Holiday Season

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. We spent a nice quite day home with 2 of our 3 boys. Chris lives in Conniticut and couldn't join us this year and we really missed him. I think it was the first time he hasn't been home for the holiday. Everyone enjoyed their gifts and I made a bit of a different dinner this year. Instead of potatos we had homemade Mac 'n Cheese (Danny, my oldest, isn't a fan of scalloped potatos). I also made a raspberry, chocolate torte instead of my tradional yule log for dessert. Hubby liked it but prefers the yule log. Oh well every once in a while you have to try something new.

Heading down to my dad's for New Year. He turns 80 the week after New Years day so we are having his bash on New Year's Eve. That way my sister Kelley can be there. She is in combat training school and will be leaving Jan 2 to go back. In Feb off to Afghinstan for her. Again! :(.

Have a Happy and Blessed New Year!

Sold another one

I sold another apron over the weekend. I'm so excited:) It is slow going but hopefully will pick up more after the new year.

Chilly

It is damp and chilly here today. It would have been a perfect day for sewing but I got all the decorations (except for the tree) up instead. Matt will have to get the tree down now that I have cleaned the carpets. My little puppy Leia has found a new way out of the yard and I had to go find her in the drizzle. The only way I got her back in the house is a school bus came down the street and scared her, she ran right for the open door of the garage. I have a really large feeling this dog is going to obedience training after the new year and now I have to find her new escape hatch.

Whoot!

I made an Etsy Treasury http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=78255. I am so excited! She picked this lovely apron

I've been MIA for a bit

I went up to Wisconsin for the Thanksgiving week with included a visit to Chicago to see my brother in law and sister in law. Lizzie made a wonderful dinner and my sister Kelley came up from her training in Indiana to join us. Just before I left I had some trouble with my sewing machine. Took it to the shop and found out yesterday it would cost $150 to fix, 2 broken gears. I broke down and bought a new machine for $50 dollars more then the repair bill. Kinda sad though I have had the other machine for 29 years and really really loved it. Oh well, spent the afternoon learning how to use some of the features and will now be able to get back to sewing :)

This is absolutely true!

I have been a fan of Judith's (Smokey in the Netherlands) for several years, she got that name because of the speed in which she finishes her projects, "Her needles are smoking". Now she is having a giveaway http://judiromi.blogspot.com/2009/11/give-away.html. Go on over and take a look

What a week

Having a very busy week, Dave and I are going to his mom's for Thanksgiving and I have been madly sewing up a few aprons to put up on my etsy page since I won't be able to do any sewing at all next week. I also have a set of seat cushions to recover for a friend who is having her first grandbaby next month (I want one of those)

Holiday baking

I was messing around an Twitter a few minutes ago and ran across this recipe for cupcakes on the Kraft Website. They look so yummy I have to share

Chocolate-Candy Cane Cupcakes

5 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided
1 pkg. (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
4 eggs
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
6 small candy canes, crushed, divided
1 tub (8 oz. ) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
Make It!
HEAT oven to 350°F. Chop 4 chocolate squares; set aside. Beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water with mixer on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Stir in chopped chocolate and 2 Tbsp. candy. Spoon into 30 paper-lined 2-1/2-inch muffin cups.

BAKE 20 to 23 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool completely.

FROST cupcakes with COOL WHIP. Melt remaining chocolate; drizzle over cupcakes. Top with remaining candy.
Kraft Kitchens TipsHow to crush candy canes

You want to crush the candy to about a medium size. The candy inside the cake melts to give a peppermint flavor and the candy on top provides a bit of candy crunch.

NoteStore frosted cupcakes in refrigerator.

Family stuff

My little grand niece Jaycee turned 2 day before yesterday. We went out to dinner at her favorite place, Johnny Carrino's because she loves the bowtie pasta. She is in the picture here with her dad and is all dressed up because she had just gone to get her picture done. She loves Tinkerbelle so I got her a tshirt with Tink on it and a matching pair of jeans. Been a long time since I bought clothes for someone that little but the shirt fit, the jeans may be a bit to big but soon they will fit too. All and all a great family night. Now if I had a grandbaby or 2 of my own I'd be a happy happy lady.

