Felted Bag!

I love knitting!  I finally got around to finishing up this bag!  So here is the before and after pictures!  You knit with wool and when completely finished you wash it in the washing machine with hot water and a few things to help "agitate" it!  It works most of the time... sorry Megan yours didn't!  You will have to try again!

Before Felting!

After Felting!  

So it wasn't enough just finally felting the bag but I lined it this morning and prettied it up some more by making my favorite shabby chic flowers!!  NOW it is finished!

even made a few pockets for the purse

Have a an Awesome Day!

Nancy

I just linked up to a party over at House of Hepworths...
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

Our latest little project!

We finally got around to replacing the basement door before our party last weekend so here is the before and after!  OK so this is WAY before, but couldn't find an actual picture of the old door!

looks soooooo much better!!!

We still have to do the stairway.... We are waiting some ironwork is being done to support the bannisters and then we will get going and get that project finished!!

Have a GREAT Tuesday!

Nancy

Birthday Celebration!

Today is my mother in laws 85th Birthday!  We decided to surprise her with a Birthday Party Open House Saturday afternoon!  She was suspicous that something was up just not sure what we were up to!  Since she lives in an apartment attached to the house, we had to be careful that we did things when she wasn't coming up since her grandkids had already arrived the day before!  It went off without a hitch we had a houseful of people... we tried to be creative so that not everyone showed up at the same time and sent out two different invitations, half said from 1:00-3:00 and the rest said 3:00-5:00 although at one point we had people standing EVERYWHERE!  I think she was pleased to see so many people!  She had nieces, nephews, cousins and a lot of greats and a few great, great nieces and nephews too!  We were happy to do this and show off the house at the same time!  She didn't believe she had ever had a Birthday Party before and on Friday Megan her only grandaughter and I took her for a Pedicure and to Lagomarcino's for lunch so she had several "firsts"!  Thanks Kevin and Megan for all of your help!

Happy Birthday Sylvia!!

The Surprise!

The first to arrive was a childhood friend and her daughter!

Church Friends!

Two "old friends"!  Sylvia and Carol

gathered in the kitchen

Sylvia for a number of years has driven to Bennett schools and had the children read to her, so some teachers and children came to honor her! 

AND they keep on coming!

more church friends!

Theresa her special friend that gives her rides to church!

Sylvia and Shirley have been friends since Sylvia moved here!  What a Blessing they have been to each other!

Megan and Hunter

Sylvia's nieces Vivian and Terri!

Jill holding baby Payden while Christian looks at how tiny she is!  I love the hot pink head band and socks that matched!

Sylvia with her Great, Great niece!

And Robert he just gets the biggest kick out of giving me a hard time!

Christian and Matthew ( I think they are Buds!)  Thanks Matthew for playing with Christian!  He loves you!

And I believe that sums up the day!  Today it is noon and I am still in my pajamas!!  So thankful for everyone coming to honor Sylvia!

Nancy

It is time for Spring Cleaning!

Every now and then I get the wild idea to clean a room, now I don't just mean run the vacuum, and dust!  No I mean REALLY CLEAN as in tear the room apart!  Well that is just what I started on Friday and finished today!  I tore my favorite room in the whole world apart!  My Crap I mean Craft Room/Office!  I hated the way it seemed so cramped in there and it had become a mess!  Of course I could go to clean to mess in no time flat!  When you have creative juices flowing a mess is always in order!  Since this is a real life blog here are the real life pictures of the mess and the awesome looking room it is today and is going to stay that way!!!! and I am going to work really hard at keeping it looking this way!  I am trying to get rid of some of my stuff I haven't used in a few years... I got rid of my 12X12 paper racks (sold them to another stamper)  I really didn't have enough 12X12 paper to warrant taking up that much room in my beloved closet!  So without further ado here are the pictures!  The floor is a painted wood floor in case you are wondering!!

Yes I know it looks horrible and needed cleaning!! It was a dumping ground!

mess, mess, mess

mess mess mess

AHHHHHH IT is CLEAN and BEAUTIFUL!

Where I THINK!

I moved the island over and moved my cubicles into the closet!

Want to take bets on how long this stays cleared off?

Doesn't that look sooooo much better?

My awesome painted floor!!!

Thanks for stopping by today I hope that all is well in your corner of the world!!! 
Nancy

Friday's Happenings!

