Sunday, November 30, 2008

New Camera

I got a new camera Friday and have been taking pictures with it, to see how I like it, all weekend. The camera I had gotten back in February took such dark pictures and nothing I did made it any better. If you look at some of my previous post you will see what I mean. I sure hope this one does better.
Here is a picture of Tara modeling her dress for Elite Night this coming weekend. Elite Night is a beauty pageant at the high school she attends. I think she looks GORGEOUS! I just need to cut the bottom of the dress off some. It is just tulle so it shouldn't be too hard. No hemming!
Here is a picture of my good friend and Sunday School Teacher, Debra, and another lady who I go to church with, Loyce. I told them I wanted to take pictures in our Sunday School room as it is our Fellowship Hall, also, and I had taken lots of pictures in here during the 50Th Anniversary Celebration and they were all so dark. I think this one turned out pretty good! This camera might work!
Here is our cat, Molly, taking a nap! She is so cute with her front legs up like that!
This is a close-up of one of the blooms on my Christmas cactus! I just love it! My friend gave me this cactus when it was really small two years ago. It has really grown since then.
Here is a picture of my whole Christmas Cactus. All the blooms haven't opened up yet. It is going to be really beautiful when it does.
I have had a great weekend! It was so nice to have 4 days off work! I finished up a quilt top I have been working on for myself. I don't make quilts for myself often. I will post a picture of it as soon as I get one taken.

Giveaway

Robyn over at Daisy Quilts is having a giveaway! Hop on over and check it out!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for. God is truly good to us all! Our oldest daughter, Amber, cannot be with us for Thanksgiving this year as she is so far away at school and had classes today. She has to work on Saturday and Sunday so it would not have been feasible for her to drive all this way for such a short time. I would have worried to death about her driving in all the traffic there will be tonight, anyway. We will miss her. At least she will be able to come home for a couple of weeks at Christmas.

Our niece, Rheanna, did get to come, however. She is the one that hubby, Tara and Keith went to pick up last Friday. At least they got to spend some time with Amber then as she is going to school in the same town in which Rheanna lives. So tomorrow Amber will be hanging out with Rheanna's brother, Ross. Ross and Amber are the same age and have always been very close. My kids father and Rheanna & Ross' father are identical twins.

Rheanna, Keith, and Tara helped me this evening to prepare some food for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow.
Here is a picture of Rheanna crumbling up the cornbread for our cornbread dressing. She told me that she had a picture of herself from several years ago doing this exact same thing. It has been a tradition with us for several years for the kids to help me prepare the dressing and other dishes. Rheanna said she could hardly wait to eat the dressing! She said she just loves my cornbread dressing! In fact she had told my daughter, Tara, that the only reason she was coming here for the week was to be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner here! She was only kidding. She and Tara are best friends and she really wanted to spend time with Tara. But it made me feel good that she likes my cooking!
Here is another picture of Rheanna with the cornbread. She and Keith had already cut up all the bell pepper, green onions, celery, and yellow onion. Then Keith came in later and chopped up the boiled eggs for me. They really are great helpers!
Here is Keith chopping up the onions! Can you tell it was burning his eyes?
Here's Keith pouring the onions in the pot with the rest of the onion and celery mixture.
Tara had gone to the store for me while Keith and Rheanna were chopping and crumbling and then she had went into her room to do her hair. It takes a while for her to get all her hair straightened perfectly, you know! When she finished her hair she came into the kitchen and wanted to help me cook. All I had left to do was finish up our dessert called Yum Yum. The top of it is covered with a giant chocolate bar that has been grated. So she grated the chocolate bar.
Here she is grating away.
I told her the chocolate bar might be too big and it would be too much chocolate. But she said no, it could never be too much chocolate! She likes lots of chocolate! So she grated the whole thing.
Then Rheanna and Keith came in and wanted to help her spread the chocolate on the Yum Yum. Keith had disappeared by the time I got the camera ready and so I took pictures of Tara and Rheanna with really chocolaty fingers from the chocolate. They didn't mind cleaning off their fingers! I guess that chocolate really tasted good!
I was just going to take one picture, but since Rheanna's hair was in her eyes I had to take another one with it moved over so you could see her beautiful face! Are these not two beautiful girls!
Here is the finished Yum Yum! It has a crust on the bottom, then a cream cheese and sugar mixture next, then a pudding mixture next, then cool whip and then the grated chocolate! It really is yummy!
Of course we will also have turkey and other dishes. But I always like to get the cornbread dressing and dessert done the night before.

