Sharon's Knitting and Other Stuff

Beaded Change Purse

2012-01-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

This is my first knit beaded change purse. I'm very excited about it. This is an area in knitting that I had not explored before. I love learning new things in knitting and I'm really happy to have accomplished this one. I bought my kit from Purse Paradise. The pattern for this one is called Elaine. I also bought the Danielle kit. It's a little bit bigger, I think. Elaine didn't take me too long to knit. I think I will be making more of these little beaded purses. These little purses take size 8 DMC pearl cotton, size 11/0 seed beads, and 1 pair size 0000 needles, except I found that the size 0000 was just too msall for my eyes, so I used size 000 knitting needles. Unfortunately, that size is not available in the craft or knitting stores in my area, so I also ordered them from Purse Paradise. You can find some purse frames at Joann's, but only one size. So, it's kind of tricky finding all the materials, but once you do, it's so much fun to make these! The knitting itself is very easy, the sewing of the bag to the frame a little tricky, but not bad. It wasn't bad at all, in fact.

Flying V Scarf

2012-01-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

Here is the picture I promised of the Flying V Scarf from the book Esquisite Little Knits. I dug out my book last night so I could make a copy of the pattern. I think I might be making another one of these soon. Both of these scarves are great examples of easy patterns that look really complicated. I like those kinds of projects.

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf

2012-01-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

I haven't been working on very much related to knitting lately, but I dug this scarf out a couple of days ago and I've been working on it. I love this pattern. It's so easy, but it looks so complicated, and best of all it's free. You can find the pattern here. I sure wish there were more patterns like this for free. There is another pattern I absolutely love, but it's not free. It's called the Flying V Scarf and the pattern is in the book Esquisite Little Knits. I have one that I've made and I'll have to take a picture of it and post it. It's another easy scarf pattern that looks so difficult. Variegated yarn brings out the best in both of these scarves.

The Gathering Place Again

2011-12-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

Well, Friday I decided to go The Gathering Place again to shop for a Christmas gift for a friend. It was pouring down rain that day, but I was determined to go despite the downpour and I had a great time! It would have been more fun with someone else, but I decided on the spur of the moment to go and I felt like it was pretty short notice to ask anyone to go with me. Anyway, I went and I took some more pictures with my new little camera. Here they are:

Another great place I found was called Art Crafters. They have a huge art gallery where their main purpose is to frame artwork, but they also have some artisans who rent spaces in their store and sell their stuff. They had one really pretty framed jigsaw puzzle. I have read that you can frame them, but I've never seen one framed and it was awesome! I didn't get a picture of it. But, it got me to thinking that maybe I can do a jigsaw puzzle and frame it myself. I have some great puzzles that I have never put together. I hate the idea of putting them together and then just disassembling them again. Framing them would be a great way to preserve them and keep all the hard work that was put into assembling them.

Now, we are just trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and wrapping. I think we are finished now except for wrapping some last gifts. I can't believe that Christmas is at the end of this week. Where has the time gone?

Pictures

2011-12-05T05:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend while I was at The Gathering Place with Melba, I saw her take out a really small camera and take a picture of a gingerbread man that she thought she might be able to make. As I was watching her I remembered that I had intended to bring my own camera and left my house in such a rush, that I forgot it. It got me to thinking about how clunky my camera is and how heavy it is when I have to carry it around when shopping. You never know when you want to take a picture and usually I have no camera with me. So, I decided to buy myself a really small digital camera that I can carry in my purse all the time. It's not much bigger than a cell phone and there is a pocket in my purse where I can keep it and it will be convenient for me any time I want to take a quick photo. It's also small enough to fit into a fanny pack, which is what Melba had with her on Saturday. This little camera was on sale at Sears for $59.99. I did have to buy a photo card, but that was on sale for $7.99. This is what it looks like:

I didn't even read any reviews, I just winged it and went and bought it, so who knows what I'm in for. But, I do have another Fujifilm Finepix larger digital camera and it's great, so hopefully this one will be ok too.

Here are some more pictures that I took with it this morning. Just a few photos around my office. First, my ribbon tree that I made this year for Christmas.

Next a little push pin beaded kind of tree that I made last year.

Then a couple of my African Violets that are in my office.

The Gathering Place

2011-12-04T16:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the most wonderful afternoon. I went to Dayton to visit my cousin Melba, and we went to this wonderful place called The Gathering Place. The link is here. It was so wonderful. While we were there, Melba's daughters, Karol and Sheila met us there. We had the best time. The Gathering Place looks like this:

I also love Melba's house. I love the way she has it decorated. She has a simple, country theme with lamps on her kitchen counters, country washtubs and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling. It's just awesome.

Here is a picture of the beautiful dried flowers in her kitchen. I would love to take a camera and take more pictures. I always feel so inspired after I've visited her home.

Mom's Home!

2011-11-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

Today my mom went home from rehabilitation from a broken hip. It's been a very stressful 7 weeks. We were hoping that we would have someone to stay with her during the day while I work so my husband could stay at night. But, that didn't pan out. I'm really discouraged over it, and feeling like I can't depend on anyone, but my wonderful husband said, don't worry, we'll work it out. What a gem he is. He's the one who has been keeping me upbeat when I feel so down about everything. At least this way my mom will save some money.

My mind has been so all over the place, that I haven't had the time or the energy to work on anything related to knitting or sewing. By 8:30 every night I'm already nodding off and struggling to stay awake awhile longer. Usually, I just say the heck with it and go on to bed.

So, that has been my life for the past 7 weeks. I'm really glad my mom is doing better and I know she's glad to be home in her own environment and comfort zone.

Pocketful of Posies

2011-10-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Our library just cataloged a wonderful new children's book by author and illustrator Salley Mavor. She is a brilliant needleworker and this new book Pocketful of Posies is illustrated completely in what she calls fabric relief pages. The pages are just full of beautiful embroidery, needlework and all kinds of cute, whimsical creatures that she has made herself. Each page is created by gluing or attaching in some way the embroidery, etc. to a backround fabric and then are photographed for the book.

I'm very intrigued and interested by this type of art and she has also written a book with actual projects that you can do yourself. The book is titled Felted Wee Folk.

I went ahead and ordered an inexpensive used copy of the book. I'm always interested in how others make their artwork and how the artwork is used. I think it's really interesting how she has used her art to illustrate children's books.

Stressed

2011-10-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

September has been a stressful month. I haven't been on here much, and I'm sorry about that. My mother fell and broke her hip on her birthday of all days. Not that it's good any time, but on your birthday? That's terrible. She had surgery the next day and they put screws in and by the second day she was already transported to rehab. This is her second week there and she's making pretty good progress. She's not confined to the bed anymore and she doesn't stay in the bed unless it's at night and she's sleeping. She is spending most of her time in a wheelchair so she can roll herself around the rehab facility and also so she can roll herself to the dining room for her meals. She's getting therapy 2 times a day and it's really helping.

But ... and I feel so guilty for saying this ... I'm exhausted. I'm her only child, so I'm the one doing all the running around errands, doing things for her that she can't do herself right now. It's hard because I work a full time job and after work, instead of going home, I go to my mom's apartment and then to the rehab place. It puts me getting home usually no earlier than 6 p.m. and by that time I'm not in the mood to cook. My husband, Eddie, helps when he can, but he's out of town right now and I really miss him. Plus, his mother is not doing well, and he's been helping out alot with her too. His mother has had 2 heart attacks in the last 3 years. Her arteries are almost completed blocked and she elected not to have the open heart surgery because of her age and the risks involved. So, the sad truth is that she will never get better.

Well, on a more upbeat note. I decided, for some reason, to start a latch hook project. I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and I saw this cute Santa Claus and since I had a 40% coupon, I bought it. It looks like this:

It's really cute and so far pretty easy. I thought I'd better get a fairly easy one since it's been years since I did latch hook.

Origami Cranes

2011-08-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've been away from here for awhile. I've been working on different things, but I really have nothing to show for most of it. I seem to be going from one thing to the next lately. I've been working on something fun, though. I have always wanted to learn origami, but never had the courage to try it. I learned to make an origami crane and then I made more origami cranes and then I thought, what in the heck am I going to do with all these cranes? So, I decided to make a couple of origami crane mobiles. I made one for the bedroom and one for the sunroom. Now, I can't seem to stop making them, so I'll probably end of making more for the house.

This one is one I made for the bedroom.

This is the one I made for the sunroom.

I really think they are pretty and I love looking at them. There is something relaxing about seeing them gently flying.

Oh, there is one other thing ... I bought a Kindle from Amazon last month and I absolutely love reading on it.

And the other exciting thing is that our library dean in the library where I work is buying us all iPad 2's. I've never had one before and I've coveted the ones that others have, so I'm looking forward to getting it and using it work pleasure as well as work.

Quilting Fever

2011-06-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of weeks I've really had quilting fever. It all started when I watched Sewing With Nancy and they were talking about Bargello Quilts With a Twist. It looked really complicated and it was challenging for me, but I actually managed to make a couple of wall hangings and I will share pictures soon.

So then, after that I was in the grocery store and bought a Quilt Almanac for 2011.

It was around $9.99, but I hadn't bought one in awhile and I thumbed through and saw several things I was interested in. And I ran across this.

And I thought, oh boy, that doesn't look hard at all. And it wasn't hard. Not at all. It was fun. The least fun was cutting the pieces out, but the hardest part for me was being able to find batik fabrics in my area. Most of the very few quilt stores that we had have all closed up, so I've been getting most of my stuff from Joann's, Hancock's and Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby doesn't have batik fabrics at all, but Joann's and Hancock's have a little bit. Enough for me to make this:

I didn't want to tackle the big quilt, so I decided to make a small wall hanging. I'm really happy with it. I haven't quilted it yet, but tomorrow I'll be marking it and quilting it by hand. I've tried my hand at free motion stitching and that didn't go very well. I guess it takes practice, but I was really discouraged and I don't know if I'll try that again.

