Crafting Time

Happy 10th Birthday Destiny!!

2011-11-14T19:26:00.001-07:00

Happy 10th birthday baby girl!

We love you always and forever!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T16:43:00.000-06:00

Destiny and Kiley as

The Devil and Monarch Butterfly

Makeup done by Aunt Heather :)

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-08-12T21:57:00.000-06:00

Happy 30th birthday to me! DH couldn't be here since he is out in the field but we celebrated last year. My dad even made me a cake.

Happy Kindergarten Graduation Day Kiley!

2011-05-20T14:32:00.000-06:00

Kiley graduated Kindergarten today!

Here she is with her teacher Mrs Cambria

And her entire class. She is in the 2nd row, 2nd kid on the left.

Here is the 1st song they sang

And here is the 2nd song they sang.

CONGRATULATIONS KILEY! I LOVE YOU!

MLOTS

2011-05-18T14:05:00.000-06:00

See? I have been stitching! Its not much sadly but my urge to work on her has returned so with any luck it will stay. I am still working on my moms blanket too. I have only done another 2 squares on it. But she was up here recently and I showed it to her and she loves it and said she cannot wait till i get it completed. She wants it to be about as big as a twin size blanket. But honestly this will probably be one of the few last blankets I do since I want to concentrate more on my stitching.

Homework is just so exhausting!

2011-05-13T14:16:00.000-06:00

I just had to share this! My poor Destiny fell asleep on my bed while doing her homework tonight. She is finishing up the 2nd grade and her teacher gives them all several hours of homework each night but its been a good thing.

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T13:49:00.002-06:00

Here is what DH got me for Mothers Day! What a sweetie! The girls also handmade me some adorable cards as well. I truly feel spoiled today! We spent the remainder of the day curled up watching TV and doing some other things together as well. All in all it was a great day!

Welcome to the world Gabe!

2011-05-05T17:56:00.000-06:00

Gabriel Ethan Lewis,

21 1/2 inches

8lb 7oz

At 16:26

My cousin Amanda had her 2nd son today! Congrats Amanda and Chad!

Happy Birthday Mi Amor!

2011-04-14T11:52:00.000-06:00

Happy 31st Birthday to my DH today! (I'll post bday pics later on)

Newest Crochet Blanket

2011-03-22T22:08:00.000-06:00

These are each individual squares I am attaching as they are stitched so there wont be any joining at the end. I told my mom I would crochet her a blanket and I am hoping to have this one completed by the time her birthday hits in May. My goal is one square per day, more if I feel like it. That way this will be done in time for her birthday and it leaves me time during the day to cross stitch as well if I want. ^_^ It is being done in these four colors since my mom is a fan of the Victorian Era.

Bear Trap Ranch Marriage Retreat Pic Heavy

2011-03-21T21:47:00.000-06:00

Our Room

The main room we shared with 11 other families from DH's Battalion

Kiley

Destiny

Yes a basketball hoop to play on dirt, how well does a basketball bounce on dirt?

This is the cabin we stayed in for 3 days and 2 nights

The girls on our hike which ended up being a climb

DH and I can you tell i hide the panic/anxiety attack well?? I have a huge fear of heights/falling and this climb pushed them too far. I was lying in our room for a good 2 to 3 hours afterwards with chest pains from my panic/anxiety attack. Oh and the waterfall we did all this too see was frozen solid! All the activities we planned we couldn't do because there was no snow so hiking/climbing was the only choice. Thankfully DH brought his laptop and we stayed in and watch TV shows for the remainder of Saturday evening.

The cookhouse where we ate all our meals and it also had a tiny gift shop mainly filled with books and sweaters. You could also play board games in there as well.

Disney on Ice Pic heavy

2011-03-17T21:35:00.004-06:00

I do have many more pictures but I'll leave you with these 8 pictures. It was sooo much fun and well worth going! We will definitly go again if they come back next year!

Honeybee Hideaway Completed

2011-03-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

Honeybee Hideaway

by Country Cottage Needleworks

Completed March 06, 2011

Cat anyone?

2011-03-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to stitch really I am. But i get up to go get lunch or coffee and come back and Miss Jenny has decided to lay on it. Then when I do get my fabric back she wants to play with my thread lol

Marriage Retreat

2011-02-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

18 days and counting till our family goes to Bear Trap Ranch for a marriage counseling retreat! They have free childcare so the girls will be there while DH and I attend a seminar and then we get to spend the day with each other. There is lots of stuff to do there too. Here are a few of the things we found on their website to do together:

Coffee Tasting

We carry a selection of premium single-origin and blended coffees, locally roasted to highlight their unique characteristics. We would love the opportunity to do a coffee tasting for your group. Experience the “wow” of coffee when paired with pastries, chocolate, cheeses, mushrooms, nuts, and more. This educational time is enjoyable and tasty. Plan 1-2 hours... some groups have lots of questions and love to interact with our in-house barista.

Orienteering
Orienteering is the sport of navigation with map and compass. It's easy to learn, but always challenging. The object is to run, walk, ski, or mountain bike to a series of points shown on the map, choosing routes—both on and off trail—that will help you find all the points and get back to the finish in the shortest amount of time. The points on the course are marked with orange and white flags and punches, so you can prove you've been there. Each “control” marker is located on a distinct feature, such as a stream junction or the top of a knoll.

Hay Rides

Load up 30 people on a trailer with a pile of hay and take an old-fashioned hay ride to Duffields. Overlook the city of Colorado Springs... great memory–making moments and pictures.

Snow Tubing

Quick! Grab a snow tube and come join a friend on the tubing run for hours of enjoyment.

Snow Shoeing

Get a pair of snow shoes and head out for a quiet walk though the mountains enjoying the beautiful mountain views.

Ice Skating

Ice skating is a great activity for people of all ages, Bear Trap has skates to borrow if you need them.

Our Oldest/Newest Furbaby addition!

2011-02-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

This is Jenny. My sister found her on the streets as a 6 month old kitten. She was scavenging for food around the dumpster of our apartment in 1999. Well Lynnette took her in and has had her ever since. Her and her DH with her 2 boys recently moved to a much bigger/much needed place. But the downside was they didn't allow cats so Jenny needed a place to stay. At age 11 years old she was too old and too much of our family to be adopted out to someone else. My mom took her for a week but during that week her never hurt a fly puppy tried to "eat/attack" Jenny. So we brought her home with us. Our two kitties have been fine with her but we think the ranking wars have begun. Xena always stays in Destiny's room which Jenny has tried to claim so they have peed in her room. Grrrrr. So I told Lynnette that hopefully they will stop if not then she will have to hide Jenny back at her place.

Love Letter Envelope Freebie

2011-02-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

A cute envelope I made for Valentines Day. You can write a sweet love note and enclose it in the envelope for that special someone. Pictures to come soon.....

Click HERE for pattern.

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

Happy 8th Birthday Rowan!!!

2011-02-13T16:00:00.001-07:00

Pictures from his family Celebration!

WIP Day 2

2011-01-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

I finished another 2 1/2 rings today. I think I will have bout 6 or 7 rings to get the right height for this purse. Thinking about if ill just connect the bottom or if ill design my own flat bottom.....

Candy Wrapper Purse Day 1

2011-01-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ok so yesterday I measured and cut out strips from an old Collections Etc magazine I had. And then I had to go to the store for some waterproofing tape. Anyway I completed about 1 1/2 rows yesterday and I think all the strips I cut out and folded will make about 3 to 4 rows. Here is what they look like: Sorry for the bad pic but I had to use my cell phone to take the picture.

Candy Wrapper Purse

2011-01-25T09:38:00.002-07:00

Has anyone seen these? I think they are just so cute! (Pics taken from yahoo search) But to go out and buy one could cost you over $100.00 USD! YIKES! So I searched through our all favorite Youtube and found instructions on how to make one! So that's what I am going to be doing. Though as I don't really eat candy or chips and those do not have those materials I have found ones made from magazines even! So time for me to dig out those old magazines and turn them into something useful! Don't worry ladies, no Cross Stitch magazines will be harmed in the making of this purse. Interested? Here is the link on how to fold each page and the best video i have found yet on connecting them all. I'm using the 11 cm by 5 cm sizes btw.

