The Best Gifts

I've been in an earring making frenzy for the past week. I don't know what got me started except that I saw a great earring display at our campus bookstore. One of the employees there had a really nice display of her handcrafted earrings and bracelets for sale. I had made some earrings a couple of years ago and then just never got back to it. I had also made some bracelets, only to discover later that they drag on my keyboard and I can't wear them to work. But, low and behold, she also had some stretchy bracelets that she had made. I looked at those and thought that maybe I could take my bracelets apart that I had made and make stretchy ones out of them. Then they wouldn't drag on my keyboard and I could wear them.

As I was looking at the display I thought to myself that I can make the earrings and the bracelets too. I can set up a display in the art gallery in Knoxville where some of my paintings are. She had hers set up in a really eclectic display, which I really love, so I've been thinking about how I can set my up in a similar way.

I'm not a frou frou person. I don't wear alot of makeup or jewelry or flashy clothes. Just some foundation and powder and mascara and that's about it. I do love jewelry even though I don't wear that much of it either. Until about a year ago I never wore necklaces, but I always wore earrings for my pierced ears. I had tons of necklaces that people have given me over the years and I decided to start wearing them. For Christmas about 5 years ago Eddie bought me a beautiful diamond ring that I wear every day. I love it and it means so much to me because it was his idea to buy it for me and not mine. Those are the best gifts.

Socks and Snow

I finished a pair of socks last night and I'm really pleased with them. I really like the way the pattern evolved using this yarn. I used Sockotta in color 505.


This is what was outside our house yesterday morning.



It wasn't much, but it was enough to cause the college where I work to delay opening until noon. I was hoping for the whole day off, but it was nice to have a late morning for a change. My brother, who lives about an hour outside of Chicago, would laugh. This snowfall, which was around 2 inches, would be nothing to him. It would be a drop in the bucket compared what they usually get. I guess the south is just not prepared for major snow. We don't get it that much, so we don't have the equipment to handle it the way other places do who get a lot of snow. This snowfall wasn't bad at all. In fact, the roads were cleared really quickly right afterward so there wasn't any trouble at all as far as I know. I didn't have any trouble driving in to work.

I was glad to see it because we have not had snow in several years. There was the blizzard of 1993 when we got 21". Every time there is a forecast for any kind of snow, I guess everyone panics because they go to the grocery store and clean out the bread and milk. No one wants to get stranded again like we all did that year.

Very Easy Ripple Shawl

I just started crocheting a beautiful shawl using the pattern from Lionbrand's web site. I'm making mine in the Lime green using Lion Brand Microspun yarn. It's the same color that's in the picture above. The title of the shawl is Very Easy Ripple Shawl. The crochet link to the pattern is here. There is also a knit version of the pattern, but I figured that the crochet version would go alot faster. My thinking was that if I crochet it, hopefully, I can finish it before I get tired of it. I'm not tired of it at all, but every now and then I like to take a little detour. I have to say that I'm extremely tempted to take a detour and try to make a crochet cat like the one that Chie has made. It is so cute! I really want to try and make one.

Madame Alexander Doll

I love dolls, but I have not really thought much about Madame Alexander dolls until recently. I received an email from A.C. Moore advertising a Tuesday (today) sale on the dolls for $15.84, regularly priced at $24.99. The ad also said they sell other places for $59.99. This sounded like an excellent price since I know that these dolls are normally very expensive.

I went over to A.C. Moore at lunch to try to get one. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had them. My luck with sales usually goes like this: either they sold out the first 30 minutes, or they never had them to begin with, or they are getting some later in the day when I won't be able to go back and get one. Anyway, I was very happy and surprised to find one. I really didn't expect much since it was marked down, but this doll is really cute. I did some research on the Internet and found one site that was selling one like the one I bought for $85. I also found another site, it could have been an ebay site, that had one for $9.99, but the postage was around $17.99. The doll I bought was an 8" doll named Party Dress Wendy and in researching I found out that it has been retired. Anyway, I think I made a very good deal and I'm really excited about her. I fear now that I'm going to be hooked and looking for others.

Baking

I've been baking the last few days and the following pictures are the results. For you non-Southerners, the bottom picture is real Southern cornbread. It's delicious hot out of the oven with butter or margarine. Yum!!!

