Hello My Dear Friends! Merry Christmas!!

Oh my gosh, it's been so long since I've written, I'd almost forgotten how to get on, write and post to my blog!

I have been so busy - I visited with family all over the country through October, and then began a series of oral surgeries.  Why do we women always think, 'ah, not a big deal, I'll be up and around in a couple of days!'  Really a good question - it's because WE ARE WOMEN!!  When did we take time being sick, or lazy or down when our children, or even our grandchildren were really little - we didn't - unless we were half dead!  Which may be the reason things hit us so hard now.  But, I digress.  The last surgery I had was a 3 hour bone graft 10 days ago.  Doc explained, 'going to be taking bone from the back of your jaw and screwing it in here (showing me on ex-rays, like that's really English to me!)  If we need to - we'll take some from the chin area - ack!  Wait a minute, CHIN AREA???  Like - isn't that going to leave a bruise?  'Donna, you're going to have quite a bruise anyway, this is major surgery.'  Hangs head - me, that is.  Well, at least it was scheduled after all of my business meetings.  My sweetie is still taking really good care of me.  Tonight - Christmas night, I ate my first full meal - last one for a while because I'm in a lot of pain now, but it was yummy, and I did get to help cook most of it.  We were able to laugh a bit throughout this entire process, no talking really because at first I sounded like Scooby Dooby Doo, then like Sylvester the Cat (still do when my mouth starts to hurt because my tongue swells badly.)  But we go on - life is good, it's wonderful, today is the day our Lord and Savior was born to save us all!

Our garden still has it's lovely visitors - even though we have had many nights at 25 degrees.  Because we are so close to the coast, we still get many, many hummingbirds.  They must know how much we love them, as we are still feeding them at the rate of - - - drum roll please - - - one half gallon of sugar water A DAY!!  We have two feeders up, about 10' apart or so, and they love our home we have for them!

It's really something to see so many birds feed in our yard, and then our neighbors for a block in all directions my get a stray bird once in a while.  The only thing I can think it could be is water.  They will not feed on tap water.  Ours is reverse osmosis and they'll drink regular water if it is boiled, but most people won't take the time to do that for them.  It's so worth it for us!

We have about 2 months when we have no birds at all, and take the feeders down - usually January or so, then one will go up for a month around March, then the other goes up shortly after that.  At first, we will get One male who will try to lay claim to the feeder - but when all come

home, and hundreds are here, there is no room for bossy boys here!  They say they come back to the same feeding area each year, and I must say, each year, we have had more and more birds.  Feeding one half gallon of sugar water a day is feeding a lot of birds - and they are a joy to watch.  These are the two feeders we have.  The blurs are 'birds in flight!'

Have you all been keeping your crafts up?  It's so much fun to create something with our hands!  I've been making tons of journals.  I love making them for gifts.  I can't seem to find my folder that has all the photos, so here's the latest one I made.  I made it for one of the ladies in our Daughters of the American Revolution chapter as a Christmas gift.  I loved having a tree, symbolizing the 'family tree' aspect of the group!

Then, as always, I have a crochet project in the works.  My friend told me of this pattern, though she never knew the name.  She said, 'all you do is double crochet 10, chain 10, until you have the length you want, then I'll show you how to twirl and tie it up.'  You know me, I'm always game for something new, so I double crochet, chained 10 to what I felt was a comfortable width, and length - it looked like this -

Then twist the chain 10, pull through the next chain 10 and repeat until all are finished.

It's actually very pretty and looks as if it's braided strands and not twisted and brought through. 

When all are twisted and brought through, I went around the entire afghan twice in a very nice half double crochet, placing 3 stitches in each corner to have it lay straight.  The color scheme I used was a variegated with dark brown, medium brown, orange, tan, and beige - 6 colors total.  The pattern was 5 rows of each 6 colors, 3 rows, 1 row to the variegated and then 1 row back, 3 back 5 back. 

