HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I want to wish you and yours a great New Year!
Love,
Marie

Myspace Graphics, New Year Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Done except the Angel....

This is an Advent cross stitch that I did years ago. Each day you take one of the ornaments from the outside and place it on the tree. Even though it is just my husband and I here for Christmas, we still place this on the refrigerator each year and count down the days until Christmas day. It is all done now except for the angel that will go at the top of the tree tomorrow. I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year.
Love,
Marie

Gifts from other talented friends

I got this wonderful surprise from my friend, Celeste--we do watch bands together. She made this adorable snowman in a jar and placed white lights in it. It looks so sweet sitting on my kitchen counter with my other snowmen that can be seen in the post below. Thanks Celeste!
I love it.
These pretty little gift boxes were made by my friend, Naydine, my other watch band maker. Naydine used last years Christmas cards to make these neat little boxes and put a couple of pieces of candy inside. I think they are so neat. Thanks Naydine! My husband and I love them.

My Christmas Surprise....

We have these wonderful friends that we met through church. They have been such a blessing to us. All through the year, Pat has been bringing us meals to put in the freezer. These meals have been such a blessing. There are days that I am not able to prepare food for us and it is wonderful to go to the freezer and take out one of these meals and pop it into the oven or microwave. Gary, the husband, has helped with mowing the yard and other things that my husband needed. Yesterday, they came in the snow and brought us more meals for the freezer and one of Pat's works of art. She painted the snowman on the bottle and place a string of colored lights inside. I placed it on the kitchen counter beside my snowwoman cookie jar. Thank you Pat and Gary for your thoughtfulness!
Love,
Marie

Crochet Hats

It is our granddaughter, Allison's, 11th birthday and I crocheted her some hats plus the other things I mailed. I called to wish her happy birthday before school and she was already wearing one of her hats and a pair of leggings I sent. We were out eating with friends and I saw a girl about Allison's age wearing a hat like the purple one but it just had buttons on it instead of the flower. My friend went over to see if someone in the family made it but they had just bought it. Before we left, another lady stopped to admire her hat. I found a pattern on line for the rose one and the white one.

Give Away for Christmas- and the winner is...

I would love to give away six of my tatted snowflakes for you to use in your Christmas decorating. My tatting is not perfect but I enjoy doing it. If you love handmade items, just leave me a comment and I will draw a winner on November 21. I will notify you and you can then give me a mailing address. Tell your friends.

AAmber from Making a Home is the winner. If you have not visited her, I know you would enjoy her blog. Congratulations Amber and I hope that you will enjoy using them. My friend's granddaughter, Ryan, drew the number for me. Ryan is a first grader and she was delighted to choose who won.

Us "Girls" like to play.....

There are three of us "Girls" that went all the way through school together and then two of us went on to college together. We are not actually "girls", we are "Old Ladies". The younger of us three refers to us as "Old Ladies". Ha! Well, we started getting together to celebrate birthdays and have included our husbands. We decided the other week that we would play with beads and let the men have fun talking football, racing, guns, etc. We had lunch and then the men went into the living room and we gathered around the kitchen table and started playing. Below, I will show our creations.

Naydine did these. She is using the Snowmen watch faces with her snowmen.















These are creations by Celeste. She has done some more since this picture.












These are creations by Marie. We have purchased Christmas watch faces with snowmen, Christmas trees, and Santa's to make watches for Christmas.

Trip to Blue Ridge

My husband and I decided on the spur of the moment Monday morning to try to get the mountains all by ourselves. We knew that we would probably find wonderful people along the way to help us. Monday was such a beautiful, crisp Fall day here in NC. Our first sighting of the mountains was Pilot Mountain.

Then we arrived in Mt Airy the home of Andy Griffith. This is Barney's police car. They use this to take people on tours. We met a couple just coming back from a tour and they came over to the car to talk to us. They were from Canada and were on their honeymoon.






These are some more of the pictures that I took of Mayberry. Floyd's Barber Shop and Snappy Lunch are downtown on Main Street. I could not get any pictures as we rode down Main Street because their were so many tourist. When we were able to walk, we would always stop at Snappy Lunch for their famous pork chop sandwich. That sandwich is worth waiting in line for.

We stopped at a fast food place and got lunch
and had a picnic in the parking lot. We then started our drive up to the parkway. We stopped at our favorite food stand and bought mountain-grown cabbage, new pinto beans, and apples. Then onto the parkway.






