ABC Wednesday

S is for Stamp Collecting

Years ago hubby's grandma gave us all her stamp collecting stuff. It consisted of several old albums and a box of loose stamps that she hadn't done anything with yet. She actually had some fun old stamps...like these from 1940.

As much as thought it was cool and loved looking at them, we also never did anything with them. We collected our own from letters and even bought some commemorative sets. One year our son took a bunch of the Christmas stamps and made a wall hanging for the holidays. We still hang it up each Christmas....makes us smile.
Maybe the next person to inherit the collection will actually do something with it! :)

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Sailing Away

This is the ship that will take us away for a week of relaxation, site seeing and I'm sure too much eating! We are off to Alaska on our very first cruise. I'm so excited. Everyone I talk to has loved their Alaska cruise...I've not heard one negative comment. We set sail around 4pm today...so if you see us sail by, wave!

Feet Friday

Fun new sandals for summer! I love new shoes! Now I just need a fun pedicure to go with the fun flowers.....and lots of sunshine to wear them in! :)

Happy Birthday, Bonnie!

The ole' gal is 12 today! Bonnie was our 6th try at having a dog. First there was Sonya...and adult dog we got for free...only to find out why....she dug incessantly. With two small kids, I just couldn't handle it! Then there was the replacement puppy, Frank...dumb move....kids are still young and I'm too lazy. Then came Roger. He was a sweety. But in his third year, he was hit by a car and had to be put down. Then came Cassie. A wonderful lab mix from the Humane Shelter. She was *my* dog. But alas, in her third year, she got sick and had to be put down. Next came a replacement puppy, Norman....who came with parvo and didn't make it. Sigh. Then came 6 months of quarantine until we could try again. Bonnie was an "Albertsons" dog...you know...the can't resist puppies in boxes that folks have right by the dang door! I grabbed the only female in the box and hurried home. We worried about whether she would ever make it past her third birthday......we really hadn't had much luck with dogs. She has beaten the odds. Thank goodness.

Here's Miss Bonnie as a puppy. Fat belly girl and forever playful friend:

And here she is now. She loves the outdoors no matter what the weather. If we are out, she is out.

And ever so patient with weird human behavior!
We love you, Miss Bonnie.

ABC Wednesday

R is for Reading

This is my favorite hobby!   I've been an avid reader my whole life.   I read so much, in fact, that I don't even think of it as a hobby....and I'm always surprised when I find out someone doesn't read at all!  What?  How can that be?   It's just as natural a part of my life as eating is.  My current favorite book is "The Book Thief"...if you haven't read it yet, add it to your to-do list.   

R is also for Rock collecting

We are not serious rock collectors.  Mostly it's just this bowl full of rocks we take from places we've visited.  Have you ever seen the Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz movie "The Long Long Trailer"?  In it Tacy (Lucille Ball plays her) collects rocks from places they go and they are huge!  Makes for funny funny movie scenes.  Anyhoo...we don't take big ones...just little ones that fit in our pockets.  And we don't label them or anything.   I just know that this bowl holds rock-memories from beach walks with the kids, from Scotland, from our honeymoon location, etc.  

Be sure to check out other ABC blogs for fun "R" topics.

Solo Adventure

Our grandson had his first solo adventure to our house this weekend. While he was excited to come over he made sure I understood that he loved his Mommy, Daddy & brother and that he missed them already...this being said the minute he took my hand when Jenn dropped him off....oh and the cat too! I picked him up on his side of the ferry and this is him waving goodbye to Mommy and David, his brother.

Enjoying a treat with Grandpa, while the dog looks on hoping the little human will drop something!

Liam likes to shovel (Grandpa bought him a kid sized one) and when Grandpa pulled his shirt off declaring he was too hot, Liam had to do the same....with the same declaration of being too hot!


Shovel dropped....time to play king of the mountain!


And he doesn't just imitate Grandpa.....he still loves to pretend to be a dog just like Bonnie!

It was a successful solo visit and I hope we have many more!

Feet Friday

This is what I should be doing right now!  

Should.

Should.

Should.

But not!!!!!!    :)

ABC Wednesday

Q is for Quilting

So this hobby is a duh coming from me!  Besides a few baby quilts, most of the quilts I make are lap size and up. However for this post I thought I’d share some pics of smaller ones I’ve made. First though is this miniature a friend made for me. It’s only 13 inches square. Perfect piecing for such little blocks (the blocks are only 3 inches) and the embroidery is adorable.

This is a little quilt I made that is the size of a piece of paper. It was the result of a challenge another friend gave me. I had fun interpreting her challenge and giving myself the additional challenge of making that curved unit of flying geese. I even hand quilted this one…easy when its only 8.5x11 inches!!!

And these 4 are the size of postcards! I made all but the autumn leaf one. Fabric postcards are quite popular and yes, they are actually mailed.


What’s fun about smaller quilts to me is that my investment in them is not long. So I’m more willing to challenge my skills or try some new techniques.


Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more blogs!

Charm Bracelets

A while ago us Yaya's started talking about making/gathering charms that would represent parts of our friendship...both the serious and the funny. M & Y came up with the idea of making bracelets to showcase our charms. Coolio! We've collected a few charms and a few were made (thanks to M & Y). And last Friday we set to work on the bracelets. Here we are with our supplies ready to go:

Lots of laughter, of course!

This is my bracelet in progress. All of us chose the same design of three strands of beads. The differences are in which beads we chose and where we put our charms.

M & I have finished! Woo hoo.

Here's my finished product! I love it! There are still charms to be added that we haven't made yet. But they are easy to incorporate later.

Such a fun project loaded with memories!

