No more stitches

I got  my stitches out today.  I took this picture last night with the stitches still in.  I will post a picture of my Harry Potter-esque scar when the new "steri-strip" falls off.  I was disappointed they stuck another one on there after they removed the stitches.  My hair wants to stick to it. 

Crafts of Sunday's Past

I finished this alphabet sampler the year Kristen was born.  I think this was one of the last cross-stitch projects I worked on. This hangs in my kitchen.

When I was growing up my mother made a clock similar to this from a kit she purchased from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.  After all these years she still has that clock but it no longer runs (I think). I always loved that clock.  It reminds me of home and of her.  When I moved to Oklahoma and was taking BH&G magazine I found a clock kit in the back of the magazine and ordered it. I made my clock the year Joe and I got married and it hangs in my kitchen.  We've changed out the clockworks in it several times and it no longer runs either.  But I keep it as a reminder of home.

They're Heeeerrreee...

Last night I got busy working on my new curtains to go in my laundry room and kitchen.  I watched the opening ceremony while I was working. I used my "cutting" table in the sewing room.

I set up the ironing board and iron so I could iron seams open, etc.

I used my new sewing machine, it was nice.

And, I watched the Olympics on my TV in my sewing room.

I made panels to go in the laundry room.

I made a roll-up shade to go over the kitchen sink.  And no, my kitchen is not THAT yellow.  I guess my camera is getting old.

This morning I finished making cafe-type curtains to go in the window by the kitchen table.

We're Ready

We're ready for Home Depot to bring my new washer and dryer.  Joe painted the laundry room for me.  This looks like light blue in this picture but it's really more teal/green.

I've already made the curtains but I'll show them after the washer and dryer are in place.



Kaitlyn is staying with us for the next 3 weeks during recruitment/rush for the sorority.  This is her last year and she is on recruitment team again as well as being one of the dancers in the skits and will be singing a song on "pref" night this year.  It's so funny, she STILL wants to sleep with the Puffalump she had as an infant.  I've washed it many times and Joe and I both have sewed it up over the years.  It's rotting away but she won't let it go and Michael lets her sleep with it and the Panda he gave her when she pledged AOII.  I couldn't help but take a picture of it, dirt and all....

Making Window Treatments

I found and purchased this material at Jo-Ann's Fabrics tonight to make window treatments for the 3 windows in my kitchen/laundry room.  My kitchen is currently a bright yellow and my laundry is being painted a sort of teal green.  The woodwork is brown and the new washer/dryer is graphite.  At some point in time I would like to paint our cabinets white.  Anyway, this material incorporates all the colors I needed.  I'm not quite sure WHAT type of curtains/shades/???? I'll make.  The material was on sale for 50% off and I had a 20% coupon off the whole purchase on the Jo-Ann App on my iphone.  I bought 4 yards for less than $35.  My windows aren't that large and I'm just going to make do with what I purchased - it's pretty wide material.  No, I don't have pattern, I'm just going to go with my gut.

Excitement.....about laundry?

I'm getting excited!  Only 3 more days until they deliver my new washer and dryer.  Who knew I could get so excited to do laundry...  Last night Joe and I went looking for a new color to paint my laundry "room."  Currently it's yellow like the kitchen, but I think I'm going to change that room to a blue-green, turquoise color. My new washer and dryer are front-loaders and they are graphite in color.  I did not buy the pedestals (yet).  I thought I would try it without them and if I really don't like it, I'll either purchase the pedestals on the secondary market or have Joe build a pedestal for them.

Past Projects

Here's a couple of cross-stitch projects that I did when I lived in South Carolina.  They used to hang in my office back in the late 80's/early 90's.