Then I found this pretty thing:

It's called Flip Flop Flakes. I may have seen it advertised in another quilting magazine. I can't remember now where I saw it, but there was information for how to order it. It doesn't look too hard and I'm looking forward to making that one. I went ahead and ordered the kit for it from Quiltmaker. I must have seen that in Quiltmaker magazine. I started to just try and buy the batiks, but I wasn't sure I could find everything in the colors and I really liked the colors of the one in the picture, so I broke down and bought the kit. I can't wait to get it and try that pattern.

I had to go today to the Singer Sewing Center to get a 1/4" presser foot for my sewing machine because I'm tired of trying to guess what 1/4" is. I love my new presser foot. I also needed a new foot pedal for my machine since my old one had started sticking and it was very frustrating, especially when I was trying to free motion quilt and it was hard to keep a steady pace going.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to the American Quilter's Society quilt show in Knoxville in July. I haven't been in 2 or 3 years and I would love to go again seeing as how I seem to be having a quilting fever right now. I'm used to going to Nashville, though, to the Opryland Hotel, but for some reason they stopped having it there. It could have been the big flood that had awhile back. Anyway, I'm sure it's just as good in Knoxville.

More Flowers

2011-05-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Just a few more flowers from my garden. My peonies and white irises are doing really well this year.

It's Spring!

2011-05-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been working on several projects, some knitting and sewing some small purses. I plan to take photos soon and post them here to share with you.

I did get outside and take some pictures this week. I couldn't help myself. Everything was in bloom and I thought I'd better grab my camera before they were all gone. So, here are a few pictures I'd like to share with you of pretty blooms in my garden. Most of them are of the beautiful wisteria that was blooming a couple of weeks ago, and my hens and chicks are green and healthy and abundant this year. I have some more pictures of my pretty peonies that I will post later on.

Multnomah Scarflette/Shawl

2011-03-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

I have not been a good blogger. I've neglected my blog lately and I really hate it because I want to post more often. There just doesn't seem to be anything interesting enough going on in my life to post about sometimes. I do work on knitting and crochet projects, but then I get distracted by other necessary things like spring cleaning, housework, etc. and it seems like it takes me forever to finish a project.

There is one project, though, that has really caught my attention. I was in my local yarn shop one day and one of the shop owners was wearing this beautiful scarflette/shawl. I asked her about it and she told me that she got the free pattern here. She also told me that she made it with sock yarn. So, that day I bought some sock yarn that she recommended and came home and started it. Well, I really did not like the colorway of the yarn that I bought, so I ended up taking it all out and putting it aside. Later on, though, I got to thinking about the scarf again and I decided to go back to the yarn store and see what I could find. There was a different lady there this time and she showed me some yarn that was so pretty and it is an absolute dream to work with. It's expensive, but I think it was well worth the money. Here is the scarf:

The yarn is by Schaefer Heather and it is a handpainted 55% merino wool superwash, 30% silk, and 15% nylon. One hank is about 400 yards and the scarflette pattern calls for 412 yards, so I was a little short on my yardage. It was ok, though because instead of doing 10 repeats of the feather and fan border, I only did 8 and it came out fine. This yarn is a beautiful variegated aqua blue color with some lavender and navy and green. I loved knitting this and I love the way it came out. I went yesterday and bought some more of the same type yarn, but in a different color and I'm getting ready to start another shawl/scarflette using this yarn, but in a different color. The pattern is very easy. When you get to the feather and fan pattern, you have to pay attention at first, but once you get the repeat pattern down, it gets easier as you go. Believe me, if I can do this anybody can. The pattern says to block the shawl once you are finished. I don't have any way (or the space) to block it the traditional way, so I just pressed mine gently with a steam iron and viola! it's blocked.

Friendship Bread and Letters From Home

2011-02-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

I was excited to receive another advanced reading copy of a book yesterday. The title of this book is Friendship Bread by Darien Gee. The summary/review is as follows:

An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated.

One afternoon, Julia Evarts and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: "I hope you enjoy it." Also included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.

Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She’d just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.

When Julia meets two newcomers to the small town of Avalon, Illinois, she sparks a connection by offering them her extra bread starter. Widow Madeline Davis is laboring to keep her tea salon afloat while Hannah Wang de Brisay, a famed concert cellist, is at a crossroads, her career and marriage having come to an abrupt end. In the warm kitchen of Madeline’s tea salon, the three women forge a friendship that will change their lives forever.

In no time, everyone in Avalon is baking Amish Friendship Bread. But even as the town unites for a benevolent cause and Julia becomes ever closer to her new friends, she realizes the profound necessity of confronting the painful past she shares with her sister.

About life and loss, friendship and community, food and family, Friendship Bread tells the uplifting story of what endures when even the unthinkable happens.

I can relate to this woman's loss over having to take care of the starter and bake the bread and then give some more starter to her friends. I remember back several years ago some coworkers of mine were into the friendship bread starter thing. Everyone was making it, growing it, giving it to everyone. At the time I was living at home and unmarried. I had absolutely no interest in taking care of a bread "starter". At the time I could barely keep my plants watered, so I didn't want to take on another thing I couldn't do. Some of the women even seemed offended that I wouldn't want to do this. Another coworker of mine didn't do it either. She said she had done it years ago and that it was a never ending thing and that you have to take care of it like a pet. She said if you go on vacation you have to get someone to come in and feed it. It sounded kind of humorous in a way. You know, now that I think back on it, I did try it one time, but I missed one day of watering or mashing or whatever you are supposed to do to it and it just went bad. That's when I decided that I just wasn't interested. This sort of thing reminds me of a chain letter, where you have to keep it going or something bad will happen. I'm sure this is wonderful for women who really want to do it and that it does forge lasting friendships, but it's just not for me. I am, however, looking forward to reading this book because this type of story is the type of reading I love.

There is another book that I learned about today that I've ordered a copy of and it really looks good too.

Inspired by the true story of her own grandparents’ courtship during World War II, Kristina McMorris captures the heartache and sacrifice of love and war in LETTERS FROM HOME, an award-winning debut novel that is timeless, tender and unforgettably moving.

In the midst of World War II, a Midwestern infantryman falls deeply in love through a yearlong letter exchange, unaware that the girl he’s been writing to is not the one replying.

Chicago, 1944. Liz Stephens has little interest in attending a USO club dance with her friends Betty and Julia. She doesn’t need a flirtation with a lonely serviceman when she’s set to marry her childhood sweetheart. Yet something happens the moment Liz glimpses Morgan McClain. They share only a brief conversation—cut short by the soldier’s evident interest in Betty—but Liz can’t forget him. Thus, when Betty asks her to ghostwrite a letter to Morgan, stationed overseas, Liz reluctantly agrees.

Thousands of miles away, Morgan struggles to adjust to the brutality of war. His letters from “Betty” are a comfort, their soul-baring correspondence a revelation to them both. While Liz is torn by her feelings for a man who doesn’t know her true identity, Betty and Julia each become immersed in their own romantic entanglements. And as the war draws to a close, all three will face heart-wrenching choices, painful losses, and the bittersweet joy of new beginnings.

Beautifully rendered and deeply felt, LETTERS FROM HOME is a story of hope and connection, of sacrifices made in love and war—and the chance encounters that change us forever.

I'm really looking forward to reading both of them.

Other than that, not much is going on right now. I've been really busy at work. We are 5 weeks into the semester at the community college library where I work. Time is going by so fast, that this semester will be over in another 10 weeks and summer will be here. It seems like we just had Christmas and now the weather is getting warmer and nicer here. I'm sure we're going to see some more frost before it's over, but right now it's very nice and we've been enjoying it.

Beloved Pets

2011-02-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

I work in an academic library, and today I was helping a student insert a photo into a Word document and putting a soft edge on the photo. It's something I didn't know how to do and I was excited to learn how to do it. After my shift at the help desk was over, I came back to my office and for some reason decided to do an image search in Google for Border Collies. Eddie I used to have a Border Collie many years ago. His name was BoBo and he was such a sweet dog. He died of old age a really long time ago, and I really miss him. I found this picture on the Internet and it isn't him, but it looks so much like him. This is really a pretty dog too, just like BoBo.

Sometimes I wish we had another dog, but we have a cat and he's perfectly happy being Number 1 in the house. I really don't think he would allow another animal in the household.

Faux Lavender Wreath

2011-01-29T16:58:00.000-08:00

I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I saw this idea on another blog and I thought, well why not, that looks easy enough. So, I went to Hobby Lobby this afternoon and they had all of their dried flower bushes on sale for 50% off and all their vine type wreaths. So I bought a couple of faux lavender bushes and a wreath. It was fairly easy to do. I just used wire cutters to cut the greenery from the bush and then separated the lavender blossoms from the greenery. Then I put the greenery in the vine in a spiral shape, the same shape as the wreath. Then I put the lavender flowers in the same way. It's kind of funky looking. Some would say it's really dead looking, I guess. Eddie will probably laugh at it. He's at a ballgame right now, so he doesn't even know I made it. I hung it in the kitchen. I like it.

The Paris Wife

2011-01-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

I was surprised and happy to receive yesterday an advanced reading copy of the The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. I work in an academic library at a community college, and a coworker of mine had started receiving advanced reading copies of books. She said she had gone to the American Library Association and filled out something at one of the publishers booths and she started getting advanced reading copies of books. So, I went to one of the publishers websites and sent an email requesting advanced reading copies. That was months ago and I forgot all about it. Then, yesterday I received this. I hope this is the first of several, but it may have just been a random thing. Anyway, I started reading it and I'm loving it so far. It's a fictionized story of Ernest Hemingway and his wife.

Nothing else really going on. I made an eyelash yarn scarf (picture to come later) and I'm working on another one. Today I'm off to get one of those $6.99 haircuts at Great Clips before the offer runs out. Then I'm going to Joann's and Michaels to look for some fabric to make curtains for my bathroom. It's way past time to redo the bathroom. It has pink tile and there is not much I can do with it except I decided to redo it in pink and black. I don't know when I'll get started on that, but I'm so ready. There are some other things we have to do around the house first, but those things will have to wait until spring when the weather gets warmer. I wish I could start now.

