DD #2 graduated.

Last night my DD#2 graduated from her Dental Assistant program. It was a short ceremony...for which I am grateful! We were in and out within 45 minutes. Now all she has to do is find a job! She has had two interviews at an Oral Surgery practice. That is always a good sign. Please send up a little prayer for her to get a job...wether it is that one or another. That is my good news.

My not so good news...my DD#1 called in the middle of the ceremony. She is in the military. She found out when and where she is heading. I'm not going to say where or when...Loose lips sink ships...gotta love cliches. She does get to come home for several days prior to shipping out. That is a god send. I am a basket case. I know that she has to do her duty. After all, she was the one who signed up knowing what the situation is in the world.

As a mother I am terrified. As a Veteran I understand the duty aspect of it all. None of it is easy for me to accept. This is after all my baby girl. She will always be my baby...any mother knows exactally what I mean. All I can do is be here for her no matter what.


Okay, I have that off my chest. I just needed to rant. Thank you for taking the time to visit. I hope you all have a great day.

Pin Pillow Exchange

I am taking part in teh pin pillow exchange that is being hosted by BeckySC over at Becky Bee's Stitching Hive. I am looking forward to taking part in my very first exchange. I am having a hard time trying to decide what I will stitch up for this exchange.  I am going to have to buckle down and just pick something from my collection of magazines and books that will make a sweet pin pillow. I hate making decisions like this without knowing the person.

 Since I have started Blogging I have been fortunate enough to win a give away from Shell over at Tales from the Raspberry Rabbit. You can see posts about Mr. Rabbit here. I have still not decided where to place Mr. Hippy Hoppy Rabbit. My SM(Sweet Man) has taken to calling him TR, short for Traveling Rabbit.

In quilting news I am cutting the bands for both my blue and red "Snowfriends" wall hangings. With all the snow that we have had fall her in CNY (Central New York) I am feeling like putting them up for a bit. However, I want to get them done so that I don't feel guilty for not finishing them. My UFO's and WIP's are piling up. I have two Advent count down calanders and two other christmas items that I purchased for 75% off after Christmas. These 4 items are tucked away in a clearly labled box to be pulled out around October for finishing.

Speaking of the clearly labled box...I am striving to become more organized. My DM is a neat freak and I have a tendancy to leave things around the house. I do not want to drive him away so I am trying to curb my messy ways. I have been doing Flylady for about 4 years now and I am slowly taming my clutter and am to the point where I am mostly living with the things taht I love and use. She has helped me so much. If you do not know her go over to her website and check her out.

No new pics here, I haven't done much other than start to cut strips for the, above mentioned, wallhangings. The snow and cold make my joints ache and at times it is really hard for me to get moving. I am looking forward to Spring!!!! I will probably still be hurting but at least I will be able to sit out on the frount porch and soak in some sunshine as I drink my tea and do some stitching. I do miss the sunshine!

Well, enough of my bellyaching...I hope that you are all warm and cosy and getting to spend a bit of time on your stitching

Tina

Well, its about time...

A few weeks ago I won a give away from Shell at Tales from the Raspberry Rabbit.  I have been having such a hard time with electronics that I have not gotten around to posting the pics that I took.  Well, I am going to remedy that right now! So with no further delay, here is Mr Rabbit.

I am showing him in three different locations because I am having a hard time choosing his permanent home. I would love to hear what others think. : )

On a different track, I an SOOOOO sick of snow. Here in Syracuse, NY we have had snow on the ground for three months now. We have had at least trace amounts of snow every day since Christmas. For the most part is is just enough to be annoying. If I have to leave the house I ahve to sweep the snow off the car before I leave. After I get done (shopping at Hobby Lobby or Jo-Anns) I have to sweep the snow off again. ARGH!!!!!

So I figured that I would share a few snow pics with you all (well, maybe some day I will have a follower). 

This is what I have been dealing with. This bit of snow fell between 8:00 and 9:00 am.

 

I can tell that it fell between those times because DD#2 left for work at 7:35am and this is her empty parking space.

These three views are the view of my yard. There are only two houses back here in the woods, you can barely see my neighbor's house in the last photo.

Oh Well, I really should not complain. (I'll be knocking on wood as I say, Type?, this next bit) We have not lost power and for the first time in many a year we did not run out of wood for the wood burning furnace.  I have plenty of food and know that if anything did happen we would be warm and cosy. After all one of the big perks about having a wood burning furnace is that if all else fails I can cook on top of it (it would need to be something I normally make in the crock-pot, but it is possible).

Well, I have bent your ear for long enough. I hope you all have a good day, and as you stitch may your threads stay knot free.

