Sewing Project Finished

I have always loved aprons! Any color, any style. I just finished this one for my daughter. I love the retro fabric that my daughter-in-law helped me pick out for her. They're some of my daughter's favorite colors. This pattern is from the 60's and is called "Singapore Sling". I thought it turned out well.

Here's a couple more with sentimental value.

This apron belongs to my Grandmother. It's made out of feed sacks. It has been worn and washed so much that it is thin and soft. I remember she always had on an apron. I can see her sitting in the dining room snapping beans or out back shucking corn.

  

Of course, this apron is a favorite of mine. My Mom made this one for me!  It's not a simple apron pattern. It took a lot of time to stitch all the embroidery and hand applique the pieces. I'm pretty sure my sister has one, also. I guess Mom must have been very busy while my sister and I were napping.  This brings back so many memories of things my Mom made for us. She is such a talented person. Love her so much!!

MAKE A MEMORY TODAY!!

Queen Whilhelmina Rod Run

Just returned from a great trip. We participated in the Queen Wilhelmina Rod Run.  Queen Wilhelmina is a State Park in the Ouachita Mountains near Mena, Arkansas. Mena is a small town, but a very friendly town. We've been to the rod run three years and have always had a good time.  The cars are parked at the state park where you can walk around and look them over. There were about 180 cars this year.  Went with some good friends and met more good friends on the mountain.

This was without doubt the MOST beautiful vehicle there...OK, I'll be honest maybe not the most beautiful...OK, it's ours so I can brag on it!  It's a 1940 Ford pickup. We pull a small trailer. I know that seems strange when we have the bed of the truck, but hubby allows nothing in that bed. After all, it is cherry oak. Wouldn't want to scratch that!! It is really pretty, about 8" wide boards with chrome in between.

Our vehicles are called Street Rods, they're not restored as original. The bodies are mostly original. I say mostly, because there aren't always parts available any more for the really old cars. Most have modern engines, transmissions, brakes, and ours even has an air conditioner. You might also notice the mag wheels and I'll guarantee, you wouldn't have seen a bright shiny red 1940 farm truck. If you want to drive your car instead of trailer it, you will probably put in modern parts. The old flathead engine that belongs in our truck would not do well on our modern highways. They didn't drive the distance or the speed we drive today. We chose to drive our truck. To us that's a big part of the fun, traveling with our friends. Below, are the cars from our group. (left to right)

1933 Chevrolet - belongs to Robert and Cleva

1926 Ford - belongs to Mike and Erma

1940 Ford pickup - ours

1923 Ford "T" bucket - another car of Robert and Cleva

On Saturday night Main Street is closed and we all park down both sides of the street. There's a live band that performs and everyone comes out to see the cars. It's a lot of fun, they look at our cars, we look at the people. While we were there we watched this beautiful sunset over the buildings.  I wish I were a better photographer and could have taken a better picture, it was breathtaking.

We had such a good time.  Visiting with friends and just relaxing. There's not much to do but sitting, do a little shopping in a couple of antique stores, listen to some good music, and just relax. And of course eat. Let's see, I had a wonderful chicken panini for lunch, free fish dinner provided by one of the sponsoring companies for dinner, and we ate breakfast at Grumpy's. They have wonderful biscuits!! The other meals are quick meals on the road and we usually hit McDonald's. We did eat at a very good dairy bar in Mt. Ida, AR on our way home. They had the best hamburger I have eaten in a long while.

Our next trip is to Wilburton, OK. Can't wait!

HOPE YOUR WEEKEND WAS GOOD!!

Treasures on Thursday

Last Thursday I showed you thimbles that belonged to family members.  Today I'll show you where they are kept.  This is an old sewing machine drawer that I picked up at a flea market.  Most of the treasures that are in it belonged to my Grandmother.  On the right is a small quilt block she pieced by hand.  I believe it's called Grandmother's Flower Garden.  The spools, buttons and needle cards are also hers.  My Grandmother passed away when I was in Junior High. I wish I had known her longer. I wish I had been able to sit down and talk quilts with her.  I know that's where my Mother, Sister and I got our love of quilting.  We each have quilts that she made. When we sorted through her things, I was thrilled to find her button box, where most of these things came from.  The wall where this hangs has other treasures, too. Next time I'll show you what that little bit of lace is that is hanging right about the machine drawer.

I Like...

