More Reusable Sandwich Bags!

A good friend saw the reusable sandwich baggies I made for Jerry and asked me to make some for her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. I love these because they really reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the landfill. I went to Hobby Lobby and sent pics on my phone of several fabrics so she could choose some for herself. (I live in WI, she lives in OH) Today I didn't have Emma so when Jerry left for work I decided to get busy making them. They do take quite a while to make (about 6 hours for these 20). They aren't perfect because I'm not a perfect seamstress-far from it! I like these because there are no snaps or velcro. Just a fold over flap. And they wash up so nice with a load of towels. This is the website where I first saw the directions for them: Reusable Snack Bag Tutorial Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow! Hugs, Elaine

Book Review: 'Blackberry Winter'

Last night I finished a book that I enjoyed so much I thought I needed to blog about it and let others know. The book is called 'Blackberry Winter' by Sarah Jio. I saw the book for the first time at Sam's Club. I thought it sounded good so I came home to see if it was available through our library system (7 area libraries that we can request books from). It was available, but had several reserves on it already. I added my name to the list and got the book a few weeks later. This is one of the best books I have ever read! Because I spend most of my free time cross stitching, the only time I usually read is the 10-15 minutes I'm waiting for the kids after school. I picked this one up several evenings to read a bit more because it was so good. It's the kind of book that if I had time, I would have read it through in one sitting. The text on the back of the book says: Seattle, 1933. Vera Ray kisses her three-year old son, Daniel, good night and reluctantly leaves for work. She hates the night shift, but it's the only way she can earn enough to keep destitution at bay. In the morning-even though it's the second of May-a heavy snow is falling. Vera rushes to wake Daniel, but his bed is empty. His teddy bear lies outside in the snow. Seattle, present day. On the second of May, Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge awakens to another late-season snowstorm. Assigned to cover this "blackberry winter" and it's predecessor decades earlier, Claire learns of Daniel's unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth-only to discover that she and Vera are linked in unexpected ways. The chapters go back and forth between Vera and Claire's lives. It's not confusing though. You learn a lot about both of the women's lives and what led to events that take place. I felt for the characters, especially Vera. Just a really, really good book. Maybe for some people it would be predictable, and a lot of books are for me, but this one wasn't. It left me guessing. And very few books make me cry but I did towards the end of this one. It tugs at your heart. It did to me anyway. I would recommend this book to anyone. :)

November IHSW (International Hermit & Stitch Weekend)

I joined in on IHSW quite a while ago and then never remembered to participate. On Friday Katie reminded us on Facebook that this was the weekend. I'm going to have to try to remember it every month. I decided to work on my Monopoly board. It's been so long since I stitched on it I thought this would be a good chance to pull it out. This is what it looked like when I pulled it out on Friday.

My goal was to stitch the Chance card space, B & O Railroad, Illinois Avenue and Indiana Avenue (2 of the red spaces). I was also able to get Chance and Kentucky Avenue finished. :)

I really enjoyed stitching on it over the weekend so I think I'll keep going on it for a while. Next up is Free Parking. :) Not counting the Monopoly logo across the middle, I have reached the halfway point. Even though it's a huge piece, its really quick to stitch. And since so much of it is straight lines, it's a good one to work on while watching tv. I'm not sure if this one will be the one I work on next month for IHSW. When I pulled this one out from a box of UFOs, I found a lot more that I'm anxious to get back to. :) (((hugs))) PS-I'm pretty sure this is my shortest blog post EVER! :)

Always Busy!

In my last blog post, I promised that there would be a 2nd post coming in a few days. It didn't happen. I always have such good intentions for this blog and then I get busy, spend too much time on Facebook, etc and don't get the posting done that I want to. I had planned for that 2nd post to be about our weekend in Door County, WI. I still want to write that one but I waited too long again and now I have too much to write and too many pictures to show. :p I will write that one soon but I want it to be it's own post so I can share a lot of pictures. I am slowly weaning myself away from Facebook. It's amazing how much stitching I get done now! I really like Facebook but it definitely sucks time away from doing other things. I'll still be checking in, but not as often as before. It's November already! Only a week until Thanksgiving. Where has this year gone? It really seems like it just started and in a month and a half it will be done. Summer is always busy for us and the end was no exception. In September we went to see REO Speedwagon at a nearby fair. I have been listening to them since I was a teenager back in the 1970's. I have always wanted to see them and this year was the year. They didn't disappoint at all. The concert was spectacular! As usual I took way too many pictures. :) Here are a few:

Another first this summer was going out in a pontoon boat. A friend that I went to school with invited Jerry and I and another couple for a day on the lake & river. It was a perfect day, except for being super windy. Once we got off the lake and onto the river it wasn't too bad. What an awesome way to spend the day!

In October we went to the pumpkin farm and tackled the night corn maze. The maze covers 9 acres! There were checkpoint signs showing where the next one was but we had to find our way ourselves. Amy, Louie and Little Louie went one way and Jerry and I headed another. We all made it out but they finished way before us. We started at sunset and by the time we finished it was totally dark. Every time the corn would rustle all I could think of was the 'Children of the Corn' movies! This is what the maze looked like:

This is about how light it was when we started:

And it was this dark when we finished. If you look really close you can see the corn tops. Lol! All we had for light was a couple of light sticks.

