Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to the love of my life, my husband. I will be nice and won't post how many birthdays have come and gone, I just wanted to let you know how special you are to me. Have a great day today, here is your adgenda.
Sleep in this morning
No work today
Mom will call and sing to you (her normal Marlyn impression)
Take a trip into town
Lunch with Mel (Canceled, Sorry but she has to work)
Dinner at Texas Roadhouse.


To all my blogger friends: I am participating in the Pay it forward event on here so check back for more details and how to sign up for this special giveaway.

Baby its cold outside

Photograph by Jenny

I live in the sunshine state called Florida, my only question lately is where is the sunshine. The backyard birds have taken up ice skating on the pond, fountains in the area are turning into ice sculptures and I am in hibernation mode. I moved here to get away from the Winter Blues, to enjoy the warmth of the sun. I will admit that most years our winters were really mild. After all we never pack away our summer clothes and the only reason I still own a winter coat was for my trips up north. This year has been different, we have had to many of those winter days. We even had the threat of snow. That alone would have kept me off the roads as most people here have never had to drive on snow and ice.

I guess you might say I have a good case of the Winter Blues, it is just to cold to venture far. So I stay in my warm house, in my recliner, covered with my blanket, and cross stitch. I am really making progress on Lavender & Lace's Celtic Summer. I also have the added layer of four legged warm bodies snuggling up to me, or maybe they are just trying to take over my blanket.

I am hoping the blues leave soon, as I really need to get into the craft/sewing room and clean. We are planning to venture out this weekend and pick up some storage tubs so I can start packing the items for Ally and Jack. Their stuff is in small boxes that are stacked all over the place. Besides now that the holidays are over I can start working on items for their special events.

Since I have been staying home and keeping warm, I have been spending a lot of time on the computer. I have been finding and entering blog contests and meeting a lot of new friends. I never knew there were so many people who crafted and blogged about it. So many talented women who will share their projects, ideas, tips and hints. Last night I met a woman who lived near my home town and she now lives in Ireland, I met her through a giveaway she was having. As for the giveaways, Yes I admit I am addicted to them but that is a good thing. After all it keeps me out of trouble, I meet lots of nice people, I read their blogs and I WIN things which is the best part. I LOVE WINNING, can you tell I get excited about winning things. I did really good last year with my winnings, I won patterns, material, kits, gift certificates and pin cushions. So far in January I have won Fiskars items, a Santa wall hanging kit and a Sampler cross stitch chart. I have my name in lots of contests, I will just keep my fingers crossed that I will get the email that says I won.

