Getting Crafty

 Hi and welcome.

I didn't even post a Happy New Year with how I intend on blogging more or my goals for 2022. They are pretty much the same...blog more, exercise and eat better, journal (which I do already). One thing I plan on doing is memory keeping with photos. I should say "more of that" but to be honest, I didn't do ANY memory keeping last year. I got so overwhelmed with choices, either by the traditional 12x12 album with page protectors by Becky Higgins Project Life method, or Heidi Swapp Storyline Chapters (shown here by Jamie Pate) or 6x9 albums, 9x12 albums and everything, even sketches! I tried them all in January and like I said, I got so overwhelmed I landed up not doing anything. It was pretty sad considering it's my favorite hobby. I have so much catching up to do because I really like documenting in chronological order instead of randomly doing scrapbook pages. 

My thoughts are, I haven't completed a whole Project Life album in a few years so that isn't working for me. I'm going to finish the ones I've started in the manner of how they are right now with the page protectors etc. and this year, 2022 I'm using the 6x9 Storyline Chapters to tell my stories. I'm excited for the change. I'm excited to use stamps, ink and cut up paper etc. I even purchased a QR Code app that links to my Dropbox account so I can put that on some photos where there's a video I want to share. 

I'm going to use a lot of Ali Edwards Stories By The Month which I subscribe to and I might even do Ali's A Day In The Life. How fun would I think it would have been to see a photo album with pictures and journaling just of a day in my mom's life or my grandmothers. Wow! 

I noticed in my last post titled "landscaping part 1 of 2". Well, since the landscapers were so very late finishing, (it was actually snowing) I will post part 2 in the spring.

Lately I've been in a crafty mood. Who am I kidding? I'm always in a crafty mood! Not sure if I mentioned it here or not but I bought some really cool yarn a while back called Monopoly Sock Yarn. 

Even came with a little green house 😄

When I decided to start the socks, instead of using my yarn winder, I attempted once again (again face palm) to wind by hand. WHAT A DISASTER!! Paul was such a trooper. Helped with it for probably a full week! I have finally learned my lesson! 

I then divided it in half using the kitchen scale so each sock would have the same amount of yarn. I found a beautiful local yarn shop close by Chickadee Knit Studio. The owner's family is actually from Avon-Avon Lake area and she was great with helping me pick out some coordinating yarn for the toes, heels and ribbing for the top of the socks. I've never done contrasting colors before, always just straight up socks. 

Got the toes done. 

I think they turned out awesome and I love the yarn, super soft! 

For Christmas I decided to make each of the kids a Santa on a cross stitch canvas, which is the exact Santa I made back in 1992 only I made mine on needlepoint canvas which are just bigger squares. 

The reason was...I don't think people are doing hand made cross stitch or needlepoint much any more and to buy supplies is like pulling teeth!!  When I started cross stitching  40+ years ago, you could find a handful of cross stitch stores around as well as all kinds of stuff at box stores. As I started on each one, I realized I would need to replenish the supplies I used for the original I made myself. I sure am glad that I kept the pattern!! For the pom-pom at the end of his hat, I had used this thread called Santa's Beard & Suit..

This is what was left over from the original.

The pen outline where the pom-pom will go.

Of course this isn't something you can just go down to the local cross stitch store (which there is only 1 near by and that's in Findlay) and buy. So I found a store online that carried it and ordered a bunch. And then I waited. Over a MONTH! I decided to email them and they informed me that it wasn't in stock and they were waiting for it to come in. Sheesh! You'd think they would have let me know! Anyway, I cancelled that order and took a little road trip into Michigan and found something similar to use. Needless to say, one of the Santa's pom-pom is made from leftovers from 1992 (see above), one is made with a combination and one is made with the new stuff. 

I think each Santa turned out pretty damn good. 😊

I found some picture frames and took the back and glass out. I forgot to get pics so I had Steve send me a picture of his..

