I am still here....

I am just a little overwhelmed right now. I have to much on my plate that must be finished plus some things that I am wanting to do for fun, and I do not seem to be getting anywhere with any of it LOL
I am in the process of getting hubby's health insurance switched and it is such a pain. Have to switch doctors, pharmacy's, infusion clinics....the list goes on and on. On top of all of this I have to go back to work. I should explain it is not back to work in the normal sense. Hubby's new insurance will pay for a caregiver. As I am a certified care giver they will pay me a set number of hours a week, but I have to apply at agency's, have them hire me, then the insurance will reimburse the agency. So, I have to find time to get to these agency's, get new CPR and First Aid cards,I let mine expire, on top of everything else.
I am working on some knitting, but it is for orders that were placed and of course I am behind. I am behind on my Easter Garland :( I have decided that I will no longer be taking orders for knitting. I had not planned on doing custom orders to begin with. I had planned on spending this year knitting things up that caught my eye and then in the fall offering them for sale. Once these orders are done I am done. I actually have decided that I do not enjoy knitting to order or to sell. I just want to knit to enjoy and then find someone to give it to! Plus I really would like to knit for myself. In the year that I have been knitting I only have one item for myself....a pair of socks that were my first pair and do not fit :(
I have been doing some baking :)  I love to cook and bake...love to feed my loves ones and see them full and content lol. Must be the Italian in me :P
Anyways, I will be back soon, but am realistically looking at some time next week. Hugs!

I AM LOOKING FOR A PATTERN....

 for the filet crochet easter eggs that have the opening in the front. You know they were starched and decorated with ribbons and things.  I have gone through some of my older pattern books and have googled it to no avail :( If you have one or know someone who has a pattern I am willing to pay for the pattern. I want to make these for my ornament tree. Thank you ;D

Will be away for a few days...

 I have a ton of stuff to get done in the craft room. So instead of worrying about blogging I am just going to spend a few days in the craft room getting it done :D Everyone have a wonderful crafty, productive weekend!

My Easter Ornaments for..

The Easter Garland Along I am taking part in.The piglet is suppose to have a felt flower garland around his neck, but after 4 attempts at a flower I gave up and dug out the beads. It is not attatched in hopes that I will figure out how to make the flowers. also their are no hangers yet. I am half way through building an ornament tree, and I am praying that it turns out ok. I have seen tons of these in blog land and figured I would give it a try. If the tree works then I will figure out how I want to hang them lol

This is one of the items I  received from my mother in law today. Oh the plans I have for this!!

This old cast iron corn bread pan will adorn my new kitchen wall this spring!

Have a few plans for this...am going to line the back with scrap book paper and modge podge and call it done.

I love this calendar! It is missing  3 numbers, but I am going to make them so no big deal! It has the cutest little painted tiles for the holidays :D

All in all I had a very nice day and pretty productive. I am off to knit on some socks :D

All The Wonder At My Mother In Laws

My


Hmmm, not quite the way I had intended this to come out LOL My mother in law stopped by today and asked me to go to her house with her. She had some things for me...and no it is none of the above. Although, I will be buying a few pieces of the above in March.
The hand crocheted bed linens at the top of the page she picked up at a yard sale this weekend. That is just a small part of it. She bought a whole bed set with multiple pillow cases for $3!!! 
The desk is a piece that she has had for some time now and is one of the pieces that I will be buying :D I am super thrilled :D
The long table with the green lamp on it she acquired last year sometime. She is debating on wether or not to sell this piece. I am really hoping she decides to sell, this would look amazing behind my sofa!
The spool table is another piece that she is moving out. She will not sell it, but says I can use it for the time being :D
I absolutely love her old office chair!!  Let me tell you, this thing is HEAVY!! She is on the look out for a second one.
I think her two floral huricane lamps are sooo pretty, I just wanted to share! Behind the lamps she has the most beautiful tray and perfumes bottles. The next time I go over we are going to pull it out to take pictures.
And finally her glass vase! I love everything about this piece.
I hope you enjoyed!

So Tired But Feeling Good.

The grandson has gone home and I have to say that we were actually sad to see him go. We had such a wonderful time with the little guy. Now that he is older his stays are really so much easier; especially since he sleeps through the night LOL
I have to get my house back in order and catch up on laundry today. Also have to straighten the craft room, still have some mess from Valentine's crafts. I am super excited for my next little project!

