learning from each other

A friend’s daughter is spending a few days a week with mom and I while on summer break from school. I thought this would be a good time for her to hang out and maybe learn how to cook a few dishes, work on her sewing and just be around mature women this summer. I use to spend a lot of time growing up with my aunts and grandmother while Jessie worked. It’s interesting how we are learning from each other. Today I asked this 11 year old summer helper to show me how she creates some shots put to music on Instagram. I follow her and have seen her pictures using this format all the time. So today she taught me something new. And she produced my 1st flipagram on #jessiesbags. We love all the talented people who volunteer their skills for Jessie’s Bags. We have the potential to really grow if we get people to do what they love for Jessie’s Bags. Volunteers what do you want to do we will let your creativity shine!

I hate to sew so I don’t do that part of the process. Jessie loves to sew so that’s most of what she does.

One of the volunteers loves flea markets & yard sales so she is always looking for items we can use…

If you join us you can do what you love.

Always looking for more help!

  ..If you follow jessiesbags you will be seeing more of these flipagrams. 

Our bodies are wonderfully made

Jessie’s bags have been on the road at least once a week this summer.

We enjoy taking a look around and snapping pictures of all the sights.

The site I have been looking at for the last few days has been out my bedroom window. I had a few days of rest while Jessie attended her convention for 3 days in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

 Since she is not home and not Sewing I have Time for rest and relaxation,  great plans began to be made... Maybe I’ll go to the lake & get in the pool, take some pictures of the boats, fishing, maybe a state park I wonder which one PA, or DE?   Should I get my friend with her kids to go….

On a routine trip to Walmart Friday I felt a major pain in my back. I could hardly get home. I had to ask someone to close the car door for me. It was too painful to reach over to close it. The pain was so intense. I have been suffering with this issue for a few years since a car rear ended us. This has been one of the more pain filled times.

 Doctors always ask on a scale of 1 to 10 what the level of pain is; this was a 15 at least. So began my not on the road weekend. The hardest part of this trip was the trip to the bathroom. It was an adventure to say the least. First you have to try to roll out of bed so you are not using the normal mussels that are not working & in pain. Trying to sit up and not use any back muscles is almost impossible. I feel like a turtle flipped over on its shell. I roll….I slide….I shift….  Finally out of the bed! This only took 10 min, seemed a lot longer.  Then I shuffled into the on suite bathroom like I’m 103 trying not to move too many muscles. Did I mention the pain was a 15? Once the trip to the bathroom is complete and my mission accomplished I have to stand back up…..oh the pain! Now begins the long journey back to the bed. Now I need more pain meds. This requires water. Oh boy here we go again I drink water with the meds which means I will have to go back to the bathroom again, a terrible cycle!

 Our bodies are wonderfully made the bible at Psalms 139:14 says. That’s so true and you never even notice till they don’t work right. Most days we do some things without even noticing it. Bathroom breaks are one thing you don’t usually take a look at. I notice my aunt in the nursing home can’t stand and needs assistance to toilet. This is something that is a major thing in her life because she has to wait for a C N A’s help. They have to answer her call so she can answer the call of nature. Let’s just say…. I learned some empathy this weekend.

I’m appreciating the small stuff in my life things like muscles, walking, eating drinking, closing my own car door, and going to the bathroom. Our bodies are wonderfully made!

a good days work finished 30 more gift bags

The second group of bags are completed Got started at 4 am  and dropped them off at 10. Love the sense of accomplishment.  It was a good days work.

Road Trip

One day trip took us to Cow Town in New Jersey. I got so caught up in the moment I forgot to take pictures of the Tall man out front, we saw cows did I get a picture no… On the ride home I did get shots of three bridges and sky.

 

I Got it!

I figured out how to post my photos!
sometimes you just have to take a little time and figure it out! Never give up!

Day trips / Staycation jessies bags on theroad

This is the time of year we like to go away for vacation. Because funds are low we are staying close to home. This prompted the decision to spend one day every week doing a day trip or at least something fun.  Jessie went to stay with a friend in Philadelphia where she lived for 42 years.

