Potholders

Hello!  I finished this stack of potholders on Wednesday night.  There are 37 of them between the two piles.  It sure felt good to have that done. 
Tomorrow is the big day!  The flea market opens.  I went and picked up change today.  Susie was over for a visit, and I packaged up some greeting cards this afternoon and took a nap.  I feel much better since the nap.  I have been dragging today and having trouble with my allergies again from being out and about yesterday.  I am glad that we got some rain this afternoon.  Hopefully it washed things down.  I made some Thin Mints tonight, and my sample for tomorrow which will be For the Love of Cookies.  I put a pan of lasagna in the oven which I just pulled out so it is time to eat!  Have a great weekend and stop down and see me if you can!  Hugs!  Elaine

Diaper fold pouches

These are a batch of diaper fold pouches I made with DSP and punches.  I used the scalloped circle, 1 3/8 circle, large star, and small star punch and I used the stamp set Wanted before punching the images.  These are great for putting treats in to give to people, or a pack of hot cocoa, or chicken noodle soup.  There are all kinds of different things you could stick in them.
I took Carol to Marshfield today.  She is doing so much better now than she was before.  We have to go back again in 2 weeks.  I like Marshfield a lot so that doesn't hurt my feeling at all!  I dropped her off this morning before 9 and headed to Vinnies and Good Will.  I found 3 jars of buttons and some fabric, and a few stamps.  I went back to wait for her at 10:30 and she was done with all three of her appointments.  The one she was suppose to have in the afternoon, they moved up for her.  So we headed to a little quilt shop to drop off her sewing machine to be repaired.  Carol found a few things there and then we went to El Melcaz for lunch.  We made a quick stop at Menards then headed over to Hancock Fabrics.  We leisurely looked around in there, picked up some sales items as they have a big sale going on, then did our usual run through the Culver's drive thru before heading home.  Carol took my portable sewing machine home with her, so I showed her how to use that before she left.  I was starting to get a headache and not feel good, so hit the hay and fell fast asleep and slept a couple of hours.  I just finished up my blog reading and am trying to decide whether to head to the stamping room or sewing room.  Have a good night!  Elaine

Upcycle gift wrap

Yesterday was my dad's 78th birthday.  I decided to recycle the stamping up brown paper for gift wrap.  I think it turned out kind of cool.  Kind of looks like a pineapple!  LOL  I had already made a card but a tag hanging from the ribbon would have made this cuter.

Magnetic Book marks

These are some magnetic bookmarks I made.  The book mark slips over the page and the magnet keeps it from falling out of the book.  I used the stamp set Polka Dot Punches, Scalloped circle punch, 5 petal punch, 1/2" circle punch, a brad and some retired DSP.

Refrigerator Post a Note Holder

These are some  Post a Note holders that you hang on the refrigerator.  I used the stamp set Best Wishes and More to stamp the flower.  I don't think the picture does them justice.  They turned out really cute.
I ran some errands up town today and did some work at the flea market.  I got a lot done but in some ways I wish I had just stayed home as it seems if I leave the house it is hard to get anything accomplished after I return.  It just messes up the day, that is why I usually only go up town once per week.  The weather sure is lovely and we have a good weather report for the weekend now and I am very happy about that.  Opening day of the flea market is this Saturday.  Come down and see me!  Elaine

Mother book marks

This is the project that I have been working on today.  They are book marks with a nice saying on them about mothers. I used last year's Sale A Bration stamp set Polka Dot Punches to make the flowers and leaves and punch them out with the five petal punch.  The verse I did on the computer.  I made 18 of them, in between cleaning up my stamping table.  I have been letting the scraps just accumulate on the table and had a big mound of them to sort into different piles and put away.  As most of you know, I don't throw anything away.  It had got to the point that it was driving me crazy.  I can only be messy for so long...hee hee....I like my work area's to be clean.  I turned a rubber tote full of potholder's inside out last night while watching TV.  It took hours to trim the edges and turn them.  I had sewed them out at Di's, probably about 4 or 5 years ago when we would sew every weekend.  Another one of those projects like Di would say that I make a "100 of them!"  The next step will be to iron them all, then slip stitch the opening's closed and attach rings on them so that they can be hung.  Lots of work for what little I charge for them.  But my rack is getting down so need to finish them soon.  The Yackette's met here tonight to leave for the Rapids.  I did not go.  I am still battling the allergies.  I started feeling better yesterday but am worse again today.  I am trying to get rested up, and I am working quietly.