I am done in the kitchen for the night and am ready to just relax! Hope you all have a great day tomorrow!

Friday, November 21, 2008

We Have a WINNER!

My kids and their Dad have gone to Louisiana today to pick up my niece and bring her back to spend the week with us. Since they are all gone I had no one here to help me draw a winner in my giveaway. Fortunately Miss Bear agreed to help. She doesn't put just anything in her special heart shaped box. But she didn't mind me putting in the names of all the bloggers who left comments on my giveaway post. So here they are all nicely folded and waiting for me to draw out one.
Here I am drawing the lucky winner. I didn't look. I just pointed the camera and shot!
And the winner is:
Karin! Karin please email me with you address and I will get you goodies in the mail to you on Monday! Thank you to everyone who left comments and joined my giveaway. It was lots of fun!

This is my son, Keith. This is after he had his hair cut a few weeks ago. He only had an inch or two cut off.
A few days ago he decided that he was tired of having his hair so long and it getting into his eyes all the time so he decided to go have it cut again. This is after having it cut this past Wednesday. I wanted to post this picture earlier, but he did not want his sister to see it. She is in Louisiana going to college and he got to see her this afternoon when he went there with his dad and other sister to pick up my niece. I am wondering what Amber thought of his new haircut. She loved his hair long. Some people at church Wednesday night didn't even recognize him!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A lovely gift

I entered a giveaway over at Quill Cottage and although I did not win Miss Sandy sent me this lovely little gift! She is such a sweet lady and it was so kind of her to send out little gifts to all the non winners. Here is how it was wrapped. I love the way she wrapped it in tissue paper and then put a paper doily around it! What a great idea! I will remember this one.

Here is what what was in the lovely wrappings. It is a small notebook that she covered with beautiful paper. Since I love to sing and love music the music notes are perfect! It is just the right size to fit into my purse. Thank you so much Miss Sandy for you thoughtfulness! I just love my little book!
I had a very productive weekend and finished my daughter Tara's quilt top. I will be getting Amber's quilt back from the quilters on Friday and will be sending off Tara's and Keith's to be quilted. Then all I have to do is get all the bindings done and I will have them finished! I am now working on making myself a scrappy quilt. I still have lots of blocks to cut out for it. I hope to sew on it some tomorrow night, Thursday night, and Friday night while hubby is working and gone to Louisiana to pick up my niece. She is coming to spend the week with us for Thanksgiving. Tara is so excited. They are very close.
Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Go here to enter. I will draw a winner Friday night.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Finally my 100th post GIVEAWAY!

Before I get to the giveaway I just wanted to show some pictures of my Christmas cactus. It has a little bloom on nearly every branch! I can't wait for it to bloom! It is going to beautiful!
Here is a close up of the little blooms.
Now to the giveaway. Well, I see my pictures are backwards again! Sorry about that. I quickly uploaded these before I left for work this morning. This is the back of two of my giveaway items. First is a candy twist bag and second is a good luck doll called Village Girl.
Here is the front of the candy twist bag and good luck doll. She is a little bag, also. I made these from a book by Kumiko Sudo called Omiyage. I have made several of things she designed and love her work. The candy twist bag is a nice little bag to carry just about anything in. I like to use them to carry my ball of yarn in when I am crocheting with #20 crochet cotton. The Village Girl is suppose to be a good luck charm, bringing goodwill and happiness to whoever receives her as a gift. I believe people would place little candies or such and in her and give her as a gift. I just love the way she looks and keep several little items in mine.
I choose these two bags fabrics for the season. The candy twist bag is in Christmas colors and the Village Doll is for Thanksgiving. To win these two bags and some surprise sewing items please leave a comment on this post. If you link my giveaway to your blog I will enter your name twice! I am really excited about this giveaway as it is my very first! I will draw a winner on Friday, November 21st.
Now let me tell you about something that happened at work yesterday! My boss came in to replace some fluorescent light bulbs for me that had burned out. They are the really long ones in the ceiling light fixtures. He had replaced two and had two more to go. The last two new bulbs were laying partly on a chair and along the floor right in the walkway. I was rushing back over to my desk to lay some things down so I would be able to hand him the last two bulbs and since these bulbs were laying down so low and not in my eyesight I ran right into them. I guess I was concentrating so on putting the stuff down on my desk that I totally forgot the bulbs were there! One of the bulbs hit the floor and exploded! My boss said it sounded like a gun going off. Little tiny pieces of glass shot everywhere! You would not believe how far that glass traveled! It was a mess to clean up! I am still finding little tiny pieces of glass here and there! I sure hope that never happens again! I felt so bad because this was a brand new bulb, but my boss said not to worry, it was OK. He wasn't upset at all. He is suppose to come back today and get another bulb and replace the one I broke. I think I will just sit at my desk while he does!

