New Blogs

I have decided to start two new blogs for 2009 if any of you are interested at taking a peek. I've only started the set-up on one http://Exposure2009.blogspot.com. Please have a look! I plan to begin January 1, 2009. I have an idea for the second one but haven't come up with a title yet.

Our 37th Anniversary

Today is our 37th wedding anniversary and we celebrated by going out to eat and to a movie. We went to see Marley and Me and it just made me want to come home and love, love, love my little doggie, Farley. I wanted to post a photo of him, too. He is a sweet little dog. My husband and I just couldn't wait to get home to him tonight after seeing the movie :)

LINKING

Hey guys! I'm practicing learning how to do links. So here's a cool website I've found. Let's see if this works. Go to http://elfontheshelf.com/ and check it out. (I think I did it!) Yay! I'm learning and all of you are so sweet to encourage me. I'm doing it on my own by trial and error!

A PHOTO CHALLENGE

I was tagged by audreypawdrey.blogspot.com for a Photo Challenge which sounds like a lot of fun. I was instructed to go to my fourth folder in my pictures and to the fourth photo, post it with a description of the photo. I went to my fourth folder and it had only two photos so I decided to go on to the fifth folder and go to the second photo. Does that make sense and sound fair?!? ha! The photo is of my 2 yr. old granddaughter (did you expect anything else? ha!). She is posing for a photo outside her Mothers' Day Out after their Thanksgiving Feast. Her mother made her cute little dress and they did some Thanksgiving carroling that day which was a very new and creative concept to me. Her mother and I were invited to the party and a good time was had by all! Now I pass on this challenge to four fellow bloggers who are to pass theirs on to four more bloggers.

I pass this challenge to:

Mercy kemevans.blogspot.com

Cotton chaseleannesavannahcrews.blogspot.com

justhereformysister jipssy.blogspot.com

celebrateCREATIVITYinallitsforms lisatutmanoglesby.typepad.com

Have fun and I can't wait to see your photos. I'll be checking in :)

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my youngest daughter, Emily's, and husband, Garrett's 7th anniversary. Happy Anniversary you two! I love you!

Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind

"The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time." - James Taylor
(Been listening to a lot of James Taylor lately!)

Making Our Own Snow!!

OK, this grandmother had a great idea for a "photo shoot" for a Christmas card.

We've got the cute little girl, the cute little Christmas coat, the cute little silver star basket and some "fake" snow. Good, right?

Now, let's take some snow and sprinkle it above your head and let it fall down while you're looking up and we'll title this card "Scatter Joy"!

Oh, heck, let's just dump the entire basket. That's a lot more fun!

But look what cute pictures we got and what fun we had and what great memories! We made our own snow on a cold, rainy day and had a great time!

Christmas Time's A'Comin! - THE TREES!!

First came the Gingerbread Tree in the kitchen. It was easy because when I put it away last year, I put it away like a "kit" so I just got out my "kit" and voila, a gingerbread tree!

This is a cute little fiber-optic gingerbread house I found a couple of years ago that I thought Paige would like - good excuse to buy, huh? It sits underneath the gingerbread tree every year on a table that belonged to my favorite uncle. This table and a December 7, 1941 Birmingham (AL) News newspaper with headlines about the Pearl Harbor bombing are the two belongings of his I inherited so this table reminds me of him every Christmas. He was quite a character and this table looks like he just glued two tables together, one on top of the other. When I got them, they were painted pink! ha!

Next up was the Auburn tree which I would put in my husband's office every year for him until he retired so it's now in our bedroom. Even though Auburn had a tough year this year and last year, we still love dear old Auburn so much. I usually try to find a new ornament each year for this tree but haven't shopped for that yet this year. WAR EAGLE!!

Here's a close-up of one of the Auburn ornaments, a cute little birdhouse in dear old orange and blue.

This is the main tree which took a while to get situated. We moved it around quite a bit but finally decided to put it between the foyer and the dining room so the train could go around the tree and be visible from all angles. I have discovered that photographing a Christmas tree is not an easy task. I read up on it but it was an old article describing how to do it with film and really didn't take the time to research photographing a tree with a digital camera so just said "to heck with it" and took a photo! This year we have a Beanie Baby tree for Paige. Remember those? We had a Beanie Baby tree for our girls when they were at home one year during that craze and they loved it. Just colored lights and Beanie Babies and that's it. Paige likes it and especially the ones with "Mommy and Baby"

Then I finally got up a cute little pink and white tree in Paige's playroom. This is a close-up of the classic Pooh. I just love the classic Pooh characters and had some of them to put on this tree along with a lot of pink, white and black Beanie Babies.

And here is the tree with a pink tulle "tutu" tree skirt! ha! I could not photograph the entire room because we had a little visitor, a mouse, that the cat brought into her room and we have just recently captured him. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie?!?
Hope you have enjoyed my "tour of our trees"!

Exciting News!!!