The colors came out beautiful!  The size was a bit smaller than I first thought it would be, but never making it and not having much to go on, it's great.  My next one will be twice the size, as this is just for one.  But, it was given today to my newest granddaughter - my grandson was recently married and they are expecting their little wee one on March.  This will keep her nice and toasty.  The fringe was a new one for me, a triple knot.  I really like it, for fringe.  Only on one end.  I prefer no fringe because it always tickles or makes me think something is crawling on my neck when I'm sleeping.  But, it was a gift, so I fancied it up.  I read a pattern on Pinterest some time back and they had a variation of this as a ripple and called it Jacob's Ladder.

Also done a bit of sewing.  My little Wee One, Leila, asked for a Yoshi blanket for her gift.  So how does one make a Yoshi - well, first buy the material, then take it all to Colorado to my daughter there and ask her to help!  My son married an Angel and she sews like a professional, so she helped me.  Son made the Yoshi pattern, I cut, daughter did sewing - a family affair!

She loves it Auntie Kim!!  Thanks Uncle Jeff for helping, too!  And yes, each piece is sewn on separately!  It was a lot of pieces, a lot of work, I can't thank Kim enough as she has this beautiful, professional sewing machine that really hit the mark! 

These are my kids who do costuming professionally.  She does the sewing of costumes of fabrics and leathers,




he does all of the props or items fabricated in different metals or plastics.  They are an amazing team together!

And, so with that my good blogging buddies, as Yoshi to the right is ready to say good bye for now - I promise it won't be another 4 months before I stop back by.  I do get by to see many of your blogs, but have just not had time, as you read to leave messages.


May God bless each and every one of you, keep you safe, loved and forever thankful we live in the greatest country in the world. 

For those who have soldiers away from home, God bless you and them.  Thank them and thank you for your service to our country.  Without them standing on the front lines, keeping our liberty and freedom, and you all keeping the home fires burning, we would not live in the greatest country any longer.  God bless you all.

May you all have a wonderful, healthy, and Happy New Year!  May it be all you want it to be, bring you the happiness you deserve, the prosperity you work for and the health our Lord bestows on you.  This new year I look forward to better health, a brand new Great Granddaughter (Grandson and new Granddaughter will be having her in March) and a wonderful new year.

Blessings and hugs,
Donna

A Lasting Gift

I can finally post this picture of the afghan I made for my Son and Daughter in Law. We will be celebrating Christmas this evening with them and our wee ones, and I can hardly wait for them to open this.

I started one for them over a year ago and it just never came together right, and I couldn't get my mind in to it to figure it out. I prayed over the situation and finally figured out what was wrong. These are their colors ~ they love the warm tones, I on the other hand like cool tones and the first one had bright summer and winter colors, yellow, pink, lavender ~ you get the picture. This one is sage, with a warm brown and a matching variegated color. 

Afghans are something I truly enjoy working on.  I almost always have one in the works, and I already have the yarn for my next project!
 
Thanks for taking a peak!  I'll show an "after" photo later this evening or tomorrow!  I can't wait to see their faces!
 
Blessings to all,
Donna

I Love Crocheting!

And, I love crocheting afghans.  I try to make a different one each time, this way everyone receives something a bit different.  As I was making this one, my grandson would tell me, "My favorite color is green, Grandma.  Did you know that!?"  All the while he thought it was for someone else.

I finished this during the month of October, last year.  His birthday is in November - and it came and went with no gift of an afghan. 

Christmas came around, and usually we buy the kids clothes, so when he picked this box up and began to shake it, "yup," he thought, "clothes..."

He was quite surprised when his nice, toasty warm, favorite color afghan was in the Macy's clothes box! 

This was a very simple Granny Square stitched in a rectangle.  I think the original pattern was from Red Heart, and in different shades of blues.  If you're interested in making one, send a quick message and I can you simple pattern instructions!  Really easy peasy!

This is our Grandson Jeff, who turns 18 in just a couple of weeks!  Where does time go so fast!  It seems we just held him in our arms at the hospital when he was born!  Ahh, time!