Chocolate dipped pretzel rods and spoons



Goober Cake



Real Southern Cornbread

Santa and His Friends

I took an extra long Thanksgiving weekend to take a painting class offered by a lady who is a wonderful artist. She paints using oils. There was a really cute painting of hers that I saw at an art show and I loved it so much, but I couldn't afford to pay $200 for it, even if it was in a frame. On a whim, I wrote down her phone number and called her just to see if she might teach painting classes, hoping in the back of my mind that she taught that particular painting or would at least be willing to teach it.

I called her and I couldn't believe my luck. She does indeed teach painting classes and she told me that she had taught that painting before. The sad part is that she only teaches during the day when I'm at work, and she wasn't interested in teaching on the weekends. I was so sad until I remembered that I had asked to take a couple days after Thanksgiving and realized I could go and learn how to paint it then. That's exactly what I did yesterday and Monday. I had the best fun, and I learned some new painting techniques that I hope will open up a whole new world of painting for me. To think I've been doing it the hard way for so long, and found this new easier, much more fun way of painting.

The above picture is actually a photo of the painting that she did. I have not finished mine yet. I'm about half finished with it. I'm definitely learning new things as I go along. I'm excited about it and and hope I can work on it some this week or this weekend.

I went by A.C. Moore yesterday and they have 16 x 20 canvases on sale for $3.00. I bought two in hopes of doing a couple more paintings. I hope to learn much more. I have to learn and you only learn by doing, so I'm really looking forward to it and having fun.

I told her that if I didn't have to work full time I would be there every Monday and Tuesday because that is just right down my alley. It would be so much fun to be able to go two days a week and paint for 4 hours each day.

Needlework Memories

This morning on the way to work I started thinking about how I first became interested in needlework. It wasn't from my mother because she never did needlework except when she was much younger. Something must have changed for her after she grew up and got married. She was never interested in any kind of needlework after that. What I would give to have all those pieces she embroidered as a young girl. I really grieve over that sometimes. I really love heirloom pieces and especially something that my mother might have embroidered or made. It makes me sick to think that somewhere down the line someone who was going through some things after a death, just carelessly threw them away or gave them away.

I first became interested in needlework when I was in junior high school in Home Ec class. They called it Home Economics back then. I don't know what they call it now, or if they even have such a thing. One day I went into class and I saw a good friend of mine making an afghan. It was white daisies and she was crocheting them together. I was immediately intrigued and knew this looked like something I might be interest in, so I told her how beautiful I though it was and asked her if she would show me how to make it. She did, and I went on to make one and I even showed my grandmother how to make one. She ended up making a bedspread size.

Back then in the mid to late 60's everything was daisies and granny squares. To make this afghan you had a small round daisy loom that had little spokes sticking up all around it. You wound your yarn around and made a daisy flower and then you made a center for it. So what you would have is a white flower and a red center. You would make lots and lots of these daisies and, the best I can remember, you would crochet them together using a chain stitch. You could also have a yellow daisy with a dark green center and crochet them together with a darker contrasting color. They were very pretty. I've seen a few daisy looms recently, but not quite in the same shape. The ones I saw had a more square shape. I think I've seen them in some catalogs like maybe Herrschners or something like that. I did a Google search this morning and what do you know, I guess they still make them. The only difference is that this one is blue and mine was yellow, which was a popular color back then.

The sad part is that over the years I lost the daisy loom and I also can't find the afghans that I made or the one my grandmother made. It was given to me when she died and I can't find either one of them. I think they are probably packed away somewhere, but I've moved so many times over the years, I fear they may have accidentally been given away. I guess that doesn't say a whole lot for someone who is supposed to value heirlooms, does it?

Maybe I'll buy a daisy loom and make a small afghan using today's colors, just for old times sake.

Socks and Some Other Things

Here is a picture of a pair of socks I've been working on.

The brand name is Sockotta and I love the color. I don't know what the color is called, but the label says Color 505. I just love it because it's one of the self-patterning yarns and it reminds me of intarsia. It looks like alot of work and wasn't really any work at all. All I have to do is knit and get this great looking sock. It's one of my favorites so far. I love self-patterning sock yarn.

I've also joined a group called Fairy Goddess Mothers. They make quilts and things with a fairie theme and write stories about the fairies. I've always been intrigued by fairies and I thought this would be fun. I love fairy stories, sparkly things, and fairy wings. Here is what I made this weekend.

She was alot of fun to make. Her name is Dewey. I'm not finished with her yet, but her story will be about cats and libraries.