Filling the magnet rack

You have probably been asking yourself the question why does she keep making magnets?!?  Di had said to me earlier in the week, you have made enough of those, go on to the 100 cards you want to make with the birthday cake set.  She is exaggerating of course, about the 100, she learned that from me....lol.  When she was down to the flea market with me on Friday and saw the magnets in the card rack, she said "Wow! Those fit in there perfectly."  And she said she now could see why I had to keep making  them as the rack is so large, it would look to empty.  But I think this will be the last batch for a little while.  I have other things I want to get done before we open on Saturday.  I made something cute and new today....you will love it!
Oh!  And I have good news.  Mike in Michigan and his friend Mike are working on the hard drive that I thought had crashed (in Michigan) and he called and it works.  We don't know WHY it is working...but we are happy about it.  It may be the USB port that I had it plugged into went out.  They are doing some checks, and clean up on it while they have it.  Mike also said that he will do a transfer of all my files onto one of his external hard drives before sending my hard drive back to me.  Just in case something would happen in the mail, there will be a back up copy!  I am thrilled that it is working as I had a ton of digital stamps on there that I had either bought or downloaded for free, plus classes, special projects, cards, photo's and movies.  About 4 years worth of saving stuff!  I called Lady Di up and was singing Zippitey-Do-Da and she sang with me and then wanted to know what made me happy that I was Zippitey!  So I told her about the hard drive and she laughed!  I also told her that Kramer had said that he had tried to sell pictures of me and her that were on there on the internet and he couldn't get any money for them.  He told me to tell Di that it was because she was a democrat...that people don't want pictures of democrats!  LOL  We both got a laugh out of that!

Red Skelton

Can you help spread this important message?

Red Skelton--from his television show in 1969 WOW ! Just think, he said this on his television show in 1969 and really had no clue it would ever come about. SAD, isn't it? What a wonderful and worthwhile clip to watch and share with all your friends and acquaintances!  http://media.causes.com/604250?p_id=42563578:

Originals - Handcrafted cards made easy

I picked this book up at the library today and it really is a beautiful book.  It is hard cover, spiral bound so it lays flat and comes with a CD.  It has beautiful pictures of the cards in it.  The photography is perfect.  It has an easy to read layout, and has a card sketch for each card with the measurements of all the layers for you.  It is the very best card making book I have seen and I have looked at TONS of them and I only have a couple of card making books in my library as I have not been happy with what is out there.  This one is a keeper and I have put it on my "wishlist" at Amazon as I would love to own this book.  It is a great book to get the ole Mojo flowing!  I get to keep this one for 4 weeks and this one will definitely not be going back early!  LOL  Elaine

A bad blogger

Hello!  I have been a bad blogger this week.  Too much going on and not enough time and/or zip to do it.  I am feeling rotten at the moment.  I started with itchy eyes yesterday and have now progressed into junk in my throat, a dry hacky, barky cough, and it is going into my chest.  Allergy season...fun fun.  I am very allergic to pollen and I have heard that this is one of the worst seasons in about 30 years.  Oh well...so it goes.
It has been a week of doctor's appointments.  I spent Tuesday afternoon in Mauston having a physical, mammogram, and several sets of lab tests.  The unfortunate news is that I now am going to have to take blood pressure medicine.  :-(  Sandy Wellumson brought me a bunch of cool fabric and other things after I got home.  She is doing some cleaning out, and I am beyond thrilled to get it.  It is just like Christmas and the wheels are already turning as to what I am going to do with it!  Wednesday, I made these magnets, and Sue Bartels came for a visit.  I also did some other cleaning up, picking up around here.  I was suppose to have Direct TV come to make the switch that day but that ended up falling through.  When they didn't show by one, I called Verizon.  After about 2 hours of phone calls, and finding out that the order was lost, that they couldn't keep my phone number the same, and it was going to cost more to make the switch, I decided not to do it.  The only good thing that came of it all is that they were able to upgrade my dsl to a little higher speed for a few less dollars per month.  So that was a bummer, a big waste of time which was frustrating.
Thursday was a trip to Madison to the Spine Clinic.  I may have to go back in a month or two depending upon how some other tests turn out that I am having done the end of May and beginning of June.  Diane went with me and we stopped at Scrapbook Super Store, China buffet for lunch, Archivers and then I did my grocery shopping at Walmart in Baraboo on the way home.  A long day but fun.  I finished watching the movie Emma after I got done putting groceries away, and rested awhile, then packed up my stamping order, did some dishes, and imed with Colleen.  I ended up sleeping in late this morning, and Di called shortly after I got up to see if I would go with her to deliver her Pampered Chef order.  Some of the people had stamping order's here so we dropped those off at the same time, and stopped at the library, and flea market.  Now it is time to go rest for awhile.  I sure feel yucky!  Have a great weekend!  Elaine

