Merry Christmas

- Hard to believe the end of 2014 is near. So much happening. I lost my dear Aunt Dorothy at the beginning of October. I had been her care giver for a couple of years and losing her was life changing. I found myself bouncing off the walls for a while, often heading for the door with no reason, but life has filled itself it and things around my house have "normal-ed" out; well, as normal as can be with an illness like mine, homeschooling a bipolar child and running after 7 dogs 3 cats and a husband still recuperating from back surgery. Yes, this is the NEW normal.

I managed to sew up a few table runners as gifts for Christmas as well as homemade goodies for the baskets. We rarely buy anything. We just stopped that a long time ago and make things. SCrreech! Halt! We -- no, no, no.. I make things, I sew and I cook and I arrange. They sample, and ooh and ahh, cheer me on with moral support and thus the presents are made.

This one was for my big sis.

This one for my sis in law Susan

This one for my sis in law Thelma

 This one for my Sweet daughter in Florida

I also managed to eke out around several  homemade cards, which I also love to do. However, I found this year that I can no longer tolerate touching the paper so I'm donning my nitrile gloves for yet one more project.


















































Oops, I almost forgot. I found the cutest Pine Cone Owl project and made those for our daughter whose birthday falls precariously close to Christmas, she was pleased.  And, because the felt has formaldehyde in the processing, nitrile gloves are needed here as well.

It's like this folks.  I can give up everything I hold near and dear to my heart or I can find a way to work with it, albeit for short period of times, it does sadden me that I cannot go wide open like I did before my illness, but the things I can do, I will do.

German Christmas bread (Stollen) was baked; a recipe provided from a German friend.  It received great reviews, so thanks go out to Miz Karin.  This is right out of the over - prebutter and                    preconfectioner sugar and wrapped.

I wish I had gotten a pic of the baskets, just so I would remember next year what I did, exactly but if I get it all down here, hopefully that will be enough spark to get my imagination rolling.

Each basket had a table runner, a quart of homemade, canned veggie soup tht I did back in the summer, mainly with veggies I grew.  Next I put in seasoned Oyster crackers, a favorite recipe give to me from my late Aunt Dorothy.  I put in a load of Stollen, and a small bottle of Russian Tea that I had found the recipe for online; it got the hubs approval so I knew it was great.  I also put in a jar of dill pickles, and some homemade bark with peppermint.

One last thing before I go.  I managed to add another blog site to my areas of reading.  It is Queen Mercy Crochet.  My youngest has been crocheting and knitting since age 9 and finally has decided to challenge herself with blog site and to write her own patterns, so check her out.

So I finished everything on the 23rd.  It was time to relax.  And I did.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New year too.  Until next time

Tennessee State Fair 2014

With encouragement from a very good faithful friend, I entered a quilt I made in April 2014 in the Tennessee State Fair and today I found out around 4 p.m. that I had won the Modern Quilt category 3rd Place award. I saw it in McCall's Quick Quilt magazine and  I fell in love with it at first sight and knew I had to make it.  It just so happened that at that same time Susan at Hyderhangout just received this grouping of fabric!  After piecing, Jackie Cory did the quilting for me and the rest is history.

FAT QUARTER FRENZY

I normally don't post advertisements on my blog spot.  But there is a great sale where I hangout and I wanted to share it with you.  Hyderhangout: Quilt Fabric and More is having Fat Quarter Frenzy this week May 20 - 24, 2014.    You buy 10 Fat Quarters, Get 5 (equal value or less) FREE. Yes, that's right, you read correctly. You buy 10 fat quarters then you get 5, equal value or less, ABSOLUTELY FREE, no cost, zip, nothing, take 'em home and love them! Online customers, enjoy this sale as well. Tell us what you want, we'll custom cut and ship.

Now, Hyderhangout  has plenty of Fat Quarters ready for the picking, just like a plentiful garden, but for our online shoppers, we will cut any fabric you choose, into fat quarters, you will be charged for a quarter of a yard for the first 10 then you will receive your 5 freebies of equal or lesser value. 

Great savings to be had here.  I know I have my eye on 15 , no, who am I kidding, I'll probably bring home 30 because it's payday week.

And while you are there, check out the other online offerings.  We have notions, threads, needles, patterns, Quilt-in-A-Day just to name a few.  We also do alterations, cut fabric for you, teach you how to sew, and even make your quilts for you if you like or have a deadline looming. 

So click on the book - it will take you to the website, check it out! Pronto!               

Spring is here and so are my roses

This is the time of year I do get fairly excited. It’s the time of year that even my illness has a hard time keeping me down. I do have to be wary of neighbors fertilizing and ‘pesticiding’ and fabric ‘softenerizing’ but I love being outside, I love growing things, and I love my tiny roses.  I saved them from certain death a couple of years ago from the local grocery.  Valentines Day was over and nobody received these lovely’s as a gift so these were drying out and marked down to .99 and 1.99.  I bought 4.   #3 is a mini yellow barely budding and  #4 had a hard winter but survived, these two will be featured at a later date.  They are fighters and I know they will put out some beautiful flower soon.  These guys however, loved the oak tree leaf mulch that I left on until just about 10 days ago.  They are amazing.

I also inherited a “Red Hot Poker” from my Aunt Dorothy.  You can literally watch this thing grow.

I am so sad that I sold my Rebel XT and never replaced.  I am forced to use the tag-along family Kodak. So, here are the pics  of my beauties.  I am also throwing in a few pics of my veggie garden which is an in-progress project.

 

My yellow miniature is barely budding so it will come later.  Check out the Red Hot Poker – 1st pic is April 29  2nd is April 30 3rd Pic was taken a few minutes ago 5-4-14.  That is some serious growth.

My azalea made it through a hard winter too and rewarded us nicely.  Along with the first blooming of the Red Dogwood I planted last spring.

 

And lastly, my veggie garden in progress and a sneak peek at my Robin babies.  Didn’t want to disturb them or freak mom who was yelling at me from the fence, but I had to snap a quick one.

Politics are not my forte'

Politically, sometimes it's hard to differentiate between morally right and basic communism.  I don't think most of the people choosing what they chose even know the difference - so don't look for any political advice on my page; sometimes even I get swayed by misleading words and phrases so I apologize for misleading or misrepresenting my conservative self pain any way.

AND NO, you are not taking my stuff and giving to someone who has nothing for the "common good".   And if by chance, I win the $400 million dollar lottery, start or buy many businesses and want to "give" $399 million to the next presidential campaign, DO NOT tell me I can't. You can, however, trust me when I say I want nothing in return but the promises spoken - kept. 

 End of Rant