I felt the Earth move.....

So I am sure you have heard about the Earthquake already. Today I experienced it for the first time. I was in the pick-up line at school waiting on my Daughter to get out, cross stitching, and all of the sudden my Explorer started bouncing. I thought maybe it was the wind, nope just a slight breeze blowing outside. It lasted about 30-45 seconds. Weird, but not uncommon, for where I live. There is a fault line near me.  About 14 years ago we had a earthquake, I slept right through it. My ex-husband was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He tried to wake me up. I had just got my nephew Tyler to sleep, after being up almost all night with him having asthma attacks, and threatened him with bodily harm if he woke the baby up.

We are waiting to see what Hurricane Irene is gonna do. We are in the projected path of the storm, don't I sound like a weather girl. My freshman year of High School we were hit by Hurricane Hugo. I remember being in World History when the announcement was made that school was cancelled the next day. I thought they were crazy, but hey it was a day off from school, so I wasn't going to complain. Yet. It was horrible. Our house flooded, trees were down all in my yard, we were without power for a couple of weeks. Horrible I tell you! So from then on I have paid attention to hurricanes and their paths. My ex in-laws lived in Mississippi when Katrina came through. We left SC the day after Katrina hit, headed to MS to go help them dig out, with a 6 week old baby. Longest trip of my life! Thank God they had a generator, and very little damage to their property. They were very lucky.

I thought about the fact that 20 years ago today, I was starting my Senior year of High School. Feel old much? Gah, where has the time gone?

Not much happening on the crochet front. I tested a pattern for Smooth Fox last week. It is called Tea for Two and you can get the free pattern here.

I hope y'all are having a great week.

TTYS!

Preserving Memories

One of my fondest childhood memories is spending time with my Grandma Carrie. Many times I would drive her home from Church on Sundays, this started about the time I was 9 or 10 years old. I would spend the afternoon looking through her shoebox of old family photos. I loved those pictures and seeing all the people in them, some I knew and had met and others I didn't. My Grandma was the youngest of 10 children. She had nieces and nephews who were around the same age as her. As the Preacher said during her funeral service, with 9 brothers and sisters, her parents, my PaPa and her in-laws having passed away, he was sure they had to shut down the Gates to Heaven when she arrived. We all laughed at this because it was probably true.

My family always grew very large gardens every year. I remember as a child running through rows and rows of corn stalks. One of the gardens was beside the house I grew up in, it was about 4 acres big. There was also a garden behind my Great-Grandparents house which was on the other side of my house, and another garden beside and behind my Grandparents house. We all worked the gardens, and harvested them. I remember my Aunts carport covered about knee deep in corn and the women sitting out there shucking corn. In the hot summer with long sleeves and long pants on, and we would still itch. I spent many summer nights at Grandmas helping her snap peas. Our fingers would be so sore the next day. Grandma would always can the vegetables, and her mud room shelves would be full of Ball jars. There is nothing better than canned vegetables. My Grandma passed away on May 22 of this year. I have lost both of my Grandmothers this year just 2 months and 5 days apart.

We have a Pear tree in our yard that is loaded down this time of year with the sweetest pears. Every summer I say I am going to make pear preserves and have never done it. I called Grandma a couple of years ago to find out how she made her Pear Preserves. It is a really simple process. Just pears and sugar.

Sticky sweet goodness.

So this year I decided to go for it. I called my Aunt Nett to make sure I remembered the recipe as Grandma told it to me. This was on the stove for about 7 hours today.

This is the finished product, my first attempt at canning anything.  I made seven half-pint jars today. Next weekend I plan on making more, I have to get up the ladder first to pick more pears. I was given a wonderful compliment on the taste. When my Dad took a bite he said "They taste just like PaPa's used to." I couldn't help but smile. Today hasn't just been about preserving the pears, I have also been preserving memories.

TTYS

Summertime Visitors

Mr. Bee

Beautiful Butterflies

They love the Lantana planted beside the porch.

Hello

Quit eyeballin' me lady!

Graceful little Hummingbird.

Now, I need some help with this one. I do not know what kind of insect this is. It has the coloring of bees with the antennae and sucker (for lack of the technical word) of a butterfly. I noticed these for the first time last year. Does anyone know what these are?

The visitors I haven't gotten pictures of are the black King snake that slithered up on my porch and scared the life out of me. I am afraid of snakes, poisonous, non-poisonous, alive or dead. I stepped on a black snake when I was a child and have been traumatized ever since.