Monday, November 10, 2008

I WON!!!

Kris over at Tag Along Teddies blog had a giveaway and I was one of the lucky winners! The package arrived today and this is it! It looked like a small unassuming package. But when I opened it....
I found this fantastic bag filled with goodies!
Isn't this cupcake delicious looking? It is hand appliqued! I just love it!
Here is the bounty of goodies inside the cupcake bag!
This beautiful fabric!
This cute little sewing kit I can put in my purse and this great bag of buttons of all kinds!
This little tiny pen and sharpie marker and these great pins! I can always use more pins. I seem to loose a lot of them!
And this darling little stocking kit along with the thread to embroidery it! I can't wait to make it!
I was so excited when I looked into the mailbox and found this package. Thank you so much Kris for having such a great giveaway and especially for all the goodies you sent me!

Giveaway

There is a great giveaway going on over at mr.monkeysuit to promote a new Etsy shop. Jump on over and take a look!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Busy Weekend & 100th Post

Everyone has been putting such beautiful fall pictures on their blogs and so I had to put a couple of my own on mine. As I was going to the store on Saturday I passed these two trees and grabbed my camera out of my purse and took pictures. I have passed these trees millions of times and never thought to take a picture before. They usually look almost identical, but the one on the right has lost a good deal of leaves already. I have always thought these were the most gorgeous trees! There used to be an old house that sat behind them but after the lady died who owned the house the people who bought the property from her kin sold the house and it was moved off the property. The lady told me that they are just going to keep this lot vacant. It is a beautiful place.

This is a close-up of the tree on the left. I so love the colors!
Do you know what this is? It is the foam that the car wash sprays on your car! Yes after going by the trees and stopping at the drug store I went and cleaned my car. It had not been vacuumed in a while and even though the weather was fairly cool I was sweating by the time I got through! I had wore shorts for this purpose. I knew I would get hot. It is a job vacuuming a car! I did luck up and find a few coins for my effort!
Here is the jet water spray washing away the soap. This does not do a super job on the car but at least it got a lot of the dirt and grime off.
After the car wash I went on up to Wal-Mart to get groceries. If you live in a small town you cannot expect to go to Wal-Mart and be in a rush! I always seem to run into people I know and have to stop and talk a minute! The fact that I used to work there 8 years ago makes it hard, too. There are still lots of people who work there that worked there when I did and so I love to say hello to them, also. In fact, one of my dearest friends works there, but she is a department manager and so does not work on the weekends. Last year when I would take the kids to school in the morning (which is right up the road from Wal-Mart) I would ride on up to Wal-Mart a lot of times and look around and I would usually always run into her and stop and talk a few minutes. This year the kids take my dad's car to school every morning and so I never go up to Wal-Mart in the morning unless I really need something. So I haven't seen my friend in a while. I saw her last week at the fall festival and she said she had wondered if something had happened to me and was gonna call me to see since she had not seen me at Wal-Mart in so long!
Anyway, I finally got through with my shopping and got back home. I spent the rest of the afternoon making soup, doing laundry and cleaning the inside windows and other inside stuff on my car. It sure looks better! I spent Saturday night cutting out squares for my daughter's, Tara, quilt.
This is a picture of my Charlie Brown quilt top I finished sewing together Friday night. Hubby is working nights right now so I have to sew while he is gone. I am gonna be getting this quilt machine quilted soon and hope to sell it. Does anyone know anyone who would like a Charlie Brown quilt? I love Charlie Brown! I used to watch Charlie Brown Christmas and The Great Pumpkin every year as a child. I have a few books from way back when of Charlie Brown. When this quilt is all quilted and the binding done it should measure 78" x 92".



Last night I worked on putting together the squares I had cut out on Saturday night for Tara's quilt. I got quiet a lot done. I hope to get a lot more sewn together tonight. Here is sneak peek of hers. I am chain piecing the squares together.
It is just a scrappy quilt like the one I made Amber. I am using up a lot of my scraps in these quilts. I hope they like them! I know most people would make block first and then sew the blocks together. But with the way I am doing theirs I like to make rows with the blocks and sew the rows together.
It's hard to believe this is my 100Th post already! I will be having a giveaway but I have not figured out what it will be yet. Give me a couple days to see what I have and I will post about it and you will be able to leave a comment on that post to enter.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Giveaway

Kylie over at Threads of Friendship is having a great giveaway of a bag. You get to choose the fabric! Hop on over and check it out!

