It's a New Year...

...and I think one of my resolutions needs to be to update my blog at least once a month. I have gotten so bad about keeping it current. Facebook is killing my free time! :p But, I know there are quite a few of you that either aren't on Fb or miss updates so for you, here we go. :)

A couple of days before Halloween Amber emailed me to see if I could help her make a couple of Halloween costumes for her & Nate. I said sure, even though I was apparently the only person who had not heard of the Angry Birds. I think it's a game for your phone or iPod or something. :p Well, when she got here they had already marked out the design with masking tape.
We just had to cut it out, cut the white parts to fit and sew it all together. Took way longer than we expected it to. :) Here's Amber modeling the unfinished/unstuffed pieces. :)
After she got home they got the face on one and the next day the face on the other and stuffed both. Here are the finished costumes. I think they turned out great!

At our church bazaar in October we entered several of the mini raffles. The one I really wanted to win was the Family Game Night package. Well, Jerry won so that was good enough. :) Amy & Louie were there when they were picking the names and when they said Jerry's name Little Louie said "Grandpa"? Lol It included lots of games, munchies & gift certificates for Papa Murphys pizza. A few weeks later we had all the kids over for a Family Game Night. Fun! :)

Amber submitted 3 pictures to the Hedburg Public Library in Janesville for judging. They liked her pictures so in February (I think) 2012 she gets to have a solo showing of her photography. These were the 3 pictures she submitted. It was really hard for her to choose cause she wasn't sure what they would like, and she has so many good ones.

With all the painting on the house this fall we almost missed getting to Skelly's Pumpkin Farm. We finally made it the day before Halloween. I think I posted a lot of pics of that last year so I won't bore you with more. I did think this was cute though. Louie found this in the store there. I think it's his motto.

I have been doing some stitching! I finished this I think sometime in October. (a few more pieces below) I still need to get it in a frame. I loved working on this one. It's ABC Lessons from Lizzie Kate.

The day before Thanksgiving break Louie had his winter program at school. I think a lot of schools are trying to get away from the 'Christmas' program. He told us he had a solo, but it turned out that he was just standing up front with about 7 other kids for one of the songs. It was a very cute program. :)

The day after Thanksgiving, while everyone was shopping for Black Friday deals, we were making the rounds to 3 different cemeteries in Janesville (WI), South Beloit (IL) and Rockton (IL). We took wreaths to my mom, Jerry's mom & Jerry's grandparents. Every year I make the wreaths.

Amy has a friend in Minnesota that has a business called Fairytale Frosting She also has an Etsy page and a Facebook page. She makes the most wonderful cookies! Amy asked her to make some owl cookies cause Amy knows I love owls (as much as snowmen but I don't have nearly as many!. I was surprised when this package came in the mail! Aren't they adorable?

Of course it IS winter in Wisconsin and we had the snow to prove it. Not nearly as much as the East coast though! This was our only big storm so far. (knock on wood!) Most of it ended up in our driveway, and we never did find the paper that day. I did get some pretty pictures. Like this one of a cardinal at the bird feeder in the back yard.

Before Christmas Emma & Louie came over to make some cinnamon ornaments. I used a different recipe than I used before and they didn't turn out as well. Maybe next year we'll make new ones. They made gingerbread men and put holes in the hands so they could string them into a garland. Then we put them in the dehydrator for a few days.

For Louie and my nieces I made cross stitched ornaments for Christmas. I used the same chart and just made them in their favorite colors. For my two nieces with a significant other, I just put the year on the back instead of names. Here are some of my nieces with theirs. For those of you that have been following Mercy's story on my blog, that's her sitting on her mom's lap. :)

Jerry & I were in Penneys one day and I saw a Green Bay Packer snowman. It was on sale for $17.99 and I had $15 in coupons. There was no way I was going to NOT get it for $2.99! I am a Packer fan, Jerry is not. He told me that letting me buy that snowman shows me how much he loves me. :)
It didn't take long for the kitty to become a fan too.

On Christmas Eve we went to church. I love going that evening cause the beginning is candlelight while we sing Silent Night. Little Louie sang in the children's choir but he was too far across the church to get a picture without everyone seeing me.

After church the kids all came to our house for dinner and opening presents. That way Little Louie can stay home on Christmas day with his Santa presents. Speaking of Santa, here are a few. :) Jerry, Lil Louie, Louie & Josh
Since the University of Wisconsin Badgers were going to play in the Rose Bowl this year, we got everyone a shirt for Christmas (except Josh, he didn't want one) Here they are posing, Nate, Louie, Amber, Lil Louie & Amy. Can you tell by the poses and 'spirit fingers' that both of my girls were cheerleaders in high school? Lol! And then, after the madness ends, all that's left are the empty gift bags. Ready to be packed away till next year.

This is Amber & Nate on New Year's Eve. I stole it from her Facebook page. I don't get as many pics of them on here cause when we do things it's usually with Amy & Louie. So I thought I would add this one.

I wanted a quick finish one day so I decided to stitch this little blackwork owl. He's actually 2 different colors of green but you can't tell in the pic. I think he's cute. :)
Right now I'm working on a piece for my living room wall. I'm hoping to get it finished, framed & up on the wall before summer. It's an old DMC chart that I think I sent for from a magazine. I think it was free but it has a bar code on it so it may have been one that I had to pay $1 for or something. It's called Willow. This is the pic from the front of the pamphlet.
As of today, I have this much done.

On our Humane Society's Facebook page they asked for people to make fleece kitty beds for in the cages. Since I've made fleece blankets before and these were just mini ones, and since all of our animals have come from the HS I decided to make some. We went to get some fleece & I had enough for 18 beds (blankets). I used some of the leftover pieces to make some catnip toys to take along. We also had 9 garbage bags of aluminum cans in the garage. We stuffed them in the car and stopped at the recycling center cause it was on the way. We got $18 for the cans, added $2 and were able to give the Humane Society a $20 donation. :) They were really happy for all of it. :) Here are the beds.

Well, I think that's it for now. If you hung in there, thank you! Remember, comments are always appreciated. :) It's midnight and I just realized I forgot to eat dinner. :p I'm sitting here alone cause Jerry is working and Josh is with friends. I've spent the whole evening going through pictures & writing this blog. I'm hungry! Lol

Until next time, Hugs!