A Box Full

You all have a box or bag or drawer full of receipts, slips of paper, recipes and whatever else gets shoved in, right?

I decided to go through my box.  It was mostly receipts, some dating back as far at 1990!  Yep, going through this box was long over due. 

I had thought about just tossing everything, but then decided to sort through it first.  After all, there might be something important in there.

I’m glad I sorted through that huge box of paper.  Besides recipes, deposit slips, store receipts and expired grocery coupons, I found a few photographs:

Learning to brush our teeth.  This is my oldest DD when she was about 2 or 3.  Notice that “rubber ducky” on the counter behind her?  She still loves rubber duckies and has quite a collection of them.


“BEEGLE BUG” was what my youngest DD called Lady Bugs and wanted to be for Halloween when she was 2  1/2.  You can’t really see the wings in the photo, but they were made out of cardboard and red and black construction paper.


Baby Snickers!  We adopted Snickers when she was just 8 weeks old.  She was so tiny.  I’m guessing this photo was used in a project one of the girls made because the photo is pasted on a piece of cereal box and cut out in this wonderful circle shape.


Here’s a pic of Snickers in her “long hair” days.  As she got older, her fur didn’t grow as long and we kept her face trimmed.  She sure looked different with long hair.


BREAST POCKETS
Have you heard about Melanie Testa’s Breast Pockets for Flatties?  Melanie is a breast cancer survivor who decided against reconstruction.  She is collecting 1000 pockets in an effort to get her story on the news.  Melanie is also trying to increase awareness and acceptance that it’s OK to be a “flattie”.  You can read all about Melanie’s Breast Pocket project here.


This is the pocket I sent in honor of my mom.  I chose a pocket from one of my dad’s favorite shirt because my dad was such an inspirational member of her support team.  My mom also decided against reconstruction and it was my dad who convinced mom that it was OK.  He was also able to prove to her that he still loved her – even without reconstruction.

My mom is celebrating 13 years as a Breast Cancer Survivor!


SCRUMPTIOUS NEW FLOSS!


Have you heard that Sublime Stitching has a new line of floss?  There are 63 colors and come in palettes with names like “Prism”, “Frosting”, “Fruit Salad”, “Flowerbox”, “Portrait”, “Parlour” and “Breakdance”.   There’s also a palette of variegated floss called “Taffy Pull” and a palette of pre-blended colors called “Mingles”.

I want them ALL!  

That’s about it for me for this week.  I haven’t done a lot of stitching and I still haven’t finished that Christmas Ornament I started several weeks ago.  There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day!



Dottie has been such a sad doggie.  I found Dottie curled up on the chair that Snickers always liked to lay on.  She heard me coming and refused to look at me.  See the blurry tail?  Guess she thought wagging her tail was better than looking at me.  I think Dottie believes she’s the same size Snickers was.  She almost doesn’t fit!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

IT'S JUST NOT THE SAME 
around here without little Snickers.  I know it hasn't even been two weeks since she left us, but I still find myself calling her, think one of Dottie's toys is Snickers laying on the floor and look for her when I walk in the door.

Probably the saddest thing is that Dottie is really missing Snickers too.  I honestly didn't think Dottie would miss Snickers as much as she is because it seemed they tolerated each other but weren't best friends.

Another thing I'm having trouble with is being asked several times a day if I have found another puppy yet.  It's just too soon and I'm not even sure if I want another dog or if Dottie could handle living with another dog.

 A few weeks ago, I was selected as the winner for By The Bay's giveaway.  I won a copy of the 2012 JCS Halloween Issue and Donna's stitched model for the magazine!

   Look at all those French knots!  Such a cute piece.  

Thanks Donna!

Speaking of By The Bay, have you seen her new fall mystery SAL?  I'm hoping to get to stitch this one sometime this fall too.  For more info, go to the By The Bay blog.

I was able to order some new stash from my closest LNS (two hours away.  Unfortunately, it was the LNS' final week of operation because the owner retired and I only received about half of my order due to items going out of stock.

OTHER STUFF I'VE BEEN WORKING ON

I was asked to embroider my church's name on some communion linens.  I agreed to do the embroidery on the communion linens because it was only six pieces.  Somehow I got drafted when the Altar Guild decided that the kitchen towels needed the church name on them as well and delivered a bag of wrinkled flour sack towels to my home.  That bag contained 24 crumpled up, wrinkled towels!

Those crumpled up, wrinkled towels all embroidered, ironed and ready to be returned to the church kitchen.  This "little" project took at least 50 hours to complete.

My daughter is the Pep Club sponsor at the high school where she is teaching.  She asked for help from Hubby and myself to make this Cornhole (also called Bags) game for a raffle Pep Club was having during the Homecoming Game.  I helped Hubby get the wood, measure, cut and assemble the 2 x 4 game boards.  Hubby even taught me how to use his router to put a nice rounded edge to the boards.  I was so excited to be allowed to use his power tools! 

After we assembled the two boards for the game, I helped my daughter stain and paint the design on the boards.  I also sewed the bags and filled them with seed corn.  The raffle was a great success!

WHAT HAPPENED TO SUMMER & FALL?
In my area, the weather has turned windy and cold.  We have had many nights with frost and even had to turn the furnace on!  I don't ever remember having to turn the furnace on in September.  It seems the warm fall weather skipped over us.  I miss the warmth of the sun, having the windows open and hearing the crickets chirp at night.

The other night, a storm blew in and turned my next door neighbor's ghost so that the yard light lit it up.  I think that ghost was complaining about how cold it was!

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Friendship Gift Bag Giveaway!

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having an awesome giveaway on her blog.  Hop on over and check out her scrumptious floss, trims, buttons and patterns.  Who can resist Caramel Cream Eyelet?