I mentioned in a previous post about the layout I was working on for a class I took at Big Picture Scrapbooking.  The challenge was to finish the sentence "I Like..".   I completed the sentence this way.  "I like sitting outside in my swing, with a breeze blowing, reading a good book."  Here's the page I scrapped with that thought in my mind.  I titled it "BLISS", because bliss means "complete happiness."   Bliss is what I feel when I'm reading outside on a beautiful day.  Don't forget the breeze has to be blowing, too!  I am pleased with this layout.  I used some papers and embelleshments I had from K&Company.  I love their stuff it's so beautiful.

Hope you find a few moments of time today to read!!

Shopping Trip

I just had to share this.  Let me say up front, that I DO NOT like to shop.  It is one of the things I dread the most. I am not a shopper.  For me to buy anything it has to be on the end of the rack and leap into my arms!! Sale racks give me a panic attack!!  When I buy something, I wear it forever.  I don't want to go back and shop for new things.  Therefore, you can guess that I'm not a trendy person.  Just a quiet, reserved dresser.  Black skirt, navy skirt, several blouses to go with each.  You get the picture!  Anyway, my hubby needed some shorts for a trip we are taking, so I bit the bullet and went today.  I conquered the sale racks!  In this store they were very organized by size and the size was on the top of the hanger.  YEAH!!  Instead of digging through many racks, I only had to look through a few.  Now to the good part.  Here's what I bought.

2 pair shorts for hubby - 38.00 each - sale 19.99 each

khaki jean jacket for me - 40.00 - sale 5.99

t-shirt for me - 9.98 - sale 2.99

black shoes - 24.99 - sale 14.99

Adidas flip flops - 29.99 - sale 14.99

total : 180.96  -  SALE PRICE - 78.94

How about that!!!  Not only did I conquer shopping, but I did it right.  Everything on sale!!  It feels good to conquer something we don't like to do!!  That's all, just had to brag.

HOPE YOUR HAVING A GOOD DAY, ALSO!!!

Sunday Afternoon Crop

My daughter-in-law, her Mom, her sister and I have been cropping once a month. We met Sunday after church and had another productive day. I enjoyed the afternoon so much, not just scrapping, but visiting and sharing and listening to some great music. You see, I love music, but when I find a song I like I never know the name of the song or who sings it. So, we listened to a radio station and they tried to help me find songs I might want to download from i-tunes. When I heard a song I liked, they told me the name and artist. Allison was very good at this. She would know the song title just after hearing a few notes. Now, I'm about ready to head to i-tunes, pick out some new songs and use my gift card. Anyway, it added just a little bit more fun to the day, because sometimes we sang along. I did finish 8 pages. I scrapped a two-page spread for each of my grandsons. I scrapped some pictures from Christmas 2009. One advantage of scrapping Christmas, it at least made me feel cooler. The temps were up in the high 90's with a lot of humidity.


On to other things, I've been taking an on-line workshop called Big Idea Festival at Big Picture Scrapbooking (see logo top right.) Each day a different designer posts tips, techniques and projects. Also, each day we are challenged to complete a sentence or project. Yesterday's sentence was "I Like..".  I completed the sentence this way. "I like sitting outside in my swing, with a breeze blowing, reading a good book." I decided to scrap that thought. So I did a quick little photo shoot (I'm no photographer, I just take pictures). Here's the picture I used on the layout. I'll show the complete page another day.

I titled my page

BLISS

The definition of bliss is: complete happiness

Have A Blissful Day!!

Squishy Water Hose

Just a photo that  made me laugh. We're having a bad water hose summer. Jerry has already patched two and this one will be next!  I have never seen a water hose look quite like this. Yep, that's water between the inner and outer part of the hose.  And, this isn't the only spot that looks like this. About five feet of it is ready to blow. It's real squishy. Of course I had  to squash it and take it's picture. I could just see it bursting...soaking me and my camera. Wish my grandsons were here to see it. They would have fun squashing on the hose!! The image of that and it bursting, made me laugh out loud. I get pleasure from small silly things!

SMILE TODAY!!!

Treasures on Thursday

On several blogs I have been seeing "Wordless Wednesday."  When a photo is posted with no words or just a few words. Letting the photo speak for itself. Well, I probably don't have enough photos that speak without a few words. Although I am fascinated by wordless pictures, I just like to talk about mine. Therefore, I decided to post a Treasure on Thursdays. This will be a picture of something in or around my corner (home) that I enjoy. Mostly it will probably be from a collection or part of a collection. I read somewhere that if you have three of one thing, it is a collection.  I do have many collections. So here's today's photo.

THIMBLES

Three generations of thimbles to be exact.

