KIDS CLUB

Well, the grands are not so little anymore.

Their hands are considerably less chubby.

They speak in paragraphs now and know things I forgot a lifetime ago.

They make jokes...and some of them are even mildly amusing.

I  am no longer the centre of their universe (what? I never was?)

They have school and play dates and practices and not nearly enough Grammy time.

So.......

We have formed a club.

It is very official.

We have membership cards.

Grammy is the treasurer because she buys the books and snacks.

Jerod is the secretary and records the books we read and why we liked them. We take a picture of each book and rate the books with stars..... 

Davis is the social convener. He consults his calendar and  proposes the date and the venue where we will read the new book.

Starbucks is a favourite....gotta love that lemon bread.

So far we have read:

Every book and every venue has received a 3 star rating with Grammy's place getting a 'best ever' for venue (children learn to suck up at quite a young age)

Next month we will be reading:

and in December we will bake our favourites.


Lest you think this is a frivolous organization, we have taken photos to show how serious we are about this.

We have also discussed writing our own book, doing activities mentioned in the books, and eating food the characters eat.

Maybe we will dress up too!

We are having a blast

You may copy us if you like.

BLINGITY-BLING -BLING

Sorry I haven't been in touch lately! Why it must be at least a month or so.

What?

 Seven  months?????????? My stars!!!*******

That's what happens when you are flitting around the globe.

 First it was the Pulitzer for one of the little volumes I wrote last year entitled 'The Art of Exaggeration'

 then the Chelsea Flower Show to introduce my newest hydrangea/delphinium cross

 (requires heavy staking),

 then off to Oslo to see my 7 year-old grandson receive the Nobel for his working lego model of the human body (f**ts on command)

Next I finally baked that white chocolate merinque replica of Buckingham Palace

  the Queen has been begging me for (she ate it at one sitting),

then rushed back to see little 5 year-old Davis cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon

 (he hopped the last 10 kms. to give others a chance)

I had hoped to be in Paris for the debut of my new 'Glitzy Granny' line of jumpsuits (order now and receive a free package of Depends) but there was a cancellation at the Mayo Clinic and I had to hurry back for my brain transplant. ( I performed the surgery on myself which was quite exhausting)

The jury is out on whether or not it was successful.

Ha!

Meanwhile things have slowed down a bit and so I have been fiddling around my townhouse, making little changes.

This is the first place where I have had the luxury of a walk-in closet.

 It sounded so wonderful.

 In truth, it became the graveyard of all things with no real home....

errant Christmas decorations,

 empty boxes (just in case),

 clothes collected over years, slipping off hangers,

 Queen costumes (don't ask), 

luggage,

 odd socks....

you get the picture.

In a moment which can only be described (by me of course) as pure genius, I decided to turn this dark secret blemish into....

wait for it...

A Dressing Room  (cue music)

OOH-LA-LA

I removed the door ( while hubby was out, dragged it away, then told him later......works for me!) and hung silvery curtains....going for a little bling. I bought them at Homesense along with the shimmery little rug.

I had found the vintage stool awhile ago at a thrift store and it is loving its new pride of place.

Tres chic Paris bins hold shoes and jeans.

Hubby (once resucitated) hung the sweet chandelier.

I moved a dresser in from the bedroom, glammed it up with my jewellry box, and a mirrored tray to hold parfum bottles, propped up a mirror,  hung pictures and scarves, coralled purses and foldables in bins, paraded hat boxes.

Removing the door allowed room to hang robes and belts on the side wall.

I pretend I am special now.

Instead of running back and forth between bedroom dresser for undies, to closet for clothes, to dresser for scarf, to bathroom for jewellry, to dresser for socks and belt, having left a trail of nightie and robe and been unable to unearth a coordinating purse ( the horror!) and knocked 3 things off their hangers and been kabonked on the head by a teetering suitcase (soft-sided my foot!).........

sigh!!

I now glide into my new space, hang my nightwear, assemble and change into my complete outfit, pose on my pouf as I select earrings, spritz myself dramatically, select the perfect handbag, bat my eyelashes at my oh-so-clever self reflected in my shimmering mirror and

 swoop into my day.

Hope I run into you. 

You are the real bling in my life!!!

IS IT SO WRONG?

I'm in a quandry.

I succumbed today to the cheery faces of some pink and yellow primulas.

I've seen them out front of stores for a few weeks now, but refused to plant any til the ones in my garden were blooming as well.

.........which they are. 

I drove twice past the garden centre sign that read...

PRIMULAS.....$.95

and then turned in

.....just for a peak mind you.

I was undone.

They whispered, then called me,

quite loudly, 

and then a dozen of them literally jumped into my arms and prevailed upon me to take them home.

