Felt, Sequins, Beads and Louisiana

Long time no see!  It has been awhile since I have been on here.  I tell myself that I am going to post more often but then time just seems to fly by in between my post.  I have been keeping busy. 

First I want to show you a picture of my cactus.  I keep calling it a Christmas Cactus but really it must be a Thanksgiving Cactus as it blooms right around Thanksgiving.

I have been busy working with felt and sequins lately.  The man who owns the building that the store is in where I work and he also has a business next door came over one day with a felt Santa that he was trying to sew sequins and beads on for a stocking he was making for his new grandson.  He had made a mess of the thread!  He said that he has made these stockings in the past but that was 19 years ago when he was 50.  So he asked me if I would make the stocking for him.  I told him sure thing.  Here are some pictures of the stocking and closeups of the objects on it.

He and his wife were very happy with how it turned out.  Working on this socking got me in the mood to work with felt, sequins, and beads.  It has been years since I had done anything out of these supplies. 

First thing I made was this beautiful redbird pin.  The picture does not do it justice.  Sequins just don't photograph well.  At least not for me.  It really looks a lot darker and sparkly then this photo shows.

I also made these gingerbread people ornaments for my best friend in Minnesota.  She lost all her Christmas ornaments and decorations.  This was a great loss for her.  I put the word out to all her friends so they would send her a special ornament to rebuild her collection.  These are the ones I sent to her.

I also made several of these little Kokeshia dolls that are lanyards.  Below are two of them.  I forgot to take pictures of the other two I made before I sold them.

Below is the Nativity scene I have at work.  It is clear acrylic and I love it!

We made a trip to Lafayette, Louisiana this past weekend.  We went to celebrate the graduation of my nephew, Ross, from college.  My husband's twin came down from Michigan.  My husband had not seen him in almost 3 years and their sister and her husband came from Arizona.  They had not seen her in quiet a number of years.  It was a nice little family reunion.

My husbands twin Mark and my husband Clark.  Do you think they look alike?  Everyone says Mark looks older then Clark.  That is because he lives in Michigan with all that dry air.  I told him he needed to move back to the humid South!  He said he looks older cause he is older as he was born first.  hahaha

 My husband with my niece's rat on his shoulder.  My nephew put that rat on my shoulder and it climbed into my hair!  I was screaming at him to get it off!  I hate rats!  I told him not to put it on me in the first place.

 Mark & Clark with their sister Jackie.  My husband is on the right.   All three of them kept taking off their glasses for the pictures so I told them to leave them on for one!

 My nephew Ross and me.

 Me, my son Keith, my husband Clark, my daughter Amber, and my daughter Tara.  My husband was loving that yacht in the background.  We had the party at a small yacht club that my nephew is a member of.

 Here is the whole clan.  My nephew Ross, my brother-in-law Claud, my sister-in-law Jackie, my brother-in-law Mark, Clark, Keith, Tara, me, Amber.
My camera does not take very good pictures at a distance.  My nephew's friend took some really good ones with her camera and is going to email them to me.

 My husband's sister Jackie and her husband Claud.  This was at breakfast the next morning.

 The sunset on the water at the yacht club we were at.  It was beautiful!

We had a great weekend.  It was a long drive and I tell you having three grown kids in the back seat is worse then having three little kids back there, I think!!!  They were always fussing about something.  Mostly about how croweded it was!  Poor Tara is the smallest and she had to sit in the middle.  She said she felt like a sardine crammed in between her brother and sister!  hahaha  I was so glad to get home and get out of that car!

Hopefully I will post again before too much time has passed again!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!