Sad Day, Craft Show, and more

Today is a sad day. I learned this afternoon that the Second Counselor in the First Presidency of our Church has passed away. I just watched "A Celebration of Life" (a tape of the President's 95 Birthday celebration in 2005) last night, and Pres. Faust spoke in it. It is sad for us to not have him here anymore, but I am sure that he is busy in heaven all ready. He was a good man and we will miss him very much.

I have made a scarf and have started another on the looms. The first one you can wear different ways, it was made on the large loom. this one is being made with the leftover yarn on the little loom. They are really pretty, made of fun fur yarn (I found at Michael's in Watertown, NY for only $2 a skein. I will post a picture when I have time. I am also working on some microwave heating pads. I need to get a lot done for the craft show in November. I just got our place in the mail today. Looks like we have a good place. I hope I sell more things this year. I have a pattern for making some foam animals that hang up in the light. Their belly's are made of CD's so they look pretty with the light shining on them. I got 100 CDs for $15 at Staples in Watertown. And I got 2 12 count packages of foam ( the large sheets) for $3.99 each at Michael's (the one in watertown). I will see if anyone likes them. I have to make some more earrings and lace ornaments also.

I can't wait to get up to the 1000 Islands to visit my Mom. I love it up there. It is so peaceful and restful to me. And it will be nice to visit with Mom by myself. We haven't had any time together by ourselves since I got married 8 yrs. ago. I love my husband, his daughter and granddaughter dearly, but there are times I just need to be by myself, and do what I want to do. You can bet I will be doing some loom knitting up there. And probably some sewing. Just to remind you what it looks like up there here is a picture taken from their front lawn.
















You can see why I love it so much up there. I love being on the water and near the water. I wonder if it has anything to do with being a pisces? Oh well whatever the case I still love to be near the water, weather it be a lake (Lake Ontario is less than 2 miles from my home) or a river (1000 Islands is in the St. Lawrence River).

microwave heating pad

Well, this week has been rather tough. My son and daughter-in-law have moved to Florida as she got a good job down there. I am going to miss them alot. I have never been separated from them. New York to Florida is a long ways. I guess I will have to call a lot. I am working on another baby hat. It is turning out really cute. I have joined a group called loomknittingnewbies and they are great! I love all their suggestions, and their patterns. I have tried a few. They have helped alot! I am also working on a microwave heating pad. It is a fingertip towel folded into an envelop basically. It is folded into thirds and sewn on either side with the middle open so you can put the rice pack in. The rice pack is muslin filled with regular white rice. You put the rice pack in the microwave for 1 min. 30 sec. to 2 min. and it is very warm. You place it inside the towel and put it where you have muscle pains, or tension in the neck. It works very well. I will post a pic of the one my mother made for me. I use it all the time.

Loomed hats, and more

Boy time sure does get away from you doesn't it? What with working full time, learning my new computer, and spending time with my family, there seems to be no time left for any thing else. I have so much I want to get done with my embroidery, and I haven't even hooked up the machine yet, from when I took it to church to do some humanitarian sewing. We sewed baby hats out of fleece with baby designs on it. they were so-o-o-o-o cute!!

I showed them the hats I have been doing on the knitting loom. They were pretty excited about them too. I have used a lot of small pieces of yarn to do the baby hats. and they are so cute. I need to get some together and post them here.

I am kind of bummed, as I am going to go see my Mother at the 1000 Islands next weekend, and I am going alone. My step-daughter is working, and my husband has too much to do here at the house, but I am kind of glad too, because I need to have some time to my self and spend with my Mom. I will actually be able to relax and take it easy, not have to worry about everyone having fun all the time, and getting no rest on my vacation at all. Don't get me wrong, I love my family more than anything, but I do need some time to myself sometimes. It is the first time in 8 years I will be going anywhere myself. Here are pictures of my work on the loom. The rectangle one is my first dishcloth on the loom. It turned out nicer than I thought it would.






