The Beginning of The End, and the Beginning of a New Beginning.

I have been truly  blessed to have spent the last 365+ days with my Darling Danielle and Delightful Delilah. Being able to spend this year as a Mother (for the last time) and Grandma (for the first time) has been an experience I wouldn't trade for anything.  Every day spent with them, it felt that my mother was there with us, too.

My son-in-law, Benjamin, Danielle's husband, Delilah's daddy, will be home on Thursday.  The next few weeks are a whirlwind of movers and bachelor/bachelorette parties, a wedding, and then the three of them leave on the 15th of March.  To Germany.  I can't drive to Germany.

There are other things going on in my life, of course.  I've been stitching and stuffing, and thinking and pondering, the two kinda go stitch by stitch.  My Young Son is taking a trip, my sweetheart and I have to make a trip to the airport and find a wedding somewhere downtown, in the dark...The Pro-Shop is making progress, thanks to some dedicated members...but, still...

To be completely truthful,  I can't quite pinpoint how I feel.  I'm ready for them to start their next chapter, far, far away, and I know I'm gonna miss them like crazy.  There's another aspect, too.  Since Sweetheart and I have been together, we've had 2 kids.  Now, one is going far, far away, and one is clinging to the nest with all his might.  Sweetheart is a bachelor.  He has never been married, no kids of his own.  We live in the house that his parents had built in 1973.  I want to broaden his horizons...I want to decide on a Sunday night that we are leaving to go see the Grand Canyon on Tuesday.  I want to be free to go have some fun!  I'm still 18 in my head, even though my body disagrees.

Thanks for reading my rambling post...trying to get all the thoughts in my head in one place is not an easy feat.  Trust me, there's more.

Delilah's Converse

My friend, Dammit Janet,

a polka dot horse

and a muslin pig. 

With Wings.

Y'all, Play Nice!  xxoo

Trying Something...

The other day an idea popped into my head, like they do now and then.  I've been making my Critters out of felt, my idea was to create a line of Critters made from Muslin Fabric.  I love the natural look of Muslin.  I still wanted to hand-stitch them, too.

I had the idea on a Tuesday, had to work my 2nd job on Wednesday, and finish a sold felt Critter on Thursday, then spent the evening with D, so I didn't get to start on this idea until Friday evening.  I traced out the pattern pieces, and began cutting them out.

As I starteed cutting, I thought, "these should have some seam allowance."  I don't use those on the felt, but soon figured out that they would be needed with the thinner material.

The front...you can see where the seam burst there on the front leg...need that seam allowance.

See how the back leg is shorter?  Seam allowance would fix this, I think, and this wing I didn't stuff, 

wanted to see how "natural" would look...I wasn't happy with this flatness, same goes for the ears.

Back end look, poor little gimpy thing.

Here is the "good" side.  This side I cut out with a bit of allowance for the seam, 

and stuffed the wing a little bit.  

I was glad to have tried this, and really learned a lot.  I'll use batting in the ears and wings next time, for a less "stuffed" look.  The seam allowance is really so important.  

So, what do you think of the stitching on the outside look of this?  What do you think of the monochromatic look?  I'm curious to see how it would look with a contrasting thread color.  

For now, I'm going to cut out another one, with a small seam allowance on all the pieces, I may do some colorful stitches on this one, just to see how it looks.  

Part of the creative process is in the feedback, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share!  

xxoo

Cindy

The little/big things

This evening Delightful Delilah ran into my bedroom  "nakey' as she normally does this time of the evening.

The wind has been blowing for days now.  60 degrees today, -5 tomorrow .

 Dang.

xxoo

Something Clever About 2014...

Hmmm, I've been sitting here this morning, reading all my friends' status updates about the new year, and what they are going to do differently.  It glows my heart to read that so many are going to strive to be more positive, good and kind this year.

The way this old planet is spinning, things that are happening here, it's easy to get wrapped up in all the fear mongering of the media, and the lies we're told on a daily basis.

I believe that being kind is an energy that radiates out from you.  For every kind thing you do or say, that energy gets a little stronger and a little stronger, and it moves out over the people in your close surroundings.  They get some of yours, theirs gets a little stronger, then they, too are activating it in others...like a big wave of niceness.

Like those videos we share, how doing one nice thing for one person, they do something nice for someone, and it just grows and grows...

One of my friends said that her mantra for 2014 is going to be "Attitude is Everything," and that's so true.  You set the tone for the day the moment you open your eyes in the morning.  You can decide right then and there that this is going to be a good day.  Doesn't mean that you'll be walking on rose petals, but it sure does help the day go by a bit smoother.