A Year of Cards

Hello!  I am back again today!  FM Support Group went well.  They liked the story of the spoons and all of them agreed that it explained it well and that they had never heard of it explained like that before.  I made a can of soup after I got home and have been loading a few things into the van tonight to go to the flea market.  Lady Di says that tomorrow is suppose to be 70 and that it is going to get cold again so I think I will make a stop down at the flea market before going to my doctor's appointments tomorrow.  I have been catching up on some of my recorded programing.  I have to get it watched before they come on Wednesday morning to switch things over.  I finished decorating tags for pin cushions while watching House and now I am putting price tags on brooches.  I finished watching 24 and am now watching Castle.  I decided to get the pin cushions put in the van before Taffy gets the notion to take the pins out of them and run off with the tags.  She has been raising havoc with them all week.  The little dickens!!!!
On Saturday, a group of us went to Milwaukee for a stamping event called A Year of Cards.  It is a fundraiser for a brain disease.  I think it is called GLUT1.  Any how we made a greeting card for each month of the year, an expanding envelope to put them in, and received an $85.00 package of stuff that was donated by Stampin' Up!  Stampin' Up! donates tons of retired stamping stuff to charitable organizations and fundraisers each year.  We received the Country Living Holiday Collection which was a wonderful gift.  They also had a raffle for a Big Shot and My Digital Studio.  People also donated gift baskets and gift cards etc that were raffled off.  Going to this event was a birthday present from Lady Di to me.  She made for my admission to the event, bought me a long string of tickets and treated me to Apple Bee's for dinner.  What a wonderful day!  We could put our tickets in what ever bag that we wanted to and I won this basket full of stuff from Creative Memories!  Woo Hoo!  Thanks again Di for such a great birthday present!
My keyboard went on the fritz today.  Fortunately, about a year ago, I picked up a brand new one in the box, just like mine at Good Will for $4.00 so I was back up and running in about 5 minutes!  Did you miss me while I was gone!?!?!  LOL
I also went for breakfast on Sunday afternoon with Debi Wehby.  We had a nice meal and nice visit.  See ya later alligator!!!

But You Don't Look Sick?

Tonight is my fibromyalgia support group meeting.   Maureen asked me to run the meeting tonight and I am doing a little research on the internet.  I just found this story called The Spoon Theory.  It is a wonderful way to explain what people with disabilities or illness deal with every day.  Her best friend had asked this gal what her illness (Lupus) was like.  She thought, she knows all about this illness, she has been to all my doctor's appointments, been through this with me for years, how can I explain it to her.  So she thought about it and explained it with spoons.  I will let you go read the story.  For those of you who have known me for years, this explains it better than I ever could. I plan on reading this story to the group tonight.  I think it will help them answer the question, "What is like to be sick?".

http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/navigation/BYDLS-TheSpoonTheory.pdf
The spoon theory is so true. Illness can be a blessing....it made me change my priorities.  I try and use as many of my "spoons" with family and friends as possible.  I am always counting my spoons!