With Mitt Romney running for president I have heard a lot of negative comments about my faith. I would like to clear some of them up. Yes we do believe in the same Jesus you do, and in my book that makes us christians, as we do believe in Christ. Isn't that what a christian is? We study the King James Version of the Bible for 2 full years in our Sunday School. One year for the Old Testament, and One Year for the New Testament. Then we study our Book of Mormon for one year. We believe in reading and contemplating and studying our scriptures everday. We also have family prayer in the morning and in the evening. We have a family home evening - usually on Monday nights, but it can be changed to accommodate family memebers schedules. We have a short lesson and then we can play a game together as a family, or sing or do both, or we could go and do service for a family in need, or something on that sort.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

I know, most people say Happy July 4th, but I like to use the real name for this day as it is more than just July 4th. It is the day we celebrate our independence from a tyrany. I have been contemplating this today. Did you know that in the Book of Mormon, the war that we waged against the English was fortold by the prophets? It says that we would get help from God to win this war. Think about it, how could a bunch of colonists, not soldiers, beat the most powerful army in the world at that time? We must have been inspired and helped by our heavenly father. Christopher Columbus was also prophesied about in the Book of Mormon. When it comes down to it the writers of the Declaration of Independence were inspired to write it. Just read it for yourselves.

In the Book of Mormon, it also says that as long as this country is righteous, we will be favored from our Heavenly Father. We will be blessed with our freedoms, but I am fearful that I see this country slipping away from being righteous. Why is it that we cannot have prayer in our schools anymore? Why is the Ten Commandments taken out of the courthouse down south? Don't you think that our laws are based on those commandments? Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commmit adultry, etc.

I give a BIG THANK YOU to the men and women fighting for our freedoms right now over seas. We love you, and appreciate you! My prayers are with you always. Come home safe. I wish I could give each and every one of you a big hug.

I can't believe that we have gotten 2 zucchini and 4 cucumbers out of our garden all ready. They were all a good size too. It is supposed to rain tonight. I hope so, it hasn't rained in so long. If it does we will have plenty more zucchini and cukes ready for picking. We have tomatoes on our plants but no red ones yet. the corn is about knee high. Our raspberries are doing wonderful - lots of ripe berries to pick every day. we have melons started and beans, broccoli, watermelon, cantalope, and peppers growing in the garden. I don't know how the melons will do with not much water this year. last year the watermelons did great, but it was a lot wetter. Our grass is all burnt from the sun and no rain. haven't had to mow the lawn in a while. that is not like western new york in the spring and early summer.

Just some thoughts

I hope everyone had a good Easter. We had a quiet one. We went to church, then went and picked up my husbands daughter and granddaughter. It was a nice day. Tim had hidden a bunch of plastic eggs and Jamya had a grand time looking for them and putting them in baskets. She loved coloring eggs also. She would stick her fingers in the water and put them in her mouth, so her fingers and face was different colors. She is learning a lot of new words, and has gotten alot taller. She is such a sweetheart. She wasn't feeling too good yesterday. She had a cough and was filled up.I hope she gets better soon. This weather is what caused it I think. It goes from being half way decent to snowing again. I can't believe we got snow again today. It is supposed to get up into the 60's by the end of this week. I hope so. I am so tired of being cold.

I didn't feel well today, so didn't go to church, I didn't want to make any of the kids in Nursery sick, and I ended up sleeping until 12:30.

It is times when I feel down like this that I have to remember all the blessings we have. I am finishing up a basket for a Chinese Auction at a benefit for a daughter of a co-worker. She has cancer (she is a young girl) and on top of that she had the tainted peanut butter and is trying to recoup from that also. She is having treatments that is costing a lot of money - just one treatment costs $500,000. So, we are having a benefit for her this coming Friday. I am embroidering some towels, and an apron, I also knitted some dishcloths, and am putting in some kitchen utensils for a basket. I am also going to make her some chemo hats on the knitting loom. She is such a brave little girl.

