A Messy Road

They are repaving the street in front of where I work! Ugh! It has been a mess trying to go anywhere on that street! Luckily in order to go home I can go down the side street by my store and not have to go on this street since I live on the same side of town as my store is on. But this is the main street in our town and so has really messed people up.
Here they are paving right in front of my store.
Look at this steam roller! Now wouldn't you like to have that to iron out that big piece of wrinkled fabric?!
I sure will be glad when they get done with all this paving. This morning I went up to Hardee's to get a biscuit before work and didn't think I would ever get back down this road! Unfortunately Hardee's is located on this road so I had no choice but to drive on it.

Good Thursday Morning

My friend, Linda, came by my store for a little while yesterday. She is planning a High School Reunion and wants to make a power point slide show of some of the old pictures of her classmates. She needed me to show her how to do this. So I did. That Linda is something else! I laugh the most when I am with her! It feels so good to laugh. Anyway, Linda brought by a couple pictures for me to see and I borrowed them so I could scan them into my computer. Here they are.

First is this picture of Linda's dad and some of the crochet pieces he has done. Yes, he crochets! The framed Last Supper up on the wall is huge! It is done in Filet Crochet. She said he as done several of them in different size threads! There is hours and hours of work in one of those! I hope to go over to her dad's with her one day and meet him and see more of his work!
This is a picture of Linda's mom and my Aunt Doodle (one on right). Linda said they were the best of friends. I know it is very light, but I think it is so neat!
This is an old family photo and I am not really sure who it is. Linda didn't bring this one. This is one of my own. We have been trying and trying to figure out who it is. I thought it was my great great grandfather, but everybody else who actually knew him say they don't think so. They said he didn't have horses either. So now I am wondering if maybe it is his father. If anyone has any ideas let me know.
This is the back of the photo.
Last, but definitely not least, is a picture of Amber and her rag dolls! She was 1-1/2 years old when this picture was taken. I made her the rag dolls and the dress to match. I am so glad to have this picture as the rag dolls got thrown away by accident. Notice the little couch she is sitting on. It is just a big piece of foam cut in the shape of a couch and covered with fabric. When I was a little girl my dad brought it home to me. A foam salesman came to my dad furniture plant and he had the couch and a chair so that he could show my dad and his brothers the type of foam he had. My dad somehow got them from him and covered them with fabric for me. I just loved them! They were perfect for my dolls. The chair eventually got threw away, but when Amber was born my dad recovered the couch in new fabric and she played with it for years! It finally just wore out and we threw it away, too.
So I am glad to have a picture of it too. We have other pictures of my little couch in photo albums.

Keith's Birthday Cake

We had Keith's birthday cake this evening. Here it is with all the candles lit!
I was trying to take a picture of him blowing out the candles but he was too fast for me. All I got was a picture of the smoking candles!
So here he is trying to recreate blowing out the candles for me to take a picture!
This is my dad, Keith, Amber & Tara.
Tara told me the other day that all we have are pictures of the three kids and Hubby. That I am never in the pictures. I told her that was because I was always the one taking the pictures! So this afternoon I got Hubby to take a picture of me and our the kids! So here is Amber, Me, Keith & Tara.
Our little birthday time was great and Keith racked up on money and gift cards!

My Girls!

My daughters, Amber & Tara, came by where I work today for me to see how Amber looked and take some pictures of them! Now why, do you say, would I need to see how Amber looked? Well, Tara had done her hair and make-up. Amber doesn't usually straighten her hair or wear make-up. Tara had straightened Amber's hair for her and did her make-up. She also parted Amber's hair on the side instead of the middle like Amber usually wears it. I think they both look very pretty!
The photos are a little light because of all the bright light in the store where I work.
But they look beautiful anyway!
Here are two more pictures of Amber and Tara.

My Baby Is 15 Today!

That's right, my baby, Keith, is turning 15 today! Now he will be able to get his learners permit and every time I go somewhere he is gonna want to drive! Keith is my youngest. All my kids are growing up so fast!

Here is a picture of my Mama, Myrtle, holding Keith in the hospital the day after he was born.
Here is a picture of Hubby's Mama, Pam, holding Keith. Notice the red booties on Keith's feet. I crocheted them. He grew so fast that it seemed I was crocheting him a new pair of booties every week!
Both my Mama and Hubby's Mama are gone now. But I know they would both be so proud of the young man Keith has become.