How to Fold each piece.

How to put it all together

I'll post pictures later on in the week of my progress

Crocheted flower headband

2011-01-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

My younger sister saw this website where this lady makes headbands and puts these fake flowers on them. She wants about $8.00 USD for each one and when i saw them I was like I can do that for way cheaper! So here is my first attempt with a fake flower I already had on hand. I took it apart and added a shiny button for the center.

I think when DH returns home we will go fake flower shopping. :-) Heather wants me to make some for Mina. I love the top picture of Kiley! This also qualifies as my first finish of the year! woohoo!

2010 Completions

2011-01-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot to post my end of the year completion slide show. Its not much at all so I am not comparing to last year.

A very Merry Christmas and a birthday!

2011-01-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

The girls saw Santa Claus at our company Christmas party

The girls in their new dresses on Christmas day (The total for these dresses from Sears was about $120.00 USD but we got them on sale for $30!!!)

My favorite niece Mina! It was her first Christmas

My 2nd Nephew Poe who is 14 months old is walking! Uncle Mike had sneaked in a Dallas Cowboys outfit and secretly changed Poe's clothes when mommy and daddy were being kept occupied.

Our 3rd nephew weylyn snuggling with his Uncle Mike. It was his first Christmas too!

Here is my DH snuggling up with both Mina and Weylyn. He loves being an Uncle!

Nana got Destiny an easy bake oven so she just had to make S-mores for her and her sister

Here is Kiley making them both some hot chocolate in her new Tinkerbell mugs to enjoy while they eat their S-mores.

Manzo my favorite Maine Coon turned 4 yrs old on Christmas day!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Christmas in a box

2010-12-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

Kooler Design Studio FREEBIE

Another cute freebie I thought I would share with everyone. ^_^

I know I have been absent

2010-12-22T21:30:00.002-07:00

I know I have been absent but I haven't been in the mood to craft anything. Plus now I am sick thanks to my sister Heather. She visited this weekend on her way to Las Vegas NM to hand her son over to his father who gets him for 2 weeks and in two weeks she will stop here again. But this past weekend she asked if I would watch my 4 month old niece for the day while she handed her son over. Little did I realize my poor niece had a nasty head cold and so it was passed on to me to which Sunday morning i already had symptoms and by Monday morning I felt like hell on earth.

Then to add to my misery I had pain in my back left tooth. Luckily the dentist pulled it this morning and so I am much better to that too.

Oh and the best part yet is my FIL messaged me on FB saying we should get an envelope today and to use it well. SO I was like ok thanks. Then he threw himself a pity party because his son my DH is too busy to call him. SO I asked why don't you (FIL) call your son (my DH) to which he is the dad and has done his time! OMG he thinks raising his son was a prison sentence!!!! I was so pissed!!! Then he tried to say my DH was a leach because we sent him an xmas gift list that my FIL had ASKED us too!!! And I had put on there that they are only getting the list because he wanted it because we did not expect one thing from them!!

Anyway, needless to say I am no longer speaking to him! What a fucking asshole!!! Sorry for my language.

Our Thanksgiving turned into a baby fest!

2010-11-26T21:09:00.001-07:00

Happy 6th Birthday Kiley!

2010-11-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Happy Birthday My Baby Girl!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm spending it with my family in Wyoming this year!

2010-11-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Was working on this until Destiny took off with it to work on hers and misplaced it. So will be hunting for it so I can finish it off.

So then I started this little Boo Tree. Its coming out smaller than i thought it would be but thats ok.

And I started this little square. If all turns out well Barbie will have a new outfit ^_^

Happy 9th birthday Destiny!

2010-11-14T07:43:00.023-07:00

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DESTINY!

More Games

2010-11-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Went fossil hunting

Completed this guy in our museum

Caught this Mole cricket. I had to dig holes in the ground just to find him!

And my little daughter Kiley came from her town to visit me. She has bed head :-)

AND I THOUGHT ABOUT CRAFTING TOO. GOT SOME STITCHING STARING AT ME EVEN NOW.

What I have been doing lately

2010-11-07T00:09:00.000-06:00

Playing Animal Crossing City Folk!

Laughing at Gaston who has been wearing Snow Whites dress for a week!

Caught a koi fish!

And a Pike fish! He's so long!

More fishing!

Donated the Pike to our city museum.

Found a key in the river.

Returned the house key. He didnt have to sleep outside afterall lol.

Here's mommy kitty who constantly loses her baby in other cities. Only thing is the guy who has baby kitty claims she is no longer there as he has been time traveling in his game, so not sure how long I'll have momma around my town.

Yay! I hit rocks and found a bug! LOL

Completed this dinosaur in our town museum.

And to top off my day, I had a cup of coffee, no pigeon milk.

Our Halloween pics

2010-11-01T08:21:00.000-06:00

A rare picture of me.

Destiny as a Monarch Butterfly

Destiny's face painted.

The whole painting. We tried to re-create this from a gal on Youtube, as you can tell I'm not an artist.

Kiley's fairy paint

Her mean face, I guess she chose to be an evil fairy?

The girls together

Our neighbors decor. It went up before trick or treating began and was down before we even got home.

Another neighborhood decor, it would blink, just made me laugh

Destiny before her makeup and wings

And I end with my favorite scent of all time, pumpkin spice! This is a Wal-mart candle and its just scary how tall the flame got, it actually melted my burn even metal ghost topper. So sad...

2010-10-27T11:12:00.000-06:00

Been Loom knitting a little bit but not much else. Just feeling tired lately and distracted by Wii games this week.

Talked to my little sister this week also and to help with both our finances, next year she will move in with us for a year. She wants to move here to be closer to us anyways and this will help as she can transfer from her Sams Club to the one here up the street from us and then her husband can job hunt also. Anyway no date yet on when she will move here though.

Anyway my kids have a four day weekend so the next pics I show will be from Halloween, so Have an awesome weekend everyone and happy Halloween!

HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY HEATHER!

2010-10-17T05:26:00.003-06:00

Beautiful Happy Birthday

Happy birthday on this beautiful day,
There's so many things, I just want to say.
You inspire many, with your thoughts and actions,
We're all so grateful, for your calm reactions.

Happy birthday on this beautiful day,
You've always been there, when we needed you to stay.
Kindness and thoughtfulness is your forte,
Our love for you, we wish to convey.

Happy birthday on this beautiful day,
We wish you the best, without any delay.
Hope you enjoy it, from beginning till end,
Here's a hug and kiss, we're ready to send.

by Martin Dejnicki

2010-10-15T17:40:00.000-06:00

I'm taking off to Wyoming this weekend in just a mere few hours we will be on our way. A 2 1/2 hour drive so to speak. I need out of here after having such a horrible roommate and having the cops haul him away and that poor 12 year old girl off to the hospital (shes suicidal). I don't want to go into anymore detail as its just so horrible. I think these people are worse than murderers worse than mass murderers, worse than anything anyone could ever think of. I am only thankful that neither of my children were physically harmed.

I'm going to enjoy this weekend. We are celebrating a late birthday of my nephew turning a year old and my sister Heathers birthday on Sunday she will be 28 yrs old! Plus I am planning on a trip to hobby lobby and joann fabrics. We are also costume hunting as well! See you all Tuesday!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY POE!

2010-10-13T05:17:00.008-06:00

Number One

You are one,

Let’s have some fun.

Teddies or blocks,

Where are your socks?

Milk tastes so sweet,

With honey and heat.

Today we will play,

With Sunshine and day.

We wish you the best,

As you grow healthy, no less.

Has it been a year?

We love you our dear.

By Martin Dejnicki

2010-10-10T23:07:00.000-06:00

Here are three squares I made up for my moms blanket. But they aren't laying out flat. So i go back to her place this weekend and we will try blocking them but we are thinking about picking a different pattern for her blanket. I'm making this blanket in exchange for some hand knitted socks :-)

Here was the original blanket she picked but as you can see each square should come out square but no matter what hook i used, it came out rectangular. She wants it in Victorian colours so anyway no pic of the square i did for her as I left it at her place. So we will see what else we can choose from.