Knitting Looms, Conference, etc.

I have been making newborn and children's hats on knitting looms. They are fast and easy, they don't hurt my hands like crocheting and knitting do now. I have also made an adult hat and a scarf. They work up so fast it is amazing. And they don't use a lot of yarn, so I have been using up a lot of scraps. I am going to donate some to local hospitals and shelters, and I am going to see if I can sell them at craft shows.

I can't wait for the conference talks to be on the church web site. I love to go back and read them over and print out the ones I really like, and have touched me.

I was sorry to hear that Marie Osmond is getting a divorce. I feel bad for her. I wonder if the talk over the weekend on divorce will help her any. I hope so.

You know, we are so lucky to live in this great country, where we have our freedoms. God has blessed this country, and as long as we stay righteous we will be able to keep our freedoms. I pray that we stop losing our faith based government and keep righteous. We need to Keep God and Jesus in everything we do. We need to remember that we would have nothing without them. We are just here for a short time, everything we have belongs to them, we are allowed to use it while we are here.

Great Quote I Found

Today is the first day of General Conference in our church. It is a twice a year occurance. It is where we hear from our Prophet and the Quarum of 12 Apostles and other speakers that they have chosen to speak to us and bring us messages. It is very good, spiritual and uplifting. I love Conference! Today we stayed home and listened to it over the computer. I was also cleaning my sewing/computer room. I found this quote from Jeffrey R. Holland (one of our Apostles). He says "In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike - and they will - you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection (see 2 Kings 6:16-17). They will always be there, these armies of Heaven, in defense of Abraham's Seed." Isn't that a great quote. It sure gives me comfort knowing that I am not alone in my trials, I have help from our big brother Jesus, our Heavenly Father and the armies of Heaven.

I walked back to our creek to see if there were any fish coming upstream yet, I didn't see any. Only saw a few geese. There have been hundreds of them.My husband even saw a few flocks of white swans resting in our field and creek.

I found some things that I was working on with my family history, and put them all in a file. I need to get back to working on that. I have found a lot of family on my Father's side, but not so much on my Mother's side.

I really need to get started sewing again if I want to do any craft shows this spring and summer.

Well it is getting late, need to get to bed.

Florida Vacation

Well, We had some much needed rest in Florida a few weeks back. We took my husband's daughter and granddaughter with us to visit my father and mother and step-father. It was really nice. The weather was great - we went to 20 degrees to 86 degrees in a matter of a few short hours (we flew down). Then when we came back it was about 40 in Florida, but only 6 in Buffalo. We were really busy down there. We went for a walk around one of the lakes in Lakeland (where my Dad lives), it has a lot of birds there like swans, pelicans, storks, ducks, geese, etc. We fed the birds some bread. Some of them would come up and take it out of your hand. The swans were as tall as us with their long necks. Our granddaughter is starting to say words now, like mama for grandma, bird, book, hi, ma for mommy. She is so wonderful to be around. The second day we went to the Zoo in Tampa, that was great! Third day we went to Cypress Gardens, that was super too! Dad took us there, it was nice to spend the day with him. Then we went to my Mother's the next day and went to the beach. The dolphins came in but not too close as there were people surfing. The first time I ever saw that in person (surfing). Although the waves weren't that bad, they didn't knock us over or anything. It was the perfect day to go to the beach, as Dad said it got in upper 80s and was really humid while we were gone. Then we went to the flea market and craft show the next day. Sunday we went to church, and rested, we had my husband's sister and brother-in-law come down and see us. We took them to the lake to see the birds. Then we flew back home, to cold weather. It is finally getting warm now, but is quite rainy today. It is in the 60s today.

I have a new job - I now work in production in Lockport. I am really enjoying getting back into it again. I love it. It is so much more relaxed there, even with the deadlines.