2010 is here

Welcome 2010, A New Beginning for the New Year, This will take some getting used to saying the year twenty ten.
January 1,
Hubby and I spent the day watching movies, enjoying our traditional New Year Dinner of Pork and Saur Kraut and talking to family members. I also spent some time Hopping as today started the shophop with 180 sites to visit. As we were watching movies I was stitching my Lavender and Lace Celtic Summer project. I started a New Tradition for my New Year, which is to start a New Project for 2010. I read this idea at Arachnes Silken Web's site and decided it would be a wonderful way to start the New Year. My new start was a CCS pattern, the Angel of Hospitality, when finished she will go into a quilt with other angels made by World of Charity Stitchers and be delivered to a nursing home in Alabama. If you would like to learn more of this New Start tradition follow this link http://arachnessilkenweb.blogspot.com/
January 2,
Today we will be packing up the Christmas Decorations and getting the house back in order for the New Year. It will be quite awhile till we can take down the outdoor decorations as we need to wait for a sunny day so things may dry out. We have just been having to much rain and everything is saturated. What the rest of today holds, well I have no idea. Guess I will just wait and see what happens, maybe hubby will be nice and take me out to dinner after all the work is done.
First week:
I am hoping to get into my craft and sewing room this week and give it a good cleaning for the New Year, this is my New Beginning. It will take at least a week if not more time to go through things and put things back in place. Then there is getting rid of things (Mel volunteered to be the recipient). If you are a crafter you know what I mean by crafts taking over. After my room is back to where it should be I will then be ready to start all over again.
This year I have Jack's Bar Mitzvah (April)and Alison's Bat Mitzvah (Sept) to make centerpieces for, I have all the components sitting in boxes in my craft room. I am well ahead of my time line on the centerpieces, I made or order all the components so they will just need assembled. Jack's theme is Chinese and it is the year of the Tiger so his will be fireworks and tiger decorations. Ally's is Puppies and Kittens so I came up with a old fashioned Tea Party theme with ceramic puppy's and kittens everywhere. I made a hundred or so animals and old fashioned shoes for her centerpieces and I have been collecting Tea cups for the arrangements which will be filled with sweetheart roses.
I have a box of Counted Cross Stitch Squares that the ladies of WOCS have sent to me to be made into quilts for Century Care Center Nursing Home. I will work on these throughout the year and try to get some Stitching done for some of the children's quilts.
I also have Melanie and Jenny's quilts that need quilted, and I need to get one made for Donnie. His is cut out but I just need to redesign and put it together. These are family heirloom quilts that have their family tree history done in embroidery designs. I also promised Kyle that he could help me make a quilt for his bed this year. He will be designing the quilt and helping with the whole process of making his quilt.
Then there is my Counted Cross Stitch projects most of which are Lavender and Lace Designs. I have been so very fortunate in getting my supplies for this craft. I have found supplies at yard sales, ebay and freecycle (picked up a large box of floss and books this weekend) and of course I am always looking for sales at Jo Ann's or other craft stores. My only problem has been the Lavender and Lace Needlepaints. These colors are discontinued and so very hard to find. I found what I needed for the Celtic Summer but I am still in need of 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 colors for my Celtic Autumn pattern. If you happen to have these colors I would love to have them, any little snippet of the colors would help. If you have finished a project and have leftover thread let me know, if you have new skeins and would like to sell it please contact me. I also need Carron Wildflowers Flame and Burnt Toast if that happens to be in your stash. Maybe we could trade if I have something you need leave a comment and I will get back to you.
These are just some of my projects, there is also the ceramics, my stained glass, my warm glass, my card making and my painting.

SO MANY CRAFT PROJECTS TO DO I know I will be busy all of 2010 How about you?

New Year's Eve 2009

Father Time and Baby New Year

New Year's Eve 2009, tonight we say good-bye to 2009 and Welcome in 2010. It seems that this year has slipped by me, I was just getting the hang of writing 2009 and now I have to change to 2010. Seems the older I get the quicker the year passes by.
So many things have happened this year both good and bad, but we survived it all. This year another one of my family members (Aunt Sis) left us, seems like each year we lose a loved one. So as the clock ticks down 2009 I will take a moment to remember all of my loved ones that have passed.
This year has also been a trying time for my son, he is facing a new year alone. His wife decided she wanted to explore her other options and called it quits. It hurts me so much knowing the pain my son and their 4 lovely daughters are going through. I know these things happen but I never suspected they would ever split as they were always the perfect couple.

This year end for Jenny was extremely scary as the other night as they watched a movie, her youngest child spiked a fever and had a seizure. They spent the night in the ER and after many tests Rebecca was sent home with a clear report.

Jenny's oldest son will soon make eagle scout, Emily the elder of the clan is so into designer clothes and shoes, Ally is still the princess or so she thinks, Lizzy is the most delightful child, Morris, well what can I say about Morris, he drives his mother crazy. He is always into something. I think he is adorable and not a terror at all, but than I don't live with them. Becca is beautiful, quiet and so much the glamor girl.

Melanie continues her work at the Nursing home, this year she went back to being a CNA instead of working in a office. The change means more money and hours for her, but it is harder on her back and knees.

As for Melanie's clan, Heather is still into her sports while Kyle is into books of all sorts, he loves being a know-it-all.