I have been busy this week.....  Knitted a few hats.... went to the Knitting Nook at The Buzz in Eldridge, Iowa met some wonderful people there and was quite pleased to learn that they are going to open up a knitting store!! YAY!!!!  Yesterday I drove down to the Fairview Farm..... and played with Jilane and Jagger all day while Mommy and Daddy ran errands with Jaxton!  What Fun!!

Today I am going to clean up my craft/mess room!  I am actually going to rearrange it and get it better organized so I will soon post pictures of that!

Tomorrow I am going to a Scrap Event at my church and spend part of the day!  I am also looking forward to going on a Yarn Cruise next week!  (Driving to 3 different Yarn Stores)  That should be fun!

Please continue to remember my nephew Matt and his family in your prayers he lives in Sekura, Chiba Japan.. They were not harmed but shaken... literally... Please pray for all of Japan!  I cannot even imagine what they are going through!

Three more newborn hats going out in the mail today to Amber for her Photography Props!

Have a Blessed Friday!

Nancy

Still Knitting!

I don't know if I have ever told you the story of how or when I learned to knit!  When I was in grade school I am thinking about the 5th grade a group of girls from Madison Park in Litchfield, IL started going to the Knitting Shop after school.... we would sit and drink a coke and these two very patient ladies would teach us to knit.... Evelyn Russell lived next door to the knit shop and worked there and a german lady by the name of Brigetta Strope owned the store... how these ladies had the patience to deal with a bunch of giggling girls is more than I can imagine!  Oh how I would love to thank them for their patience and love for the art in which they taught us! 

I earned extra money by delivering orders for the Fuller Brush Lady... Mary Stefani.. I and my siblings did this after school or on Saturdays and Mary was a teacher of life herself "oh the things we learned"  hahaha...  I learned to drive her car sitting next to her while she was getting out the tickets... you see she would let people run a tab for their Fuller Brush products and she would send us up to the door to collect on their debt.. She taught us how to count money back to the customer (something no one does now days they just say you have so much coming and hand it over)..   When we were finished for the afternoon Mary would always take us somewhere and buy us a treat... like the Dairy Queen, A&W Root Beer stand or even Mix Grocery Store.  I don't remember how much we made but it seems like it was under $5.00 for an afternoon and we thought we were rich!!!

The only sweater I still have that I knitted so long ago is of this one I made when I was in the six grade!

I know you are wondering how these two stories tie together... I used my Fuller Brush money to pay for my knitting escapades!  The first thing I ever paid by installment!  I knitted sweaters, houseslippers, vest's, mittens oh the list goes on.... But what they taught me has stuck with me all of my life! 

When Gary was in Mayo Clinic facing two major surgeries back to back I went out to the local Walmart and bought a pattern for a baby afghan and bought pink yarn... while I had no idea  who this blanket was for I knitted and I knitted, I prayed while I knitted for God to perform a miracle in my sweet husbands body, you see he had renal cancer and we knew that we were grasping at straws removing the cancer wherever it popped up... I of coursed prayed it wouldn't return, so many tears were shed as I knitted and knitted on this blanket. I kntted in waiting rooms, I knitted as we drove to an fro.... I knitted going to and from Texas many times while he was doing treatments in Houston at Baylor Medical....  I finished this lovely pink baby afghan about one month before he passed away.... and low and behold not quite 3 years later our first grandchild a agirl was born and this became our Papa Gary Blanket... you see I was living in the Quad Cities and had the chance to retire "young" and moved back to Southeastern Illinois to babysit for my first grandchild, you got it a sweet baby girl named Abigail... Abigail will soon be 5 years old.... and I have in the last year married and moved quite far away from them...  But when I think about knitting I think how therapeutic it was for me to knit that precious blanket, I looked at it and saw all the tears shed and prayers said while I worked on it.... I so felt when I held Abigail and wrapped that blanket around us that Papa Gary was there with us.  We did that day after day... I wouldn't change that time for anything!



Abigail wrapped in her Pappa Gary blanket!  Photo by Katie Kunzelman

 Not sure what got me off on that today other than it was exactly about 8 years ago that I finished that blanket and it always comes to mind this time of the year...

The last couple of days, I knitted 3 bear hats for newborns, one pink one is for Amber who has a few newborn shoots coming up and I had already made her a couple of little brown bear hats, and the other two for my niece Kim who is getting ready to take picture of newborn twins.   I guess we have photography blood in the family because we sure have a lot of family members that can sure take some awesome pictures!  

I hope you are not bored with my reminiscing about knitting.... sorry if I made you cry too!

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Nancy

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Home Again, Home Again Jiggety Jigg!