What I've Been Up To

2011-01-14T05:36:00.000-08:00

I've been a really bad blogger. I don't want to be one of those bloggers who hardly ever blogs, but for some reason the month of December was so busy that I hardly blogged anything. I had quite a bit of time off from work since the college campus where I work closes down every year for a couple of weeks at Christmas. Then, right after that we got snow and had some more days off. Last weekend we had about 9 inches and that pretty much shut the whole city down for about 2 days. We just don't have the equipment to handle it all since we hardly ever have snow. We've been getting it the last couple of years, though, and it's been nice. We do get cabin fever, though, and even though I had to come back to work yesterday and today, it was nice to get out of the house. This morning as I was parking, I saw the prettiest site. A blanket of snow in my headlights and it looked like there were little twinkling stars on top of the snow. I tried to capture it with my camera, but I don't know if you can really see it.

Over the month of December I worked on several crafty projects. I don't have pictures of them all here, but I do have a few pictures of some pillows I made. I posted earlier about the crochet pillows I made, but then I decided to make a couple of yo-yo pillows. I saw some pictures on other blogs that gave me inspiration and this is what I came up with.

I really enjoyed making all of these pillows. The yo-yo's were fun. It helped that I had a bunch of yo-yo's already made. All I had to do was sew them together. The top yo-yo pillow is one that I bought at Target on sale for about $5.00 and then sewed the yo-yo's to it. I figured that by the time I went and bought the fabric, fiberfill, etc., that I would have spent more than that, so I just bought the ready made pillow. I did sew the rectangular shaped pillow. I saw one similar to it in blogland and I just had to have one, so I made this one and it came out really well. I love it.

When I got back to work this week I had a really nice surpise waiting for me. One of my coworkers had mentioned that he and his wife had been traveling Tennessee on the route for Tennessee Quilt Barns. That is, barns in Tennessee that have a wooden quilt block on them. He is a photographer and he decided to take pictures of some of them and make a calendar from it. Here is the result:

I asked him if he would forward the website where he made his calendar because I thought that maybe it would be nice to use some of the photos I've made with my new DSLR camera to make a calendar and give them as Christmas gifts this year.

Talking about not blogging much in December reminds me of what I want to work on this year. We always talk about making resolutions and I really hate to say I'm making resolutions because I almost never keep them. So, I would prefer to say that there are several things I want to work on this year. That just seems more doable to me. One of the things I really want to work on is spending more time in Bible study. I love doing Bible studies and I enjoy reading the Bible, but somehow this always gets put on the back burner because of other things I put before it. So, this year I really want to work on doing more Bible studies. I'm really interested in the women in the Bible. I just finished a small study about the book of Ruth. While doing that study, I read about another woman in the Bible I want to read about and that's Tamar. Then I also want to study Esther and Dorcas. There is not much in the Bible about Dorcas, just a few chapters, but her life seems so profound to me that I'm disappointed that not much more was written about her. In fact, her story is so short in the Bible that I think I'll post it right here:

Acts 9:36-42 (New International Version)

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

It just seems to me that her story is so important for us today that I'm really disappointed that so little was written about her. But then, I don't have a Bible concordance, so I'm going to look her up in one and see what else has been written. For some reason, I feel led to write a Bible study about her life, but with so little in the Bible about her, I don't know how I'm going to do that. With the Lord's help, hopefully I'll figure it out.

Well, that's it for now. I will try to be more diligent in writing this year.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

2010-12-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

I've been such a bad blogger. I've been so busy, as I'm sure so many of us are right now. I did want to post some pictures of what Christmas looks like at our house right now.

Animals of YouTube sing "Deck the Halls"

2010-12-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

2010-11-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

I made another round pillow this week to give to a very good friend for Christmas. I hope she's not reading my blog, or else it won't be a surpise. LOL I made it in green and decided to embellish it this time with leaves, and I added a small pearl to the center of each flower. I think it just adds something to the pillow. I also added leaves to my pink pillow. Now, I have to make some more of these pillows to keep for myself. I just love them because the round shape is so unique and Victorian looking.

Last week our Christmas cactus at work started blooming. I had been meaning to take my camera to work so I could get a picture of it and this morning I finally remembered to bring my camera.

Another Christmas Doily

2010-11-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

After I made the first Christmas doily, I decided that I needed another one, so I made another one, but in a different pattern. I've made this one before in another color. I thought it would be pretty to put under a candle or something like that during the holidays. I'm pleased with the way it came out.

I ran across this picture tonight of a supper we had back in the summer. It just looked so pretty that I took a picture of it. That night we had friend salmon patties with homemade tartar sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes, green beans, fresh fried squash and cornbread. It was delicious! I must be getting hungry again because I want to make this meal again. I won't have the fresh tomatoes or the fresh squash, but I have some store bought squash in the frig, so maybe I will make this meal tomorrow.

Round Crochet Cushion

2010-11-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of weeks I've been crocheting again. I made the Christmas doily and then I made another Christmas doily (photo to come later), and now I've made a round crochet cushion. I've been seeing these in blogland and I think they are so vintage looking. This is my first one and I was trying to decide whether to put leaves on it or not. I may still do that, but for now, this is what it looks like.

Christmas Doily

2010-10-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Lately, I haven't been much interested in doing anything crafty. But, I saw this pretty doily in the current issue of Crochet World magazine and decided to try it. I'm loving it. It really came out pretty, but after I finished it I noticed some discolorations in the red thread I used. And I'm REALLY aggravated about that. It's not as obvious as it is in the photo, so I'm hoping no one will notice. I don't have any idea how to get the discolorations out, so if anyone has any ideas, I'm open for any and all suggestions.

Art Featuring Women

2010-10-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

The other day I talked about art featuring women and that my dad had taught me when I was small to draw a woman's body and face. I actually just doodled around the came up with a face, but I already had the basic body. There is nothing exciting about any of these, but I found some that I had drawn awhile back and thought I would post them.

You can see from these drawings that I was just doodling and basically having fun. I do want to make more art, though. I really like to draw the upper body best because then I don't have to worry about arms and legs and shoes. So, I'll probably practice that.

Flower Ink Pens and Art Featuring Women

2010-10-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been doing some "Fall" cleaning and I haven't really been interested in doing anything crafty. I guess after seeing all the UFO's I have and the stuff I've bought to do something with and then never did anything with them, must have had an influence on that. I do have a couple of new interests, though.

One is flower ink pens. That's ink pens that have a pretty silk flower on top. I just started seeing these in the last couple of months at different stores and workshops that I've been to. It's a small thing, but it makes me happy to work my crossword puzzles, write in my journal, and do the writing I do at work with a pretty ink pen. It's a good way to dress up those boring old black pens that you have at work and at home. A new Joann's opened up last week near where I live, and when I went for the first time they had a table set up for customers to sign up for prizes. They were using these cute pens and I asked one of the sales associates about them. She said they made them using silk flowers and floral tape. What you do is you go and buy some ink pens that have the removable top (not the kind that click), buy some inexpensive silk flowers, and some tape to attach the flower to the pen. I will say that I tried the floral tape and I didn't like it. It was too sticky and didn't seem like it would hold very well. I guess floral tape was suggested because it was green and would look like a flower stem. I had seen some made here at work using just black electrical tape and it looks fine. It does a much better job and it accomplished what I wanted so I decided to use that. I also read that some folks used colored duct tape. That would work too, I guess, if you can find colored duct tape. I try to find supplies that are easy to find. I hate having to order supplies online and pay shipping. I want something that easy to find in the stores. I made several of these pens for work and home. If you decide to do this, I'll warn you, they don't take many supplies, they are a snap to make and are very addicting.

You need some silk flowers (Walmart or Dollar Store), floral tape or electrical tape (also Walmart) and some ink pens with the removable top (Walmart).

Here are the ones I made. They look really pretty in a coffee cup when you are not using them.

The other thing that has recently rekindled my interest is art that depicts women. When I was a little girl, my dad taught me how to draw a woman's body and head, etc. Now that I'm an adult, I've used that to draw a few women in various dresses, gowns, etc. I recently found an Etsy store that has some beautiful paintings of women on pillows, eyeglass cases, tote bags, and more. I am so inspired by this artist. The Etsy store is here. There is also another Etsy store that my good friend, Linda has where she has her Girlfriend Art for sale. I am very inspired by this artist as well. Her Etsy store is here. I want to take some ideas from both of these artists, plus my own experience and see if I can create some art featuring women.

My photography class ended a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad I took it, but I was a little disappointed. It was a condensed version of the class. In other words, we combined a whole semester into about 4 weeks. I was hoping that we would do more projects with maybe field trips and stuff like that, but all we did was bring in photos that we had made and looked at them and critiqued each other's work. The class didn't really tell me how to use my camera to make better pictures. I guess I was just hoping for more. The good news is that my new Canon DSLR camera is working now and I love it. You can see some of the photos I've taken with it if you go to my Photography blog here. I am very inexperienced at this, but I have really enjoyed taking photos and plan on taking some more soon. I hope to get some photos of the leaves turning in our area soon.

Biblioburro: The Donkey Library

2010-09-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

My husband Eddie and I met while we were both working on the Bookmobile at our public library. We used to take the Bookmobile into all kinds of diverse areas of our city. It was very important to us to make sure that the children who were truly interested in these areas, were able to check books out. This video was of interest to us because of the way that they deliver the books to the children there. We had a nice, air conditioned bookmobile trailer that was about 36 feet in length. Very portable, although it took some preparation to get it moved and set up. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to transport books by donkey. This is an amazing thing, but I have to admit that I'm feeling a little sorry for the donkey.

Flower Picture

2010-08-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

I am so excited! Now that my camera is finally working I went outside this morning and just took some random shots to check it out, make sure it was working correctly and to make sure that the focus is correct, etc. I took this picture of a little bitty flower that is in a planter on my back deck. Once I cropped it, I was amazed at the detail. I think I'm going to love this camera.

