Victorian purse

I found this old Victorian purse pattern and just had to crochet it.  It is crocheted out of size 10 cotton thread in single crochets.  Took a while to get it finished.  Here are some pictures of it during the process.  I just love it!  I don't know when I will ever use it.  I just love purses and bags, though.

It looked really neat turned upside down like this when I was working on it.  It would have made a pretty decoration just like this! hahaha

Then I flipped it over the other way.  Look how it just stands up by itself!

Here I added the rings to it.  I wound up crocheting over plastic rings twice as they were too large to begin with and I had to go buy some smaller ones.

I think this is pretty just like this!

Here it is all finished.  I had a hard time getting a good picture of it.  I hung it in front of some scrub pants where I work.  Hahaha

I then laid it on the counter on a piece of white paper so you can see what the straps look like too!  Hope you like my little purse!  It's definitely not big enough to hold everything I carry in my purse, but I can use it when I just run up to the store for a minute. 

Daddy's brothers

I could just kick myself!  My Daddy's brother's came to see him on Sunday and I totally forgot to take any pictures of them with him!  How insane is that!  He did recognize them, though, and that was so great!  He also recognized my cousins, Sandra & Janet.  He had not recognized them on their past two visits.  Since we got him off this certain drug he is much more alert and clear headed!  He is still somewhat confused about things and will say off the wall stuff, but that is not hard to deal with now.  This morning he did not say anything that was off the wall.  He was totally clear headed talking to me.  We were even discussing the fact that my daughter, Tara, is a carhop at the Sonic here and my Mama was a carhop at Shaw's Drive-In in Gulfport, Missisisspi when she and my Daddy met back in 1950!  It's hard to believe that has been 61 years ago!  He was telling me once again how she would tell him he owed half a dollar and so he would take a dollar out and tear it in half and give her half!  He was always doing this and Mama had told me her boss bought a roll of tape for her to tape the bills back together!  I have always loved this story!   My Mama had a half of a dollar bill in her jewelry box when she died.  I have it now in an album I made of my life.  Daddy used to have a half of a dollar bill  in his wallet, but when he was robbed once and his wallet stolen then it was gone.  That is sad. 

Here is a picture of Daddy & Mama on their wedding day - 1951!

Since I did not get a picture of Daddy and his two brothers on Sunday here is an old picture of them!  Actually this is Daddy and 4 of his brothers.  Two of them are dead now.
Left to right:  Daddy, Uncle Tom (dead), Uncle Bill (dead), Uncle Goat, and Uncle Junior.  Uncle Goat and Uncle Junior are the ones who came to visit Daddy.  Uncle Goat lives in Miami, Florida now and Uncle Junior lives in Orange Beach, Alabama now.

This was when they were first starting their furniture making business called Dumas Brothers.  Next time they come visit Daddy I am gonna get lots of pictures!

Doll, Reunion, & Brother's visit

I have a doll that I have had since I was 7 years old.  I can still remember when I got her.  My brother, Freddy, and me were going to spend a week with our grandparents in Gulfport, Mississippi.  Our Mama gave us each $5.00 to buy something for ourselves.  I bought this baby doll.  Freddy bought a little radio.  My doll must have been under $5.00 cause I remember Grandma making me give Freddy some of my money to finish paying for his radio.  My doll had light auburn hair, blue eyes, a cloth body with plastic legs and arms.  Sometime during my young age I cut her hair.  She lost eyelashes through the years and her clothes.  Her cloth body was really stained and wearing out.  I made her a new cloth body and glued on some new eyelashes.  I crocheted her some new clothes.  I cut out all her hair and ordered her a wig.  In the photo below I crocheted her a hat to wear while she was waiting for her wig to arrive.

Here she is with her new wig!

Now that I have made these clothes for her I am not really liking them.  I think I want to make her something more pastel looking.  These just don't seem right on her.

Our local high school here had a reunion spanning 10 years (1970-1979).  I had several cousins to graduate during this time span and my brother and I both graduated during it.  My brother did not get to come to the reunion and quiet a few of my cousins did not get to come.  Below is a picture of the ones who did come including me!

Left to right are:

Me, Mike, Janet, Sandra, Anita, Donnie, Jeff. 

It was like having a small family reunion along with a class reunion!  It was great!  Some of us got together for lunch earlier that day.  I just love having my cousins around.  We all grew up more like brothers and sisters then cousins.

This is a picture of my cousin, Anita, and me.  We are the same age and were always playing together growing up.

This is a picture of Janet, Me, and Sandra.  They are sisters.  I think I was over at their house more then anyone elses.  They only live a couple hours away and I have been so blessed to see them more in the past few months then in several years.

This is a classmate of mine.  I had not seen her since we were in grade school.  I did not even recognize her! 

This is lunch with my cousins!

Janet & Jeff

Shelia & Me (Shelia is Jeff's wife)

Sandra & Janet

We really need to have another family reunion soon!  I just love all my cousins, Aunts and Uncles and miss seeing them!

My brother, Freddy, came to visit this past weekend.  He got here late Saturday evening after a very long drive up from Florida.  He spent all day Sunday and Monday with our Daddy in the nursing home.  I made his favorite cake for him.  In fact I wound up making two!  My son, Keith, helped me make the first one on Saturday.  It was gone by Sunday night.  So Monday we made another one!  It was nearly gone by Tuesday morning!  They love that cake!  It is a Coca-Cola cake.  My brother had to leave Tuesday morning and go back to Florida and work.  I sure miss him!  We had a great visit and Daddy really loved having him with him.

Here is a picture of Freddy & Daddy.

I had carpal tunnel surgery on my left wrist two weeks ago.  It is still sore and there is still some numbness in the end of a couple of my fingers, but it is getting better every day.