This is a picture of Keith and his Bun. He loved this bunny and carried him everywhere he went. By the time he stopped carrying him around that poor bunny was falling apart. I have sewn holes up on that bunny so many times that he probably doesn't have any thread left on him that is original!
I just think this photo is so cute!
Here he is almost all grown up! He still has a few years till he is 18. But they will pass fast!

I will post pictures of him and his cake later. We are gonna cut it tonight. I baked it last night and Keith iced it. He loves to ice cakes! I just think he likes to eat the remnants of icing that are left over!

Another Monday

These Mondays just keep on rolling around! I love the weekend but they seem to pass by too fast. Last week I decided to start researching my family tree more. I don't know if I mentioned that a lady and her husband, who are from Michigan, were way down here in South Alabama doing research on his family. The family name they were researching happens to be my family name and when they stopped in at the museum in Grove Hill the lady ran into this lady at the library of the same last name! She called up my cousin, well actually my 3rd cousin, Minnie Mae and the lady talked to Minnie Mae about our family. I've mentioned Minnie Mae to you before. Actually Minnie Mae and my grandfather were first cousins. Minnie Mae called me and told me about the lady and we got to discussing out family tree again and it just made me more fired up then ever to trace out line back. Minnie Mae and I have been doing research on this for a few years now and have run into a brick wall it would seem. We can't seem to get past my great great great great grandfather! Now that is a lot of greats isn't it?! We just can not find out much about him.

I went up to Minnie Mae's house this past Saturday and it was a blast visiting with her. She is 86 years old and sharp as a tack! That woman forgets nothing! And she remembers names and people and their children a whole lot better then me! We were discussing these ancestors in this book I have that Minnie Mae has borrowed twice and read and made notes out of and I have the book with me all the time and yet she was naming off these people and their kids and siblings and I was having to look in the book to find them cause I couldn't remember what child belonged to who, but she sure did! I just sat there with my mouth hung open! I am gonna be taking a couple days off work here in the next couple weeks and Minnie Mae and me are gonna go to the court house in Wilcox County, Alabama and look up information on our ancestors. I am sure glad she is going with me. She will be able to remember a lot of stuff! Me, I will have to be sure and take my pen and paper and my camera to take pictures of stuff! Otherwise, I will forget everything! It is really exciting doing research and it is amazing how just finding one little tiny bit of information will make you so excited!

I went on line to the North Carolina Department of Archives and History to try and find some information on my ancestors. Well, they want you to fill out a form and send it in along with $20.00 per name, per category (birth, death, marriage, etc.) searched! So if they don't find out any information you are just out the $20.00! There were like 15 categories on this one form. That would be like $300.00 just to have one name searched in all those categories! I just couldn't do that. If I lived in North Carolina it wouldn't cost me, except for maybe copying fees. I can understand that it takes someone time to do a search and I would be willing to pay some but what they want is a little much. Here in Alabama I went on line to our Dept. of Archives and History and they, too, had a form. I printed it out, sent them $15.00 and they searched all their departments for any information on my great great great grandfather and sent me several pages of photocopied items they found. Now that was a much better deal! I even got information I didn't even ask for. You see I had been trying and trying to find out when my grandparents got married and was not having any luck. So when Alabama sent me this information on my great great great grandfather they sent along a list of early Alabama marriages and there was my grandparents marriage on the list! How lucky was that?!

Well, I am sure all this research stuff is boring so I'll stop. I did start an embroidery project this weekend. I just did not think to take a picture to post. Will do that later. In looking through my notebook that I keep all my family research information in I came across some papers that I had copied of some things that my brother, Keith had drawn in his notebooks when he was in high school. I gave the original notebooks to my niece (Keith's daughter). But I had made copies of some of the things I liked. There was this one page that he had just sat and doodled. It was mostly circles and he had colored in some parts. It is hard to describe. I will just have to post a picture of it. I am sure he probably sat and did this in class when he should have been paying attention to the teacher! Keith had a hard time in high school after our brother George died. He and George were just two years apart in age and very close. Anyway, I thought this doodle would make a neat looking embroidery so I traced it onto white fabric and started embroidering.

Not all of us were busy doing things this past week! As you can see from the photo below some of us spent lots of time sleeping. This is our cat, Molly. She loves to get on top of my pillows and sleep.

Here she is on top of the stack of pillows. This is 5 pillows! Yes, I said 5! No, I don't sleep on that many, but I do sleep on 3. Notice the embroidery on the top one. My mama did that. Before she died she was really into embroidering pillowcases. She gave them to everyone for gifts!
Sometimes I think it might be nice to be a cat and sleep all day!