New Camera

2010-08-27T12:34:00.001-07:00

After all the worrying about my camera, for some reason it started magically working today. Yay! I'm really happy about that and I hope it lasts. I don't know why is wasn't working before, but I'm pretty sure that it is my inexperience rather than anything being wrong with the camera. My first photography class is tomorrow and I'm really excited and looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to learning how to take better pictures, learning about composition and taking more artistic looking photos. I brought my camera to work today with the intention of taking it by a camera shop after work to see if they could tell me what was wrong, but after it started working, I took a few pictures around my office.

Peaches

2010-08-26T18:43:00.001-07:00

This week Eddie found some really nice peaches on the mountain. Last night he canned them and they are so pretty in the jars. I love peaches. It's one of the few fruits I really like. I've never really been a fruit person. I just don't eat fruit, don't really like it all that well, plus given a choice between a fruit and another type of sweet, I will usually pick the sweet. And this should all be the other way around. I've gained some weight this summer. Not something I'm proud of and certainly something I need to work on. I'm sitting here right now feeling fat and bloated. I'm just sick of it, so I'm going to have to work on losing this extra weight. It's not good for me and makes me feel miserable. I just have to figure out a healthy way to do it that I can live with from now on. I think that's part of my problem. I haven't been able to find a way to do it that I can adopt as a lifestyle change. I'm afraid my diet needs a major overhaul. Trying to lose weight is really hard because someone is always telling you that you have to give up something that you love in order to lose weight and keep it off. And what's worse, if I feel like I have to give it up for good that just makes me want it even worse.

I've decided to take a photography class this semester at the community college where I work. Since I work there I can take it for free. I bought a Canon Rebel XS camera on eBay. It was a deluxe kit, brand new and it included the carrying case, camera body, 18-55 lens, picture card, I can't even remember everything that came with it. I'm really dumb right now because I have no clue how to focus. I couldn't get it to take photos in the auto mode, which should be the easiet thing to do with any camera. All you do is point and shoot. Not so with this one. I guess there are some settings or something mysterious that I need to learn. I hope I can figure this out. I hope my camera is not a lemon. Maybe it's me that's the lemon since I can't figure this out. I'll be sure to let you know how this goes.

By the way, the picture above was taken with my trusty FinePix camera that's just a regular point and shoot. If all else fails, I'll use it for my class, but it doesn't have as many options for shooting flowers and landscapes and stuff like that.

Costume Designer for PBS Film Dolley Madison

2010-08-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

You can watch Dolley Madison online at this link.

Ponds Cold Cream

2010-08-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

I've been reading an interesting book called Summer at Tiffany by Majorie Hart. I bought it awhile back because I thought it looked interesting. It really is interesting. It's about 2 girlfriends who go to New York for the summer and get jobs at Tiffany's. It's about their experiences and it talks about all the movie stars they saw come into Tiffany's. There was Judy Garland and Vincente Minelli when they got married and Marlene Dietrich. I'm sure there are more, but I'm only halfway through the book. I want to rush through it because I can't wait to read the next thing, but at the same time I want to take my time reading it because I don't want it to end. It's actually a true story written in a fiction format.

There is one thing in the book that got me started thinking about Pond's Cold Cream. There is a scene in the book where one of the girls was trying on an engagement ring and she says "I'm engaged!" like the glamorous model in the magazine ad: She's engaged, she's lovely, she uses Pond's. So then that got me to looking for the ad, which I found and then reading about Pond's Cold Cream.

That led me to finding this vintage video on Youtube about how to remove makeup with Ponds. I've never tried it, but I just might. My skin is oily, though, so I'm not sure I should use it, but I think there is a Pond's Cold Cream for oily skin called Pond's Refreshing Cream. Everyone has talked about their mothers and grandmothers using it all their lives and what soft, smooth skin they all had. I need soft smooth skin really badly. My skin is badly damaged with scars from childhood chicken pox and teenage acne. Plus, I have big pores. I might think about trying the Pond's and see what happens.

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down

2010-07-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and
Write Myself a Letter

I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came from you.
I'm gonna write words oh, so sweet
They're gonna knock me off of my feet,
A lot of kisses on the bottom,
I'll be glad I got 'em.

I'm gonna smile and say,
"I hope you're feeling better,"
And close with love, the way that you do.
I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came from you.

I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe that it came from you.
I'm gonna write words oh, so sweet, yeah!

Lotta kisses on the bottom,
I'll be glad I got 'em.
I'm gonna smile and say,
"I hope you're feeling better,"
And close with love, the way that you do.

I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came from you...

I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter,
And make believe it came,
Make believe that it came from you!

Painted Mailbox

2010-07-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to repaint our old mailbox for a long time. It had belonged to Eddie's uncle and when he moved to go to a nursing home, he gave it to us. It was really old and peeling paint. Eddie got some paint and painted it black and he asked me to paint some flowers on it. With all the hot, humid weather we've been having it's really hard to find a good time to do something like this without sweating to death. This morning was so cool and wonderful that I decided to go ahead and paint it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a quiet morning and all I could hear while I was painting was the sound of a rooster crowing in the distance. Music to my ears. The following pictures are the result:

Horsin' Around

2010-06-18T07:35:00.001-07:00

I am very excited about a new project. Where I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee there is a carousel horse carving school just right up the street from where I live. It used to be closer to downtown Chattanooga and every time we would ride by there I would see those neat looking carved horses in the windows and think, "Gee, I would love to make one of those." I didn't realize they had moved and, to be honest, I had forgotten all about it. So, the other day I stumbled on their website again, and thought, I really want to try that. So, I called and talked to the instructor, who is a nice Christian man named Bud Ellis. I went by the school this week and he took me on a tour and showed me around, gave me an idea of the kind of horse and the size that I would be carving. He specializes in helping people like me who are wondering or doubtful if they can really do this thing. Apparently they can under his tutelage because he's taught lots of folks to carve a horse, people who have never held a chisel in their lives. Men and women both. Students at his school carved all the horses for the carousel that is at Coolidge Park in Chattanooga and also the endangered species animals that are on a carousel at the Chattanooga Zoo. So, I've decided that I'm going to try it. He told me that they are in the process of planning a carousel in Kingston, Tn and that they need volunteers to carve the horses for it. He said that he already has 6 volunteers to carve them, but they need 33 horses, what they call Jumpers. They are the ones that go up and down on the carousel. The best thing is all the wonderful experience, but also you pay your fee for one year of instruction and then once the carousel is built, you will be paid twice your money back. I don't care about the being paid back part, even though that's a wonderful benefit. But, I'm really excited about having something that I created on something as big as a carousel which will one day be very valuable and also something I feel I can leave to others for them to enjoy. I decided to put this on my bucket list. I think it's the very first thing I've put on it. Or my twenty wishes list or whatever you want to call it. I think about Twenty Wishes when I think of the book by the same title by Debbie Macomber.

I think I have decided which horse I want to carve. It's not the one below, but the one I want to carve is very similar to it.

I've also added a few more pictures of the horses that are on the carousel at Coolidge Park in Chattanoga, TN.

Pink Flamingo

2010-06-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Back in the spring I was at a store, I don't remember which one, and saw these cute pink flamingos. I think it was only $2 or $3. I thought it was cute and bought it. Eddie put it out for me today.

I remember when we used to make fun of the pink flamingos as being outdated a few years back. This was in about 1998. I guess they are coming back. I like them. I also have a pair of capris with the pink flamingos on them.

Someone said to me the other day that I was not afraid of color. I don't remember what I was wearing, but I must have had on several different colors. I was also carrying my bright pink purse.

No, I'm not afraid of color. The more color the better.

Memories and Hydrangeas

2010-06-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight Eddie tilled a spot for us to plant some flowers. He had mentioned from time to time that he was using my dad's old garden tiller. I just never paid attention until tonight when Eddie was talking about how much better this tiller is than the new one he bought a few years back. I got to really looking at the tiller and I'll be doggoned if it's not the one that my daddy had me using when I used to help him till our garden when I was a little girl. Eddie said my daddy told him that this was the only tiller he had ever had. After looking at it I realized he was right. This really brings the memories flooding back. I can't remember the year he bought it, but he told Eddie he bought it back in the 60's at Western Auto. Gee, that's a long time ago.

And my hydrangeas are so pretty right now.

Moon River

2010-06-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

I love the song Moon River. Here is Audrey Hepburn singing it in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Flowers

2010-05-29T16:11:00.001-07:00

Eddie has been on a flower planting frenzy. I wanted to share some of the pictures that I took this afternoon. I have some more, but for some reason Blogger wouldn't load up the last few. So, here are some of them. I'll try to post some more tomorrow.

Audrey Hepburn

2010-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about Audrey Hepburn today. I love her movies and recently watched Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's on Turner Classic Movies. I have Breakfast at Tiffany's in my collection, but it was on and I just watched it anyway. I can never watch these movies too many times. I never get tired of them.

I went to Youtube and found this series of interviews with her son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer. He has also written a book that I would love to read titled Audrey Hepburn, an Elegant Spirit. Here are the links to the Youtube interviews:

Pillowcases

2010-05-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some pictures of what I've been working on lately. I've been making pillowcases. These are so easy and so much fun. What got me started was the American Patchwork and Quilting 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge. This web site has all the information and some patterns too. What I didn't like was the fact that the pillowcases have raw edges on the inside, so I found a Youtube video of how to make one with nice, finished edges on the inside.

For more detailed written instructions for how to do this, go to Robin Gallagher's website.

The only thing I did differently was to sew a decorative stitch along the edges of the small trim. I think that little extra touch adds a certain elegance to the pillowcase. I wanted to make some pillowcases to give to two of my nieces for Christmas. The first one is a cute flower and butterfly print.

The next one is a cute Tinkerbell print.

And the last two are from some fabric I found in the discount fabric bin at my Hobby Lobby. I'm thinking that I might keep these two for myself.

I also bought some pretty cowgirl and cowboy fabric. Those are going to be really cute too. Then I bought some more floral fabric to make some more. I'll post more pictures when I finish those. I think I'm hooked. For now, anyway, until my next obsession.

