Long week

It has been a long long week.

Our week started off with a great sermon at church.

I had 3 drs appts this week. Thanksgiving happened. Shawn has been working evenings so one of his employees could have a vacation. It's strange for me to be home in the evenings without him. Only one more week of evenings left. I'm enjoying him being home in the mornings. We get to eat breakfast together.

Thanksgiving we had 7 people for dinner. Or I should call it lunch. We ate at 11:30 am so Shawn could relax after eating and before work. I put the turkey in at 5 am and by 9 it was done. I use a cooking bag. I let it rest on the counter while I cooked everything else. When Shawn "carved" it, it fell completely off the bone. The bones were so clean. The turkey was still hot and juicy. So good.

We put the ham in the crockpot with some fruit juices, brown sugar, honey, and some cloves and cooked it on low. Nicholas (my nephew) couldn't stop eating it. Funny thing is, I always make the ham that way. I guess I need to cook it more often.

I tried something different this year. I asked each person at the table to say something nice about every other person at the table, instead of saying what they are thankful for. By then end, we were all crying. It was so touching to hear some of the things people had to say. What a blessing it was to hear how people feel about each other and the advice and uplifting thoughts. I think that will be our new tradition at every holiday table and at each Sunday dinner.

I did not do any Black Friday shopping. I stayed home and worked on a Christmas gift I am making for someone in my family. I finally finished it today. And I have already started the next one.

Today was also the Ohio State and Michigan football game. The biggest rivalry in NCAA football. Shawn and I are definately Ohio State fans. The game came down to the last 30 seconds or so of the game. We won 42-41. It was a real nail biter. It was so dramatic that I felt like I was playing myself.

This evening Shawn and I had a marathon of Christian movies. We watched Revelation Road, The Encounter and the Encounter 2.

Now it's time to go to bed and start a new week. I can't believe that tomorrow is December 1st. Where did the year go?

I have got to get more Christmas gifts made or finished. I am praying that I have enough time to get everything done.

Bobbin Lace

I completed my first bobbin lace piece last night. I made a few mistakes, but I'm pretty proud of it. I posted on Facebook and got a few critiques. One being, no knots. Oh well, this is going to be a bookmarker so I wanted fringe. I started a piece and messed it up, so I cut the bobbins off and there was way too much thread on the bobbins to throw away so I just tied knots and started again. Here is a picture of what I did:

Then tonight I got a package from Lacis. I ordered some bobbins with the hole in the bottom for adding spangles. I spangled 6 sets of bobbins tonight. Here is what they look like:

I had fun doing them, but it took quite a lot of time.
I'm getting into this bobbin lace thing. I've wanted to learn for so long and am happy that I finally took the time to do so.
I'm not leaving any of my other crafts behind, but just adding to my list of talents.

Getting ready for Christmas

So, I've been making things for my kids for Christmas. I can't even talk about what I am making on Facebook or here because my kids stalk my posts. HAHAHA.

I am also trying to learn bobbin lace. One of my friends on Facebook sent me a link for a wonderful site by an amazing lady who explains step by step what to do. I can't wait to sit down and get to it.
Every time I try to sit down, something comes up and I don't do it. I am going to get some time to do this. After checking out this web site, I feel better about what to do and feel a little more comfortable with the process.

So I'm not doing much else right now. I need to get back to my book. I feel like I will be able to deal with some of the memories. It will be a slow process, but I can start again.

Bobbin Lace

Yea. My bobbin lace pillow arrived today. I'm so excited. I also got 2 each bobbins made with my name engraved on them. One set blue, one set red. They are so pretty. I'm excited to start using them.

I got some pastel threads to start using in size 20. I can tat and make bookmarks with them. If I get better at it, I will make some for gifts for Christmas.

I also got 2 tatting shuttles honoring England's newest heir to the throne. HRH Prince George. They are hand painted and have his date of birth on them.  Here is a picture of them plus the bobbins.

 

And I also got a package from my wonderful friend who lives in Hungary. Szilvia is a shuttle maker also and she sent me these adorable shuttles. Mini Lady Hoare and another great design of shuttle. She also sent me two keychains of dog bones. One pink and one blue. Fore each of my dogs. I just love them. Szilvia is so generous.

Makaylee is here

Today, 11/12/13 at 9:21am our newest God Daughter was born. Her name is Makaylee Marie Robinson. She weighed in at 6lbs 10oz and 19.5 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing well. I was blessed enough to be there for her first bath.

She already shows her own personality.

We are so happy for her parents, Jessica and Calvin and her big sister Mariyah.

Wonderful weekend

I have had the best weekend so far. The Nate and Naina came home for Olivia's 21st birthday celebration. Olivia was told they couldn't come home. She got here about 10pm and they rolled in almost 2 hours later. She as happy. We had 5 people, 5 dogs and 1 cat all in the house and it was all great.

We went to a Christian concert with TobyMac, Mandisa, Brandon Heath, Jamie Grace, Colton Dixon, Chris August and introducing Capitol Kings. TobyMac's band DiverCity was amazing. It was such a great show. We had so much fun. Olivia, Shawn and I got the VIP experience. I got to ask Chris August and Capitol Kings a question in the Q&A session and Olivia got to ask TobyMac a question. It was so fun.

We sang, danced, praised, screamed, laughed, clapped hands and worshiped God all evening long. I was so happy to see Shawn singing and dancing and having a great time. He really needed to have that break.

Olivia and got so much gear from the show. We got every artist's CD. The music is amazing. Every artist could and should be a headliner.

I am so pleased that Olivia chose to spend her 21st birthday celebration at a Christian concert instead of going out drinking and going to a bar. My girl is such a responsible young lady. She makes us so proud. Our son is an amazing man and he also makes us so proud. We are truly blessed by God with such great kids and such a great life.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

UGH, I am waiting for Nate to get here to learn how to use my engraving machine.

If he doesn't get here soon, I'm going to ask Dennis, my next door neighbor to help me. I have already downloaded the proper software and am so ready to learn how to use it. I've checked out the manual and have no idea what it says.

So while I'm waiting I'm working on my items for an exchange that I'm involved in on my Facebook Tatting Shuttle Addicts page. I have 3 partners and we are to send a shuttle, thread, a tatted item, beads and a post card or card from where we are from. They have to be mailed out by November 30th. I will be ready. I am going to hand dye the thread and probably make the shuttles.

I also got some shuttles made out of plastic and want to decorate them. Who knows what I will do for the shuttles. I guess my exchange partners are expecting me to send hand made ones since I'm a shuttle maker.

Well, waiting. waiting. waiting

It's here!!!!

After a long wait, it's finally here. I got my engraving machine. I have it set on a table but haven't put it together yet. I need to download the software and figure out how to use it. Not very many instructions came with it.

I am so excited to start using it. Now that I have it, I'm a little intimidated. What if I make a mistake? What if I spent all that money and I can't make anything with it?

I will work on my butt off to make good shuttles and whatever else I can make with it.

Time to get working.