Bracelets

I was organizing my jewelry box the other day and thought I should show my pretty bracelets off. 
I love hearts and this bracelet is so comfortable.  It's flat so that it doesn't bother me when I use the keyboard.  It has three different metals and the hearts design are all different too.  I got it from one of the home jewelry shows that the name is evading me right now.  The next leather bracelet my sister picked up from an airport.  I really love the design of it, she gave her daughter (my niece) a green one which was equally as pretty.  The black bracelet was made by my friend Theresa's daughter.  She has a nice Etsy shop called Centered Jewelry. I wear black all the time and this bracelet gets used a lot.  It looks nice with the red one.  My niece Angie gave the last red bracelet to me and it came with two more of different sized beads.  I absolutely love the color.

These three I uncovered again.  They were hiding under some vintage hankys which I think I will show at another time.  The first she had made, she does some very nice jewelry making.  She should have an etsy page..hint.  It has some interesting charms on it.  The next is a beautiful red and green baubley bracelet and the last with the stamped pottery.  I love them all and feel lucky to have found them again. 

Thanks for stopping!

Journaling

It was a very stressful week for at least 10 reasons that I will not bore your with.  This Saturday morning, when I woke up it was still with me.  I was not going to let this ruin my weekend.  I needed to get my mind going in another direction.  Journaling was my way out.  I scanned the music channels and tried different ones until I settled on the 60's.  Usually upbeat sounding, not blaring that would interrupt my thoughts but a complement to what I was trying to achieve.  The page above was the first I did in my journal months ago.  I am practicing with different mediums and this, as I am sure you can tell, are calligraphy markers.  I taped Canson marker paper to the journaling page because I hate bleed through.  It worked great, and I highly recommend it. 

The back of the journal page with Canson marker paper again.  While I am in school I need help keeping my "create brain" going because the working, school, business brain is in full mode and takes over.  For the help I used the Creative Lettering Books by Lindsay Ostrom.  They are FUN with tons of ideas to quickly put in place and practice with.

Again this 3rd page was not done today.  I was practicing with the graphite drawing pencils.  I was stepping out of the box and drawing things I wouldn't normally take on.  Suprisingly it was pretty fun and they don't look awful.  You can at least tell what they are and after all, journaling is practicing.  The building is one in downtown Detroit that I see when we go to Tigers and Lions games.  Tall and many, many windows.  The other is the craft lamp on my table in my studio.  It has the light head on it that looks like a bird, then it has a magnifying arm.  I don't really use it unless I have something stuck in my finger that I need to see.  It also has an arm with a clamp that holds paper.  At the bottom is a tray that holds all your items that are needed.  I always try to get values in them and they can always use more for sure. 

Here is Page 4 that I finished this morning.  I started this over Christmas Break and wasn't sure what I wanted to do....So I just put a big Do It in the middle and worked around it using a regular #2 pencil and the colored pencils.  I had my handy dandy Faber-Castell pencil sharpener that is my favorite.  I started out with new pencils that I received recently and then went to the Prismacolor pencils that the pigment is much bolder.  I use these thoughts for life.

These two have become great buddies.  They are the closest in age and when Tiger Lily came to our house so hungry for food she had been pregnant but there were no kittens with her.  She was very stand offish and mean at first to Sophie but as you can tell Sophie didn't give up and they are very close now. 

A look of contentment on both faces.  See Lilys' arm holding Sophie.  But of course then they had to start wrestling and had to be sent from the room.  It was all good when I was sitting there but going and doing something else and they get themselves in trouble.

And I wanted to tell you after I got my journal page done, I did feel much better.  I needed to get a monkey off my back for the weekend. 
Deep Breath and go on.

I hope you find something that gets the monkey off your back.

Thank you for stopping...from the bottom of my heart. 

Little Monkey Quilt

I liked the oval headed monkey (see below) and it gave me the idea of putting it on the block. I felt it would look good on the blue-greenish color. I had oval plastic templates that I used for the head, ears, nose and mouth.  Cut them out and appliqued onto the block.  I then embroidered the words. 

I found this picture in the 2012 Spring Quilt Sampler magazine.  It was at a shop called Pendleton Quiltworks in Pendleton Oregon (UPDATE-I originally had a link to this shop and it quit working-I found they had sadly closed their doors.  Here is a link that tells that and also has some other quilt shops to view.. 