Spring Beauties

2010-05-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some pictures of the spring beauties that are blooming in my yard. I used the free tool Picnik to soften the edges of this pretty pink iris.

My peonies are also getting ready to bloom.

And, oh joy! My hydrangeas look like they are getting ready to bloom this year for the first time in about 2 years! This year I fertilized my plant and put lime around the bottom hoping to get a pink flower. It'll be interesting to see what color they are.

Oh my, I want a white hydrangea so badly. They are so pretty. We used to call them snowball bushes when I was growing up.

Hawaiian Applique

2010-04-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

This week I've been reading a book by Jennifer Chiaverini titled The Aloha Quilt.

One of the characters in the book takes a trip to Hawaii to help a friend start a Hawaiian quilt camp. She decides she wants to learn to make a Hawaiian quilt as a momento of her stay in Maui. After reading in the book about the quilts and their meanings, and how they are made, I started thinking about trying one of my own. I've done applique before but not with very successful results and it wasn't that enjoyable. I've never been able to figure out which technique I wanted to try to make it easier to do. All those little pieces to be placed and appliqued and so on. So, I did a little research and found a web site that has a few free patterns and some basic instructions for how to make a Hawaiian applique quilt. The web site is here. You can choose one of the free patterns that are on this page, then if you click on "Quilting Instructions" it will tell you exactly how to cut out your block, quilt it, etc. This is the best web site I've found with all this information in one place. Then, for eye candy, I started doing image searches in Google for Hawaiian quilts and found these:

This was enough to get me started, so I printed off one of the free patterns from the web site and decided to start small with a pillow size block to get hang of this applique thing. It wasn't too bad and I know that with practice I will get better. When I finish this pillow I want to make another one, but a little larger, maybe a small wall hanging size.

Here is my block. I finished appliquing it last night. I haven't quilted it yet, but that's the next step. I'll post progress pictures later on.

Yesterday

2010-04-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's really unusual I know for me to post twice in one day, let alone once a day, but I was reading my blogs and I came across this beautiful video that my piano teacher made of her singing "Yesterday" by the Beatles. She's playing the piano and her daughter, who is an awesome photographer, took the pictures that go with the video.

Spring Time

2010-04-17T05:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday at work some of our staff went to a luncheon. Corsages were given to the ladies and they had a few left, so one of my coworkers brought them back and gave them to those of us who stayed behind to hold down the fort. I think they are beautiful.

This morning I was looking out my kitchen window and saw all these beautiful wisterias.

At last, but not least, are my azaleas that are blooming right now.

Just for Fun

2010-03-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Eddie and I went to our friend's house to a party to celebrate her baby's one year birthday. My friend told me that she had looked at one year old birthday decorations and didn't find anything that she liked. She said she decided to make some tissue paper flowers. Well, after I saw them I had to know how to make them, so she showed me how and I made these. It's amazing what you can do with tissue paper. I had another friend show me how to make some carnatins out of toilet tissue.

Nostalgia - These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

2010-03-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about nostalgic things lately. When I was in junior high school, there was a popular song by Nancy Sinatra called These Boots Are Made for Walkin'. I thought I would put the video here for you to see. And, my girlfriends and I each had a pair of those white "go-go" boots. Thought we were hot stuff walking around in those things.

Madeline's Sweater

2010-03-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I knitted a sweater for a friend's baby girl. Her name is Madeline and she has just celebrated her first birthday. I miscalculated a bit and this sweater is much bigger than I thought it would be, but her mom says that she will grow into it soon, so I'm happy about that. I hope Madeline likes it when she's big enough to wear it.

I found the pattern on the inside of a yarn label. I bought the yarn at Hobby Lobby and the yarn is I Love This Cotton yarn. I'm not sure if the pattern is in all of the labels, but it was in several of the skeins that I bought to make an afghan with. It was a very simple sweater and lots of fun to make.

New Dish Towels

2010-02-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a sale at Kohl's I got some new dish towels yesterday. They are so bright and pretty and remind me of Spring.

I'm also thinking about painting some terra cotta flower pots to plant a Christmas cactus cutting that I have rooted from another plant. These photos that I found on the Internet are very inspiring. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to paint them, but these photos will help give me a few ideas.

Who Do You Think You Are?

2010-02-25T06:52:00.000-08:00

I am excited about this show. I have been working off and on on my family genealogy on my mother's side for several years. I have learned lots of interesting things about my mom's family. If you watch this show, it might spark your interest in finding out your own genealogy. I hope so.

Who Do You Think You Are?

Sewing and Quilt Themed Cakes - Part 2

2010-02-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

Here are so more of those beautiful cakes.

Sewing and Quilt Themed Cakes - Part 1

2010-02-15T12:46:00.001-08:00

I am in absolute awe of what cake decorators can do. I watch Ace of Cakes and the cake decorating challenges all the time. I never thought about sewing and quilt themed cakes, but when I saw these photos, I just had to share. I found about 30+ photos of these wonderful cakes, so I'm going to post them all, but in 3 parts. Here are the first photos. I hope you enjoy them. I know I did.

It's Snowing!

2010-01-29T14:03:00.001-08:00

It started snowing today around 1 p.m. and it's still snowing. I just snapped this picture looking out toward the road from my front porch. This is the first time we've had any significant snowfall in several years. It's beautiful and it's always so quiet when it's snowing. Just like a winter wonderland.

Robert B. Parker Dies

2010-01-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

I was so disappointed to hear that Robert B. Parker passed away on Monday. He was one of my favorite authors. I read all of his books and could hardly wait for the next one to come out. A coworker of mine feels the same way. When we found out, she said, "What are we going to do?" For reading, I mean. There are other authors that we like, but he was one of the best by far. I'm really going to miss him and his books. His webpage: Robert B. Parker.

Afghan and One More Hat

2010-01-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share another hat that I made using my Knifty Knitter. This one is the blue with furry black brim.

I have some more of this yarn and I'll be making some more of these hats in adult and children's sizes. I'm going to put them in my Etsy shop at some point very soon.

I've also been working on an afghan to put across the back of my sofa. I finished it about a week ago.

I have to give my piano teacher credit for this pattern. When I was at her house taking my lesson one day, she showed me some squares that she was working on for a small afghan. I thought it was so pretty I decided to make one too. We used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton yarn in Ivory. I can't remember the size of the crochet hook, but whatever size is on the yarn label is what I used. To make one square, you chain 25, then single crochet in the second chain from the hook, and in each chain across. At the end of the row, turn, ch 1 and repeat the first row. Just keep crocheting rows until you have a square. Then we decided to put some of our tatted medallions in the middle of each square. It was a fun project and to tell the truth, I'm surprised I actually finished this. I so often start a project and then, for whatever reason, lose interest and put it down for awhile.

Right now I'm working on knitting a child's sweater. I got the pattern from the inside label of the yarn I used to make the afghan. I'll try to take some pictures of it and post them soon.

Knifty Knitter Hats

2010-01-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

We've had some snow here, and being snowed in I decided to make some hats using my Knifty Knitter round green loom. I decided to bling them up a little bit by putting some fun fur type yarn on the brim. I think they came out really cute.

The black hat was made with Lion Brand Wool Ease, and a Hobby Lobby brand of furry trim. I think it was Yarn Bee brand. For the brim I held one strand of the furry yarn and one strand of black Wool Ease together and knit for 5 inches. After making the brim, I dropped the furry yarn and held together one strand of black and one strand of a dark gray of the Wool Ease to make the remainder of the hat. I knitted for about 8 inches and then gathered the top. It couldn't be easier or faster and it made a warm, pretty, stylish hat.

For the blue hat, I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn in 368 Montana Sky color, and Fun Fur stripes in Deep Sea color. To make the blue hat, it was basically the same thing as with the black hat. For the brim, I held one strand of the homespun and one strand of the fun fur together for the brim. After making the brim, I held 2 strands together of the homespun for the remainder of the hat.

I couldn't believe how well these hats came out. They were both quick and really, really warm. I think I'll be making some more.

Julie & Julia

2010-01-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

Ever since I saw the movie Julie & Julia I have been reading everything I can about Julia Child, Julie Powell and the movie. Am I obssessed? Maybe, but I just think it's interesting reading. I would love to read the entire blog that Julie wrote because I think it would be interesting too. If anyone is interested, here is the link to her blog. The Julie/Julia Project.

The movie was fantastic. Everyone I've talked to has loved it. I love it too and I don't really know why. Well, for one thing, the French countryside is beautiful. Also, the old cars and everything make this a charming movie. I've watched it twice already and will probably watch it again.

I also love those pearls that Julia Child always wore. I love pearls. I think they are so elegant and pretty. They make the dullest outfit look very refined and elegant. On some women. I'm not sure how that would look on me, but I've worn them with jeans and several other things.

Here is the movie trailer for Julia & Julia.

Julie & Julia Movie Trailer

Morning Visitor

2009-12-20T06:20:00.001-08:00

We had a morning visitor this morning. He was so active and running around that I had to snap this fast. This would have been a really good picture except I had to snap it through the screen door and window, so it didn't come out as well as I hoped. But, I thought I would share it anyway.

Farmhouse Style

2009-12-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

I don't have a farm, but I wish I did. I love all the different blogs that have pictures of farmhouse style. I thought I would share a few of my own.

Christmas Randomness

2009-11-29T13:32:00.001-08:00

Today Eddie and I took some time to decorate for Christmas. I remembered that we had bought this nativity scene last year on sale at J.C. Penney's. It looks very nice on a little table in our dining room. I'm thinking about just keeping it out all year to remind me of my savior's birth and what He means to me.

I have to laugh when I see this next picture. This year I bought a little pink tree, much to Eddie's dismay. At his request, I put it in the living room so he "doesn't have to look at it." There is more to this story, though, and I'm thinking of writing a short story about it and posting it later.

After I got the tree on the table and set up, I started looking around the fireplace mantel and realized that I had this cute pink kitty cat doll that might look neat on the table next to the tree.

Then I saw this lighted cube that I made last year and decided it would look alright there.

