Game time

I went a different route for

these journals and made a score

pad with one.  What I use now

when we play cards is just a mini 

legal pad and it works fine, but

this is much cooler, right?!

This way you can keep track of 

who wins.  Larry likes to look back

and say, "you lost this week, you

lost that week" etc.  He's such a pain!

But I love him anyway.

The bathroom floor looks so

beautiful and every time I walk in

I think I'm in the wrong house!  It 

was so nice to be able to hang out with

Mark and just have some family

time.  We don't get to do that

too often.  He even went to church

with me and got to see me sign,

so that was fun as well.  I

wish he could bring his wife, Stephanie,

with him but the only time he can 

come is weekends and that's when

she works the most at Kohl's,

especially right now with the Christmas

season coming.  I just don't get to

spend enough time with my siblings

and their spouses.  Sometimes I wish

we could go back to Mayberry times 

when no one moved across the country.

I don't think God intended us to

be so alienated from each other by

distance or by other things.  I also

think that people don't spend enough

time trying to cultivate relationships

when they aren't right around the 

corner.  It's so easy to become

complacent when you don't

see the person every day.

God created families for

a reason and I want to make sure I

let my family-and my friends- know

that I love them.  I don't think

you can say that often enough.  

Tonight is the last Monday sign class

and I am going to miss it so much!  

After Saturday-the last class for

that day-I will only get to see my

friends once a week at church.

I am sad about that.  I'm

not sure when the next ones

will begin.

Please pray for those in the wildfire
zones.  My sister isn't in any danger
(I don't think) but yesterday they
weren't allowed out except for
emergencies and the smoke was so 
thick at  one point that they could
barely see their neighbor's house.
They all need our prayers.  Thanks.   

Happy Monday!!

Merry Christmas

This is the last of the  new patterns

that I got a couple weeks ago.

I used a variegated green thread

for it and it turned out pretty nice.

 

My brother has been  here retiling

my bathroom floor and it looks amazing!

I am so excited to get some nice flooring 

in there.  John had an oxygen machine

that he used at night and never put

a mat underneath it.  It made a brown

burn mark on the floor.  The floor

is also ancient, having been here since

the house was built. At some point he's 

going to retile the laundry room and other

bathroom which are connected.  It 

is so yellow and ugly.  John did the kitchen

years ago and also pulled out all the carpets

and put wood floors in so those look great,

but he never got to the other floors.  I

have an awesome brother!

 

Happy Sunday!

 

Off to the races!

Well, not now, but in the summer

Once a year for probably 20 years or

more, my dad and I have had a

standing date to go to the races.

I call it our father-daughter date.

We didn't go last summer because we

went to see the hot air balloons.

It would have been nice if we could

have seen them fly! Be that as

it may, he expects a race ticket 

with his birthday card every year.

His birthday is the 20th.  This

card is an older one, so if I've

already posted it, I appologise.

This is one of my favourite patterns.

On the inside I stamped a piece of

coral.  Here is the ticket:

It's been a joke between us that he

tries to use it more than once or save

it for the next year (even though he knows

he will get another one!) so I made sure

he wouldn't be able to do anything like 

that.  You have to know my dad.  In Alaska

we were at an animal preserve and the snack

bar had glacier water.  He asked the clerk

what glacier it came from.  Her blank look

was worth it, but I can't take him anywhere! 

I ended up cutting one of the flags

off because when I made it I wasn't

considering the fact that it wouldn't

fit in the envelope.  Duh.  

It sill looks good, though. 

 

I have to share yesterday's post from

my pastor's blog.  It teaches us not to

judge others.

 

 I thought I’d pass on this interesting story that I read. One evening, while waiting for a ride, a young man was standing with a crowd of people looking in the window of a taxidermist shop. In the center of the window was a large owl that attracted the attention of all who passed by. The arrogant self-appointed expert began to criticize the job done on it. “If I couldn’t do better than that,” he said pompously, “I’d find another business. Just look at it. The head is out of proportion, the pose of the body is unnatural, and the feet are pointed in the wrong direction.” Just then the owl turned his head and gave the follow a broad wink. The crowd laughed as the critic slinked away.

 

Happy Saturday!

 

 

 

Flower power

I made a cork board yesterday

That i think turned out so well.

It has magnets on the back so

it can be hung on the fridge.