My mom received a BEAUTIFUL blanket from my Aunt Leala and so I just wanted to show it off to you all.

Have a great week!

Trick or Kitty Treat

2010-09-28T19:08:00.000-06:00

Trick Or Treat Kitty

By Brittercup Designs

Stitched on 32 count Belfast Linen

Made into a tuck pillow.

Located in Just Cross Stitch's 2008 Halloween Issue

Completed Grass and stitching update

2010-09-27T21:14:00.000-06:00

Our yard is completed with Kentucky Bluegrass! Looks great right? The sandy area around the play set will actually become a sandbox. We have to build the dog run which is in the far corner there before DH can complete the play area/sandbox. You can see some of our garden area which is full of weeds lol. We are going to redo them next year as we hate the plants there now.

And here is my BrittyKitty design so far.

And i don't know if you can see him but on the left side of the pole on the fence is a black squirrel. He comes and visits our yard every morning. :-)

Grass and a pumpkin update

2010-09-25T17:31:00.000-06:00

Here is my kitty as of last night. I already know I want to finish it like the one in the picture but different fabric of course. :)

Finally our grass was delivered and DH has been busting his butt getting it put in just right! After he got about half of the yard done yesterday the girls and the boys just couldn't resist and had to go play in it!

Today he is installing more of it and then tomorrow it will be finished off. Its called Kentucky bluegrass which stays green all year long! Yes you see Zeus with his leash on as the truck that delivered the grass couldnt fit through our double gates so the 2 1/2 pallets were left in the open doorway! Zeus had to be put on a leash or he would have run for it lol. Duke is my good boy and stays by my side mainly as he is a momma's boy. Well i'm off to make dinner and then i'm going to try and finish my pumpkin piece. :-)

New Halloween ornament and Manzo

2010-09-23T23:42:00.000-06:00

First my sleepy kitty. Manzo has been picking this spot in my bedroom to sleep every afternoon. So cute!

Here is my choice for my 2nd Great pumpkin challenge. Been a little slow these last few days as I have been getting my housework done lol. But also we have been preparing the backyard because grass is being delivered tomorrow morning! WOOHOO!

Happy Jack

2010-09-21T15:35:00.000-06:00

Happy Jack

Knotted Tree Needlearts

Started Sept 20, 2010

Completed Sept 21, 2010

Stitched on an unknown count and linen fabric

Substituted Weeks Dye Works threads for DMC's of my choice

I took the pumpkin from the Happy Jack pattern and turned him into a little mint tin, I also added 3 little leaf buttons to the bottom as they reminded me of fall. What's a pumpkin without fall colored leaves? The green rubber band is only temporary I assure you. I'm ordering some Halloween ribbon to replace the rubber band.

This will be entered into Becky's Great Pumpkin Challenge and since its finished into something it counts as 2 entries :-)

An update and a new Challenge

2010-09-20T14:22:00.000-06:00

Finished the tree late last night as I was catching up on the last season of House.

THE CHALLENGE

Was visiting Daffycat's blog when she mentioned Becky's Great Pumpkin Challenge. So I thought I will join. Sounds fun so check it out. It runs from now till USA Thanksgiving Day.

Another update

2010-09-19T12:26:00.000-06:00

As of last night here my little house is. The house is done now just going to do the tree next to the beehives today.

Honeybee Hideaway Update

2010-09-17T22:59:00.000-06:00

Here I am as of today. Just have the roof left and the house will be complete. Then I can work on the rest of this.

New start

2010-09-15T10:19:00.000-06:00

I needed a break from MLOTS so I started on this one that I had in my stash for a long while, its a Country Cottage Needleworks. There are three of them called Summer Retreats. I want to do them all in a row from top to bottom and create a hanger type thing when they are done. So this is the middle one and it says Honeybee Hideaway. Destiny is doing these with me as well as she just loves the little houses. These are each 89w by 61H so not too big :-)

Here's Manzo, I don't think he wanted me to stitch that day, look at the evil look on his face like "Don't you dare move me!" LOL

Baby Shower pics and video

2010-09-13T09:00:00.007-06:00

I know this is sooo late considering the baby shower for Heather's bundle of joy was August 15, 2010 also the same day we all mourn for 5 years now as we lost our step dad who was more of a dad to us than anyone else. Anyway happier more funnier times. Here is a few pics and also video of the diapering contest. My battery died (thanks DH) so I don't have too many pics.

That's all of them! Enjoy!

My before weekend progress

2010-09-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

Here she is as of Friday morning. Got some blues in there now :-)

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY LYNNETTE!

2010-09-11T09:41:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday sis! I love you!

Who do you write like?

2010-09-10T10:01:00.003-06:00

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

So who do you write like?

My House pic heavy

2010-09-09T08:10:00.001-06:00

Well since my dad wanted pics and a few others of you have been asking to see pics of my "new to me" house, here they are. Please ignore the mess. LOL

My Kitchen, small but I love it! I plan to do a coffee house theme full of reds and browns. I'll have to show you the picture my mom bought me which was my inspiration for what I want to do in here.

My diningroom, just as small as my kitchen. In fact you can kinda see the picture I was talking about in this picture hanging up on the wall.

Destiny being cute before school this morning

My entryway. You can see my couch in the bottom right.

My livingroom plus Kiley holding Manzo

These two pics are of my craft room. I know its pretty plain right now but until we have more income I can't do much with it. In the cabinet is all my yarn and then i have two more on the other side filled with all my other crafty things including my sewing machine.

These are of my husbands office. He keeps all his military clothes here and all the big things are in trunks in the garage. They give him enough stuff to fill a good size room. Crazy considering he only uses half of it and the other half is used once in a great while.

Here is my small laundry room. Just big enough to fit my washer and dryer. I'll get some decor put here later on as well.

NOW THE DOWNSTAIRS

Here is Kiley's room. DH will hang up her posters and stuff for her when he returns from the field.

Right next door is her sister Destiny's room. She loves princesses and Twilight and yes you see the wall at the end of her bed? There is an Edward and Bella poster hanging right there! She told her dad to put it there so its the last thing she sees before she falls asleep. LOL

My hallway as you come down the stairs and also where we keep kitty food and water and there little play houses, though the bigger one broke cause Manzo is so big. These apparently aren't meant to hold Maine Coon's. Yes that's Manzo in the pic. He was suddenly hungry when I was taking pics. :-)

And finally my room though I'm not showing the part of the room with my viewable closet, TV, and the mess on the floor where the kids and I veg out in the evenings. Its messy LOL.

And that's all folks! If you made it this far congrats!

MLOTS weekend update

2010-09-08T14:23:00.000-06:00

Here she is after the last four days of working her. I know not too exciting lol. But I was able to get a lot done on her. We spent the 4 day to ourselves relaxing at home since DH left for the field for the next 10 days. He did work on the fence though so now we have a 7 foot fence out front. Yay! The side will be harder as he has to build it up with cinder blocks so its level and then he can build the fence on it. We are guessing it will take several weeks to do and several hundred dollars as well which we dont have at the moment so I have no idea when that will get built.

I'll post pictures of my house tomorrow since my dad has been pestering me for pics of it. LOL.

Updates

2010-09-03T08:17:00.000-06:00

NON-STITCHING:

My husbands grandfather (Opa) passed away this past Sunday. The funeral was on Thursday. It was in Germany and since we couldn't afford the flight we remained here. My husband was deeply close with his Opa so it hit hard. He was a type 2 diabetic and mere weeks before his death he had gone into the dr's for a different reason only to find out he had cancer through his entire body. He was 75 yrs old and so Chemo just wasn't an option. He just wasn't strong enough.

On happier news my sister had her baby shower on the 15th of August and my husband was so kind to record the put a tp diaper on your partner while blindfolded game so I'll post a few of those up on my next post.

DH is home for a 4 day weekend before a 10 day trip out to the field so he is steam cleaning the carpets while the kids are in school and I need to get the downstairs cleaned up so when he is done with the main level he can come down here and clean the carpets.

