I made a Special Card

Our daughter Kierra and her husband were married 

8 years ago on Halloween. I did blog about it but the video is gone. You can see different posts of the wedding album I made her. Just look for Wedding album on the side bar, if you want. 

So for her anniversary I wanted to make a card that was half Anniversary and half Halloween. I had seen some cool Screen Cards or Screen Divider Cards and I wanted to make one of them. 

Here is a video I watched to learn how to make the Screen Card.

But since I wanted a half and half card, I used two different punches across the top instead of one. One half had hearts for their anniversary and the other half had bats for Halloween.

Since her colors are black and red the black card stock worked perfectly for both sides. On the Anniversary side I used some of my Kiwi Lane design templates for the design and some of the left over punches, the hearts and from the bottom for feet of the screen. 

On the right I used some Tim Holtz Halloween ephemera and his  die cuts for words on both sides.  I love the way the big bat is in the middle of the Halloween side. 

It is a great feeling when what you had in your minds eye turns out the way you wanted. 

Nutcracker 2016

Our Little Ballerina was in the Nutcracker again 

for November and December of 2016. 

She was originally disappointed because her letter of acceptance had her in the same role she was last year as a doll. She had decided she would still dance even thought she was disappointed. I was really proud of her for making this decision. 

At the first rehearsal her role was changed to be one of the mice in the fight scene. Not a baby mouse either one of the bigger fighting mice. This is a bigger role with more dancing. The only down side was it was hard to know which mouse she was. Since I was backstage for some of the rehearsals I was able to follow her moves. Of course when I was watching her from the audience it was hard to keep track of her with that big mice head mask on. She needed a pink bow on her tail. I guess fighting mice don't wear bows. Oh well it was a thought. 

Here she is in her costume. 

Little Bit as a Mouse in the Nutcracker

Professional Photo taken by Stefani Bullard Photography    http://www.stefanibullard.com/

Her grandmother came from California to see her dance as well as her Biggest sister, who lives here in town. 

The studio made new costumes which was interesting to see them change and improve from dress rehearsal to opening night.

The mask under construction, and even the body 

of the suit in't complete. 

Now we are getting that mouse look. 

Yes we are a fierce mouse. 

And here is my tail. 

As you can see in the professional photo 

that the costumes turned out very good.

Sadly she won't be in the Nutcracker this year. Little Bit turned twelve and is now in Young Women's at church and they have a big activity this Saturday and she wants to go to Slide Rock Park instead of the audition. Her choice. I will tell you a little secret I am kind of relieved. It is a lot of work and a lot of chaperoning, 

that I don't have to do now. :-)

Re-Organization of My Sewing Room

My Scrapbooking hobby is becoming more involved 

and working in the living room wasn't working.

 Let's face it I want one room to look presentable.

So for years this is my sewing room, I still call it my sewing room. So I had to squeeze scrapbooking in to this space. It was a big job. I still need to sort through some of my quilting stuff and give up the things that I know what I will never use 

but that is a project for another day. 

Looking into the room from the door way. Basically it looks the same, except now the bookcase under the TV has my paper supply in it. On the table that usually has my sewing machine are my most frequently tools use in scrapbooking. On top of the ironing board are my quilting tools that are normally on the table but here they out of the way of scrapbooking time. The little TV tray is for some of my extra supplies when I need them.

Another view from the door but straight on. 

The cutting table and shelves straight on. This is a mix of both kinds of supplies. Plus my chick flicks and music CDs.

This is under the table, a mixture of both kinds of supplies. 

Just a little closer look at the work table. 

My machines are stored under the table.

A closer look at the bookcase between the tables. Yes it is a bit of a tight corner. The top shelve is solid colored paper and the second shelve paper with designs mostly in pads. 

And yes those pads are in alphabetical order, I have the names of the paper written on the spine of the pads. 

Third shelf is other scrapbooking supplies.

Yes those are my special treats in a basket on the floor. 

This is the second bookcase which is a mix of 

quilting supplies and scrapbooking supplies. 

Just a close up of the second bookcase. The only shelf with scrapbooking stuff is the one with the two binders. 

This is obviously a quilting side, the design wall, ironing board 

and fabric storage. Yes I need a new cover for the design wall but I have a cat that likes to claw at it, so I am waiting. I am not designing with fabric right now anyway, just paper.

The closet that is filled with fabric arranged by color. No change here in the last five years.

Behind the door hanger has some quilting things and some scrapbooking things, mostly punches.  The peg board has all the larger rulers I use in quilting.

So now we are back to where we started, 

we have made our way around the room.

I won't admit how long it took me to re-organize my room, but it was long. Plus I was working on scrapbooking during the project. 

Well Little Bit just asked me to mend some pants for her, so I guess I have to go clean off the creative explosion that is currently on my table and put the sewing machine up. I am going to cheat and use the little Featherweight machine instead of the big one. It is a straight seam anyway. 

Happy Stitching and Happy Scraping!!

A Personal Note

Before I retired I had gained a lot of weight over the last few years I was working. That old stress eating will get you every time. 

