Christmas Help

My dad called me last night quite upset. He was worried about Christmas. My sister died earlier this year (at 26,) she left behind three fairly young daughters. He needed me to come up with something for remembering her before the presents are opened. He wants this to be something we do every year, and as others pass (I have some very old grandparents) we can add to it. I suggested hanging special ornaments on the tree. Not when we hang the rest, but at a special time. He didn't sound very keen on that. I suggested a candle, and he seemed like he liked that better. My original thought was to put her picture on the candle (I've done this before,) but I'm afraid it would get too cheesy and difficult to find great pictures of everyone as they pass away. And pictures always look dated in a short amount of time.Do any of you have special things that you do? Do any of you have ideas. I think it needs to be something that the kids or whatever physically do.I would love to hear any and all ideas.

Last embroidered patch

I had quite a time with this final patch. I was out of a certain floss, that was needed to finish. WalMart no longer sells embroidery floss (GRRRR, boy are they gonna lose business, one of the only reasons I go there is because I don't have much craft options where I live, well, without embroidery floss, I have little to no use for them!) I luckily saw my 7 year old walking around with his embroidery bin and I glanced a little red in it. I nearly ripped it from his hands (he knows why and thinks it's funny, he's not scarred for life or anything!) And found the thread I needed!!!


So here is what I finished today, and I'm sending it out today!

I hope, hope, hope she loves it! There are a few places I had major color dilemmas but I'm quite happy with it over all.

Happy Thanksgiving

Last night we were given a lovely dusting of snow. It was quite lovely. I am so Thankful for so many things. And I really love that there is one day to really count our many blessings. I do try to count my blessings everyday, but we all have our moments that we get down.





Whether you are in the US or not, I hope you have a wonderful day, and enjoy all of your blessings!

Happy Birthday Lore! K-9 and Dalek Cakes

Well, my baby Lore turned 7 yesterday. It's seems such a short time ago I was in the hospital, in excruciating pain...... ok, enough of that. Look at his cute little face, it's totally worth it!!!

He had chosen a Dalek cake, but then yesterday morning decided he wanted a K9 cake. So I started over, and threw together a K9 cake.

K9 was made in a loaf pan and strategically cut. The head is held on by a skewer and toothpicks. Frosted a lovely shade of grey. His eye shield part is fruit by the foot. With a lifesaver and a gusher for the center part. The nose is a gusher, as is the tail and the Dalek suction cup thingy.

Tinfoil and toothpick ears for K9. Everything else is frosting and starbursts. The black is gel frosting. The "plaid" collar is starbursts, rolled. The dots on the Daleks are starbursts.

Overall, Lore was really happy with it. He wanted to save it to show family, but I don't think it would last a few days and a long car ride, so we ate him. It was just the 5 of us, so it isn't a very big cake. I really like the way K9's head is slightly cocked.

Stitchy Cowgirl!

Yep, it's another patch for a swap. I did a lot of new (to me) stitches. I'm quite happy with how she turned out. Sure if I were to do it all over again, there are changes I would make, but I still like her.

Personally I'm not really into western things, but I am almost tempted to make 2 of these and put them in the flares of a pair of jeans!

Happy Veteran's Day!

In our little school (about 300 students preK-8th), there is a HUGE Veteran's Day celebration. But since it fell on a weekend, we did ours last Friday.

This year we had donated 3 new flag poles. But you can't just say "tada here's your new flags". Oh, no, you have to have a SKYDIVER jump from a plane and drop them off!

Where is the plane?

(My dad and my niece)

There is the plane!

Here he comes with an American flag behind him!

There are our new flag poles!!

This was pretty big deal stuff for our little village, we had Senators and other high officials. We were supposed to have the Governor, but he had bill signing to do. I guess, it is what we pay him for! =)

Little Swappy Projects

I have been working on little swappy projects the last few days.

I have 2 of my 4 embroidered patches done. Here they are before I pressed them.













I've also had some ornaments to make for another swap. I can't decide if I want to send them all or not. I also can't decide if I should add the buttons or not to the ones. Any suggestions?

Without buttons


With buttons


The embroidery for the other 2 ornaments.

Comments and silly me!

I never set up to be alerted when comments are posted *smacks head with hand*

I have a few lovely comments that I never responded to, because I didn't know I had received comments. I am going back to respond now, but I do want to say thank you to all who have commented. And I'm sorry for not responding before now!

Dick & Jane go on a trip

I made this overnight bag for my niece's 4th birthday. I was truly hoping for a lovely day to take beautiful pictures, but it's cloudy, cold & horribly windy, so I just had to take some indoors before I give this to her tomorrow.All of these pictures are of the bag empty, so you can see how well it stands up on it's own.




Here's a close up of the wallet I made to go with it. It hangs from a D-ring, but she'll probably put it on her belt loops most of the time.


And here's a shot of the inside of the bag, it just has one blue hanging pocket. The yellow fabric inside matches far better than the picture shows.
The dick and jane fabric is a Michael Miller fabric . The yellow gingham and yellow with green flowers (inside) I have had forever, so I'm not sure what those are.
The dark blue is an old pillow case that had a hole in it that I was able to save.

I can't wait to give it to her. I am pretty excited, I know she'll use it a lot!

What are YOU looking at?

Well, it wasn't easy, but I was finally able to catch a bit of video of Liam's "Mad Eye" movement.

Here's with Tim doing it, sorry it's so dark, and please ignore my boys and their argument in the background.

Here's a shot of my son doing it. he's got a really funny look on his face, I don't quite know why.

Halloween is Over

Another Halloween come and gone. We had about 525 Trick or Treaters. Which is quite impressive since there are only about 900 people who live in our village. We don't hand out the candy, we hand out glow-bracelets. They are a big hit every year, and we like to do something just a little different. The weather was a bit chilly and a little windy, but so beautiful compared to the last few years! Over all a wonderful night!

Halloween also happens to be my husband and my anniversary, so that always holds a little something extra for us!