Happy New Year

I want to wish all of you a Happy New Year. May this year bring you all your stitching needs and wants. May your stash runneth over. May you have all the time that you need to finish that big PIA or WIP (whichever one applies). May the frogs stay far, far away from you. May all your stitching dreams come true!
And esp. this: May you and your family have all the happiness and health this next year can bring. May you continue to bring the blessings all your friendships bring to me! And may I, in some small way, bring blessings to you!
Happy, Happy, Happy New Year! Bring on 2009. I am ready for it!
Donna
P.S. I will be spending this New Year's Eve with my 3 favorite boys in the world, my husband James and my two grandsons, Trent and Craig, along with my mom. We will watch the big ball drop together (unless we poop out before then!).

Christmas Card Exchange

These are not the best pictures, but this is the stitched card I received from Debbie Jo. It is so cute and I just love it. I am adding it to my Christmas collection now. Thanks Debbie Jo

The Best Christmas Present

I have received many great presents this year, including my favorite Bare Minerals make-up from my husband. But the best present I will get this year will be my grandson's visit.
I have two wonderful grandsons, Trent & Craig. Trent is 6 and Craig is 4. My daughter and SIL will be bringing them to me on Friday night and then leaving them with me on Saturday. They will stay all week until the next Friday with my husband, my Mom and I (and as Craig says, "don't forget, also Alex the puppy dog").
I have included their picture. Trent is the top one and Craig is the bottom one.
This is going to be so much fun. They are great kids and this is the first time since Trent was a baby that I have kept the boys for any length of time by myself.
Trent is esp. excited because to quote him "mom can't say no when grandma says yes".
I have plans to go to a movie with them, watch them ride the bikes I have had at my house for over a year now and just enjoy them. We will do some cooking and baking together.
I want you all to know how much I appreciate your friendship. The comments you leave me mean so much to me.
I pray each and everyone of you have a very blessed Christmas!

The annual Christmas argument

I don't know why, but each year my husband and I have an argument around Christmas time. It is started by me. I either pick on him about something until we fight or like this year I just jump right in.
I don't know if it is just everything overwhelms me or what. Or if it is because I never think we will have enough money for everything or that everything won't be "perfect".
This is how this year's argument started. My paycheck arrives in my account at 9:30pm the night before my payday. This year, I decided I must go to Target at 9:30pm to buy my grandson's presents. I asked my husband to go with me and he said he would rather sleep. (Truth of the matter is he works really crazy hours and he had been out at 4:45am that morning and could have been called out at any time). That didn't matter to me.
So since my job is 2 blocks from Target and our house is several miles away, I chose to stay at work when I got off at 5:00pm until my check arrived and then go to Target.
I thought my husband would "come to his senses" and either tell me he would go with me and then I would come home and we could go together that night or he would come to my work. But he didn't. So I sat at work, stewing, getting more angry by the minute. I was going to show him by gosh. He would be so sorry.
But when I came home he was sleeping.
So all night, I got ready for "the fight". I got up at 5:30am that morning, still angry. I woke him up when I left for work at 7:30 (even though I don't have to be there until 8:30). I told him I didn't want a Christmas present from him and further more, if he bought me one, I would take it back. It was on. He had no idea why I was being so irrational and truth of the matter, neither did I. But I kept it up. Left for work by slamming the door.
On my way to work, I called him to fight some more. Then I noticed steam coming from my car. The temp gauge wasn't up, but there was steam (could have been reacting to me LOL). So I told him about the car and he said he was coming. When he got there, we talked and I told him what was going on with me. We both apologized and then went on with the weekend.
He has bought me a gift and I have bought him one and we are both back to being very happy.
I am hoping this next Christmas we can avoid the whole argument. But then again, making up is kind of fun!
Merry Christmas to all of you!

New contest-we have a winner!