Magnets

These are the magnets that I was working on yesterday.  I decided just to take a couple of pictures with all of them in, instead of individually as there are a lot of repeats of images.  Some of them have different friendship sayings on them though.  I got them all packaged up and ready to go down to the flea market this evening.  I made a quick stop down there when I went to the library this afternoon.  I put a few things in that I had marked and all I had to do was to display them.  I slept almost a 12 hour stretch last night!  I got up once to go to the bathroom but otherwise I slept from 11 pm till 10:30 this morning.  Boy do I feel fantastic.  Sure wish I could bottle that feeling, and the amount of sleep.  My living room almost looks back to normal now.  I am so happy to have all that stuff out of here!  It was just to cluttered to suit me.  Well....back to marking!!!  Have a great weekend!  Elaine

Great Depression Cooking with Clara

Hi!  If you are interested in money saving meals and a bit of history, go to YouTube.com and search for Great Depression Cooking with Clara.  91 year old Clara cooks as she tells stories from her childhood.  I watched the first episode and will be definitely spending more time with Clara!!!  Enjoy!  Elaine

Cards in a Candle Jar

Hello!  Today has been one of my favorite kind of days!  I played most of the day in my stamping room making magnets.  I got 17 done today which is quite a lot but the coloring was all done on them so it has been mainly assembly work.  They are turning out so cute.  Tomorrow I will show you some.
This is what I gave to Susie for a hostess gift at her party on Monday night.  I had bought a couple of boxes of jars at a yard sale in the fall and this is one of them.  They were so nice and clean, all ready to use, and only a quarter a piece!  You sure can't beat that.  I realized later that this is a candle jar.  It is perfect to put 3"x 3" cards in.  I cut the butterfly's with our butterfly die and the big shot, and the little green one's on the card I ran through the dot embossing folder to give them some texture.  I love their funky little antenna's made with hemp.  Between that and the buttons ( I LOVE buttons!!!!) it really adds to the butterflies.  Susie really liked it and said that it will sit on her desk with the other things that I have made her.  I made her a jar with ribbon wound on spools and she has never used the ribbon as she thinks it is too cute to use!  Silly girl...but it sure is sweet!  There are 4 3"x 3" cards in the jar and 4 envelopes.  I plan on making some of these for the stall too.
I talked to Jenna a couple of times today as she is off.  Diana and her were going to the park for a picnic supper tonight.  They have a park a couple of blocks from their house.  A real nice one.  We made plans for Diana to stay with me after the baby shower in June.  Last summer I had her a couple of times and I hope to again this summer.  They have decided that they want to do the baby's room in turtles and have picked out stuff at Burlington Coat Factory.  If you google that, then look under the baby registry, and put in Jenna Dominguez, you can see what they have picked out.  It is cute.  I later told Sarah tonight this when I talked with her and I think she is going to give Jenna the stuffed turtle's that I made for her.  Sarah has a  real turtle and she had her room decorated in them when she lived at home.  I made her 4, I think, turtles and they turned out adorable.  They had different shades of green yo-yo's for the shell's and a button on the top.  They would be perfect on a little shelf in the baby's room.  Well, back to the salt mines for me.....LOL  Have a good night!  Elaine

Antique Pattern Library

Hi!  I stumbled across an antique pattern library and thought I would put the link on here so that you could check it out.  It has old, out of print pattern books on line, for free, that you can down load.  All kinds of hand type work, embroidery, crochet, knitting, tatting, etc.  Check it out!  Elaine

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/index.html

Goofy Card

Here is a card that Susie brought for show and tell on Monday night.  Every one got a good laugh out of it.  I have seen it done before but have not made one.  I think I might now.  I like her choice of color's and if someone was not feeling good, this would sure cheer them up! 
Today was a paperwork day and doing things on the computer. I did some revamping on my budget as I found out that my water bill will be going up a minimum of $22.00 a quarter so had to "up" what I save a month, AGAIN!  I just upped things in January and am already redoing it.  Things just keep going up and up.  I had stamping order's coming in and I did my entering on the computer.  I called Verizon today and have decided to switch everything to them.  I have my internet connection with them now, but will be switching my phone back to them, and switching to direct tv.  It will be about $5.00 less per month, but I will be gaining quite a bit.  I will keep my same phone number, unlimited long distance and other features, but shouldn't have all the problems I have had with Vonage as far as dropping calls.  I didn't really mind it too much when it was cheaper but they have been inching up the price.  I will have a little bit faster internet speed, but the main thing I will be gaining is with Direct TV.  Right now I have the family package and local channels on 2 tv's and DVR.  They will come in and install it all for free, DVR, and I can have 4 TV's hooked up, plus will have their choice package which is 150 channels.  I looked at the channels and I have not had a lot of them for years so will be fun to have those again.  They are coming next week to do this.  I also went to the bank and over to the church and organized little carrying buckets with tools for the tables at my parties.  I found them in the clearance section at Family Dollar for a dollar a piece and the color of them is Rich Razzleberry!  It should make set up ALOT faster for stamping and hopefully will help my stampers find things better too!