Card Making

I needed to make a few home made gifts for some friends of mine and didn't want to sew anything. I wanted to do something new. I headed to the local rubber stamping store to get supplies to make cards. It was a bit overwhelming with all the choices. I imagine that's what others feel like the first time they walk into a quilt store to buy fabric for a quilt! I ended up seeing a couple cards made up that I liked and asked the owner, "to get me all the stuff to make those", and she kindly did....and she let me take pictures of the cards so I could remember what they looked like once I got home. Here's my goodies:

I made them assembly line style...just like I do my quilting.

And here is a sampling of what I made:


And these are my little gift packets:

It was so much fun. If ya want to come over and make some.....call me....I've got lots of supplies left! :)

ABC Wednesday

P is for Pottery

Our dabbling in the hobby of pottery is probably similar to everyone out there with kids. Whether its at school or summer camp kids make us something with clay! I am the proud owner of the two mugs below. My hubby has always wanted to learn to work with clay....maybe someday I'll buy him classes for his birthday!

P is also for Painting

I'm including painting not because my family has dabbled in this hobby too, but because I have a close friend who does. Below is a painting she made for me several years ago. I just love it. So, this is a shout out to you, M! Thanks again.

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Feet Friday

Bare feet in the sunshine....can you say "ahhhhh!"?

Fundraiser Quilt

An internet friend and fellow quilter is using this beautiful quilt to help raise money for her husbands open heart surgery. She hand pieced this Grandmothers Garden quilt and another friend machine quilted it. You can read about their situation and also find out how you can help at her blog Pieceful Afternoon.

ABC Wednesday

O is for Origami

I think everyone has done some paper folding at some point in life. My earliest memories are from grade school. We would make these paper "fortune teller's". I remember putting numbers inside and someone would ask you a question like "how many kids will Cindy have" and then you'd open it up to reveal a number that would be your answer. There was some way we were suppose to open and close it before you revealed the number but I don't remember that part. Does anyone else remember doing this?

My favorite origami memory is from the year we hosted an exchange student named Fumi. Fumi brought origami paper with her to teach the kids, as well as folded gifts for us all. She even made this beautiful book as a thank you to us when she left. It had origami on every page and the front and back covers. I still have it...it was quite beautiful.

Be sure to visit other blogs participating in ABC Wednesday.

Little in Big...Big in Little

My hubby got a iPod shuffle in the mail yesterday. For those of you not familiar with a shuffle...its about the size of a match book. Look at the size of the box they shipped it in! Really? That little iPod needed a box that big? Really?

And then on Saturday when I was visiting my Mom she pulls out this shirt she bought for me...all the while she is giggly. Huh? I'm curiously wondering why the giggles? Well look for yourself. The blue shirt is mine...it's the size I wear. The little bitty purple shirt is what she gave me. What, am I two?

Surprise! It's one of those fabrics that stretches to fit anyone! I was amazed. She even gave a cardigan made the same way. So now this is a big enough shirt in a little package. :)
I just thought those two size things were funny and had to share.

Feet Friday

Aren't these shoes beautiful?

They are silk, probably made in the 1760's. I read a blurb in Readers Digest about a shoe museum. I had to find out about it for Feet Friday. It's called the Bata Shoe Museum and its in Toronto, Canada. What's fun about their web site is there is a online exhibit that you can visit. So go, and learn a little bit about the history of the shoe!

Using a Longarm

Do you remember my post titled "How Long Does it Take You to Make a Quilt"? Well, I finally got my Scotland quilt basted, so now it's ready to hand quilt. I machine basted it on a longarm that I rent. I began renting the machine a while ago cuz I wanted to do a few of my own quilts and save some money. I was just beginning to get the hang of doing VERY simple all over patterns when I stopped going...just one of those "one thing after another" and before I knew it over a year had passed. I felt like a newbie with no experience when I went back to baste this quilt. I'm hoping to stick to it better this time around. I really want to get good enough to actually do some of my own custom work.

Anyhoo...now I have to choose a quilting design for my Scotland quilt and get started on the quilting. If I'm still blogging and you're still reading a few years from now, I'll show you a picture of the final quilt! LOL!!!!

ABC Wednesday

N is for Numismatics

Now there’s a big word, huh? I bet your wondering what hobby that is.

Well, here’s the definition:
The study or collection of coins, tokens, and paper money.

For us, this would be coin collecting. Something we have been doing for many years.

We are not serious coin collectors. Just have kept those left over coins from our travels and added others that friends and family have kept for us. The kids used to play poker with them! LOL!
I took a quick peek at some to give you an idea of coins we have. There are some from England, Honduras, Mexico, Spain, France, Norway, Austria, Japan and more.

This is my favorite one. We can’t remember where it’s from….either Japan or Korea.
We’ve also been collecting the state commemorative quarters. We have all but Minnesota, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona….those four keep alluding us. How many of you are collecting those?

That's it for N! Be sure to visit other ABC blogs for more N posts.

Knitted Dish cloths

Isn't this a cute dish cloth? One last seam to sew and then I'm all done. I got the pattern from the "My Messy, Thrilling Life" blog months ago. Sadly the directions are no longer available for me to pass on to you from there. But, thanks to Julie, I have this other site that has the same pattern. It knits up really fast. I can't wait to make some more.

ABC Wednesday

M is for Martial Arts

Our son took Taekwondo for several years when he was a teenager. He has always excelled at physical activities (unlike his Mom...I tried learning his white belt level stuff and was too uncoordinated....it's a miracle I can do Scottish dancing!) and martial arts was the perfect sport for him. He didn't need a team to practice. He wasn't reliant on others for advancing. It was just him and his own discipline and self-motivation. This picture is from his black belt testing. I love the determination in his face. :)

Remember to go visit some others who are participating in ABC Wednesdays!