Colored Pencil Wraps

I saw this on Pink Chalk Studio a long, long time ago and now you can find the pattern in Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, which I've really enjoyed and recommend to others.

My nephew Hay Hay is getting one and maybe some other children if I'm in the mood to finish them. :) My things to do list is long and time is getting short.

My tip for this pencil roll is to use the walking foot as is suggested. I can't find mine since we moved and I thought I could get by without it. I did, but it doesn't look near as pretty. Hoooo Boy! Hayden won't care, in the end. :)

Robin's Egg Blue Kitchen/Dining Room

We're not quite finished with the decorating but here is a late evening snap shot of the eating area. We were exhausted after painting all day but I was so excited over how it turned out, I had to take a picture before bed. It's a spa blue paint from Home Depot. When I first began with the cut in work, I thought, "oh no...what have I done???...I hate it!"....wishing I had gone yellow or something else for the kitchen. Robin's Egg Blue is my favorite color (it's already in the master bedroom). It works almost as a neutral, as everything seems to go with it, especially browns, yellows and reds...especially reds! Yummy! In this picture, it goes nice with the greens I set out for Christmas.

I need to figure out a Christmas window treatment in the next week. Hummmm...

It turned out so pretty and it's sweet during the day when the sunlight hits it, giving it a peaceful, cozy glow.



I love allowing my inner rebellious child write on the walls of my house. I wrote a quick blessing behind the fridge. Now I have to go and hunt down more secret places to write more messages. LOL It's so much fun.

PS y'all

I owe Allie 2 and public thank you for my quilt. I took a picture of it with the good camera, which is now back at college for finals week with Ally 1. I'm not sharing my quilt with anyone, not even my cat or dog. I love it so much, I can hardly say.

Sorry I wasn't around last week. I need to de-Thanksgiving my blog. Ugh.

My husband and son were sad, so I was trying to take care of them. Tim left for Harrisburg last night, so I had to help him get ready. We painted the kitchen Robin's Egg Blue and it's beautiful. We've been unpacking and hanging up pictures. My whole family is coming in from Texas to be with us this year. I haven't even put up Christmas yet, since we've been "playing house" all week trying to clear space so they can have room to sleep and play. The house is looking GOOOODDDD!!! I'm so happy and blessed.

I hope to come soon (maybe even today) and post Christmas pretties and family recipes. Yeehaw! Tell me what's been goin' on with y'all. Anything good? How can I pray for you now?

Y'all take care.

Choose joy. It's all good.

((((group hug))))

Joy, no matter what

Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

I have no idea what this blog is about. I've thought about it for a couple of years now and there is no way I can come up with a suitable label, definition or goal.

This blog for me personally is one I share with my family and friends so they can see how life is treating us in Florida, so far away from Texas and St. Louis where our loved ones are.

But mostly, after thinking it through, this blog is about the life of a God fearing family, finding joy and sharing it with friends, no matter how horrible it feels when life stabs us in the chest. Christ lives in me, and I'm going to be happy and rejoice and count my blessings. No kicking dogs when they're down around here. We're gonna put a smile on our face, a melody in our voice and our big girl panties on...hold our heads high and let our lights shine.

So as depressing as my blog has been this year....a full head of gray hair for my poor husband now...I'm still going to share the good, the bad and the ugly. I am, with great anticipation, looking forward to a new year, hopefully filled with as little heartache as possible. If it can't be avoided, I'm still going to rejoice, albeit, probably faking a lot of it. LOL

For you to have a complete understanding of why my mother-in-law meant so much to me, would require an epic novel of the tragedy, sickness, abuse, dysfunction, heartache...blah, blah, blah...which was my life for the first 24 years. Let's just say...it was as bad as it could get...pretty dog gone bad. I don't really ever want to go there again, and certainly not in public here. Let me just say that my mother-in-law was God's greatest mercy shown to me, these last 15 years. Through her, I saw what REAL fruits of the spirit were. I saw what it was like to live without bitterness, even when wicked people did mean things to you. I saw how she lived exploding with joy and love for everyone. She never spoke ill of anyone. Read her Bible everyday, all the way through, year after year. She was far from perfect, but she was a saint. God showed me what being a healthy, saved Christian was all about, contrasting her with what I grew up with. Does that make any sense?

I thought I would post a picture or two about where I was exactly this time last year. I was sitting with my mother-in-law...my precious Naomi...in ICU. I would not leave her side and didn't want to go home that night. I was mad to leave around 11:00 pm and looking back, I wish I had done what I wanted, which was to spend the night with her, instead of letting people boss me around...me the people pleaser...those days are over. I wanted so badly to curl up in bed with her and love on her, but didn't want to get in trouble with the nurses, as it was ICU and all, and you want to be on your best behavior. If I had known she was going to die, I would have done it. One last cuddle. I miss her sweet smell and her cheerful smile and her tender, delicate manicured hands when she held my hand in return.

