And today, my baby is 19

Today, my baby girl Hope, is 19.  It seems like just yesterday I was counting in days and months.  Those days are long gone......I can remember when she was one week old I turned to my dad and said with a sigh, "Well, we've kept her alive for a week."  It seemed like such an accomplishment!  (And it was, really.) And by God's wonderful grace, she still is!!!  Praise the Lord!

For your viewing pleasure, here's one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  I'm biased, of course!

PS-I love her!

Rag ball by Jess



My beautiful niece, Jess, stayed with me Friday night.  All we ever do when she stays is watch movies, surf the net, eat kettle corn, and nap (me).  But this time I was tearing fabric into strips and winding it into rag balls while watching said movies.  She was curious, and wanted to try her hand at it, so let her do it I did.  My mom had included mauve curtains in the huge bag of sheets she had given me.  So Jess helped me out and made me two very compact mauve rag balls.  ( So very compact-almost like a softball.  In fact, she threw one at me and it hit me in the back and man!-it hurt.)  Don't worry-I got her back (and I've got her back-always!).  I made her do a little photo shoot with one of her rag balls.  I was being really fussy about the way I wanted the rag ball held-I made her hold it up there so long her arm got tired.  HA!

I LOVE her!

Have a wonderful Sunday.



I love...making zipper flowers

I just found this out this morning, because this morning was the first time I've ever attempted to make these cuties.

I can't remember where I first saw these, but I knew I wanted to try them so I googled 'zipper flower tutorial' (don't forget-Google is your friend!) and I found this great tutorial on Martha Stewart's website. Click on 'watch video' and this cute girl will show you how to make them. These are very, very simple to do. You can use them as pins, embellishments for your purse, hair accessories, bows for gifts, etc.

I decided to make myself a zipper flower bouquet. I just hot glued these on lollypop sticks (which were new in bag from Goodwill). Tada-a zipper flower bouquet in this little creamer.

Making these is quite addictive.

Good thing I have a lot more zippers (from Goodwill, of course).
Their new home:-)

30 Days of Beauty-3 & I love...my tea

Oh, I love my tea and yep-I think it's beautiful.

Now, just imagine Joe Cocker's raspy voice singing, "You are so beautiful-to me. You're everything I hoped for, you're everything I need. You are so beautiful to meeeeeeeeeeeeee! My teaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Here's an outtake. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

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Melissa got her package from my little giveaway. She did a sweet post about it-go check it out here.

I love...peanut butter and nutella

Oh I am a bad, bad girl. Peanut butter and nutella on white bread toast.

Did I mention I was a bad girl? who needs to lay off the carbs?

But, but, but-they're so comforting. Wouldn't you agree???

I love...sewing notions

Ahhh-sewing notions. They bring me comfort for some reason. Perhaps because they tend to remind me of simpler times (and our precious grandmothers).

I especially love these old, thrifted, wooden spools. (Most of my notions come from good ol' Goodwill.) That's why I display them in glass jars throughout my home.

Seeing this embroidery floss brings me great joy. Yes, it's the little things!

Oh buttons, BUTTONS!-how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. (I know for a fact I'm not alone here.)

What in your home that brings you comfort when you look at it?

Now-I have a notion to go clean something! Anything!

I love...3 ingredient cookies

My mom called me and asked me to look up a recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies one day. (She tries to stay away from flour.) I found one on allrecipes.com. I may have never tried these because-well with no flour in the recipe-I didn't think they would be very good.

Wrong-they are very good. I went to my mom's one day and she had them in the oven-the smell, oh the smell is heavenly. The taste-the taste is delectable! Very sweet-yes. Very good-yes. The texture is similar to regular cookies too.

Flourless peanut butter cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine ingredients and drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet. My fork always sticks to the dough, so I've been taking the ol' tater masher to them. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool some before you try to take them off the cookie sheet. This single batch made me about 16 good sized cookies.

These are my kind of cookies-3 ingredients and I crowd the whole bunch on my 1 cookie sheet.

I love...embroidery

At the suggestion of my sister, I am going to show some things I 'love' here and there in the month of February-since it is the month of 'love', after all.

I love God, my family and friends, above all else. But this is stuff I 'love'. (A different kind of 'love' really-but you know what I mean!)

I 'love' embroidery. I 'love' doing it and seeing it.

I bought this at the op shop. (Op shop=Goodwill!) It was unembroidered (is that a word?). I completed it with variegated embroidery floss.

This came from the op shop too. The bottom was tatted already. (I'm glad because I'm not sure how to do tatting.) The embroidery is yet to be completed. (At least I think it's supposed to be embroidered. I think it doesn't look bad like this, actually.) Notice it's the same pattern as the one above it.

This was (I say was because the stamp washes out) a stamped pillow case I bought at Walmart. I bought a bunch of these, because I really 'loved' the pattern. It's called tall flowers.

Oh-I 'love' this. Larry's grandma gave me a pair of these oh so many, many years ago. Unembroidered. Glad I never got rid of them. (And the cotton lace I sewed on the edge was upcycled from my old curtains.)

She also gave me a pair of these. I think I was appalled at the green lace back then. I 'love' it now. It was unembroidered too.

Here's an embroidered piece that I rescued from the op shop. It was in a broken frame and there were a few stains around the edges. So I spray painted a hoop and framed it, cut off the stained edges and voilá-a beautiful work of art.

If you 'love' something-please do not bury it in the closet. Get it out and display it or use it or give it to someone who will! That's an order!☺

Now I think I will go switch out the pillowcases on my bed. All six of them.

Have a great day!