STITCHING NEWS:

I completed this color all the way to the bottom of her dress! Yay cuz I am so tired of stitching 415 on here. Not that the next colour will be all that more exciting. But a change which is nice. Think I can finish her this year? I'm certainly going to try!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

MLOTS and school

2010-08-27T22:37:00.000-06:00

STITCHING NEWS:

I got more of MLOTS done! But sadly i lost my camera somewhere in one of my thousands of purses I own so i'll be on the look out for it. In the meantime here are some crappy pics taken on my cell phone:

Finished beading her arm and did all of the owl including the backstitching on the owl and her hand.

So onto the bottom section I go. This is all one color and its weird how it looks a different shade of the same color up above it. I hope when i get done and wash the whole thing it will look alright. This pic is as of 3 days ago. I haven't touched it since but hopefully i can this weekend.

NON STITCHY NEWS:

The kids started school on the 18th of August! Woohoo! So as always here is their first day back picture.

And today my DH got to play golf instead of actually working! LOL a lot of soldiers had a tournament today. DH had fun and got 3 birdies (2 hits to get the ball in) out of 18 holes! So here he is having fun and he even got his lucky number golf cart assigned to him, funny huh?

And so i leave you with a few pics I also took on my cell phone of Kiley and our Maine Coon, Manzo:

Dont mind mine and Destiny's feet at the bottom, lol Kiley is listening to her new Tinkerbell green 8 gb IPOD Grandpa Banfill bought her. no worries Kiley got a Princess pink one for herself thanks to Grandpa Banfill :-)

And this was taken today. Poor Manzo squished like that. Though he didn't seem to mind too much.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

My birthday, my neice, and another finish!

2010-08-12T20:02:00.000-06:00

Today is my birthday! I'm 29 years old now, yikes!

Ok so last Thursday I completed baby blanket number two for my sister Lynnette's son to be born in November. She is naming him Weylyn Owen Jones. So here is the blanket i completed:

Later that evening my younger sister Heather calls me and said they are worried if she goes full term with her 2nd pregnancy (she is 6 weeks away from full term) they are worried the baby's bowels will perforate as she has cystic fibrosis and that caused her 1st poop to get stuck and so her bowels were building up with well poop. So anyway they decided to induce her. I grabbed a few things for her and the baby and had DH drive me to Aurora, Colorado. Poor girl was in labor for like 2 1/2 days before they decided to use pitocin to speed up the process. Her husband and I were there at her beck and call the whole time. FInally on August 7th she came into the world! So everyone meet my first neice!

Mina Alexis Martin

Born August 7, 2010

At 8:41 P.M.

5 lbs 10 oz

18 1/2 inches long

She had to have surgery to empty and remove some of her bowels as the enigma didn't work. The surgery went well and they have removed her from constant pain killers to just a Tylenol suppository. We can't hold her yet as she still has plenty of tubing on her but she is otherwise a healthy girl.

I got home Sunday night and I haven't stitched or crocheted since cause I haven't been feeling well. I still don't and being on prescription meds isn't helping how I am feeling but they are working so with any luck i will be up and going next week.

A new bundle of joy!

2010-07-29T19:23:00.000-06:00

ME BITCHING:

Well I'm just in the best of moods today! Not! I'm losing my pink laptop that my husband bought me because we can no longer afford the payments ever since he bought his way too expensive truck! I feel like he just gets what he wants when he wants and does NOT think of the consequences ever. Of course I'm the one that pays for it every freaking time!

GOOD NEWS: Today I feel like designing. I have these cute coffee designs in mind and if PCstitch Pro ever decides to work correctly today I may get them charted out. All works out well you can expect to see several coffee related freebies here and me stitching each of them!

MORE GOOD NEWS:

Welcome Kolton Christian Warner

Born: July 27, 2010

8:04 A.M.

8 lbs 5 oz

19 1/2 inches long

My cousin Kylee had her baby! Her sister is also pregnant but not due for another 6 weeks. Yes we have 4 babies being born this year in our family. Isn't he just precious?? I definitely need a trip to Washington now!

Stitching, crocheting, rain, and clay oh my!

2010-07-28T22:26:00.002-06:00

Ok well fabric is lighter but this shows the stitching better. This is the 2nd chair in the series from the cat's whiskers. I got this far and then did the heart like 3 times and none of them looked right so i got frustrated and gave up. I think i'll add it in a different way.

I made this little purse for Destiny. Its a freebie link is here I just changed the colors and made tassels for the ends instead of shamrocks. I organized my craft room looking for 3 crochet hooks to finish a baby blanket and they are no where so I will have to look harder or buy new ones soon!

Then we got rained in big time! The rain hit my door and flooded so hard my entry way was all wet. It had come in the bottom of my door. So instead of going outside we played with clay!

haha I know funny huh? Its all one color cause Kiley combined them all. Since Destiny is really big on cake decorating right now I made this little clay cake with a teddy bear on top. Yes she is into teddy bears too. LOL ok my miniatures leaves something to be desired. Oh well we had fun while we waited out the rain!

Have a great week everyone! The girls have their school physicals tomorrow and poor Destiny may need a shot that wasn't required before but is now.

Oh! I want to share this video. Duke just went bananas over the peanut butter this past week! I was LOLing so much!

Beeyatch by Subversive Cross Stitch

2010-07-13T14:43:00.001-06:00

Beeyatch by Subversive Cross Stitch

Finished this one up yesterday while watching a few movies. I just love doing up these patterns in this book. This is the 3rd one i have done. Not sure how i will finish it up so for now it will go into the finished but finished drawer

Also for anyone thats interested we are onto Step 3 of the pineapple plant. It has to stay in this glass of water for 3 weeks. I'll change out the water every other day and we should see roots growing from the bottom. I'll try and post this weekly so you can see the root growth. I'm putting it on top of my refrigerator in the meantime. Keeps the animals and children and DH out of it.

Button Pins

2010-07-12T14:46:00.000-06:00

Okay so i was reading someone's blog (If you originally posted these on your blog, pls comment here so I can link to you) and she found this cute tutorial for button pins so I was in the mood to try them out. The bottom two are mine and the top one is my daughter Destiny's. She definitely has more creativity than me lol. I like hers the best ;)

Anyway click the words button pins above for the tutorial.

Also Destiny is finally going to update her blog after a year so please stop by her blog and leave her some comments. :)

Stitching and even a completion!

2010-07-11T21:12:00.002-06:00

First here is Chinese Goddess of Mercy. I am almost done with the moon above the little girl

Here is a freebie hummingbird i stitched and completed today. Its my first cross stitch finish this year! Freebie found here And i just realized i forgot the white on his chest! dangit! dangit! oh well cant do anything now.

Growing your own pineapple

2010-07-10T17:14:00.000-06:00

Today was my first time to cut up a real pineapple and i remembered that you could grow the tops, so i hopped online and found this awesome site with instructions and pictures to boot! So we are on step one letting it dry out and the scars to heal itself. See all those brown spots, its going to grow roots there one day. If you want to try with me heres the link here

And since my girls or Manzo havent been on here in a while lol, here they are!

That game she is playing must be intense! (Picture by Kiley)

Yes she took her own pic, its kind of scary funny. Makes me laugh

And my cutie asleep on my book shelf. No its not normally empty but i had just finished handing out Avon books when I came home to this.

Have a great day! Stitching pictures soon, i'm sorry!

Renaissance Fair (VERY PIC HEAVY)

2010-07-02T21:31:00.000-06:00

Here are some fun pics of our day at the Renaissance Fair!

This is a bone carving. Pretty neat huh?

These guys were hilarious!

An Awesome Caltic band!

The band all together

Smash the plates time! He won two pink feathers, one for each kiddo!

See how strong you are! DH didn't make it to King but he was right under it!

Barely Balanced is an acrobatic team and they were awesome and funny!

The latrines!

The girls had to try on princess crowns! Though with the feathers they look like Indian princesses!

they both shot 6 arrows, Kiley did exceptionally well!

We met a woodland fairy who didnt speak, just smiled and acted ditsy but ok.

And then we ran into one more fairy before heading home tired and broke lol.

Have a great 4th of July weekend!

Flowers blooming and not much else

2010-06-29T17:49:00.000-06:00

These are some weird little pink flowers which bloom off a vine. They grow like weeds though.

