God is Good

Today God was so good to our family. This darling is my granddaughter Gianni. Her and her Daddy were in a rollover accident this afternoon. They both came out of this accident with very little injury. Gianni got a bump on her head and they may both be sore, but what a miracle that God gave us today.

My choice card today was "Step Back". I am stepping back and thinking how blessed that I am.

Hard Choice

My choice card today is such a hard one. "BE DISCIPLINED" . Now there is just something wrong with that being me. Discipling my kids was hard, even harder for me to discipline my grandkids. Can't you see why? Now my goal is to discipline MYSELF!!! Well maybe this is the year to really give it a try. The choice card is telling me to have a rigid schedule - come on guys I am a Gemini. No way. But since I would really like to get some things done, then maybe this will work. Well the year has just started. Let's see what happens. Any pointers will be helpful.

Happy New Year! My first two days of choices are "ASPIRE" . It is good to have a healthy ego, not a huge one, but a healthy one.

Today's thought is "Have a Fan Club". Okay ya'll are it. Maybe I can make us proud this year and really, actually do something and not just "THINK" about it. Wish me luck!

A Day With The Grandkids

Yesterday was a pre-back-to-school day for me and the grandkids, Gianni and Will. We went to Chuck E Cheese!!!! Okay school starts in Arkansas in the hot August day of the 19th. This was a place to play in the cool. I grabbed a table next to the games, sat down with my magazine and let them go. My job was to watch the front door and exits and keep up with the tickets from each child. They had a fun day and I had a relaxing, though noisy time reading. A good day all around. Next week school starts and maybe I can start having fun with adults or kids my own age???

It has been a really long time since my last post. Not that anything is wrong, it is just that I have been so busy living my life and having fun that I have just not stopped long enough to share with anyone what has been going on. Let me just summarize (because it would take too long to write it all). My life has consisted of Will and Gianni in sports and just hanging out with them. Will and I are doing great on art and Wii. He played baseball at the first of the year. Gianni and I quilt, sew, play games and she is heavy into softball (go Thunder Black). Her softball is pretty much year round. Bill and I don't miss a game.

Traveling is my other favorite thing to do. I went on a 2 week trip by bus to "The Low Country", which was too short of a trip to Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. Both places are on my list to visit again and see so much more of while I am there.

Some friends and I spent our week at Cedar Hill, TX again at The 1890's House there.

Another friend and I went to Biloxi, MS to the Antiques Roadshow. No you won't see me on TV, but we had a great time and I got some good news about my great grandmother's quilt and my cameo collection. We went through Vicksburg and that is another place that is on my go back to list. During our trip we didn't miss any antique malls, or flea markets. My friend Brenda is the owner of Blue Suede Shoes where I work a couple of days a month and have booths. She navigated and I drove, so we didnt' miss any of the many malls on the way there and back.

Okay I guess everyone knows I am okay and really just having fun living a full life. I want to thank God for every day that he gives me and the joy that all the people I love brings into my life. I will try to do more blogging. Thanks for reading this short summary.

I Had to Have the Bird

Have you ever seen an item at a flea market or antique mall and kept passing it by, but it wouldn't get out of your mind. That is what this little metal bird was to me at Blue Suede Shoes Antique Mall. Everytime I was in there working or just looking around I would pick it up and think it needed to "fly" home with me. So last week I gave in and brought it home. Now where did I want to put her. Well it happened that the same week I had gone to some yard sales and found this little pottery bench for a quarter. Don't they look cute together on my mantle.

When I told my friend Pat (www.birdnestontheground.blogspot.com) about the bird (before I bought it) she emailed me back that she had a vision of me leaving the mall and white birds flying around my head. We thought this was so funny, but you would have to know us to know it was funny. Anyway it made me decide that the bird was meant for me. This may begin a new collection for me of bird and bird related things. Birds have always been special to me.

I hope ya'll enjoy looking at my little shabby chic bird as much as I do. Everytime I look at it, I smile.

The Rest of the Challenge

Okay this is the rest of the challenge pieces that were done by the friends in our quilt group. There have been request to see what others have done. Of course I posted mine first. Sometimes you just have to "blow your own horn", especially if you really enjoyed what you were doing and like the results.

The first one at the top is Kelley modeling the apron that Pat (http://www.birdnestontheground.blogspot.com ) did. Now Pat was really working out of her comfort zone because Kelley gave her black and white fabrics in her bag. If you go to Pat's website you can see how her colors differ, if you don't already know.

The second is a wonderful needle case that Sherry did out of some bright fabrics I gave her. She said I didn't give her enough to work with, but what she made is perfect as far as I am concerned. Sherry's is our crazy quilt maker so you know that these bright colors weren't necessarily her palette either.

The last one on the top row is a dressed doll that Jim made for Pat and as usual was done so excellently and creatively. He has more doll heads that he wants to dress. Now Jim can work with anything that you throw at him.

The Daffodil Pillow was done by our artist Bibi for Jim. She paints and that is definitely her strong point. Her dolls are so creative and she loves to experiment. Bibi made a box also out of fabric, but I did not get a picture.

This bottom one is what Kelley made for Sherry. Kelley's favorite pattern ever since she took a class from Alex Anderson is this little postage stamp and so the fabrics that Sherry packed in her sack were perfect to make this little wall hanging.

We all had so much fun with this challenge that we are planning on doing another one soon.

Thanks for looking and have fun!