Don't start your day by dreading and worrying about things that may or may not happen.  Yeah, you may not like all the people you encounter, and some of them may really frustrate you, but you already know this is a possibility, one that you can't control.  You can, however, choose how you will react to it.  Decide that whatever they do, you will simply get a chuckle out of it.  Out shopping one day, we were making our way to a check-out line.  A lady saw us coming and hurried to get in front of us, elbows out.  We looked at each other and laughed, stopped and let her be "first," and let it go.

Does another driver need to switch lanes, if it's possible, why not let them?    Is it worth being upset over one second later to wherever you are going?

Go read over some of your status updates...are you sending a positive message, or negative?

Just some of my thoughts this morning.  I'm positive this is going to be a Happy New Year, every day.

xxoo

Oh My

There comes a time in every Grandma's day that you just have to stop singing about everything.  Good night.

Halloween, 2013

I'm not dressing up this year, but I may spray my hair a different color tonight...maybe not.

There was this one Halloween, it's been a few years now...oh wait, *insert wavy flashback sequence here*

Back in the day when I was enjoying my life experience as being a single mom...I had WebTV, I was working as a lunch lady at the high school from 10:00 am until 1:00, at the Pro-Shop & was a waitress at the restaurant upstairs, as well as working in a convenience store starting at 5 am until 10:00 am.  The kids and I had a 3 BR apt. with woods in the back...tire swing in the back yard, life was about as good as we could have wished for, and we were so happy.

Another single mom moved into the duplex next door.  She put on a "Southern Belle" personality, you know, she thrived on being the dumb blond with her nails done.  We struck up a friendship, as single moms do.  I got her a job at the school, I got her a job at the country club...it worked well until she decided she wanted to take my place...so she got me fired from the country club, and tried to make a ruckus at school, but I had already found other employment to take the place of all the jobs I was working.

Anyway...*close flashback*

This was probably in 2003 or 4, cell phones were just coming out, and I had one through work.  I left it home when I took Young Son trick-r-treating.  When we came home, I saw that I had a couple calls from this former friend's ex-husband, which was odd because he had never called me before, despite what she thought..

The next morning, my former friend was found dead from a drug overdose.  It wasn't him calling me, it was her.  This still freaks me out, but I know if I was supposed to have been available to her, I would have been.
~~~
When my mother was a little girl, the family lived in North Missouri, Stanberry, to be exact.  Sweetheart owns some farm land up in that area.  One day, his farm business needed his attention, we took a little trip.

A few months before my mother was born, her older sister passed away from Diphtheria.  Being poor, she was buried in an unmarked grave.  While we were there on business, we thought we'd see if we could find the cemetery.  We drove down an old road, there was a cemetery on each side of the road.  We saw an older lady walking down the side, so we pulled  up next to her.

She turned to speak to us.  She was wearing a straw hat, and had the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen.  I was looking into an ocean, clean and blue.  We asked her where Cooper's Cemetery was, she replied that she wasn't from around there, she'd only been there about 3 weeks.  Her smile, her eyes, we said thanks, and drove down the road to turn around, both of us saying, "What?"  "Did you see that?"

When we turned the car around, she was gone.  No homes around, just 2 cemeteries.  We knew for sure we'd spoken with an angel.

Have you ever had anything happen to you that you couldn't exactly explain?  I'd like to hear about it!

Play Nice!  xxoo

Welcome Fall

For the record, I adore Fall, but it makes me feel so trepadacious because of what comes next.  I do not like Winter.  It is too cold, the cold makes me hurt.  I appreciate having a garage, but do not enjoy the 50 yd. walk from my car to the Pro Shop.  And...there are no vents in the Ladies Room, so that room is always butt chilling in the cold months!

These are the views I am so happy to watch change day by day this time of year.  (Last year those two lakes were so empty, due to the drought...it's a blessing for them to be this full now.)

My SIL, Ben, has been here for the month of October.  At the moment they are in Mass., visiting family.  Of course, Baby D took right up where she left off with her daddy.

That is my little dog, Karma, on his lap. 

Critter wise, I have been working every day.  Well, I didn't on Friday.  *gs*  Handmade by Cosmo is where you can go see my latest.  I'm working on a custom order...see if I can give you a peek...  

This is a WIP...the mane is much fuller now, only just a little more to go.  

Every day I hear the news, and every day I feel so weary of it all...then I remember that I don't have to worry, that all I have to do is be the best person I can be every day, all day.  I will defend myself and mine, if if and when it comes to that, but until then, I'm going to remain peaceful, and calm in my heart and soul.  

That is why I love my "job."  I love the place, it feels like home.  I can work on my art, I get to cook for my friends, my sweetheart is there most of the time, we chit and chat and laugh, and for me it's a wonderful place to be.  

Today I am thankful for my heating pad, and for having a comfy bed, with comfy sheets.

Play Nice!  xxoo