How could I possibly say no? 

"Yes", I said. "I will take you home my little darlings. I will promenade you in my front window boxes. I will sprinkle you with rain water. Your perfume will waft over my garden, your frilly dresses adorn.....

or something like that..
.
It's hard to remember exactly...I was so taken.

I just know that when I got home, they were in the trunk of my car.


And the next thing I knew, they were smiling up at me from freshly-tilled dirt.


Oh,

 but back to the quandry.

You see,

I have friends in cold places.

If they wanted to check to see if their primulas were blooming they would have to remove six feet of snow,

that is if they dared to venture out in the sub, sub, sub zero temperatures.


So

is it mean-spirited to post pictures of my pretties?

Probably.

Would it be construed as excessive gloating?

Most likely.

Could they not try to see that I am proffering a glimmer of hope?

Not even a chance.


It's hard to be so misunderstood.



So.............

 don't look if it offends you

but feast your eyes if you'd like a little treat for your winter-weary eyes.

My mini-daffodils are just set to burst open and the hyacinths have big knobby buds, but the tulips will be a while yet. 

They are my spring favourites. I have hubby trained to pick up bunches at the local market to spring up my home and I love to give them as a little gift.

I take some wrapping paper and ribbon with me to the store so they look extra pretty, and I buy little gift books at the thrift store and cut out the cute pictures and embellish them to make sweet gift tags...tres thrifty.


I hope wherever you live that you will soon get to see the miracle of another spring unfurling. 

It always comes.....

eventually,

and perhaps sweeter for the long wait.

A REAL GEM

Are you still out there?

 I just couldn't get it together til now.

(Unrelenting pain kills my brain cells I think)

But now I have something to say and I hope you give me a read.

(If you don't read any further, then please would you log onto my daughter Feona's new website  www.helpthegems.com ?

and make sure to read the blog on the site as well?)

My girl child turned 40 this month! 

Wha-a-a-a-a-a-a-t???????????????

Aside from  the unbelievability, me being on the youngish side myself, my primary feeling has been one of gratitude.... oh and pride....I'll get to that later.

The gratitude goes to Almighty God who allowed me:

the privilege of at last experiencing the joy of motherhood

for giving me strength, wisdom, provision, confidence as a single mom

for the opportunity to point her to Jesus

for the mutual respect, friendship, love and caring we experience

for sparing her life this past year.

But

 Who would have thought

that her heart would grow so big?

that years of heartache and loss would result in the blossoming of something so beautiful?

that she would be able to give voice to the groanings of her heart to establish a vehicle for others to catch her vision for broken children across the ocean

that she sees and knows what  people twice her age haven't even pondered for a moment in their self-focused lives

I am humbled,

I am proud.

When you look at your kids, and wonder

what influence you might have on them, 

what small, selfless little things you can do that they they might take note of,

 if your heartfelt prayers will make any difference

if your constancy and love will give them stability and wings.......

don't give up.

God works in their lives in ways we would never think of.

We would spare them the pain,

give them the world, tied with a ribbon

but 

He knows better;

that hard things bring clarity

propel us to where we would never have gone,

transplants his heart into ours.


Feona, I am so proud of you for answering God's call on your heart,

 for making a choice to make a difference.


You are a precious gem yourself, reflecting the beauty and love of God.


I can't wait to see what he does through you and "Help the Gems."

Like the stars of the morning
His brightness adorning
They shall shine in their beauty
Bright gems for his crown.

                                               Jewels

....HAPPILY EVER AFTER.....

A birthday...

and then

an anniversary.....

and then

 Christmas all in a row! 

I am so blessed.

Many of you know the circumstances of my new marriage 4 years ago. (You can check it out here http://mslucille.blogspot.com/2014/09/real-tears-after-27-years-of-being.html )

The sweet little chapel where we pledged our love

I wrote a gripper of a poem to put on the front of our invitation.

If we'd written the script, we'd have been cherished sooner,
hearts protected,
unrejected.

We would have slept sweeter,
safely nested,
souls rested.

We woud have danced.


But if we' written the script, we'd have foiled the plan,
characters confused,
timeline skewed.

We'd have settled for less,
still hoping,
just coping.

Not much of a dance.



Someone else took the pen; He caught us off guard.
all-knowing.
blessings flowing.

Someone else tilled our hearts,
seeds planted,
dreams granted.

A reason to dance.


We ponder the words He's written, their beauty sates our souls.
ending undeserved,
joy unreserved.

We adore the way it's ended,
no more waiting,
souls mating.

It's time for the dance!

May I have this dance for the rest of my life?