Fall Festival & I WON!

Every year our little town has a Fall Festival. There are craft vendors, food vendors, antique cars, lumberjack contest, and singing. Years ago it was called the Arts & Crafts Show and it mostly consisted of craft and handmade items booths. I have had a booth in it a few times, but never seem to do well. It seems more people look then buy. When it was the Arts & Crafts Show it was held by the ladies of the local Arts & Crafts society. Now it is held by the city and so is much different. I went this year because my daughter, Tara, was singing with her group from school.
This is a picture of the booths going in one direction on the street.

Here are a few booths going in the other direction. This end is where it started and it wound all the way through town past the school. Which is about 5 blocks. The two blocks in front of the school is where they had the antique cars. I didn't go look at them this year. Nor did I go check out any of the lumberjack competitions. I am not really into that sort of stuff and had to get home after Tara sang so I could go get groceries and do the usual Saturday stuff.
This is in front of our City Hall where a lot of people were standing to see the singers and dancers.
This is a booth were the ladies were selling a lot of old stuff. I got a beautiful crocheted doily there for only $1.00! I forgot to take a picture of it. If you look back several post you will see a doily I got at a yard sale that had crocheted grapes on it. This one looked exactly like it only the bunches of grapes had lots more grapes on it and the colors were more vibrant. I will have to take a picture of it and post it soon.
I saw these cute little ladies all standing in a row and had to take a picture. Sorry the photos are not really good. The sun was so bright and making all my photos really light. I didn't think to change the setting on my camera to outdoors. That might have helped.
Here is a close up of the ladies. They are made of clay pots! Very clever!
This is Frances the Tupperware lady. I used to sell Tupperware back in my younger days and I just love it! The prices have gotten to be pretty high now, though. I have known Frances since I was a very young child. Her booth was in the middle of town and the buildings are casting shadows.
I was so surprised to run into Cinderella there! I just had to take her picture! She was walking around passing out cards for a photography studio. Cinderella was my all time favorite fairy tale as a child.
Here is Tara and her best friend Tiffanie just before Tara sang. Tiffanie is in a dance group that danced earlier that morning.
Here is Tara's group just before they started to sing. Tara is the second from the left.
Here is Tara singing along with the others.
Here is Tara after she finished singing. Isn't the dress lovely? She came into my room 4 nights before the performance and told me I needed to hem the dress and do something with the straps as they were way too long! Now she had had this dress for about 2 months. I guess I had just assumed she had tried it on when she got it from her teacher and that it fit fine! So I had to cut 4 & 1/2 inches off it and hem it and shorten the straps! Since it was Tuesday night late that she told me this and Wednesday night we had church I spent Thursday night hemming it by hand and Friday night doing the straps. Luckily the straps just go through these pieces on the front of the dress and Velcro closed. So all I had to do was cut off part of the straps and move the Velcro. I think she looks beautiful in her dress! Behind her is a lot of the food vendors.
This is a funnel cake topped with powdered sugar. They are so good! Tara and I could not leave without getting one and splitting it! Hubby had already left and so he missed out! Keith was with us, too, but he had gone off with a friend and we came back and got him later in the day.

Imagine my excitement when I came home from the Festival and found this in my mailbox!!! Julie at Julie's Provincial Patch had a giveaway and I was one of the winners! Look at what I won! It is a box full of goodies!
In the box there was this small box full of lovely buttons! I am a button-aholic! I love buttons! I have jars of buttons! She could not have given me anything I love anymore!
Then look at all these beautiful 5 inch squares of fabric! They are just awesome! I can't believe how many she sent! I think there was about 35 or so!
As you can see in this photo there was also this lovely handkerchief, two wooden clothes pins, a silk flower and a ponytail holder with a yo-yo and button sewn on it, and a lovely piece of pink trim!
Here is a picture of Tara modeling the ponytail for me! Sorry the pictures seem dark. They looked just fine on my computer but now they look dark on my blog! I just can't seem to win for loosing with picture taking!
Thank you so much Julie for the great giveaway and for all the lovelies you sent me! I can't wait to make something out of it!