After that, I saw this Victorian shoe that I decided to put there too.

After I got everything arranged I really liked it and I asked Eddie to come and look at it. To my complete surprise he liked it. I told him that I wasn't going to put any ornaments on the tree, because in this case I think less is more. He nodded agreement. But, if I have time, I might tat some white medallions to put on it here and there.

This year I found a cute stocking for the fireplace.

A couple of weeks ago we found this beautiful Celosia plant on sale at Bi-Lo. The information stick said that it would work indoor or outdoor. I hope it does. It's beautiful and this picture is not it's true color. It's actually a deep lavender and I don't know why the camera didn't pick that up.

And last, but certainly not least, this morning I took this picture of our Christmas cactus. This is actually a cutting that fell off a plant and Eddie put it in some water and it bloomed. I hope it sprouts roots so we can make another plant, but we'll just have to see how that goes.

Celosia Plant

2009-11-17T07:04:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend Eddie and I were in the local Bi-Lo and saw some of these pretty plants in a markdown basket. I've been wanting one of these for a long time. It's called Celosia. I've never had one before, but the stick tag on the inside said it can be either a houseplant in a container or planted outside. I read something else online that said that it was a seasonal plant. I hope that it lives inside in a container. Eddie planted it yesterday and it's really pretty. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it yet, but I found one online that is very similar.

Swan Gourd or Squash?

2009-10-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

My friend and her husband went hiking this weekend and they found this gourd or squash (I'm not sure which) that looks just like a swan. I had to share it.

Piano Lessons Continued

2009-10-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

I'm into my second month of piano lessons. I am really having alot of fun with it. I have to admit, though, that I've hit a speed bump with learning the 1/8th notes. It's a little confusing, but I'll get the hang of it.

About 3 weeks ago, I thought I was going to have a piano given to me. Our renters (and friends) were moving out of our rental house and had a piano that they needed to find a home for. They were wanting to either sell it or donate it. I didn't have the funds to buy a piano, so I just forgot about it. Our friend said that they had asked their church if they wanted the piano and the church said they didn't need it. He also said that if they couldn't sell it or donate it, that I could have it. Oh joy! I was sure I was getting a real live piano. Well, I should have known better than to count my chickens before they were hatched. The people at the church changed their minds and decided they wanted the piano for their youth group. I kept hoping they would never come and get it, but I knew deep down that they would. And they did. I decided that God had a plan for that piano, and it didn't include me, so I'm fine with that. He knows what's best anyway. Who knows? I may decide playing the piano isn't for me and then I would have been stuck with a piano to do something with. I don't feel that way right now, though, but you never know how things will turn out.

One good thing is that I do have a picture of me playing the piano. It was a beautiful piano.

Barbie Calendar

2009-09-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

Today I was in Hobby Lobby and on my way out I saw a pretty Barbie calender for 2010. I love Barbie and especially vintage Barbie. I used to collect Barbie dolls awhile back, but I ran out of room to display them and I stopped. It all started with collecting Hallmark Barbie ornaments. I have several, but I haven't bought any in the last several years. I collected Hallmark ornaments for about 5 years until I ran out of room on my tree. Anyway, I digress. I thought I would share a few of the pictures from the Barbie calendar that I bought today. The best thing about it is that I had a 40% off coupon, so I was not going to pass this up.

One day this week I was going to sit down in my recliner and I saw this:

The little bugger had taken my chair. He was so cute, though, that I had to grab the camera and take a picture.

This week has been a hard one. Earlier in the week, my best friend had to go to the hospital with breathing and heart problems. She was released from the hospital, though, and is resting at home now. Then today I learned that my cousin's wife has kidney cancer, plus she's having to have surgery today to have her gall bladder removed and it's uncertain what they found. I haven't heard anything since the surgery. It just reminds me how we have no guarantees and how thankful we should be for our blessings. How we should enjoy every single day on this earth and especially with our families. It just reminds me how precious life is and how important all the people that we love are. It makes me want to give my husband an extra hug and kiss before he or I goes out the door. It makes me want to really listen to everything he has to say instead of sometimes half listening while I'm doing something else.

Piano Lessons

2009-08-31T08:00:00.001-07:00

I just started taking piano lessons this last weekend. My first lesson was Saturday and it went really well. I'm so excited. I have been wanting to do this for a really long time. I don't have a piano (yet), but I do have a keyboard that I bought last year and it's just fine for now.

I can't remember if I told the story of my piano lesson nightmare when I was a child. My aunt (my mother's sister), made up her mind that I was going to learn to play the piano like my cousin Jane. Well, I was only about 7 years old and I had absolutely no desire to be like "Cousin Jane", but for some reason, my aunt had her mind set on it and when she had her mind set, there was no changing it. She even bought a piano for me. I was such an ungrateful child. To add insult to injury, she arranged for me to have my piano lessons on Saturday mornings. Now, what could be worse when you are a child than having piano lessons on Saturday mornings, when what you really want to do is stay home and watch cartoons? So, grudgingly, I went every Saturday morning for my lesson. I hated it. I didn't retain anything and didn't practice so naturally I wasn't going to make any progress. Finally, the piano teacher told my aunt that I was not interested and wasn't making any progress. She told her that she was just throwing her money away, so my aunt stopped taking me. Later on, she sold the piano to her brother, whose wife played. I'm sure my aunt was very disappointed in me. The real tragedy to all this is that later, the piano burned when my uncle's house burned down. Poor piano. Nobody wanted it and it came to a tragic end.

Now that I've grown up and become more mature I realize that I threw away an awesome opportunity to learn something wonderful. If I had just stuck with it I would have learned to play and might even still have that very piano today. But, I didn't stick with it and I don't have that piano. But, that was then and this is now. Now, I truly have a desire to learn to play. I wish my aunt could see the desire that I have and watch me actually taking an interest now, since I disappointed her so long ago. But, I'm not doing this for her, I'm doing it for me. And, who knows, maybe she's looking down from Heaven.

Tales of Beatrix Potter by The Royal Ballet

2009-08-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

I love Beatrix Potter books and illustrations and I also love the movie Miss Potter. I found this cute video excerpt of the Tales of Beatrix Potter by the Royal Ballet DVD on Youtube today. I think I'm going to have to get myself a copy for my own mental health. I think if I were down in the dumps, this would cheer me right up.

Beautiful Orchids

2009-07-31T07:48:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share a beautiful orchid that is on the desk in the Circulation area of the library where I work.

I have tried growing orchids in the past, but after blooming once they seem to curl up and die. I even had one once that got root rot. I've since figured out that I was probably watering them too much or keeping the soil too wet. I talked to a coworker of mine who is an expert in raising orchids and I think I may have figured out how to keep one living. I might decide to try another one soon. I'll have to give that some thought. In the meantime, I saw this beautiful one (below) online and thought I would share it. I sure wish I had one like this. The red against the white is so dramatic and breathtaking.

Bunny Rabbit

2009-07-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of a bunny rabbit that a good friend of mine has. This bunny is so cute. He loves to be held and petted and I'm happy to hold him and pet him.

Elegant Parchment Flowers

2009-07-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

I went to Etsy today and saw that they are down for a brief time for maintenance. They provided some videos to watch while they are down, and one of them was this great video for making elegant parchment flowers. This looks like lots of fun and I can't wait to try it.

Spring Creek Retreat

2009-06-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

We just got back on Sunday from another amazing weekend at Spring Creek Retreat. It was a wonderfully relaxing, restorative trip. We had lots of fun frolicking in the creek. I have some pictures to share. The first picture is of an amazing nature made creek that is in the caretaker's front yard. I can't believe how beautiful this creek is. I can only imagine how wonderful it would be to come home to this every day after a long day at work and unwind. The sound was amazing too. The next time we go, I'm going to see if I can borrow a video camera and film it so that I can get the sound. This picture doesn't even do the creek justice. You just have to see in person.

This next picture is of a really odd looking, but beautiful mushroom that we saw on the grounds of the creek house.

Here is a yellow mushroom that we found when we were walking on one of the trails.

As we were walking on the trail we went through this amazing covering that was so cool looking. Eddie said it looked like a rainforest.

I also took a picture of algae that was growing in the creek. This picture was taken during one of our trail walks. I can't believe how beautiful the algae is and how well it shows up through the water.

The house that we stayed in had a forest theme with forest wallpaper border and in the laundry room there was this cute little wooden birdhouse. I took a picture of it because I want to try to make one of my own.

We always have a wonderful time at Spring Creek. In my mind, I'm still there and I want to go back really soon.

St. Petersburg Stitch

2009-06-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend I've been learning the St. Petersburg stitch that is featured in the June issue of Bead and Button magazine. I love this stitch. I'm really proud of the bracelet that I made this weekend. This has just whetted my appetite to make another one. I also want to try some earrings and a necklace at some point.

Since I'm still learning, I used 6/0 size seed beads and just a regular sewing needle to stitch the bracelet. I used a standard beading thread that I bought at Hobby Lobby. The thread is sort of stiff and it worked beautifully on this bracelet.

Bunny Rabbits, Chickadees, and Hens and Chicks

2009-06-16T05:19:00.000-07:00

My post today is all about wildlife and plants. I love seeing unexpected wildlife in my yard and actually having my camera handy so I can get good shots. Yesterday when I got home from work, I was getting out of my car and I noticed that Mr. Bunny Rabbit came back for another visit.

I couldn't get my computer at home to work so that I could crop and get a closer view, but he was posing for me again and I was able to get fairly close this time before he scampered off.

At about the same time I saw him, I looked up into a pine tree that we have and I saw 2 little Chickadees. Darn it, they were hopping through the tree so fast that I didn't have time to get a picture of them, so I found one on the Internet. You might think this is really odd, but never in all of my 56 years have I ever seen a Chickadee in real life. I've seen lots and lots of pictures, but had never, ever actually seen one until yesterday. I just wanted to keep watching and keep watching. They are some of the prettiest birds I've ever seen with the Cardinal (or Redbird) being the exception. We see lots and lots of Redbirds in our yard. And our yard is always full of rabbits running around playing and chasing each other. I love it!