Hubby and I have both enjoyed a year without medical emergency's, I guess we are doing something right. We will always be on medications but that is just a part of getting old. We still enjoy our weekend outings, garage sales, flea markets and auctions, you never know what treasures you will find, and I love doing the freecycle thing (picked up a box of cross stitch supplies today).

As for the house, Thanks to last years puppy's and their un-decorating of the hallway (tearing wallpaper) I wallpapered the hallway, painted the dining room and I stained all the trim that hubby made for those areas. He still needs to make trim for the living room, bedroom and finish the cabinets in the bathroom. Now that he is healthy again, I hope to see those rooms finished soon.

My charity work went well this year with donations to numerous groups, my main one is the World of Charity Stitchers, you can see some of the donations on past postings on my blog.

My winnings: this year I have become such a contest junky. I love entering contests, hops, dashes, shuffles, and giveaways and I really love winning. I have won all kinds of wonderful items on the blogs I follow. I am in the works of coming up with my own giveaway so keep checking back.

As for the New Year, Well we shall see what the future holds

We will be spending tonight watching Dick Clark usher in the New Year, we will snack on grapes and cheese with a glass of wine, maybe a 1/4 glass for me. I just can't drink much. Tomorrow we will watch the Rose Parade and if the Mummer's parade is on we will watch that too, hubby will watch the games and we will have the Traditional Pennsylvania Dutch dinner of Pork and Saur Kraut. I know that I now live in the South and the tradition here is black eye peas cooked with a dime, but I don't like them.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all.

If you would like to see how the rest of the world celebrates NEW YEARS follow this link.

http://www.fathertimes.net/traditions.htm

Its Over

Christmas Eve and Day are now over, gifts unwrapped and out the door. For us the big family thing was Christmas Eve, we had the sound of little feet running all around the house. They came, they ate, they unwrapped and they left, in a torrential downpour I might add. All day it rained and by the time everyone got here it was pouring cats and dogs. When they left it was raining even harder, but they all managed to get home safe and sound.

The youngest Grandchild Rebecca spent a lot of her time in front of the chocolate fountain stuffing Strawberries in her mouth. I wonder if Jenny will be able to save her little dress, it had chocolate everywhere, but she had fun. The Teen girls were being their sassy self, back talking their moms, I hope they soon grow up and get out of that stage. Mel is getting double duty as Kyle is now getting snippy to, they think it is cool to act this way. Hang in there Mel it does get better, one day you will have mature adult children. Jack, is younger then Emily, but he is acting so grown up lately, I don't hear him sassing his Mom like the girls are. He seems to be mature for his age. Jenny is showing more grey lately, has to be the attitude she gets from the kids and to think she has 6 to get over this stage, she might be totally grey before all is said and done, that's what they make hair dye for.

As for me and my list to Santa:

I woke up Christmas Morning and looked outside and there in the driveway was a Silver Vehicle, that's it, Santa is real, he had given me my car. WAIT a minute, that isn't the car in the picture, it looks a little familiar to me. Hey what goes here, I know that car, it belongs to Phillip. So the car wasn't for me, Phillip had driven here and when he left he drove Jenny's van home (Jenny doesn't like driving at night and besides the weather was horrible) They will be here to pick up his car Sunday. So no car for me, no quilting machine, I did get a Wii Fit but not from Santa, we bought it at K-Mart. As for the necklaces, I got the dragonfly necklace and a Butterfly necklace set both came from hubby. No mermaid or pom necklace from Santa, no PC Stitch software (guess I have to order that too) Quilt Material, this was in my mailbox Thursday , my win from sewmamasew and last was the cross stitch supplies, nope didn't get anything from that list. So in my opinion, THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS, at least not one that stops here. Heck, Santa didn't even fill my stocking and Evelyn is no longer with us to fill it for me. My items came from my Santa, my hubby. Thank you dear for all you do for me, you are the one person who makes my Christmas Special.