The three hour project!

Have you ever had one of those projects that if you knew how long it was going to take you that you wouldn't have started!?!?!  LOL  Well that is what this project was like for me.  I went through and organized my card stock bins, relabeled them, reorganized, and color coded them by color families. It took me three hours to get this done and I am tired and hurting.  But it looks so nice and it is all ready for the catalog change.  It will be nice when I get my new paper to be able to just drop it in the right file folder.  The only one's I haven't done yet are the 5 new In Colors as we don't know what they are going to be yet so I couldn't make labels.  I use hanging file folders and the bin on the far left is all our "extra paper's" glossy card stock, vellum's, etc.  The other two bins each have two color families in them.  The next picture shows my two stacks of "open" packages of card stocks that will be retiring, and the last picture shows the stack of unopened card stock retiring and a stack of cut pieces that are either card bases or pieces that will go into my scrap bin that I keep next to my desk.  I always go to that first before cutting into a new sheet of card stock.
Last night was Susie's party and we sure had a blast!  Excellent food and tons of laughter.  It really was a lot of fun!

Thank you cards

The last time I posted I told you that I was punching out DSP squares and gluing them on a 3 " square.  The focal point of these cards were what I was working on.  I had 18 of them done (without flowers) when I last wrote and was thinking about making about 30 of them.  Well...after I got them all done, I had 45 of the squares made!  And, I did not make a dent in the DSP scraps, nor the card stock bin.  But after I got done making flowers yesterday, the card stock scrap bin is noticeably emptier!  YEAH!  I have all the flowers and leaves attached to all 45 squares.  These 6 that I finished up for you tonight went very fast.  I decided to post all of these so that you could see how different they look even with all of them having the same base colors.  While I was cutting these flowers out yesterday, I also cut a bunch of different flowers and assembled them for my shoe and tell box.  All in all...I am guessing I made about 125 flowers which probably took about 12 hours to do!  SHOOT ME!  and put me out of my misery!  I must be crazy.  But shouldn't have to do any for the show and tell box for next month, maybe a couple of months as there were still flowers left in it. 
Today I marked a bunch of stuff for the flea market, put it in baskets, and put it in the van.  Sarah was also over for a visit and I gave her birthday presents as I did not see her on her birthday.  She adored the flower magnets and I let her pick out 3 for her fridge.  She also loved the other magnets I am making and she thinks all of them will sell good.  I hope she is right about that!  I need to bring home, (or find some around here) some more string tags so that I can get the rest of my stuff marked.  But I made a big dent it in today and my living room is starting to look more like a living room again!
Tonight I set up my little tv tray table on the bed and worked on attaching buttons, flowers, and little spools of thread onto my pin cushion tags.  I haven't begun to make a dent in the tin of them that needs to be decorated as I have TONS of extras, but I want to get enough done so that I have at least one for each pin cushion finished, I think I have about 8 to go and will probably finish them up before hitting the hay.  I have been up late just about every night this week.  Hopefully next week I will get on a better sleep pattern.  Have a good one!  Me

