W.I.P. - Pineapple Song

Beautiful Birthday Butterfly is FINISHED!

I about gave myself away early when I posted this:

Do you see it in the corner?



I deliberately left this photo out because I had forgotten
to hide the butterfly before the photo shoot:

And here's a close-up:

For details see:  Beautiful Birthday Butterfly-WIP

MY MOMMY IS COMING

TO SEE ME THIS MORNING!!!!

Our Cat, Callie

This is our cat:

While I am the Queen ;), she is the Princess

(who thinks she's the Queen).

She takes over all territory and makes it her own

personal sleeping space.  No place is safe or too 

difficult to squeeze into.

She especially likes to be wherever I want to be working

and to thwart my progress by laying right on top 

of the things I need to work on.

What can I say?  She's a cat.

Sewing Projects are well underway:

Last night, I promised you pictures of the sewing progress.  I have completed 1 black vest and have another vest 1/2 done.  I need to have it done by SATURDAY (yikes!); because it is a birthday gift, and Saturday is THE day!  So I stayed up until 11:00pm working on it (said son doesn't go to bed until 9:00pm which doesn't leave much private working time).  Now that may not seem late to some, but for me, uggghhh!  Five o'clock am comes REALLY early when you don't hit the sack by 10:00pm.  Why does 1 extra hour make such a difference???  I want to know!

Here's the 1st success!

 Here's a close-up of the front fabric texture:

The glossy black of the back was hard to capture.

Maybe I'll be able to get a better picture later.

I was SO excited at how well it turned out.

Maybe I'll get better pictures later when I don't

have to hide in the bathroom while taking them.

(No prying eyes in there!  Finally!

When they were younger, I wasn't

even safe in there!)

Now before I show you progress on the 2nd vest,

here's proof that I did actually do this myself!  :)

I have this one together.  I just need to clip the curves

 and turn it.  Sew the side seams together and

sew a finishing edge all the way around

the perimeter of the vest.

I hope to have it done by Wednesday

so I will have time to clean the house

before Saturday for the birthday guests!

In case you forgot what the front looks like:

Stay tuned for this one.

The Cowboy will LOVE it!

(Yes, that is his nickname, given him by his friends.)

Mystery Project Explanation

As my readers have seen, I am occasionally posting a picture and not saying what it is for or what I am making.  For those of you just tuning in, I thought I'd better explain what I am doing.  I keep getting questions in the comments, so I decided to write up my idea clearly.  It seemed like it would be fun to do a "Mystery Project".  I think it is interesting to see just the pieces and try to guess what they might develop into.

I will only be posting these pictures occasionally.  I'm quite busy sewing right now and, of course, taking care of the home front and the home school.  I hope to get a picture up of one completed sewing project tomorrow!  I finished it tonight, and I think it turned out BEAUTIFULLY!

Any way, stay tuned for more mystery project pics and eventually the grand finale revelation moment.

Remember:  Jesus loves you!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only

begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him

shall not perish but have everlasting life!

John 3:16

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called the children of God!

For that is what we are!  1John 3:1

Kindness by Chris Tomlin

Have a blessed Lord's Day!

Bootie/Sweater Set

My nephew, Titus, turned a year old in July.

When he was born, I made him a sweater and

bootie set out of frosty green and black.

It was SO CUTE!!!

I wish these pictures could do it justice,

but the lighting was bad the day I took them.

Better bad pictures than no pictures, I guess.

The booties are the "All Star" pattern from

Booties By the Dozen (Leisure Arts #3243)

by Kay Meadors

The sweater is the Victorian Rose Sweater pattern from

Heirloom Thread Crochet For Baby - #1310 - American School of Needlework

designed by Kelly Robinson.

My color choices were

Aunt Lydia's Frosty Green,

Black, and White.
Hook size 7 (1.65mm)

I found the cute little tennis shoe buttons at Wal-Mart.

If I make the pattern for a boy again,

I will edge it in a plainer stitch, like 

single crochet (American).

The scallops were a bit much
for a boy, in my opinion.

But CUTE nevertheless!!!

Sweet Flowers?

(A mystery project entry.)

Dishcloth #3

I frogged the dishcloth that was partially

done in the last dishcloth post and

started over.  It was just too big and

my ball of yarn wasn't going to be 

enough to finish it.  I'm not going to 

put more than one ball of yarn

into a dishcloth, so...

