use toothpicks to keep it rolled up. 

Place in glass casserole dish and pour gravy on top. You can probably get more rolls than I did if your turkey is sliced thicker.

Cover and bake at 350º for about 30 minutes or until hot. 

Serve with your favorite vegetable and that's it!

Surprise for Me

Look what came for me last week! It's not my b-day and I didn't even ask for it. I'm not sure what the reason behind my getting this is.  You see, Mike got an I-Pad a couple weeks ago. For some reason he decided to get me the Kindle Fire. I already have a Kindle which I LOVE--and never asked for the Fire. But he thought I should have one (and really, who am I to argue) and so he ordered me one.

 I LOVE it!! It's a lot more portable than my laptop. I can take it out on the deck or in the bedroom to check my email, tweet and get on FB. Plus I can play games. Oh those games. I made the mistake of downloading Angry Birds. Oh those menacing little pigs! I still can't get past the first levels on some of them.  

Anyway...I haven't actually read any books (or downloaded any) yet because I still have a few books on my other Kindle I want to read first, but I've been told that the Fire is much better to read on than the Kindle. Will definitely be checking that out. There is one drawback: the battery doesn't last too long on this thing. Must be those menacing little pigs.  Oink.

Quick & Easy Safety Outlet Covers

Today I'm going to show you how to make some quick and easy (and cost effective) safety outlet covers for your child's room. These are so ingenius you'll wonder why you didn't think of it before!

Materials:
Painted wood shape (if you're feeling really creative you can buy plain ones & paint them yourself)
Gorilla Glue or other industrial glue
Safety outlet covers

Hold your shape in front of the outlet and then mark on the back where your cover needs to go. Be sure to mark it so the shape covers the whole outlet. Most of the time this will be towards the top of the shape.

Now squeeze some glue where you made your mark. If you are using Gorilla Glue, know that it expands so be sure not to add too much or it will gush around the outside of the cover.

Lay the safety cover over your glue making sure it's nice and straight and give it a slight push.

Now here's a helpful little hint: take something heavy (in this case I used a book) and lay it on top of the back of your covers. This will hold them in place while making sure they have a little pressure when drying.

And walla! you're done! Make sure glue is completely dry before you plug these cute covers into your outlet.

And of course if you don't want to make these yourself they are available on my website

Super Heroes

It seems that super heroes are all the rage now so I decided to make three of my great nephews super hero capes. I let them choose their own names (except for the 2 yr old--his mom chose his) and then embroidered them onto the capes. I even made masks and they LOVED them! My nieces liked them so much that now they want their own capes so it looks like they're not just for the kids.

Mighty Mouth

SpiderDude

I also decided to sell these in my Etsy shop and on my Website so if you'd like one for your little super hero, they are available in two sizes!

Shame on Me!

Shame on me for not writing a post in so long! It seems that life and my etsy business have made me a bit busy lately and I just haven't found the time (or inclination if you want the real truth). My etsy shop started picking up right after Christmas. What have I been so busy making and selling you ask--cupcake toppers! Lots and lots of cupcake toppers! There must be a lot of winter birthdays out there. I am so grateful to have been so busy tho since I wasn't getting very many sales at all. As a matter of fact, I was seriously contemplating going back to work (egads!) for real.

Another reason I haven't written in so long is because I finally decided to take the plunge and make my own website. So I got my hosting through PappaShop and it's finally all set up. There was quite a learning curve, but with their support I managed to figure it all out. Now everything in BOTH my etsy shops are all in one place! Plus I take PayPal on the site so it all works out great! Now I just need to try to drive traffic there.

Etsy Kids Team Treasuries

This post features some of my favorite Sept. treasuries from Etsy Kids Team members:

Baby It's Fall by Althea1326
Newborn Lovelies by Beanstalk by Yizzy
Keeps on Beating by Lil Princess Bow
 Making Lemondade from Lemons by Apple Tree Boutique
It's Game Time Baby by Baby Swank:

Flight 93 10th Anniversary Memorial Trip

This past Friday on Sept. 10th, we went to the Flight 93 National Memorial dedication. We were supposed to take part in a bike ride down to Shanksville and to the memorial on Sept. 11th, but when we found out they were doing the dedication and unveiling of the memorial wall and that George and Laura Bush, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and the group that are raising the money to build this memorial were going to speak we decided to leave a day early and went on our own. I'm glad we did.

