Vacation recap and tablescape

When we left Florida, is was 80 degrees...came home to the high 20 degrees and tonight and Saturday the white stuff comes!! Not a happy camper! Our trip was wonderful, though. Very relaxing. It was good to see our friends, Jeanne, Bill and Donna, and Beth and Bryan. I am not sure if I could spend my winters there though. Maybe a month...maybe two. It's something to think about for the future.

We saw a lot of vintage cars in Old Town. It was fun to look at them all and try to pick one out that could pull my vintage camper!! We also spent a day at Hollywood Studios and Epcot. We spent an entire day by the pool as well! Love getting a little 'color' in winter! There were a couple flea markets we visited. All in all it was a very nice time.

Since we've been back things have moved along quite fast. Back to work and now to start preparing for Christmas! Where does the time go?

On Sunday I am one of the hostess' for the Advent evening for the ladies of our church. I have to do a dessert tablescape. There will be singing, praying, desserts and we will have a speaker. I am looking forward to it. So on Saturday, that's what I will be doing....preparing for Sunday!

What are your weekend plans? Has anyone started their Christmas shopping? I have...I had to buy another suitcase to bring my goodies home from Florida!! Honey Baby just rolls his eyes at me!!

Have a good Friday!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I have much to be thankful for....first of all I want to thank God for my family....my husband, my children, my son-in-law and kinda son-in-law, my four beautiful grandchildren and my extended family. My sisters and their families, my brother's family and my lovely Mom. Also all of my dear friends....near and far....all of my new blogging friends...near and far. I am thankful for all of you!! Happy Thanksgiving and God's blessings to you all!!

This is where we are staying in the sunshine state....The Fountains. A beautiful condo with pools, beverage centers, places to eat....and sunshine!! Truth be told, it is a little overcast, but it's amazing how much when you're from Wisconsin you think it's the BEST!!! And it is!!! It's warm and I left 30-some degress back in the dairy state!! So this is great! We have been visiting friends, shopping, and relaxing by the pool. Last night we enjoyed fireworks at the Contemporary!!

As only Disney can do it, they were spectacular! I'm thinking I could get used to this!!













A little friend I made....

Hope you are having a beautiful day!!

I was checking out "Girl Camping" on facebook. She has some cute little pictures of vintage gems... I thought I would add mine! The first are Christmas ornaments!

The second one is from "department 56". Our friends borrowed our camper and gave this to us! Same color as RAYA*SUNSHINE!!

Hope you enjoyed these pics!!

Baptism and a name change!

Wow!! It's been awhile, but I have a lot to show you. First of all, Raya's baptism. Well, I finished the gown and it looks really nice. My personality is to procrastinate. And I do it so well! So on Saturday morning, I was putting the finishing touches on the gown. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but this was the second gown I've made. Six years ago I made one out of my step-daughter's shawl from HER wedding dress. The fabric for that one was plain, so I added lace to that one. As I showed earlier, I incorporated the lace on my train into the back of Raya's gown. I don't know if the pictures really show it, but here it is...

OOPS!! There I go again....making y'all look sideways at the silly screen. But if you look really close, you will see the lace on the bottom of the dress and across the bodice. That lace was along the bottom of my entire skirt.

Let's try this again....

Here you can see the lace on the back of the gown. This was the train to my dress so I just incorporated it into Raya's.

The baptism went well. It was on Saturday evening, Nov. 12, because my daughter was baptized 22 years earlier on that same day. After the service, we went downstairs for chili and cake. It was a nice evening. God bless you, Raya Grace!!

The big honkin' trailer has been put away for the winter. All the bedding was washed and packed, BOUNCE sheets everywhere to stop the little critters from taking up residence. Everything tucked away for the winter. (insert a sad face here).

My little chickadee....is also packed away for winter. I was trying to talk Honey Baby into keeping it in the small shop so I could work on it this winter. This didn't work, but I guess it's okay as I may have to have surgery on my hand and I wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. Then I would hear about it all next year!! "She wanted it in the shop so she could work on it and she didn't touch it at all!" I packed it up good (l o v e Rubbermaid), and I already miss it. I'm sure some of you know just what I mean. I would love to keep it outside and hang a wreath on it's door for the Holidays...but it just is not possible. (sniffle)

Time to close for the night!! Have a great evening!!

Grand-daughters

Imagine my surprise. Imagine my shock. My jaw literally dropping!!

Jess just came upstairs with her laptop to show me a picture. And then it happened....shock!! The picture was of my 5 1/2 year old grand-daughter with two handfulls of hair. Her long, very long hair, now very stylishly cut much, much shorter and the hair in her hands will be donated to Locks of Love. But she is so darn cute!!! It really fits her spunky personality!!