Well, my friend Angie has had her twins, Jacob and Isabella. She had them on Monday, December 15th at 12:50pm and 12:51pm.
Kaghos guessed she would have them on Tuesday, December 16th at 2:15pm. She guessed the closest and so she is the winner!
What in the world did she win? This really neat stitching kit. It folds into a wallet shape and has a pocket you can keep money in on the outside when it is folded. Once opened, there are two clear plastic holders that will hold credit cards or hotel room keys. The center has a cushion for your needles and there is a little pocket to hold scissors. All this will fit over the arm of your stitching chair to keep everything right where you need it.
It is cool to take with you when you travel, esp. if you do any stitching retreats since you can carry everything you need, room key, money, etc. with you in the little pocket.
Congratulations to Angie and family and congratulations to Kaghos!

My EGA Party

Here are pictures of my Embroiderer's Guild Christmas party. This is an annual party we have in our group of which I have been a member for about 17 or 18 years. They are some of the finest and kindest stitchers I have ever known. They have been through the good times and the bad with me.
Many of you admired my tree that I posted earlier. Many of the ornaments on this tree were made by some of these stitchers.
We have an annual Christmas party. Each member that attends stitches an ornament. We draw numbers and then we exchange ornaments. But not without a fight. It starts out rather calm. The first person goes and picks a wrapped ornament from the table. The next one can either take that ornament or open a new one. That is when the brawling begins. These fine, upstanding stitchers will lie, cheat, hide the evidence and connive to keep their ornaments. Truth of the matter is there is not a bad ornament amongst them all. Everyone does such beautiful work.
These pictures were taken before the brawling began, as is evidenced by the lack of blood, cuts and bruises! Just kidding!

The Red Tree

This is a non-stitching Christmas story. But fun anyway.
My grandson Trent loves the color red. Always has.
Two years ago my DD and my SIL were having some problems and my DD, then 4 year old grandson Trent and then 2 year old grandson Craig moved in with my DH, Mom and myself for a year. It was a wild ride, esp. since my DH did not have children of his own. But my daughter and her husband worked everything out. They are a happy family now, back living together.
That Christmas Trent was having a difficult time with everything. He missed his dad and his other grandparents.
We had been talking about getting a new tree, one that was smaller than my usual 7 1/2 foot tree. The grandsons and I discussed the tree and making decorations for it. All Trent would say was that he wanted the tree to be red.
So the day after Thanksgiving I go to Michael's and there, low and behold, was a 4 foot RED Christmas tree. With RED lights.
I bought it and took it home. Trent was beside himself with glee. We put this garland of gold, disco ball shaped balls all around the tree. During the day, it looked like it belonged in a brothel.
BUT AT NIGHT!!! Oh my. It looked haunted. When you turned off the overhead lights and turned on the red lights on the tree it was spooky. It gave off a weird, devilish glow.
We put ornaments on it that the kids had made (everyday they moved to a different place on the tree) and the kids loved it. Especially Trent.
That tree is now in my grandson's room at their own house. They still love that tree. And it still looks haunted!
I like to think that red tree helped Trent have a better Christmas that year. And I am so thankful, he has it at HIS HOUSE now!

On the 12th day of Christmas

On the 12th day of Christmas my Secret Santa gave me this cool stitched drawstring bag with this little snowman stitched on it. It is so pretty and there was a yummy bag of dark chocolate mint candy by Starbucks in it. Thank you RENE RUSK for being my Secret Santa. This was SO MUCH FUN!