They took me way longer than I anticipated but #1. I'm happy I started back in February and #2. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Okay, enough about the Santa's. I'm just pretty proud of them. I did find what I thought would be a cool Christmas card holder. I attempted to get the wood pieces that they used but that didn't work out for me. Paul helped me put it together and once I got the cards hung on it, it kind of grew on me. 

I landed up taking it downstairs and working on a long table and gluing the jute to it. 

Turned out pretty good. I'd like to get a star or something for the top for next year. Speaking of Christmas cards..we were right? 

I joined in a Christmas card exchange so to speak. On one of my crafting sites they put everyone who wanted to participate in an excel spreadsheet with your name and address. Most of the cards hanging up there are from people I don't even know. But! They were kind enough to either make or buy a card and send it to me. I did the same with about 40 maybe. 

I cut out the J & Y using my Cricut. Most of the snowflakes I bought in a package at Michaels. I'll show you the cards I made...

This snowflake was cut on my Cricut.

For Christmas, one of the things Steve and Laureen got me was some yarn. I asked if there was anything they'd like knit with it. Laureen said she'd like a hat. I used a basic hat pattern as I didn't want to distract from the self striping yarn. I think it turned out really cute. She hasn't seen it yet but I don't even think she knows I have a blog. I get all my pom-poms from Etsy here fffabuknits.

One last crafty thing I'm working on right now is my windows. We have this huge set of windows in the living room. Last year we bought shades for them because in the summer when the sun is setting, you can't even see each other in that room because you're blinded. Well, when we put up the Christmas tree this year, we decided to put it in front of those windows. To me, the room looked cold and uninviting. More office like. I just really didn't like it.

So I went on the hunt for curtains. Ugh!! I couldn't find any I liked that were long enough, then on Pinterest I came across a post where someone made curtains out of painters drop cloths from Home Depot! Huh? It's true! So off I went and grabbed some that were 9x12'. Cut them in half length wise, folded over the tops and used the circle clips to hang them. Got one of the small windows done and I have to say I'm over the moon happy with the way they turned out!! I'll get two drop cloths for the large middle window. 

Not bad eh? Oh, curtain rod is from Amazon. 

With all these crafty things I have going on I'm definitely never bored. Paul keeps saying to me "we really need to make some friends out here". Do we though? 😉

So, thanks for sticking with me this long. I'll post again soon as I have tons to talk about. Ethan's birthday, Christmas, my Orlando Girls Trip...all kinds of stuff. 

As always...thanks for stopping by.

Wait, what?

I haven't posted since we, the world, have discovered this new virus is invading.

It's the Corona Virus also known as Covid-19. I don't need to explain or elaborate here what it is or how it's affecting me, my family or anyone else (we all know). I will make at least one Project Life page about it for my future generations and I do want to express my feelings.

It's scary.

• Scary in the way it's made social distancing a common phrase. 
• Scary that our nation, the U.S. is so unprepared that we don't really know when we'll be able to get back to some kind of normalcy. 
• Scary in how unprepared the U.S. is by not having enough tests, positive or antibody. 
• Scary in how unprepared we are by not having enough PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for the medical personnel. 
• Scary that our president is using his daily briefings as a platform for the upcoming election in November. 

It's sad.

• Sad because of the quarantine, there are so many kids stuck at home with no food, have abusive parents, friends and family and their only safe place was school.   
• Sad for the people who have no food and have an abusive spouse but their only safe place was work. I pray they call a hotline.
• Sad but also enlightening as to the atrociousness this president has in him to constantly berate, embarrass and harass the news media. It's awful to watch so we don't anymore. 

I'm blessed that I'm not alone at this time. Paul and I play games, watch a lot of tv, we're doing a puzzle together (that freaking thing!) and we get to FaceTime with Ellie almost every day. I truly am grateful to live in such a technological era where FaceTime and the internet including Facebook and especially Instagram are a huge part of my life. I'm also knitting and reading.

So let's move on...
HAPPY EASTER!!
It's a strange Easter that's for sure. We don't have a basket. We don't have a ham. We didn't color eggs. But we did FaceTime with Miss Ellie this morning and we woke up healthy and HAPPY. So I'm grateful and blessed (as I say so frequently here).

