2019 BANG!!!

This year is already speeding by. Sonny is getting better and better after his 2nd knee surgery on Dec. 11. He has been walking without a walker for 3 weeks now and though he still has pain, he can get around now and back to some of his routine.

Yesterday was our youngest granddaughter's birthday. Miss Molly turned 10. She is growing up so fast. They had a friend who has a large SUV that has a bench seat in the back like a limo...just not a stretch limo. And her parents and friends brought her and her friends over to Glenwood (which is closest town to us) and had a party at a party planner site. They did crafty pictures of unicorns and unicorn squad. So wanted to share some photos. 

This is the unicorn squad in the limo. Molly is the 2nd from the right with the pink crown. 

The party planners had these precut from sticky vinyl and they had to stick them down and then paint like a stencil. After painting each color they used hair dryers to dry between colors and coats. 

Once painted they then put glue on and added pixie glitter.

You can't really tell but there is glitter and paint on this. Once they got it finished and completely dried, they peeled off the vinyl and the planners framed them for the girls. 

The whole theme of the party was unicorns and even the refreshments were so themed. 

All of this took place in the back of a shop called Eclectic House. It is the neatest shop. While there I found a sweater vest and a blanket scarf marked down. So did some shopping while there. 

This is Sonny, my son and me in the workroom. 

It was so much fun but we left early before Molly opened her gifts but her mom sent me this photo of her with my gift and then this morning wearing the nails I got her. 

**************

Now for some not so nice news. I had an echocardiogram it is showed a Tricuspid Valve Regurgitation which is a leaky valve. I got back to the NP on January 31 to decide what to do if anything. 

************

behind times-Christmas

We had a surprise visit on Christmas. Our youngest son and family came out and brought us some gifts. 

Miss Molly is becoming crafty and she painted me a star night light.

She gets her "crafty genes" from both sides of the family. Not only this Mamaw but her other one as well. Her other mamaw made the most beautiful quilts and she also sewed all her daughter's clothes when they were growing up.

************

The son and family have a regular place they go quite often for mini-vacations. It is Branson, Missouri. If you have never been there, you are missing a treat. They have all kinds of clean and Christian shows and entertainment. But they also have lots of crafty places and Amish stores and an outlet mall. So while they were there, they bought me a carved gnome on a piece of driftwood. 

I love unusual things and this certainly will be loved. 

************

Full Moon and Christmas

I finally was able to get a photo of the full moon this month. Every month for about 6 months, it has been cloudy on full moons so could not get any. This December full moon is called a "Cold Moon". Look it up. Not sure why? Anyway got a couple of good shots to share. You can see the craters.

I forgot to post a photo of my newest quilt. I just got it back from being long arm quilted. It was a patriotic star quilt I worked on for 3 years. I had to take it apart at one point and redo but it is finally finished and on our bed. I was amazed to realize that my 3 quilts I have kept for myself has the brownish yellow background in all 3. Must be a color I like. I do like autumn best so probably why I like that color. 

****************

Just a Christmas wish to all.

I finally got around to downloading photos from my phone to put up here.

Just a few food photos of what we prepared Thanksgiving. Not sure I will prepare much for Christmas as we are still housebound by Sonny's surgery. We have a break from PT until after Christmas but have 2 doctor's appointments coming up. 

So here is the lemon pie I made.

I also made a buttermilk pie and pecan pie. I failed to get a photo of the pecan pie. 

We smoked a hen and some venison. This is the venison.

I did share some photos of our visit with my sister and family but here is one from my phone I didn't share. 

My sister has to wear this brace for a few months but her back is doing so much better. They removed the old hardware and did a stemcell bone graft in. She has osteoporosis so this is the only thing they could do. She has shrunk in height about 3 inches now. 

********************

Our blueberry bushes have kept their leaves the longest and their color was outstanding this autumn.

Then of course I have to share Kinzey.

Since Sonny had surgery over a week ago, I've been sleeping on the livingroom sofa. I've been trying to train Kinzey to sleep outside her crate. She has been doing great but wants to wake me all hours wanting outside. I've not been letting her out and she has managed ok until last night. So back to the crate she went. Tonight I'm moving back into my bed with Sonny and will try her on her own. I will leave my bedroom door open but if she becomes bothersome, then she will go back to her crate. She is now almost a year and 2 months old. 

*****************

weddings and graduations

I couldn't be more proud of my oldest 2 granddaughters. One got married this past September and didn't have a chance to get a  photo until lately. Here she is with her brother and sister. 

She and her husband were supposed to move back closer to us but he got transferred to SanDiego instead.

************

Nicki who still lives with her mom and dad graduated from college this past Friday. She got a triple degree so took her longer than most to finish. Now we are praying she gets a good job in one of her fields. Here she is with her mom and dad. Jackie is her sweet mom and my daughter-in-love...

***********

Nicki is also getting married sometime next year but she and her boyfriend of 8 years are keeping it a secret of "when." Here is their engagement photo.

Her boyfriend Kolin graduated last May and has been working for Corp of Engineers for 3 years now. Thankfully he is stationed locally and expect them both to remain here. They are both such home-bodies.

************

Sonny had his 2nd knee replacement last Tuesday December 11. He came home Thursday and he is really doing good. He did so amazingly well on first knee and looks like he is doing even better with this one. 