These pictures do not really show what our eyes saw. The scenes were gorgeous!!!!!!! We had the most wonderful day, just the two of us. As we knew, we came across the most wonderful people that were willing to help us get out and into the car and places we wanted to go. We dared to undertake this trip and we are so glad we did. We are two blessed people even in our circumstances!

Tea Wrap

I did this crochet wrap using Vanna's Choice yarn by Lion Brand. I found the free pattern on the Lion Brand site. It is Pattern Number: 81085AD. The pattern called for a N crochet hook but it took a P hook for me to make the gauge.
We cooked on our grill last night with friends and while the men were cooking, I used Naydine for my model. Naydine and I were in school together from beginning to end. It was a beautiful day and evening here but this morning is a different story--cold and raining. We may have had our last meal on the screen porch this year.

More Knitting

Above are two different hats I knitted with the remaining thread from the baby blanket. I also did a 5-hour boy's sweater. I really like the way this thread works up.

Boy's Blanket

I made this crochet baby blanket using Bernat Baby Jacquards . The yarn color is Macaroon. I love this because it gets away from the usual pastels that you think about. I think it will be very practical. The pattern is the same as one in an earlier post.

Yo-Yo Pumpkins

I made these by making yo yo's. I cut cardstock into 7 1/2", 7", 6", and 5" circles. You will need 1 of the 7 1/2", 2 of the 7", 2 of the 6", and 1 of the 5". I made the yo yo's and then stacked them in this order: 6". 7". 7 1/2", 7", 6", and 5" on top. My husband cut a piece of plywood into squares and countersunk a 3" screw into it. I then threaded the yo yo's onto the screw by pushing scissors into the center of the yo yo to make it go over the screw. He cut a twig into to make the stems and made a hole in it so that it would screw down onto the top of the pumpkin. I got the leaves from fall foliage I had.

I placed mine with some Fall leaves on the ledge of an antique bookcase.

Sweet Potato Cobbler

This smelled so good when it came out of the oven and as you can see we could not keep from trying it before I could take a picture. This is very rich! You may want to use less sugar.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk

Preparation:

Melt butter in 12 X 2 -inch baking dish. Mix together the flour, sugar, and milk; pour into the center of the melted butter. Do not stir.

Mix:

2 cups cooked but firm, peeled and sliced sweet potatoes (I added these last)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or other preferred spice)

Pour this into center of melted butter and batter. DO NOT stir. Bake at 350 degrees
for 45 minutes or until light brown.

Color-Coded Therapy

I wanted to share my husband's joy of working with his flowers. At the time of this newspaper article, we were married 33 years and this August made 48 years for us. I was in bed with my back for a year before I had my surgery. I was in so much pain and really did not want to live. One Saturday morning my husband went shopping and came back with flower boxes, dirt, and flowers and began to fix boxes around the deck. I thought to myself, why are you doing this because I probably will not be alive. As the flowers grew and he got me up into a chair in the den, the beauty that I was seeing through the kitchen bay window was unbelievable. His joy of growing the flowers for me made me want to make it. He has continued this ritual every year. Of course when he became unable to walk last year, he has not been able to do as many boxes and have as many flowers in the yard. He still gets on his scooter and goes out and waters and takes care of all he planted.

Fig Cookies

The squirrels got most of our tomatoes and usually the birds peck our figs, but this year the birds are leaving the figs to us. There will not be enough to do a lot with but when my husband brought in enough the other day that I thought I could do something with, I went to Google. I found this recipe for fig cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped figs
1/2 cup walnuts - I used toasted pecans

Cream sugar and shortening and add beaten egg.
Sift dry ingredients and blend with creamed mixture
Fold in figs and nuts.

Drop by spoonfuls on greased sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes
Mine were done in 15 minutes.

Book Review

I have never recommended a book before but I had seen this book on another blog and it caught my interest. I immediately went on line to our local library and put a hold on the book. I am fortunate that they have a girl that brings books to me. I got the book Monday afternoon and finished it yesterday. I have now started reading it again. Below, I am going to give you a summary that I found on line.

A new story of common wisdom from the best selling author of "The Traveler's Gift".