 Elliott is now crawling and has 2 teeth!! She can stand really well and has started pushing her little cart all around.

For the last couple of weeks I've been making masks. I contacted my doctors' wife, Kay, and I asked her if she could find out whether or not cloth masks are okay. At the time (a couple weeks ago), I was wearing a disposable mask everywhere I went (I had a box from last year when I was sick but had to go into the office), but the CDC and Dr. Fauci were saying it won't prevent you from getting Corona Virus etc. Come to find out, and this is just my opinion, they didn't want people to run out and buy up all the masks because WE'RE so short on equipment for the healthcare peeps, that they didn't want us to hoard them all. Which is understandable since so many idiots in our country hoard toilet paper and sanitizer it's ridiculous!! But she asked the head of the hospital and it was a resounding YES! So, the hospital was giving out pre-cut fabric and instructions to anyone who would make masks for them. They can use them for the workers not in direct contact with the Covid-19 patients, those people wear the N95 masks.
Anyway...the material they sent was cut wrong 😖. They had the patterned material on the inside AND they ran out of elastic..the whole world has run out of elastic. I called my local Joann's and they had some. When I went to purchase the lady said she just sold it - 64 YARDS OF IT!!! I thought that was a bit selfish. So the hospital sent the extra cut material expecting me to use it to cut long strips to make ties with. Well, 2" x 42" per mask and there's 10 masks? Not with this arthritis. So I bought shoelaces and went with those. Here's some of the hospital masks I made with leftover material I had...

I had a bit of bias tape I used on a couple of the masks. 

So after I made the masks for the hospital using of the pattern they wanted, I found my sister in law, Sue, had this pattern that made so much more sense! It's made exactly like the disposal ones I had been wearing. Much more comfortable and easier to make.
Since elastic is so scarce I was able to use the elastic from the disposables along with the little nose wire for a perfect fit.

I made these for Jenn, Dan and Elliott (although we know Elliott won't wear it, it's cute!)

We drove out to meet Jenn half way to give them Elliot's birthday gifts and for me to get my Cricut back (I lent it to Jenn). We did keep our 6' distance from each other but it tore me apart not to be able to hold, cuddle and kiss Elliott! My heart aches to hold her. I keep telling myself, SOON!

I like that it covers my double chin. WIN!

I ordered something from Target online and this was the first time I'd actually been to a shopping center. Pretty sad but thrilled that Governor DeWine gave the "stay at home" order so early compared to other states.

About a week ago, we had a terrible storm come through. It rained and rained. Paul was talking to his dad and mentioned to him to not forget to check his basement for flooding. We didn't even think about ours! Needless to say, our beautiful basement flooded. Apparently, the switch to our sump pump quit. We had our plumber out and he replaced the sump pump with 2 sump pumps, along with a battery back up and they also come with an app that can alert us.

I felt so very sorry for Paul. He had to remove ALL the carpet and padding by himself. He would carry chunks of the padding upstairs in those large, clear plastic tubs. I could see a few inches of water in them and knew they had to be super heavy. It was all so horrible.

Our first glimpse

Trying to get the pad to dry before taking it to the dumpster. I do have to say, our insurance, State Farm, didn't pay for ANY of it. I'm thinking of looking into Farmers. Paul for some reason feels an obligation to our insurance agent, like he's family or something..he's not.

This is going to be super FUN!!

I finished December 2018 Project Life. A lot happened that Christmas so I have quite a few pages...

This is so strange. I got an email from the nail salon I go to. They were giving out kits for people who had gel nails as a way to help them remove them. I haven't had mine off for years! Anyway, I took them off yesterday and so far they're okay. I've been babying them with frankincense essential oil and hand cream.

Well, I've babbled enough. I hope you have a nice Easter. It will be different as most churches are holding services on the internet and families won't be gathering for Easter dinner. But think about how blessed we are!

As always...