Have a blessing weekend!
Donna

Hexagon Afghan

I finished this beautiful afghan a couple of months ago.  I originally made it as a throw for the children's guest bed, but it grew into more of a spread!  I used a total of 195 hexagons, 13 long by 15 wide.

This "Hexagon Afghan" is made of all the little bits of yarn we have left over from projects passed.  You know . . . all of those partial skeins.  The leftovers that won't really go with anything else, and there's not enough yarn left to even make a cap with or colors we needed to use with another project, but by itself it just didn't seem to go with anything - like the bright orange!  I took all the bits and strands and made this afghan with it.  Like all crocheters, I save everything that's left over.  Some little balls of yarn were no more than two yards or so - you just never know what you'll need or when you'll need it!  

This was a great "take a long" project.  I took this every time I was going to be in the car for more than 20 minutes or traveling away from home.  What I liked best about this project is I made step one, just the inner part of the hexagon and make five or six from one color, start another color and so on.  I made 100 to start with, of the centers.  Then I did the second round on all of them.  Then the third.  I laid them all out before starting the last, adjoining row.  It did end up almost double than I had originally planned.

Mixing the colors so none looked exactly alike.  True scraps!  In fact I didn't use any new skeins at all!  All were left overs!  All were done in acrylic yarn from different yarn companies, but all were the same weight.  As I got to the fourth and final round of the hexagon, the joining row, this is where having all of them laid out really helped.  This turned out to be a lot of fun!  I'd forgotten how much yarn I have! 

While putting this together, I had to use the guest bed to lay them all out because, as you can see, I needed there to be a way to make sure I mixed up the colors well.

I love seeing what we all do with our left overs!  This reminded me a bit of quilting.  I bit of this and that and beauty appears!

Blessings and thank you for taking a look at my project!
Donna

May is Going Fast!

Oh my gosh!  Time is going by so quickly!  This month we celebrated Mother's Day rather low key.  Which was OK for me this year.  I heard from all of my children and spent a lovely day with my husband.  Talked with Mom a bit, and just relaxed!

The relaxing was very nice as I had my little ones for a week!  I love them dearly, and bless you all who have children late in life, but I'm still tired, actually I'm still exhausted!  They have more energy than I remember having, and my little mini me, Leila, has only one speed - GO - from the time her little eyes open in the morning until it's bed time and we turn off the light and close the door, she is off and running.  And, no more naps!  She's not a baby any more!

We had a wonderful time with them.  They each painted a canvas picture for their rooms or Mom and Dad.  They love when they get to paint with all of my acrylics in my outside studio.  I have hundreds of bottles of different kinds and colors of paints and they so enjoy doing something special like going through all of the colors and painting with my big paint brushes!  Little artists, all three (as were the two older ones who are too old now to come paint with me!)  Next time, I would really like to break out the gesso and moulding compounds and teach them to use texture in their art work!  The girls also did some scrapping and sewing.  Isaac even took his little sis out and they tried to journal all of the lizards in the yard, according to size, colorings, markings, and names (of course).  They are all growing up way too fast! 

This week our youngest son will fly in from Colorado!  Unfortunately his wife will not be coming and the trip will only be for the weekend!  Would love for it to have been longer, but later this summer he'll be back out!

My afghan is almost finished!  Only two more rows and it will be complete.  I really love it.  I didn't think I would like it this much.  After all, it's made up of all of the bits and pieces, little balls of yarn not enough to do another project with, but I just couldn't bare throwing away!  And, it is lovely.  By the end of next week I should have pictures up.

I am really loving baking with the King Arthur Brand flour and all of the other goodies they sell.  My newest is sourdough pretzels!  Oh man are they delicious!  Hot from the oven, nice large soft pretzels.  They heat up well in the microwave or toaster oven, too.  Tomorrow I'm making another sourdough chocolate cake.  Yummy!!