More Flower Magnets

Hello!  Here are some more flower magnets that I made last week with the Big Shot and flower dies.  They are also made of suede.  Now I need to get them all marked.
Today I made 4 cards.  One will be a sample for Monday night and the rest will be for the stall.  It turned out to be a really pretty combination.  I had to make a trip to the post office this afternoon to mail out some packages.  Also picked up some library books that came in and returned some things.  My last stop was to Pamida.  I went there to pick up kitty litter as they had it on sale and it was $5.00 cheaper than the regular price so I picked up 3 of them, and I had a coupon for a free one, so that was a nice savings of $7.00 plus $10.00 off the other two.  I had a prescription to pick up also and bought some food items that were on sale.  I ended up taking a little nap after I got home till Colleen started iming me and the computer was blasting like the phone was ringing!  I now have it turned off again, but it was a long enough cat nap to recharge my batteries!  I started working in the stamping room again and started punching out squares of designer paper and attaching them to 3" squares of card stock.  It started out that I was only going to make a couple, well.....I got going and now have 18 of them made and punched out a whole bunch more squares.  As usual, I went over board.  (Stop laughing right now Di!  As she would say, you will have 50 made by tomorrow morning!)  I decided that I would just keep going and make enough so that I could turn these all into thank you cards for Jenna.  She will need more after the baby shower.  We have set the date for June 13th at 2:00 pm.  It's a Sunday.  I just need to call the church and make sure the date is okay.  I should be working on the invites.  Oh well...I will get them done.  I think I am going to start on the baby quilt tomorrow.  I bought one more yard of fabric in Marshfield yesterday for it.  A nice bright green that should tie it all together with the turquoise and all the other colors in the I spy squares.  I am going to do an Ohio star pattern.  I think it will turn out really cute.  Hope so!

Trip to Marshfield

Hello!  Today I took Carol to Marshfield for more appointments.  The way things are going it does not look like she will be going back to work in 4 more weeks (8 weeks after the surgery) like they originally told her.  She saw some physical therapists today and they gave her stretching exercises to do.  She also had two other appointments about her neck.  Please continue to keep her in your prayers as she is still having a lot of pain.  We had breakfast when we first got to Marshfield and then I dropped her off at the clinic.  I went to St. Vinnies, Good Will, and Hancock Fabrics and then went to pick her up at 2:30.  They recommended that she use a back cushion so we went hunting for that store and she got one of those and we also stopped at Target.  A trip through Culver's drive thru for ice cream and we were headed back home.  We have to go back in three weeks again.  Today's photo is of a doll quilt that I finished last week.  I have plastic shoe boxes that I have all one size block in.  So these blocks were already cut for me and I just pulled them out and started sewing the center panel.  I wish that I had all of my scrap bags cut into blocks but I don't.  That is a project I need to work on.  But I have cut a lot of scraps up into pony tails and tissue holders.  It is kind of like paper scraps.  You can keep working on using them up but they still multiply as you are always making more of them.  I was watching Fons and Porter Quilting program last night and Liz said she had so many scraps she just started throwing them away!  It is hard for me to comprehend that some people do that, as scrap quilts are my favorite if they are done nicely and a solid is used some where to tie things together.  I use many scrap pieces for crafting.  If nothing else, a yo-yo can always be made out of it.  I think I found an old fabric feed sack today at Good Will.  They used to sell flour and sugar in fabric feed sack's years ago and then the women would make quilts with them.  I need to do a little research as I haven't seen one in a long time but I am pretty sure that this chunk of fabric that I got for 99 cents was one of them.  It looks like a print from that era.  Maybe I will take a picture of it tomorrow and show it to you.  Right now, I need to head to La la land as I have had a long day!  Have a good night!

Sneak Peek!

H

I am doing something that I normally don't do.  I am giving you a sneak peek at one of our projects for Monday night.  Isn't this card just adorable!  And the great thing about it is that you can use this layout with other stamps and other colors to make cards for any occasion!  You will be able to take measurements off this card and recreate, or right them down as I always have them laying on the table.  It took quite some time yesterday to get all the cutting correct but now that it is done, it will be easy to recreate fairly quickly. 