By tomorrow morning, around 10:30 am, she'll leave us and my sister-in-law and I will be with her.

I'm the family historian and I'm notoriously guilty of taking pictures of the worst times of our life. I don't offend my family, hopefully, but I discreetly take pictures of the sad or bad (not the grotesque), just for history's sake, but also as a memorial, so we can look back at the blessings we received during that pain.

Looking at pictures today, I remember something so special and so tender. I hadn't thought of it once, since last year and it made me feel good this morning.

Allyson made a scrappy stocking using up some of my Christmas scraps to hang in grandma's room. We convinced ourselves she was going to make it. There were pictures of all the grandchildren and great grandchildren hanging on the wall in front of her so when she woke up she could see the love. Ally hung her stocking there too. Grandma woke up and pointed at the wall. We all pointed to different pictures trying to understand which one she wanted. She couldn't speak. Lastly we pointed to the stocking and that's what she wanted. Being a hand piecer and a hand quilter forever, we should have guessed the stocking first. LOL She wanted to hold it.

She snuggled with it like a child does a stuffed animal or a treasured blanky all night. It was in her bed when we got there the next morning. 20 minutes later, God called her home. I'm so glad my daughter had thought to make something so last minute and silly for Grandma's Christmas ICU room. Turned out not to be so silly after all.





This is one of my favorite pictures. It's sad I guess, but I love it. I sat and crocheted for 12 hours, watching her chest go up and down all day, thinking her little body suuuuuure was fighting hard and thinking, this doesn't look so good, BUT she's gonna make it, I just know!!!! I watched her heart beat on that monitor all day long, until family came in and told me it was time to leave. I also was crocheting with my own grandma's hook, the one I first learned on. I was hoping it was going to be a lucky crochet hook and pass blessings on to my sick mother. Ho hum.

Watching her fight to live all day, I kept thinking, "My sassy native Texan mother-in-law is going to be mad as a wet hen if she dies in Illinois." She wanted to die with her boots on, dadgummit. I guess it doesn't matter where you physically are when you die, as long as your spiritually in the right place. *sigh*

I love this picture because I see her heart beating on the monitor. She was alive, God love her. It was a beautiful day I spent in silence with her and my God. I'll forever be grateful he let her live long enough for us to get there and be with her one last 24 hour day.



So I'm sorry if this was depressing or made no sense. I wanted it to be more articulate than this. My mother-in-law is deserving of better prose. My mind is fuzzy with rambling thoughts and grief. I just felt a need to pour my heart out a little. Posts get better after this. After all....it's Christmas. We're gonna be happy, even if it kills us.

Oops. I take that back.

No body better die this Christmas

My Papa died New Years Day.

My Grandpa died Christmas Day.

My mother-in-law died last year on December 15.

I am unpacking her things today trying to get the house ready for all the company that will be heading our way this holiday season. My whole family is coming. :)

Seeing the things we got from her house (I had no idea what my husband brought home) makes me sick with sorrow. It's bitter sweet. I haven't cried yet, but I probably will before the days over. Her sweet things are such a comfort. It's sad to be so materialistic, but I love her things. We got a couple of very, very old bowls she always used for side dishes and mashed potatoes. I almost burst into tears when I saw them, remembering the 100's of times we ate at her table. I swallowed it. No time for tears. Gotta get through this.

I miss her. I'm never gonna stop missing her. I was with her when she died and I can't stop thinking about her last 5 minutes. She didn't suffer. She went peacefully to God's arms. You always wish you had said more, loved more, spent more time together. She knew I loved her, but you can't help wishing for more time.

So no one else better die during the holidays. I'm pretty much sick of Christmas and funerals going together in our family.

It's going to be a good year this year. :)

Hall Gallery

Like I said I few posts back, I collect stitchery. I have a mixture of things I've done and what I find in thrift stores. I left a lot of holes while hanging these up, because I think I have more still in boxes. I like them all clumped together like this. Usually I have them spread all over the house, but this time I hung them up as friends.

The bad thing about this arrangement is I have an obsessive compulsive need to straighten pictures. If I walk into a room with a crooked picture, I literally cannot function until the picture is straight. These will be straightened several timed a day. Or maybe I'll leave them and learn to deal with my OCD. Or maybe not.