I think I mentioned earlier here that I lost a camera card a few months ago. It was a 2 GB card and I knew I had photos of my granddaughter's 1st and 2nd birthdays, my mother's 80th birthday, Easter and just a lot of photos that were precious to me. I dropped the card between the console and the passenger seat. My husband and I searched and searched. We even vacuumed that area and surrounding areas with a new vacuum bag, tore open the bag and still - no card. So I had the idea of taking my vehicle to a body shop, let them take the passenger seat out and see if the card was under there somewhere. My husband took it to the body shop for me on Monday (this week) and voila, it was there! I cannot tell you how happy this made me and it was so much fun looking over the 459 images (!) that were on that card. So here's one I wanted to share. These are flannel baby blankets that I hemstitched on my machine, appliqued the cute little giraffes, and then crocheted the edging for a baby gift for twin boys. They are in Jackson, MS, now so I could not photograph them again. They're so soft and cuddly and I just love the cute little giraffes. Hope you enjoy baby things. I love them.

Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind

Here is my oldest daughter and her husband, both graduates of Auburn University, dressed and ready to go to a game and posing first with their niece.

Here is my youngest daughter and her husband, both graduates of Auburn University also, with their daughter at a game.

So my husband and myself make SIX graduates of Auburn University. We still all love "dear old Auburn". There's just no place like it.

A QUOTE TO SUIT THE FOOTBALL SEASON!
I found this quote tonight while looking around on the web and thought it suits the season, especially for women.

"Our lives really do parallel the game of football - women spend more time "rushing" than any running back in the NFL." - Nicole Johnson

Too Much Celebrating!

As I was putting yet another dirty kitchen towel into the washing machine in the evening on Thanksgiving Day, this is the surprise I found. Rudi, one of our cats, had enough of this celebrating and hid himself away in the laundry room!

Turkey Cookies

These are turkey cookies that my granddaughter and her mommy made for Thanksgiving today. Aren't they cute?

The turkey's head, is a chocolate-covered almond. His eyes and nose are made from a tube of white cake icing. Arrange the Oreo cookies as seen and the feathers are jelly beans. The one above was made by Paige along with three others "all by me-self"!

TA-DA! A masterpiece for Thanksgiving!

Quotations to Stir the Heart and Mind

IN HONOR OF THANKSGIVING

Keep the light on, the door open, an extra log on the hearth, an extra potato in the soup. For never do we have so much as when we're sharing. - Anonymous

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

This day I wish all of you who come here a blessed and happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. I love Thanksgiving. When my girls were younger, I used to tell them that I felt "sorry" for Thanksgiving because it seems to be overlooked or skipped, at least in the retail world. We seem to just go from Halloween to Christmas. This is our table set and ready for those in our family who can be here to join us, although I have to tell you we will be eating on pretty paper plates! The furniture belonged to my husband's grandmother and grandfather and is very old. We love it and have enjoyed it for almost all our married life - 37 years this December!

My decorations are old but I still love them.

I love the candlelight and the colors of autumn.

I love the different shapes of the pumpkins and have always been a fan of Mary Engelbreit.

This is a needleroll that I cross stitched back in 2001. I have patterns for all the seasons and would like to cross stitch the other three one day and make those needlerolls.

My granddaughter loves these little figurines placed here and there and I let her play with them.

Even little things are on the refrigerator. Thanksgiving magnets are difficult to find.

Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind

This one suits me to a T!

I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering. - Steven Wright

A New Outfit for Paige

Today was a babysitting day for me but she was an angel and let me sew in spurts. I made the pants today that go with the top/dress. The top is so long that it could be worn as a short dress or as a long top with pants as shown. This is a Children's Corner pattern called Abbie. Although I didn't do any embroidery or applique, it took some time because of piping, collars, lining and a very different styling in the top.

I love the colors and the paisley print. And I think it has an oriental flavor to the styling. The top was a little bit of a challenge for me but I'm glad I did it and learned something new. I love to sew for my little angel!

Another Old Quilt Project

This is another old quilt project I started years ago in a class with a friend. This is so old, I can't even find instructions or a pattern but I think I can finish it from observing what I've done thus far. My mother calls this a string quilt. The squares above are squares of muslin. After the squares and strips are cut, you draw lines with a pencil onto the muslin the same distance from the point (zoom in to see close-up) and sew the strips onto the muslin, beginning with sewing the first strip on each side at the pencil line, right sides together. You can use any dimensions or measurements for the squares and strips that you want depending on the size you want your finished quilt square (and quilt) to be when finished.

This first strip is turned to the right side and pressed. Then the next strip is sewn, right sides together and raw edges together to this strip and continue until it looks like the photo below.

Here are four square units ready to be sewn together into a block.

This is a close-up of one unit finished after strip piecing.

I took my four units and put them together in this order for my block. There are so many possibilities in designing your quilt block with these units as you'll see below. It all depends on the direction you sew your units together to get a different look. This is the only geometry I like!