Where do I begin?

So much has happened the last 2 weeks, where do I begin? We had Thanksgiving at my sister-in-laws for lunch at 1:30, then we (My husband, step-daughter and granddaughter) went to my son and daughter-in-law's for dinner at 6. It was a beautiful day, and very warm for this time of year in Western New York. In fact this week has been close to 70 a couple of days. Today we are making up for it though. It is cooler, and poured. Our creek is flooding and our cellar is flooding. It has finally stopped raining and the water in our cellar is finally starting to go down. But the wind has really picked up. You can feel the house shake, and I was talking to my son about 7:30 and, he was sitting in his truck on break at work, and he said it felt like the wind picked up the truck a little bit. I am going to try to hurry through this, as my electricity is blinking, and I don't want to fry my computer.

I put in for another job at work about a month ago, and I got it. I am back into ad services department. I am now designing ads again. I did that for 12 years before they moved my department to a location over an hour away. I then started doing the front desk back in Medina. I am now working at our sister paper in Lockport doing ads for Medina and Lockport paper. This week was my first week. I can't believe how fast this week went learning the new systems, and remembering how to do the ads. It has been so fun. I have not had this much fun at work in a long, long time. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing that job.

I have been working on Christmas gifts (lace ornaments) trying to get enough done for everyone.

I was just reading some of my old posts, and realized I never posted the pics of the aprons I embroidered for my friend. Well here they are

I have been really busy making fleece scarves and embroidering them for the craft sale this weekend. I have also been crocheting and knitting dishcloths like crazy the last few weeks. I am going to be embroidering canvas tote bags later this week. My granddaughter has started to walk last week. She is so determined and stubborn. I love her so much. I think she is an angel from God sent down to brighten our lives. If only we all could be so pure in heart, the world would be a much better place, and a much nicer place in which to live.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Today I have been busy making things for the craft show. I got some bookmarks done. I am also working on fixing a golf club cover for my husbands brother-in-law. I am abou t a quarter of the way through it. I had to rip it out many times so that it would fit right. Oh well, that is part of designing your own pattern I guess. Well I got some good news Friday. I had put in for the opening in Lockport paper in the graphic arts department, and I got the job. That means a pay raise, and shorter distance to work. I worked in that department in Medina for 12 years, then the department got moved to Tonawanda, now it is back in Lockport. I moved back to Medina 6 months after we moved to Tonawanda, only as the receptionist/cashier/girl Friday. I am looking forward to designing ads again. I miss doing that. I love my job in Medina, and the people I work with, but the phone calls from the rude and down-right mean people I will not miss. I will not miss the people swearing at me because their paper is late, or they didn't receive one. You know if you are talking to a customer service person, please take into consideration that they have feelings too, and that whatever you are mad at, they had nothing to do with it. I don't know why people have to be sooooooo mean sometimes. Jesus taught us to love one another. If you have love for one another, you will not want to hurt them. Well I guess I had better sign off now.

This is the Palmyra Temple. This is where Tim and I were sealed for time and all eternity. It is a beautiful place. It is very peaceful there, It is a place where you can leave all your worldly things outside, and concentrate on the spiritual things. I have had many experiences where I have felt my loved ones who have passed away right there with me. It is a wonderful feeling. I know that they are with me all the time, but they seem closer to me at the Temple. The veil is very thin there.





This is one of my favorite pictures of Christ. I love the pictures of him with the children.










I am sitting here embroidering some aprons for a friend of mine. Actually the sewing machine is doing all the work. I am just waiting for it to sew out, so I decided I needed to add to my blog. She (my friend) is giving the aprons to someone for her 80th birthday. This person works on a large farm, and has a farm market. She gets up early every day and takes the migrant workers to the fields and then at lunchtime she makes them lunch and feeds them. She is a very special person, I hope I can still do all that she does when I turn 80. I will post pictures of the aprons when I am finished.