These are called Seedums and even the darker green ones next to them are the same but different colored flowers. They seem to love the shade by the garage though so it may become a seedum flower bed as I have so many!

These are my first two Iris's and they are actually in a pot and seem to be doing great unlike the ones planted by the tree which Zeus seems to love playing in and running through so I am not sure those will make it.

Just some little pink and red flowers (ignore the dead one on the end)

This one I love! It was so small when she brought it to me and its just blossomed and those are all the babies on her and the ends will flower so as soon as they bloom i will show you them.

Here is another view of the same plant. She gave me a bunch of babies too in another color but they arent growing as fast as this one.

THIS weekend even though its fourth of july weekend I plan on getting most/all of these plants into the ground. We figure we can always move them later if we need to. I also need to go buy like 4 rose bushes too for the backyard and I would love a butterfly bush under my kitchen window as well!

My mom arrives here Friday for a 4 day weekend visit too! I can't wait and I know she won't mind going to the nurseries with me either!

We went to the Renaissance Fair this past weekend as well but i'll post pics of that tomorrow. If you are on my Facebook list you can see them now as I posted them there days ago.

TKD

2010-06-23T12:05:00.000-06:00

The girls won a free month of TKD so Monday was their first day and they LOVED it!

You can see them here in the back of the group.

Is anybody out there?

2010-06-16T22:00:00.000-06:00

I had such a long day today and it all started out good till DH came home in one of his moods. So i did what I could and took off to check on the pups. Here's Zeus chilling in the outside chair. Please ignore the beer boxes. They were put out there to go into the trash but somehow the can ended up out front and these stayed out back. I'll go clean them up tomorrow.

Even Duke got bored waiting for me to put down my camera and play with him.

But then he gave me a smile err i guess you could call it one.

Yes Duke is standing in my planters and with all of my plants in cups and containers. Why you ask? Because my DH said he wants to make hills and stuff thru the planters so it looks "decorative" and really I couldn't give a rats butt. The dogs are eating on the cups and tipping over plants and I am losing my patience with him. So if he leaves next month on his training thing and they still aren't in the ground. I'm putting them in it without the "decorative hills"

So anyway enough of my rant. I came inside and fed my kids a bowl of Potato soup for dinner and found Zeus looking depressed as I feel.

And i have no idea why Destiny's apron is upon my floor. I told her to put it away.....

OH! Did i mention DH got pissed enough that he broke yet another laptop tonight??? Now miss Destiny must lose her desktop to him so he can have a computer.

Some Cross Stitching and a finish!

2010-06-14T16:03:00.000-06:00

Recognize this? Its my Chinese Goddess piece. After I finished crocheting the baby blanket for Baby Girl Martin I was in the mood to stitch on it. I did some more of the light pink around her head. Not too much done but its progress and it was so nice to stitch on something. My big round hoop stand was destroyed in the move so I'm on the hunt for a new stand.

Here is the baby blanket I finished for Baby Girl Martin. It is the size of a crib bed. Plus its not the normal rectangular ones. I wanted something different for her. Besides we found out she is going to be a special needs child. She has Cystic Fibrosis ( 1 out of 3,000 get it). We won't know the severity of it until she is born this September. I am hoping its a very light case instead of a worse one as I know that my sister is very sensitive and won't be too emotionally stable if its a severe case. Anyways pls keep her and the baby in your prayers.

Memorial Day Weekend - Day Two

2010-05-31T10:46:00.000-06:00

Saturday - Our house warming gift. :)

Time to wake those that were still asleep at 0800

Then the boys used the skidster to level out the backyard. None of realized how much excess dirt was there but it was in our favor! We had so much excess there is no need to bring in anymore to fill in the step areas

DH had to move our sprinkler pipes so Opa wouldn't run them over

There were lots of huge rocks against the neighbors fence so those all had to go.

And while Opa took his cigarette break he watered the dirt down.

As you can see even Oma wasn't immune to the high winds we had.

After she got her hair tied back it was time for more chalk coloring! They even discovered that if you dip the chalk in a bucket of water that they color darker colors and they also:

Color the water!

More work, but can you tell Jeremy didn't do much? (Glad a 12 pack a beer was his only payment)

Then while Jeremy and DH grabbed lunch, Opa pulled out the trencher to dig the trench holes to lay in our sprinkler systems. we found driveway under all this dirt on this side of the house so Opa had to get the Skidster out and remove the driveway too. It was all asphalt.

Then time to set up the main and the electronics parts. We had to find a weekend plumber to install a pipe coming out of the side of the house too. Cause our water hose connection has a no freeze valve on the inside which meant he couldn't use it to connect our sprinkler system.

The girls played with all the blue flags. This is where you saw the steps last. Its mainly filled in now.

DH trenched the shorter sides by hand. Boy was he tired and sunburned when he finished!

Then after Opa connected all the pipes Jeremy put my girls to work filling in the trenches and patting them flat.

Then all us gals took a much needed break! Putting in sprinklers is hard work!

Opa finished up the zones getting them all connected together. There are 4 zones total!

Here is zone 1 being tested! Yay it worked! Jeremy messed up one of the sprinklers though as it goes off when zone 4 comes on and its suppose to be a zone 2 sprinkler but its a pain to fix so we just decided to leave it. At least it waters where its suppose to. This pic is just when the sprinklers flush out any dirt, before the guys attached the actual sprinkler heads to them and then adjusted them to the right direction.

Opa was tired! Thank you so much Ron! I know this wasn't the funnest trip to Colorado Springs but definitely your next visit we will be able to do something fun!

Tuesday DH puts in the dividers for our planters and also he is working on getting the kids playset together as they also get a sandbox under it! (I wonder how much sandbox sand is?) Also we get the grass put in this week too which means the kids can't play back there for two whole weeks till the grass takes root!

Memorial Day Weekend - Day One

2010-05-30T10:45:00.000-06:00

My in laws arrived Friday afternoon while Mike and I were working on preparing the backyard. Don't they look thrilled to be here? LOL

Destiny got her snuggles In with Opa

Kiley rode her bike for Oma and Opa to see

Then it was time to color while Opa, DH, and his GI buddy Jeremy cleaned up the yard

Kiley colored a blue house and a lot of overgrown grass. I wonder if she was trying to tell us something?

The puppies were bored. No one was playing with them.

And finally when the yard was cleaned Jeremy had to show off his funny ring tones to Opa.

10 PM became shower and bedtime for everyone!

Memorial Weekend Sale!

2010-05-28T10:49:00.000-06:00

Avon is having a HUGE Memorial day sale! FREE SHIPPING on any order of $5 or more! Just enter coupon code: MDAY2010 Log on at www.youravon.com/hbanfill

Wind storms and Yard work

2010-05-24T17:30:00.000-06:00

We had a bad windstorm the other day and several large branches fell from our large Maple tree. We really need someone to come out and trim the tree but they want like $300 just to do this one tree! So we will be shopping around for a better price.

DH decided to get working on the backyard so first thing to come out was those annoying steps and the brick which was a horrible make shift patio. It left huge holes in the ground since they used these long thick wooden beams to make them. Even the girls wanted to help so DH gave them each a job to do. It was too cute not to take a picture or several. He then filled in all the holes so the dogs could still go outside and play.

My in laws are coming Friday afternoon to help get our backyard going. I really can't wait cause it means green grass, flowers, and a huge play set for the girls. I have a feeling i'll be taking my stitching/crocheting out into the backyard with the kids and puppies.

I have also been stitching on the baby blanket squares again. Found out my little sister is having a girl! So I'm working on the pink squares. I have 3 to go and then I can put it all together. I'll show pics when its completed. My two cousins found out what they were having too. Kirsten is having a girl and Kylee is having a boy. So now we just need to know what Lynnette is having. I know crazy our family is having 4 babies this year.

Happy Stitching everyone!

Stitching and a long weekend!

2010-05-17T13:47:00.000-06:00

Alrighty here is the piece I was stitching on these last few weeks. Its a small kit that was given to me. Its slow going just because I just don't feel like stitching, period.