Keep checking back I am working on ideas to cover up the spots on the block.

See ya soon......

3 days of weather

 Made by the kids across the street

 Sculpted by the kids next door

Day One-January 5th-approx. 9 a.m....the snow started falling, temps were in the lower 30's producing a heavy, wet snow making many snowmen pop up.

We had a snow earlier in the week so there was already a path cut out from the previous time.

Kevin went out a couple of times to stay ahead of the snowfall so that it wouldn't be so hard when it was time to dig out.  It ended up snowing at least 15 hours straight, I am not sure when it stopped because I was sleeping.

3 out of 5 had to see what was going on out there.

Sophie is just funny.

Day 2- Monday January 6th, the snow has stopped, the winds have picked up and the temps dropped drastically.  It looks like a documentary for the North Pole and polar bears should start lumbering across the field.

Heavy snow on the neighbors pine trees.

The wind is blowing and drifting the snow.

Day 3, Tuesday January 7th, 7 a.m.  It's so cold that door handles on the outside doors are frosted over. 

Frost at the bottom of the doors.

The garage door is more frosty since the garage is not heated but well insulated. 

Outside temp from our covered porch, the weather channel on the Ipad said 12 below in our area.  It was blowing the wind chime and the trees enough to move them so wind chill was 25 to 30 below zero. 

Pretty but cold sunrise this morning.  Good picture of the waves in the snow.

There is going to be a little work in front of the garage doors.

The swath that had been cut out for the front sidewalk is all filled in.  This was the coldest air that we have seen for 20 years.  We have had enough, tomorrow it will be better.  Some people had lost electricity, we were not one, thankfully.  People I know had family and friends to go to. 

There were warming centers open in the city of Fort Wayne and hopefully the people who were homeless and without electricity went to them. 

By the weekend they are telling us the high should be 38 degrees.  We are looking forward to it. In my area we probably got 9 inches of snow, it's always hard to tell because of the wind blowing.  Other places received 14 to 16 inches.  It was quite a storm.

I hope that you have faired well in this bad weather.   

New Projects

I started two new projects over my Christmas break.  I decided for the new year I would try to work on using up my stash of fabric and unfinished pieces that were from myself and my Mom.  I would then gift them away to the family.  This is a fairly old block that my Mom had in her sewing stash that we found while cleaning out.  I don't believe that she made it because it doesn't look like her colors.  My cousin Deb goes to garage sales and flea markets, etc. and she would find these blocks and bring them to my Mom, so that may be where it came from.  After washing the block and drying it those spots appeared on it.  They are stiff like possibly a glue like substance was spilled on it.  I still wanted to use it because I already had a great idea for this block and the whole challenge of it was to make it usable and pretty.  I added the narrow red border and larger white border.  The idea I have for this, now-little quilt involves applique and embroidery. Keep checking back and I will add pictures as it evolves. 

When the new year came around I had wished I had a picture I could post to ring it in.  This idea took hold of my 5 cats with all their party hats on.  They were having a great time running around climbing the walls and sitting so nicely with their balloons.  Sophie can't quite get her hat straight and Lily feels silly with her crown on because she doesn't like to put on airs.  It is going to be painted in watercolors so please check back and I will post pictures of it also. 

Inspiration Wall

I dusted and changed goodies on my wall recently.  Cats and bird are the predominate objects to go along with some new Christmas items I received.  The sign "You had me at Meow" says it all about me.  I LOVED IT!  Along with it I got the big cat in front of the H with the fishbone legs, too funny. This prompted me to bring out other cats that I will enjoy on my wall.  Then I found a bright red cardinal with earmuffs and a scarf, and that brought out other birds also.  So take a look and see what you can find.  I hope you enjoy it also. 

Of course these two had to be in the room with me.  They have become good buddies. 

Then they started wrestling and things started flying off the table so they were then removed from the room.  They are like a 3 year old and a 5 year old together.  They can't leave each other alone. They make me laugh. 

Hope you enjoy your day.....I am waiting for our big snow to come.  Predictions are 8 to 12 inches!

Family

This is my family when we spent Christmas Eve at my sister and brother-in-laws home.  Family photos are funny because it is nearly impossible to get everyone to look happy, look at the camera or not hide like my one son who is hiding behind my sister-in-law in the pink turtle neck. All in all it is not a bad photo.  We will like it when we look back at it even as soon as next year.   