Butterflies

I love butterflies! I have three quilts that I have made with butterflies on them. So when I saw some crocheted butterflies on Hideko's blog (Wind From The East) I just knew I had to learn how to make them. I left her a comment asking her if she would share the directions with me. She did much better then that. She sent me 2 butterflies she had made for me to use as a pattern! They are simply beautiful! And I cannot think her enough for sending them!
Here is a picture of the fronts of them. Here is a side view of them.

Giveaway

There is a great giveaway going on over at We Love Quilting! Be sure and check it out!

Happy Tuesday

A new laptop! Yes, I finally got my new laptop! It is a Dell, Studio 1535 Windows Vista. I just love it. It is just taking me some time to figure out things on it as it is a good bit different then my old laptop.
This is the top of the cover! It is Ruby Red! I love red!Here are some fabrics that I bought at Wal-Mart recently. They got in a lot of new, beautiful fabrics! I mostly bought 1/4 yard increments. I did by 1 yard of a couple of them.
Here are the fabrics I got when the kids and I went to Mobile shopping a week ago. I really love the cupcake fabric! I have been wanting some, but have not seen any until I went to Joann's that day. I was a little upset when I got home and discovered that Joann's charged me for a whole yard of $7.00 fabric that I did not get and they charged me full price for some fabric that was on sale for 50% off. Since I live 70 miles from Joann's I couldn't just take the fabric and receipt back and show them. I did call and tell them so the ladies cutting the fabric will be more careful in the future with other customers. The lady I talked to was suppose to have the manager call me the next day, but I never heard back from her. Oh well, I have learned to be sure and check your receipt before leaving the store. I had a long receipt because not only did I have this fabric on it I had my daughter's fabric on it too. I don't have a picture of her fabric. Maybe she will post it on her blog!
I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Hubby gave me a beautiful card and a box of candy and took me out for supper! So it was a great day!

Amber has a blog & a giveaway

As I think I have mentioned before, my daughter, Amber, loves to sew like I do. She has finally created a blog and has posted a couple of her projects on it! I hope you will check it out and let her know what you think of her lovely work! Just click here to find her blog!

Also I found out about this giveaway on another blog. It is to win a $25.00 gift card from Wal-Mart! Who couldn't use that! Go here to check it out!

Memories

The kids and I had a nice weekend. Saturday we drove 70 miles to Mobile and went shopping and had lunch at Red Lobster. Amber said we should take pictures and post them of the good food they have there, but I left my camera in the car and so didn't get to take any. Tara thought our waiter was really "hot". He was a nice looking young man. He had only been working there for two weeks so he was still learning everything.
We went to the book store and left Keith there while Amber, Tara, and I went to the fabric store. Tara doesn't like fabric but she didn't want to stay in the book store so she sat in the car and worked on some puzzle books she had gotten at the book store. Amber and I got lots of fabric! I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of it! I will have to post pictures of it later.

Yesterday we went to church and I sang my very first solo! Now I have sang small solo parts in the choir, you know like just a verse. But yesterday I stood up behind the pulpit all by myself and sang the whole song. A song of my choosing. I was so nervous and my legs were so wobbly that I thought I would fall going back down the couple steps from the pulpit! Everyone gave me lots of compliments, even my children. So I must have done pretty good.

Last night I was looking up in my closet for some things and I looked into this one small tote. I found some of my grade school papers I had forgotten were in there.
This little butterfly I made in first grade. It is made of dyed egg shells. I can still remember having mama save egg shells at home for me to take to school.
I just loved my first grade teacher, Mrs. Dunn. Her husband was the manager of the grocery store that we shopped at. They were the nicest people. When I was in my twenties I attended church with their son and his wife and daughters. Mr. Dunn eventually got Alzheimer's and I can remember Mrs. Dunn taking care of him. She was such a sweet loving woman. They have both passed away now and that is a great loss to this town.

