SHOPPING

I did get to go shopping yesterday--
DD picked me up around 3:30 and we drove out to Hobby Lobby--
as they have the baby yarn that I use on sale--
and these are the combo's that I got yesterday--

Ahh--yes you do see some 'orangey' colored yarn there!!
there is enough for 3 sweaters here and then leftover solid colors --
this is a nice soft 100% cotton yarn--
also bought these 2--

so I can make some more of these--

yarn hats--lots of fun to make--these are made from the bits of yarn from the baby sweaters!!!

and--

these are for another project I want to do--

and--

Hope you can see that that small package is reindeer--they are felt cutouts and sooo cute--have no idea what I will do with them yet--they were my only impulse buy!!
and the boxes of colored pencils are the same--one is for a gift and one is a gift to me, from me!!!!

and--

I got some fabric for the binding on this tall Christmas tree wall hanging--
they sure did not have hardly any Christmas fabric left--maybe 4 bolts, if that!!!

A little story --
As my daughter and I was going down the isle at Hobby Lobby I seen a mom with a stroller and a cute baby in the stroller, so I turned to my daughter and said--loudly--all I want for Christmas is one of these-- and even though I was still aways from the baby--that baby smiled sooo big-
and I did reach down and talk to her a bit and she was full of smiles, and even wanted to grab ahold of my finger--she couldn't of been much more than 3 months old--I, of course told her, that when she messed her pants or cried, she would have to go back to her mom!! and of course she smiled again!!
What a precious bundle of joy that baby girl is!!

Well--I got another Christmas gift hand prepped this morning and now need to go work on it-want to get it in the mail on Wed--the daughters and mine next outing!!

Smiles, di

BITS OF THIS AND THAT--

Alot of different things to talk about today--
First is gifts--
Got my first Christmas gift in the mail yesterday from a blog friend--

so there will be a gift or two under the tree--

and then this big box came in the mail this week--

Wonder what came in this???
Ohhhh--

Looks like Di got herself a Christmas gift!!

And I am still finding broken things in the boxes I shipped down here from NY--
In my favorite tin--

I have always stored '3' gingerbread cookies that I baked a few years ago--
they have always done well in here--
but this year when I opened up the tin--

they were broken--
so I did get ingredients to make another batch of gingerbread and some new cookie cutters--
but also did this--

and it does seem like they are holding together--go figure--
but so far the plan is make some more--as the gingermen cutters I got has like 5 different sizes so I can make a family of them--time will tell--I still have 2 weeks to get them made!!!

And I got this counted cross stitch finished--
I had started it last winter and worked on it for about 2-3 months and then put it away and I did bring it, but had forgotten about it until Sunny was showing us her Christmas cross stitch so I ran in the bedroom and found it and finished it--now to figure out how to frame it--as it measures 7 1/2 x 14" a very odd size!!
well--thats it for today-though here is a photo of my view from the bedroom window this morning--

Smiles, di

THREE ANGELS

Today's post is about my new '3' angels--
I was really really depressed yesterday--
having the MCS issue can cause one to be easily depressed and it doesn't have to be a mental issue--it can be caused by what chemicals one was around the past day or so--
but it still doesn't help when one is feeling so depressed--
I finally decided that I just needed to get out and about and to even get outside in some sun shine--as I had mainly been inside for a few days--

First I did walk all the halls and did take alot of photos of the door and tree decorations--
then as I was photoing some decorations in the community room, a group of teens and adults came in and I discovered that they were doing a program for Christmas in there at 2:00 and had also brought refreshments to share with everyone--
I continued on outside and was sitting in the sun watching more and more teens arrive--
finally '3' girls came back outside and over to me and asked me about coming to the program--
I really was not sure I wanted to do this--but told them I would think about it--knowing I probably would not go back down---came home--

was sitting in my chair when I looked up and seen it was a bit after 2, still not intending to go down--when I had a thought--"that I needed to go down so that those '3' young ladies would know that those couple of minutes they took to speak to me was worth their effort--"--and I wanted to give them a gift so that they would remember this and I found 3 tiny stockings that I had knitted last year and put them in my pocket, grabbed the camera and went down--
I was able to hear the program and enjoy the singing sitting in the living room area outside of the community room and when it was over, I asked one of the adults if I could get a group photo of all the teens--and she thought that was a fine idea--

After the main photo was I was able to get my '3' new angels to pose for a photo and I was able to give them the stockings and tell them to never not take a minute to speak to someone else--you never know how you might change someone or help them out of a bad day!!

The group also brought 'goodie' bags for each tenant that they passed out to each apartment after the program--

Oh and something else that surprised me about this  group, besides their politeness and happiness to be here--there was 14 boys and only 5 girls in the group!!!!
smiles, di

I WANNA KNOW--

why--I always have to change the toilet paper roll---
during the night????