I've been meaning to take some pictures of my Hens and Chicks because this year they are doing really well. I guess we've had so much rain this Spring that they are just flourishing.

Bunny Rabbit

2009-06-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

One evening this week I was outside doing some stuff and I happened to look over and saw this.

It was a really cute Peter Cottontail Bunny Rabbit. He was just sitting looking at me. It looked like he was posing, so I ran in and grabbed my camera and took this picture. I don't know why, but I couldn't steady my hand enough to get a really clear picture, but I still thought it wasn't too bad. It's enough that I could paint him in watercolor maybe, if I want to. I might do that.

A good friend of mine has a new pet that's a cute little white rabbit. As soon as I can remember to take my camera to his house, I'm going to take a picture of him too. Or her. We don't know yet.

Pansy Doily and Fresh Cut Flowers

2009-06-05T05:43:00.000-07:00

This week I finished crocheting my first pansy doily. My mother-in-law made some similar to these back when she was a young married woman with 3 young children. Eddie said he remembers the doilies from when he was a little boy. She gave me 2 of the pansy doilies that she made and I have them on a corner cabinet with my teapots. I plan to paint this corner cabinet white very soon. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures of it.

Her doilies were my inspiration for trying one myself. I found a great free pattern for this doily. I will say there is a very slight mistake in this pattern. In the Doily Center pattern on Round 7, the pattern should read:

Ch 3, dc in same place, *dc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, (dc in next ch-1 sp, ch 1) twice, skip next dc, dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc, ch 2, 2 dc in next dc, rep from * around, end last rep with ch 2, join with sl st in top of beg ch-3. (64 dc).

Like I said, it's a very minor mistake, but if you are like me and read crochet and knitting patterns word for word, this could be a real problem for a beginning crocheter. This is a very easy crochet pattern, and it went very quickly too. Here are some pictures of my finished pansy doily.

I love fresh cut flowers. There is something about them that just gives me a lift. At my last job, there was a lady who worked in the office with me and she told me that every week when she went to the grocery store, she bought a bouquet of fresh flowers to put in a vase on her desk. She said she just felt like this was one thing she could do for herself and it always made her feel better and gave her something pretty to look at while she was working. I love that idea. At the time I didn't do it, but where I work now I have my own office and I've made it my own. I figured that since I spend probably more time here than at home, I might as well make it as homey and uplifting as possible. So, now I've adopted the habit of getting fresh cut flowers every week at the grocery store too. These are the flowers I bought this week.

Take It Easy

2009-06-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I talked about driving my husband's truck, bad to the bone kind of thing, listening to music really loudly. One of my favorite songs to listen to while driving and singing it horribly offkey is Take It Easy by the Eagles.

Plum Crazy

2009-05-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

There is something that alot of people don't know about me. It's that I have a little bid of a wild side that comes out every now and then. Now, your definition of wild and my definition of wild could possibly be two entirely different things. I don't drink and party or get wild in that way. What I do is every now and then I like to listen to music, really loudly, especially when driving. This morning I drove Eddie's truck because he's taking my car to get the oil changed. There is something about driving a truck that just makes me feel different somehow. I don't know what it is. I can't put my finger on it. I love several things about his truck, but one in particular is that it has a CD player. I know that most cars and trucks these days have one that came as standard equipment, and that's really nothing new, but my car doesn't have one. Anyway, this morning when I got in the truck to drive to work, I put in my favorite Eric Clapton CD, put on my Plum Crazy hat, turned the volume up really loud, and drove in. Ok, that's about as wild as I get. But, it's fun, and I love to drive a cool vehicle and listen to music.

I have a secret desire to get a fun car, maybe a red convertible, put the top down and drive down the road, hair flying in the wind listening to some music that I love. Maybe "Born to Be Wild?" I don't know, something like that. It makes me feel free somehow. And rebellious. Yeah, that's it. Rebellious.

Aprons, Goblets, and Fresh Vegetables

2009-05-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post pictures of some more aprons that I've made in the last couple of weeks. I seem to be addicted to these. They are so easy and so much fun to make. I love the fabrics and the coordinating rick rack.

One day this weekend I was sorting through some stuff in our shed and I found a box that had some drinking goblets in it that I had painted a couple of years ago. Joy! I knew I had these somewhere, but I couldn't remember where I had put them. I discovered that I have 6 of them, so I made room for them in the kitchen and now these will be well used from now on. I guess we must have been doing some cleaning at some point and they got boxed up and put into the shed. I've posted a picture of one of them. It is not a really good picture, but I hope you can see it. I used the Donna Dewberry method of painting on glass to make these. It's really easy. If I can do it, anybody can do it.

And, finally, we just had our first meal (or "mess" as we call it in the South) of Silver Queen Corn this past week. It was so pretty after I had shucked and cleaned it that I just had to take a picture. I had been craving fresh vegetables for a few weeks and this just hit the spot.

Evening Shadow

2009-05-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

One night this week right before dark, I noticed the evening sun shining through my kitchen curtains and reflecting the design back onto my kitchen cabinets. I grabbed my digital camera and took several quick shots and this was the best one. I thought it was kind of cool looking.

Aprons

2009-05-17T16:55:00.001-07:00

I'm not feeling well this evening. Could be something I ate, but it's some kind of stomach issue. Anyway, I did want to show you what I've been working on this weekend.

Lately, I've become nolstalgic watching old movies and old TV shows. I love the fashions and styles from the 1940's, 50's and 60's. I remember when women used to wear aprons. I don't think too many of them do anymore. I know my grandmother used to and I've seen aprons on women in ads from that era and also on the old favorite TV shows like Donna Reed, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver. Also, Andy Griffith. Aunt Bea always wore an apron when she was at home doing her housework and cooking.

Maybe it's the times now, being so different from back then. Back then alot of women did not work outside the home. But, they did work at home, and I think alot of them wore aprons. I actually briefly wore aprons back in the 80's. Recently I've been seeing a few pictures and websites where women have sewn aprons for sale or just for their own use. I've never tried to make one before, but I thought that even with my limited sewing skills, surely I can manage to crank one out. So, I found a pattern that I really like and this weekend I tried it. It was so much fun, in fact, that I decided to make two. Now, I'm working on a third one. And I may make more depending on how it goes and whether or not I get tired of this project. Eddie says I'm on a new kick. We'll he's right. I'm on this kick until I get tired of it and then I'll go to another "kick".

Keeping Up Appearances Outtakes (or bloopers)

2009-05-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Keeping Up Appearances is my favorite British comedy. I found a funny video on Youtube of the bloopers.

Super Freak

2009-04-30T06:36:00.001-07:00

I don't know why, but I really like this commercial. It reminds me of myself when I'm listening to a song and singing it horribly offkey.

Yellow Box Flip Flops

2009-04-28T04:44:00.001-07:00

This past weekend Eddie and I went to Spring Creek Retreat. It was a wonderful weekend with beautiful weather and since we've been getting lots of rain lately, the creek was up and sounding divine. While we were there, one of my friends from high school came and stayed a couple of days. She was wearing some of the cutest flip flops I've ever seen. I asked her about them and she said they were Yellow Box and that she got them at Belk. She said she loves them and has about 9 pair of them. Well, you know that the first thing I did after work yesterday was go to Belk. They're having a sale and all of my size was gone, except for one pair. It was the ones below. I bought them and I'm wearing them today and I love, love, love them. They are very comfortable and stylish looking. Last night I painted my toenails and I'm loving it.

There is another pair that I want, but they were out of it in my size. The sales associate said that they would be getting some more, hopefully this week, so she took my name and number and said she would call me when they come in. The next pair I want to buy are the ones below. By the way, the style of both of these sandals is called Dawn, and the color of the top ones are just Brown (I think) and the ones below are the Jellybean color. There are so many colors of these that it's overwhelming. I want them all, but of course that's not possible. Although, I can see myself getting about 3 pair of them before all is said and done.

I mentioned painting my toenails and buying these flip flops. I really did that for myself to lift my spirits. I've been having those intermittent heart palpitations or heart flutters that are associated with atrial fibrillation. It's not full blown AF, but I'm sure these are probably related, although my doctor hasn't said so. He said they are just extra heartbeats. He doesn't see to be overly concerned about them. He gave me a different bp medication which is supposed to lower my bp and help with the flutters too. It's really weird because I just went 2 weeks before we went to Spring Creek with hardly a flutter, and the second day we were there, I started having them more often and have been ever since. I'm trying to figure out what changed while I was at Spring Creek, but it seems there is really no rhyme or reason for when they happen. It's obviously something that a person can live with, but it's just so unnerving and really bums me out and makes me depressed. I've always thought of myself as an active person. Before all this happened, I was really thinking about trying to get myself back in good physical shape so that I could dance either ballroom dancing or just go to Jazzercise to get my dancing fix or even belly dancing just because I love dance so much. Now, I'm afraid to walk very far at a time for fear of having another AF episode or more heart palpitations. It really makes me depressed. I've been doing some research and have learned that there are procedures that can be done to cure this. Right now my doctor doesn't feel I'm ready for that. I'm just going to keep an eye on it and see how things go. I'm hoping that with losing excess weight, that I can get my bp down and help this condition. Three doctors have told me that losing weight would help, so that's my main focus right now. I really think they will only do the surgery as a last resort if these other things don't help. In the meantime, I just feel so limited in what I can physically do anymore, even though the doctors have all said I can walk or do whatever I want to do. I don't know why I feel so afraid to do things. One doctor even told me that he has patients who are in AF all the time and that they are on Coumadin. I really don't want to go on Coumadin if I can help it.

Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff. I was feeling really down yesterday when I went to look for these flip flops and I felt really good when I found a pair in my size. This morning I slipped my newly painted toenails in my new sandals and that gave me a lift that I really needed.

Just My Style

2009-04-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been really nostalgic, thinking about my youth and high school and all the songs I used to listen to back then. One of my favorite groups when I was in junior high school was Gary Lewis and The Playboys. I recently bought a CD on Amazon and I listening to part of it on the way to work this morning. This is one of my favorite songs. There are so many of their songs that was my favorite, it's hard to choose just one.

