some sewing and Grandkids

The poncho Barbie is wearing is a gift for her friend. Then I had made 2 the weekend before last for 2 of my Grand daughters birthdays, Happy Birthday Destiny and Madison!!! The rest of the photos are of the grandkids spending the day at Grandma's and Grandpa's house for dinner and fun! We had a glorious day!!! I had tons of fun and remembered how much I love little kids and how we all need to look at life through there eyes! Thanks kids for a wonderful day!!!

Sewing and my diet news

First I have to share I have lost 43 lbs and am eating healthier than I have in years! I fast walk (with a 2 lb weight in each hand) 2 miles 6 days a wk. I am so proud of me!!! This is a splurge day hubby cooked me this wonderful meal and it looked so pretty on the plate I had to share.

Next I had to share the Hello Kitty purse I made this is the lining I ended up using Garfield fabric as I am broke and had this on hand. Hope she loves it

And this is the finished purse. I went online and found a coloring page of Hello Kitty then enlarged it and used it for the base pattern. Then added the eyes and nose with felt, I used embroidery floss for the whiskers. And I added a Macrame cord for the handle. Turned out pretty cute. I know she will like it as she is only 6 :)

above are a pair of cotton socks I am knitting myself

This is a hoodie I knit for my camara

My flowers are in bloom (picture taken by Barbie (My 9 yr old)

From top left pair of mittens,hat,pair mittens, scarf,socks, very right pair of mittens, from right bottom to left striped hat socks, socks All made for the kids orphanage in Russa. All have been mailed and on there way!!!! Made me feel so good to donate these items!!!

Yet another BD gift and some Knitting

Today I dyed some yarn it was a dark pink now a red not quite as bright as this picture as my Durango is charcoal gray and it looks almost blue in this picture. This yarn has a plan will be a hat striped with black and purple for a child in Russia in a orphanage. I joined a group last year and we knit for 16 yr old that are about to go into the world and it gets 40 below 0 in the winter. We knit for each child-1 sweater-1 hat-1 set of mittens-1 scarf-2 pair of socks. If you would like to join just look in Yahoo groups Mittens_for_AKKOL Its a wonderful group. These Mittens are for the same group! The boys have large hands for sure !

I made 2 sets for this child so he can wear double!

And a Hat to match. Was knit looking like a sausage at first then you bring both ends together and its a double hat!!! All Wool so warm in that 40 below zero weather.

These socks are for a girl in the orphanage. Thin socks we call them. Each child picks the colors they want.

Another child picked shades of blue and my dyeing isn't that good yet (my colors split a bit) so they have a touch of purple but the boys seem to like the purple so it will be OK!

And last but NEVER Least! My Birthday gift that arrived today. I have made friends with a wonderful family through my Etsy shop. Desiree is one of the daughters of the lady who I originally met. She makes the most perfect quilts and quilted bags here:http://www.etsy.com/shop/Hamncheezr And her mom who I met first sells recycled yarn and hubby sells soap kids do woodwork and spinning batts! If you go to her shop you can find all her links!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/my7kids

Any way Desiree sent me this beautiful Alpaca and koolaid for dyeing. I love the gray color alone so will use the koolaid for other dyeing jobs. Thanks Desiree so so much. (her mom is the one that sent me the cake in the mail and the beautiful red yarn from her shop for my BD too!!! So wonderful to have such loving people in my life! God Bless you All!!!

Birthday Presents

This is how the cake looked after traveling in the mail from TN to Indiana. Wow!

Tomorrow is my Birthday! I will be 53 years young! Today in the mail this box came. Inside this box from Tennessee came via the US Mail. Inside it was most of a cake and 2 skeins of this beautiful red yarn I have been eyeballing for wk! This is all from my Online friend Nikki aka My 7 Kids online. Nikki this was such a heartwarming thing to do! Thank you and my birthday this year has been the best ever!!! Your such a sweet heart. Love you girl! If you ever are in need of some awesome recycled yarn check out Nikki's shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/my7kids

My sisters Pat and Brenda sent me this set of Denise Knitting needles! A perfect gift ! Thanks Pat and Brenda your the best sisters ever. I LOVE YOU BOTH!

So as you can see even though its a day before my Birthday I feel so special!! I don't expect anything tommarrow but we will see.

Oh and I have recived 2 cards from my dishcloth group too! What sweet ladies! To remember me. Thanks All!

Guess what I am knitting? And snow

Winter has been a bit late this year for us. I had to share some snow pictures but we may not be done yet as they are calling for freezing rain and 6 to 8 inches this weekend. They can't seem to decide if it will be here or up north of us so time will tell. The ice cycles are right next to Barbie's room the other views are across the street and next to us is where the picnic table is. If you look in the first picture you can see my antenna buddy my sister sent me!

It is in the bottm right corner of the picture. You can click on the picture and it will get larger.

Here is a picture of my current knitting project. Can you guess what it is?

New Purse

Thursday I paid my bills and did a stupid thing. Left my purse on the floor. I have a male dachshund (Angus) and sometimes he decides he needs to mark things. You guessed it he not only marked my purse he soaked it. This was the type of purse you couldn't wash so the trash it went. I wasn't going anywhere (or so I thought) so I wasn't too concerned about it. Then Thursday night we got horrible news. A very good friend of Barbie's older brother decided to end his young life (16) I thought about telling Barbie all day that day and I did when she got home from school. It upset her but she didn't cry that day. I know for a 10 yr old its gotta be hard to grasp death. Then Saturday her friend and the mom and bother came buy our house for a little visit. We talked hugged cried ect...... Barbie played in her room with her friend. Today we went to the showing and that hit Barbie like a ton of bricks. The boy was in a open casket and Barbie wanted to say her good byes. I was close to this family because of the girls and had known this boy. He was a sweet boy and loved Barbie treated her like a sister too. So it hit us all pretty hard. To see a mother loose her first child and he was only 16 yrs old is a rough thing to begin with. Makes me realize I need to get back to church and appreciate my life and all the wonderful people in it.

Any way Here is the purse I whipped up (all hand sewing) no sewing machine touched this purse:) I put pockets in it (one for wallet-cigarettes-glasses-cell phone-pens) anyway the pictures aren't very good. But it gives you an idea.

Purple wool socks for me!

My feet have been freezing lately so I decided I needed another pair of wool socks! I spun this yarn and then dyed it as it was a gray color. I think they turned out pretty nice and now my feet are nice and toasty in the house!!!

socks bookmarks and more socksand a hat

I have been doing a bit of knitting. The socks and neck scarf were made for my sister Pat's birthday(Happy Birthday Pat!) She loved them and that makes me so so happy! The fish hat was for Barbie's friend Zack's Birthday! He loved it also. The book markers were made for Valentine's day for my grand daughter Colleen. I pray she received them and loved them. I am not allowed to talk to her so I will only pray they arrived safely and her aunt allowed her to have them. I know she loves to read so I thought she would like these. OH and the other blue hat was made for Barbie! I wanted to see how it turned out as I am knitting a hat and mittens for a child in Russia who is 16 he will be set free from an Orphanage he has lived in his whole life and a group I belong to sends knit sweaters-hats-mittens-socks-scarves to these kids who go out into there world. It get 40 below 0 in the winter there so I wanted him to be warm.