Yesterday (Saturday) our water went out. Son who lives closest to us was hunting so I called Jackie who got in touch with him. Sonny did not want to bother him while hunting. But we did and before the son could make it to the house, Sonny had hobbled out to the pumphouse and worked on the pump. Didn't help much and then decided we needed new pump. But the hardware store near us was already closed. After the son arrived, they figured out it was the electric wiring overhead from the electrical box to the pumphouse. So they called a young man in our church who is an electrician but he sent his dad instead. His dad is our pastor. So they got the rewiring done by 7pm. Wire is still on the ground but will have to wait to be rehung when Sonny is up to it. Our son leaves for work again late Monday so won't be possible to get it done before then. He won't be home for 3 weeks. Of course all that moving around and being on his feet made Sonny really sore. He slept in this morning. 

************

Pictures to share- Thanksgiving

My sister had major back surgery in October and was not going to be able to do much for several months. Our middle son was off working and wasn't home and our sweet daughter in law and 2 of the granddaughters took a trip out to San Diego with her mom for the week of Thanksgiving. We usually go meet with my sister and her family for Christmas but with Sonny having his other knee replacement on December 11, we knew we would not be able to go anywhere for Christmas. So I prepared Thanksgiving dinner and we took it over to my sister's house and spent the day with her, her husband and son and our youngest son Sean, DIL Carmen and DGD Molly. We had a wonderful time. Carmen had a timer to take a photo of all of us together. And the weather was gorgeous. 

And yes there was still a little fall color left in our area. Not so much now.

Here are a few more photos.

Me and my son Sean and Miss Molly and then Molly with my sister Susan. 

****************

Another thing I forgot to put up a while ago...we had another bear sighting. Now we think they have gone into hibernation as none has been seen in about a month. But this one was so funny and looked like he was posing. 

*************

They had to take down the feeders until the bears went to bed as they were tearing them up so bad. Speaking of feeders and deer...Sonny has had a wonderful hunt this year and tagged out. First time for him to ever do that. All the meat is in the freezer but still needs to be processed into hamburger and sausage and steaks. We did smoke some for Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. But he is thrilled over his head mounts. He does all his mounts the European method which is bare skull mounted on wood block. Most he hangs on our porch wall but these this year have gone up in our living room. 

**************

I finished all the books and decided they were a little too overstuffed so am taking some pages out and making a couple of extras as know they will make easy last minute gifts for Christmas. 

************

Now I'm working on using up tee-shirt scraps...crocheting them into a bath rug. Also working on the wedding ring quilt top for my one granddaughter getting married next year and a baby quilt for another DGD due this spring. Photos will come later. 

Little book gifts

I finished all my little books for gifts and it amounted to a total of 19 completed books. I had finished 14 for the gifts and then made several more..2 Thanksgiving themed ones, 2 Christmas themed ones and another gift for a friend facing surgery. Making these books were a learning process for me. At first I tied the closing ribbon to the ribbon that held the books together and there is nothing wrong with that. But later I glued the ties into the inside covers and covered with paper to hide it. 

So here are my steps..(somewhat)

After painting the books with gesso, the red of the original books showed through but when painted over the gesso, it covered them fairly well. Then I decorated the covers. 

The top book shows how I tied the closing ribbon to the back ribbon. It is nice but not as finished looking as the other 2. I had a friend to visit me while working on the books and she gave me hints on how she wanted her book done. Hers is the one covered in lace. 

I had measured the books to cut the inside pages and only cut them 1/4inch smaller. Later as I progressed to more books, I cut them a half inch smaller and it made a big difference in closing the books. I used old wall paper scraps from some wall paper books from my teaching years and cut 10 for each book. I was planning on just using one page but the backs were ugly so in the process of adding pockets and hang tags they needed the backs covered. So I cut scrapbooking paper and some old handmade paper I did years ago along with old sheet music for the opposite sides. I used my sewing machine and sewed all the flaps, pockets and other scraps to the pages and the putting a page of the wallpaper and a page of scrap together with wrong sides together, I then sewed the 2 pages together. On the first book I accidentally sewed one page upside down so I scrapped it. When finished I had 10 pages. I folded each in half and then laid the cover on top of one and using a pen, I marked through the holes punched in the covers on one page and punched out the matching holes. I used this first page as a guide to punching out the rest. 

I used tip-ins or postcards, pictures on cardstock I had printed or just plain scrapbook cardstock for the tip-ins. I sewed these in on one side so they opened like book pages. It gave more space to add the stickers and other things I added later. 

***************

Later I will share some of the mistakes and some of the finished pages. If you are following along, and want to attempt doing one of these books here are some things you might need. 

I have an old version of Corel and can add lots of pictures to one jpg file so it made it less waste of paper. I also bought sticker paper on Amazon (cheapest place I found). Cardstock and any scrapbooking paper or just junk papers cut from magazines, sheet music and old books..just mainly junk paper. 

You will need scissors, embroidery thread or string and large eyed tapestry needles, ribbon, hole punch, glue, gel medium like Modge Podge, hot glue, scrapbooking 3-D things like tiny shaped brads, buttons and any thing small junk items you might want to use. I used old jewelry and beads as well. I also used bought tags and tags I cut out myself from cardstock. I have a sizzix so used it quite a bit. I also used craft paint on the covers along with glitter. I am one of those people who love glitter, and I have all kinds and colors. For these books I mainly used the rainbow looking glitters in larger size. It made the covers look more finished. 

It was a major mess around my house until I finished the original 14. After that, I only pulled out what I needed for the extra books so it wasn't quite as big a mess. 

Just don't stress over it but HAVE FUN!!!!