I thought when I retired it would be easy to lose weight. 

Wrong again! Little kids moved in that weren't trained to eat good meals. It has been hard to improve their eating habits. Their eating habits are getting better but they are a little picky and they don't like the same stuff. They also have a large amount of comfort food habits that they brought with them. 

This picture came up as a memory on Facebook. It was taken in August of 2011 having lunch on my way to my last quilt retreat.

So needless to say I only lost 10 pounds before I decided in January to do something about it. In January I went back to Weight Watchers. I have had some good success with it until I went on vacation. When I went on vacation I was 0.2 lbs from a 30 lb lost. I gain 4.6 lbs on vacation, those burgers, fries, pizza, fajitas and fancy breakfasts were very good. It has been 5 weeks since we came back and I still haven't hit 30 lbs. Those dang plateaus are a pain. I have been trying not to get discouraged. 

I am now 0.4 from 30 lbs off. 

It is hard for me to see if I am losing weight. One of my friends sent me this picture, which was taken on Saturday July 22. 

I can now see the difference. 

I am also sporting some new cloths in this picture.

When I showed the pictures to Mr. B. He was surprised that I had gained so much weight. He also likes the new and improved me!

Total lost 40 lbs from 2011.

I don't have an end goal in sight, that is too big to work for, 

I am just going 10 lbs at a time. 

The Tree House

Mr. B made a little tree house in our large orange tree in the back yard for the girls to play in. 

Here is a picture of it when Mr. B had just started. It wasn't very fancy but good enough for the girls to go hang out in the tree. 

I thought I had more pictures than the one above but I can't find them. It was basically just a bunch of cross beams.

Recently he decided to do an upgrade on the tree house. 

Since the chickens have to stay in the coop and the girls don't have to compete with the chickens to use it and they don't have clean it  any more. He even improved the entrance ramp. I don't mind going in now. I think I might have to cut that one little branch a little.

Below is the lower level.Some of the wood has been in the old tree house and now there is some new wood to make it a full floor.

Upper level, I have my head up in the hole of the floor.

One of the girls hung a little bird house.

The ladder going up to the top level.

Me sitting in the tree house on the top level.

 Listening to the poor bird that is caught in the chicken coop. Sounds like a bobwhite. I don't know how they get in but they never find their way out. 

My hubby sure did a great job on this. 

Even the Bits think so!!

Up to Date Pictures of the Coop

As promised the pictures I took of the 

Chicken Coop in the orange tree. 

Mr. B. did cut out a few branches in the tree to have the 

coop in the shade. 

The North side with a second door and 

a bit of a run for the chickens.

Just another view from the South side.

This is from inside the tree house. 

Chickens Adventures

I am not sure how it happened but we now have chickens. I am not sure if Mr. B suggested it or the girls asked for them. 

Hubby built the coop.

As you can see he did a very good job! 

We had just bought the chicks home.

This was on September 29th 2016. The chicks were three days old.

3 Day Old Chicks


The Bits with the chicks.

Little Bit and chick.

Bigger Bit with the chickens, they are a little bigger here. She set up a little fence so they won't run away.

Here they are big and they think I have something to

 eat on my shoe. Silly chickens.

Here they are on the neighbors front yard. We let them roam free for awhile. Until we received a complaint from the city about them roaming. So hubby moved the chicken coop in under some branches of our orange tree and made a run for them. They sure do want to escape every time you open the door. 

Our first eggs!

They come in colors. 

We even died them for Easter and you couldn't tell on the blue eggs at all and the brown eggs just had a deeper color.

I was just ready to go out and take a picture of the coop 

in the tree but it started to rain and now it is dark. 

So I will have to do that tomorrow.

Until then take care and Happy Stitching!

What??

It has been a year and four months...

since I was last here??

Where does the time go??

Yes, a pre-teen girl and a teen girl keep me busy and tired. 

In August Bigger Bit will turns 14 and Little Bit turns 12 in September. Not so little any more. 

Crystal Pier, June 2017

Here is a picture of us from earlier this year in June when we spent 3 days in San Diego.

So I did a Brain Dump of all the post I want to catch you all up on and the one that I will start with is the girl's Christmas stockings.
Yes they are finished and we used them last Christmas.
Here is the last post about the stockings.

This is a picture of the fronts of the stockings when I had finished stitching them. This was in October of 2016. I rushed to finished them so they would be to the finisher before the Christmas rush.
I made it!

Front of Stockings 

Now just for a treat here are the backs of the stockings.

Back Of Bigger Bit's

Back of Little Bit's

Below is the picture of them all finished.

All Done!

I didn't let the girls see their 

stockings until we had finished decorating for Christmas.

As you can see they 

really like them!

And the stockings were hung!

My hubby, Mr. B. bought a metal dowel for my Santa Stocking hanger. Since the wood one has been broken for a couple of years.  He broke it when he was filling the stockings one year. He didn't know how heavy the stockings get when they are filled.
It was nice to stuff them and still keep them hanging.

Happy stitching or what ever you are doing these days.