We live just south of Lake Ontario. The lake is still warm, so the storm that has been hitting the midwest is going to go a little south of us. We are protected from the warmth of the lake. Buffalo is getting socked with snow, so is Niagara Falls, and Lockport, and Medina (where I work). They could get up to 6 inches tonight. We have only had a little rain so far. There are already many branches down because of the weight of the snow on the leaves. There are many people without power in and around Buffalo right now. I have some pictures of Medina when I left to come home, but I haven't downloaded them into the computer yet.

Wow, I can't believe that it has been a week since I last posted. I have been trying to work on more items for the craft show next month. I have some more fall earrings done, some apples, cherries, pumpkins, fall leaves, acorns done. I am now getting some christmas ornaments, bags - I have some red hat designs I thought I would try on some canvas bags. I also have some knitting and crochet designs I want to try on canvas bags. I have crocheted some little coin purses, got to get them sewed together now, and put buttons on. I have chosen some christmas and thanksgiving designs to put on towels that I crochet the top on.

This is a picture of our Superman/Clark Kent, and Lois Lane scare crows that we made for the contest. We took 3rd place in the contest.









We had the most beautiful moon last night. It was huge and really orange when it came up. It stayed huge and really bright all night. You didn't even need an outsidel light to get around. I wanted to take a picture, but we didn't get home until it was up in the sky and was too bright a white. Oh well, maybe next time. I wanted to get it when it was really orange.

I only had 2 kids in nursery at church today. That was good. I usually have between 6 and 8, and I haven't had an assistant lately, they haven't called a new one, and the one I have had now has to work on Sundays. I miss her. Well, we'll see what happens.

I have just finished my ward newsletter. I didn't get as many stories as I would have liked, but that's OK. I went with what I had, maybe we'll get more for the next newsletter.

Today was a nice relaxing day. We had General Conference at Church that my husband and I listened to on the internet. That was very nice. It is so spiritually uplifting even if we couldn't see it. The Satellite dish at our ward didn't work. We don't have a dish at home, we don't even have cable, so we listened to it over our dial-up internet.

I was able to sleep in a little this morning. Then I started printing out some pictures I have been promising my step-daughter. I also made some more leaf earrings. This time they were green verigated thread, turned out nice, but not as I had hoped they would. I have been crocheting little coin purses during the conference times (12-2 and 4-6 here in the Eastern Standard Time). I am thinking that I should get making some mittens for the mitten tree at the library for kids who don't have any warm mittens to wear this winter.

I can't believe it is October all ready. My granddaughter is going to be one on the 23rd of this month. It doesn't seem possible. This year has really flown by. The years seem to be going faster and faster the older I get.

I also made a loaf of bread and homemade chicken soup and some apple crisp today. And my husband and I took a walk back to the creek in our back fields. It was just a nice, relaxing, no rushing day.

This is buckwheat that my husband grew this summer. If you click on the picture it will enlarge it in a new window. The arrows point to the part of the buckwheat the you eat.





Another shot of the small garden of buckwheat

I have been sewing earrings tonight. I am making apples, cherries, pumpkins, acorns, colored leaves tonight. So far they are turning out cute. I have some apples done now. I thought they would be good for fall craft shows. I am going to be embroidering some hand towels with sunflowers, and some with apple pies on them. I want to do 2 craft shows a week apart, so I have got to have a lot sewed up by November. I am trying to design some coin purses by embroidering on front and back and then cutting them out, sewing them together and putting velcro on to close them. I hope they turn out nice. I will post pictures of them if they do. I love the Fall, the changing of the leaves. They are so beautiful. That is why I was married in the Fall.

I have been working on our church newsletter also. I have it almost done. I have some pictures I want to share.





Sunrise at our house






This is a weird sky I saw one day and snapped a pic of it. It is at our house.






This is our house in the fall. The yellow trees are called Norway Maples, aren't they pretty?