From left to right:

 My Mom's (showing some wear, there are two small holes in the top, she is a seamstress and quilter)

My Grandmother's (very worn, the finish is completely worn off, she was a seamstress and quilter)

Mine (very shiny, not used much, I don't use a thimble very often)

My Aunt Marie's (her's is worn also and is very tiny, although it doesn't look small in the picture).

My thimbles are kept in a box made from a sewing machine drawer that hangs in my craft room.

I'll show that next Thursday.

TREASURE TODAY!!

Bee Skept Pincushion

I've finished another pincushion. I've had this kit for several years.  It has a copyright date of 2007. I wonder why I put off making it for so long?  It only took a few hours and I enjoyed putting it together. 

Oh well, at least it's finished now.

This is  kit by designed by Robin Kingsley for Bird Brain Designs. It came with the wool fabric, pearl cotton, and the vintage-style clamp. It was the clamp that really sold me. It is just so different from any of my other pincushions. I have the pieces all cut out and and ready to assemble.

This turned out really cute.

I have a small collection of bee skeps. Ive heard that anything you have three or more of is a collection. I guess if you count the little Boyd's Bear dressed as a bee skep I have a collection. The other bear is also a Boyd's. I have quite a collection of them.  I'll show you someday.

The adorable wooden bee is a gift from my daughter and her family. He is so funny with all his dangling parts. There's another bee skep in there,. This one is a wax candle.

I like bees and their skeps. they're just as sweet as honey!!

BEE SWEET AND HAVE A BEARY GOOD DAY!!

Aaron's Layout

I want to show my latest layout. It's of Aaron, my grandson. These pictures were taken when he was nine months old. On one of the days I kept him, I decided to record in pictures what he does all day. He's a very sweet boy, never a minutes trouble. But, he is a very busy boy, always moving from one thing to the next.
I don't add a lot of embellishments to my scrapbook pages. It's not that I don't like them, I do. But, I've always wanted the pictures to be the focus when you look at my layouts.  So, my pages are simple. I think this one turned out cute. Of course that may be because of the cute boy in the cute pictures.

You can't see it, but those cute socks on his feet say
"little buddy."

I used my Cuttlebug on the orange frame. I am really liking that little bug.

I saw a wheel, similar to what I have, that was a sticker, but I didn't like what it said. It said "Time Out".  Aaron doesn't need "Time Out", he's just a baby. So I made my own wheel listing things he does each day.

Simple page, but how could I leave out any of these pictures. They tell the story of his day. If you'll notice the middle one on the right, he's looking at a Martha Steward Living Mag. He flipped through kind of bored until he saw the car on the back cover. Now that got his interest!

Hope you enjoyed a day in the life of Aaron!

ENJOY YOUR DAY!!

Cards

Today is my Mom's 79th birthday!!

It wasn't hard to think of a theme for her card. She's loves anything and everything about quilts. She is a quilter, as was her Mother. She passed this love on to my sister and me, only we just dabble in it. All her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren have a quilt made by MeMaw!  OK, so I have the theme, quilts, but no creativity. I will say right up front. THESE CARDS ARE NOT MY DESIGNS. I lifted them, or card-lifted or scrap-lifted or whatever you call it. I wish I had written down the sites where I saw the cards, but I did not. My apologies to the designers for not giving them credit and thank you for your inspiration. I used soft colors on Mom's card. The original was done with 30's looking paper, which I love, but the colors I chose just look like my Mom. The papers are from a Slab from Provo Craft that I bought years ago. It has been a really good pack of paper that coordinates so well together.  My goal right now is to use up some of my stash, because I love some of the new papers coming out and need to justify buying them. So  I'm  hurrying to get rid of some of the old!!

If you'll notice each petal and the center is stitched down resembling quilting. Also notice the 80 on the center of the flower. Much to my embarrassment she's only 79 and that 80 will have to come off. I've already apologized to Mom for that error. Who wants to a year older than they are!!

My next card is for a very good family friend, Miss Geneva.

She is receiving radiation treatment for breast cancer. Please add her to your prayer list. She is a very elegant lady and when I saw this card I wanted to make one for her. So simple, yet so elegant.

The embossing was done with my new Cuttlebug, which I am loving! If you'll notice the tiny stitching on the ribbon. It fits Miss Geneva so well. This dear lady loves to sew.