I've been working on getting my blog updated and that should be done by the end of the month.  It's been a lot to look at.  There are several wonderful sites out there that have many designs free and for sale.  I just have to make decisions on what background goes with which buttons, and other functions I would like to use.

It's late and time to retire.  Thanks for stopping by, and blessings to all!

Easter Is Around The Corner

My goodness!  Where is time going?  It's only 5 days before Easter!  FIVE DAYS??!!  Holy Cow!  Well, it is, so I need to stop stressing about it and just get stuff done!  What needs to be done, you ask?  Well, we will have our son and his family over for Easter, hide over one hundred eggs for the kids, (yes, over 100, I think it's almost 130, but I'm not telling anyone!), have dinner, then my daughter in law, Karla, and son, Albert, will go off and spend some time at the beach celebrating Albert's 40th birthday, we get to keep our wee ones for the rest of the week!  Oh, I can hardly wait!  I love having them.

But, before they come for Easter (Saturday night) I have 16 pounds of strawberries to put up in jam, 12 pounds of oranges to put up in jam, make dinner ahead of time (we're having a ham and cold salads with home made breads) and the desserts, put the office back together (it's been in the living room for the past month while we cleaned, then got a big project that needed to be completed before we could move it back!), get the house cleaned up and try to relax a bit (oh yea, right!) so I can entertain the kids for a week. 

What was I think about by buying all those strawberries for jam?  They looked so good, and the weather has been so Topsy Turvy with warm, sunny days then cold, rainy ones, we're not sure if this will be the only crop or if there will be a normal one in May.  It is early for strawberries, usually not for several weeks.  But, I'll take them when they're here!  And, on sale for $1 a pound, again - an unheard of price!   We froze 18 to 20 pounds two weeks ago.  That's why I'm thinking the crop is early.  We only have a few jars of jam left from last years crop, so timing is great!  Then I'm trying my hand at orange jam this year.  I've made marmalade before, but this is strictly orange jam, fruit of the orange only.  No lemon, and no rinds from either.  Yummy!  I made two loaves of Sourdough Rustic Bread last night, and will make some white bread Saturday for the kids next week, then try my hand at something new, a cinnamon breakfast bread and some rolls for dinner.

We're trying something new for Sunday Easter dinner.  Cooking the ham on Saturday, serving it cold, with cold salads on Sunday.  Sounds good to me.  Cinnamon bread, hot out of the oven for breakfast, Easter Egg Hunt, then dinner when the sugar rush wears off!  I'll make the salads on Saturday, too.  That way, we just visit on Sunday with the little time Albert and Karla are here.  40 years old, when did he grow up, have kids of his own, get to be 40?  I think it's the time flying thing!  he he he!

Still working on the hexagon afghan.  More than half finished though, so it's coming along.  Need to finish my Easter cards and get them in the mail, birthday cards need to be finished too.  My other daughter in law has a birthday on Friday.  Kim is a doll.  I love both of my daughter in laws.  I am very blessed.  I have always felt like they were daughters, like my daughter is to me.

That's it for today!  I wish you all a lovely and blessed Easter.  Enjoy having family together, hiding and hunting eggs, but most of all, the blessing of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  He died, baring all of our sins, arose from the dead, ascended in to heaven - He did this to save us. 

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

Blessings, Donna

April Fools Day!

Tomorrow is April 1st ~ March came in like a lion and out like a lamb!  Started the month with storms, rain, winds, freezes and now ~ boy, things are sure warming up!  We uncovered our citrus trees, gave them a good dose of water, God is providing the warmth and sunshine and every one of the trees is taking off ~ growing like crazy!