Homecoming for the high school was also in October. All the schools get to go to the parade in the afternoon and during the whole week the kids do and wear different things to get into school spirit. On the day of the game everyone is supposed to wear black & red, school colors. For some reason, this year tutus were the big thing, for girls AND boys! So this is how my grandson Louie went to school:

Emma (my great niece)didn't have the tutu but she had plenty of beads. Enough to play around with when she was at our house after school.

Our church is getting new directories made this year of all the members. When Jerry and I went to get our pictures taken we realized that this is the first time since our wedding that we have had pictures taken of just us two! All of our professional pictures for the last 30+ years have been with the kids. I hate having my picture taken because I always think I look awful. That's why I'm always the one behind the camera. :) I was actually pleasantly surprised when we got these. They turned out better than I thought they would, considering what they had to work with. :) Here are 2 of the poses we chose. The top one is the one we chose for the directory.

Our church Harvest Time Bazaar was also in October. This year we decided to donate 2 baskets for the mini raffles. The mini raffles have become very popular and there were a lot of really nice things available to win. We did a kids/intermediate age movie night basket. We included popcorn, popcorn bowl, candy, soda, Diary of a Wimpy Kid dvd, Hocus Pocus dvd, Ernest Scared Stupid dvd and Casper dvd.

We also did a fishing kit. It included the rod & reel combo kit, (which came with several lures, hooks, etc), 2 pkgs of lures and a tackle box. Both items got a lot of entries.

The bazaar is on Sunday and the day before they have a 5K walk/run. Jerry and I did the 5K walk along with Amy, Louie & Little Louie. It was a perfect morning, nice and cool. Amber did the 5K run and received a medal for 2nd place in her age category (20-29 years). Little Louie got a ribbon for completing the 5K walk. :) We all got a reusable shopping bag with a tshirt, samples of assorted things, a bottle of water, a reusable water bottle, mini raffle ticket and a few other things. This pic is from before the race:

Have you ever thrown a bottle of lotion away because you couldn't get any more to pump out, but felt guilty because you knew there was still a good amount of lotion left? It happens to me all the time. Because of allergies to fragrances, the only lotion I can use on my hands is Aveeno baby lotion (and the baby bath/shampoo is the only thing I can use for hand soap). It's an expensive lotion and there was always at least an inch of lotion still left when it quit pumping out. It's kind of a pain to have to take the pump out and try to get some into my hand, messy too. So one day I took 4 bottles and put them upside down in cups on the kitchen counter. (with the lids still on) I had saved a nice glass jar from face cream. I let them sit most of the day and then took the lid off one and started putting it into the jar. There was more than the jar could hold! The original stuff in the jar said it was 2.5 oz but since I filled it to the top, I figure there was probably about 3 oz of lotion. And it wasn't all that was in 1 bottle! I still had some in there. I really didn't realize that I had been throwing that much away. I still have 3 of the bottles waiting.

Now, on to the stitching stuff! I was honored to be part of an Angel Quilt project on one of my cross stitch Yahoo groups. Everyone that wants to, stitches a quilt square. The squares are all put together into a quilt and sent to the person who was chosen secretly. This time, the person the quilt was for actually stitched a square for her own quilt without knowing it. :) This is the square I stitched:

And this is the finished quilt. It's beautiful! :)

On a Yahoo group I joined a Halloween ornament exchange. I received this ornament from Glenda. It went straight onto my little Halloween tree. :)

This is the one I sent for the same exchange:

I also stitched a couple other ornaments for my Halloween tree. This one is part of a kit. Hopefully I'll get the rest stitched before next year.

I stitched the 2012 one this year:

On another list I joined a Christmas ornament exchange. This is the one I received. She sent me 2 ornaments, snowman stickers and a snowman button. :)

We also include a few extras in with the ornament. I forgot to include the extras in my picture before I sent it. This is the one I sent.

and the back:

I stitched a quilt square for Betty W. I believe they are for her grandkids but I'm not sure. She sends the chart and fabric, we stitch it and send it back. :)

This piece was stitched from a Traveling Pattern offered by Sarah on her blog. She finished it and offered to make a list of people that wanted to stitch it. She sent it to the p1st person and each person sends it on after stitching it. After me, it headed to South Africa! :)

I stitched this piece for my daughter Amy and when I posted it on my Facebook page, a friend in Texas asked if I would stitch it for her too. I have had both of them stitched for a while but kept forgetting I needed to get fabric to finish them. I finally went a couple of days before Halloween, looking for summer fabric...not a good idea! I finally did find some that matched perfectly and then found cording and beads to match. They were both very happy with the finished pieces. :)

I have 2 Heaven and Earth designs started. I am making a lot more progress on the 2nd one. It's 'Mini Shiver Meow Timbers'. Here's the floss and chart before I started.

This is how it looks after approx 11,400 stitches. I still have a LONG way to go! I am enjoying it though and I'm determined to finish it. :)

One thing I am SOOOOOO happy for...the election is over! It seemed like it went on forever! Partly because we had political stuff going on here in WI for about a year before the presidential stuff started. We had petitions and a recall election going on for our governor. And it seemed like the political stuff just got really nasty. I'm not sure all this social media is a good thing during things like that. It got to a point that I didn't even want to check my Facebook page anymore. But, it's done now and I am done thinking about it. This picture was posted on Facebook by one of our radio stations. Not sure where they got it but I really like it because this is the way it should be. It's actually 2 pictures from 2 yards.

Thanks for reading this far. I know my blog entries are always way too long. If I would do it more often I wouldn't have that problem. Comments are welcome and appreciated. :) Until next time, (((hugs)))