My newest product for the Adoption Fundraiser.....

Yes, I have been bitten by the "gotta drink from a Mason Jar Bug"  Oh my I love making these cozies......  AND it gives me something else to sell on my "WRAPPED IN LOVE" Facebook Page supporting the adoption of my Bulgarian Grandson.....  What stage is my daughter's family in you might ask?  They are waiting for a phone call with a referral!

NOPE this isn't a cozy it is a rubber band that says 147 Million Orphans!  (We are trying to save one!)

Blessings, Nancy

Around the Country

Since Mark and his family lived in Texas for a number of years, one of the things they loved were the beautiful Blue Bonnets in the Springtime, but planning a trip centered around seeing these beauties is a little tricky, you may or may not hit it at the right time and even if you are so fortunate it may not be a bumper year..... Well we tried this year and here are a few pictures of what we did see...... these were all taken at the Wildseed Farm in Fredericksburg, Texas.  Blue Bonnets and Paintbrush to name a few.

We were gone eleven days and enjoyed our visits with lots of relatives that Mark and his mother had not seen in many, many years but it was sure nice to come back home.... Now to get caught up once again!

Nancy

What am I up to now?

I have been busy lately (yeah I know that is nothing unusual)......  In a little town near where one set of grandchildren live they have a Teeny Tiny Tea Party on Super Bowl Sunday.....  I have always hoped that someday I could go with my granddaughters.  (next year I am hoping my other daughter and granddaughter can go too!)   The event has been held for at least 25 years, so they really know how to do it up right!  The little girls bring their dolls, they have a doll parade they sing, we ate teeny tiny food, they danced and they had a wonderful time!  This year it happened and we had a grand time!  Here are a few shots of the tea party.....

ME with two of my granddaughters (note to self:  change your profile picture, yes this past year I let my hair go grey!)

My youngest daughter with her daughters

Sipping tea, oh they loved the sugar cubes!

and Rapunzel even visited!

And then I had some knitting to do.... trust me I do not post every picture of every item I knit on here!  If I did it would be filled with pictures.... I have been a knitting machine this past year trying to help raise money for my daughter's family who is in the process of an overseas adoption..... which is very expensive!  After setting up at two different venues in the fall to sell my wares, in late November I opened a Facebook Page called "Wrapped in Love"  and by December 5th I was closing off taking orders.  The response was overwhelming and I made delivery on all of my orders.  Below are a few items that I did in the last couple of weeks for close friends and family members.  I am now on a mission to finish my husbands cardigan from that beautiful baby alpaca yarn that he bought when we were on vacation last fall in Colorado!  I will soon take orders again, it has been a rather successful adventure and all monies are donated to the cause!   (I am donating my yarn and time)  It is my way of physically doing something to help raise money for them!

Yoga Socks for my sister in law

Moebius Infinity scarf for a little friend 

My granddaughter modeling a bear/cowl hat

So if that isn't enough to keep busy, Mark and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Valentine's day and yesterday we celebrated my birthday!  Life is good!  Thankful for our savior's hand in our lives!  Next on my agenda is putting away my Valentine's decoration and bringing out my spring decor!   Somewhere in there my craft room needs some never ending attention!  (you crafters out there know what I mean!)  :)

Blessings,  Nancy

READY FOR FEBRUARY

I know it looks like I am trying to get through January quickly but I usually try to decorate for Valentine's Day beginning mid January..... I figure it will stay up till Valentine's Day and put away shortly after!

Valentine's Day has always been a favorite of mine!  My birthday is two days after Valentine's Day and my Mother ALWAYS made me a HEART cake for my Birthday!  I was ALWAYS told of how my mother went into labor with me from laughing so hard at a Valentine's Party at church!  Speaking of my Momma, I sure do miss her she had to be the best DIY'er I ever knew, and I learned from the best..... she could take nothing and make something!  She always had our homes looking so wonderful!  She always wanted to know what I was working on!  She cheered me on!

Then to top things off Mark and I were married on Valentine's Day 3 years ago!  I am so thankful God put Mark into my life....  After stopping by a widowed friends house one evening recently it reminded me of how incredibly lonely I was..... Mark was my knight in Shining Armor and I am so thankful of how our lives entwined!

Here are a few shots of the downstairs looking ready for the next holiday!

I loved making my cone trees, THANK YOU Pinterest (but here is the actual blog with a tutorial for the cone trees).... and I loved making the Valentine's Calendar that I found over on another blog.  Go check it out and download your own calendar over at  Me and My DIY.... all you have to do is punch out some hearts!  I have bookmarked her blog and will be following her!

The frame above came from Michaels unpainted, for around $9.00 I actually used it for Christmas also! The heart and words were cut out on my Cricut Machine.

The Bunting is from the Dollar Spot at Target, the Cone tree is a styrofoam cone covered with red yarn, the framed art was a download two years ago from a blog.

Whoever said that Candy Canes are just for Christmas???

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Nancy

Bedroom Redo

While I liked my bedroom, I had just been wanting to change it up a bit.... and after losing my dog, decided it was time to do it!  Dude slept on my bed most days, so my bedspread had been well washed!  I am blaming TJ MAXX for everything I did!  :)  First I bought this awesome Tahari Home bedspread and then it just exploded, you know how it is .... One Thing Leads To Another!  