The Mandarin Orange has 6 oranges that are almost ready for harvest - YUMMY!  Plus is has several oranges in various stages of growth, from a fingertip size to the size of a ping pong ball.  And several new flowers.  The Lemon has one almost ripe, and many in various stages as well, and hundreds, I'm not kidding - hundreds - of flowers!  The other two oranges have flowers this year!!!  Yeah!!  First year for blooms!  And, our problematic Key Lime actually has a few blossoms, too!  This is the most critical time for the citrus here.  One good cold snap or heavy winds and all of the blossoms fall and no fruit for months can even try to form!  They usually bloom heavily twice a year.  So, I'll be praying over my little trees for the next month or two!!

The weather has gone from 50's during the day to 88 degrees today.  Oh my gosh, it was beautiful!  Tomorrow it is supposed to cool down to low 70's.  But, no rain and lots of sunshine is wonderful!   I even get to start seeding our garden tomorrow.  Yeah!  And, hopefully, our nurseries will have some tomato and pepper plants soon.  Hmmmm, maybe I should just start my own from seed.  I did buy some last year.  Maybe I'll do that tomorrow to in small pots, that way if we get a cold spell, they can be rushed in to the garage!

I bought the prettiest material yesterday to make aprons, rice packs, and some other miscellaneous projects I have have under my cap. 

I've made a lot of progress on my latest afghan project, too.  Four rows, of 15, completed and all of the middles of the hexagons are done, it just needs one final row which attaches them together.  I'm hoping by the end of April!  That way, I'm not putting unrealistic goals up!  The slippers I started - well, I pulled the yarn and rolled it back up.  Did not like them at all once the soles and tops were on - so I'll look for another pattern.  Then they'll be great!  Started a scarf for my son's birthday in late April. 

I've also almost completed 4 pages of a really cute layout I won from Monique Griffith Designs.  It was originally a 2 page 12x12 layout, but I prefer 9x9, so I've managed to cut it in such a way that I'm getting 4 9x9 pages!  Pretty creative if I do say so myself!  I've also managed to complete 4 or 5 cards for special people in my life.  I love crafting and feel so blessed when someone makes something just for me, so I just love giving to those who I care about and are special to me.

I've also been baking up a storm with my King Arthur bread recipes.  The Sourdough Bread came out wonderful!  Looked just like the picture!  I then went on these past couple of weeks making Rustic Sourdough Loaves, Chocolate Sourdough Cake.  Oh yummy - it was great!  And, a White Sandwich Bread - oh it's like heaven on earth ~ right in my kitchen.  I'm having a blast!  This Easter, we'll be having fresh rolls, homemade!

My Fibromyalgia has been really bad - 5 weeks for this latest flare.  I so want to have an afternoon pain free.  Oh, let's be honest here ~ I was this monster would just walk out the front door and drop in a hole, never to be felt again!  It will be better soon, it always does subside some, so I'm just praying it gone!

That's it for tonight!  Wishing everyone a wonderful warmer month, full of sunshine and new flowers, gardens in bloom, lots of new projects to start!

Many blessings to all of you!  Be as bright as a flower and let others be a flower in your life!
Donna

Spring is Coming Soon

I am so ready for Spring to arrive!  It's been a very cold and rainy Winter, and I can hardly wait for warmer weather, sunny days, walking the neighborhood and just generally getting back in to the swing of things.  I feel so much better when the weather isn't so chilly and damp!

It looks like the temperatures and real feels will be above freezing now, so we'll be taking off the plant blankets and get ready for Spring plantings.  We had our two planting areas filled with a soil amendment as well as the small green house and rototilled.  This year we want to remove some of the lawn areas and plant our citrus trees.  We've been babying them for four years now and we finally have fruit on the Mandarin Orange and Meyer Lemon trees.  The lime and two other orange trees haven't produced yet, hoping this year.  But, when we plant them in the ground, we will need to make a tent structure to cover them during the cold winters.  They are all dwarf trees and we plan on them staying under 8' or so high.  We may also put in a second, and bigger, green house.  It's easy to talk about what we want to do and harder to get them up! 

I can hardly believe my blog will be 2 years old this month.  I do plan to utilize this more this year and start getting photos up.  There's always so much to do and it's easy to forget writing here!