Here, see for yourself!

Gorgeous little girl!!

The baptismal gown is almost finished. (Not really....I have to sew on a snap.) Next the slip has to be done.

THIS POST WAS ACTUALLY DONE LAST WEEK...sorry.

Getting to Know You!

After a long time looking at picture after picture of vintage campers, I finally came across one that is a year newer than mine and laid out exactly the same!! I am so excited!! Also, by finding her site I also found other fellow vintage campeing people and more sites!! And then I did it...I have been an avid Mary Jane's Farm subscriber for years and always wanted to join the Sisterhood....well, you guessed it....I am now proudly Sister #3614. This is so exciting for me! I really thing these gals have a lot of fun. Even though they are farther away and I probably never will be able to join them, I can live it in their pictures in their blogs. If anyone out there knows of anyone in good 'ol Wisconsin that likes to vintage camp...a cowgirl at heart...please let me know!!

I also wanted to show you my "new" vintage radio. It sits in my studio but I am seriously thinking it need to be in My Little Chickadee during the camping months. Wouldn't you agree?

When I decorated my studio, I had Honey Baby put a shelf over the window and the door. This is above the door. I have several birdhouses, a few ornaments and some knicky-knacky vintage campers. What do you think?

Onto other things...did you set your clocks back?

It is Sunday and I am working on Raya's baptismal dress. Well...I'm finishing it up. So far it looks pretty good. Here is a picture of my little RAYA*SUNSHINE. That's grandma holding here and we are having a little conversation...just the two of us!!

She will be four weeks old on Tuesday. Hm....maybe in a few years she will want to camp with me!!

"This is the day the Lord has made...."

Happy Trails!

Surprise in heaven!

I received this poem from one of my Minnesota sisters. Before you read it I just want to say this... I really try hard to live my life in a Christian way. I try not to hurt people. I try to help people that need help. I would like to think that my actions are pleasing in God's eyes. Now I know I fall short in all of these areas. Sometimes I fall flat on my face! I know that! And I know that what I do in life is just between God and me. I know I've made Him sad because of my actions or words. I am sorry for that. But this little poem made me think about how other people look at me. Well, here, read the poem...

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Bob, who I always thought
Was rotting in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.'

'And why is everyone to quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.'
'Hush, child,' He said,
'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you!'

Judge Not!!

Powerful isn't it? Now I have always said I would probably be surprised to see society's really bad people that in the last moments of their lives turned to God and asked for forgiveness. And God, being the forgiving God he is, would welcome that person to His heavenly home. However, I didn't ever think people would look at me and say "How did SHE get in?" Made me think how other people look at me. In conclusion to the poem, it says...Every saint has a past...every sinner a future! I like that!

This is the day that the Lord has made....let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Weekend Wrap-up!

Here it is already Sunday!! Can't believe it!! After church today we went to the mausoleum by my Dad and brother. Tuesday would be my Dad's 93rd birthday. We set out a new arrangement and then went for lunch. I really miss my Dad and my brother. I don't even want to think about losing my mom. But at 88 - well...it will still be crummy!

Lunch ended pretty late because we sat around and talked. But when we got home, I worked on the computer trying to create a "Shutterfly" book. I received a free one with my new camera. I have the whole book done, but it won't let me use my "freebie" on it. I'll have to give them a call tomorrow. Anyone ever try that?

Yesterday I did work on the baptismal gown. Here is my dress "before"...

That was the front...which basically I took the whole skirt off the bodice. Here is the bodice alone.

Okay...I forgot to flip this around, but you get the picture. So I have this big skirt with lace all along the bottom. And if you look at the next picture, it has lace on the train. Which brought me to my problem...

See how the lace goes up in a 'v' shape....well I wanted to incorporate that into the dress. I'm not exactly Martha, but after a lot of turning and twisting I think I have it figured out. I was trying to make it harder than it was. I wanted to make it fuller back there so that lace would just drape, but I don't think even Martha could have done it. (Actually, we all know Martha has workers that do all her work...she wouldn't do it at all!) The lace will still be going onto the back of the skirt, I just didn't do it in a 'full' fashion. Besides, it wouldn't be practical to have all that hanging on my little "RAYA*SUNSHINE". So I got it all cut out but then I decided I would make room in my studio for the sewing machine so the gown itself is still on the cutting table. Two weeks. I think I work better under pressure.

Maybe my fairy godmother will help me out....

Either way, it will get done. I have a few more pictures of My Little Chicadee to show you...but I'll do that at another time.