But I did fall in love with this adorable black and white Pomeranian at the local shelter here so he just had to come home with me. His name is Duke and he is 7 months old. He was fixed the day before so he had to have the cone on his head till Friday.He was an owner surrender because she decided she didn't have the time to potty train him.

Even the boys are getting along here they are napping together :)

So this weekend we went to my mom's place to visit. We got stuck in Friday nights traffic through Denver so it was a VERY long drive But I found out that my Uncle Rodney was visiting, he lives in Michigan and the last time i saw him was in Oregon when Destiny was just a baby.

We got to play with the nephews:

Visit with my sisters:

And Kiley even got my Uncle Rodney to read her a Tinkerbell story:

And we even went shopping in Fort Collins and ran into some dark clouds as there was a tornado warning in Pueblo and we were getting the strong winds. But we all made it home safely.

And here is a photo of myself, Duke, and Kiley on the way home. Duke was asleep here so cute!

Here is Duke this morning after his bath. He needed one badly and i knew he would feel better. He is still wet in this photo. He jumped into Destiny's clean laundry and just looked too cute to not take a picture.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T13:29:00.000-06:00

Hope its a great one for you all. I am stitching on a little kit but its slow going so I'll try and get a progress picture posted. Also for some reason I am not able to comment on everyones blogs but I'll keep trying.

Green Crocheted squares

2010-04-29T17:17:00.000-06:00

Well DH took Zeus to work with him yesterday and I took full advantage of not having the little guy around. Yes he wants constant attention and playing, its like having another baby all over again! LOL he is adorable and all but it was nice to get a few hours break. Anyway I finished all 11 green squares for Baby Martin's baby blanket. Now to wait and see if Baby Martin is a boy or girl and then i can complete the blanket. So here is the stack of green squares. Same granny square pattern as the white ones. :) Time to go get to work on baby Jones blanket. But before i end, my sister Lynnette is getting married tomorrow! Congrats sis! DH and I are so upset we can't make it. Heather promises to take lots of pictures though!

Crocheted Squares and Meet Zeus!

2010-04-27T23:03:00.001-06:00

I have finally finished 20 white squares towards both baby blankets I am making. 10 are going to each one. I have now started on the green ones which I need 11 of for my little sisters blanket. Her shower gift from my sister and I is frog themed so the blanket will match with it in color. The other baby blanket for my older sister Lynnette (Yes both my sisters are pregnant and about 6 weeks apart) is going to be monkey themed so her squares will have brown in them. Each blanket will have three colors in it but I must wait to see if they are having a boy or girl before the third color becomes official.

Here is the adorable 4 month old puppy we came upon. He is a boxer/terrier mix and nips like crazy. Which we are working on but the kids just run and scream and then cry when he gets them. He loves kids, don't get me wrong but nipping is how he tries to play with them and they are having a hard time understanding how to get him to stop. Anyway here he is after his afternoon nap in my stitching chair so yes you can see one of my crocheted squares there on the chair. DH has decided to name him Zeus BTW. He figures it goes with his cat Xena and no I avoided mentioning that Hercules goes more with Xena than Zeus. I just said OK honey and went on to my crocheting.

And DH couldn't resist this one i guess. Zeus and I fell asleep Sunday afternoon. I was having some bad allergies and with all the meds i took to get rid of them I crashed without realizing it. Ask DH I can only sleep at home in my bed or at my moms house so this is a rare moment which i blame totally on allergy medicine. That's my story and i'm sticking to it!

More Granny Squares

2010-04-23T16:33:00.000-06:00

I finished 6 more squares yesterday. Yes, I am doing all white squares for now till I figure out what other colors I want to add in. I know a lot of you want to see me stitching but I just haven't been in the mood and I have just felt like making these squares.

So i leave you all with this photo of Manzo that DH took last night. He stayed in this thing covered up for quite awhile. And yes miss Kiley was in her play makeup before this picture was taken.

Baby blankets have begun

2010-04-21T19:02:00.003-06:00

Here is what our weather has looked like for days here. And you see that big branch in my front yard? Everytime we have a wind storm one of these fall from that huge tree in our front yard. DH will be calling a tree trimming service soon.
Here is Manzo laying in one of my daughters push cart toys, he willing jumps in it and allows Kiley to push him around the upstairs in it. So cute. I'm glad he is finally bonding with her.

Well between my two sisters and my two cousins, I have 4 baby blankets to complete. My two cousins will be first as they are due first. So far we know there will be one boy. So I have decided the blankets will be made from attached granny squares. A good way for me to destash some of the yarn i have. So here is what I completed last night.

Happy Birthday Mi Amor!

2010-04-14T20:39:00.000-06:00

Happy 30th Birthday!

I'm sorry your birthday BBQ got rained out, turns out we were doomed to be rained on as it was raining when we left home and it poured even more shortly after we arrived in Cheyenne, WY On the bright side the following day was bright and sunny! (At least till we drove home and it rained again)

Spring Season

2010-04-12T13:05:00.000-06:00

I had a wonderful surprise on my doorstep this morning! Gevalia delivered my Spring season of Pecan Torte coffee. Oh it smelled so wonderful I instantly had to make a pot of coffee up. So glad I did cause it tastes as good as it smells! Though they sent 4 boxes of it so I think I'll surprise my mom when we go see her this weekend and take her one of these boxes.

Our family has also been looking for a good family dog and after all the research online we decided a boxer would be a good family pet for us. I found a rescue shelter online that is here in town that has a 4 yr old female boxer rescued from an abusive home. She loves kids and gets along with other animals quite well so we put in an application to adopt (which was accepted) and this Wednesday evening we have our home visit appointment. If all goes well they will give us the address to the shelter and we can go meet her and if we like her (which I have no doubt we will) then we can take her home with us. I can't wait, I'm so excited!

Joy at last!

2010-04-11T14:24:00.001-06:00

600 skeins of DMC floss, $100 USD, (spent on ebay trying to regain my lost floss) and a day later DH comes in proudly asking how much I love him. He has found all my missing craft supplies! The movers had packed them in with our dining room chairs which we are selling so they were never unwrapped. Dh had noticed some were heavier than others so he opened them up and there were my craft supplies along with some of the kids pillows and blankets we were looking for too! I just ran up and kissed him. And of course told him he was the best husband ever! So today I can get it all put away and find something wonderful to stitch!

Thanks to everyone who is still here, I know there has not been any kind of crafting on here in such a long time.

Depression

2010-04-10T17:35:00.001-06:00

Depression has overtaken me. I have not felt like crafting anything much less finishing up my craft room. The loss of my stitching supplies is what has brought me down and I know to some this is just silly, but it took me years to collect every single DMC color and the great help from some dear friends and a wonderful floss mommy. The only thing that brought me up some was when I visited my mom Easter weekend to help her move we found my bag of overdyed threads. So it seems only my DMC collections and some fabrics have gone missing. I did find a bag of spares I had and went thru the list marking off each one so hopefully when we go back to Wyoming for a visit I can get my mom to go with me to Hobby Lobby so I can pick up some more of the colors i need and some fabric so I can try and get back to stitching. I do have some things I can stitch but I am just NOT in the mood.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-10T13:19:00.000-06:00

Myspace Layouts

Yard work and snow

2010-03-28T11:03:00.001-06:00

So this past few weeks have been filled with yard work. DH chopped away at the overgrown tree and now it looks so much better!

Even Kiley pitched in to help out I think...

This tree was in our dog run area (which we will be moving) and its completely dead so DH used an axe and chopped it down. The noise even attracted some neighbors who sat on their porch and watched his chop away.

Once it was down he had to chop it into pieces so we could get it out of the gate door. We also raked up this entire area so now its just soil. It was so uneven there so he evened it out as best as possible but we are going to have 15 tons of dirt delivered on April 15th so we can even out the land here and on the other side of the garage.

We even dug up and removed the two laundry poles in the middle of the yard. The one closest to the house was only half foot deep so I am glad we removed it before it fell on someone. The one farthest from the house was required for us to dig 5 feet deep hole and DH and myself had to work together to pull it out of the ground. We stacked all the garbage near the gate at the front of the house and today DH will bag what he can so we can dispose of it.

The day after this we were hit by a huge snowstorm and it practically buried the dog house, and trees pieces we had piled up.