I'm finishing Lavender/Rice Comfort Packs for my mom.  Sending two large and two small ones.  They will help her achy bones and muscles.  She, like many of our elderly parents, suffers with arthritis all over.  She also has spinal problems and some bionic parts (knee and hip replacements) and has many aches and pains.


Also, still working on the Hexagon Afghan.  It's coming along beautifully!  I've used so many left over yarns!  Actually, like many of you, I save anything over about a yard long, rolled into balls of various sizes.  I really find it hard to believe I am almost depleted of left over yarns and will be using only full sized skeins to finish it up!  There are already over 40 different colors I've used in this afghan!  I counted today how many I have and how many will be needed for the bedspread - I've completed 134 and will need 195, so 61 to go.  My sweetie told me, "you'll have that done in no time!"  He's great and always positive in my hobbies!



Other craft items - well, cards, of course for all of the special days - Birthdays, Anniversaries, Valentine's Day, Get Well - all of the everyday events.  The Comfort Packs, my first Sock Monkey (I'll talk about him another post in a couple of weeks with a photo),  a few pin cushions, the Hexagon Afghan, and many different little things.  I need to get the new serger and sewing machine out and begin working with them.  I want to make some new table place mats and I think the serger will be perfect for this project!  Fun, fun, fun!


I had the chance to spend a whole week with my little ones.  They are growing so quickly.  My little Lisey is sewing her first project, all by hand.  She received an American Girl Stuffed Animal project and I taught her all of the hand sewing stitches.  She was doing a great job.  She is very detailed oriented and everything has to be just perfect, so these types of projects will be perfect for her.  I think she would really enjoy embroidery, too.  That's another art that is very detailed.


I was so blessed to win two different giveaways on two different blogs!  One from Monique Griffith Designs, a beautiful layout kit for my Cricut, and a copy of the first Cricut Magazine from Creative Critters Cricut Club!  Two different contests!  What a blessing!  When I finish the layout, I will post it.  It is just perfect as it is one of children in the garden and I have the perfect pictures of my all of my grandchildren at different times throughout the last couple of years that will fit on this wonderful layout!  I would love to share it!


I'm also going to try my hand at sourdough bread!  Both of my sons are making these beautiful and tasty works of art.  One gave me some starter which is growing beautifully in my fridge!  I have my ingredients coming from King Aurthur Flour, then I'm good to go!  I just hope there aren't too many pounds attached to this bread!


My Fibromyalgia has been really acting up.  This flare is going on two weeks now and is the worst one of the year so far.  I'm going to start a second blog on my fibro journey.  It's a very misunderstood disease.  And, until you are diagnosed and understand what this monster is, you start to wonder if you are crazy and a hypochondriac.  It's horrible and debilitating, and if I can help just one person figure out what this monster is in their life, I will feel blessed.  When I first read an article about fibro, I sat down and cried - I cried because I was relieved, I realized I wasn't crazy. 


On a lighter note - I wish you all a wonderful Spring!  May your gardens be free of weeds and grow only beautiful flowers!  May all of your projects come out the way you want them too! 

Be happy, be blessed, and a blessing to others!
Donna

Newest Afghan is Completed!

The newest of my creations is finally completed!  Last night I tied off and weaved in the final strings (ends) and will block it, take photos, and wrap it up!  Someone already laid claim for their gift early this year when I first began.  So, surprising him will be a delight!

This one is a simple granny square stitch.  Very basic and very easy.  Instead of going around in a square, for an afghan, not a baby blanket, it is crocheted in a rectangle.  I loved breaking up the pattern with two additional colors that coordinated with the darker green.  I used the pattern I saw from Bernat called "Blue Afghan" and it is considered a beginner's pattern because of it's simplicity.  I called it my "Traveling Afghan" because I could work on it in the car whenever we went somewhere and I had an extra half hour or more, and it was super easy!

I know this will bring many years of warmth, and love, every time it is used!

Thanks for taking a peak!  Many blessings, Donna