Did you all have a nice weekend? I sure hope so. Have a great week...I have a tad-bit of Riesling left. I think I'll go enjoy that.

Happy Trails!!

It's been a long week!

I don't know if it's because of the weather or if it's just me, but this has been a long week!! I am looking forward to Friday night and my friend, Riesling and Saturday taking apart my wedding dress to make a baptismal gown for my little RAYA*SUNSHINE! This will be the second dress I've made. The first was from my step-daughters wedding shawl. I promise to take photos of the dress... because ...

I HAVE MY CAMERA BACK! Actually, I have a brand new camera because the GEEK SQUAD couldn't repair mine. So excited to have it back!

While I'm on the subject of pictures, here are a few more of
My Little Chickadee!

In this picture, you can see from the bunk to the door. Behind the curtain is where the refrigerator use to be. It's now used for storage. There is a cupboard next to it. The "window" on the oven is really a little mirror. I should have straightened it out before taking this photo ... should have removed the tray/table from the bed too!! But you get the idea.

I bought this little bedside table at one of my favorite antique stores. It just fit between the two beds. However it's not practical to have it in the Little Chickadee if we would make the beds into one. Where would you go with it?!?!?

Well, there you have it. A few more pics of My Little Chickadee,
I still have more photos!! Stay tuned....and happy trails!

OOPS.. I forgot to let you know that my friend, Riesling, is a bottle of wine. Anyone care for a glass?

ERROR! ERROR!

Well I wanted to get some more pictures of My Little Chickadee out here but every time I try to download them I get an error. So those will have to wait.

It's been a long week maybe the computer is tired out, too.

So...my laptop and I are going to bed for the night. Pictures will follow tomorrow. Sorry folks....sometimes all your best efforts just aren't enough.

Happy trails!

'63 Shasta

I thought I would post a few pictures of the vintage camper I love so much. This view is of the rear kitchen. The stove, cupboards, sink and countertop are all original.

I love the way it's so compact. This is above the stove and sink.

Isn't it adorable? I made the curtains from an old dishtowel.

The sleeping/eating area is shown here...

The privacy curtains above are for the bunk which we won't use now because our daughter is grown up. That area we will use for storage. I have to fix the curtains there too. They are kind of crooked!! One of the cushions from the bunk can be used below to make the two beds into one big bed. Of course then we would have to take out the little table between the beds. The dining table that it came with I had removed. It wasn't original and looked kind of cheap. I am hoping to put this on the "honey do" list for Honey Baby!!

I hope you enjoyed a peak at my little chickadee. Wouldn't you just love to stay in it? Watch for more pictures!!

Happy Birthday and Pumpkin Carving

My dear mom is 88 years old now. Yesterday, we celebrated her birthday and little Fia's second birthday at my older sister's house. We all brought pumpkins and carved them. Fourteen adults and 11 kids! It was a lot of fun and I have a feeling it will be an annual thing!

Spent a fun day with Ms. G, Ms. R and the 'sisters'. It was great to have that special 'girl time'. We took men's button down shirts and made aprons with them. With the leftover pieces some made wine bottle holders and pumpkins! Two of the young teens then made the basement into a haunted house that we were invited to. (This to is an annual thing!) It usually involves silly string!! The whole day was a great time. I love my friends!!

Friday afternoon I spent some time cleaning up the yard (putting away the garden decorations and outdoor furniture). Yes....it's getting to be that time of year.

I hope you had a great weekend. I leave you with the finishing project....in full color! Happy Monday!

It's Friday!!

Not sure why, but it's been a long week at work. Looking forward to only a half day today and then spending Saturday with "the sisters". A day of crafting, eating, laughing, talking, listening, and bonding!! I look forward to showing the crafts we will create!!

What are your plans this weekend? Have a great Friday everyone!!

One Week Old....

One week ago today a little RAYA*SUNSHINE came into our lives. She came in at 9lbs 9oz and we are so happy to have met her!! Yes, a grandchild...born to Jessica and boyfriend, Jon. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I think I owe an apology for not blogging for SO long!!! Proper etiquette would have been to leave on note on my blog explaining my sabitical...but I didn't. I apologize and I will try to not let it happen again.

Now....introducing Raya Grace

When your 21 year old, single daughter plops on your bed and says, "Mom, I don't want you to freak out, but I have something to tell you..." I immediately thought something much worse than this. Truth be told, it took me a while to adjust, but only a while!!! A baby is a gift from God and she is a part of me and I couldn't be happier. Isn't she beautiful!!!

