Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone! We had a very quiet Christmas, as we are going to wait until OR daughter and Juliet arrive to celebrate. They will be arriving on the 27th, so the morning of the 28th we will open gifts from Santa. Christmas Eve we had a family dinner at MI daughter's home. We have a small family so there were only six of us plus Sarah. I remember the days when we had my parents, Fred's parents, a "black sheep" uncle and my only sibling Steve. Now all six of them are dead, so we remember them especially at this time. Have a very Merry Christmas and Holiday season.

I'm back to blogging

This is an ATC Christmas Ornament that I made for a swap on The Sum of ATCs yahoo group.

My computer was giving me so much trouble that I had stopped blogging and reading my favorite blogs. One day two weeks ago I finally had had enough and I called Comcast to see if there was a problem with my modem. The technician then referred me to McAfee, who in turn said that I was out of memory, and told me to contact Dell. Dell check my computer out and told me that I had only one memory card with 256 MHz and that my computer would speed up dramatically if I bought and inserted 2 cards of 512 MB memory. So I ordered them and they came this week. Then I called Dell again and they told me how to insert the cards. Thank goodness the man that helped had a lot of patience! I couldn't figure out how to open the tower even with his instructions. Luckily my husband was home (too cold here in MI to golf) and he was able to help me. My problem was that the technician's top and bottom were not what I thought was top and bottom. But the great news is that my computer is running like new again

Fred and I went to visit OR daughter in October for a long weekend. Juliet was so excited to see her "Papa" since he didn't go in September when MI daughter, Sarah and I went. The top picture is of her making crepes on Sunday morning with her Daddy. It was so sweet watching him letting her make the batter. (I know the picture is out of order, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to move it. Can anyone Help?

Sarah is 11 months tomorrow

I can't believe that Sarah is going to be eleven months old tomorrow. She has grown so much and is a happy little girl. She is walking now, about 15 steps at a time. Her favorite toys are books, cat in the hat stuffed toy, stuffed dog, and paper. She especially likes to play with newspaper, and Grandpa is to blame for that. She doesn't seem to enjoy baby food anymore except for her bottle. Her bottom two incisors popped through just yesterday. Last night she had her first sleep over at our house as her momma had her 20th class reunion-gosh that makes me feel old. She was good as gold and we had lots of fun with her.

A few weeks back MI daughter, Sarah, and I went to Portland to visit the OR family. I will write about that soon, but now I must get to work on my Cheshire cat tag for a swap. The tags were due to be sent out last Monday, so I am behind.

4x4 Alphabet Swap

The yahoo group I belong to is having a 4x4 card swap which I have joined. It is never to late to join if you are interested. The group in The Sum of all ATC's.

I just love this one, but it is because I like cats so much. Can you guess what Sarah's first word is? Nine months old and no mama, grandma, but kitty cat. Yes those are her first words. She just loves her stuffed Cat in the Hat that her Mama got her. Her second word is dog; she has a new stuffed dog. MI daughter just loves cats as much as I do, and now Sarah does too. However Murphy their real life cat is rather wary of Sarah. She does gentle touches, but Murphy is just not too sure how gentle they will be, so he runs away. I think that Juliet's first words were probably expensive jeans.

We are on the letter G for this month, so I have others to show later. I have also made some extras for people who joined late.

Below is my finger that I broke. This was taken after the split came off and before the physical therapy. I now have been released from the Doctor, so I will have to take a new picture of my finger. Believe it doesn't look much better, but it is functional.

Vintage Wallet Swap

I belong to a swap group on Yahoo that is called The Sum of All ATCs that has great swaps. Not all of them are ATCs which adds a lot of variety to the swapping. I have only been a member a short while, but it has been enjoyable and everyone is so nice. I am in a Vintage Wallet swap hosted by a Alison who thinks of the greatest ideas. This one involved making a Vintage Wallet, (which she gave directions for), two ATCs, two luggage tags, a calling card, and a letter written in a vintage style. I really wanted to be in the swap, but worried that perhaps I wouldn't be able to write a vintage letter. Then I thought I would just do it the best that I could and I signed up. Above is the front and back of the wallet. I found a Christmas ornament in my "stuff" that I thought would look nice on the wallet, so that's the beaded tassel.

This is the inside of the wallet.

My two ATCs. I use a lot of Coffee Bean brown ink on my work. I just love the way it finishes off a project.

The calling card

The front of the luggage tags.

The backs.

The letter.


When I receive my swap wallet I will post pictures of it. Enjoy the Fall weather and do some creating.

Alice in Wonderland Swap

Le Vintage is having a wonderful tag swap honoring Alice in Wonderland and the new movie that is coming out next year. Don't we all just love this book and its many characters. My favorite of course in the Cheshire Cat. He is soooo cute! Murphy, MI daughter's cat reminds me of him. The funny thing is that Mr. Murphy pictures himself with a top hat, cigar, a newspaper, and his body reclining with his legs crossed. How do I know this? Well, MI daughter took a regular picture of Murph to a cat psychic and that is how he pictured himself. Frankly I think it is just wishful thinking on his part. LOL. See, cats always get me off the track. If you are interested in this tag swap or just want to check out a great blog go to http://www.vintage-le.blogspot.com to get all the information. It promises to be fun.

Catching Up on my Projects

This is a trivet/hot pad that I made using the tutorials on the Homespun Living blog. I loved the way the finished pad turned out. The back is a knitted seed stitch square, well almost square. LOL I used the Sugar n' Cream cotton ecru yarn from Lily . The front is various pieces of cloth from projects MI daughter and I have done for her house, plus a few ribbons and trim. (OR daughter-if you want one, what color?)


This is a close-up so that you can see the trims.

Not to long ago I posted about a vintage flower holder that I bought to give to MI daughter, but decided to keep for myself. I have been on a hunt to find something similar for her. Well, I found this cute one in white, although I don't think it is vintage, it still is sweet.

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law came over for another craft day. We have a lot of fun making things together. Our biggest project was a quilt that I helped Lee Ann make as a memory of her husband and my brother Steven, who died of brain cancer in 2006. I don't have a picture, but she cut up his shirts to make blocks for the quilt. She also used some angel blocks that she made from a kit. This was her first quilt and it turned out very nice. It is a very special quilt.

This day, we made small bags from a pattern called Snap Happy. You need only two fat quarters to make all three. The pattern is from Stitchin' Sisters, email at stitichinsis@aol.com. I made the Scottie dog bags for my best friend Chris, and Lee made the blue ones. This week we got together and made book covers, but I forgot to take a picture.

Keep crafting folks, it keeps us sane and happy. Find something you like and as NIKE would say "JUST DO IT."