Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever. - Walt Disney

After a fabulous Thanksgiving we are all decorated for the holidays and looking quite festive if I do say so myself! The kids were all on board and the Santas, lights and wreaths were flying all over the place! It was work, but work when family is helping is always better and is always fun!  This year I decided to spray a zillion wreaths with snow. After breathing 17.5 cans of snow and wondering what all this was doing to my lungs...I made it. Nobody told me this snow crap  Christmas fabulousness  turns to baby powder or some fasimile of that! I look like the Pillsbury dough boy covered in snow! You can't even imagine the dusting a cleaning that will have to be done! Oh well it was worth it I guess.

 Just in time for cyber Monday we have reduced the Peaceful Valley kits from $95 to $70.

...and the Slice of Christmas Tree skirts from $85. to $60. while supplies last! These have been super popular and we have more coming. You have a good shot and finishing the tree skirt for next Christmas right?? hahahaha. That's the way we roll around here anyway.

Wait till you see what is coming Jan 1!!! whooop whooop. I'm so happy to be blogging again and sharing all the fun stuff going on. Thank you so much for your kind words and prayers. They sure do help. We had a great Thanksgiving and we are all looking forward to Christmas and 2013...HOPE is a good thing.

PS. I'm thinking of moving my blog to Word Press. Has anyone done this and what happens to my precious followers? I'm scared. 


 

 

I wanted to get a post off before we stuff the bird and make buckets of mashed potatos. First of all, thank you for all your kind comments and emails. You have no idea how comforting your words have been to me I think of them daily...heck practically hourly. I am getting better and choose to take a positive mindset and live joyfully. (the rest of the family is too, we all have different good and bad days as I said before) Yes, these holidays are not going to be what we had planned and sooo looked forward to, but as the saying goes. The wind blows and we will change our sails to a new direction. There is joy to be had.  When you have a blessed life....is there any other way to live?

I'm coming back from the mountains of work and deadlines. It feels good. I think I am finding myself all over again. Don't freak out I'm not going to get all mushy and philosophical here. I'm craking open a new bag of Cheetos and moving toward doing some fun things, and being with my friends again in 2013. I have some "paying it forward" to do!  I hope my neglected blog friends will join me.I have tons of stuff to share.

I swear the new patterns will be on my web site. I've been trying to load them all morning and well...........I could blame my computer but I must not tell a lie. Me thinks it is operator error.  

I'm making a recipe for Thanksgiving that I have probably made a zillion and 1 times. We kinda got away from it for a few years and Tricia asked me to make it again this year. It is from Southern Living magazine way way way back. Some of my bestest recipes have been made from Southern Living. yes siree! 

This is it: (insert mental photo, because I have none)

Frosted Cranberry Squares 
(you are going to want to double or triple this for a crowd)

1can (13oz. 1 2/3 cups) crushed pineapple
2 small or 1 large pkg. lemon jello
17 oz. bottle of gingerale
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
2 oz. pkg. dessert topping mix (Dream whip! but seriously friends I like to make REAL whip cream! It is your choice.)
8 oz. pkg cream cheese (I could eat cream cheese smeared on an old shoe!)     


Drain pineapple reserving syrup. Add water to syrup to make 1 cup. Heat until mixture is boiling. Dissolve gelatin in hot liquid; cool. Gently stir in gingerale; chill until partly set. (I usually stick the pot in the fridge to cool it down, I'm such a cool cook!) Meanwhile, blend drained pineapple and cranberry sauce. Fold into the cooled gelatin mixture. Turn inton a 9"x 9" dish. Chill til firm. Prepare dessert topping according to package directions.(or make some yummy whipped cream) Fold in cream cheese and spread mixture over gelatin. Top with toasted pecans. (optional but very pretty, and we love pretty right?)


Just tried to send you some photos..seems like someone is out of photo storage space. hmmmm just what I need right now! Time to set those sails in another direction.

Loss and reality hits

"The light of a distant star continues to reach the Earth long after
the star itself is gone."~Author Unknown

I have started to write my blog today about 4 times. I wanted to talk some more about market and have a little give a way.  I'm stuck.