Here is a Halloween fairy that I worked on too:

Another doily

Here is a picture of the doily that I made this past weekend. It's a really pretty doily and fairly easy if you can read between the lines. I have found that with alot of doily patterns, the creater assumes you know things that you might not know. If you are a beginner, like me, I tend to want everything step-by-step. I like to make doilies in a methodical manner. In other words, I follow the pattern per batim, and if there is something in there that the creator assumes I know to do and doesn't put it in the pattern, chances are I'm going to be lost and have to do some frogging. That's the way it was with this pattern. I loved the finished product, but I found myself having to back track and figure some things out.

I've made this one before in other colors, but I made this one in a variegated purple. It's Aunt Lydia's, I think. It came out really pretty. I'm pleased with it. It has some mistakes, but if you don't look too closely, you won't find them.

Doilies

For some reason, I'm back into crocheting doilies again. Chie, you will love this. I was surfing around on the Internet looking for free doilies patterns and found this. I've been wanting to make a pineapple doily for a long time and since I'm just beginning I wanted to find a pattern that didn't look too difficult. I don't know how difficult this pattern is, but I love this. I can't wait to start one. I think I may try to start it tonight.

Jazzercise

I've been thinking that I need to do some type of exercise to help me lose weight and get back in shape. I remembered that about 20 something years ago I went to Jazzercise and I loved it. Of course I was about 45 pounds lighter then too, but I remember loving it. Why I stopped going, I don't know. Since then I have never found any type of exercise, including walking, that really made me want to stick with it and do it. I had been talking about this to Eddie off and on for awhile, so about a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about it again and he said, "Well, why don't you start doing that next week?" I guess it was just the push I needed because I decided that I would, especially since what I was doing (which was nothing) wasn't working, so I thought I would try it.

I had talked to the instructor a couple of weeks before that and she told me that the first class is free and then I would get a discount for the rest of the classes. I went with great fear because I figured I would be the only person there who was overweight and that I would be clumsy and uncoordinated. I was looking to see all these wonderful bodies in their cute outfits and here would be frumpy me. Well, there are women of all ages, sizes, and shapes in that class. I felt great from the very first time and I was hooked again right away. I signed up that night and I've been going ever since. I started last week and have been 3 times this week and already I can tell a difference in my waist line. This morning I was able to put on a pair of jeans comfortably that had practically cut off my circulation before I started this class. I'm also watching what I'm eating as well. Cutting out junk food and trying to eat healthier. So far, I love it and I'm still clumsy and uncoordinated, but hopefully that will get better with time. At any rate I'm having a ball. It doesn't even seem like exercise.

Dishcloths

I know that I've posted this before, but this is what I've been doing lately. Knitting dishcloths. They are so easy and don't require alot of organization like sewing does. Sometimes with sewing it's such a big production because you have to get this out and that out. I guess I just haven't been in the mood for all that. These dishcloths are so easy and I can do them while watching TV. This one is called Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth. The only difference is that I use size 10 knitting needles instead of the size 6 or 7 the pattern calls for and they come out a good size.

Fancy Nancy

For some reason I have been thinking about making dolls recently. I go through these phases of wanting to make small cloth dolls and then their clothes. I think this time it all started when my friend told me about a life size paper mache fairy that she had made a few years ago. She just got a job teaching art in a K-12 school and she told me that she took it with her to keep in her classroom to show the students what can be done with paper mache. I wish I could be in her classroom. I'm sure I would learn alot.

After that, I started searching the Internet and found a cute pattern for a cloth doll. Several in fact, but I thought this one looked fairly easy, and it was. The pattern is called Fancy Nancy and can be found here. Here is a picture:

And then, here's my version:


She has a little bit of a wrinkled face, which I found out later can be remedied by using t-shirting stretch type fabric. This was not mentioned in the directions, so how was I to know? In fact, come to think of it, there were several things not mentioned in the pattern, but I figured them out. She's not perfect, but I think she's really cute.

A couple of days ago I was looking through my photo album that has quilts that I have taken pictures of from the quilt show that I've attended in Nashville and found this picture.

Her name is Hypatia, the Library Fairie. Since I work in a library I thought this was really intriguing. Her story is below:

Hypatia, the Library Fairie

Barbara Chojnacki
Westerly, Rhode Island


A library may seem a strange place for a fairie. You generally find them out of doors, among the wildflowers, flitting alongside a monarch butterfly or sipping dew from a buttercup. Dark paneling and musty-dusty old books hardly seem a congenial environment for fairies. Yet, that is where you will find Hypatia, if you look hard enough. She is rather unobtrusive for a fairie. Her hair is the color of well-worn leather, and her wings mimic vintage feathered endpapers. Her wine-colored dress blends into dark corners. She speaks barely above a whisper.