See the three other possibilities of designing your quilt square? I've only sewn one together and now I need to decide which design I like the most or do I mix it up? I definitely want to update it by adding pink, pink, pink to the browns and blacks. So many projects, so little time :) NOTE: This was NOT intended to be a tutorial! Just a description (and not a very good one - I"m sorry!) of how I started and plan to finish this quilt. I will probably add the pinks in the borders, binding, etc. Sometimes I just fly by the seat of my pants!

Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind

I know all of you are probably familiar with this one but it's one of my favorites and thought this would be a good quote to start the day.

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. - Indian Proverb

Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind

One of my favorite things to do from time to time is to collect quotations. I think a blog is a wonderful place to keep them. Hope you enjoy this one.

We mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do . . . forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in the fundamental verb, to Be. - Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life

A Beautiful Sunday Outing

My husband and I went to the 70th birthday celebration of a friend from church this afternoon.

The weather was wonderful and the leaves were just beautiful.

Just wanted to share some of the beauty of the historic area of our city.

Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind

It's been a very good day except for spending SO many hours fooling around with iTunes. I do wish I understood computers better! But to end the day, I wanted to leave you with a quote I found. I have been inspired by so many of you as I have spent hours just looking at your work shared through your blogs. Your sewing, quilting, cooking, reading, tutorials, writing about your lives, and the beautiful photography! Thank you for enriching my days.

We are, in truth, more than half what we are by imitation. The great point is to choose good models and to study them with care. - Lord Chesterfield, Lord Chesterfield's Worldly Wisdom

My Adorable Little Creatures

These are some adorable little creatures I have on a disc and can applique with my fairly new sewing machine. At first I was so scared to try doing this kind of thing because I thought I was incapable. But I just kept plugging along trying to sync my sewing machine with this thing called a computer and figured it out at least this far! LOL There are 20 little creatures on the disc and I stitched the ones above just for practice and to watch what order they stitch and make notes. Then one day I was at my sewing shop and a CUSTOMER, not the owners, told me there was a feature in my software called Slow Redraw and it's wonderful. Now I can just pull up the design on the computer and click on Slow Redraw and watch it stitch on the computer and make notes. This works especially well if the designs don't have a text you can print with directions. For these practice pieces, I've decided to save them and go ahead and applique the others on white and make a little quilt with them. I used as few colors on each one as possible so I wouldn't have to keep changing the thread so they do look kind of monotone. The possibilities with using these designs are just endless. Look below for individual photos of each design.


I love the little cat and so does my granddaughter. I already have plans for my first use of this design. I have hemstitched a bright pink and white polka dot flannel blanket and am crocheting a white edging around it now. There are four rows of edging and I'm on the last row. Then I'll applique little kitty in the corner in bright pink and the blanket will be done. I was going to save it for a baby gift but my granddaughter watches me work on it and says, "that's mine!" ha! You know who will get it, don't you?


Mr. Bunny will probably have to wait until Spring and Easter although he would work well any time of the year for some sort of baby gift or children's clothing.

This little fellow I've seen on a burp cloth and it is so adorable. I'd love to do one of those. It's quite a large burp cloth and it's hemstitched around the edges and then crocheted with bedspread-weight yarn just like the baby blankets.

This little octopus is definitely headed for a hooded towel or just a towel or bath mitt or something for the bath.

And, lastly, this cute little zebra has lots of possibilities! I just love them all. I love whimsical things and tiny things and baby things.

After I got comfortable doing the applique, I used this little giraffe on two flannel receiving blankets with the hemstitching and crocheted edging. They looked just like the little fellow above and traveled to Jackson, MS, to twin boys, the first and only great grandchildren of an angel of a lady in my church. I took photos of the blankets but don't have them to publish here (yet - see note below!). This was my practice piece which I did on the white flannel instead of the white broadcloth as all the other designs above, and, not wanting to "waste" anything, I decided to make a bib with this practice piece. I squeezed the biggest bib I could out of it and crocheted around it. If I made it fasten as it is, it would probably only fit a doll or teddy bear's neck so I'm looking for ideas so that a baby could use it. Or it could go on a doll or teddy bear! Some people have suggested ribbon and I may do that. I could put little buttonholes on the two ends and run the ribbon through knot it on the front and the other end and it could be tied at the back. Any ideas from anyone?
I hope you have enjoyed meeting my little creatures and there will be more to come as I use them in projects. Ideas are churning around in my head.
***NOTE: Lately I have had a terrible time with losing things. One day about a month ago, my husband and I were in my vehicle going somewhere and I had my camera card with me and had used it (out of the camera). I was trying to put it back in the camera and dropped it between the console and the passenger seat in the front of the vehicle. I SAW it drop! This was a 2 GB card. There's no guessing as to how many photos were on that card! We have done everything trying to retrieve (or even see) that card. We have even put a new bag in our vacuum cleaner and vacuumed that area and all around and then tore the bag open and - no card! We have looked and looked and looked. I am tempted to go to my dealership and ask them to take the seat OUT to see if we can retrieve that card. I hate to lose all those photos!