With our new addition, comes a lot of changes in our house. My 'spare' bedroom (aka junk room) turned into a nursery. Now when I walk through my house there are bouncies, bibs, nookers, bottles and all kinds of things laying around. Truth be told, I thought I would be able to keep my home cleaned up and nice and tidy....just the opposite. My daughter's boyfriend also lives with us (he's a great cook!) so our almost empty nest just filled up!! It's our perfectly imperfect family....life is good.

This all reminds me of a saying I once read, "Make God laugh....tell him your plans..."

What have the last nine months of your life been up to? I would love to hear about them!!!

Happy Trails ....

Looking for a name for my 63 Shasta camper. She's teal and white. Bluebird? I don't know....but I think I want to paint "Happy Trails" on the back of it. What do you think?

Testing, testing 1,2,3,4

It's been a while. Yes, it has. But I think that's okay. The newest news is the new camera. Here is my test for it. To see if my photos really have improved or if it is just my imagination. More will follow. That I promise.

Will it EVER stop raining????

This is my little screen house. It was a nice day the day this was taken. It is a NIKON Coolpix L120 (my camera). So what do you think????

Thanks Kim!!

I recently won a book from Kim at The Daisy Cottaage. If you have never visited her, you should! Here photos are beautiful and so is she!! Anyway, when I got my mail, there was a package....the book "Romantic Prairie Style" by Fifi O'Neill and guess what!!! She also included "Where Women Cook" AND the summer issue of "Romantic Country"!! How sweet of her! I was so excited!! I sat and briefly paged through all three. Can't wait until later tonight when I curl up in bed and read from cover to cover all three of them!! Thanks Kim, you are the best!!

Wishing you all a beautiful day!!

Flag man!

I really should not pick on him, but this is Honey Baby trying to put up a new flag at my mom's on Sunday. He was fighting with the wind. It was pretty comical!

He's a good man!!

Sunday Pics

Hooray!! It's the first of May!!!

The wind surely picked up today, but the sun is out. That's a good thing. Went to visit the grandkids yesterday and went to (two) great-nephew's birthday party. Today, after church, had pizzas at Moms and then picked up my new printer for my craft studio. I'm having a little trouble with getting it to be wireless, but my good friend is coming over on Wednesday to hopefully get it to where it should be.

I was walking out in the garden today and even though nothing has blossomed yet, there is a lot of budding going on. One of my favorite .... the ornamental onion. (This pic is from last year.)

I hope everyone has a lovely week!! After all, May has finally arrived!!

Where's Waldo?

That's pretty much how I feel I have been gone so long!! Well, let me tell you what I've been up to with some pictures.

I took a class on the 9th. It was called "Diapers to Go" and the pattern is by "All my Bags and Quilts Too". It opens to two pockets. One pocket holds the disposable diaper and the other a changing pad. It was a lot of fun making and I can see myself doing more, possibly for gifts.

The evening of the 10th, we were hit with some pretty miserable storms. The small town in which I live wasn't hit by tornadoes but the town six miles away was. This is also that town that my church is located in and the following day I found out that our church was hit. I was already at work when I found this out so I called Honey Baby and he went over with the Skidster to help with the clean-up. The following is a picture of the front of our church boarded up. We had damaged to the windows on either side of the cross and also to the roof. Two by fours were thrown into the roof like toothpicks in an olive. It was unreal.

Monday evening I drove through the damaged area. It was like a war zone. I am not a big fan of 'wind'....and now even less of one.

The following Saturday I took a pincushion class. It involves a lot of doll techniques. Although I didn't finish the hair...the 'sample' one is shown in this picture with hair.

The woman that taught the class is well-known for her character faces. I am proud to say that Miss R and I both did our own faces!

The week of Easter I received phase 2. Don the Builder came over last Monday trying to beat the winter storm we were to get...(more on this later). Phase 2 is lovely!!! It is the top to Phase 1.

And it's already full!!!

Then came another snow storm. Can you believe 10 inches!!!! And a two hour school delay.

Thank goodness the snow was pretty much gone within 24 hours.

Then came Easter which is hosted by Honey Baby and me. I prayed and prayed for good weather and God answered my prayers with beautiful temps and sunny skies!! After church everyone comes to our house. Then after our main meal, the little ones go outside for the Easter egg hunt. Then the adults gather around the firepit and relax for the rest of the day. We have a canoe and a paddle boat some of the family likes to enjoy in the pond. It was a wonderful day!!

Around the firepit:

My sister brought over these fun whistles....Cute, aren't they?