We saw the 6abc zoo balloon up in the air. No one was rowing as we came down the drive but we pulled over got shots of the Temple Crew boats. This trip to drop Jessie off became a time to look around the old neighborhood at sights I grew up with. Do you recognize Dobbins AVTS.   I

Spent 4 years there every day










 Art Museum

When we got caught in down town traffic, I looked up and saw William Penn’s statue and took as awesome shot. Wow when I worked down town did I ever look up and appreciate this view, I don’t think so I was always rushing off to work.

we stopped to get lunch and saw an old Ship right in front of us on Delaware avenue.

If you follow us on Instagram you can see all the sights of Jessie’s bags on the road. #jessiesbagsontheroad   you will see bridges us crosses, and roads we walked. I have to admit this was an awesome day trip. You can go home again!

#jessiesbagsontheroad

Prayer and Deadlines

Early Thursday morning I confirmed that we are supplying a group of volunteer ministers Jessie’s bags as gifts during their pioneer school.

Starting around 2 pm Thursday 7 volunteers started working  to put together 30 bags. We needed the bags completed and delivered by Friday night to give as gifts to the first group of full time volunteer ministers. We pray that we will have the help and be able to finish on time. Their last day of class is Saturday.  Our supply of webbing was depleted so we were working to create handles out of fabric. This is a bit time consuming and none of the volunteers enjoy this task.

 About 6 pm 2 more volunteers showed up after work and brought in the door with them a box UPS had just dropped off. One of the suppliers we contacted earlier this week to see if they would support our work with their trash sent us a large box of webbing!!!!!! Yea!!!  We immediately stopped laboring on making handles. They sent us a whole variety of colors and sizes. Thank you!  Thank you!!  Thank you!!!

We quickly said a prayer of thanks for the willing suppliers, and in appreciation for the volunteers and supplies to complete this project. God definitely answers prayers!

We had some bags already completed (except for handles) we quickly got to work pinned on handles. We now have least 15 more bags ready for sewing and completion. Friday morning Jessie will finish attaching these handles and we will tag the bags and wrap them with bows for giving out Saturday.

We don’t usually wait till the last minute to finish projects. The pressure and stress of a deadline is a pain. We usually just work on bags making a few every day. This time the last minute rush was a good thing we didn't have to change the handles on bags.

We love the finished look of the webbing as handles on Jessie’s bags. The only problem we have is finding belts and paying for them, sometimes our funds run low. Sometimes there are no belts available.  We like to up-cycle the supplies we use. So a lot of our supplies come from Thrift stores. Recently we don’t see any belts around.  This supplier sent us his short ends and out of date webbing. His trash! we love that also. Up-cycling!

Prayfully  this project will finish on time. We will start on the next 30 bags for the class that starts Monday. We want to give Jessie’s Bags to 4 classes (30 Students in each class) in July and August 120 bags. Now we have handles to complete the process.

Did I mention I hate deadlines…?  Oh well it’s only a month.

All of Jessie’s bags are Hand made using recycled supplies. Most of the fabric, supplies, time and labor are donated to make Jessie’s Bags.

Thank you Jehovah for the volunteers and suppliers willing support Jessie's bags!

Working green…

We love working with other seniors. These ladies and gentlemen are volunteering and helping  us  with Jessie’s Bags. We will come to your location. You can get a group of friends together and join our volunteers.

 We have one new volunteer that joined us this week and created something new.  Even if you don’t sew we have projects you can help us with. For example many of the fabric samples we receive have paper on them our newest volunteer spent two hours helping remove these papers. She also noticed an accumulation of small metal grommets that held the paper on. As she worked we talked about how these grommets could be used. We love that this is no longer trash but a usable item. Threading ribbon into these we are now going  to use it as a decoration our tags….

We also have a bunch of little metal hangers that are trash. We need to see if we can create something to use them…hum mm maybe little sachets for the closet…. Have to think about that… any other suggestions?

Always something new and exciting @jessiesbags!

buy a bag /donate a bag

New @Jessie's Bags......

For every bag you purchase we will donate a bag to a Breast Cancer survivor this should help us get the necessary funds to keep producing our bags. We try to keep our cost down by getting volunteers to sew, and use as many donated items as possible, still we find we need to purchase some supplies. We are also in need of sewing machine repairs....Jessie can wear out a sewing  machine...they don't make them like they use to...lol

Contact us to volunteer.....

Get a Bag....

To support our efforts by making a donation using pay pal  www.jessiesbags.com
jessiesbags@gmail.com.     #jessiesbags

#jessiesbagsontheroad

to see some of the sights we have seen this summer....