A little of this. A little of that.

Hello my friends and happy Friday!

I just got an order from Amazon yesterday and this was in it.  I'm looking forward to trying one or more of these doilies.  Aren't they beautiful?

The front cover:

The back cover:

I've been working on this crocheted blanket since Monday, but honestly, I haven't had hardly any crochet or knitting time all week.  This is the result of about 5 hours work.  Almost done.  It's just a simple sc, hdc, dc stitch I made up a few years ago for a class I taught in beginning crochet.

This one is FUN!!!  Very, very time consuming, but fun.  This I started over a week ago and is probably 20-25 hours of knitting.  It's called the log cabin blanket and you just make it the size you want and then stop.  It's all garter, (knit) stitch and almost brainless knitting.  When you have 9 garter ridges of a color, you cast off all but one stitch on the needles and then pick up a stitch in each ridge on the next side.  You continue in this way, going round and round and round until you want to stop.  It's a great way to use up all of my small balls of yarn from old projects.

Here is the non-slip sole for Mandy's slippers that I also received in my Amazon order.  It comes in an 18x26 piece of cloth that you cut to fit and then sew on.  The slippers are in a box that just arrived at Mandy's a few minutes ago.  She's waiting until Piper wakes up and then they'll face time with me so I can watch her open it.  Inside are a bunch of summer clothes that I bought for her a couple of days ago.  Our local thrift store had an amazing sale and I got tons of shirts, shorts, skorts and dresses for her for only about 25.00 and they are all in very nice condition.

Also inside is Timothy of Thomas the Train fame.  See little Timothy?  Piper loves trains and Thomas and his friends in particular.  I found Timothy and popped him in the box for her.  She knows he's on his way to her house, I sent her this picture just before I went to the post office.  She'll be excited when she opens the box and I can't wait to see her face.

Mandy sent this picture the other day when they were walking by the bay.  Piper had her stuffed kitty in the stroller.  The kitty was a birthday gift from Larry and Nita.  Kitty is covered by a little rainbow blanket that I made for her dolls.  It's basically the center part of the rainblow blankets that I make for babies.  Isn't she cute?

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you all that I have yet ANOTHER trip planned in April.  I have always wanted to take a cruise, but it's not something that Dennis really wants to do.  You all know that Nita is the cruise queen!  We usually keep Sophie for her and Larry while they cruise, which was twice this winter in November and January.  She cruises on Princess lines exclusively and is an Elite member which means she gets a lot of perks when she travels.  Almost 30 cruises in the last 7 years!  

So, with the 50th anniversary of Princess the prices are really cheap this year and I'm going to the Western Carribean with Nita April 11-19.  I'm getting very excited and if I really, really like it, Dennis says maybe we can take an Alaskan cruise someday.  That's where I REALLY want to go.  But most likely, this will be the one and only cruise I ever take, so I really want to enjoy every minute of it.

By the time we get back from the cruise it will be lake time!  Yippee! 

I have mailed Grammy Braxton's blog gift but I haven't heard from Sam I Am.  Sam if you're reading this, you are one of the winners!  Could you please send me an email with your name and address?  I'll get your gift out right away.

Thank you all for reading.  I am SO grateful for each and every one of you.

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."  Psalm 27:14

Blessings,

Betsy