In 2013 my sister took a tour through Israel to visit areas where Jesus had been.  I thought she was so brave to go because there is always unrest in that area of the world.  She flew into the Tel Aviv airport and I was so uneasy about this but she was alright.  I am never fast about unpacking gifts or new clothing.  I suppose I like to savor he moment.  These are items that she brought back to share with us.  This item here is called a Mezuzah.

• 

  Since we just celebrated the birth of Christ I thought this was an appropriate time to show this bag that she picked up. I will not use it because I don't want it to wear out. probably will display it somewhere.

This is a lovely cashmere scarf that she also brought back. 

She had just a wonderful time and wants to go back again.
I was glad when she got back on our own soil and I am so glad that she got to go on this trip that she has such fond memories of.  Thank you to my dear Sis.

Scrapbook Page

Here is a recent completed scrapbook page.  I feel I would drive myself crazy if I went chronologically through the kids lives.  If I have a picture that I like and have an idea for it then that's when I do a page.  The kids are 22 and 19 so it's a mute point to say I will ever be done.  This page was inspired by another page at a rubber stamping convention.  The flowers and the die cut leaves I purchased at the convention.  The cornstalks I blew up and cut out.  They were ours in the front yard.  I also like the different colored pumpkins and I used the glue pen and fine glitter.  Behind them is a die cut vine also.  I had the chip board letters from 7 gypsies. I am pleased with the end result.  It is one of my favorite pictures.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Journal practice

Practice drawing a Heron that walks around our pond in the warmer weather.  Just a little lettering practice also. Used a #2 pencil and prismacolor pencils.

I love a new cup

I picked this up at the grocery last night.  My criteria for a good cup...nice substantial handle and a deep cup and it should be interesting too.  My new winter sweater.  The coffee tastes good in it this morning. 

May your coffee taste good too!!

A little bit of Sophie

This was approx. 3 weeks after I found Sophie she might weigh 14 ounces.  She looks pretty ragged here yet.

This was taken today.  Her coat is really soft now and she may weigh 3 1/2 pounds.

This was taken in the third week also.  Her bottom lip was pretty much healed but she hadn't compensated yet because her lip was not in the right spot.  Her food would drip on her chest. 

This also was taken this morning.  She is all clean and the only time there are some drips are after she has taken a drink of water. 



She lays beside her buddy Smoke a lot.  Here she is enjoying the sunshine on the window sill. 



She goes wild on the cat tree and climbs all the way through it and back down. 



Definitely and AWWWWWW moment.
Who could resist that?

She wormed her way into our hearts.

Her Quirk is that she loves the cat box.  We find her laying in it sometimes.  Of course if someone else is using it she is right there watching... and bothering.  Then they run off and she covers it up for them. 

Late Halloween

I couldn't let a year go by without showing my cute neighbors for Halloween.  Normally I take pictures of the other trick or treaters but it was a very very drenching night and I only took these good looking kids. 

I'll try again for next year. 

Book Review-Burial Rites: A Novel by Hannah Kent

This book was based on a story that happened in Iceland in the early 1800's.  It involved the brutal murder of a well known man and his friend.  The man's servant and also lover was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death.  While awaiting her death sentence she was put with a family to live.  The family, of course, was not happy to have this person living with them but they were ordered to do so.  A young minister was also assigned to the woman for her spiritual well being.  She had asked for this young minister because she knew him from before much to his surprise.  This book is about the evolving of a relationship between the woman and the family and the woman and the minister.  How she was a hated murderer to an accepted part of the family. By the end I had hoped that the inevitable was not going to happen.  It took me a while to get into the book but one fourth of the way through it  I was rooting for the main character.  Here is the information about it on Amazon.Amazon

Decorations and Baking

I baked cutouts today.  I am hoping to get others to frost the cookies.  The recipe I use, we got for a wedding present 33 years ago.  It had the best flavor and it doesn't have to be chilled.  I tripled the batch to get them all done. 

My decorating is all done.  Put the garland and ribbon on the stairway.

Looking from the foyer into the Great Room.

From the kitchen area into the Great Room.

The peanut butter balls got made also.  They are chilling on the stairway going up to the attic.  We call it our walk-in freezer.  This batch is 4X the recipe.  It's always a favorite and I like to have
plenty. 

We had a snow this weekend and it was so nice to stay in and get things done.
Watched some movies, had the fireplace going.  It was a grand time.