Girlfriend days...beading frenzy....OWOH

I just had a wonderful visit from my dear friend. She says that she is "City Mouse" and I am "Country Mouse"....remember that childhood book? We always try to cram the MOST that we can when we are together and I am...right now...exhausted! We visited friends from all over, which meant hours in the car....talking and laughing! We did some business, since we are in business together (it's too fun to be called business!).

I just had a wonderful visit from my dear friend. She says that she is "City Mouse" and I am "Country Mouse"....remember that childhood book? We always try to cram the MOST that we can when we are together and I am...right now...exhausted! We visited friends from all over, which meant hours in the car....talking and laughing! We did some business, since we are in business together (it's too fun to be called business!).

We had tons of fun beading...I will show some pictures asap. And, of course we went to tea...our favorite ritual! I miss her already!

I just closed the comments for my One World One Heart giveaway and I will choose a winner tomorrow. I will announce the winner after I get a confirmation from them. I'm so excited to see how it all turns out. I entered so many contests myself...so I really have my fingers crossed! If you didn't see the wonderful, fabulous giveaways in this event...over 911 in total, it was unbelievable!

As much fun as I have been having...I have missed blogland very much! I'm soooo looking forward to catching up with all of my favorite blogs and the NEW favorites I found during the OWOH event.

.

Pink Saturday

Is your Saturday filled with Pink?
It could be....join us for Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly.


Years ago, when my Grandma passed away, my sister and I had a box of her doilies. We divided them between us. It was fun, we each took a turn and chose a doily...it was like a card game. I remember saying "what will I do with these?". My sister said I should just put them all over, that is what Grandma did with them. Well, I did that. And, I have since added to my collection over the years.



My favorite doilies are the colorful ones. It's easy to find white or beige, colors are more rare.


And, with all the doilies I have, there are only 2 that are pink! One of these days I am going to learn how to make them myself!!

Now....fix a lovely cup of tea....settle in....and head on over to Beverly's for lots and lots of lovely pink!




.

Happy Birthday!

At what age do you stop spilling the beans about your kids ages? I mean...does my Mom still announce MY age at any time? I will tell you....my dear daughter turned 28! I can't believe it has been 28 years. Where did the time go? I was going through my pictures to choose some to show on this blog...and I was quickly going overboard. Wow! I could have posted hundreds of pictures. I decided to set myself a goal of 5. And, even that was very hard.

When she was born, I already had my sweet son. When my dear daughter came along, we ALL fell in love at first sight! She was so sweet and precious.


Here she is in the same dress that I wore on my 3rd birthday!!


She is a little sister and a big sister. She is the glue in between her two brothers and they both have special relationships. I was worried that she might not want to give up the "baby" position when my youngest son was born. So, when he was born, I told her that I had enough babies and that she could have this one. So, forever, he was HER baby! He is a wonderful grown man now and she is still protective of him!!

I took these photos from a slide show that I made for her wedding. That was a fun project. It took me forever, but I still enjoy looking at it. You can see it here.

My daughter was a "dream" daughter. She did all of the things I always wanted to do and never did! I remember many people telling me that the teen years would be a problem. Well they were NOT! She was a gymnast until high school and a cheer leader all through Jr. High and High School. She made me so proud. I loved all of her activities when I was the Taxi Mom and I loved all her friends. I still miss the chatter. In fact, they (her childhood friends) were all together last spring for the wedding and it made me remember how fun it was to have the loud giggling laughter, squealing and chatter. Those were good times!


When she was born, I had vision of a Miss America title....and I was so very happy with Homecoming Queen. She has a collection of crowns. She was the 2nd runner up in our County contest, and 3 weeks later she had a car accident that cut up her face, it makes me want to cry to even remember that horrible time. I only share it with you to say that she really showed what she was made of then. She went to Junior College with hundreds of black stitches on her face. She just went out there and continued with her life. She told me something so grown up then. She said that she KNEW what it felt like to be pretty. She knew how people treated her. And, then she found out what it felt like to have that taken away. She realized that she was SO much more than just what she looked like. And that is sooo true. She taught me some important lessons.

Of course, the scars healed and you probably wouldn't even notice them now. And, she is STILL pretty!! I'm not biased or anything!!

We have always been close (except for that blip in her early 20's....does every kid go through that?). I love having her in my life, and I can NOT imagine it any other way. I could never even explain how great it is to have a daughter. It's a very special relationship. Wow. Blogging can be hard, because there is sooo very much I could say here. You can imagine!