Day two of five things I am grateful for:

#1-  my mother - I love her dearly

#2 - Miss Geneva - love her dearly too

#3-  it rained a little  - we need it so BAD

#4 - my eyesight- so much to see in the world and cyber world

#5 - WINTER - I don't like summer

Oh, by the way, I won't bug you each day with my lists. But, I do really love lists. I always have a list of something around. Maybe I'll share some on another post.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MOM

FUN AT THE WONDER PLACE

I've had the greatest weekend. My daughter, Patty, and my three grandsons, Jake, Drew & Josh, came for a visit for a few days. They live about 3 hours away. This was kind of a last hurrah at Gramma's house before school starts. And my daughter-in-law, Aimee and my youngest grandson, Aaron, spent a great deal of time with us. On Friday we went to the Wonder Place. A place that has every imaginable toy to play with. It is divided up into sections such as, a bakery shop, a house, a climbing area, a train and car table, and a market. We hadn't been there very long before each found his favorite spot.

Jake (7) was just a little too old for some of play areas, but he was a good sport and found something to do. He enjoyed being the cashier at the River Market. The cash register was a working calculator, so he got a little math practice in. There was also a really big pipe thingy with vacuum that sucked in balls and scarves. The balls went through the pipes and then shot out overhead. Just the thing for a boy, balls shooting out at people. Thanks goodness they were really soft balls.

Next, is Drew (3). Drew loved everything that kept him moving:  climbing, playing in the water, the train/car table and the market. He was constantly on the move. But, he spied this dog a little girl was playing with. When she left he latched on to it and drug it all over the place. You didn't see Drew without his "puppy." He and Josh even had to give the puppy one last slide before we left. Drew really didn't want to leave his "friend."

This is Josh (Drew's twin brother). He also played everywhere until he found the kitchen area complete with oven, sink, fridge, and toy food. He put on a chef's hat and jacket and said he was a "baker" not a "chef". He started baking cookies (make out of wood which attached to a baking sheet). As you can see he was quite proud of his baking abilities and wanted to share his cookies with everyone. One woman asked if she could have one, and Josh said "No, they were still too hot from the oven." He really had a good time!

And, the littlest of our bunch, Aaron (1). There was plenty for him to do, but he stayed in two areas the most. He played at the train/car table. It was really cute, he used his index finger to push his cars. He is very fascinated with doors and drawers. There was a small house that was just the right spot for him. It had a door with a lock that he could open to his hearts content. He would open it and throw balls through and then close it.

We all had fun.

The kids playing and me, just watching the loves of my life.

Blessed, blessed!  I am truly blessed!!

Now on to something else. As you can see at the top of my blog there is a journaling workshop going on at Elle's Studio. Today  was about setting ourselves free and being ourselves when we journal. It's sad, but I'll never journal like the Pioneer Woman or others who just have the talent for writing interesting and sometimes funny blogs. Nope, that's not me. Writing has always given me problems. I can't even think what to write on a birthday card when it already says Happy Birthday! Anyway, we're supposed to start journaling more. One suggestion was that we start blogging for practice. OK, I have a blog, I can practice here. I'm really looking forward to the three week workshop. I so hope that it will help me journal my scrapbook pages better. As I mentioned in a post today, I usually create my layout first and hope there's just not enough room to journal much more than the occassion, date, and place. Stay tuned to see if this workshop helps me. I may be a hopeless case! Also, it was suggested that we can practice by keeping a daily list of maybe five things we are grateful for and why. Today, topping the list are those adorable boys you just saw. They are just so precious to me and keep me smiling and young. Cheating a little -  that's four things, right. And fifth on my list I'm thankful for their good Christian Mothers and Dads. These children have wonderful homes to be raised in.

I love my family so much!!

Wow!! What A Week!!

Things have been busy and stressful this week.  My Mom was in the hospital for five days.  Life throws you some tough times when you least expect it.  But, she's better and back home!!   So relieved!!  

So, I thought I'd just sit down for a little while, relax, and spend some time in my Corner.  I finished a couple of layouts early last week, but didn't get them posted.  So, I'm playing a little catch up.

The layouts are of my 3 years old twin grandsons, Drew and Josh. These guys are so much fun. They always make me laugh.  I do a lot of their layouts similar, since they are always playing and doing the same thing.  I'm going to start making a big effort to make their pages different, because although they are always together, they are unique. The day I took these pictures, I was keeping them while Mom, Dad and older brother, Jake, were on a cub scout camp out. They had the best time driving their vehicles.  Drew likes the Buck and Josh likes the Jeep.

The first layout is Drew, he's the older twin, very quiet with a touch of orneriness.

Then, there's Josh. He's funny, but quite sensitive.

Looking back at all the pictures made me smile!!

Hope this day has brought a smile to your face!!