Orange Beach, Alabama is a simple town filled with simple people. But like all humans on the planet, the good folks of Orange Beach have their share of problems--marriages teetering on the brink of divorce, young adults giving up on life, business people on the verge of bankruptcy, as well as the many other obstacles that life seems to dish out to the masses.

Fortunately, when things look the darkest--a mysterious man named Jones has a miraculous way of showing up. An elderly man with white hair, of indiscriminate age and race, wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt and leather flip flops carrying a battered old suitcase, Jones is a unique soul. Communicating what he calls "a little perspective," Jones explains that he has been given a gift of noticing things that others miss. "Your time on this earth is a gift to be used wisely," he says. "Don't squander your words or your thoughts. Consider even the simplest action you take, for your lives matter beyond measure X 2026; and they matter forever."

Jones speaks to that part in everyone that is yearning to understand why things happen and what we can do about it.

Like "The Traveler's Gift," "The Noticer" is a unique narrative is a blend of fiction, allegory, and inspiration. Gifted storyteller Andy Andres helps us see how becoming a "noticer" just might change a person's life forever.


If you decide to try this one, I hope it will be as meaningful for you and it was for me.

Computer Nook

This is where I do my blogging, making cards, emailing, etc. We took a closet and removed the doors and took the clothes rod down and wooden shelves. We then added the wire shelves for me to place my baskets on. I have paper, stickers, label, etc. in them. I have two computer towers. When I bought my newest computer, a lot of my programs were not compatible. I keep the old tower mainly to make greeting cards. I am not able to get out very often to buy cards so I create them and my friends seem to like them better because I can make them personal. I have also done some digital scrap booking on the old one too. The picture on the right shows my wallpaper on my modem at this time. I like to give equal time to the grandchildren. I had the granddaughter so now it is mostly the boys.

Fresh Peach Delight

This is such a good recipe. I wish I knew who to give credit to.

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 cup nuts, finely chopped (I like pecans)

Layer 1:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 8 oz Cool Whip

Layer 2:
4 cups fresh peaches

Layer 3:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 Tbls. corn starch
1 small box peach jello

Mix flour, butter, and nuts. Pat in bottom of 9 X 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown and let cool.
Cream the cream cheese, powdered sugar and cool whip, and spread over the first layer in pan.
Layer sliced peaches over cream cheese mixture. (I just used one layer of peaches)
Cook sugar, water, cornstarch and Jello until thick and clear. Remove from heat and cool completely. When cool, pour over peaches and refrigerate. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

ENJOY!

Lace & Amethyst Wrap

My daughter-in-law saw this in the July/August 2009 issue of Crochet today! and liked it. It is crocheted with RED HEART Eco Ways Bamboo Wool. I had never used this yarn before. It felt really good but I had to be careful because the yarn wanted to split. It is an easy pattern and I hope Linh will enjoy using it.

Happy Anniversary!

Congratulations Jon and Linh

Quotes to Live By

The following quotes are some that mean something to me and I want to share them with you.

Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart,
"It will not benefit me." Even by the falling of water drops,
a water pot is filled; the wise man becomes full of good,
even if he gathers it little by little.
German Proverb



Hardening of the heart ages people more quickly
than hardening of the arteries.
___
We really begin to amount to something to men and to
God when we are careful to do a kindness and care
less about who gets the credit for it.
___
There are many moments in friendship, as in love,
when silence is beyond words.
___
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
___
We will not make the daisies of our own lives
any prettier by being jealous of the roses in
our neighbors' lives.
___
If you want a better life, the place to change is
inside yourself.
___
Whatever you dislike in another person, take care
to correct it in yourself.
___
What life means to us is determined not so much by
what life brings to us as by the attitude we bring to
life; not as much by what happens to us, as by our
reaction to what happens.
___
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater
is their power to harm us.
___
It takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow.
___
Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and
the blind can see.
___
The world is a looking glass, and gives back to
every man the reflection of his own face.
Thackeray

The Internet CAN by a good thing!