The truth of it right here and right now is that so many times in the past few months I have been so busy designing ,writing (something special is in the works ) that I have put some strong emotions on the back burner. I have been preoccupied with Silver Thimble business there was so much to do. Now, market is behind me, the new project is in the rear view mirror..it is time to slow down a bit. This new found "time" brings with it the stark reality of the loss of our first grandchild in May and the grief that has been quietly put on a shelf in my heart.  While it is never far from mind...it hasn't been dealt with..faced..and "handled" from the grandparent perspective.

 I'm  taking Emily's lead and blogging a bit about this. She has written so beautifully about their process but I have always stayed away from that because I felt that it was their story...and it is, and always will be. The truth is, it is also a family story. We all feel the loss and we are all a "mess" at different times. Emily might be having a good day and Russ a bad, I might be having a good day and Emily a bad. We all throw each other into tailspins on a regular basis. Guess what..the holidays are on the way. Can we just call it all off? 

When you are the parent..and in particular the mother. We make holidays happen, and YOU KNOW what I'm talking about. The decorating, shopping, cooking, entertaining blahhh blahh blahhh. Can't we just call this off? I don't think I have it in me. ok so I'll rally, I'm a mother right and if I don't make it happen we will all be in a mess!!!  This is just my momentary mental breakdown..I scheudled it for Nov 1 but it is taking a bit longer.

I miss that baby boy. I want to hold him and be his grandmother and spoil him to pieces. I want to put him in little John John suits and listen to his football coach daddy tell me that this is the last time I can dress him like that. I want to rock him in the middle of the night so his mommy and daddy can get some much needed sleep. I wanted to give him ice cream for breakfast just because I can!  I loved him so much. He was going to win the nobel peace prize and the Heisemann (sp?) trophy and be President and a great artitst and be an Olympic swimmer and an Olympic Hockey player and he was going to be a famous actor! He was all that for us. Jackson Neil DeLoach you are so loved and missed. My heart breaks for the loss of you. There I said it. publically..on my blog. 

I'll be back with some fun, I swear it!  for today..just loss and recovery time. Thanks for putting up with me and this sad stuff. I really am getting better. kinda

Emily's blog: www.footprintsand hope.blogspot.com  
get some tissue

CELEBRATIONS!

She turned her cant's into cans and her dreams into plans-unknown

 We are home! Market was fantastic. We had a ball. Our newest quilts and programs were very well received. I wanted to share the photos of the new goodies so you can see what I have been doing for the past few months and could not share with you  The first is the line of patterns we are calling Celebrations. They are smaller quilts that are centered around holidays and special events. Here we go!

 The first two are BJ's quilt and my quilt. It is Bittersweet and Berries. 53" x 53". All of these quilts are intended as table toppers or bed medallions, or wall hangings or decor for the back of a sofa. You name it they can be used anywhere.

 These two are called Merry & Bright. Can you believe it is almost holiday time? (I'm starting to sweat now let's change the subject.) I love this happy quilt. Size? 48" x 48". On my quilt (bottom) I used a combination of wool, cottons, ribbons and buttons. 

This is Yard Party. Here is the deal with this quilt. We are struggling with communicating the color on this quilt. In person it is not as "citrus" colored. I don't know what you are seeing on your computer, but my computer shows a bright orangey citrus! The quilt is actually more buttery yellow. The stripe in the background is blue.  It is 46" x 46".

  Then we have BJ's version of  the quilt we call Snowbound. Oh my !!!did it make a statement at market. I think Yard Party and Snowbound were the most popular of the 4 we debuted but all were a smashing success. I'm going to go to work on mine and use some great wool on this one. The quilt is also 46" x 46".

We are planning some more of these fantastic projects so stay tuned. 

Are you allergic to applique'??? Well here is a little sumthin sumthin for YOU! Who doesn't love a good 2 color quilt? This one is called "Finish Line". Oh how I love this quilt and it is very easy, so don't you frett. 

We will have these on the website and ready on or before Nov 20th. We are finishing up the writing and photography now. 

Come back to see me soon cuz I'm back to my blog and I'm going to have myself a little give a way party. I have been away far too long.