PLEEEEEEEEEEEEASE HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!

I an trying to find some ribbing for cuffs on some scrubs.

Can anyone help me find some??? I just want some plain white ribbing!! I journeyed to JoAnne and Hancock and no luck at all! I looked through Home Sew catalogue and again NO LUCK!

I may just break down and steal some cuffs from someones sweatshirts!!

Our little kayaker

Here is the lovely Miss V, in her lovely red helmet, with the lovely Miss Kim at her 2nd kayak class.

Miss Kim bought the kayak lessons for V for Christmas! Isn't she the best almost sister a kid could have???




Miss V getting back in her kayak after doing an exit.







Listening intently during class







Pulling herself back into her kayak from the back.
She is so flexible that she can zip in and out of her kayak like a little monkey!

These are AWESOME classes!!!!

Some sewing stuff

Look what my good friend Trudy made me!!

Two cute potholders from a great coffee print!

I love these potholders, they are so useful

If you haven't got one, this is how they work, you can slip your hand into the pockets on the backs it works just great.

And here is my first of a series of place mats.

I have unofficially enrolled my mother in law in my very own "place mat of the month club"

I have lots of denim mats cut out already so I am just going to go with whatever theme or style interests me each month

I decided to go with bright and cheerful for January. Just in case there are any January blahs creeping around.

Recognize those fabrics Trudy???

One Hundred Twenty Nine And A Half

Yes, I counted them last night.

129 1/2

and that doesn't count the ones in the laundry

or the ones that stay in the camper

or the ones my kids have borrowed

or these

The ones on my feet at this moment

yes socks.

129 1/2 pairs.

Are you wondering about the 1/2 pair?

well, I suppose you might think it's because one is lost in the black hole of laundry land. Nope, I don't count lost ones.

the half pair is from this set.

It's a special "MissMatched" set I got for my birthday last summer.

And why was I counting socks?

Well, it's a long story, but since there are pictures..............

Last week, the Officer In Charge of Coffee texted me a picture of her feet in striped socks. I know, don't ask, it's something we do.

Anyway I found it hard to believe that they were her actual feet since she mainly moved to Florida to avoid socks and other such necessities of cold weather. Seems there was a cool snap there.

She said it was hard to find her socks since she never wears any. I told her then that when she visits me in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, that she could have her pick of about 81 pairs of socks.
Silly girl did not believe me. Then the big guy got in on the act and said I probably have 100 pairs. Well, I thought that was a bit excessive, so he challenged me to count them and make a bet. I was supposed to win a new pair of socks if the count was under 100.

Obviously I did not get a new pair of socks from him.
I have winter socks, which you see above.

Summer socks, which are in that suitcase in the first picture, it not being summer here in Wisconsin.

I have socks with holidays including Thanksgiving!, socks with birds, socks with animals, socks with fruit, socks with fish, crabs, ghosts, eyeballs, hearts, squiggles, polka dots, stripes, argyles, words, fireworks, flags, (gasp deep breath) you name it I probably have a sock with it on it.

The only socks I don't have are boring socks, no Plain Janes in my sock drawer- or sock suitcase - or sock basket- or..............

Oh and these just got put away, my Christmas collection, which I'm sorry to say is missing about 5 more pairs since I hadn't finished the laundry when I took this picture.

I can sort of hear that psychiatrist step father in "The Santa Clause" saying "I think it's safe to say you've taken this to an unhealthy level"

But hey, there are many worse vices I could have!!! I mean, heck I could have yards and yards of fabric that I intend to cut into little pieces and then sew back together..............

oh yeah. Never mind.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Man was that a party or what?

Well, if you know me, it was a good party but I'm not dying on the couch with an ice bag on my head chewing on a bottle of aspirin. No, I'm sitting on the couch playing on my laptop waiting for the rose parade to start while the dog sleeps in the big chair.

Is this dog spoiled or what?

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

I'd sing the rest of that song to you, but I don't actually know the words except the oh Christmas tree parts.

Is there anyone who doesn't love a Christmas tree? Well if there is, they can just go on to another blog because I wanted to share some pictures of our trees.

We have a lot of vintage mercury ornaments that I just love. A lot of them are from my parents stash of ornaments and many more are from Jim's grandmas trees.

The pine cones in different colors are some of my favorites.

I can remember hanging them on every tree we had when I was growing up. Well, there was the one year without a Christmas tree........... no, not even as cute as the TV special. One year my mother decided we didn't need a real tree, she would just put little lights and plastic oranges on her citrus tree. She thought it was ingenious and refreshing. I thought it was embarrassing and dumb, but since Santa was coming I didn't mention that!

This one isn't mercury, and it's not expensive, but it could be termed vintage!This is my all time favorite ornament. It's been hung by it's points so many times that it now has to be clipped on the tree with a clothespin! On the back my mother in laws handwriting says "Jim kindg. 1967" How special is that? Jim would not hang it up each year, but I do!

Here is our second tree, we take turns decorating it each year in the dining room.

It seems to have a Santa hat as a topper this year...........

hmmm is it going to be a Santa theme tree?

ummmmmmmm, no. It seems at some point in the past 365 days we have somehow misplaced the top portion of this tree! I have no idea how this happened since it has it's own box and all the Christmas stuff goes in ONE closet!!! How do these things happen????

Second Colleg graduate in the family!!!

Our second college graduate in the family! Dad was the first a few years ago and I was incredibly proud of him for that.

This weekend Melissa our daughter number 2 graduated Magna Cum Laude, with a degree in secondary education, English.

Here she is with proud Gramma!
We are all so PROUD of her!

This is one of those things that makes it all worth it!!! All the parenting, all the work hours to keep them in school! All worth it!

Now we have daddy with 3 of his girls. Good times!!

Gosh it's so important to have these times with family isn't it?

Here we all are at breakfast before the ceremony.

Dad, Becky -daughter #3, her boyfriend Ben (he's my BFF Rose, but that's another story!), Lissa the honored one!, grandma, the lovely Miss V, and me. I was so proud I'm surprised there are buttons left on my jacket!

Here are daughters #2 and #3, Becky (in orange) will graduate next spring and I'll be bursting with pride again! Anyway, here they are showing off the bags that my super friend, and the officer in charge of coffee made for them! Aren't they awesome? The girls obviously LOVE those very special bags!