Yes, Hypatia is a Library Fairie. If you have ever frequented a library you have encountered her kind. Oh, yes, you have. Hypatia may have been the one who welcomed you, a timid pre-schooler, into story hour. She held your hand while you were led into a world of enchantment. So you DO remember. That was before you were told by well-meaning adults that fairies, like Santa Claus, did not exist. She’s still there, just as she’s always been.

Hypatia brings poetry to lovers, romance to the lonely and forlorn, and adventure to those without the health or wherewithal to seek it themselves. She finds the just the perfect recipe and saves the day for a nervous hostess. She helps those in sorrow find solace in the words of those who have gone before.

Sometimes we literally need a knock on the head, and Hypatia is not above doing just that. Have you ever walked down the stacks and had just the right book, at the right time, fall on you? Hypatia again. You might hear her muffled giggle as you bend to pick it up.

Hypatia is ageless. Her capacity for hard work has not dimmed - if anything, it has gotten stronger. There are so many books, more books all the time, books of words that can heal or hurt, words that can unite or divide. Hypatia realizes these words must be shared, that ignorance is not a stop along the pathway to peace and understanding. Thus, Hypatia chooses stacks and shelves over flowers and fresh air.

My Kitty Stories

I was reading Willa's journal about her kitties this morning and it reminded me that I have not written about mine in awhile. Heckle is a sweet cat, but he's definitely a morning person. I mean kitty. Well, he thinks he a little person anyway. He will start out in the bed with me because I go to bed before Eddie does. When Eddie goes to bed, it usually wakes Heckle up and then he either goes to Eddie's pillow or jumps off the bed altogether and goes to the dresser to sleep. Then about 3 or 4 in the morning Heckle decides it's time for me to get up, so he will lie on my side of the bed on the edge and reach his paw out and tap my hair. He keeps doing that until I get up. Sometimes when I turn over to face him, he's just sitting there looking at me. Once I stagger to the kitchen and feed him he's fine. Does he have me trained or what?

We also have a stray who has been hanging around our house. We felt sorry for him and started feeding him. I would have done that anyway because I can't stand the thought of any pet going hungry. Now he knows when breakfast and supper time is because he's at our back door at those times. At first he would just observe us from a distance. In the first few weeks, when I would come home from work I could see him at the far end of the back yard sitting, patiently, watching us. When we first started feeding him, he would run as soon as we came out the door with the food, but after we went back inside he would cautiously creep back up on the back patio and eat the food we had put out for him. Now, he must have decided he can trust us because he'll let us pet him and Eddie said that one day he even jumped into his lap briefly. He's still skittish, but he'll let us pet him now. So, I guess that means that we have an outside cat now. I don't know what we are going to do this winter. A friend suggested maybe getting one of those small dog houses for him. I'll have to look at some and see what I can get at a reasonable price. We don't have a garage or basement or anything like that for him to go into. All we have is a carport, so we'll have to figure out something.

As soon as I can, I'll try to take a picture of him and post it. He's a pretty cat. He's a black and white long hair and Eddie has already named him Spanky after the Spanky the dog that was on the show The Little Rascals. He said his coloring reminded him of the dog. Spanky the cat has a black mark around one eye just like Spanky the dog had as best as I can remember what the dog looked like. It's been a long time since I saw one of those shows.

Sewing Room Finished!

I mentioned awhile back that I had finished cleaning the sewing room. I finally took some pictures and I love the room. It's still cluttered, but it's much better than it was and I can finally breathe and work in the room. It's a real pleasure to go in there and I could stay in there for hours if I didn't feel guilty about neglecting Eddie. But, after all, the sewing room was his idea in the first place.

Last night I finished a quilt top that I'm getting ready to put into the frame to quilt. I'm making it for a friend who has been begging me to make her a quilt. She has offered to pay me to make it, but I'm not going to take money from her. She's out of work and to top everything off, she's been diagnosed with cancerous tumors. I'm giving her the quilt. It's the least I can do.

I have decided, though, that after I finish this quilt and give it to her, that I'm going to start quilting quilt tops to earn extra money to help pay off some major debts that we have. If I have to take a second job to earn some extra money, it may as well be doing something that I enjoy. I can sit in the sunroom with Eddie and watch TV while I'm quilting. I can't think of a better way to get paid for doing something I love.