I also found this angel in the tote. I didn't make her at school. I can remember she was in a coloring book and I traced her on white paper. I glued another piece of white paper to the back of the traced piece and put lots of glitter on it! It came out pretty light when I photographed it. Her hair is actually gold. I remember making several of these. I just thought they were so pretty. Actually she is not an angel, but I thought she looked like one. I made them at Christmas one year when I was very young.
Here is the back of the little angel girl.
When I was 16 my best friend, Debra, and I went to Mobile all by our selves. Mobile is 70 miles away and since our town is so small everybody went there to shop. Debra is now my Sunday School teacher. I have talked about her and posted pictures of her in my blog before. We each got one of these little elephants to keep forever and remind ourselves of our fun trip! I asked Debra not long ago if she still had hers and she said yes. We have had these elephants for 33 years now! I had put him in my tote, also.
Here is a side view of my little elephant.
I have to tell you what happened to Debra and me. We rode all around Mobile, went by her grandmothers and everything. We were almost home, had just reached the city limits of our town when we had a flat tire! Luckily this nice man stopped and changed it. We were so grateful that the tire went flat in our own town and not in Mobile or on the highway coming from Mobile. Now there are lots of service stations along that highway, but back then there were very few and they were far between each other. There was hardly anything along that highway back then. There are lots of businesses and such now. I will always cherish my memories of that trip. Yesterday morning when I got behind the pulpit to sing and looked up, there was Debra sitting there smiling at me. It really helped me. Debra is such a sweet person. I always know if I look at her she is going to be smiling at me. I am so glad we have remained friends all these years. There were a lot of years that we did not see or talk to each other as she had moved away to go to college and she married and we lost contact. But now she is back home and we are in the same church we attended together as teenagers and it is a good feeling to be back together again.

My Birthday & Other Goodies

I had a birthday! I think I mentioned that January 27Th was my birthday. We just had a little cake at home to celebrate. Nothing fancy. Hubby ordered the cake and why he put Happy Birthday Diane & Mama is beyond me! Amber said it looked like the cake was for two different people! When I got home from work, hubby asked me if I had any candles! I managed to find this #1 candle so we used it. I figure it can stand for one year older!
Here is a picture of my lovely cake. Doesn't it look all patriotic with the red, white, and blue roses?

Here I am getting ready to blow out the candle.
All my kids gave me great cards and hubby gave me a card with some money in it to spend. I did get one gift, though. My best friend, Barbara, send me a scrapbook paper carrier and some fantastic stickers! She is so sweet and never forgets me. Another friend, Debra, took me out for dinner for my birthday. My brother has mailed me a gift, but it has not arrived yet as he was late getting it sent off.
Here is the gift from my friend, Barbara. I can't wait to get started using them!

I think I told ya'll that we had made our living room into my dad's bedroom. Saturday I had to get in there and rearrange some things to put my mama's stereo back in there. This is one of those old wooden cabinet type stereos. The lid raises up and there is a record player and radio. This stereo had been in my family for as long as I can remember. I know it is older then me and it still works perfectly! I have listened to many a record on it and my mama loved it. When we moved into mama's house after her death and made the living room into Daddy's room we put the stereo in this building on our land in the country for storage. Well, little did I know that hubby decided he needed to clean out some of this storage stuff and he gave my mama's stereo away to a man he worked with. Now one day when hubby and I were driving somewhere together we were talking about this stuff in storage and I told him of a few thing he could get rid of, but I said the one thing I do not want to get rid of is my mama's stereo. Well, he had already given it away and did not tell me. Another day we went out to this storage building for something and when I went in I did not see my mama's stereo. When I asked him about it he told me he gave it away! I started to cry and told him I just could not believe he had done that after I specifically told him not to give it away. He told me he had given it away before I told him that. I tell you, I could not stop crying. I was so upset. He immediately called the man he had given it to and the man said he had it in a storage building and would bring it back. Now this man lives 70 miles away. It took months before hubby and the man could get together to get my mama's stereo back, but finally last week hubby got it back! I was so happy! So I had to clear out a spot in Daddy's room to put it. I should have taken a picture of it, but did not think of it. I cleaned it good. And polished it. It has a few nicks that were not on it before due to these men hauling it all over, but I was so happy to see it. When I still lived at home with mama I would listen to Christmas records on it every year while I decorated the Christmas tree. My mama loved to listen to her Christian records on it. Well, I finally got things rearranged so I had a place to put the stereo and I get my son to help me carry it and put it in the spot I had for it. I spread a little throw over it so it won't get messed up and as I am doing this my dad walks in. He looks at the stereo and tells me that it is older then I am. Then he says he doesn't want it and I can just throw it away! I looked at him and said "I want it! And I am keeping it!" After all I went through to get my mama's stereo back it just blew my mind for him to tell me to throw it away!
While I was in Daddy's bedroom I came across this pillow in a chair. I got Amber to go get my camera so I could take a picture of it. I have mentioned before about my brother, George, who died at the age of 13 back in 1967. Well, there were tons of flowers at his funeral and on each thing of flowers was a ribbon. My Mama wanted those ribbons and so someone collected them for her. Then this lady, who worked for my Daddy doing sewing in his furniture plant, took the ribbons and made some of them into this pillow. It does not look at beautiful as it once did, but then it is almost 42 years old. The center of it did have a round red piece of ribbon in it but years and years ago one of our cats tore that out. I have said for years that I was gonna fix it, but I have not gotten around to it. Maybe I will do that tonight while hubby is at work.
This is a close up of some of the ribbons. You can tell how frayed some of them are getting.
This is a close-up of the center. I will post a picture of it after I replace the center ribbon so you all can see. When my other brother, Keith, died in 1976 at the age of 24, my mother collected the ribbons from his flowers, also. But the lady who had made the first pillow for George had moved away and we never had anyone to make a pillow out of them. The ribbons stayed in a closet in a brown paper bag for many, many years. Finally one day when I was cleaning out the closet for my Mama I asked her about them and she told me to just throw them away and so I did.
I had to put clean out some of Daddy's drawers Saturday, also, and I came upon this stocking that I had crocheted him. I made it probably 30 years ago or more. I'm not even sure now, I can't even really remember making it. But I know I did. I was into making things like this way back then and it has a label on it that I put on it that says Daddy. I took it in the den and showed it to Daddy and he said he had forgotten he had it. It just makes you feel good to find something you made back when you were young, doesn't it?
Here is a close-up of the top of the stocking.
Here is a close-up of the bow and tag i had put on the stocking. After taking pictures I put it back in his drawer for safe keeping