Gross-Out Alert

Today I went to the dermatologist to have two cysts removed from my head. One on my forehead and one on the back of my head.  The doctor cut the one out of my forehead and I got three stitches.  Kaitlyn made me take a picture of it in the jar to send to her so she could see it.  You know she loves gross stuff.  She really should have gone on to school to be a dermatologist.  The doctor did NOT remove the one on the back of my head.  My family will remember when I came home in April that it was HUGE, now you can barely feel it back there and the dermatologist said he thought it was going away. He told me just to watch it for awhile and if it starts growing or giving me pain, he'll remove it then.  It definitely was smaller today than it's been in a couple of years. Now I'll have my own personal Harry Potter scar.   heehee

Another Picture from my HS Reunion

This was one of the dances I was doing with my some of the girls in my class.  I was having a great time as evidenced by the smile on my face.  I am always smiling when I dance because dancing is one of the things I LOVE to do. Someone just recently posted this on the reunion website. Still waiting on a video.....

Flashback Friday

Back in my 20s and before I was married and had children, I did a LOT of cross-stitch.  I pretty much stopped doing it when I had children and now I don't think I could see the small holes well enough to start doing it again.  I always LOVED doing samplers - they are my favorite.  This one I completed the year Joe and I got married. It hangs by my front door in the hall.  The welcome sign hangs above it.

Retro Thursday

Since this is my "craft" blog now, I've decided I would take pictures of things that I've made over the years and add them to my blog.  This is a front door "wreath" I made from two straw hats.  The smaller hat is cut in half and glued onto the top of the larger hat. The larger hat is painted all over and I used raffia for hair and arms. The lettering I cut freehand.  The overalls are made from the back side of an old pair of Joe's jeans. This was a fun thing to make.  I think I still have the instructions to make a bunch of these for various things.  It used to hang in my front hall (couldn't use it on my front door, the storm door wouldn't close when it was on there) but now it hangs in my craft/sewing room.

Boys Trip to Winter Park, Colorado

Last weekend Joe went on a "boys" weekend to Winter Park, Colorado with two of his friends that are brothers.  Randy is married to Kay (my good friend) and Randy's brother is Mark. Mark owns the vacation home in Winter Park where Joe and the girls go skiing.  While the guys were there, they rode bicycles, fished for trout, and played golf. Both brothers have two daughters also.  Mark's daughters are a little older than Kristen.  Randy's daughters are Kaitlyn's age and 2 years younger.

Mark made a hole-in-one while they were playing golf. He said it's his third one.



One More Thing...

I don't know how many of you do "Pinterest" but I get on there almost every day.  This morning when I got on there, I ended up at this "Whatever Craft" blog (I added a link at the top of my favorite blogs list on the left side of this page - check it out - scroll down really far so you can see the cute aprons they make).  I finally figured out it's in Wichita, KS - a short 2-1/2 hr drive from here.  So I signed up to be on their waiting list to do one of the craft weekends.  It costs $475, they pick people from all around the country so you get to meet lots of other women, eat great food, go antiquing, and do fun crafts all weekend in a cutesy house in Wichita, KS.  I think I would LOVE to have a craft house to rent out to people/groups to do crafts like that.  I know there's a house here in Norman that is a quilter's cottage where groups of women go on weekend quilt retreats.  I think the house sleeps about 10-12 women dormitory style and they do similar activities.  One of Jann's clients sold her mother's house (when the mother died) in Bonham, TX to someone who turned it into a craft/quilter's cottage to rent out down there.  What a business!

My prayer shawl group (about 12 of us) went back to Guthrie a couple of weekends ago and I had a great time taking a knitting class, antiquing, and had lunch with 4 other fun ladies (we kind of broke up in small groups so people could eat at different places). We ate at this little burger/bbq place.  Reminded me of the Service Station Restaurant (where I met Joe).

I also finished another prayer shawl. 