Elizabeth of Creative Breathing is doing the most adorable Easter Garland Along!http://creativebreathing.blogspot.com/  Elizabeth has the most amazing blog and is also an amazingly talented woman.  I absolutely love her blog!  And she shares so many of her lovely talents with us all. So while out wandering blog land make sure to stop by Creative Breathing to see Elizabeth and her beautiful blog.

Will be back later with pics from our trip to the park yesterday and  my first  ornies for the garland :D

A Fun Day

Oh what a day!! I fixed breakfast for the hubby and grandson, then it was time for us all to get dressed. Grandson and I played in the yard with the puppy then it was time for lunch. After lunch I had plans to do some shopping and to go to a local park. Well, we only managed to make it to the park and let me tell you I barely made it through the park LOL 
The grandson had sooo much fun running around playing with all the other kids and I had fun chasing him...until the last 20 minutes. I was wooped! Poor thing came home asked me to take off his socks and shoes, laid on the couch and was out :D  That was 2 hrs ago and he is still out!  I am just too wore out to post pics tonight. I think I will get him up to eat some dinner, into the tub and p.j's and lay on the couch and watch tv with him. Have a nice evening.

A Wonderful blog and Give Away....

Karen from http://mydesertcottage.blogspot.com/2010/02/500-followers-giveaway.html is a wonderfully talented and giving woman. I have only been following her blog for a short time, but in that short time she has become one of my absolute favorite blogs to follow. Her life, home and talents truly inspire me.

Karen is having this give away to celebrate  500+ followers and the gift she is giving away is to beautiful to describe. You must stop by Karens blog and see for yourself!!  Good Luck to all that enter. OH and make sure to become a regular follower of Karen's beautiful blog!

Our Sleep Over Is Going Great!

First we had dinner....grilled cheese, french fries, veggies, doritos and ranch. This little guy will eat anything if it has ranch on it LOL  After dinner it was out to go for a walk through the park. He was so excited over the motion sensor lights on peoples homes! Oh to be entertained by something so simple. Come home and play some and now it is time for a bath. Ummmm.... "NO BATH" okay so it took me a half hour to convince him that he had to have a bath!

He survived the bath and into  warm p.j.'s. I just love this picture of him. He just has the cutest smile on his face...almost like he has a secret LOL

 Time to play with the dog!  They had the best time playing under the table LOL

  You remeber how it was to be at Nana's for the night...she let you stay up late and eat what ever you wanted....atleast mine did! 

 So at 8:30 pm it was time to take a road trip...off to Dairy Queen for ice cream and a quick stop at the corner store for M&M's! Oh his mother would have my head on a block! But when a cute little face like this asks you for ice cream and you have none in the house what else are you suppose to do LOL

And yes he stayed up way to late playing with Nana and Papa and Romeo the puppy, but OH WE HAD SOO MUCH FUN!! It amazes me watching this little guy turn into a little boy. It seems just like yesterday that I was at the hospital watching this amazing angel come into the world.  

Well, It is 1 am and I better head to bed...we have a very busy day today. Shopping for toys and a picnic at the park! 

Feeling a little better...

I had a wonderful early Valentine with the hubby Friday evening. He took me to Cracker Barrel for dinner and let me shop in the gift shop!  I love their gift shop.  He bought me an adorable chocolate scented teddy bear, an old time looking wire chick that is an egg holder; have plans to alter it. And he bought me a red, heart shaped flower vase that I also plan on altering at some point. I have pics but do not have time just now to get them up.  To our luck Cracker Barrel was running a special that we did not know about before getting there, $5 off all purchases!! After dinner we came home to meet with my middle daughter and her hubby. We all went to see "The Wolfman" starring Anthony Hopkins and Benicio DelTurro!  It was an awesome scarey movie! After the movie the hubby took us all out for a few drinks at our favorite bar :D
Saturday was a quiet do nothing day, and I literally did nothing. Played around on the computer and watched tv, absolutely nothing that required my brain to function LOL My middle daughter and her family and my son were here in the evening and we all sat out in the yard around a fire chatting. A very relaxing, therapeutic day.
Sunday morning, Valentine's Day, the inlaws showed up toting a huge bouquet of roses!!  My wonderful hubby had given them money to buy them for him to give to me.  So beautiful!!!  On a sad note my cat decided to play with them that night and I lost some roses, but fortunately they fell off whole and have them sitting in an old tin bowl in my craft room :D
This evening we have our 28 mth old grandson coming to stay with us for a couple days.  We have plans to have a picnic at the park tomorrow! I may not be back until we send him home to his mom and dad, but when I come back I will have picks of my goodies and our little visitor :D