It even snowed so much it weighed down the huge bush up against our house. I don't much care though since we plan to remove this bush.

It even piled up on the cable lines running across our backyard.

Stitchy news:

Friday the mailman delivered these to me. They were all forwarded from my last address so these are all from December till now. I was pleasantly surprised!

I did get some beading done over the last week though. Her entire top of her dress is now completed and her earring beaded and I am working on her sleeve now too. I am still dreading working on the owl though, not sure why other than the several color changes it has. She is still going slowly though since my mood to stitch is just not here lately.

Sorry this post took so long to post, I had tried to post earlier this week but the internet went stupid and froze on me before any of this was saved. So today I am finally able to post again and felt like blogging.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2010-03-17T21:58:00.000-06:00

So my day was spent fighting the worst migraine I have had in the longest time.And my horrible luck, there was no Excedrin migraine in the house nor could i find Tylenol or ibuprofen either. I did find some old prescription painkillers and so i popped a few of those and got the girls off to play in there room while i went to lie down for an hour. All in all I got desperate and took some of the children's ibuprofen and some stress reducer vitamin and by 4 pm today I was good as new. So i went out with the kids to play outside. Here's a few pictures. Destiny made an island and Kiley made a mud cake on her mini skateboard.

I spent this evening unpacking about 7 more boxes. My craft room is now unpacked and things put away even though DH's still has his things piled in there. I seem to be missing some things, including last year's TUSAL which i had planned to empty and reuse the container for this year's TUSAL. Remember the glass jar I had shown in my last TUSAL picture? Well Kiley broke it and DH threw it away glass and orts! Am I cursed on saving my orts this year?

Anyway hope you all have a good day! Did you remember to wear your green today?

Happy birthday Rowan! Congrats sisters!

2010-03-16T11:42:00.060-06:00

February 13th my eldest nephew Rowan turned 7 years old. Happy birthday! Anyway here is his cake and a few pics including his mom and dad. It was just a small family celebration. Auntie Lynnette couldn't make it as she had to work and Uncle Shawn forgot it was his nephews birthday.....we won't go there LOL.

I had to include the last picture of Kiley as she was just diving into this ice cream cake like it was going out of style! We were all having a good time that night.

BAD NEWS:
My normal morning routine starts out with my phone alarm waking me up at 0700 meaning its time to get up, wake up Destiny, check her blood sugar levels, give her two insulin shots, feed her breakfast, brew coffee. Then while she eats I get to sit down and enjoy my coffee while I check my email and all by 0730 on the weekends. Anyway this past Saturday morning instead of hearing my alarm go off, it was my phone ringing. My mom calling which that early in the mornings means something is wrong. My Uncle John had passed away in his sleep. It wasn't surprising as his health was failing fast over the last 5 weeks. My Aunt Leala was driving up daily to sit with him all day in the hospital. Some days he was lucid and they could have a conversation but most days his memory was failing him. It was a hard reminder to me that Destiny could be going through that one day in the future. My Uncle John was a diabetic but he would sit at work all day and then come home and sit till bedtime, and this was him over the last 30 years or so. Which made his leg muscles very weak. Now I know he had a lot more health problems going on and its not just the diabetes, but since he was in a hospital and not really wanting to eat, it messed with his blood glucose levels and that takes a toll on his body. Anyway I want bore you with anymore details. I met him one time in my life when Destiny was a baby and we emailed too. He was a sweet man and will be dearly missed. He leaves behind a wonderful wife, two kids Trish and Scott and several grandbabies and other family. We love you Uncle John.

MORE GOOD NEWS
My older sister is getting married!!! Lynnette and her dbf Shawn will be getting married on April 30th. Pop over to her blog to see her engagement ring and to read more about her adorable son.

BOTH my sisters are pregnant! My little sister Heather (the one in the picture above) is just finishing up her first trimester of baby #2. And after a few days of her son crying that he doesn't want a little sister or brother, he is finally excited to be having either one. CONGRATS! I still say I am sorry Jeremy as I know this is your first and you didn't know that Heather would turn into a sleeping, eating, puking machine and her labor isn't much better either! Expect screams of agony when she is only 1 cm dilated. Best of luck!

My older sister Lynnette and her soon to be husband Shawn are pregnant with baby #2. They wanted to wait till Poe was a year old before trying but well God had other intentions for them. ^_^ Poe is only 5 months old and she just found out this past Saturday that she is expecting! Congrats to you both! Good luck with the move to a bigger place too. Hopefully you can move here so I won't have to drive 3 hours one way just to see you all. My offer still stands!

Both my sisters first kids are boys so I only have nephews. So will the baby gods (LOL) please give them both or even one of them a girl?? I want a niece. Am I asking too much? LOL. I'll be happy with whichever they have. I love my nephews even if Rowan treats me like I'm chopped liver and tells me I should leave my daughters there forever so they can always play.

And to end off on a cute note, here's my adorable nephew Poe (i.e PB&J)

WARNING! VERY PICTURE HEAVY!

2010-03-15T11:40:00.001-06:00

Wow nearly a month since my last post. I'm so sorry everyone! Ok so let's get you all updated.

Stitchy News:

Okay so nothing added as of lately. Just haven't felt like sitting down and doing much on her. Though I did finally get the beads for in and so I can start beading and getting those empty spaces you see filled in. Then i can work on the owl.

These flower pens below is what I made a few weeks ago. I wanted something pretty like this for my craft room and also the kids keep losing my pens, this way my pens won't "disappear" and it I get pretty flowers. I made about a dozen of these peonies pens in one day.

NON-STITCHY NEWS:

We have been painting the weekend away. We have enough rooms in this house that I was able to let DH have his man room. And since he had all his photos and stuff piled up in our guest room which will be used for the first time April 2nd. We had to get his room done so he could clear out all his things and so i could get our guest room ready. So since this is a Dallas Cowboys NFL household (living in a Denver Broncos town) his room had to be painted in blue and silver. So here it is so far. Tonight the painting will be completed. We had to do 2 coats primer plus one coat silver and about 2 coats dk blue. As you can see the dk blue is the trim.

I also have my own craft room! So happy but now when I look at it I am at a loss on how to set it up for my sewing, crocheting, and stitching. But as you can see we have to get DH's stuff out first. Paint job maybe?

We finally got to bring Manzo home too in the beginning of March and he is loving it. I smile every time I see him walk as he reminds me of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. Yes in this picture he is giving Kiley a dirty look as she had locked him into her sisters room with her. I love our Maine Coon and I am not allergic to him.

And DH had to bring home this little bundle of joy from Petsmart. Meet Xena the Cuddly? Princess. She is only 6 months old. She gets my allergies going really good too.

Hmm oh yes! I got a new laptop! DH has been promising me one for years now and finally this month he delivered! Its pink! my fav! Ok well not my favorite color but its the color I wanted in laptops Its a Sony Vaio with Windows 7 on it. I am so loving Windows 7!! Its worth every penny! Anyway he even got me a pink wireless mouse to go with it. What a sweetie! I ordered my mouse pad from Amazon as we went to nearly every electronic store and not one pink mouse pad! You can see the book that has been keeping my attention the last several days too and my LG cell phone I love.

Well I have more some good news and some bad news but if you have made it this far congrats! I'll post the rest tomorrow.

MLOTS and TUSAL

2010-02-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry my TUSAL picture is blurry not sure why it came out that way. Anyway the only fibers in here are from MLOTS and a pink yarn that was too small for anything. I'll try and be on time with this from here on out.

On MLOTS I completed her hair and face and did all the outlining on her upper body plus the one hand that's completed. I used half stitches in white to determine where to start her other hand at. Those half stitches will be removed soon. I still have lots of beading to do to fill in the gaps but that has to wait for now. In the meantime I am working on her hand, the owl and the long ribbon coming down from her hand and owl.

Sorry I haven't visited anyone's blogs lately. As you all know I just moved to a new place and wow unpacking is taking its time as I am having to open each box before I can figure where and how it goes. I'm trying to work on my craft room (yay! I finally have one!) But I am finding its time to go shopping for ideas on how to put this together.