And today I found out I won the book "Romantic Prairie Style" by FiFi
O'Neill from Kim over at The Daisy Cottage!!! Thank you Kim!!! I am so excited to win this!! Love your blog and beautiful pictures!! You're the best!!! Can't say it enough....Thank you and God Bless!

Well, that's where this Waldo has been! What have you been up to?

Phase 2 for the craft studio

There are some days that I just don't feel I have anything to say. That's the way I've been feeling. However, the dynamic builder Don stopped by (with his sidekick Dolly) and measured for phase 2 of my craft studio. I am so excited!! There are slots ono each side that are 12 x 12 which will hold my scrapbook papers. Lots of cupboard storage above to hold more supplies, etc. To the left of the desk will be a bookcase with a cupboard on the lower section to hold the finished 12 x 12 albums. Let me just say I am so excited for this!! These new cabinets will make my craft studio flow so much nicer than it does now. I will be so excited to work in it! Which I can't do too much of right now as a large portion of my supplies are still in boxes.

On Saturday, I am taking a class at "KEEP ME IN STITCHES" quilt shop. It's a small case that holds a disposable diaper and it has a changing pad that you make to match. It's really cute. I wouldn't have to take the class except for there are a few new techniques that I want to learn. Picture to follow....

Then after class Miss R and Miss G are coming over to work on a necklace we purchased supplies for a number of weeks back at the fabulous "GLASS ONION STUDIO". My dear friend Mrs. Magilicuty(alias)owns this wonderful shop with her husband. Saturday is being called "BEADS AND WINE", because we intend to have several glasses of wine while visiting and creating!! That and a yummy pizza!!

I also wanted to show this picture:

Remember the Sister Weekend in Chippewa Falls? Well, we also made hula hoops and then had a competition. Was it cheating that I already won a hula hoop contest with my high school friends during our annual Wii games? I think it's fair.

This picture is Miss G and she was the runner up. Well...I won the sister weekend contest. Here is a photo of my prize for that....minus the candy that has been consumed. The second picture is my previous trophy!!

Almost forgot!! My beautiful grandaughter had a dance recital on Tuesday night. We went to see it and she was adorable. This is definately one of the joys of being a grandparent!!

Next project....a new recipe for tonight and a beaded pin basket. When finished I will share.

Are you working on anything special?

Easter eggs

I love Sundays!! After church we went to Mom's house. We babysat for my niece's little one. She was having fun playing with the little plastic Easter eggs. How does my daughter look?

She also liked to put on my boots....

We also spent most of Saturday with our grandchildren. Love that time together!!!

How did you spend your weekend? I hope you did something fun.

What a Week!!

This is the trunk of my car...it took two of us to close it!!! Sister "C" sat in the backseat and she had just enough room. We sure like to bring a lot of stuff!!!

So imagine...you go to bed thinking that 'okay, there's a winter storm warning, but all the snow is gone and we'll probably get the rain end of it!' Well, not so. On Thursday morning we woke up to a major snow storm here in Wisconsin. By the end of the snowstorm...approximately 8 p.m. Wednesday, we had up to 17 inches. Can you believe it!!! We went from no snow to a ton of snow!! CRAZY!!! Anyway, we had a snow day at school and I woke up with a cold! Fun. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to my weekend in Chippewa Falls.

Well I didn't finish as much as I would have wanted to, but that's okay. As it turns out, the two bags I made were really pretty difficult. The pattern wasn't clear. It was confusing. But I did finish two. One an overnight bag and the other an everyday bag.

This is called a ruffled bag. It turned out cute...well, actually both bags were cute, but what a set of instructions!! One sister brought the supplies for us to make flower pins. That sister and another brought felted wool sweaters and made a bunch of things out of them and then with all the scraps we made more flower pins!! Wow - talk about recycled goods!! I also made a pincushion and a scarf. I took a picture of the scarf but the picture makes it look like a bunch of toilet paper (it's white)....I will have to wear it and then take a picture!!

Here we are. Another fun weekend!!! Thanks for inviting me ladies!!

Next...my craft room. Here is a picture of the first cabinet completed. It is so awesome!!! It holds so much!! Wish I would have taken a picture of a 'before' of my room. Oh well...as you can see the first cabinet has eight skinny drawers on the left. These are great for stamps, stickers, brads, and all the other embelishments used in scrapbooking. The right hand side has two skinny drawers (one for sewing supplies and the other for my miniature supplies) and below that is where my sewing machine and serger will be kept. Here are some pics . . .

I worked at my dear friend's bead store today. Her and her hubby did shows so I kept the store open. It's always so inspirational working there. They have an awesome store!! So much eye candy!!!

That's about it for now. God be with you tonight and tomorrow!!