My Dad and the light switch cover

This light switch cover may not look Christmasy, but read on and you will see it's Christmas meaning.
1995 was not a good mental health year for me. Shortly before Thanksgiving that year, I went into a severe depression. It started around the first of October and by the week before Thanksgiving I was not doing well. Without going into great detail, I felt that the whole world, including my precious 12 year old daughter, would be better off without me. Some good friends found me in a hotel that I have yet to remember driving to and took me to the hospital. My dad signed my commitment papers into a local psychiatric unit where I was diagnosed with major depression. Not a fun time.
I got out of the hospital 2 days before Thanksgiving and it took awhile before the medication fully started to work. I got up each day, went to work and came home and sat in my favorite blue chair. I didn't feel much like doing anything but stitching. No TV, no holiday fun, nothing. I wasn't sleeping much then either.
I started working on this light switch cover for my dad and mom for Christmas. They had bought a new home and I thought it would be pretty. I finished it Christmas Eve.
Now my daddy loved Christmas. He loved decorating (not too much, just the right amount). He loved buying stuff he knew we would like (again, not too overboard, just the perfect little something). That year we went to his house for Christmas Eve.
My medication was working well. I felt like my old self, but not quite as energetic.
Daddy had snacks laid out and was happier than I had seen him. He kept things quiet, but fun. We told Christmas stories about past Christmases and about funny things that had happened. All very low key, but really memorable.
We opened presents and Daddy opened my light switch present. I showed him how to put it on the wall. He had tears in his eyes and said it was beautiful. It made my heart sing. Then he said the MOST AWFUL THING TO ME.
He said, I want one for the living room, one for all three bedrooms and another in the dining room. Oh my, that is a lot of stitching.
But the day after Christmas I rushed out to JoAnn's for their after Christmas sale. I stocked up on light switch covers and patterns. I planned to do one for his birthday in April, then Mother's day, Mom's birthday, their anniversary and then Father's Day. I was so excited at how much joy it would give my dad.
Daddy died that following March, suddenly. I never got to do another light switch cover for him. But I have the first one with me in my house (my Mom is disabled and lives with me). I still smile when I think of how happy that little piece of cross stitch made my Daddy.

New Contest

Ok, my friend Angie from my Yahoo group, Cross Stitch Addiction is pregnant with twins. Her doctor has said she could have the babies at any time, but they hope to wait until the 36th week which would be Jan. 7th.
Here is the contest: Guess when the babies will be born with a day and time. The person closest to the correct date and time will win a stitchy prize. Leave a post with a guess on this post.
Now, while this is all done in fun, we all pray that Angie will have the babies in God's time and that all will be well with Mom and babies. We can't wait to see the little bundles of joy!

Christmas with a grandson

I am obsessed with my collection of stitched and handmade ornaments. Have been for many, many years. All my family knows this. My daughter taught her friends over the years not to touch them on the tree.
I have several Chrismon ornaments that I made of glass gold and white beads and wire. One is a Star of David. Or rather it was a Star of David.
I had this ornament on my tree for several years. My daughter had a beautiful son, my first grandson named Trent. Trent was the first boy in our family for generations (I now have 2 grandsons, Trent and Craig. More on Craig later).
Trent loved to look at the lights on the tree when he was a baby. The second Christmas he was 1 1/2 years old and was walking. He toddled over to the Christmas tree and took that gold Star of David. The center of the star was of course, square. He promptly put it on his arm and wore it like a bracelet. My daughter gasped with fear when he did this. She tried to snatch it back from him, but much to her amazement, I said "oh how cute. Don't you dare take that from him". I thought she would faint. She said, mom, this is your handmade ornament and he is bending it. I just laughed and said, oh well!
We would put that ornament back on the tree each night and each day he would get it again and wear it like a bracelet. He didn't touch another ornament on the whole tree.
Next year, he did the same thing. Over and over he would go and get that one ornament. And wear it like a bracelet.
Now I don't have a picture of the ornament before Trent. But here is my perfectly pointed star, perfect square centered star of David after Trent. Amazing what a grandchild can do to your sense of what is important.

On the first day of Christmas

I received these goodies from my secret Santa today. Oh boy! I just love Christmas!

The Christmas Tree

Here is the famous Christmas tree and some of the stitched ornaments. I have included pics of the pickle ornament as well as some favorites. I have pics of my two ornaments sent to me from friends in exchanges. The crocheted white snowflake is from my friend Caroline that I talked about earlier. I also have some green and white crocheted ice skates that were made 35 years ago by a little 90 year old blind woman who had a stroke. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoy the tree!
Donna