2010-02-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

The movers came and we got all our things and they even helped us unpack some of it the next day after they got the furniture put together. I have a lot of work to do in my craft room as it is filled with boxes that need unpacking and moving to the right rooms as none of the boxes were labeled when the Germans packed us up. We were openeing up boxes as they came in to try and get them to the correct rooms. I did work on MLOTS a ;little bit so I'll post a photo soon and I know my TUSAL is way overdue. When we were in the hotel the miads kept throwing away my ort cup so it is only filled with the end of February till now.

Out of hotels at last!

2010-02-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

Today we close on our first home! Finally out of the small hotels. What does this picture have to do with it you ask? Well nothing really but its pretty. Saturday our new washer/dryer and refrigerator arrive and on Monday our housing goods will be delivered! Also we get our cable and internet hooked up on Saturday as well. Thankfully all the utilities are on so we just have to call the utility company and have them switch over the name on the account for us. Anyway I'll try and post this weekend but don't be surprised if I am AWOL for about a week or so because I will be unpacking and organizing things.

Oh! Destiny will get to ride the bus to and from school too because we live so far out so this weekend I will be looking for where the bus stop is LOL.

Have a great weekend!

Can we say migraine?

2010-02-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yep been battling major migraines. My house closing was pushed till the 19th because of stupid bullshit. Then both of our vehicles break down. One needs a new engine that's going to cost $5,200 USD and the other one we brought from Germany smokes, hmmm lord knows what that is and we have NO money to get either vehicle fixed atm. We had to pay off a lot of things that popped up on DH's credit and so it sucked up our savings but we will get through this.

I haven't picked up any of my stitching since its hard to look at it with a migraine but you all know that. I did buy the missing color i needed so I can fill in my stitching spots on her hair when I finally do get to sit down and stitch. I looked in hobby lobby and Michael's for the seed beads I needed while I was visiting family for my nephew's 7th birthday.

Happy things are suppose to be happening this week so I'll try and post sooner and more often after that.

Happy Stitching everyone!

Jenelle Sequoia

2010-02-09T12:04:00.026-07:00

YOUR REAL NAME: Heidi
YOUR GANGSTA NAME (first 3 letters of real name plus -izzle): Heiizzle
YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color and favorite animal): Purple Cat
YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle & street names): Jenelle Sequoia
STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of Mom's maiden name): Banhebol
YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (2nd fave colour, fave drink): Maroon coffee
YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (Mother's middle name and father's middle: Lynn Claude
YOUR GOTH NAME (black, and the name of one your pets): Black Manzo

Saw this meme on Felicity's blog and it looked fun so I thought I would give it a go. I like my soap opera name, LOL.

MLOTS and 2 cars

2010-02-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

This is what she looked like about a week ago. But I haven't felt like blogging or stitching much since. I stitched her skin colors and am hating the way her face looks, I know it will look better as I complete it and can get the back stitching in. I finally sat down and order the beads I need for her and my missing color and had them sent to my moms so hopefully they will be in by the time we go there valentines weekend.

NON-STITCHY NEWS:

DH flew to Los Angelas California on Friday morning so he could pick up our car at the port. It's a 21 1/2 hour drive from there to here. So he was going to do it in 2 days but we had car issues the entire time. The battery died on the trip here though it was a brand new battery! One of our belts was missing plus now the alternator is going out. I'm so irritated because I know the car was fine when we dropped it off in Germany but ok fine we will fix everything.

The day before he flew out we picked up the 1998 pontiac firebird from my mom. She sold it to us as she needs to buy a 4 x 4 vehicle because of all the snow there. The firebird is very low to the ground and so more than a few inches on the roads and well your snowed in. It was my dad's midlife crisis and he bought it in 1998 and they no longer make these cars plus its in near mint condition. I hadn't been in this car since before my dad had passed so it was strange and a bit depressing being in this car for our 3 hour drive home that night. It still feels weird being in that car without him. DH fell in love the first day he saw it so when my mom was forced to sell it I couldn't exactly tell DH no. And I know its just a car but my dad LOVED this car so for it to have been sold to a stranger would have been like losing a huge piece of him.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

2010-02-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

Anyone know if he saw his shadow this morning?

MLOTS and house inspection

2010-01-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

Here she is after the weekend. I only got in a few hours these last few days.I also discovered I am missing a color for her hair which is odd as I had her kitted up so I wonder if Destiny went digging through my zipper bag one day and snagged it. But oh well I will have to go to hobby lobby in the next few weeks and pick it up. I'm trying to get her hair done as much as possible before I work on her skin.

NON STITCHY NEWS:

We had an inspector go to the house this past Saturday to make sure all was ok because if it wasn't we could back out of the contract (which I don't want to). Anyway our main concern was the roof as it looks a bit worn out. He said we have another 5 years for the roof but if we get a good hail storm here then our home owners insurance will cover the roof replacement. So that was good news! The electrical, plumbing, and gas lines are all good. The electrical box is in need of replacing and a few things in the yard removed, but all is well which is a HUGE relief on mine and DH's part. So today the VA inspection is ordered and that takes 2 to 3 weeks before they come out. Since we are using our VA through the military, they have to come out and make sure the house is up to par for their standards which it is so its just a formality.

How was everyone else's weekend? Good I hope.

Playing in the park

2010-01-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

When we first got here it was so pretty outside that we just had to come out and play. They said its pretty like this most of the year, never really too cold except for a few days in the winter time. Just thought I would share these with you. It's next to the hotel we are staying at so not too far to go to enjoy the outdoors. See mom? I told you we went outside and played. :P

MLOTS

2010-01-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

I asked my mom to bring me this piece when she came to visit me so I could work on her. I worked on her hair these last two days which is taking me awhile to do as its a lot of color changes. But its nice to be able to stitch again. ^_^

Felicity - Does the new baby count for our new cat for the new house? LOL. I'm sure a puppy will come in the next year or so as we want to get the yard finished this summer if all goes as planned.

Crafting Time

Happy 10th Birthday Destiny!!

Halloween 2011

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Kindergarten Graduation Day Kiley!

MLOTS

Homework is just so exhausting!

Happy Mother's Day!

Welcome to the world Gabe!

Happy Birthday Mi Amor!

Newest Crochet Blanket

Bear Trap Ranch Marriage Retreat **Pic Heavy**

Disney on Ice **Pic heavy**

Honeybee Hideaway Completed

Cat anyone?

Marriage Retreat

Our Oldest/Newest Furbaby addition!

Love Letter Envelope Freebie

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy 8th Birthday Rowan!!!

WIP Day 2

Candy Wrapper Purse Day 1

Candy Wrapper Purse

Crocheted flower headband

2010 Completions

A very Merry Christmas and a birthday!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in a box

I know I have been absent

Our Thanksgiving turned into a baby fest!

Happy 6th Birthday Kiley!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 9th birthday Destiny!

More Games

What I have been doing lately

Our Halloween pics

HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY HEATHER!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY POE!

Trick or Kitty Treat

Completed Grass and stitching update

Grass and a pumpkin update

New Halloween ornament and Manzo

Happy Jack

An update and a new Challenge

Another update

Honeybee Hideaway Update

New start

Baby Shower pics and video

My before weekend progress

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY LYNNETTE!

Who do you write like?

My House *pic heavy*

MLOTS weekend update

Updates

MLOTS and school

My birthday, my neice, and another finish!

A new bundle of joy!

Stitching, crocheting, rain, and clay oh my!

Beeyatch by Subversive Cross Stitch

Button Pins

Stitching and even a completion!

Growing your own pineapple

Renaissance Fair (VERY PIC HEAVY)

Flowers blooming and not much else

TKD

Is anybody out there?

Some Cross Stitching and a finish!

Memorial Day Weekend - Day Two

Memorial Day Weekend - Day One

Memorial Weekend Sale!

Wind storms and Yard work

Stitching and a long weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

Green Crocheted squares

Crocheted Squares and Meet Zeus!

More Granny Squares

Baby blankets have begun

Happy Birthday Mi Amor!

Spring Season

Bear Trap Ranch Marriage Retreat Pic Heavy

Disney on Ice Pic heavy

My House pic heavy