Friday, August 29, 2008

Baby Booties & Yipee its Friday!!

I am so glad it is Friday and I will be off for 3 whole days! The store where I work is closed on Monday for Labor Day. Maybe I can actually do some sewing this weekend! I really want to get Tara and mine's purses finished.
I have to tell you a funny story about my son, Keith. Keith always waits till late to take a shower each night. I guess I am just old, but I couldn't stay up as late as my kids do and get up and go to school, or in my case work, the next day. Anyway, Keith woke me up night before last and told me he couldn't get the hot water turned off in the tub. He had finished his shower, turned off the shower part so the water was coming out of the faucet instead of the shower head, then tried to turn off the water but the hot water would not turn off. We have been having problems with the hot water handle and hubby has not had time to fix it. So I get up, half asleep, go into the bathroom and tighten the screw on the faucet, but the faucet handle just keeps turning and the water keeps flowing! I'm thinking, what in the world am I going to do? Hubby was at work as he was on nights. Then, I don't know why, but I decided to turn the cold water handle and I turn and turn it till it stops and the water stops flowing! So Keith actually had the hot water turned off it was just the the handle kept turning and that made him think it was still on. He had forgotten that he had not turned off the cold yet! Yesterday morning when hubby got home from work I told him he had to change out that handle on the hot water! So last night I told Keith to go get his shower before I went to sleep in case something happened again! But all was fine.

I guess y'all have heard about the hurricanes or tropical storms coming my way. Well, sorta my way. We get a lot of the rain and wind off of them. I haven't really been watching the weather. I have my own personal weather man (my Dad) sitting in his recliner watching the weather all day long! He keeps me informed about the weather all the time! My hubby says for a man who never goes out of the house he sure worries about the weather a lot! So anyway, my dad hasn't said anything to me about any storms or hurricanes headed to Louisiana. But my daughter, Amber, calls me late last night from her dorm in Louisiana and tells me that there were notes on their dorm doors telling them to do hurricane preparedness and what should she do. So I told her to fill her truck up with gas, get a flashlight, some bottled water and food that she could eat. She asked me what she should do if they are told to evacuate. I told her to go to her uncles house and go with him where ever he goes. So she was gonna call her cousin and tell her to call her if they decided to go somewhere to evacuate. It is so hard having my child so far away and worried about hurricanes. I want all my children close to me when a hurricane is close. Hubby assured me that their is not a hurricane headed towards Louisiana. That they are saying it could come into the Gulf but they don't know yet. And it is only a storm now not a hurricane. I have lived here my whole life and hurricanes have never worried me. We usually don't get much bad weather from them. With Ivan we got the worst we ever have and had a lot of downed trees and some peoples houses were damaged and we were without power for 2 weeks. But now with my child so far away it worries me. I know I just have to pray and put it all in God's hands.

I haven't gotten any sewing done, but I have been getting a few pair of baby booties crocheted. Here are the ones I have finished so far. My pictures are still a little dark. I had emailed someone for some help on this matter. She emailed me back once and asked me some questions. I emailed her the answers but have not heard back from her yet. Hopefully, I will figure out the problem with my camera soon.







Monday, August 25, 2008

Church Anniversary

Yesterday was my church's 50Th Anniversary celebration. It was a great day. I started going to this church at the age of 14, right after I was saved. My brother, Mother, cousin and I all went together. We really had some great times. I really enjoyed the celebration. I had taken my laptop and we set it up in the fellowship hall to play a slide show of old pictures for everyone to see while eating. After the service everyone went to the fellowship hall to eat. There was more food there then I have ever seen in my life!!! It was so good. I love church dinners. You get some of the best home cooking! I had taken a Coca-Cola Cake and a Chicken Rotel Casserole. I got the recipe for the Coca-Cola Cake from a lady at this same church when I was about 16 years old. I have made this cake hundreds of times over the years. It has always been my brother's favorite cake and I used to make one and send back to college with him when he would come home to visit. He would always fuss and say his roommate ate almost all of it! I still make him this cake when he comes to visit. One time I decided not to make it. I figured he must be getting tired of it by now. Well, when he got here and discovered I hadn't made it he was very disappointed and asked me if I could go get the stuff and make one! So off to the store I went to buy the ingredients and then back home to make it! It really made me feel good to know how much he looked forward to that cake.
Here is a picture of my Church:

This next picture is of my pastor, Bro. Don, at the pulpit yesterday morning. The photo is not very good as I was having problems with my camera. It was driving me crazy. All the pictures I was trying to take inside the church were coming out bad. I tried changing the settings on my camera but nothing seemed to help much. It takes really good pictures in bright sunlight. I am afraid I am going to have to get a new camera. I just bought this one in February. It is a Nikon Coolpix S5. If anyone can help me with this camera please let me know! That is our choir in the background in their new choir robes. Actually, I am suppose to be a member of the choir, but have taken a break from it. I have always sang first soprano. This past Christmas I was suffering from some very bad dry throat problems and struggled through the Christmas Cantata. So I have just been taking a break and giving my throat a rest. I still love to sing, though. I just don't know if my throat can hold out to do another cantata.

This is a picture of my pastor and his wife. They are such a lovely couple and we all just love them. My pastor's wife, Glenda, makes some of the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen. Her hand quilting is divine!

This is the Harrison Family, who sang yesterday. They went to our church when I was a teenager. Mr. Harrison, second from left, always led the singing and sang solos and duets with his wife, who is standing next to him. This son is on the left of him and his daughter is on the right of Mrs. Harrison. Once again the photo did not turn out very well.

This is a picture I took of the Harrison Family in the fellowship hall. My camera was taking better pictures in there although they are still a little dark.

This is a picture of Mr. & Mrs. Harrison taken in the 70's at the church organ.

This is a shot of some of the people in the fellowship hall. I hope you can see some of the food on the counter. It is so dark. Ugh!

These dear people are our church kitchen committee. Without them our church suppers and dinners would not take place.

This is a picture of my 86 year old friend, Lucille. She is the one that I help with her handwork projects. In a previous blog I told about putting a quilt together for her. Notice the black eye! She feel last Thursday night. She said she didn't trip over anything. She just fell. She has done this before. I do worry about her.

This is an old photo that was in the slide show. It was taken at Disney World in 1976! Our youth had gone on a trip to a youth camp for a week and then on the last day we went to Disney World. I am the 4th from the left in the red shirt. My best friend, Debra, is to the left of me. And on the far right is Carol. Carol is now our church recorder and has been a Sunday School Teacher for years. Debra and I were best friends all during our teen years. Then we lost contact for awhile after high school. We both married and moved around a bit. Now she is my Sunday School teacher and plays the organ!

This is a photo of my friend, Debra and me taken yesterday! We sure have changed, haven't we? She is such a sweet, dear, person and I treasure her. She is a fantastic Sunday School teacher. I don't think she realizes what a blessing she is to us, her students and friends.

This is a picture of Carol that was taken yesterday, also. It really is wonderful to go to church with people you have known most of your life.

It was really a wonderful day yesterday. Lots of wonderful worship, fellowship, and memories. We are having another celebration next Sunday. We are doing this two Sundays to give everyone an opportunity to attend one of the services. After all, a lot of people are coming from out of town and a lot of people work shift work. My hubby was working yesterday, but he will be off next Sunday and so will be able to attend the service then.

GIVEAWAY

I just love giveaways! Noel over at A Muzeing Journey is having a giveaway. Hop on over and check it out!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Surprise for Amber & sad news