Thanksgiving

I finished "Thankful Sampler" by LK. I haven't finished into a flatfold hanging picture yet. I am just glad I got it done before Thanksgiving.
Which brings up a thought. Why do we wait until Thanksgiving to give thanks? I mean, I know most of us say prayers of thanks in one form or another everyday, but why do we wait until this one day to give thanks to each other?
I don't know that answer, but I do know I am thankful.
I am thankful I have a God who loves me no matter how I am. I am thankful I have a husband who loves me unconditionally and takes such good care of me and my family. He married into this ready made, crazy family. And he loves each one of us.
I am thankful my mother lives with me and I am thankful I am able to care for her. I am thankful for my daughter and son-in-law. She is so much help to me, esp. on this blog. She is talented in ways that I am not. I am thankful for the two little boys that are my grandsons. They give me such joy. Having all girls in the family, I could not imagine what it would be like to have boys. But it has been a fun ride.
I am thankful for my sister and her family.
I am thankful for my job, in which I get to make a difference in someone's life each day. I am thankful for working with the wonderful folks I work with. Carter BloodCare is a family. My boss even gave me away on my wedding day. I am thankful for the donors who come in each day and give a part of themselves and their time to help someone they don't know.
And I am thankful for all of you who read my blog and make comments. I have stitched more and enjoyed more of my stitching since I started blogging and joining Yahoo groups. I so enjoy looking at other's work and being amazed at how beautiful they are. I am thankful that this next year will bring more opportunities to see more work and share more of my work.
I pray each of you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving and will enjoy your friends and family this holiday. Thank you for sharing your lives with me.

The Altoid Tin

I have been interested in doing a covered Altoid tin. Problem is I hate Altoids. But my boss eats them like crazy. So day before yesterday I ask him if he could save me one so I could do a project. He said he had several saved and would bring them to me.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived at work yesterday morning and there was a canvas bag filled with Altoid tins. About 100 or more.
What in God's green earth am I going to do with 100 Altoid tins? He was pleased as punch with himself that he had brought them so I managed a smile (and not a hearty laugh) and said thank you.
I told my EGA group about it last night and we are going to do a project next year with them. There are only 30 of us in the group.
So that leaves me with an extra 70 or more Altoid tins...
Stay tuned to see what marvelous ideas I try to come up with to use these.

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a winner

The correct answer for my contest is BIG GIRL PANTIES by Lizzie Kate. The winner of the contest is Kathy in New York, http://kathystitchcomments.blogspot.com
She has won her choice of 10 colors of Sampler Threads. Kathy, please e-mail me at dwooleybooger@yahoo.com and let me know your mailing address and choice of colors. I will get them in the mail as soon as I hear from you.
Stay tuned, this was so much fun we will do it again.

The Pickle, Part two

Ok folks. I received this from Gaby:
Einschies stitching blog said...
This is soo funny ro read...ähem, I am German but never heart about that tradition and I am not sure what a pickle is??? Can you descibe it????

Gaby

So I did some more investigating. What did I find? Well according to Wikipedia, along with some other sources, I found this:

Christmas Pickle

A Christmas pickle ornamentThe Christmas pickle is a pickle-shaped ornament hidden in the tree. The child who finds it first on Christmas morning receives an extra present. While the Christmas pickle is believed to be a German custom, it is fairly unknown in Germany but widely spread across the USA. In fact it is completely of American origin. [1]

So what I thought was a nice German tradition, was actually a hoax. But it has become my tradition. And I will continue the tradition, but probably will leave the German part off!

A new kind of tag

I was tagged by Carolyn NC

Here are the rules:
Find the 6th folder in your photos folder and then the 6th photo in it.
* Pray that you remember the details *
Post it on your blog
Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged.



My 6th folder was Ornie Exchanges and I only had one photo in it.

Here are the 5 people I am tagging:

Penny

Sue Fitz

Rene La Frog

Cindy F

BW

The Pickle

One of my favorite traditions is hiding my pickle ornament. A few years ago I ran across a beaded paper pickle ornament pattern. I thought to myself, now why in the world would anyone want to stitch and hang on their tree a pickle?
So I did a little research and found (now if I get this wrong, please do not be offended) that it is an old German tradition to place a pickle ornament on the tree, hidden away so you have to look for it. I have read two different versions. One says to put it on as the first ornament and the other says to put it on as the last ornament. I chose to do it first.
Christmas Eve, the children look for the pickle. The first one to find it gets a special gift.
I carefully stitched my ornament on paper, with blending filament and beads. Cut it carefully out around the edges. It is beautiful.
I then place my pickle on the tree. I only have one daughter, but I have also have two nieces that I am close to. I tell them about the ornament and the game. My dd is about 15, one niece is 11 and the other is about 3 on that Christmas.
They almost tore my tree apart looking for it and when it was found by my dd they fought over it. I ended up almost losing the tree and the ornament. I gave them all a gift (which I had intended on doing anyway).
That was the first and last year we held an official contest. From then on, my dd just simply looked for the ornament and let me know where it was.
I now have two grandsons. Last year my oldest, then 5, found it with help from his mom.
I now have my big tree, with all the stitched ornaments, at my work. It is admired by many and gives me great pleasure to look at and remember the past everyday from the day after Thanksgiving until New Years.
In my coming posts I will be talking about more Christmas tradition. Did I tell you about my Star of David made from gold beads?
And the year we had the haunted, needs to be in a brothel, red tree?
Come back often and remember with me these fun times. And think about all of your fun times during this holiday.