Tina

Finally back

This last month has been very hard on me. It has been sbnowing almost every day since Christmas. When the weather is like this I end up feeling very blue. I have been hunkered down in my recliner and and have spent a lot of time working on my band sampler that Sharon B, over at pintangle, inspired me to begin. It has been a very enjoyable diversion from the weather.

I ahve also finished all of the embroidery on my snow friends blocks for my wall hangings. You can see the original post here. These are something that I have been working on for most of the month of January.

Here are the five red that will complete the red work wall  hanging.                                                                                                                                                             

  

Here are the 6 that will go into the blue work wall hanging.

I have picked out several fabrics to frame each and then to join them together into a nice wall hanging. I still need to block them. I am going to frame them out and make some smaller pieced blocks to square everything up.

I would love to know what you think of them.

peace, Tina

Gone for awhile

I have been feeling very blue for the past few weeks. It is an awful feeling when depression hits you. It does not help that we have had several days where the sun was unable to break through the clouds and it SNOWED all day long. It also does not help that the cold weather makes my joints swell and ache. Aw heck, Who am I to complain? I have a house, 4 happy healthy kids (youngadults?) and a man that loves and cares for me. A time to be thankful in light of all the distruction in Haiti.

Well on to what has helped me to come out of my blues...My son and #3 daughter have had the last few days of for the NYState Regents Testing. DD#3 has no tests this time around so she has been hanging out with mom. We spent a few lovely hours working on her "Purple Passion" quilt. This is her first attempt at quilting so I have been bery impressed that she is sticking to it.

On the left I am showing her how to use a rotery cutter. We started out by cutting 4 1/2inch stripsFrom there we cut them into 4 1/2 inch  squares. On the right is DD#3 cutting squares. Notice that she is a lefty and I am a righty. It took us awhile to figure out that we needed to move the rueler to the opposit end of the strips in order for her to cut them more easily.

All of our hard work paid off though. We cut over 400 squares. The 10 colores that she picked out flow nicely. We played with them for a while until we found a pattern that we liked. We hung the completed strips from magnetic clips and hung them on our fridge to check our pattern. I especially like that they will be progressing in a stairstep pattern. The best part is that She did all of the sewing by herself on my machine. Her seams are very straight and, for the most part, are a very tight 1/4 inch

In other crafting: I completed this lovely granny square throw for DD#3. It is made up of my many odds and ends of yarn. I just crocheted each one until there was not enough to go another round. I used up quite a bit of my yarn stash. In all there are 9 different yarns in it. On the left you see DS haming it up. He felt that since his sis got to be on mom's blog he should be there too.

Long Extended Weekend

I had all of the kiddlets here at one point or another this weekend. It was nice for me since I was able to find some one-on-one time with all four of them. This does not happen very often!

With the 21yo DD up at Fort Drum (about 80 miles from home) I see her less and less often as she is starting to spread her wings and soar. She is enjoying her job and has settled into a routine (something that she sorely needed).

The 19yo DD is trying to spend some time with her bf. She will have very little time over the next few weeks. She started her internship for Dental Hygenest.  I expected her home around 5:oopm, but she texted me to letme know that the dentist had asked her to stay for an emergency visit. I was impressed that he put this much trust in her after only one day. When she finally did get home she was glowing and exhausted. LOL I would be dead if I had been on my feet for 12 plus hours.

The 16yo DS actually had this evening free. And to top it off, he actually had a conversation with me! I almost passed out! Teen-aged boys always have been a mystery to me.

The 14yo DD texted me after school. (She lives with her father) She wanted to tell me about her day...I wonder if there is something in the water around here???? We texted back and forth for over an hour (Again...be still my heart!!!!) We actually talked about "things" and did not get on one anothers nerves...We are definately to much alike at times. I think that the texting is a good way for us to communicate...Makes us think about what we are saying...No heated exchange of unintended words.

The SM (Sweet Man) left early this AM to return to his education. It makes the house really quiet when he leaves. He will be done with his Bachlors in Mechanical/Production  Engineering in May and we are both ready for graduation. ?He had a short day today, but tomorrow he will be in classes from 9-9, what a schedule. Even with breaks it is a long day.

Me...I spent most of the day sipping Tea and stitching as my ctitters lounged about the house. I have finished more of the snowmen blocks for the wall hanging but am being lazy about posting the pics. I promise I will have them up tomorrow.  For now it is off to slumberland.

First block stitched

I finally got my DS to get the scanner hooked up correctly so that I could scan my finished blocks. This is the first one that I have finished for the redwork wallhanging.

I really like how this block came out. All total I only spent about 4 hours doing this stitching. It amazes me how calming doing the outline stitch can be.

I am now working on the same block only this new one is in blue. There will be more pics as I continue to work on the blocks

Peace, Tina