Lovely Time

We had a lovely time on our mini vacation :) We went up to the north Georgia mountains to a little town called Blue Ridge, the blue ridge mountains sort of start there. We rented a cabin up there for a few days to celebrate my husband's birthday. Our sons came up for a visit and one of them brought his girlfriend. The cabin was on a bit of a windy, heck not a bit a really windy gravel road, so we pretty much just stayed up on our mountain. We got there on Wednesday afternoon and got some milk, mayo and chips to eat until we could hit the store the next day, we had decided given the condition of the road night time driving was out. After picking up stuff we didn't bring with us we spent the rest of the weekend on our mountain. This place had a hot tub, a jacuzzi, a fun game room and several screened in porches to enjoy.

It rained on Friday so we spent some time in the tub, and watched movies that we had brought and I got alot of stitching done. No computers, the cell phones worked off and on so it was really a peaceful time. I would highly recommend that is you need to take a weekend off to relax this is the place to go.

Sold one

Here is the picture of the apron I sold today. I am going to have to make a few more of these in a few different styles.

Madly working

I have been madly working on a few new aprons, have several finished and up on the Etsy page. But I am so excited I finally sold one. I'm just a thrilled as I can be. Thank you Lousiana for being the first to get one of my creations.

Headed up to the North Georgia mountains tomorrow, it is hubbies birhday this week and we are going up to celebrate. Chris is coming down from Conniticut and Matt will be up after work for a few days. Danny misses out this time around, he has work this weekend and will be out of state. You all have a nice time and cya when I get back.

I've been a bad bad blogger. I haven't posted in a while, been caught up in work and home projects. Today however I managed to sit down and finish up two aprons and make another. I also stopped at Wal-Mart to buy a new ironing board cover, I cut mine, and picked up some cute place mats that I think will turn into some cute purses. Going to play with that later today and Friday, I have to work tomorrow, it's truck day. Will be taking pictures of my 3 new aprons in the morning and posting them here and on my Etsy page so when you get a chance sometime tomorrow go on over and have a look.

I've been busy

I haven't posted in a while but I've been busy making aprons and working. I took a week off this week to get caught up on stuff and not all done yet but getting there. If you click the links to the right of this post you will be directed to my etsy shop http://withthisneedle.etsy.com and see the 3 new aprons I've made. I have a few more in the works and hope to get them up by next week. I am going to make a run down to Floridia over the weekend to see my dad. The last time I saw him was in January when he had quadrople by-pass and was still in the hospital when we left to come home. Since then he has also had his knee replaced. Like I told my hubby I'd like to see him now at home instead of in a hospital still hooked up to machines.

I hate mosquito's

I really hate those little flying mosquito's! I was trying to do some much needed yard work on Sunday, it was actually cool for a Sunday afternoon in July here in Georgia. I got attacked by several of them. They bit my face, arms, shoulder, ankles, and chest. I was so itchy I had to take a Benadril which made me sleepy :(, so I didn't get my yard done. Tonight we took my sister out to dinner, she is moving to Arizona tomorrow, when we got home we let the dogs outside, I sat there watching them (the little one tries to escape through the gate) and got bit again. On the face, the forehead, ands and arms. I must be a magnet for these things

Man I was really tired

I was wiped out from yesterday. I got up around 5:45 am and made coffee and egg salad sandwiches for my hubby to take to work. Cleaned up the kitchen a bit straigtened the pillows and afghans on the couch and was back in bed by 7am, I slept till 10am right through the alarm clock and everything. I did get my groceries bought (I have to work again tomorrow) and I made a stop at the fabric store for some white ribbon to finish a pillowcase dress I made for hubbies grandnieces first birthday. I ended up buying fabric to make 3 more aprons and for my sister to make her puppy and my puppy their own blankets for winter. Now I am headed to bed have an 8 hour day tomorrow :(

Tech stuff

cyh9gu65sr

Tired today

I'm tired today. Today was truck day at work and we had to get all our freight up. It has been hot here in Georgia and hot in the store. They had the AC people out to look things over and they found a few problems which they "fixed" Tuesday but to me and several of my co-workers it still feels hot. We mentioned it to the manager and he said Home office couldn't detect any more issues with the AC but he agreed it was still warm in the store. My suggestion is that they come and do truck with us and then tell us it isn't hot in the store. I'm just happy I have the day of tomorrow. I'm going to go grocery shopping, get my nails done and come back and sew. I have so many ideas floating around in my head, have to let some of them out:)

Look at what I'm doing now !