New Clue for Contest

Yes it is a LK design. The new clue is: It is not a holiday pattern (no holiday at all). Keep guessing. I am going to have to really make this prize a doozy!

A contest, a start and a finish!

Now here is the contest. What in the world is this going to be? A clue is that it is done by my favorite designer and it is the middle of the fabric. Who is my favorite designer? Just check my past pics and see whose work I have stitched the most. The first person to post a comment with the correct answer will win a prize! I will mail out the prize on next Thursday, November 20. I will announce the winner on that day also!

Here is a picture of my latest start, Thankful Sampler by Lizzie Kate. I am doing it on a piece of hand dyed Jobelin called Days gone by. It is made by Silkweaver and looks like suede. I think it will be pretty. I have been meaning to do this for years.

Here is a picture of my latest finish, Don't get you tinsel in a tangle. The picture doesn't do it justice. It is on a beautiful purple hand dyed fabric from Silkweaver. The colors just "pop". I made it into a flat wall hanging.

I've been tagged!

I have been tagged by Sue and Carolyn NC !

The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Here are the 6 random things about me:

I like to watch NASCAR.

I waited until I was 43 before I got married for the first time and had a real, walk-down the aisle, 4 foot train wedding dress.

I love to get pedicures and manicures.

I love BIRTHDAYS!

My hair has been every shade of blonde, brunette and red in the color chart and some off the color chart.

My favorite color is green (but if you ask my husband he will say purple. Go figure).

I am tagging:

BW

Staci

Ange

Penny

Melinda

Jen

Christmas, The Carolyn Saga

Carolyn Bibb was my best friend. She was the most talented person I have ever met. She could paint, sew, embroider, quilt, just about everything I love. But I can't do most of those. And spell! She could spell ANYTHING!
She and I had a lot in common and we spent a lot of time together. We met at work. We went everywhere together.
But one Christmas it all almost came to an end. We had an incident that made me so mad I didn't talk to her for a month.
The whole nasty event came during one of the ornament exchanges with my EGA that I talked about earlier.
Here is how it went down: I invited Caroline to my annual EGA Christmas party. Paid for her meal. Stitched an ornament for her to participate in the exchange. Sat next to her during the exchange. I drew number 21 out of 22 numbers. She drew number 22. All through the exchange I drooled over a cross stitched paper ornament that was a picture of a quilt shop. I whispered to Caroline, "when it is my turn, I am going to take that ornament". Then finally my turn happened. Snatch! I took the said ornament. I was pleased as punch. Then came Carolyn's turn. She turned to me and said "I want that ornament". I thought I was hearing things. Then I saw her reach out and take my ornament. My jaw dropped. Surely, no, surely she wasn't taking my ornament. Not my best friend. Not the woman for if it weren't for me taking her to the party and stitching an ornament wouldn't be taking MY ORNAMENT! But she did. And she kept it.
Luckily we didn't have to drive home together for I might have dropped her off in the lake. And when we returned to work, I didn't talk to her. She called me to ask what was wrong and I let her have it. One month passed before we spoke. It took months to get back to where we were.
All over a Christmas ornament.
Carolyn died about 8 years ago. Wish I had that month back. Wish I hadn't been so selfish and stupid and wish I hadn't fought with her and said those nasty words. You can't take it back and you can't get time back. She forgave me and I forgave her, but we still missed that time.
We made a pack after that. She went to many, many more EGA events with me. She made her own ornaments from then on. One of them I have. It is a crocheted snowflake. I treasure that snowflake. Love to look at on my tree. But I still miss my friend.

