We are freezing here!  Woke up to 13 degrees and for Georgia that is COLD!  We will be this cold till next week they predict and with a possibility of some light snow and freezing rain.  Hate that freezing rain!  Sounds a lot like knitting weather!

We just got back from Hiawassee, Georgia and the mountain house.  We use to go there quite a bit in fact every weekend and most of the summers; however, seems like retirement keeps us closer to home.  Who would have thought that we would not get to go as often after retiring???

On the way up the mountain we always see wild life and here are some pics of what was in the road.

 

A flock of wild turkeys . . .

 

 

 

One of the first things I do when we get there is go out on our front porch and soak this in . . .

 



 

The very next thing after unloading the car and letting the dogs do their business is go see one of my favorite people at her store downtown Hiawassee.  It's one of the last 5 & 10 cent stores in the country.

 

 

 

Then off to lunch at our favorite spot for lunch . . .

 

This little café is in Hayesville, North Carolina and has the best chicken salad sandwich around!!

 

What a great getaway!

 

ENJOY your weekend!

 

 



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

I LOVE VALENTINE'S DAY!!

I love Valentine’s Day!  Not because of chocolate (although that doesn’t hurt), but because of the hearts!!!  Love them! Also, this holiday is a reminder to be sure to tell the ones you love just how much you love them! You do not have to go out and spend lots of money to celebrate this holiday.  You can get creative!!!  In fact, I thought that I would take this pile of fabric . . .

 

To see what I could do for the granddaughters for this special day.

I follow Alisa Burke’s blog and remembered seeing a heart tee-shirt she had made a couple years ago.  I decided to try my hand at it and this is how I did mine.

I drew hearts on the paper side of fusible web.  I used fabrics from my pile to fuse them to.  After they cooled, I cut them out and fused them randomly onto the tee-shirts.  In order for them to stay after washings, I decided that I had better sew them down.  I just used a straight stitch and sent around all of the hearts.  This should keep them on the shirts before they outgrow them.

 

For the youngest grandchild, I decided to “crazy piece a heart to fuse onto her shirt.  I cut a heart shape from my fusible web and randomly layed out pieces of fabric and then ironed them down.  I cut out the heart shape and fused it onto the tee-shirt and then stitched around each of the pieces and the heart shape as well.  Think it turned out kind of cute . . .

Lately, at night I have been knitting and found this really neat pattern on Ravelry (free) called the Abbey Sampler Scarf.  This scarf has 12 panels each depicting a character from Downton Abbey, a popular British show that all the girls around here are completely addicted to.  I have started my 7^th panel and I am having a great time knitting this one.  This is a great beginner scarf as it uses different stitch patterns in each panel.  Aren't the colors beautiful and the patterns are each unique.  This kind of pattern keeps me interested!

 

I love journals!!  I am not quite sure if I like journaling or just the creating the covers for them.   This is my latest journal and it is ready for me to get creative inside it as well.  Stamping, paint, Mod Podge(r), tissue paper, cutouts, oh my goodness what fun this was to make!

 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great week!  Remember in whatever you do, have FUN!!!

My New Year's Promise . . .

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy yourself, learn something new or get a new idea, and visit me again.

 

Long time since I last blogged!  I made myself a promise to blog weekly during 2014.  Notice I said “Promise”…  I don’t make resolutions as they are likely to be broken so this year I decided on coming up with just one word to help encourage me throughout this new year.  I read about this on Julie Fei Fan Balzer’s blog and thought I would give it a try.  I decided on COMPLETE.  Oh, I know if you read my FB page, you will see I chose another one, but I think this one suits me better.  Let’s see how this year goes with that one word in mind . . . COMPLETE.

 

Christmas was really busy around here as I know it was in everyone’s home.  I usually try to get too much done and get myself frustrated.  I seemed to be able this year not to be too frustrated and stressed and that’s a good thing. 

 

I follow Jennifer Jangles blog and she posted a really cute JOY wall hanging as one of her free Christmas projects.  It had my name written all over it.  I ended up making 6 and using them as gifts, but I could have made so many more as this little project was quite addicting.  On the first ones I made, I used Jennifer’s fabrics and the rest I used fabrics I purchased from Sewcial Studio located in Athens and owned by Anita Heady.  They were all beautiful!  This is a picture of one . . .

 

 

 

I quilted all of them differently and here’s some closeups of some of the stitches I used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made several Snowmen Mug Rugs for presents.  The fabric came

from Sewcial Studio and the applique of the snowman came from a Nancy Halversen book.  Fun, quick, easy . . . what more could you ask for?

 

 

Got to stay warm tonight and tomorrow.  At the moment it is 18 degrees in Oconee County Georgia.  Tomorrow's prediction is for really frigid temperatures.  8 degrees when we wake up with a wind chill of somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 degrees below 0.  Oh my goodness, that seems to be knitting/sewing weather if only we do not lose power.

 

My next blog will be all about Selvages!  Another one of my favorite things.  Until then believe in yourself, create something, and have FUN!