Field opposite the crash site

So under some very dark skies we packed the bike, put on our rain suits and rode the 2 1/2 hours south to Shanksville. We got pretty wet a couple of times on the way down--which I can tell you on a bike doesn't feel all too great--but it was well worth the ride and I'm glad we went.

We got to the memorial at 9:30 am. We didn't get parked and in the park until noon. Traffic was that heavy. It's a very long, winding road that leads to the memorial itself--all through pastureland. We ended up parking about a mile or so away from the site because we got tired of the stopping and going--not to mention the above picture is what the parking area looked like. No way were we getting a bike in that mess.

Of course the line was long and security was pretty tight. The one thing I did disagree with was that they made people take the flags off the poles and toss away the poles. I didn't think that was right. True, the poles were pointy but we were going to honor the people who gave their lives for this country and I just thought that was wrong. Oh--and those are S.W.A.T. guys fully armed on top of the security roof.

This is what you see after you walk into the site. On the left, a black wall they have built to keep people away from the crash site. Far away to the right is where they had the dedication ceremony. We were all sitting in the open--the big white tent is Red Cross and the smaller tent is the pavilion where the speakers sat.

There was a lot of media. See all the trucks? Check out the guy on the left's jacket. We're still in Steelers country and two things we love are our Steelers and our country. There was a woman walking around with a Ravens bag. Wonder if she made it out unscathed.

 We were sitting pretty far away so it was hard to get a good picture of the dignitaries. Maybe you can pick out George and Laura Bush, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden. Also the men who are raising money and started this memorial spoke (one of them wearing a cowboy hat). They all gave wonderful speeches and all called the passengers "heroes". As a matter of fact, the word "passenger" wasn't spoken as much as the word "hero".  Biden and Clinton gave credit to George Bush for pulling this country together when this happened and taking action. Biden even got a bit emotional towards the end of his speech because he recognized that these heroes saved his life--literally. If that plane had crashed into the Capitol building where he was, he and countless others would've lost their lives.

Rude People

One thing that did bother me was the fact that there were some rude people there. These people would NOT sit down through most of the ceremony (which was about three hours long) even tho they had chairs. Also the woman behind us wouldn't shut up and kept talking on her cell phone. Seriously. So disrespectful to others there and to the event itself. This was not a "celebration". So much different than when you go to The Wall. Thousands of people and you can hear a pin drop there.

The most emotional part of the ceremony was when each hero's name was called an the bells tolled after. There was a woman who was pregnant on that flight and her unborn child was also mentioned and they tolled the small bell for it. There weren't many dry eyes during this part of the ceremony and many, many heads were bowed.

The end of the ceremony came when they unveiled the wall with the 40 names. It's made of marble and each name has it's own "slab". We were a bit far away (and I was a bit too short) to see them actually unveil it, but Mike did get a picture beforehand when it was still covered. They gave the family members and guests 30 minutes to view the wall by themselves. I really wanted to see it but there were so many people there. Me and Mike are going to go down again either this fall or maybe in the spring when it's not so crowded so we can see the wall, the bells, etc. up close.

This picture was found online for one of the news agencies. We were riding for Deora Frances Bodley. I'm not sure who this man is who is touching her name-perhaps her grandfather (she was only 20 yrs old). I will never forget Deora and I will always think of her now.

Crash site. Where the heroes are laid to rest.

 Going to this memorial made this really sink home and made me realize that these were people like me and you who had lives and families, who either went to school or to work every day--just like you and me. They were ordinary people who did an extraordinary thing that day. Joe Biden said it best when he said, "Everyone has courage in them and maybe one day it will be called into use." It was called that fateful day at 9:58 am on Sept. 11, 2001.

Walking Out with a new perspective on life.

 So when you see shows, advertisements, etc. about 9/11, please PLEASE do not just think of the planes, victims, firemen, and police officers that lost their lives in NY--think of the 40--rarely spoken of--true heroes that died taking this plane down so it wouldn't reach it's destination. I give respect to those that died in NY, but the firemen and officers were doing their jobs---the passengers of Flight 93 knew they were going to die and instead of sitting back and letting it happen they took matters into their own hands and launched an attack against the hijackers and saved countless lives in so doing. That, in my opinion, is what a true hero is. I find it sad that the media does not give these 40 heroes the true recognition that they deserve. 

Just a footnote: it took the fire crew and police 15 minutes to get to this crash site after the plane went down. 15 minutes. There was no nicely paved road at the time only pastureland--and it only took them 15 minutes to get there. Please think of them too.