I'm working on unpacking and decorating before my perfect sister gets here. She thinks I have too much junk and I think her style is cold and boring. LOL We used to share a room. She used to be dirty and I was the neat freak. Now guess who is the neat freak?







Awwwwwww....sweet memories of sitting with my grandma while stitching this one up. I spent the night with her on Friday nights and she would always teach me something domestic. This was my first cross stitch. I had already crocheted my sister a sweater by this time. I started it when I was 6 and finished when I was 7. If you look closely, you can see where the 6 was erased and the 7 replaced it. This picture makes me a little sad too, because I see I'm a Craig by now and no longer a Woodruff, meaning my step dad had adopted us and my Daddy was no longer allowed to see us. Long story for another day...or maybe never. I don't like to think about it.











This one was in my mother-in-laws house forever. It's a P for our last name. Since my husband is the only son, guess who got all the "P" stuff. LOL I love it. I think it's the only needlepoint I have.



This was on my mother-in-law's dishwasher forever too. The kids grew up with it there and always wanted to turn it back and forth telling us if the dishes were dirty or clean. They asked for it when going through her things, and they got it. I thought it was so sweet...of all the many beautiful things they could have asked for (and they did get some cool stuff) this was the sweetest request. I think if you give a child a choice over gold or memories, they usually pick the memory. My kids didn't ask for anything valuable...just stuff that reminded them of Grandma. She was so dear to them.

What's your favorite color?

It's to your advantage to answer

Then tell me what your quest is...since I already know your name.
*grins* Don't make me have to explain that one....

Facebook

So who is on Facebook? Anyone? Anyone?

I love Judy

November Lusterware

I have an old corner hutch covered in white peeling paint that I cherish. White makes every color of dish in my china hutch pop out, so we can enjoy it. I change it out at the beginnning of each month to go with the seasons.

I'm in the process on unpacking my green depression glass. I think I'll go green and white here this December and leave the ruby glass for February.



This was my mother-in-law's lusterware, which the kids and I have always loved. We lived around the corner from her for years and we would go over for morning or afternoon tea. The tea cups are petal thin. I don't know what was in the mud when they were making these, but a cup of tea in one of these cups taste unbelievable. Maybe it's my imagination or the love we shared during our tea parties with the kids, but I never had such a wonderful cup of tea in my life.



I'm so glad when they were dividing up the house, my husband got this set for us. We have lovely memories of enjoying Red Rose tea and toast with homemade jams we had made with Mom. Gosh I miss her. She'll have been gone a year in a few weeks. It's been a painfully sad year. I guess it gets easier, but you never stop missing them. Everyone says she's with the Lord, but I WANT her here. I guess we can be selfish, can't we? She was my best friend. Really. She was.

I'm still unpacking her boxes. I was grateful for the excuse to leave her boxes in the garage until we moved. I just couldn't deal with it and everything smells like her still. Now we are in our new house and I'm slowly pulling her beautiful things out to grace our home. It's a bitter sweet time.

Oh, and I LOOOOOOOOVE this "cheese cover dish" (I don't know what they were called, only what it was used for). I guess that's what it was. I asked for it and it's one of the things I got. We all wanted the same things (she had a lot of beautiful things) so I feel lucky (and blessed) having received a few things I've enjoyed over the years, which have been in Tim's family for generations.

Use your pretty things and make memories with them. Don't hide them under a bushel. :) Let your children enjoy a piece of beauty in such an ugly world.

Happy Thanksgiving

You all are a blessing to me. I'm so grateful for friends made and kept while blogging. You're a sweet group of people. Some how, God always brings the nice ones to me and I appreciate Him keeping the creeps down to a minimum.



I wish I had time to poignantly type up a beautiful Thanksgiving Day post full of prose and sentiment. I've got to finish my cooking and finish folding laundry.

I thought it would be nice to hear, rather than the standard "I'm thankful for health and family, etc"........We're all grateful for the same things I'm certain of it, because I do not run in a blog crowd of ungrateful people...

So I want to hear about your most unusual things you are grateful for, something you never think about on most days.

Humor me. :)

I'm thankful for indoor plumbing. If had to get up and go to the outhouse in the middle of the night, I would be belly aching all the way. NO THANKS!

I'm grateful God saved my life this summer.

I'm grateful I can read.

I'm grateful for thumbs.

I'm grateful for air conditioning, living in Florida. Ugh.

I'm grateful for laughter. We laugh all day in our home, no matter how bad things are and I'm so glad God gave us the ability to giggle.

I'm grateful for color.

I'm thankful for blood oranges, which will be coming into season any day now.

I'm thankful my husband has never called me a dirty name, even when I probably deserved it.