I have started an Etsy Shop :) ! I have made a few arpons and a cute little tote bags. My address is http://withthisneedle.etsy.com. This is a sample of one of the aprons I have for sale.

We are getting thunderstorms today. We spent all day yesterday watering the grass because it needed it so and now it is raining. Oh well a little extra water won't kill the grass.

Okay this isn't the best picture on the planet but here are some pics of my new puppy Leia.

I bought some scissors to clip her face a bit so we could see her eyes. Will post some better ones once I get some more.

Happy Fourth of July everyone !!!

We added a new member to our family yesterday. I got a little Shih Tzu named Leia. Yes after the princess from Star Wars. Couldn't help it :). My eldest dog is named Chewy ( the boys wanted to name him Chewbacca but I said no and shortened it), we also had a cocker named Solo after you guessed it Han Solo. So it only seemed right to name our new baby after the Princess. We also have a cocker named Einstien, my hubby always wanted to have a dog named that after watching the Back to the Future movies.

She is cute and going to need a lot of brushing :0. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to let her have the long flowing hair of her breed or keep her in a puppy cut. She doesn't seem to mind getting brushed right now but you never know about later as she gets a bit bigger. We will have to see. Right now the job is to housetrain her and teach her not to chew up stuff. She also will have to learn to leave the big guys alone sometimes but they seem to be able to handle that job on their own. A growl from them sends her on her way when they don't want to be bothered.

Well I have the next 2 days off and my house needs cleaning. Will post pics of the new puppy in a day or two.

My sewing room

It's taking shape, we have the furniture rearranged, a lot of junk moved out and it looks way way better :). I think I may actually get to sew in there Friday. Just a few more things to do for part one of the project. The next challenge is the closet. I had to put up a new top shelf and brackets last fall and decided to use the set that allows you to add things to help organize your closets. I am going next week or the week after and get the wire style drawers that you can use and put all my yarn in there. I really need to weed out what I'm never every going to work wit and just give it away to the Goodwill, like the ton of 20 year old cross stitch magazines that are in my car at this moment going to the same place. When I am all do I'll will post pictures so you all can see. I didn't do a before for the room but will be sure to do that for the closet.

Hopefully tomorrow will be the day I get to set up my sewing room the way I have wanted to for a while now. I have to move some furniture around to make the spaces work a bit better. I am going to put my sewing machine in front of the window to get the light that comes in. I was reading a book about how to organise your sewing space and is was based on the same principle as kitchens are set up. Make a triangle from cutting to sewing to pressing, just like your kitchen fridge to counter to stove and back. I don't have a dedicated cutting area but I bet I can get the sewing and pressing pretty well situated.

I got my mannequin in the mail the other day but I have had to work the past 3 days so I haven't had time to set it up and take new pictures of the items I want to put up for sale on my ETSY account. I will also post pictures here and a link to them when I get it all done up. I have several days off from work and no one at home to stop me from getting alot of sewing done if I want. Now to just get motivated to do it plus spend less time messing around on the computer and more time doing what I really need to get done.

It is way to hot here today. I was going to go outside and do some much needed weeding in my gardens but NOT. It is noon and it is 91 but feels like 102. I did stuff around the house instead. Trying to get caught up on my laundry. I made a cute little pillowcase dress the other day for my grandniece. I'm getting stuff ready to update my Etsy account and wanted to practice making one before I tried making some to sell. If I had a few granddaughters of my own they would all have the cutest clothes on the planet :). Oh well I keep hoping.

