Do You Like Smaller Swaps??

Val at Yarni Gras is hosting a Witches Cupboard Swap. The spending limit is $10.00 before postage, which I love! I am leaning towards the smaller swap now days. The more expensive ones are just not working out for me anymore. So anyway, in Val's swap you just need to make something that you would find in a Witches Cupboard and then tell what it it. A jar of eyeballs, batwings, dragon's tears.......let your imagination go on this one. So make sure you sign up for this Halloween swap......after all we can all use some more things for our kitchens, right?

Your Invited To A Halloween Party

A Fanciful Twist is hosting a blog hopping Halloween Party. Check out her blog and get some great ideas to make this Halloween Party fun for all. The date is October 17 so mark your calenders and come and join other bloggers for some ghoulish fun!

What's Your Opinion?

I took Mallory to the Dr. for her 4th grade physical the other day. They wanted to give her the Human papillomavirus vaccine, (HPV or Gardasil) but I opted out on it. These are my reasons for opting out on the immunization.

1. I think she is just way to young to be messing with her hormones.
2. She just turned 9 so she isn't sexually active and not being a naive mom, I'm still guessing she won't be sexually active for a few more years.
3. The Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA) states in it's 8/19/09 issue "it is impossible to predict exactly what effect vaccination of young girls and women will have on the incidence of cervical cancer 20 to 40 years from now. The true effect of the vaccine can be determined only through clinical trials and long-term follow-up."

So I'm comfortable with my decision to opt out and will probably be opting out for at least the next 3-4 years.

What's your opinion on the vaccine?

A SleepOver Swap and A New Idea

I participated in A Sleepover Swap hosted by A Thrifty Mrs. and Gillian was my partner. Gillian lives in Ireland so it has taken our packages a little longer to go through the mail system. Anyway, Gillian received my package and here's what I sent her. We had to send 5 things that you would use on a sleepover.

I made this eye mask out of felt and embroidered the eyes on it and added a little make-up. I made 2 pillowcases. I used French seams on them and a different border. I was happy with how they turned out. I also made her a tote bag to bring her things to the sleepover in and then some candy and a deck of cards. I really had fun making the things for this swap and thought it was a great idea for swapping fun!

My sister Cathy gave me this idea to make take along silverware holders. Her son, Alexander, had made one for her as a Christmas gift and she takes it with her all the time. You just put your silverware in and roll it up. It's great if you don't like to use plastic ware or if there might not be some where your going.

I thought it turned out pretty cute!

Wizard of Oz Gala

I am a Kansas girl. I grew up and lived in Kansas until 12 years ago. My memories of the Wizard of Oz are that every time it came on we happened to be visiting my grandparents. This was definitely a coincidence, but a nice one. I remember always crying at the end of the movie. My favorite characters were Glenda, the Lollipop Guild and I thought the horse of a different color was really cool. I decided not to show pictures from the movie because I'm assuming a lot of other people are, but here are some pictures of my Kansas home and as we all know,

"There's no place like home!"

This is the house my parents built and we moved into the year I was in first grade. The name of the street we lived on was Castle Drive. As kids we always thought that was such a cool name for a street. My mom sold it a few years ago, but this house will always be home to me.



This is a picture of downtown Wichita, Kansas and the Arkansas River. If you are from Wichita it is called the "Our Kansas" river, but technically I guess it is called the Arkansas River.



This is another view of downtown Wichita.

One of the things I have hated since I moved to New York is that when you tell people you are from Kansas, especially men, they always say, "Your not in Kansas anymore" or some stupid remark about ToTo. I swear I think that's the only part of the movie that some people saw and no we don't all wear cowboy boots and live on farms in Kansas, although I do love cowboy boots!

I love the movie The Wizard of Oz and I'm proud to be a Kansas girl.

This is a cake I made for my Daughter Lexie's 9th Birthday.

Thanks for hosting the Oz Gala Twyla and Lindsey!!

This is One Cutie Pie!

My daughter-in-law, Jenn, took these cute pictures of Chad, Jr. the other day when they went to the lake. I just think he is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen! (Of course, all my babies and grandbabies are the cutest babies I've ever seen!)