I have been out of town this week!  I headed south on Monday and stopped by to see Daughter #1 and my precious grandkids (they are all growing so fast) as I headed south to Robinson to stay for a few days with Daughter # 2 ...I so enjoyed getting to see them all Baby Otto is now 8 months old and crawling all over the place!  I had the pleasure of hearing him say "Momma" for the first time!  Capri wanted to wake me up each day so sometimes I would go back to bed and pretend I was asleep so she could come in and say "Time to get up Nana look outside the sun is up!"  I got to watch Abigail and Capri at Dance lessons (how cute)! Thursday afternoon I left and headed further south to see my Mother who is in a Nursing Home.... She was so thrilled to see me, makes me sad that I cannot see her more often!  I then had a wonderful visit (and supper) at my sister #1's house and then stayed the night at sister #2's house  and left for home on Friday morning after my brother in law fixed us breakfast!  On the way home I stopped off at Daughter #1 and visited some more as I was on the last leg of the trip..... It is always nice to go and visit but it is always nice to go home!  As Abigail said as we walked into the house after a shopping spree to Terre Haute  "Home Sweet Home"!  I chuckled when she said it!  Amazing that an almost 5 year old is glad to be home too!

Mark and I have been on an entertaining roll since we have things mostly finished in the house and today we had my dear friend from long ago over for supper!! We had such a nice visit with she and her husband!  It is always nice to see her we always pick up right where we left off!  Life has taken us down many different roads but the one thing that has remained constant is we are friends!!!  Love you Deb!!

As I am looking at this picture I realize I have put NO make up on today!! Oh well, my friend didn't care!!

Do you have a friend who is tried and true?  Nice isn't it???

I have a nephew who lives in Japan with his family.... the last news I have heard is that he is safe!  Please keep them in your prayers!

Have a good rest of the weekend!  Be Blessed my friends!

Monday Monday!

Welcome to Monday .....  this will probably be the only post this week!  I wanted to share with you what I have been busy doing.... I painted the half bath behind the kitchen on Friday and got it spruced up!  We also had a couple of visitors from Kansas City, Missouri for a few days and I must say Megan has become quite the knitter and I even have a picture to prove it!  She has knitted numerous scarves, washcloths, a shopping bag and found a neat pattern to make bracelets, and is making them upon requests!!! Hey I want one of them too!!  We had our Bible Study group from church out last night for supper so our house has been a buzzing with guests!

This will be our next project to finish up!  The stairway it goes  up from both the kitchen and the living room!  It sits beside the fireplace!

A few of my favorite things!

The sheet music was actually from when my mother in law was in the Marching Band!

Megan knitting with CoCo's assistance and Michelle who had knitted a few years back and she picked it up like she knew what she was doing! :)

Hope you all have a Blessed Week!  Spring is coming soon and I cannot wait!!

Nancy

Tuesday's Toot......

I feel like when I am not posting you all are thinking.... What is she doing?  Sitting around and watching soaps and eating Bon Bons???  NOPE  I never was much of a SOAP person!  I am usually busy doing something!  Oil change yesterday, a little shopping I needed to get done.... will post pictures of that later!  Today I had a Bible Study on "Ruth" a really wonderful study,  lunch with a friend, came home and gave some wonderful ladies a tour of what we have done around the house..... and tomorrow back to the dealership to get some new brake pads... when you drive as much as I do...... it happens quickly....  My car just turned "2" and I have 74,000 miles on it!  I know it is a lot of miles but I figure those wheels were made for turning and I have to travel to see my family!

THAT was not what I planned on posting what I intended on posting was......  blog hopping to other wonderful sites can be detrimental to what you were actually trying to accomplish! 

One of my recent blog hunts found this awesome paper rose ball so thanks to Claire over at Bless My Nest for yet another project .... because you know I had to make one!!!   This is actually just like my rosettes that I have done in the past I just hadn't done it with paper...... Shabby Flowers I made  I am not done yet but I have been trying to make about a dozen or so flowers anytime I come into "the room"!  So here you go.....

Cut circles and tons of them~  this is out of old sheet music and quite fragile....  about the size of a CD

Cut it into a spiral

start winding and glueing making the center a little tighter....

You end up with a little circle on the back I glue the twirled up part with my glue gun and the stick the back to it....

the backside

And there you have it.... but you have only just begun if you want this......

I covered a styrofoam ball with strips of the sheet music

and put into my 3.99 pot from TJ Max

Hope you have an awesome Wednesday!