This last couple of weeks we have a nightly visitor and I don't like him either. At sunset every night a Coyote comes out of the woods behind our house and runs around our back yard. He comes up close to the girls swing set and just stares at anyone who is outside. I know he is hunting the rabbits that live back there, and the Canadian Geese that are at my neighbors pond. I don't want him to get them, he needs to go terrorize some other yard.

I hope your summer is going great and that you are able to beat the heat. I am looking forward to a vacation at the beach in September.

TTYS!

Tree of Life

This is a pendant I made today. It is called the Tree of Life.

Christina from Christina's Created Creations posted a You Tube how to video on making these and I knew I wanted one. Here is the link to the video. http://christinas-created-creations.blogspot.com/2011/07/tree-of-life-instructions-on-youtube.html I used cheap wire to make this one just as a test run to see if I could do it. Now I am going to scan through Ebay for some sterling wire to use.

The colors I chose all have a special meaning to me. The Green is my birthstone, red is Marandas, the two clear or white "branches" represent the two miscarriages I had, and the final blue is Carolines birthstone.

I am thinking of making these as Christmas presents for a few friends and family.

TTYS!

S words

Striping

I am still working on the Autumn Stripes blanket for my Aunt and Uncle's Christmas present.

Squared

I bought this variegated yarn with the intention of making a  lapghan for my Grandmother and never got around to making it. She passed away in May (another post on that coming soon), so now I am using the yarn to make my Dad a blanket.

Six

My oldest baby turned 6 last week. It is so hard to believe she is 6 already. It breaks my heart to see them growing so fast. I miss having babies, but love this age too. She had a party at the daycare with her friends. We also took her out for her birthday with the family, and then to Wal*Mart to pick out what she wanted for her birthday. 

Silly

Here she is showing off her silly face. Both of my girls can cross their eyes, I can't.

Sitting

Last week we dog sat this sweet little one. My seester and her family went on vacation and I got temporary custody of her female Boston Terrier, Angel. And what a little angel she is. She has the best temperament, and endured torture from my girls so well. She was put into a tutu, tried to be made to wear a tiara and high heels and just played along with them. I didn't want to give her back. They are planning on breeding her soon and I have already put my name in the pot for a little girl puppy.

 Steamy and Scorching

If you live in the US, you know what I am talking about and I don't think I need to go into details. :)

TTYS!

*Happy Fourth of July*

Happy 4th of July to ya'll! I hope your celebrations are terrific times, the food is awesome, and the fireworks are a wonderful show. As you are celebrating take the time to remember our Men and Women who are serving this great country of ours. We are the Land of the Free, Because of our Brave!

TTYS!

Yoo Whooooooo!

Good Saturday Morning to you all! I just wanted to show off this cute little owl I made yesterday. I got the pattern from here. I fell in love the moment I saw it and went straight for my G hook and some Simply Soft yarn and got to work.

The pink baby one is the original size as noted in the pattern. She is 3 inches tall. I didn't add the fabric to the front of her yet, but just couldn't wait to take some photos. The multi colored one is 7 inches tall.

Hello Gorgeous!

A little while ago I came across this blog, I love how she has taken small Ami patterns and just by using thick chunky yarn makes these large animals. So of course I had to run to Walmart, with the excuse to get groceries, and grab a few skeins of Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn. The yarn is cheap $2.97 a skein, but I lucked out and found 4 skeins of the hot pink for $2.50. This morning I have been looking on Ravelry and Crochet Pattern Central for other Ami patterns to try out, although I keep looking at that Octopus and am really wanting to make that. I have 2 skeins of Charlotte Blue and think I will start one with this.

I found another visitor in the bathroom this morning. I don't know what I am going to do with Maranda and her bringing frogs in the house. Maybe I should pull out my old aquarium and make a frog habitat out of it for her. I need to Google it, maybe. After chasing it around the bathroom walls I finally caught him and he is safe and sound outside.

This is my nosey little friend. It flew up this morning as I was taking pictures of the Owls outside to see what was going on. It seems every time I am out on the side porch it comes up, sits on the ivy arch for a little bit to see what is going on, then takes off. I think this is one of the birds that had a nest in our shrub on the corner of the house. There was 4 eggs in it, but something got the eggs, no trace of them. I am thinking a raccoon or snake had a snack.

Well I guess I need to go for now, time to get productive so I can get some hooking done this afternoon. I have dinner in the slow cooker already, a Boston Butt, cooking in Carolina Classic BBQ sauce. I am going to make some Cole slaw in a little while and enjoy a good ole BBQ sandwich for dinner. I hope ya'll have a great Saturday.

TTYS!