Amber's been sewing!

This is Amber's pin cushion. She had a needle with some thread on it stuck in it. When she picked it up a couple days ago the thread on the needle had formed a heart! We just thought this was so neat, especially since it is almost Valentine's Day. Look in the lower right corner of the pin cushion and you will see the heart!
Amber decided that she wanted to make a hussif. For anyone who doesn't know a hussif is made to carry your scissors, thread, thimble, pins, needles and whatever else you want in. I had made a larger one and then a smaller one. She is working on making a smaller one for herself. She decided to make two log cabin blocks for the front and the back. She just finished the blocks yesterday afternoon and took a picture of them for me to post here. I think she did a fantastic job! She is also going to make some smaller log cabin blocks to make a doll quilt with.

What a scare!

Last night at nearly 11pm we got a phone call from my daughter, Tara. She called her sister's cell phone instead of mine, but I was standing right there and heard her talking hysterically over the phone. She did not call my phone cause she was afraid I would be mad at her! What a hoot! She said she had just been in a wreck and we needed to come at once! I threw on my clothes and Amber, Keith, and I ran out the door. Hubby was working nights and since she was not hurt I decided not to call him. As we were rushing down the road I looked over at Amber, who was putting on her shoes, and asked her where her pants were! She was in such a panic that she had taken off her shorts to put on her jeans and then forgot the jeans! She had put on her jacket, though. Well, I couldn't take the time to go back home for her to get pants, so I told her she would have to stay in the car. She decided to take my sweater and button it around her waist so it looked like a sweater skirt! I, however had to do without a sweater to wear and I had on short sleeves. It was a pretty chilly night out, about 40 degrees.
Anyway, we get to where Tara was and she was standing there next to two policemen. I just wanted to cry, but I wouldn't let myself cause I could not let myself fall apart. Tara came rushing over to me and hugged me. She was crying. Thank God she was not hurt at all! She and her friend had been riding around and it was time for her to come home. Her friend wanted to go to this party so he went there and got out and told her to drive his car home and he would have these girls bring him by to get it. So she left the place and had not gone but a few dozen feet when she ran off the road and the car rolled over! She ran off the road at this really bad curve. I mean this curve is more like a turn. There is only one small sign warning of it and it is a really dark road. I almost wrecked on this same curve when I was 18 or 19. You come upon it before you realize it. She said she could not find her cell phone and could not open the car door. So she let the window down and climbed out. She had to climb up a small embankment and then she ran back to the place where her friend was and used his phone to call her sister. Of course the policeman told me he had to do a breath test on her and I told him to go ahead. It was fine, though, she had not been drinking at all. I knew she hadn't. We stayed there until her friends grandmother came and the wrecker pulled the car out. This whole experience really terrified her and she says she doesn't even want to drive again. But the best thing for her is to get back behind the wheel and drive carefully. She was so upset all night long. She and I did not go to sleep till after 4am and then I did not sleep much. She just feels so bad about wrecking her friends car. It was just a freak accident. I told her they happen sometimes. If she had not been wearing her seat belt she would have probably been killed or hurt extremely bad. I just cannot thank God enough for keeping my little girl safe.
Here is a picture of the car before the wrecker came and turned it back right side up and pulled it out of the embankment.