Currently, she lives close by...well next door actually, and I am so lucky that I get to share in her life. Here is a picture of us on her birthday:


Happy Birthday Sweetheart!! Have a wonderful Year!!


.

Berry Sweatshirt Refashion

I thought it was time for another sweathshirt "refashion". Here is a little of the process that I go through to make these. First I pick the sweatshirt that I want to work on, this one is a light "berry" color. Some of the pics look pinker than it is.

Then I start looking through my stash for a fabric to use on it. I loved the way this one looked with it. And, it has a border on it, which would look great. One problem is that it is the kind of cottony fabric that will always look wrinkled....next

How about this one? It's one of my favorite pieces and I've already used it on my very first "refashion" which was a black sweater. I love it and wear it all the time. Hmmmm. Maybe.

Hold on! We have a winner! I just love this fabric with the sweatshirt. What do you think?

Next step, I fold the sweatshirt in half and then I cut it straight up the front. Next I cut off the cuffs and the bottom band. Then I play around with what I might want to do. I usually put a few darts in it to give it some shape.
Here is a close up of the cuff. I love bows. I could have bows on everything!!

This is interesting. This fabric was very "stringy" on the edges, it was hard to work with. But, this end of the fabric was already frayed without unraveling, so I used it to go on the bottom. I love the frayed edge.

Found some cool buttons in my stash and I'm going to just have them there for decoration. The closure will be large snaps, I only had silver and I would rather have bronze or gold, so it will have to wait until I can get those.

This is such a fun project, I can hardly wait to do another one. Most people can't believe that they are just sweatshirts!

 

And, here is the finished sweatshirt jacket. I love the way it turned out! I can't wait to wear it. 

You can Win this giveaway!!

I am so excited to have found this wonderful blogging "get together"! I found this on Joy's blog and I knew I wanted to participate right away!

I love the idea of visiting some new and interesting blogs....AND they are all giving away something. If you like to win things, click on the One World One Heart logo above and start entering....but WAIT, enter my giveaway first. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment. I will draw the winner from the list of comments on Feb 12, so get your comment in by Feb 11 (deadline!)! You do not have to have a blog to enter, but I need to have a way to contact you in case you win!

Up for grabs is this pretty necklace that I made out of Austrian Crystals. It features smoky grey crystals and bright sparkly blue beads to really give it the glitz!


It is hanging on a pretty grey cord, and will slip right over your head.



These pictures really do NOT show how sparkly this necklace is!

Good Luck!!

.

Pretty Flowers

What are you doing today? Do you have something special planned? Are you going to a Super Bowl Party or hosting one? We are not football fans around here (sorry if that offends). It's kind of strange to realize that the entire country (or so it seems) is following something and being excited about something....and not us. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the least bit tempted to turn on the tv and watch football today. But, I am feeling like I'm "missing" something. Why is everyone so exited?

I must say that it may just be a booring day of doing all those things that need to be done....cleaning etc. Although I might just "run away" to my craft room to avoid housework!!

I'm posting these lovely flowers from hubby. They we so pretty in the morning light. These flowers would brighten up anyone's day, don't you think?






Have a great day!


.

A special gift

Happy Pink Saturday to you!!

Yes, it's Saturday, the day to celebrate all things Pink and wonderful!

Thanks to Beverly for hosting this fun event each week!



I just love getting a surprise present, don't you? My friend, Carolyn, gave me this lovely gift...."just because".


We work together on a newsletter for our ladies group, and she does the fabulous photography for it, which is a lot of work, and I do the articles and layout. She said she just wanted to thank me for the work that I do. Well, she does a lot of work too!! I was just giddy with excitement at this beautifully wrapped gift, I couldn't wait to open it!


Isn't it pretty? And...it's PINK, how perfect to share it with you on this PINK day! The cup has a square bottom, that I just love.



And the saucer is square to match.


Here is the side view, showing the wonderful shape of this dish.


The most special part of all is the thought of course. You see, Carolyn has been to my house. So she has seen all of my teapots and teacups. This gift says "I know you", and that is the best kind.

Hmmmm. My turn, don't you think? Yes, she deserves a gift too!
I have a few ideas...we shall see...I'll keep you posted!

If you enjoyed my PINK, head on over to Beverly's and browse all the PINK your heart desires:



.