Winter Crafts

Goodness has it been a cold winter! I'm definitely ready for it to be over. Although it is nice in the sense that you get to stay inside and eat soup, and it offers you lots of time to craft. It also means that there is school to be done.

So during these cold winter days I have made the most of my time making snowflakes and other things.  I won't bore you with more pictures of ornaments and snowflakes. here are a few of the other things i have been making!

This is going to be the collar of a christening gown. I'm working on the lace for the skirt now. I hope to make matching booties and a bonnet as well.

This is a snood I made for my sister. I thought she just wanted a bun cover but it turned out she wanted something more. So this is what I came up with.  

I know this isn't tatting like I normally put on here, but I have been working on this for a while now. I find crazy quilting to be fun because you don't really know what it is going to look like! It isn't very big right now but it will get there. I'm going to put a big rectangle (the above shown) in the center and then I'm going to put more smaller ones around the edge. I'm also going to embroider and bead it heavily. 

That is what I have been doing of late! I hope you enjoyed! 

More Ornaments!!

I really love fall! All the delicious treats, spending time with family and friends, all of the decorations! I'm not all to fond of the frigid cold though. It shouldn't be this cold in central Texas! 

However the cold has also given me the opportunity to get a lot of my crafting for christmas done! Here are some of the ornaments I have been making. 

 I made this one for my mother. We started a Christmas ornament exchange for the girls in our family and I got my mothers name. It's my own design to!

 I have just this year started making purple ornaments, and really only when someone asks for them.

 The blue ones are new too!

Sick Days

Sick days have some pros and some serious cons. Some pros: you get to stay at home (hopefully), you get to watch movies all day, you can catch up on some crafts (if you are a craft person of course!), depending on the illness you get soup or sherbet, sleeping in, lots of nice warm blankets, and no school. Some serious cons: your sick! Aches and pains, fevers, chills, sore throats, runny noses. 

For me I ache in every joint and muscle I have, and I have a really bad head ache. In spite of all that, I still like sick days because I don't have to do school and I can catch up on my crafts! 

Needle felting

So my latest project has been needle felting! I recently found some pictures on Pinterest of some needle felted pieces and decided I wanted to learn how to do it myself. So I got on YouTube and started looking at some tutorials. (Must of which are very helpful!) And before I went into the hospital last Friday my mom and I went to Hobby Lobby to get some things to decorate with, also picking up some felting supplies! The rest if the day was then spent on reading and embarking on this newest crafting adventure. (Sadly I did not do my school that day and am now making up all the work from two days of not doing school...) 

Here are the finished products!

In order it is my pumpkin gnome, my wise old gnome, and my fairy.

Missouri

I love Missouri. Part of that love is due to the fact that I lived there until five years ago. I was born and lived in the four state area until I was ten or eleven. I lived in a town where you knew almost everyone, and if you didn't know them then they knew who you belonged to. Most of the neighborhoods are quiet and family friendly. Now I'm not saying it is perfect, but it certainly was (and still is) a nice place to grow up! 

The trees are beautiful in the fall! and the flowers are gorgeous in the spring. But fall is probably my favorite time of the year in Missouri. It's still a little to early to be seeing a lot of change in the leaves color, but there are a few trees that have started to change. In October there is a wonderful parade and festival on the Square. The Deli on the Square makes the best Cherry Limeades on the planet!

Also in the Four-State Area you can drive half an hour in any direction and be in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, or an hour to Branson Mo. We spent a lot of time in Arkansas when I was a little girl. We would go to the Lewis and Clark stores because the had rock walls you could climb for free, and with eight kids that was an easy and affordable thing to do. We also loved to go hiking. it isn't as enjoyable for me now because I have to wear oxygen and even then I can't keep my heart rate down or stay out of breath. But I used to love it! We went to all of the nature parks in the Four-State Area. Our favorite places to go was George Washington Carver National Monument and Devils Den, Arkansas. George Washington Carver National Monument was only about twenty minutes from my home and they were normally doing some fun activity. They would have you plant peanuts, or make corn husk dolls, or candles. It was always a fun, educational experience. Whereas Devils Den has very well kept trails. They have one trail that has at least three caves on it. (That was the one we took the most I think.) The deepest and darkest of these caves is called the Devils Icebox. It gets quite cold when you get down into it. The last time I was there, however, I think the had closed the caves for an indefinite time because of an illness the bats were contracting. 

Beach fun!

I love the beach! It's so relaxing. You don't really have to do anything you don't want to. You get to sleep as much as you want. And you feel fantastic!

I had so much fun with my brothers the first day we were all there! Sadly they had to leave that evening... But it was nice to be able to spend time with them. Nick and I made a sandcastle for a small crab that tried to crawl under my foot, and Connors girlfriend Ashley and I had the opportunity to tease him mercilessly. There was a lot of sleeping and wading in the surf and doing nothing after the boys left. It was very relaxing.

The day before we came home we went out to dinner and I was so proud of myself. I tried breaded asparagus with crab on top. It was actually quite good. (I'm not a very adventurous eater...). And then we met a very playful dog at the beach. It was very cute but it was also a biter. And then its owner was angry with it. It's name was Riley.

Going to the beach

Going to the beach is one of my favorite family excursions. We have been going to the beach ever since I was a baby. In the past five years we have gone at least once a year. We normally try to go multiple times in the summer, but this year it hasn't happened to work out for us to go before now.

This is going to be a particularly fun trip because today two of my brothers, one with his fiancée and one with his girlfriend, and my dad were able to come for the day! 

Today is going to be a good day!