Friday Finishes!

This weekend we went for a few drives and found out, one store was closed on Monday, but the good thing was, Colchester Mills was open and I was able to get some nice muslin and a new pattern, as a treat.

This design is by Blueberry Backroads, called Just for You! I love the fact that it is small and has the perfect saying for gift giving. I made the first one into a pillow, but they also have a flat version. I think the flat one would be fun to fill with balsam but I didn't get any this year. It is also nice since the flat version can fit in a small yellow envelope, along with a card.

I gave it a little color and some bells.

My freebie for the week was a design I found online, a simple tree with cut out hearts, but I decided to try some of my buttons. It was simple and quick to make up, so a great giveaway item, and something simple enough for kids to do. I think I like the smile face trees, better.

I saved the site these came from, but it seems to be an iffy site, isn't taking me to the same post, so I am including the pattern I downloaded and it does have the name of the site it came from. I wouldn't bother though, I already cleaned out my cache to be safe.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. It is going to be cold again, so we won't be hitting the beach, anytime soon.

Friday this and that!

This has been a hectic week. My car died on Saturday and Bill decided our car was getting too old to trust on trips, so we went car shopping, or more like truck shopping. I am a minimalist, I don't like a lot of fancy things that just confuse me, but most cars now, have it built in. I also was shocked at the prices and payments, I am not used to that either, so I said I would think on it.

Of course if you say that and walk away, they start making deals and calling you, so we ended up getting a deeper discount and with a trade in and Bills work discount, we got a deal I could live with and lower payments. Now I need to learn how to drive it, I have been sick this week, so no desire to go out at all. It will carry more weight, so in the future we can get a larger trailer with room for the kids.

I also finished my jungle panel. Now I need to get some thick foam so I can make an over sized pillow cushion, but was also wondering if I added a matching sized seat, if I could make it into a mini couch for the kids, when they come over. So, I will look up patterns and see if I can figure it out.

Here is a bit of the stitching, hard to see since I used black pearl cotton, but I stitched over the gold lines to tone it down a bit.

And what is that little guy, peaking from the side? My newest project, I decided to hand sew the shapes on the panel and it needs to be done by next weekend. I will machine quilt the sides, so hopefully I can do it.

With the rain and car shopping, I didn't have much time to go beach combing. We were able to go to his sisters for a long swim and as the tide was going out, I did a quick search and found some nice chunks that had just washed up.

And I painted a few more rocks, these are hearts I found on the same beach, this month. There are lots of rocks with shapes, so I will have to find some more and stock up for later. I kept these simple, it takes forever to get coverage with some colors, so I did dots to decorate with and it works up fast that way.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, we have another soaker, coming in tomorrow. Really miss going to the regular beaches, so hopefully with school starting, they will be less crowded.

I also cannot answer some comments, but I do read them all and appreciate each one. With people using new readers, I cannot find email addresses.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a nice day, no matter how you celebrate the holidays. One of the things I did to celebrate was to share the love and memories on a tree for Danielle, in our beach room. I think of it as her room and now it is my room, so it is our room. 

I found a prelit tree with pinecones, simple but nice. I made christmas cards using photos of her and her friends and family and printed them card stock. I hung those on the tree and yesterday I found two hanging signs, one says Believe and one for Joy. I turned it on, on Christmas eve and it will stay lit till midnight tonight, my gift to her this Christmas. I also wrote a little poem to her, not the best literary piece, but it came from the heart.

I made a special gift for you,

a little Christmas tree,

Filled with family, friends and love

and all our memories.

May you see the bright shining light,

as you celebrate Christmas in Heaven tonight.

Love you and miss you,

and this I do pray, 

to be with us in spirit, 

especially today.

Christmas Eve was spent at our house. We made a turkey dinner and let Nick open a few presents. He loves wearing my watch, so now he has his own. 

Today we visited her grave.  It was a nice feeling to be able to see her stone in place and I knew she is smiling down on us, when the sun broke out and the beam cast it's rays on her stone, creating a rainbow of color across the angel. 

The afternoon was spent with the kids, yes I still call them kids;) My son and  wife made dinner and after we enjoyed present opening with Nicholas and playing with his new toys.

We got him a little bike so he could learn to peddle and not have to worry about falling, this was perfect for a learning bike. 

He wasn't too sure about going in his new fort, but then he drove his new firetruck into it, so he had to go in to get it. The house is nice since it pops down and fits into a small carry sack, so he can bring it to my house when he plays here.

Now it is time for me to have some me time, lots of projects to finish, new ones to start and lots of ideas for new creations.

Monday: This and That!

I wanted something simple and fun to make over the weekend, love to stitch at night while I watch tv. I have been following the Christmas Blog Hop hosted by Buttermilk Basin and if you haven't followed along, check out Stacy's blog and you can see what other patterns have been offered during the hop.

On day 3, Debbie of Wooden Spool Designs made a wonder christmas truck ornament. I decided to make mine into a pillow and stuff it with balsam. The design is perfect with the fresh cut tree, for a balsam scented gift and a nice gift for the guys too.

I had a lot of fun making them and they worked up quickly. I decided to go with a fuzzy white wool, but I may try some with a night sky and a different colored truck. I added the word Joy to the pillow, and a button star. You can see in the photos, I did one hell with wool and one with buttons, fun to try different variations.

Since I used a white background and wool, I decided to go with a blanket stitch, but I didn't want the balsam to fall through the edge. I took two pieces of batting and sewed them up to one edge, filled it with balsam and then sewed up the last edge, so it keeps the balsam sealed inside.

I had Nicholas on Saturday. We went shopping, since I am still looking for the perfect booties for my skinny jeans. I want something rugged and waterproof and my style, so I am still looking. Of course I couldn't resist looking at kid's shoes and Nicholas is growing out of his sneakers, so he got a new pair of boots and he loved tromping around in his big boy shoes.

Sunday was a memorial mass for those who have passed this year, in our church. We each got a candle with their name and after the homily, they read the names of each person. When Danielle's name was read, we all walked up and handed the candle to Father David, to be lit, then put on the table. It was a truly moving service,  and the choir sang with all their heart and love.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and in a few more weeks, another blog hop, so I am working on my piece for the hop and getting new ideas as I make it;)

A Freebie Finish and Weekend Fun!

Today I made a halloween cone from a freebie I found on the web. It is from Country Sampler and I added a link to the PDF File, since it asks you to subscribe to get it, for some reason. But, I found a direct link so you can use that and make one for yourself.

I messed up, seem to do that a lot lately, lol. I forgot to put it on the fold when I cut, so I just did a blanket stitch to sew it together. In the original, the sew line is in the back. I also added the tie and a couple of jingle bells. I had to take a photo on the floor in the kitchen so I could get better light on it.

This weekend we watched Nicholas for the day while his dad worked on their house. He played outside with grandpa and Bean and then we took him to the toy store. He used the word, Wow, a lot. I was looking for a few things so he would have toys to play with, at our house, but nothing good and we ended up going to a smaller store that carries toys and a little plastic wagon that he can use in the house. Of course he had to try out the toys in the store, I think this is, what do you mean, you aren't buying it for me, look;)

Sunday we went to the antique barn, and I was so excited when I saw a vintage tin halloween garland, then I realized, it was not for sale, errr. Since we were at the north end, we went apple picking at the orchard I went to as a child and we took our kids there. It has new owners, but the new orchard is dog friendly and Bean was in heaven. He was like a kid in a candy store, apples, people, dogs and more apples. Nothing like hundreds of round red balls on the ground to get him going.

" I think I need my own bag!"