When I finish a quilt I guess I sort of feel like authors do when they finish a book. Sort of like Joan Wilder did in the movie Romancing the Stone. I want to celebrate. It sounds vain, I know, but there is a joy in finishing something that you are proud of. I just want to look at the finished quilt and admire it and feel thankful that I am able to create something so beautiful. Not because I'm good, but because God gave me the gift and ability to be able to do it.

Cleaning the Sewing Room

This past week I've been working on cleaning up my sewing room and getting it back in some kind of shape so I can actually use it. Over the past couple of years, it's become a catch-all for everything. Ever since we had the sunroom built, it's been that way. On the day the construction people were cutting the door into the sunroom, we had to move some stuff out of there really quickly, and somehow most of the stuff ended up in the sewing room. Then it just got worse from there.

Yesterday Heckle came in to help me. This is his contribution to the job.


I would love to have done was he was doing, but that would have been the easy way out and it wouldn't have gotten the job done. I'm making pretty good headway. At least I can see the floor now.

In between painting the bedroom and cleaning the sewing room, I took a few breaks just to get myself away from the work. I made a few sling purses. I like these because when I go someplace where I know I will do a lot of walking I don't like to lug around my heavy purse. With these small purses I can just put some money, maybe a credit card and my driver's license and I'm all set. They are not too heavy for a lot of walking. These first two I used a pattern and sewed them on the sewing machine. The next two I crocheted.

I really enjoyed making these. They were fun, quick and easy to make. A couple of years ago I made this crazy quilt purse. It was fun too, and was my first attempt at making anything crazy quilt, and using clasps for the top of the purse. It was not fun and I don't think I got the clasps on as well as I would like, so I'm pretty sure I won't be making anymore with clasps. I like the flaps alot better. They are easier to make.

Some more things that I made that I think I forgot to post a picture of here were the hatpins I was talking about a couple of weeks ago. They are really fun to make too. I wanted something pretty to go in our new bedroom and I'm really happy with the way these came out.

Picture from Riverbend Festival

At the Riverbend Festival this year we stopped and had this picture taken for free next to Mark Martin's number 6 car. Eddie is a Richard Petty fan (notice the 43 on his cap), and I'm a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fan, but since neither of those cars were available, we decided, what the heck. It's free.

I've been working on cleaning up my sewing room this week. I can't wait to get it back in shape so I can use it again. Over the past couple of years, ever since the construction on the sunroom, it has become a catchall room. You know, one of those rooms where things get tossed when trying to clean up the house. Or, someone calls and says they're coming over in 5 minutes (if you're lucky enough that they call first) and you're trying franticially looking for a convenient place to put stuff to get it up out of sight. It's the room where you keep the door shut and hope that no one opens it either by accident or on purpose. I've had that happen to me twice within the past week. The first time my cousin opened it by accident, and the second time my friend opened it just to see what the fuss was all about. I had been bemoaning the shape it was in and I guess she was curious. I don't feel too badly, though, because her sewing room was once in almost as bad a shape as mine. She said if she can get hers back in order, I can get straighten mine out too. And I'm doing it, little by little. And I'm beginning to see some progress, but I still have a long way to go.

Bedroom Pictures

We finished the bedroom this past weekend. Before and after pictures follow.



Now on to the sewing room.

Obsessions

I've been obsessing about the color I want to paint the walls in our bedroom. I guess obsessing about not making a decision about the color. I'm really bummed out about it and can't decide. Tonight my cousin and I and Eddie are going to either Lowe's or Home Depot to get some paint. We've pretty much narrowed it down to a brown/beige color scheme. I want something neutral that I can work with as far as curtains, etc.

So, as a result, I've been escaping from the bedroom ordeal by thinking about doing some kind of crafts to get my mind off of the bedroom. This is what I've been thinking about lately. Hat pins, pin cushions, and small crazy quilt purses.




I've decided that I want to make some hat pins to put in a pin cushion to go in our bedroom when it's finished. I also saw some pretty mirror back covers that I love and would like to make to go in our bedroom too.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a girlie room. I guess Eddie will have to look elsewhere in the house for his man room.

Sunrise and Bluebell Socks

I love these socks. You can buy them here, or you can have fun making your own. They don't match and it's perfectly okay. It looks like a great way to use leftover sock yarn. I love lots of color, so these would be really fun to make.