In Monday's post I mentioned that I had made something on Sunday, but could not post about it as it was a surprise for someone. Well, that someone was my daughter, Amber, who is away at college. She received the surprise in the mail yesterday so now I can show you what it is! It is a journal I made for her! Actually, I made two and was going to keep one for myself, but my son, Keith, saw them and really wanted one so I gave him mine. I made them using a tutorial Amber had sent me online. I'm not sure how to get back to the tutorial. If I find it again I will post it. I made the journal pages from a sketchbook I bought and cut up and then hand sewed together. I then cut the front, back, and spine from stiff cardboard. I covered it with some fabric I thought Amber would like. I must say I admire people who make a lot of these journals as they are very time consuming. I guess I do better working with fabric and thread instead of paper and thread and glue. I seemed to have glue all over the place! Amber was so excited when she got the package in the mail yesterday! She told me the journal was awesome! That's a great compliment coming from her. She has found some journals on-line that she is going to purchase for the two of us and we are going to be doing some journaling together. We will then post the pictures of our creations for each to see. So I will post some of my journal photos here. I have always liked making scrapbooks, but mine have never been as good as some of the ones I see. Maybe I will do OK with the journaling. The journals I made are only about 5" x 4". The ones Amber is purchasing are going to be about 8" x 5". I am excited to get started and see what I can create!




On a sadder note, my brother's father-in-law passed away yesterday. His funeral will be tomorrow. Please keep his family in your prayers. I know from loosing my mother 3 years ago what a sad time this is for my sister-in-law and her mother and siblings. He was a very kind man and will be sorely missed. I had not met him very often as he lived in Illinois, but the few times I did he was always so friendly and made me feel right at home. He flew here with two of his children to attend my mother's funeral when she passed away and I know that meant a great deal to my brother. It did to me.

My very first quilt

This is the very first quilt I ever made. This is the only photo I have of it. I actually made the quilt in 1978 at the age of 18, but this photo was taken in 1983. That is my dad lying on the couch with my quilt over his hand. When I asked him what he was doing he said he was warming his hand! He had just came from Miami, Florida, where he was living at the time, to spend Christmas with us. So he was not used to the cold temperatures! You can see that he still had on his jacket! My mom and I were both hot blooded and so we didn't keep the heat turned up very high. This was not a fancy quilt. I just cut out squares and sewed them together. I did hand quilt it. I doubt it was quilted very good. I no longer have the quilt as it wore out and was discarded. How sad. I really wish I had taken better care of it.

Susan over at Ape Over Quilting is making her first quilt and has just started blogging. She is having a giveaway. Check it out!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Bobbin Holders

Good Wednesday Morning! I like Wednesday's because that means half the week is over! My hubby will be working days this weekend and so I hope to get a lot of sewing done on Saturday! Yeah! My daughter, Tara, has put in a request for a purse and I really want to make myself one. So I really need to get busy with them! I'm gonna try and pull the fabric out for them tonight and get them cut out so all I will have to do Saturday is sew them up!

Has anyone every used Google Reader? I love it! If you haven't used it you should give it a try. All you do is create an account at Google Reader and then you can add your blog subscriptions to it. Then you can log in and every time one of the blogs you like has a new post you will see it on Google Reader! That way you don't have to spend all day going from blog to blog to see if the person has posted something new. I just love it! I have tons of subscriptions to blogs on there and it is so easy to add new ones anytime you want to.

Below are some bobbin cases I made. When I first saw something like this the person had made one to hold a spool of thread with several needles in the felt with the thread going through them so you had a threaded needle anytime you needed it. Since I do a lot of handwork in which I need a variety of colors of thread I like to wind up bobbins with the thread. It makes it easier to carry lots of colors with me. So I thought this little spool holder would be great for my bobbins! I made it a little longer and a little smaller around. I also used snaps on it to close instead of buttons and elastic thread. The buttons on the outside are just for decoration.
Here is the outside with it closed.

This is the end. At first I just had my bobbins in them any old way. But I soon discovered that every time I needed a certain color I would have to search through all of them. Then I came up with a solution. If you notice the end of this one is green. So I put all the green bobbins in it.

This is what it looks like on the inside. I did put a piece of felt in them and therefore can put needles in there if I want. But I usually keep my needles in a little needle book.

This one has a red end and holds my red and pink thread.


This one has a yellow end and since I don't have many yellows I put my extra colors, like black, white, and blue in it. Right now I only have three of these bobbin holders. In the future I may make more if I need room for more colors.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

GIVEAWAY

Another great giveaway! I guess you all have noticed I love giveaways! So jump on over to Debi's blog and leave a comment!

GIVEAWAY

A great give away! Hop on over to calamityjane and join the fun!