This is a close up of the flower

 

I wish I'd done a better job of inking

it because you can't really tell, but

on the next one I will.  I cut 4 different

sizes of flowers, inked the centers (which

is supposed to run when wet but

doesn't) then layered them togethe

 with a brad, wet them and pushed

 each layer into a bud shape.  Then you

open it all up-carefully-

and leave it all wrinkled to dry.  When

it is dry you can take the brad out,

glue the whole thing together,

and put a gemstone in the middle.  Even

though the inking didn't turn out well,

I still like it.

 

My sister said she is close enough to

the wildfires to be able to smell it,

but in no danger.  She said there 

was an 18 mile backup on the

highway yesterday!  I hope everyone

makes it out safely.

 

Smile!  It's Friday!

 

 

Hot cocoa!

I joined a stuffed Christmas sock

swap.  I'm not going to stuff things

in the socks because it would

ruin them, but I made a couple

things and then got her a nice

 peppermint ghiradelli candy bar.

I love ghiradelli!  Especially the

caramel sea salt!  But I digress.

One of the suggestions was 

cocoa packets.  Well, you can't

just put a packet in can you?

For a crafting site?  That would

be tacky.  So I had to spice it

up.  I love how these turned out!

The green one is my favourite.  I

didn't mean for the gems to be in a

line like that, but oh, well.  This is

swiss miss cocoa with marshmallows!

Nothing but the good stuff, right?!

 

I have a lunch planned with my friend

Kelly, for late this afternoon.  Then 

tonight Larry and Laurel (who are

back from Florida just in time for

the cold weather!) are coming over

for some cards.  I intend to beat them.

Or die trying.  People who don't

understand competition should never

join card games with us!  I can't

believe it went so easily with the

two added phases last time.

Maybe it was beginners luck.  We'll 

see if it's that easily won this time.

I don't think we've ever had a game

where someone didn't get set at

least once and end up with a score

of 30!  That's unheard of!

 

Happy Thursday!

 

Our 45th president

For better or worse, Donald

Trump will  henceforth be

known as President Trump.

After he is sworn in, of course.

I pray God gives him the wisdom

(and he uses it) to lead our country

in the right direction.  Only time

will tell.  I stayed up til ater 2

A.M. when it was pretty clear

that he had won and I was tired

of playing my Nintendo game, LOL. 

My arm is killing me.  Whose fault

is that?  Mine, of course.  

Another abstract.  I've had these done

for several days thankfully.  I haven't

done any stitching in about a week.

I'll be glad to get that cortisone shot

at the end of the month.  I may talk

to him about surgery as well.  I'm

tired of being in pain for 6-8  of the

12 weeks from the shot.   He said something

about surgery the last time I saw him,

so I'll discuss it with him and see what

he thinks is best.  I love him, he's a 

great doctor and I know he will guide

me in the right direction.  I don't want

to have surgery, but it may be the

only option at this point.

 

Enough on that.  The wind blew some

of my leaves into my neighbor's yard,

but there are still tons in my yard

that should be raked.  Again.  I hate

Fall.  I hate Spring.  I especially hate

Winter.  Enough of that, too!

 

Since this is a quite boring post I will

just say:

 

Happy Wednesday!

 

Christmas Joy

I have a couple more stitched cards

to show yet,  but I'm thinking I should

back off now, at least until I get my

next cortisone shot.  I've already

made all my patterns anyway. 

This looked a lot better in the

pattern, but I still like it.   

 

Two Halloween cards from friends that

I forgot to post:  

 

This first one from Kat in Texas

 

The second from Karen, in Cleveland

 

Both talented ladies! 

 

Today we find out which direction

our country will go in.  Something

to remember:  No matter who is

president, Christ is always King!!

When Obama got elected the first

time, John and I were in Georgia

at the aquarium.  They don't have

people at the ticket booth on the

way out; you get an electronic ticket.

So we are entering the aquarium and

they are passing out  refrigerator magnet

 that say "Deepo for president".  Deepo is their

clownfish mascot.  John put his in his

pocket and we enjoyed the day.  This is

a huge aquarium, by the way, with not one

but two whale sharks!  Those, in case anyone

is unfamiliar, are the biggest fish in the world.

We leave, go to the ticket kiosk and the ticket

won't work.  He tried and tried.  Nothing.  

Another man comes, puts his ticket in, 

pays, and is on his way.    He finally hunted

someone down who could process our

ticket manually.  The reason it wouldn't

work?  Deepo for President.  The magnet

had demagnetized the ticket!!!  And that's

what I will always remember about

Obama's first election!

 

Just think.  No more election commercials!

 

Happy election Tuesday!