With Everything That Is Going On, Now....

someone has just tried to break in my house!!!  Literally just happened less than a half hour ago. Hubby and I are laying in bed with all the lights off watching tv and all of a sudden we here someone yell "Anybody Home"  What the hell ???? And that is what I yelled.  Someone was in my house!! I came creeping down my hall and did not see anyone. So I get brave and grab a flashlight and a weapon and head onto the enclosed front porch. Still nothing. Hit the side yard and see that my inside shed light is on. Come back around to the front of the house and hear something on the other side of the house where my car and another shed are. Heard something and thought it was coming from inside the shed. I fling the door open and hear someone go over the fence behind the shed!!!  Came running back to the house and called the managers
Just two days ago a neighbor had a bike stolen out of his yard and now this. We obviously have someone or two raiding our neighborhood. We live in a very small and quiet 55+ mobile home park, but on the other side of the property is a very large mobile home park. We are thinking whoever it is came from there. The managers of our park will be calling the police dept. tomorrow to report what has been going on here and ask for them to add the park to their patrols for a few days. Maybe it will scare whoever is doing this away.
So much adrenaline and now I am wide awake :(  With the bad weather that we have been having my hubby has been having a very hard time with his breathing and sleeping; so now we are awake  probably until the sun comes up.  Hubby is watching a movie on his computer and I think I will cruise the web with a cup of hot tea.

This is How I Feel

This is our weather today and this is how I feel. Dark, cloudy, cold, surrounded by vibrant people, but feeling naked and alone. It seems as if in just a couple of days my life has taken turns for the worse that will never be repaired. Infact some of these things will not and can not be repaired and it has me in absolute gutwrenching turmoil. I am unable to do anything to help heal my family that has been affected and do not know how to deal with this myself. My family has been changed in a way that will never be right again.

My mind is in hyper speed trying to sort everything into some semblance of reason and it is not working. I feel that I am at the edge of a cliff teetering not to plunge over into a dark abyss. When you are the glue of an entire family unit and you are falling apart yourself how do you hold everyone together? My family is coming apart in front of my eyes and there is nothing I can do to stop it! Between this latest nightmare and my husbands terminal illness along with all the other drama that seems a constant in my life I just want to crawl in a whole and never come out.

I can not keep one straight thought in my head, I can not focus on just one thing, I wander the house aimlessly wondering what I should be doing. What can I do?

My Hubby's Valentine.

So once again all my blogger friends have inspired me. Looking at all of their wonderful vintage Valentine art made me want to do one too!  I am not a huge paper crafter. I just have never seemed to have the knack for it.  Atleast I never thought I had the knack,b but am thinking that I should give it another try. Hubby was oh so happy when I told him I had to buy yet more stuff for yet another hobby lol  I will wait until next month to head off for paper and glitters and all the pretty do dads that go along with paper crafting. Can not wait to make a masterpiece for Easter!!  Anyways, Off to google I went and found this adorable vintage squirrel!  I have to tell you that my hubby has called me his squirrel since we first got together; so when I saw this adorable guy I knew I had found "the one" lol

Since I had no paper products I had to figure out something with fabric.   I pulled out my box of scrap fabric and I found a box of old cards!!!  I printed off my little squirrel and pasted it on to a postcard and then cut him out....hey whatever works right???  Then I found a vintage piece of lace...hmmm what next. How about a heart out of my glitter wool felt...great!  OK....now what?? Found an older looking type print fabric for the background...perfect!! I got it!!!  Take the back of an old card and cover it with the fabric for the base of my card.  Hmmm...now where to put my squirrel....played around and did not like him just "put" on there. I need a pocket!  Yep that is perfect :D  Some vintage lace to hang and a little cream bow on the heart and Viola!!  Done and I think it turned out pretty nice for my first attempt at something like this :D

HUH?