Fallish flowers on the tables (Yes, I did them the morning of the wedding....no stress here!)

Did I mention that I made my living room drapes and pillows from the tablecloths I made for my wedding? (Mrs. Thrifty)

 The best part was having dear friends and family celebrate with us.


Kinda thinking we won't make it to our 50th, but thankful for the time God gives us.

 Life was meant to be shared.

LITTLE PILLOWS.......

you can make all by yourself

 Clever You!

Thought I would show you a few ideas for some easy little pillows you can make to pretty up a corner or give for a little gift.

These pink and white woollies in this pic were made from a $2.00 vintage blanket.  I used the striped and overcast edge as one end of my pillow and folded it over right sides together, sewed the one side and end together on the machine, turned inside out, stuffed, then stitched the striped ends together with pink wool on the outside. Buttons and trims were added afterward.

The puppy pillow above was just a vintage tea towel sewn up.

The rose, and bird pillows were images printed on white cotton fabric using my computer.

 Seriously!

 If you haven’t discovered the site www.graphicfairy.com  then you really must. There are thousands of wonderful vintage images on every subject imaginable.

 Search in the category tab and pick a topic. New images are added daily and are seasonal. Copy and save your image and then bring it up in Word so you can resize it and center it. If you want to make sure it will be right, then print it on paper first.

You can only make a pillow the size of an 8x11 piece of paper (unless you print a graphic on fabric that size and then use another fabric to border it to make it bigger.)

 The technique is to spray a piece of 8x11 paper or preferably card stock with spray adhesive, then press on a piece of fabric…..use white or coloured or even a tone on tone like damask or even drop cloth canvas for a bit more rustic look. 

Make sure you trim your fabric around the edges to the size of your card stock and do not leave any threads loose. Feed your fabric-covered paper into your printer whichever way will have the image print on the fabric side. Hit print and watch the image transfer to your fabric. Peel off and make your pillow.

 (If you somehow manage to wreck your printer, I have left the country!!!However, I have done this a hundred times with no ill effects.)

For this pillow I simply printed a picture of the boys on a fabric piece. I have  made many of these for little gifts......often using a friend's grandchlid's picture. I have also made larger pillows by printing 4 separate pictures sized to be an 18" pillow when sewn together.

 These pillows with four sections were made with scraps from my sewing stash and embellished with bits of trim and buttons I had on hand. I sewed the four different patterns together (and yes I agonized over each combination) and sewed on the trims then sewed on the backing fabric which was one piece the size of the four sewn together. (It matched one of the four patterns.)

I have also used new tea towels with a pattern I liked like this one for the cabin.

 and also napkins or vintage pillowcases.

This white rose one I made from yardgoods on sale.(I'm not that clever. It comes on the bolt just ike this)

 You could also use part of a plaid shirt (use the part with the front buttoned up and the pocket) or the backside of a pair of jeans (pockets) for a teen’s room.

These next two are made from vintage bark cloth fabric.

This one is from taffeta saved from my fall wedding tablecloths.

And then a scrap of chenille.

I love to change my pillows around on a whim, so sometimes I make pillow coverings with a zipper or split back so I can simply put them over existing pillows and not have to buy and store extra pillow forms.

Have fun creating!

THERE'S A PUMPKIN IN MY CLOSET!

No really!

Way in the back...you know that sweater you never wear because it's too shrinky, bally, stained, buttons missing, outdated, etc??????

Tis the season to turn it into a harvest pumkin! If you are fresh out of unfortunate sweaters, you can find some el cheapo at your local thrift store.

The concept is simple and requires no sewing!!!! You just need 2 elastics, your sweater, stuffing (not Stove Top silly!) some jute or wool and your trusty glue gun if you want to get fancy.

Lay out your sweater flat. Now measure up from the bottom of your sweater about 12 -14 inches and cut through both  layers. Turn inside out and gather the top (cut edge) of your piece into an elastic band winding around til nice and tight. Turn inside out again and stuff with fiberfill, then gather the remaining finished edge with another elastic. See, it's almost done!

 You can use jute to wrap around your 'pumpkin' to section it into 6 pieces so it looks more pumpkiny and also wind it around the stem, securing with a glue gun. 

All the ones I have seen are fairly plain, but I like to gussy things up, so added embellishments, like silk leaves (buy a dollar store garland and take off the leaves), bits of artificial fruit, pine cones, birds, ribbon, feathers etc. 

I have also made these with part of a sleeve. They are miniature size and perfect for fall dinner placecards with a paper leaf with the guest's name written on it and tied to the stem. (You know you want to do this!)

Here are a few of my creations.

This one is made from a cardigan with a ruffle down the front

Happy closet hunting!