Grandson Kyle got me a cute little candle lamp for my spa bath (see he can be sweet), and Melanie got me some little treasures for crafting or to hang on my tree. That's it, well I did get the Simplicity Rotary Cutter and Bias Tape Maker, but it didn't make it back under the tree. Oh and friends Sharon & Mike got Hubby and I a gift certificate for Texas Roadhouse and a $ 10.00 scratch off ticket (not a winner)

I spent months making Ceramic trees, floral arrangements, cookies, shopping and wrapping gifts, decorating the house and for what, in a matter of a few minutes things are unwrapped and loaded in cars and they are gone. So I think for next year a gift certificate per family, they can do the shopping and wrapping. Jenny for Hanukkah, Melanie and Donnie for Christmas, besides we are just getting to old for all this work. Next week it all comes down and gets packed away again, that is if the outdoor blowups ever dry out.

Christmas Day we didn't do anything, we just sat around and watched TV and I worked on my cross stitch Celtic Summer design. Nice and quiet, lots of Christmas movies on and we had leftovers for dinner, so just a reheat no cooking. Today we are going to brave the stores, I need to return a blouse to Wal-mart. I bought it for Christmas Eve and when I tried it on something just didn't seem right. Took a minute to figure out that the blouse had two left sleeves, there is a notch in the back of the sleeve and on the other sleeve it was in the front. Guess it was made in China, so back it goes.

One more thing to add, We found homes for all the puppies but one. Lady Charmaine (Charmin) is now officially one of our family. She like all the rest will be spoiled rotten oh, so sorry I mean Pamper. She has already made herself quite at home.

A Christmas Gift

This morning I checked my email and found I had received a wonderful Christmas gift. I had entered a contest at sewmamasew on the last day of their entries, not even being sure I had made the deadline. I did and I won one of the many items offered in their giveaway from over 1,000 entries. I won Gee's Bend fat quarter pack (it is pictured above) Needless to say I was thrilled, I love those words "You won". The material will be put to good use in the quilts I will be making next year for World of Charity Stitchers. I have a box of squares the ladies have stitched waiting to be made into quilts for Century Care Center and a Cancer Patient quilt. Now if I could find a contest to win batting, or one to win a quilting machine, wouldn't that be something? I do enjoy making these quilts, after all I get to practice new block designs.

My Christmas countdown

House decorated inside and out, Check

Tree decorated, Check

Charity Quilts and knitted items finished & delivered, Check

Ceramic Trees finished & delivered, Check

Floral arrangements finished & delivered, Check

Cookies baked and delivered, Check

Gingerbread houses finished & delivered, Check

Cookie Trees finished & delivered, Check

Candy made, not yet

Shopping done, Check

Gifts wrapped, not yet

I am almost there, a couple more days and we will be invaded Christmas Eve by the grand kids that live close by. They will be to excited to eat any food, well almost any food, the Chocolate Fountain is always the first thing they want to dive into. Rule is they need to eat something in the hot food line before they go for the dessert table. Strawberries, Bananas, pound cake, pretzels and marshmallows all go for a dunk under the creamy chocolate waterfall. When the time is right, the children all take their place in front of the tree and Grandpa hands each child a wrapped box, when they get their boxes they can rip and tear to their hearts content looking for the treasure each package holds. After all packages are out from under the tree and the paper and empty boxes are taken to the trash they settle down to play with one of their favorite items and once again the chocolate fountain becomes the center attraction, especially for the teens. A friend of mine said it best, you work for months and months, and in just a few short minutes it is all over. I am not sure what hubby and I will be doing Christmas Day, in the past we have traveled to Biloxi with friends or by ourselves. This year it may just be a quiet dinner for two and a movie

Merry Christmas to all

Santa Giveaway

Linda and Sandy from "This and That Fabrics" are having yet another giveaway. A cute Santa Face wall hanging kit is the prize this time. The ladies have been busy the past couple of month's with their giveaways. So we all need to stop by and support their blog and their store that is filled with wonderful items. visit their blog at This-n-That Fabrics and Craftshop Shuffle leave a comment which will enter you in their contest and tell them I sent you. Have fun and here's hoping you win.