wonder if it worked??? Ok so I have the template I want but it only shows up when I click on a specific post not for the main background. I am totally lost here ARG!!! Can anyone help??? ok I am about in tears..I am walking away :(
So, as you can see I did not get around to posting pics and if you have been here before you can see my blog looks different. I did not say better but different. I spent hours today trying to change my blog background and all I did was accomplish messing it up :(
Me and the hubby, middle daughter and her family had a nice couple hours with my son who turned 18 today! So hard for me to believe he is all grown up...he will always be my baby and my only son :) He let us know tonight that he is getting his first tattoo tomorrow. My hubby who is terminally ill has a "Mr. Lucky" on his chest...a skull in a top hat...it was his very first tattoo and he dearly loves it. Well, our son informed us that he is having "Mr. Lucky" put on his shoulder tomorrow for his "dad". Hubby is their step-dad but has helped me raise them for the last 11 years. He made me cry:)
I accomplished absolutely nothing today lol I had planned on finishing off 2 swags that I made yesterday. They just need some little bows, but I could not even get to that! I thought I would get some time to sit and work on the sock orders...yeah right! Housework, Laundry??? Ummm....maybe sometime this week :P And the poor hubby got left overs for dinner :D
Wednesday I am going to my oldest daughters to visit and have her computer guru fiance help me get my blog set the way I would like. I will be taking a notebook and taking very detailed notes LOL

Working on some more .....

Valentines Day projects. Hope to be back later this evening with some pics. And I am still trying to change my blog template! I have the WORST time everytime I try to do this. I really could use some help in this area from someone please!!!

Want to introduce a brand new blog to you.....

Go over and check out Jamies blog about her Life as a Momma! She is brand new to blog world and I am sure that she will keep us laughing day to day with stories of her little ones. http://lousmomma.blogspot.com/

And obviously now I have to figure out how to link.....ugh!

My Valentines Day Project

Well I did it again! My pics are backwards! How hard is it for me to remember to post them backwards to begin with?? So I have to say thank you to all the wonderful women whos blogs I follow for inspiring me to do this!!!I seem to get myself in a "rut" persay. When I start to knit that is all I do, or crochet, or paint or paper craft. Thanks to all the wonderful blogs that I follow I have gotten out of my "rut". I have learned that I can set down my knitting and head to the craft room for some quick, cute, fun project and no one will be injured because of it. LOL
So, through all the wonderful blogs that I follow, which you will find listed to the right side of this post, I found the alphabet templates at Happy Together. They are originally posted for "rag alphabet" letters for little ones to play with. Anyways, I took those letters and started by pulling out my felt and finding a glitter wool red felt. Then I came across a stash of glitter white felt..more on the thin side and cut around the letters a little larger with my pinking shears. Ok, so what to do next? I had plenty of both felts left so cut some red hearts.....decided to stay with the layout of the letters and cut white centers. I used the pinking shears for both red and white heart.
OK...so now I have all of this....what to do with it???? Start looking at more blogs! Viola!! I have an idea. Kind of LOL So I head to JoAnn's for some ribbon. Found the main banner ribbon in the Valentines 50% off section and the ribbon that the letters hang from! Chaching!!
Come home and start playing with ideas.....after a little brainstorming :P and some added red bows to the hearts this is what I came up with! I had origally wanted to "curl" the ribbon on the sides but it did not work:( and I did not want to cut so into bows it went! Hope you enjoy :D

UGH!!!!

Ok I am trying to get my blog set up with all my bells and whistles to no avail. I by no means very computer literate and I think I am making it look worse instead of better! If anyone can tell me how to move my followers to the side of my blog and the blogs I follow I would greatly appreciate it!!!!

Finally some time to update part 1

This little storage unit I found at Family Dollar for $20, just perfect for
putting in the closet to hold yarn!

A bookshelf holding an assortment of things.

My mother in law found this at a yard sale and bought it...I just had to

have it! Have to figure out how and where to hang it.

One of my favorite chairs, a lap quilt waiting to be quilted and

another shot of the old bottles

a few days ago this was just a large cupboard. After a trip to

Lowes it now has shelves and is more usable. It is not the best

place for my fabric, but it works.

So, I have been trying to get the socks done for the orders that were placed. It is slow going. Since getting home from the hospital there has been so much to do in the house and for the family. And I am finding that I am just very easily distracted and frustrated lately. Think I am stretching myself to thin.

I am excited to tell you that the first week of April I will be going to my hometown for a week! I have not been home for 12 years and can not wait to see the old town. I will be staying with my little sis and her family. I had not planned on leaving her house except to video around town for my hubby and kids, but just recently hooked up with a load of highschool friends through Facebook! I am hoping to be able to meet up with some of them while visiting :D A week just is not going to be long enough :(

Finally some time to update

Ok these are backwards LOL This is an after shot of part of the craft
room. Before I started this room you could not open the door and I
forgot where the table was. It is by no means done. Have to get the
walls painted, curtains made and some more storage shelves.

this is is a little guy I made a while ago, but felt like sharing.
Baby Snow Dragaon
One sock completed for a 2 pair order...have a ways to go lol


the skull lcaps I made for my hubby

More to follow above this.