I rethought the width.

I changed it from the pattern's 50

to 34 and away I went.

This time it came out square AND

it used less than 1 ball and it

is still plenty big enough to 

wash dishes with:

Sewing Projects

Yesterday I told you about my day of sewing

and today I have time to post some pictures.

My boys are lovers of all things cowboy.

I already mentioned that I plan to do some

cowboy decor in their rooms.

In addition, I thought it would be fun

to make them some nice vests to wear

to church to help dress up their jeans.

(My oldest son is too tall and thin to

even find slacks for him any more.)

For my eldest's birthday, I am going

to surprise him with a brown suede vest.

Such wonderful material!

See?

And then for Christmas, I plan to make

all my men black vests.  The material

for that almost made them drool when

they saw it!  So I know they are 

anticipating that.  (I wanted to keep

it a surprise but that was too difficult

because I would have only been able

to work on it after they go to bed

which isn't until 9:00pm.  And I am

too tired by then to work on it.)

Here's the black:

Nice!!!  I wish my photo could have caught

more of the color's nuances.  Maybe I will

get better ones in the next stage of progress.

I can hardly wait to get started on the sewing.

More updates coming soon!

A Busy Day

Today we had a big day.  

My husband took boys to soccer games

while I stayed home to start on 

my sewing projects--

vests for gifts for

all my men. 

We went for a walk at mid-day AND

managed to fit in a garage sale en route.

We had 4 great finds for $1 total.

I LOVE THAT!

When we returned, I resumed sewing and

the DH got back to work on the carpentry

project he started last week:  putting

plywood in our attic to create flooring for

STORAGE!

I made good progress today.

I got all the vests I had material for cut out.

When I was done, so was my back.

So...after I made dinner, I decided

to get papers graded and recorded

instead of any more sewing.

I will try to get pictures posted about

the garage sale finds and the vest materials.

Hopefully, tomorrow.

I am so excited about those vests.

I hope they turn out the way I envision.

I will share my future progress with you

as I continue with the sewing projects.

Have a great night!

Dishcloth Dither

So...this is the conversation I

recently had with myself:

"Too much cotton yarn 

sitting around with 

nothing to do...

I know, I'll make some

PRESENTS!

But they have to be easy

because I am NOT 

sitting around with

nothing to do!"

Yes, my mind settled on

dishcloths.  An item

everyone needs.

Here are my 1st two

that I've completed,

one knitted, one crocheted.

(GASP, did you say knitted?

Why yes, I did.

But a small square is

all the skill I have

knitting-wise!)

(Knitting skills development will primarily have to wait for more leisure years!)

And one W.I.P.:

The pattern book I have is a Leisure Arts book, #2077.

If you want to see some of the designs,

pop over to Amazon.

This book features crocheted patterns.

My knitted work is not from it.

The patterns use hook sizes G,H,I,J.

They call for cotton yarn.

I like the patterns, but the size

is large for a dishcloth I think.

I may downsize the one

I'm working on or I

may wait until I start

a new one to try to

modify the pattern.

And, just in case you want to see the furniture

the beautiful wood backdrop belongs to,

here it is:

Beautiful, isn't it?

This is the 1st piece of furniture

that my highly talented Father-in-Law

refinished when he was starting

out as an antique dealer.

He does wonderful work and 

his skills have become incredible

over the course of his 

professional development.

If you like to look at his fine furniture,

hop on over to 

Wooden Heart Antiques.

Your eyes will say, 'WOW!!!'

May the Lord greatly bless you

on this fine day He has created!

Look what I have!

This morning,

I was so excited to discover a 

treasure

I didn't realize I had.

A friend had given me this pattern book

for crochet thread sweaters way back in

March.  Good Grief!

I had tucked it away, and I just

'discovered' it again.

AND IT'S GREAT!!!

If you pop over to Amazon,
you can see pictures of the
designs there!

Leisure Arts #3083 Fashion Collection

And, lo and behold,

the designer just happens to be

my friend, Kay Meadors!

When I saw that, after looking through

the 6 wonderful designs, I laughed out loud!

"Of course!"  I said to myself.

Now, if I just can find the time...

Mystery Project Photos

What is it???

Here is my Lantanya:

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!