SPRING IS HERE

Spring is finally here and so is the pollen that comes at this time of year. However, we are getting MUCH rain today (and last night) so I'm hoping the yellow stuff goes away and takes the sneezing and watery eyes with it! My front yard looks like I live on a lake today but I am not complaining. After the drought we had last year I will never complain about rain. I am praying the bad weather misses us that may come later tomorrow. Now for these beautiful hanging baskets..........

My church is sending 20 people on a mission trip to Costa Rica in July (my husband and I are going) and we have been raising money for several months for this trip. Last fall we sold beautiful mums, had a comedy/dinner at church, had several Sunday dinners, sold Boston butts & ribs to name a few of the fund raisers.....and now we are taking orders for hanging baskets. This is the last week that we are selling these. They will be delivered next week. So if any of you LOCAL people would like to help us (and "beautify" your home, please leave me a comment. We're selling ferns, impatients, petunias, regular geraniums, and ivy geraniums (these have smaller leaves and fall over the baskets). Each basket is $13.00.

We went to the nursery and picked these up two weeks ago so they will be even bigger next week!!! See why I am staying busy and my blogging is slacking. I hope to do better. Have a wonderful day.

7 THINGS I LOVE

I was so excited to have a comment from a sweet friend of my son & his wife on my last post. Amber was a room mate of my daughter-in-law when they were both bat girls for LSU before they married. I met her while Chris & Amy dated and had no idea that the future would bring us together again. My son is an assistant baseball coach at a high school in Louisiana where Amber's husband is the head coach. He and Amy introduced the two of them and they married last year. I think that's pretty neat. You must check out her blog and see their wedding picture on her header. Anyway....Amber gave me this award and I am to list 7 things I love. Here goes.........

1. I love my husband and thank God for him every day. We have been married for almost 37 years. Some years were tough, but our love is stronger today than ever.

2. I love my children...Amy, Chris, Shawn, and Amy (my daughter & daughter-in-law are both named Amy).

3. I love my grandchildren....Keith, Zack, Breanna, Griffin, Maddie, & Emma. These six are the ones who make Granddaddy & Gigi do things we never could do with our own (didn't want to spoil them).

4. I love my job. Yes, I am a retired educator and I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to teach and touch so many children over the years. Now I am the secretary at church and it is a blessing to love to go to work.

5. I love the beach. I could sit in my chair and watch the waves for hours. This is my favorite place to go.

6. I love to plant flowers and watch them as they grow.

7. I love to be home at times with no where I have to go. Life is too busy and I enjoy just spending time with the one I love.

I am supposed to choose 7 people to pass this award to, but I would like to invite any of my friends to accept it and pass it to your friends.

IN YOUR EASTER BONNET

It's a BEAUTIFUL day in Alabama! I have really enjoyed my day off (although the first of it was spent having blood drawn for my annual checkup). After leaving the doctor's office I headed to the Thrift Store and spent quite some time "just looking". I did find an old blue jar with the top, a frame that I'll paint for one of my stitcheries, and the dress for my bunny. Other than that I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. I then went and bought some new flip flops and stopped back by an antique shop. I just like to look and did find another rolling pin and a wooden spool. After I got home I decided to go ahead and dress my bunny for the holiday. The grandkids love seeing how she's dressed so it's worth it for them. I hope the weather stays pretty for the weekend. I still have work to do in my flower beds to get them ready. I LOVE SPRING!!

A NEW STITCHERY

Several weeks back I ordered the best book of patterns from Cheryl. The booklet that I ordered was Old Time Stitchery -- A Little Book with Lots of Projects. I had seen some of the projects completed by Kimberly and loved each of hers. Usually I buy a book to get one pattern, but EVERY pattern in this one is a keeper! In fact, I had a hard time deciding which to do first. I am going to frame this one and put it on a shelf that my son-in-law is building for me. When it is completed I'll show you a picture. Another project that I have going is a Country Calender BOM from Ellie's Quiltplace. I have January, February, & March downloaded but finished the stitching on January last night. I'll post a picture of that later. It's a free download so you might want to check that out. I've had a horrible cough/cold this week and felt really bad yesterday.....didn't do much at all but I worked on the stitchery some. I went to the doctor Wednesday and thought the shot and medicine would have knocked it out by now, but not so. I am feeling better this afternoon. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend.

28 YEARS AGO

Twenty-eight years ago today God blessed us with an 8 pound baby boy. We already had a beautiful little girl and were excited to be blessed with a boy and a girl. The years passed so quickly and this baby boy grew up. This picture above was made one Sunday on the way to church with his daddy and big sister. (He's going to appreciate how his mama dressed him then).

This picture was made on his wedding day. God blessed him (and us) by giving him a beautiful Godly wife.

This is Chris and his family at the beach last summer. (Emma was tired of picture making by this time). I look at Chris today and it is hard to imagine how quickly these 28 years have flown. I am so thankful for the person that he is today....a wonderful son, husband, and father. Happy Birthday, Chris!!

PUT YOUR SUNGLASSES ON!

I KNOW these are bright colors and I warned you to put your sunglasses on....but I wanted something for the girls to wear during the week before Easter. This fabric was the only one I found yesterday (I didn't have time to shop around) so it had to be the one. I made four of these (exactly alike) and just finished them. This is for my oldest granddaughter. They will go in the mail tomorrow. Please don't think I'll be showing dresses every day now that I am back blogging. In fact, Kimberly asked me about a project from a book I ordered awhile back and the stitchery is almost finished. Hopefully I will show it next. I hope you had a wonderful weekend....it's great to be back in touch with you.

I'M BACK

It has been quite some time since I have posted---TOO LONG but I really needed the time out. I felt as if I didn't have any interesting things to write and I sure didn't want to bore you. Also...things are busy at work (I'm secretary at church) and at home. It's really good because it means that out church is growing and I am staying extremely busy at work. Warmer weather at home means time to get ready for planting so I have had much to do. However...we did have our ONE snow for the year last Sunday and I was so excited. I know that you have seen pictures from other bloggers of our Alabama snow. Many of you who live up north think that the snow we got was nothing...but when you only see snow once a winter (if that) you get excited over two inches! Although I haven't posted I did try to read your blogs as much as possible. I'm sure I won't post daily---maybe three times a week (unless there is something really exciting happening), I hope to be back with you. I want to show you what I have made. Of course it's for the three granddaughters in Louisiana.

The picture isn't true to color....dresses are teal and the ribbon is hot pink. I know it looks red. Their mom dresses them so cute and buys the Kelly's Kid clothes but after our trip last week and keeping them while mom and dad were away....I saw how they want to wear dresses even for play. These will be perfect. I also made the white ones below for the beach. Our family goes every summer and we ALWAYS make the beach pictures with the kids wearing white so these should work just fine. The fabric is white seersucker and is so soft.
m making four of these). They have a cousin who goes to the same preschool as Maddie. I'll show pictures when they are finished but get ready for BRIGHT colors. The fabric has Easter eggs and jellybeans all over it. I want to get these in the mail Monday so I hope to finish them tonight and tomorrow afternoon after church.