Surgery and Vacation

I had Carpal Tunnel Surgery a month ago on my right hand. 
here is a picture of my hand before the surgery.

Here is a picture right after I got the brace off it.  They took off the big brace that they put on right after surgery and gave me a smaller brace to wear for 3 weeks.

Here is my hand right after I got the stitches out.  I was so glad to get them out!

The surgery went fine.  My hand is doing much better now.  It's still somewhat sore and I have to be careful not to hit it.  Last night I bumped it on the door knob opening the closet door and it really hurt bad. 

At least I am able to Tat and Crochet again!

I also went on vacation!  I left on Sunday, April 17th and came back on Friday, April 22nd.  I flew down to Tampa, Florida to visit my brother for the week.  It was the first vacation I have had in years!  I really needed the time away and really enjoyed it!

This is a picture of myself and my brother, Freddy, at his restaurant, Beef 'O Brady's!  I miss him already!

 This is my niece, Lacey.  We were at her basketball game.  She is so good in sports!

 This is Spike.  He is my brother's bearded dragon!

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to go to this fantastic bead store!  I live in a small town and there are not any bead stores close by.  The name of this store is Breezy's Beads.  It is actually in Brandon, Florida which is 12 miles from my brother's house.  He had to go over to Brandon for an appointment and as luck would have it the bead store was only a few blocks from where his appointment was!  So I went to the bead store while he was at his appointment!  It was a great trip and I hope I can go again sometime!

This is a bracelet I have tatted.  I have to put the clasp on it yet.

 This is a bookmark I have tatted.  I have also been working on some earrings.  I just love tatting!

I am hoping I can get enough things tatted to be in the arts & crafts show the first weekend in November.

A little Tatting

This is a small cardinal I tatted from Miranda's free pattern over at Tatting Fool's blog.  I just love how he turned out!  I just gave him away to a dear friend of mine who collects cardinals so I will have to tat myself another one!

Below are two bookmarks that I have tatted.  I did them in purple and gold which are the school colors here in town.

Below is a little picture that my friend has.  The table and vase look like watercolor and the flowers are tatted.  I would love to make something like this.  I will have to brush up on my watercolor skills.  I never was very good at painting!  I am afraid the pictures are not really clear.  It is hard to get a good picture of something in a glass frame.

My "baby boy", Keith, decided to sit in my lap!  What a big baby! hahaha  I should be the one sitting in his lap! 

This is my daughter, Tara, and her friend, Tiffanie.  Tara is the one with dark brown hair.

This is my daughter, Amber.  Tara's cat, Lily, is laying on her leg.  That cat loves to be in that chair or laying on anyone who is sitting in that chair!



What a WIN!!!

Gina over at Threads of a Tatting Goddess  had a give away and I was one of the lucky winners.  I was expecting just a little bag with a few tatting related items in it.  Imagine my surprise when this big box full of goodies arrived!  I was blown away!

She sent me all the items below!  A shopping list tablet with butterflies on it!  I love butterflies!  Two hair clips, two things of thread, beads, a blinged out tatting shuttle, gold ring, paper weight, little fabric bag, candy, and two tatted butterfly!  And that is not all!

She also sent me all these lovely vintage crochet books!  I love these books!

And this very nice Needlecraft Treasury book filled with crochet!

And a pattern to make a pin cushion trimmed in tatting!

Thank you so much, Gina, for all the fantastic things you sent me!  I am truly blessed to have won this give away!

Be sure and check out Gina's blog!  She is fantastic at tatting!

Birthday and Cat who rules the recliner!

My baby boy has turned 17!  It is so hard to believe that my baby is nearly grown up!  He definitely looks older then 17 at 6"2 and with a beard.  It's weird how it grows from ear to ear and under his chin, but not on his chin.  He shaves it every so often.  I am so proud of him.  He is a sweet, kind, Christian young man.

Here is his cake.  He loves Fun Fetti cake and wanted me to get 4 boxes of it and bake them and stack them on top of each other and ice them.  I told him that was way too many.  So we settled for two boxes of cake mix!

He got a nice bow for his birthday.  He is really into archery and very good at it!

This past Saturday night I was sitting in the recliner doing some handwork.  My daughter's car, Lily, decided that she wanted to lay on the footrest.  So she jumped up on it and pushed my legs out of the way!

 My daughter thought it was so cute and she took Lily's picture.

 Lily can be very territorial!  Every time I tried to put my foot back on the footrest she would bite me!  Here is a picture of her biting me!  Let me tell you, that cat bites hard!  You can't play with her too much cause she will bite you and sink her claws into you!  Our other two cats you can play with and they will just barely put their teeth on you and not claw you hardly ever.  But not Lily!  So I just decided to leave my feet off the footrest!

 Then my son came along and picked her up and carried her off.  Notice how she is over his shoulder.  She loves to be held this way.  My daughter has held her just like she was a baby since she was a kitten and Lily does not mind it at all!  She really is a sweet cat.  Just got to watch out for those teeth and claws!

This is what I was working on while sitting in the recliner.  Kokeshi Key rings.  Actually they have a hook inside of them and you pull your keys up into the doll and they are hidden.  I had made myself one a year or so ago and a lady saw it and wants one.  So I decided I would make several and maybe I can sell them.

 Here are my Kokeshi dolls before I put their hair on.  The one on the bottom left is the one I had made myself a year or so ago.

 Here is a little tatted bookmark I made.  I love tatting!  I am getting better every day with it!

 I spent almost 3 hours on Saturday at the doctor's office.  I have a sinus infection and ear infection.  It has been going on for nearly a week now and I was treating myself with over the counter medicine, but that was not doing the trick.  Finally went to the doctor and got a shot and some antibiotics.  Sure hope this mess clears up soon!