Busy Day today

It was a very busy day at work today. It was freight day and I had a lot of stuff to put away. Did get to ogle some of the new christmas fabric we have. I am also getting an extra day off from work this week so maybe tomorrow after everyone is gone I can take a look in my sewing room and see if I can work in there for awhile. My sister is staying for a week and she had her stuff all over the place this morning and I couldn't move from the door to the wall with out tripping over one of her bags or boxes. I maybe getting old but I really had this kind of disruption in my life.

My other sister left this afternoon for a 2 year tour in Germany. I am sure before all is said and done she will be deployed again for 6 months to either Iraq or Afghanistan. She has already done a deployement to each place. Idon't like the thought of her having to do that again but it isn't up to me. I'll just pray really hard for her when she goes.

Night all time to soak in the tub.

I've been bad and neglected my blog for a few days. I have been busy with work and home. Had a 3 day weekend and didn't get anywhere near my sewing room:( Did manage to break and TV though. We got an HDTV for Christmas and it was set up in the spare room. I decided to move it into the living room where everyone could enjoy it. In the process of moving the old TV out it fell off the stand we had put it on to disconnect everything. We moved it to our bedroom and it worked at first but the next day when we tried to use it no go. Turns out the little thing you hook the cable too broke off. Oh well I only paid $120 for it at a WalMart sidewalk sale 6 years ago, it would probably have cost more then that to get it fixed. So now we have 2 HDTV, a bigger one in the living room and a small one in the bedroom. DH had oldest DS come over to make sure we hooked everything up right. That required a few new cables to correct but now we can use the surround or not as our moods strikes.

I don't have to work until 4 pm tomorrow so I'm thinking that after I get my bit of yard work and housework done I'm gonna hit my sewing room. I have a couple of projects in the works I'd like to get done. I'm also going to slowly reorganized the room so it is more user friendly and way neater. I guess it is true some creative people are just not the neatest creatures on the planet:)

I finally got it

I finally got my new computer around 4pm Wednesday and I gotta tell you I love it. The keyboard is taking a little getting used to but the rest is doing great. I haven't transferred or installed a bunch of stuff yet. I have a 500 gig hard-drive but I know given half the chance I could fill it up. I did get my email set up and got World of War craft reinstalled (which took hours due to updates), it was worth the wait though. This game looks so cool with the new video card and all my issues with the game have disappeared.

I have also done what I said I was going to do and that is stitch. I have been working on Watergarden by Chatelaine and it is working up nicely. When I get the software reinstalled I will take a progress picture or two.

Okay waiting is driving me nuts:(. My hubby bought me a new computer for my birthday/mother's day present and it hasn't come yet. He told me I should have had it delivered under the 2 day thing and paid the extra money for it but no I had to be smart and save 66 bucks and go with the free delivery. Now I wait. I have been moving some of my want to keep files to a thumb drive. I have to figure out how to get all my iTunes music moved to it (if there is enough space). I don't want to have to reinstall all that music if I can help it. It's not alot but some was downloaded and I don't remember where it came from. If worse comes to worse I will just move what I can to my Nano and redo iTunes once I get my new computer set up. In the mean time while I wait for the Fedex guy I think I'll go cross stitch :).

Well today was my birthday :) I won't tell I old I am just say I'm happy with my age. My sisters are here and we had a great time. One of my sisters is moving overseas next month ( she is in the military) and had to ship her car, so we took her up the the port today to get it sent off. Had a nice lunch afterwards. Went out to dinner with my husband, oldest son, brother, sisters, sister-in-law, niece and grand niece. They had the waitstaff sing me happy birthday and I got a nice dessert to share with the group. Then we went to see the new Star Trek movie. I just so love Star Trek and think they did a pretty good job. The choices of the younger versions of the old characters was great. If you are a Trek fan it is a must see.





The only bad spot of my day is I have to wait till Tuesday to get my present. Hubby bought me a new computer and it is being shipped. According to Fed-Ex it is in Fort Worth and in transit and is scheduled for delivery on Tues. Hubby said I should have paid for 2 day delivery I guess he was right. I would have had it by now :( Oh well I can wait till Tuesday.





Have a good day and hope everyone enjoys their mother's day.

Going to give this another shot

I have been wanting to do blogging for awhile but never seem to have the time. Going to give it a shot now :) Wish me luck.