Do you see the resemblance? He's Jerry Lewis's son.

Spring Fever

2009-04-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

I decided to delete the 43 things test that I had posted here earlier because, for some reason, it was shifting all my information on the right side of my blog down to the bottom of the blog. I'm still not knowledgeable enough to know how to fix things like that, so I decided the easiest thing was to delete that particular post.

I do appreciate the comments on that post. I always read comments that people have made.

I haven't been doing much of anything crafty lately like knitting or anything like that. I think I have Spring Fever. Over the weekend we watched a couple of movies on Lifetime. One was called Love in Another Town made from the book by Barbara Taylor Bradford by the same title. The other movie was Perfect Romance. As far as I know it's not based on a book, just a Lifetime movie. They were both really good movies. Eddie and I watched them together. He's pretty good about watching "chick flicks" with me. It was good to spend the day together watching movies.

Here are a couple of Youtube trailers from the movies.

Just For Fun

2009-04-08T11:06:00.001-07:00

Photo Fun

Here's the real thing.

Measuring Spoons

2009-03-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today I discovered some whimsical, fun measuring spoons made by Ganz. I would love to have a set of these, but they are expensive and it's just not in my budget right now. I can look, though. Nothing wrong with "window shopping."

If you go to Google and do an image search for "Ganz measuring spoons" you will get lots of pictures. Here are a few.

Adriana Trigiani

2009-03-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

I am so excited! Adriana Trigiani is one of my favorite authors. Yesterday I got a wonderful surprise in the mail. Her assistant sent me 2 of Adriani's books. One is her current one called Very Valentine and the other one is the cookbook that Adriana wrote about her family and has all kinds of recipes in it. Apparently, her assistant made a mistake and instead of sending me a DVD where Adriana talks about all of her books, she inadvertently sent me the two books instead. I emailed her and made sure she knew about the error. She said it was my lucky day and to keep the books or give them away or whatever I wanted to do with them. I've decided I'm going to donate them to the library where I work.

So, as a small token of my appreciation, I have decided that I'm going to send both Adriani and her assistant one each of my handmade knit scarves. I'll post pictures of the scarves in a later post.

All Cat Owners Should Watch This

2009-03-03T06:21:00.000-08:00

A friend sent this link to me for a video that all cat owners should watch. This is exactly the way my cat, Heckle, would love to wake me up every morning if I would let him. This just cracks me up.

Daisy Cookies

2009-02-20T08:06:00.001-08:00

I went to the bakery again yesterday and I posted a picture of the cookies I bought. I can't seem to resist these cookies. I don't know if it's the taste, the appearance or what. I have even tried my hand at decorating cookies and that came out ok, but not great, and the last batch of cookies I made I underbaked, so they tasted doughy and were not good at all. They were kind of pretty, though, and I had a great time cutting them out and decorating them. I just have to get the baking time down next time.

I've been knitting a vest pattern that I got from Patternworks. The pattern seems really easy so far. Just stockinette stitch mostly. I'm working on the back right now and it's really easy. Just 4 rows of garter stitch and then you start the stockinette stitch until it's as long as the pattern says or as long as you want it.

While making that, I took a short detour and made some House Helper cloths using this pattern. I forgot to make a picture of the dishcloths that I made, but I will take one this weekend and post it.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day on Saturday. Eddie gave me a beautiful necklace and earring set with a Valentine card that moved me to tears, and one of our friends gave me a bud vase with 4 roses. It's so pretty.

I also made some Valentine cookies and decorated them. That was fun, but the cookies didn't taste very good. I think I underbaked them. Oh well, I still had fun and at least they were pretty, even if they didn't taste all that great.

The other thing I've been working on was inspired by a wonderful new blog that I've recently discovered. It's Warm Pie, Happy Home. If you get a chance, hop on over there and read some of her posts and look at all of her wonderful pictures. I love her farmhouse style, so I decided to make a plaque to hang in my kitchen that sort of is my version of a good old fashion, country kitchen.

Pussy Willow

2009-02-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

I have become enamored of the Pussy Willow plant. I have heard of it before, but in all my 55 years I don't remember ever seeing it before this morning. This morning one of my coworkers brought in a bunch of branches of it that she had pruned from her plant. I immediately fell in love with it. It's just so pretty and exotic looking and I love the little furry buds. They are just Heaven to touch. What a stress reliever. It's almost as good as petting my cat, Heckle.

I have put several branches in a vase with some silk roses that I have in my office as well as a couple of smaller branches that I can touch when I feel stressed. I'm also taking several branches home to put into a dried flower arrangement that I have. In my kitchen I have the ceramic bottom of my grandmother's old butter churn that I put some Eucalyptus in. I want to add some of the Pussy Willow branches to it. I'm also going to try to root several branches. I did some research this morning on the Internet and I understand that you can either put them in water or moist soil. I think it's better to put them in soil, that way I can keep them inside until spring and them plant them outside.

Pussy Willow
(Yin liu, Salix sp.)
Since the Chinese like numerous blossoms on a branch, the many buds of the willow
make it a favorite flower for Chinese New Year. The fluffy white blossoms of the
pussy willow resemble silk, and they soon give forth young shoots the color of green jade. Chinese enjoy such signs of growth, which represent the coming of prosperity.

Cookies, Pajamas, and Soap

2009-01-23T10:56:00.001-08:00

I just thought I would share a few pictures with you. The first one is of some Valentine cookies that I bought at a local bakery. I have a great sugar cookie recipe from my cousin, so I think I'm going to use it and try to make some of these pretty cookies.

The second picture is just one I took on a whim one evening. I really like my kitty cat pajamas, so I thought I would snap a picture.

The last picture is of some handmade soap that a coworker gave us for Christmas. The white soaps are some I made.

A Long Time

2009-01-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

I know it's been so long since I've posted. It seems that we really scaled down our Christmas decorating this year. I really didn't feel like doing much after being in the hospital in September. I've been slowly regaining my strength, but never getting too confident in case I have another episode of AT.

Anyway, even though we didn't decorate this year, I was looking at my decorations from 2007 and I just had to share the photos. We went all out that year because my brother came to visit us for several days over the holidays. I had a good friend come and decorate my fireplace mantle and he did an excellent job.

I've recently discovered a wonderful blog Warm Pie, Happy Home. I love her simple, clean farmhouse style. I want to go through some things, clean out some things and just generally freshen up my house with this look. I love milk glass and I don't really have any. I have several white bud vases and other things, but I love the clean look of white.

I have several farmhouse projects in mind and when I get them organized I'll post some more pictures here. I hope you enjoyed my Christmas decorations from 2007.

Animusic

2008-12-17T05:41:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered the most awesome thing I've ever seen. On my local PBS station one night they were doing a feature on Animusic. I just think it's cool. It's just downright hypnotic and relaxing to watch. I've included a video below of one of my favorites.

Animusic

The Homecoming

2008-12-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

There are several Christmas movies I've been wanting to watch this year. It seems that I haven't had much time, but I'm going to make time. This will be my last week at work until January 5. Our school closes down for about 6 days and I have taken some extra time so I can get about 2 weeks over the Christmas holiday. Anyway, last night Eddie was gone to a meeting and I watched the Walton's movie The Homecoming. It's one of my favorite movies. I hope you get a chance to watch it too. Watch the movie trailer below.

The Homecoming

We Elfed Ourselves

2008-12-15T06:24:00.000-08:00

Some of my coworkers and I elfed ourselves and sent it to our boss who is at home recuperating after surgery. There are only 2 women in the video and I am not the dark headed woman, I'm the other one. I hope you enjoy it. Just link on the link below to view the video.

We Elfed Ourselves

Christmas Berries!

2008-12-14T17:36:00.000-08:00

When we came home this afternoon I happened to notice that my berry bushes are just loaded with bright red berries. I'm embarassed to say that I don't even know what this bush is called. I love the luscious red color. It's beautiful. I had to take a picture. I hope you enjoy looking at them.

Little White Christmas Tree

2008-12-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

I ran across this cute little tree at Michaels on day when they were having a 50% off sale. I bought it and found some miniature ornaments to put on it. I really like it. It's not very big, but looks nice on the side table where I keep my teacups. I just thought I would share it with you.

I want to thank everyone from the EDM group for their kind comments about my knit hat sketch. I'm very excited to be sketching and journaling. I probably won't be posting stuff every day, but I will post as much as I can.

Knit Hat Sketch

2008-12-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

I'm new to the EDM group. See link on the right side of my blog. I love the idea of making an illustrated journal. I'm still in the beginning stages of learning this new technique and trying to find the time to make a sketch every day. I'm even thinking about making a separate blog for my illustrated journal stuff. I'm painfully behind on it, but I made my first sketch the other day. When I was in Hobby Lobby looking at the yarn for a new project, I saw a lady wearing the cutest knit hat. I asked her about it and she was very friendly and generous in letting me look at it to see how I might be able to make one for myself. I didn't have a camera with me and wouldn't have asked for a picture anyway, so I drew the hat from memory. I thought it came out pretty well, but the journal book I used is not a very good one. It's just a sketch book that I bought at Hobby Lobby or someplace like that. The pages are thin and the art from the previous page shows through. I'm not happy with that, but I am pretty happy with the sketch. I'll probably put this journal entry in a better sketching journal such as a moleskin or something like that. I'm still learning how to get the best shot to post to the group. I tried scanning this first, and wasn't happy with the results. I then decided to take a picture with my digital camera. It came out pretty well, but I was working on my work computer and it doesn't have a way to modify the photo or crop, so this photo is very raw.

I've decided that instead of thinking this thing to death about drawing and sketching, to just let go and have fun. My drawings and sketches don't have to be great works of art. Part of my problem is that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to art, and when I over think it and try to make it perfect, it takes all the fun and sponteniety out of being creative. So, I'm learning to relax and just sketch and draw.

This is my first post to the group. I hope you like it.