I know it sounds silly--
but it happens to me 99% of the time--
I run out in the middle of the night and have to change it--
crazy lady -- that I am!!

And I am still busy in Santa's workshop in getting some gifts ready to mail--
as I bet all the rest of you are too--
Smiles, di

EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFTS

My DD called late yesterday morning and we went out to lunch over on the beach side at the little hut place that we stopped at when I got  here for vacation in May--

and we shared the rice, black beans and pulled pork dish--it is really large enough for 2!!
then we went grocery shopping and she brought me on home--

a couple hours later the phone rang--
and DD was on the other end and said she was in the parking lot and for me to come down--
being the dutiful Mother that I am--I went down and here is what she got--

and--

a red Christmas cactus--
the cactus had been on my 'want' list for a couple months now--
I have never had one before and when shopping last week it was mentioned and DD said she was wanting one too--which surprised me as she is not into plants!!
She ended up having to drive to Cocoa to pick up a pay check and she stopped at the Rockledge Gardens on the way home and found these for us and then she seen the poinsettia's too-- and the lady said there that this was the first year that they had gotten that color in and only got a couple of them--like maybe 8--well--DD said they now only have 6!!!

Here is a map of the east coast of Florida--I am about mid state--
and if you look to the right of the #4 dot you will see a X that is about where I am!!
There is an Air Force base across the river from here too--so I hear alot of planes flying over me!!
Smiles, di

OPPS--

I put today's post on the wrong site--
go to my workbasket site for it--
it is on the left side of my page--
sorry--

Silly, di

SNOWING IN FLORIDA--

 My daughter showed up a couple weeks ago with this--

and she showed me how to make them--
and left me the supplies--
only--
I just can't bring myself to make any yet--

but she spent that week end in the snowflake business--

she even got colorful-

and then she got 'carried' away--I think!!!!

smiles, di

MOVING RIGHT ALONG--

Here is where I am at with the Christmas wreath--

I stitched all the hexies together and then I pinned it onto the red background-
then I appliqued this to the red fabric--
was fun to do applique again--
for some reason I love to applique and hand quilt--
they are my favorite stitching projects--
not sure where I will go with next--

but still have some time before I need to finish it--

Here is a refresher picture of the first quilt that I had machine quilted--

Love this one and the large open stitching--
I had asked that the quilter do an 'outline' stitching on the other one--
and I know that was what was written in the order--
cause of the flowers and embroidery work on that quilt--I felt that a design like the dragon flies might not work--
(see last post)
but don't worry I will bind it and use it--!!!

seen this neat t-shirt on one of the tenants here and took her photo from my bedroom window--
and I also like her shadow on this one!!

and this is my friend, Ruth, who plays Skip bo in the community room every evening--
she had found this bear on the give away table and was adopting it!!

Smiles, di

PROGRESS AND NEW TOYS

I am coming along nicely on my hexie Christmas wreath--

I have all the hexies embroidered and I used a gold variegated for the main letters--
and that does not show up as pretty as it really is--
I now have all the paper hexie's ready to stitch unto the backs of this and some smaller hexagons that will go into this hanging later this afternoon while watching some racing--
this morning I did alot of prep work on some Christmas gifts--
so that will keep me busy for awhile--
and I am happy to say that I am probably at least 3/4ths of the way done on the hand quilting on my Christmas tree!!!

and in the mail I finally got the other quilt that was still in NY being long armed quilted--

I really wasn't happy when I got this one back--I had asked for very loose stitching--
I don't like so much stitching in each block--I like the open look and I guess that is why I do so much hand quilting--but--

it is probably my fault--I should of picked out the design for the long armer like I did that basket one with the large dragon flies on it--
and--

I did have alot of work in this one again and it has just sat as a top for several years--
now I can just put the binding on it and use it and enjoy it!!

And now for the new toys--
for my camera--

got a new mirco lens and the hood cap to try--
ordered them when I decided to try learning to clean my sensors in the camera--
can't afford to send it out every other month to be cleaned--
played with the mirco one last night--

and I do believe that I can see a difference!!
it even found me --

a pretty rainbow to photo!!!!!
Have a wonderful week end--
smiles, di

CAN YOU BELIEVE--

that we broke a heat temperature here yesterday??

We had a high of 90 yesterday--
Now I know that Florida has highs of that and higher in the summer months here--
but not this time of the year--
they say the normal temp for now is about 82--
but yesterday  Orlando and Melbourne had a high of 90--
and that the last time it was this hot was in Orlando in 1951 and it was only 89!!
I know it has been really humid the last couple days--

but this guy knows how to keep cool and catch his dinner!!!
smiles, di

HERE IS MY--

TRICK OR TREAT--
for you--
and there is not one single calorie here--

Smiles and Happy November--di