Our grandchildren live 1100 miles away. Due to our physical conditions, we are no longer able to go visit them. They try to come visit us once a year if their schedules allow. Thank goodness for our computers and the Internet. On their end, they have a cam--not me! Ha. We are able to see them but they can not see us. One afternoon, I went on AIM with our granddaughter. We both have microphones and can talk to each other as I watch them. These pictures were snapped by our granddaughter as she was talking to me. She was doing all kinds of expressions and added the parrot and rabbit into the picture. We had a fun visit. As she dragged and dropped the pictures for me to see, I saved them. I went to hp.com to their creative section and picked out this frame. I uploaded the pictures and dropped them into the frame. I printed it and then put it in the scanner and saved it. I then went to my computer and chose it as my wallpaper. I get to relive that fun visit with my granddaughter each time I cut my computer on. I did this screen capture so that you could see what I see on my 24-inch monitor. I don't understand how computers and Internet work, but what a blessing it is to the "old lady". To me, it is a "Good Thing" as Martha Stewart would say.
Love, Marie

Laying in Store for the Winter

I have been busy trying to save everything I can and not let anything go to waste. We bought 1/2 bushel of peaches last week at the Farmer's Market. I froze most of them except I made an easy peach cobbler with part.As you can see, my husband got into it.
Easy Peach Cobbler
1 cup Bisquick
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 stick butter
2 to 3 cups sliced peaches
I melt the butter in the microwave in the glass dish. In separate bowl, I mix Bisquick, sugar, and milk until smooth. I pour that over the butter in the dish. I top that with the peaches. Sprinkle a little sugar, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of allspice on top. I bake it at 350 degrees for one hour. We like to stir ours every 15 minutes, twice, and then don't stir the remainder of the time. Boy, is this good topped with vanilla ice cream. We only get ice cream when it is buy one, get one free.

Besides freezing peaches, I put up some corn, squash, and okra that a friend brought.

I made spaghetti sauce for Saturday night. I browned a pound of hamburger and a chopped onion and cubed some squash and zucchini into that and poured a jar of spaghetti sauce over it. I added some garlic powder and oregano and let this simmer. We had a meal Saturday and Sunday night out of this spaghetti sauce with sugar snap peas one night and a salad the next. Monday, I took what sauce was left over and made lasagna. What we had left from that meal, I divided into meals and put into the freezer.
We had one zucchini left yesterday from our garden and I grated it and made the chocolate chip zucchini muffins that I have posted the recipe for before. I would love to get some more corn and some field peas. We are hoping that we are going to have some late tomatoes.
Love,
Marie

Five Months from today..........

Will be Christmas Eve!
We have this tree up all year round in our living room. The truth of the matter is that my DH was still able to walk when this tree was put up. He spent so many hours putting the lights on it that he said if it ever came down it would never be put back up. This tree is decorated with angels, so he calls it our Angel Tree. I light it up a dreary days or to celebrate birthdays. Where has this year gone???

Muffins

I made muffins yesterday using a recipe from Brenda at Coffee Tea Books and Me. Go over and give her a visit--she is full of very helpful and inspirational information. Take a look around and then go to her recipe blog for the muffin recipe. I used chocolate chips and pecans in mine.

Christmas in July

I am in between projects and had not tatted in a while so I picked up some number 10 crochet cotton and my shuttles and started making some snowflakes. I will tell you about my grandmother below. I watched her tat as I was growing up but never tried to do it. In later years, my mother gave me my grandmother's shuttles and I ordered a book to teach myself. I bought Tatting by Cathy Bryant. This is a great book with good illustrations. The snowflakes above are from the book, Tatted Snowflakes by Vida Sunderman.

Grandmother Thompson
1887-1962

The above picture was taken when my grandmother was a student at "Normal College". She met my grandfather when he went to the college to visit his sister. Grandmother was always doing some needlework. This is the grandmother who gave me the desire to learn to tat. She helped me make a quilt when I was 12 years old. It was simple--just small squares sewn together, but I have the memories of the time we spent together.
Below I want you to see the book and shuttles that belonged to my grandmother. I watched her make the most beautiful lace to be placed on handkerchiefs. She used very small thread and sometimes sewing thread. Wow! I do good to get it done with size 10.

This book is STAR BOOK No. 41 - cost-10 CENTS
AMERICAN THREAD COMPANY - Copyright-1946
This book has crochet and tatting edgings. The tatting edgings
were suggested to be used on slips.

This is the caption above the tatting patterns. It amazes me that
my grandmother went to all this trouble for something that would
not be seen. My Grandmother Thompson did handkerchief edgings
and a lot of crochet.

One of the first attempts I made at tatting was
the snowflakes I used on the tree in our bedroom.
The tree has dolls, snowflakes, antique balls, and
white lights. These are the same snowflakes
that I am doing now.