I won an award!

I have been chosen for an award by Carolyn



Here are the rules:

The rules for acceptance of the award are as follows:

1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on their creativity, design, interesting material and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each winner has to show the award and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

Here are the blogs I have nominated:

Andrea

Staci

Olenkas

Cindy

Jen

Thank you very much for this award!

Christmas

Some of you might have noticed the countdown to Christmas on my sidebar.  Let me tell you, I am just a little crazy for Christmastime.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are not my favorite though.  It is the whole time leading up to Christmas, from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve.

Let's start with the tree.  All of my ornaments are handmade.  When my daughter was little there were some of hers on the tree.  Now they are all stitched or crocheted.  Mostly stitched.

I have stitched some of them.  Well, a lot of them.  I also belong to an EGA that has an ornament exchange every year at Christmas.  You might as well say an ornament fight.  We all make and wrap a stitched ornament.  Then we draw numbers and like a Chinese gift exchange, the first person picks an ornament.  The next person can chose a new ornament or can take the first ornament from the first person.  It goes on until all the ornaments have been opened.

This is a group of lovely, well refined ladies (and a gentleman or two).  But there is so much lying, conniving, hiding, cheating that it might as well be a back room poker game.  But in the end we all come out friends and have a new ornament.  Since this is my 16th year in the group, I have 16 of said ornaments made by friends, some who have passed on out of this world.  I treasure them.  

I also have a few made by some friends other than my EGA.  One is made by a 90 year old blind lady, thirty years ago.  She crocheted a little green and white pair of ice skates, with paper clips for the blades.  They are precious and are the first thing I put on the tree, after my cross stitched pickle of course.  More on the pickle in another post.

One ornament is made by my best friend Caroline, who died of cancer several years ago.  I get teary eyed when put her ornament on the tree.  But things weren't always fun with Caroline.  I will post this story later also.  Let's just say it had to do with the ornament exchange I mentioned earlier...

I am so crazy over all my ornaments that I did an inventory of them, with dates and who made them.  They will be passed onto my daughter once she has proven that she will care for them with all her heart.  Actually they will be taken from my cold, stiff hands once I pass from this world!

What are your traditions?  Do you have a special tree or a special way to celebrate?  I will be posting more this month into next month on my love of this holiday.  More about the tree, the pickle and Caroline.

Check out my other blog

Check out my other blog, http://stitchingforacure.blogspot.com for a chance to help cancer patients.

Ornie Exchange

This is the ornament I received from Mary in the ornie exchange. She also sent this cute little snowman from Mill Hill that I can stitch later. She did a great job on it and I LOVE IT! Thanks.

HoHoHo

This is the piece for my secret Santa gift that gave me so much trouble this past weekend. As you can see it is rather simple, but with Mr. Froggy visiting it was quite challenging. And I can post it because the person receiving it doesn't know I am the one sending it! It is a Lizzie Kate scissor holder. I purchased two of these on E-Bay and I used one (unstitched) for another exchange and stitched this one for this exchange.

Froggy go away

This weekend Mr. Frog has visited me.  I did a small piece for an exchange.  Should have taken me 2 hours to stitch but no, took me about 6 hours.  Each new detail I stitched, I would get about 3 or 4 stitches in and realize I was 1-3 threads off or I had crossed 1 thread instead of 2.

It is a good thing it is being mailed out, because while it looks great, I hate it now.  I will post pics later because my partner doesn't know I have her name.

But the good news is that Mr. Frog seems to have gone away to visit some where else.

Also, a post on my hair color.  I washed my hair today and no pink bubbles and no pink on the towel.  So maybe that experience is behind me.  

And today when I was at my DS house she asked me if I could color her hair for her with the stuff she had bought.  Clearly, she never reads my blog and clearly she is blind for my hair is still this radical red color.

But I did as I was told and put her hair color on.  It turned out fine.  Maybe it is just my hair that has issues...

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Ange, Joy & Suefitz you have each won something stitched by me in the next 364 days.  Please send me your mail addys so I can send your goodies to you.  And don't forget to post the same offer on your blog!

Donna

dwooleybooger@yahoo.com

Christmas Ornament

Christmas ornament for an ornament exchange. My partner doesn't know who I am so I can show it now!

