Sunshine, Beautiful Sunshine!

It's a beautiful day today.  Cold, but sunny and happy out.  I've scrubbed my floors.  I've finished the laundry and now I can blog and crochet the day away if I want to.  Guilt free because my chores are done and the sun is shining!

I wanted to share this photo with all of you. I found this today when I was searching my cedar lined chest for something my son wanted.

This is the first thing I ever crocheted, way back in 1967! I was seven years old and my Grandma taught me to crochet by having me make a ripple blanket for my doll’s bed. She had me crochet every single stitch so I could always say I made it all by myself! I miss her every single day-she was full of wisdom and love, just as a Grandma should be! I keep the blanket in the chest so it can be passed down to my daughter’s children someday.  This project instilled a love of crochet in me that has never wavered over the past 45 years!

I took this picture yesterday off the back deck.  The sun was trying desperately to peek through for about half an hour and then disappeared again and we recieved another round of rain/snow.  This morning everything is icey and frozen.  You can hear cars crunching down the street as they drive by!  An odd sound!  Anyway, I love the dusting of snow on all the mountains.  It looks like someone has sprinkled powdered sugar on them from a flour sifter!

The last two pictures are my small way of decorating for Valentine's Day.  I don't do much but I have a few things out that I'll be showing you.  I found these silk roses on sale at Michaels last week.  Two stems for $3.00.  I thought it was a good deal and I came home and took the flowers off the stems and put them into the big vase on the coffee table.  What do you think?  I'm not a very good decorator, but I do like the way they look.  The little cherub in the top picture was a gift a few years ago from my friend Jenny. 

And that's it for today my friends.  I'm off to find my crochet hook and yarn.  I'm going to take a short break this morning from my baby blankets, (I've made 3 this week), and try to make a candle jar cover to cheer up the kitchen.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a wonderful Monday my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy

Some Pictures for You

Well, I've suddenly found myself with a few spare minutes.  I've packed all that I can, until I do the last minute laundry tomorrow, (you know, undies and such!).  Little "Miss E" is asleep right now too.  Very unusual.

My blog friend Teresa posted some pictures of some of her favorite ornaments the other day and I thought I would do the same.  I hope you enjoy them.  Most of the bloggers I read are such good photographers.  I am not.  My photos tend to be dark, blurry and cut off.  But, there it is, the best I can do!  :-)

This nativity scene is 47 years old.  It was given to me by my Sunday School teacher when I was 4 years old!  The wooden star behind it was made by my husband's cousin for us the year we moved across the country from them.  Each piece was hand cut and burned.  It makes the perfect backdrop for the nativity scene otherwise it tends to get lost in the tree.

This knitting basket was a gift from a friend last year.  Isn't it cute!  Knitting needles, yarn, buttons and thread.  Even a pincushion!

 This angel was made for me by Alex when he was 4 years old in 1992.  I cherish her.

 This angel was made for me by my son Jamie when he was 3.  He's now 28!  It has graced the top part of our tree for 25 years now.  It's one of my favorite ornaments.

Jamie also made me this pinecone and cardinal ornament in cub scouts.  It's about 9 inches tall without the ribbon!  Isn't it cute though?

 I bought 6 of these glass balls for our first Christmas 33 years ago.  We still have 4 which I think is doing very well since we've had 3 kids, many pets, grandchildren and a home daycare!

 This picture and the one below is of a sea shell angel a group of Japanese students gave me in 2003 when they stayed with us for the holidays.  They each wrote a message on the back.  Unfortunately without Alex I have no idea what the messages say!  I should have written it down in English when I was told what it said.

This is a little snowman "tree" that has each member of our family on it.  Dennis and I are at the top.  Jamie and his wife Crystal are middle left.  Mandy and Brad are middle right.  Bottom left are Caleb and Kyleigh our grandbabies and bottom right is Alex.  All alone.  I have more snowmen/ladies to add as more are added to our family.  I think it's cute and the grandbabies love to play with it when they're here.

As you can probably tell from these few pictures, I absolutely love angels.  I have several dozen of them around the house.  I love knowing that there are angels watching over each of us.
That's it!  If I can get the computer to work I'll try to post some vacation pictures while we're gone.  If I can't, I'll show you when I return.

ALOHA and have fun preparing for the holidays!

Blessings,

Betsy