I spent most of today on the computer.  I had ordered a new external hard drive with my Best Buy dollars and it came today.  My old external crashed a couple of months ago.  My main computer has a very small hard drive on it.  It will be 6 years old next fall.  When I got it, I had no idea that I would be into stamping, and that I would fall in love with the computer and be on it all the time and saving so many things so I didn't purchase a lot of memory.  A big mistake, but having an external hard drive solves the problem for me.  This new one is about the fourth of the size of my old one.  I could carry this one in my purse if I wanted to as it is about the size of a wallet.  The other one was larger and I think it got tipped over one too many  times and that is why it failed.  I shouldn't have that problem with this one.  So, I worked on getting my digital stamps put on it, and other files, then worked on cleaning up the computer.  It was a big day at Stampin' UP! today with the announcement of the changing of the color families.  So I spent hours studying up on all that today too.  I listened to a one hour webinar given by Shelli our CEO, read Stampin' Success on line, played with some of the new color combination's on the website, and sent out an email to my stamper's with the new information.  I also had a nap, and finished watching the DVD of Petticoat Junction from the library.  I am lovin' watching that, when the first episode started, it was like going home to be back on the porch of the Shady Rest, and in the parlor again!  It is just awesome that the library system gets all these old TV series on DVD!  I am a big fan of the inter library loan system and I order all my books, tapes, and movies on line and I just go in and pick them up when they arrive.  Love it!  Another thing I did was to make some changes on the blog and give it a new look.  I hope you like it!  Elaine

RAKS from the quilting retreat

Hello!  I just had an email from Karen Burrowsfield, my cousin's wife.  She lives out east.

Hi Elaine!

For you I went to a Cards for Soldiers event----basically made up blanks cards for soldiers to send back home....it was fun...I took the photo so I am not in it - this is my new church's Ladies Fellowship doing it.

 

Awwwww.....isn't that sweet!  I corrupt them all....near and far!  LOL  I am glad that she had a good time at the event!  A very worthy cause!!!

Here are some pictures of some things I was rak'd at the quilting retreat.  Faye gave me this awesome coffee cup of her's.  I love, love, love it!  If she could see my fabric room....she would know that this fits me to a "T"!  Karen gave me a Scrap Saver's book that was part of her white elephant gift.  She said she didn't have a use for it and wanted me to have it as it has some cute baby things in it to make.  Angie gave me this left over fabric that was from a quilt she was working on.  I know a new little baby who is going to have some baby bibs made out of these fabrics.  They are absolutely adorable!  Sonja came over with her eye glass case and her cell phone case to show me as she was trying to give me more idea's of things to make to sell!  All I can say is "Thank you again!"!  I am one lucky girl to have made such awesome friends!  Speaking of awesome friends....Susie was over today for a visit.  Taffy was thrilled that she was here as usual.  I do believe that Taffy thinks that Susie comes to visit HER, instead of me!  I got project #2 done today for Susie's party on the 12th.  A very cute baby card. I sent a picture of it to Colleen in Oregon after I got it finished as she was dieing to see it.  We were iming while I was working on it, and she was giving advice.  Not that I listened to it...ha ha....but we have fun cabitzing about it.  And cabitzing is one of my new words I made up, slang for chatting. We definitely have "baby" on the brain around here.  I don't think that I told you that I picked up some Chocolate Chip corduroy bibs, and a Certainly Celery corduroy jacket for the baby at Practical Cents on Saturday.  They have their winter clothes for babies for 50 cents each!  Can't beat that!  Tonight after I got up from my nap, I made 3 tags that will be on display at the party, and I made Susie's hostess gift.  It turned out adorable, and I think she will love it.  I just had to go check and see what Taffy was up too.  I heard this little clink hit the floor like metal and figured that she had found a safety pin or something.  You have to watch her like a hawk, she is like having a two year old in the house.  Well, she didn't have a safety pin, but she did have a metal flower brad, so I snatched that away from her.  I haven't worked with those for months so I don't know where she had that stashed.  She is something else!  One of her favorite tricks is to run off with a piece of ribbon from my stamping desk.  Nothing delights her more to get "out of reach" with it, and then run off with it.  I will get it back later when she decides to drop it in the middle of the bathroom floor.  You can walk through my house most any time and find a piece of ribbon lying some where!  Molly's latest trick is to take the quilt that I have draped on the back of the couch and knock it behind the couch.  I haven't seen how she does it, but she is keeping me busy dragging it back out.  The things they do to get attention!