Monday, August 18, 2008

HOT Monday Morning

What a day! I didn't sleep well last night, so when the alarm went off this morning I sure didn't feel like getting up. Amazingly when I went to wake my son up he was sitting on his bed already dressed! Usually I have to wake him up three times before he will get up. But then when his sister knocked on his door 5 minutes before time for them to leave he had fallen back to sleep and did not have his belt and shoes on nor his hair and teeth brushed. So he had to rush and do that. It is so nice that I don't have to drive them to school this year! My dad lets them take his car to school now.
I did leave early and went by and got a biscuit for breakfast. I like to get to work a little early so I can have some quiet time to read my Bible. Well, wouldn't you know when I walked into this store this morning I realized immediately that the Air Conditioner was not working! I live in the hot south! It is now almost 83 degrees in my store and getting hotter! I called my boss and he told me to call the AC repair people, which I did. Of course they had already gone out on repair calls and so I don't know what time they will be able to come here. The lady said she will send them as soon as possible. Last week it was nice and rainy. Of course today it is bright and sunny! I have these big glass window that go from ceiling to floor and wall to wall in the front. By noon time the sun will be shining in them and it will really start to heat up in here! ugh!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Mine was good. I went to a birthday party on Saturday for a friends mother's 91st birthday! It was really nice and I saw people I had not seen in years and years! At least one person thought I was not quiet 40 years old yet! How nice was that!? He couldn't believe I am almost 49. This is a picture of my friend, Carolyn, and her mother, Alice.

This is a picture of my daughter, Tara, and her two best friends, Tiffanie and Abby, on the first day off school! They are so excited to be seniors! Tara is in the middle with Tiffanie on the left and Abby on the right. That is my son, Keith, in the background. This was taken before the bell rang for classes to start.

These two pictures are of Abby, Tiffanie, and Tara in their Food Dynamics class. In my day they called it Home Economics. I think I might have mentioned in a previous blog that the lady who teaches this class was my Home Ec teacher back in 1975-1976. How the time has flown!
This is the girls doing their Charlie Angels pose! That's cooking utensils they are using as their weapons!

I guess they were about to do some cleaning up in this picture!

The school year seems to be starting off pretty good for them. Keith is adjusting to the high school well, also.

I haven't gotten too much accomplished in the way of handwork. I did make something yesterday, but it is a surprise for someone so I can't tell what it is just yet, but I will soon.
I am still working on some baby booties for a friend. I would like to get several pairs made up. They seem to sell nicely and it seems we are having more ladies having babies around here so I will need them for gifts.

Do any of you like to read Karen Kingsbury's books? I love her books. I always seem to cry while reading one of her books. She really knows how to touch you. For several days I was reading her book "Ever After". In it a young soldier is killed and it goes on for quiet a while with his death and funeral. It happened that I was reading this sad part of the book on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. My kids were in my room on my computer as I was reading. And so there I am laying on the bed reading and crying and my kids are like "What's wrong Mama?" I say, "It's the book. It's so sad." I think I was driving them and myself crazy! Saturday night I was determined to finish that book. I cried so much Saturday night it was unreal! I think reading about this young 22 year old man dying just brought back to me the time when my 24 year old brother died. He has been dead now for 32 years, but I still miss him so much. Reading about the pain this young man's death caused his family and friends brought all that pain back to me. I am so glad to be done with that book! If you haven't read any of Karen Kingsbury's books I highly recommend that you do!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A friend of mine, Linda, whom I attend church with makes and sells gorgeous baby dresses and bonnets. Her niece has a website on which she sells Linda's things. It is called Dimples Boutique Check it out. Below are two of the dresses Linda has for sell.


There is a wide variety of other items for sell on Dimples Boutique, also.

Forgotten bag & baby afghan

I was in Wal-Mart Saturday when a lady came up to me and said she didn't know my name but they had a purse that belonged to me at the bank downtown! Now that sounded strange! I knew I hadn't left my purse no where. I did recognize her face and knew I had seen her at this bank. But it has been months and months since I have been down to that bank. She said I had brought some rolled up coins in to be swapped for cash in the purse and the teller had forgotten to give it back to me. I asked her what it looked like and when she told me I knew immediately which bag it was. I told her I hadn't remembered seeing that bag in a while but hadn't thought much of it. I have so much sewing stuff stuck in every available nook and cranny that I would probably have never missed it! So I went down to the bank yesterday and pick up my bag! I am glad I did. I put a lot of work into sewing on all those buttons.