This is one of my favorite pictures. I just love those little tootsies.

I'm Trying A Couple of New Things

I haven't been selling much on Etsy and so I decided to give ArtFire a try. I feel kind of like I'm cheating on Etsy, but I'm not leaving her. There are some advantages to ArtFire. There is lots of free advertising and no fees for the basic account. I'm really excited to see how things go over there. So on my side bar you can see the new things I just put in my ArtFire Shop and I also have a new blog that is a central location showing all of my items for sell.

Tell me what you think!

Best Buds

My son Jace is 3 1/2 and my grandson Anthony just turned 2. Anthony lived with us until he was 18 months or so and then I babysat him until the end of June. Jace and Anthony have become best buds. They place so good together. Last night Anthony spent the night and they were so cute playing together. Jace is explaining things to Anthony, they sat and looked at a Barney book together, the two of them were sitting on the couch under a blanket watching t.v. and then when we laid down Jace had his arm under Anthony's head and Anthony was snuggled into Jace. It makes me so happy to see the boys so close and play so well together. I hope this friendship that they have now will remain and develop to an even stronger friendship over the years.

Best Buds!

This makes me Happy!

Patches

This is what I've been working on the past couple of days. Patchwork, patchwork and more patchwork. I love digging into my fabric scraps and seeing the combinations I can come up with.

I remember reading a story in our Reader in elementary school about a little girl and I think they called her Patches. They were poor and they couldn't afford new clothes so her mom would put patches on the worn out areas of the little girls dresses. The kids at school made fun of her and called her Patches. Her mom surprised her one day by putting little animal shaped patches on her clothes instead of regular patches and the little girl felt so special and the kids loved these patches. Anyway, I think of that story when I go through my fabric scraps and cut out patches.

Last night I cut out a lot of patches in reds, yellows, greens, blues, aquas. I can't wait to get started sewing today!!

Link to More Silliness

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29808&id=1037065045&l=0eb16a452e
If your absolutely intrigued with my silliness today there are more of these photo's and some comparison's to my real life photo's at the same ages on the above link.

I'm so Silly!

On Facebook people have been playing around with this free site, Yearbook Yourself. I decided to put me and Earl's recent photo's onto yearbook pages and here are a few that I came up with.

1952

Strand of Pearls were the style for young ladies.

I wonder if we look like our parents

would have in their High School Yearbook?

1962

In '62 Pillbox hats were the big style.

I would have been 1 and Earl was born in 1962.

1978

Platform shoes for the Dancing Queen?

I may have worn platform shoes occassionally,

but a dancer I never was.

1998

The year of the platform sneakers

Remember those??

2000
The year of the Y2K bug.

What do think? Earl in dreads???

Pretty funny! You can move your image around to fit the pictures. I guess you can even do group shots. I didn't try any of those yet. Check it out and have fun!!

Why are People Rushing Into Fall?

Have you seen all the swaps regarding Halloween and Fall? I'll have to admit I did sign up for a Halloween Swap and one for the kids, but I don't want to rush into fall............because after fall comes winter. Winter is just to long here in New York. I hate the cold, I don't mind some snow, just not endless days of snow. Fall is a wonderful season and I love it.........I am just not ready to rush into it. I'm still enjoying the beautiful warm days of summer. I'm still enjoying the kids being home all day and my grandaughters coming over for sleepovers. I'm still enjoying Earl coming home at 5:00 instead of 7:00 once school starts. I'm enjoying being able to sleep in a little bit and not get up and have to rush the kids out of the house. I am going to cherish these next few weeks of summer!!!

What am I Suppose to Do?

I've been so irritated the last couple of days that I didn't know what to blog about. I had a nasty comment left in regards to my post on Facebook about Mallory's Birthday Party. It was by one of Earl's family members who was hurt that they weren't invited. I explained that we only invited my kids, spouses and grandkids because that makes 26 people and that's just all we can handle. So we choose not to invite anyone but immediate family members. Earl doesn't talk to his family as a general rule and, yes, it bothers me. I am close to my family even though I live far away from them and can't imagine not interacting with them, but that's just not how Earl is. Earl hasn't even talked to this person in a few years.