Thank you Lord for Veggies

Thank you Lord that Thank you Lord for Veggies is done. Ready to put up tomorrow!

One last chance to enter my PIF

I am one for the lucky people to be drawn on Elisa's (http://oldraggedthreads.blogspot.com)
blog as a member of her PIF.
*** This is how it works ***
If you would like to receive something handmade by me within the next 365 days, please comment on this post to say that you are interested. I will then ask my DH to draw a name from the hat on October 31st (Halloween). If you are one of the chosen three then in return, please post the same offer on your blog.
This is a simple and a lovely way of spreading joy in the stitching world. I hope that you will join in and possibly become one of my PIF members!
This PIF is open for everyone!

Get ready to laugh

Ok, last night was the time when I had to cover those stubborn grey roots.  I didn't want to go to the beauty supply store so instead I went to the drugstore.  The cosmetics lady "helped" me to pick out the right shade of red that matched my current red.  The brand she said was the closest was a brand I had never used before.

So off I went.  I mixed it all up.  I am not a novice hair colorist.  I have had grey hair since I was 30 that I have been covering up.  I put it on and the color was majorly bright red.  But sometimes they are when you are working with them.

Left it on the time I was supposed to.  Took a shower to rinse.  When the water hit my hair, red went everywhere.  It looked like a scene from Psycho.  Red splatters on all 3 sides of the shower walls, on the shower curtain and the tub looked like the red sea.

I shampooed and got pink bubbles.  I rinsed and towel dried.  Had red dye go all on my towel.  I blowed dry my hair and it was wild.  The reddest red I have ever seen.  Dark, bright, bold red.

Took another shower.  Pink bubbles again.  Shampooed again.  Pink bubbles.  Towel dried.  Still red on the towel.  Not quite so bright, but still...

Got up this morning.  Shampooed my hair.  Pink bubbles and red on the towel.  My husband is sure I am killing something or someone with all the red on the towels.

Dried my hair and did it.  Not too bad, but not good.  Everyone just looked at me this morning like, there is something not right, but what is it?

Now after all that I found an inch section of hair behind my ear that didn't take the color at all.  Thank goodness I have short hair and can blend it in.

Now here is my fear.  I am going through early menopause and have those wonderful night sweats where you wake up and your hair is all wet.

Will this color bleed on my sheets?  Will my husband think I killed someone in the night and got in bed with him?

Stay tuned to this bat station and this bat channel for more bat news...(make that bad news...)

Relay For Life

Last night was our annual American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.  If you have never been to one of these I strongly suggest you go even if you don't stay out all night or have a team.  It is a major fundraiser for ACS and honors cancer patients.  They start the walk with a victory lap that has all these cancer survivors wearing purple t-shirts.  Everyone lines the track and cheers them on.  Then the walk begins.  All the teams have walkers walking the track.  There are many, many other events going on at the same time.  There were 100 teams and probably 2000 people or more there.

All around the track on both sides are these white, decorated bags that have the name of a cancer survivor or someone who has passed away from cancer.  They are purchased by family and friend and have a candle inside.  At 9:00 they turn off the lights at the track and all these candles are lit.  Family and friends sit by the lumianaria of the person they are honoring or in memory of.  They have a little ceremony remembering those we have lost and those who are still fighting.  It touches my soul and gives me strength to continue another year in my job as a lifesaver (yes that is how I truly feel about my job).

This year I donated my Peace, Love and a Cure for the silent auction.  At 8:00 it had a bid of $50 on it.  I don't know if that was the final bid or what it actually went for.  The money will go for cancer research.  I will update you next week when I find out the actual bid.

Thank you Lord for Veggies Update

Here is the cute little project I have been working on. It is called Thank you Lord for Veggies! I am almost through with. I decided to use sampler threads on it because I love them so much. I have to finish this by first part of next week so I can do my two Christmas ornies for the exchanges I am in.

I got RAK'd

This is the little stitched card that I received from my friend, Lisa Beachum in my Yahoo stitching group. She sent this along with some vintage cross stitch magazines that I absolutely love! My BF lost her mother the day before I received this so when it came in it made my day! Thanks.