You know how TJ MAXX is if you see it in the store you better get it right then because chances are when you go back it will be gone!  I was able to find two pillow shams to match so off I went!  I had been wanting to stencil one wall in our bedroom, so this was the push I needed!

I went back to TJ MAXX on another day looking for sheets, shower curtains anything that went with the bedspread to make drapes out of!    What I found was shower curtains, (found one at TJ MAXX and one at MARSHALLS)

One of my favorite things were the swing arm wall lamps from Lowes they were not expensive at all ($39.99), I LOVE THEM!  (and ladies if your hubby or you uses a sleep apnea machine the best thing you can do is to put a hook on the side of your head board for the hose to hang from!)  

 AND the best invention ever are these little dimmer switches from Lowes and around $15. each, we can now turn the lights out without knocking the lamps over!!!  

I used my sheer panels I had used before put them in the middle of the window and split the shower curtains in half lengthways and hemmed the one side.  I then used metal ring that you just hook onto your drapes without making any holes!  I am quite pleased how the drapes/curtains whatever you want to call them look!

So without further rambling, here is the finished product!  I guess I should do a tutorial on the Mr and Mrs signs I made ..... (one of my favorite things in the room)  I found the rugs at TJ Maxx also!  Hope you like it cause we love it!!!

In case you forgot what it looked like before here is a shot below.....  Two totally different looks.... I loved the first one below too.... but was ready for a change!  How about you?  What do you think??

Nancy

I have linked up to

 http://www.ifitsnotbaroquedesignblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/tuesday-link-party-2.html

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Goodbye to my furry friend.....

My little friend Dude dog passed away January 5th, to say the very least this made me very sad... he was a dog with a personality! Actually according to his AKC registration his name was "Theodore's Sweet Dude"  the name in itself has a story to it.

After marrying Mark, Dude and I had a Love/Hate relationship..... I loved him very much but hated his antics.... he and Mark's male pomeranian Gizzy did not get along!  Gizzy did not take it too well to having another male dog coming into his home to live.  So most days Dude was laying on my bed being lethargic and Gizzy and Bella were in the laundry room...  Sometimes Mark took Dude to work with him, which Dude LOVED!   Some days Mark and I threatened to tie them all up to a tree to see if anyone took them, but we were not serious!  Our dogs had special meanings to us, Dude was a gift from Gary to me for my birthday a year before he passed away and Mark and his late wife Robbin raised Poms!  So it was easier said than done and trust me I had friends who offered to take them but we couldn't do it!  It would of been like giving a disobedient child away!  We still loved them and had signed onto it when we each brought them home to become a part of our families!

Dude went into cardiac arrest and was given CPR by a couple of very sweet ladies (Denise and Irene) whom I will be forever grateful for their endeavors.  He of course didn't make it... He had a heart murmur that he had for at least 5 years and when boarded over Thanksgiving had some major problems and had been on 2 heart meds and a diarrhetic since.  He hated being boarded and suffered from Separation Anxiety.  He had just turned 11 years old and I knew his days were numbered.  I had never had a dog as long as him nor had I ever been as attached to a dog quite as much... The little guy first won my heart when Gary (my dear late husband) took me to a breeders farmhouse up in Maquoketa, Iowa and I was determined I wanted a female, but they only had one female left and she was a bit crazy, while Dude went and sat by Gary's feet and was quite calm...he chose us.... He was quite the little dog (a boston terrier) he loved Gary more than me, and when Gary would be home recuperating from surgery, Dude is the one who gave him hugs and loved him while I was at work.... YES Dude gave HUGS, you would say "Dude I need a HUG" and he would get on your lap and throw his head against you just as many times as you would ask him to.... When Gary died in 2003 I was not the only one lost, so was Dude... he couldn't understand what had happened to his master.  (neither could I)  to say the least Dude was the only reason on most days that I would even go home.  If it had not been for him to take care of I don't know what I would of done.  I sure loved that little dog.  I was always glad he couldn't talk cause he sure knew a lot about me!  I decided to have Dude cremated so I could take him down to Gary's grave and bury him with Gary.  Dude's picture is already on the back of tombstone so why not?  So not to be morbid but here is the tombstone with Dude on it.

I knew what it was like to lose my husband and no losing Dude does not compare in the least, but I sure do miss the little guy!

Nancy

A Christmas Note

So very sorry I have been absent from my blog.... No I am not giving up the blog!  I have been beyond busy!  It was a good busy, I wanted to do something to help my daughter and her family with the expense of their adoption and after successfully setting up at two festivals this fall I decided to start a Facebook Page "Wrapped in Love" to get the word out about what I was doing.  Wrapped in Love was a huge success, but I have been knitting my fingers to the bones!  I had lots of Christmas orders for hats and infinity scarves!  I still have a couple of after Christmas shawls to make!  An update on the adoption side is that they are still waiting for a referral.  They could get the call anytime!

We had a wonderful Christmas, all of our children were here at This Old House and we had the most wonderful time!  It was the first time all of our children were together since Mark and I got married soon to be 3 years ago WHERE. DID.THE.TIME.GO ????   We could not have asked for the weekend to have gone any better!  With 9 grandchildren under the age of 6 you can imagine the fun!!!

I hope that you too had a wonderful Christmas, celebrating the birth of our savior!

Best Wishes,  Nancy