So who got chewed out for not inviting them to the party?? Me. Of course! Earl started a Facebook page last night and he got a nice comment left by this person. ???????

So do I go against Earl's wishes and spend time with this person? She says she just wants our kids to know each other and that I shouldn't take that away from them by not inviting them to things or going to their parties. I do want my kids to know his side of the family, but I have to live with Earl too. Do I take the blame for Earl's decision's? I'm so irritated by all of this. All I wanted to do was to share pictures of Mallory's party and instead it has turned into 3 days of guilt, tears and nasty comments left on my Facebook page. Maybe this is why Earl doesn't want to spend time with some of this family?? I don't know. I'm just very hurt and irritated over the whole episode and I think it's really unfair to put me in the middle.

the girl LOVES plaid and more B-Day pictures

Well, Mallory's 9th Birthday party went well and she had so much fun! She had my 3 grand daughters spend the night so we're still kind of in party mode this morning.

This is the dress I made for Mallory to wear at the party. It has 3 tiers of ruffles and looks so cute on her.

See the yo-yo on the striped fabric?

That is to cover up a snip I accidently made while snipping a thread.

Yo-yo's make great band-aids for dresses!!

This is one of the decorations that the kids and I made.

The kids colored the fish to hang in the net.

It looked really cute!

Lexie wearing the coconut bra

Mallory wanted plaid clothes this year and plaid is what she got from our sweet neighbor Holly.

more plaid

and more

and more plaid!

Thanks Holly for getting Mallory so many outfits and in plaid!!

We had a great time, but boy was I ever pooped out afterwards!

I'm glad her birthday only comes once a year!

Party Preparations

Today we're getting things ready for Mallory's Luau Birthday Party tomorrow. I went to buy some lai's and Earl just so happened to remember that I already had some in the basement. I remembered too, but they weren't the kind I was wanting for this party. So anyway, I ordered some more tropical looking flowers on line and we are using the old lai's, but taking them apart and designing the kind that Mallory and I wanted. It's a little more work, but I am using the ones we already had. Right?!?!?

The old lai's had white flowers and gold thingies on them. We cut the string, took the lai's apart, then cut the gold thingies off the gold beadie things and restrung them with 2 white flowers, a tropical flower and a gold beadie thing. I know my terminology is great, huh?

This is a picture of the original and finished product. I think they are turning out pretty cute!

Now tonight I have to go out and buy some clear party bags because the really cute flamingo party bags I bought from the $Tree all have holes in the side seams. So we're going to line the clear bags with the cute, but cheap flamingo party bags and then refill them all.

Aren't birthday party's fun!

I Think I'm Going to be Busy!

Here's the same hat as yesterday just in a different color and size.

I already have 3 requests to make hats for people.

I love when people like what I make!!


Have a wonderful day!

You know what I'll be doing!

A Summer of Sewing and Crocheting

I have been doing a lot of sewing and crocheting so far this summer. Here's some of the things I made during the last week. I have more, but they're for a swap so I'll have to show them later.

Here's a newspaper boy style hat that I crocheted. Jace isn't happy about modeling it for me, but I don't have a girl that size so he's stuck.

I made another bag and was going to use it for a swap,

but I decided to keep this one for myself.

I made this bag for my sister Cathy

and this apron for my sister Cathy.
The receipt for the fabric was dated Nov. 8.
Thanks for being so patient Cathy!!


I have been having a blast sewing! I'm making Mallory a dress for her to wear on her birthday on Saturday and she wants another one in plaid, so I'll be working on those. I'm also almost done with another hat but in a cream color.
Busy, Busy, Busy!!
I love it!

A Baptism

Today we celebrated my grandson, Chad, Jr.'s, baptism. He is such a cutie!!

Baby Chad and his Uncle Elias

The pouring of the water

The priest welcoming Chad, Jr. into the church community

Chad and Jenn (the parents)

Meagan and Jesse (the godparents)

and Chad, Jr. (the star of the show)

We had a great time and despite it raining during the celebration party all went well. Baby Chad's other grandpa was smart and brought a canopy with him to set up in our yard so people could still sit outside and eat. It was nice getting everyone together once again!