The Rest of July

Last weekend, after we moved Kaitlyn and Michael to their new apartment, Joe and I went into frenzy mode.  I had bought two new beds from Dillards the weekend before, a new king bed for us (I will NEVER buy a pillow top mattress again - broke down very quickly and didn't last more than about 5 years) and a new queen bed for our "guest" bedroom since Kaitlyn took her bed with her and Kristen took her bed last year.  We cleaned, organized and threw out, and hung pictures, and voila! we have a new guest bedroom (for the girls when they come home for football game weekends - HA!) We kept all of Kaitlyn's pictures and tried to make it still feel like it belonged to both girls, but picked up and looking nice for guests.

4th of July

For the 4th of July, we were invited over to a friend's house again this year.  Since we had Kaitlyn and Michael temporarily living with us, we came home early to go watch the annual Norman Day fireworks with them.  For those of you who didn't know, Kaitlyn and Michael are moving to Oklahoma City so she will be closer to the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center for her school and Michael will be closer to his job too.  They had to be out of their old apartment here in Norman by June 28 and could not move into their new apartment in OKC until July 6. So they lived here with us for a week, with all their furniture in our garage and all their boxes and clothes in our living room and stuffed in the back of their cars.

We found a spot on the OU campus by the tennis courts and there happened to be some benches there.  Joe and I grabbed a bench and waited on Kaitlyn and Michael who were riding bicycles back from campus corner where they had dinner.

Joe and I had not actually gone over to the campus to watch the fireworks show in several years.  It was a beautiful night outside. We rode over in the jeep with the top down - lots of fun!

Kaitlyn's 21st Birthday

This year was a "big" birthday for Kaitlyn as she FINALLY turned 21.  She has been counting off the days since the first of the year.  All her friends have been 21 for awhile so she felt very left out. We celebrated the night by taking the WHOLE "family" (all 6 of us) to dinner at B.J.s. Then we went to The Mont (a local Norman bar/restaurant "landmark") so she could have a Swirl.  A Swirl is the Mont's signature drink and MUST be drank (drunk???) on the patio in the summertime so that you can be "seen" and hob nob among the Norman locals (i.e. people my age - attorneys, socialites, university professors, long-time Normanites, etc.  During the school year, it's frat boys and sorority girls having drinks in the "blue room" inside - it is a bar after all). A Swirl is sangria mixed (swirled, thus the name) with a frozen margarita. There is usually a wait to get a seat on the patio.  Kaitlyn's best friend, Lindsey and her boyfriend, Tyler, joined the 6 of us to celebrate the momentus event.  After about 10:00, Joe and I bowed out and left the young ones to head for Campus Corner and a night of drinking and debauchery.

Kristen's Birthday

Kristen's birthday snuck right up on me.  We got back from Siesta Key on Saturday, June 9 and Kristen's birthday was Tuesday, June 12.  Her boyfriend, Pat, had come down to visit her and stay for a couple of weeks so we took some time to get to know him while he was here.  Joe enjoyed playing golf with Pat (and Kristen) a couple of times and we also went to the lake one day (all 6 of us including Kaitlyn and Michael).  I love  my little "family" (all 5, boyfriends included) and we all get along well together.  I feel so blessed.

June - Catch-up

I've been lax lately and haven't updated my blog in a month!  Sorry about that.  I'll try to catch you up.  June, as always, is a busy month for me with 3 birthdays and Father's Day in there.  And then life just happens at random times and the next thing you know it's the middle of July!

When we came back from our Siesta Key vacation, the OKC Thunder NBA basketball team was smack in the middle of semi-finals, then the finals.  It was Thunder fever here in Oklahoma, and while I did not go to any of the semi-final or final games (I really don't care for crowds so I let Joe take the girls and their boyfriends), I did make some "Thunderwear."  I had purchased some Thunder licensed material in Guthrie when I went with my prayer-shawl group last Fall. I was holding it for the right moment, so I made rag-flops.  I also bought this cute bright blue top (one of the pictures was obviously taken with a different camera) in Florida at the outlet mall and I rhinestoned it and added a couple of colored stones and made my own Thunder shirt.  Joe also got me a flag for the front of our house.