Send Elaine back to quilt camp! LOL

Happy Easter!  One of the activities that you could participate in at the Quilting retreat was a white elephant exchange.  Diane and I decided not to participate as we didn't want to goof up and not bring the right kind of thing.  Next time we will play too.  This piggy bank was part of the exchange and a group of gals decided that I should have it as they had been discussing the upcoming retreat in the fall earlier and they were wondering if we were going to come and I had said  how I wanted to go to it  but didn't know how I was going to pay for it.  Some suggested telling family members that is what you wanted for birthdays, Mother's Day, etc.   I was joking that I would have to set a table up on a "street corner" and sell my pin cushions.  They were rolling about that.  So after the white elephant exchange was done, Debbie came over with the pig and said we decided that you should have this.  It already had a tag on it that said Quilt Retreat Fund, and she said shaking it so I could hear a few coins rattling, here is a little something to start you out!  I thought that was pretty sweet and I gave her a hug.  Later in the weekend, Sandy came over with a few coins a couple hours before we were ready to leave and she dropped them in the bank and said "See you in the Fall"!  This really touched my heart how sweet these ladies were to me.  We were strangers a few days before and now we are friends!  Awesome! 

The second picture is of a chunk of fabric that I chose out of Angela's goody basket.  When we first arrived, Angela each had us choose a playing card and we had to introduce our selves and use our card in the introduction.  I had a 10 of Hearts and I ended mine with "I hope I can stay awake till 10 o'clock!" and every one laughed.  We kept this card and then she would periodically draw a card through out the weekend and we would get to choose something out of the basket when our card was drawn.  I think mine was drawn early on Sat. afternoon and I picked out this pretty piece of material.  Another activity we did was a fat quarter game that we played on Sunday.  We all stood in a circle holding a fat quarter we had brought along, while Karen read a story and when the word "left", or the word "right" was read, we had to pass the fat quarter we were holding at the time in that direction.  What ever fat quarter we were holding at the end of the game is the one we got to keep.  I had brought a yellow one with little stars on it and ended up with a different yellow one.  Funny!  

I have been out at Diane's the last few afternoon's and we have been crafting together.  This morning we went to Easter services and to the Easter breakfast at Immanuel.  It has been nice to be busy and not have too much time to think.  I still can't believe that Larry is gone.  He was 51 years old, two years older than me.   It is so very sad that is for sure.  I also did some more stuff at the flea market on Friday, and have been marking stuff, getting it ready to go down there.  I hope you all have a great Easter!  Elaine

Show & Tell Part 3

Time for some more show and tell from the quilting retreat.  If you are reading my blog for the first time, look for previous posts about the quilting retreat.  The first picture is a project that Sandy had made that day.  She had signed up for a quilting class on Sat. of our quilting retreat by accident, so she left for the day and went to her class.  I believe this was called a reflection technique and things were sewn in one direction and then the other.  Quite complicated it sounded and a little hard to see in this picture so you may want to click on it and make it larger.  The green quilt is another one that she showed.  Beautiful work.  Next up with the following projects was Debbie with 3 adorable projects.  A gigantic log cabin quilt, purse, and rabbit wall hanging.
Today I spent a couple hours at the flea market cleaning and setting some things up.  It is so strange to be working on it so early this year.  Usually it is so dang cold that you can't be down there until the middle of April, or the last week of April.  I decided that I better get started before the weather get's cold and I can't be down there.  That would be my luck!  I went and picked up a few things I needed for down there after wards, made some lunch/supper, and hit the bed.  It doesn't take much to get pain running down my leg into my foot with setting up so I have to do it in little chunks.  I decided that I needed two of my little folding tables down there as I have lots of new things to put in.  One is cleared off and in the van and I need to finish cleaning off the other.  AND I will have to do some cleaning in the stamp room before I can work in there again.  I am sure Molly will be happy to have the Cricut out of my stamping chair so she can sit in it again!
Jenna called tonight and told me all about her ultra sound yesterday.  She was so excited.  They had a tech in there training so she said they got to spend lots more time with the baby!  She said you can see his little nose, that he yawned real big 3 times, likes to have his hands by his face, and that he didn't like being poked at.  She said that he would turn his face toward the inside of her tummy, and that he took his little foot and was kicking at where they were poking!  So he already was showing his little personality which Jenna thought was adorable, (and Grandma too!)!  They went to PF Changs after the ultra sound last night to celebrate and then they looked at a cherry baby crib and changing table.  Today she went and registered at Baby's R US and also talked about registering at Target and Kohl's.  Such a fun, exciting time in their lives and I love being a part of every minute of it!