I also went up to visit with my cousin, Minnie Mae, on Saturday. She is actually my grandfather Dumas first cousin. So that would make her and me 3rd cousins. She is 85 years old and still does the most beautiful handwork. She does a lot of smocking and was working on a beautiful dress that she showed me. She has also crocheted lots of baby booties and had the cutest pair there. I really wanted the pattern, so she is gonna find it and mail it to me. She did let me borrow the pattern for the baby afghan below.

I decided to crochet it out of this pink yarn someone gave me. I am making it for a lady at church who is pregnant and due in late October. Below is the start of it. I started on it Sunday night and I guess it was kinda late and I was tired. I had a horrible time! I ripped out the first three rows about 3 or 4 times! I was about ready to just chunk it all in the trash! But I finally decided I was just too tired to work on it and put it up for the night. It is just really hard for me to just sit and not do some kind of handwork. But after I put it up I just sat and watched a little TV with the hubby before bedtime.

Here is a close-up of my stitches. I hope they look OK. I love the pineapple design. I have a whole book on pineapple doilies.

Monday, August 11, 2008

GIVEAWAY

I just love giveaways and here is another really nice one! Check out Polka Dots & Ric Rack for her 1 year anniversary giveaway!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Goldfish are finished! & cute little posie

I finally finished the four little goldfish bags I was working on! Yeah! So what do you think?
These are two pictures of them before I put the drawstrings in them:


Here are some pictures of them with the drawstrings:



This is a close up of one. I hope you like them!

This is a little posie I made from this tutorial on Pink Paper Peppermints blog. I put a tiny yo-yo in the center of mine with an old button.

Yesterday afternoon was a hoot! My kids did fine their first day of school. Tara had signed up to take this class, Agra-science. It is a class that is taught by a man and has all boys in it! But she and her best friend really like this teacher and so decided to take the class together. Well, she gets to school yesterday and discovers her friend is not in the class! So there she is in a class of nothing but boys! She had me calling the school counselor to try and get her put into another class. I haven't been able to get him on the phone but have left voice messages. I have known her schoolcounselor since I was a teenager. He is such a sweet man. I know he will get her placed in some other class as quick as he can! Kids!
Then I had a customer come into the store where I work at 4:29PM with two prescriptions to be filled. We close at 4:30PM. We have DME equipment at the store and so I had to fill the prescriptions. It was almost 5:00PM before I left the store and it had started to rain. I had to go to the drug store and pick up my dad's prescription and by the time I came out of there it was really pouring rain! Needless to say I was soaked to the skin! I went straight home and got in the shower! What an afternoon!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Little Fish & 5" Charm Squares

I had told you in an early post that I was working on some goldfish bags out of one of Kumiko Sudo's books. Below is the one I finished on Sunday. I just got a picture taken of it yesterday!



Here are four more fish bags I have been working on. It has taken me longer than I expected to get them done as I have been really busy lately at work. My boss doesn't mind if I do a little hand sewing when I am not busy. The past few days have been extremely busy, though. With it being the first of the school year I have a lot of cafeteria workers from the schools coming in to buy scrub uniforms. Also some of the school nurses buy uniforms from us. I am the only one who works in this store and so I have to do everything here from putting out the freight to waiting on the customers to cleaning. It is good to be busy, though. More customers means more profits for the owners! So that makes them happy and if they are happy then I am happy! I will post pictures of the finished fishies when I get them finished! I just think they are the cutest things!

Here is one more set of 5" fabric charm squares I received through the Craftster swap I am in. They are from almostexact. I love the butterfly fabrics the best! One day I want to make a quilt with all different kinds of butterfly fabric in it. So I am collecting different butterfly prints everywhere I go now. Don't you think that would be beautiful? Butterflies stand for happiness. I just love them!