A Pink and Happy New Year!

Well, it’s been over a month since I have posted for Pink Saturday..I was ill and ended up hospitalized for a few days in early December, I am better now and getting better each day..I’ve missed you all very much and plan to start the new year with a clear mind and positive thoughts!

Thought I would share some fun pink images for New Years…

Who doesn’t love Betty Boop?!

Let the New Year begin!

Please stop by and say hello to our lovely Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, she hosts our pinkies each and every Saturday…also try to visit a few of my pinkie friends and say hello, it’s a wonderful way to make new friends!

Have a Happy New Year and a blessed weekend!

Year of Enchantment!

Do you like to read?  Craft?  Sew?  Cook?  Well, head on over to Val’s Year of Enchantment blog, leave her a comment and she will add you to the list of participants and put your name on the sidebar!

3rd Annual Year of Enchantment

I have not participated in Val’s YOE in the past, but it looks fun, so join me!

I’m back, I think..

I have been off the radar for a few weeks, ended up in the hospital for a few days earlier this month, and then I just lost my ‘mojo’.  I have not done any sewing since right after Thanksgiving, but I did work on an apron hem this morning so maybe the ‘mojo’ is returning, I hope.  I never want to feel that bad and ill again ever!

I also was finding that I was too ‘connected’..Connected to my cell phone, connected to Facebook, and too connected with my blog, so a break was definitely in order.  My cell phone has been off since the first of December, I have my hubby here with me most of the time, and anyone can reach me via his phone..I am seriously thinking about discontinuing my cell phone, probably not right away, but in the future..It would save us a lot of money and to be honest I am very rarely not with Carl.

I am trying to check my email two or three times a day, if only to weed the unwanted stuff and not miss something from friends..You never know what might be in there waiting!  And Facebook is in the background, check it occasionally..its funny, all this technology and I wonder if any of you, like me, are needing a break from all of it??

We are getting ready to drive to NorCal this weekend to spend Grace Lily’s first Christmas with her and our son and daughter in love..She is almost 7 months old, my this is going fast!  Here are a couple of new pictures of our girl..

I know, I know, that was more than a ‘couple’, I just can’t help myself!

Have a wonderful week and thank you for stopping by!

Don’t You Hate it When you forget your passwords??

Well, I thought that was as good a title as any..As a matter of fact, I got signed out of my yahoo account and could not remember my password.  Drats.  I got ‘hacked’ a couple weeks ago, and had to change it.  I finally figured it out, but dang I hate that I even had to change it.  Stupid hackers.  Get a job.  ‘Nuff said.

How was your Thanksgiving?  We did zip, nada, zilch.  We have a wonderful neighbor who brought over an entire dinner for us about 6 tonight..he had cooked a huge meal..before you feel sorry for us, we are having our Thanksgiving tomorrow (Friday) with our son Dan, girl Netti, and the kids’ friends Eric and Jen..and my folks are invited to come over of course.  So the chicken nuggets I stuck in the oven will be good in a day or two..or be a fine treat for the doglets.

It’s been a rough week..I won’t gloss it over..my Depression is getting harder to gloss over, folks.  My doctor changed my medication about 3 weeks ago and boy, I hope this new stuff kicks in.  And as unsure I am at times about about myself and being able to cope..I am fully and so aware of many in such worse shape than we.  And today I was thinking back to when I was in my early 20’s, with not a hint of the depression that would strike me 20 years later.  I have been fighting this for at least 18 years…it struck with a vengeance in 1993 and although I have had a lot of years of doing ‘ok’, this past year for some reason has been a ‘bad one’.  But I will get through this, I have a lot to live for and that is that!

Thankful for my family.  Especially our little Grace Lily who has come into our lives this year..Oh my, and to think we will welcome another little one this upcoming May is a double blessing, as we seriously did not think grand parenting would be blessed upon us.  Ever.  The hard part of this is living over 500 miles away..tough, really tough.  Hoping we can rectify that somehow in the next few years, for now we have dependable wheels on the car and will try to make a trip up north every couple months anyway…Glad Christmas is not too far off, its been a month since we have seen Gracie and from what we are told she is crawling like a crazygirl!  Thankful for Facebook and text and picture messaging, we get frequent updates from the kids.

I am stockpiling little things for her, shopping is fun for a baby girl, I tell ya!  But  we are financially in a tighter way this year, so smarter shopping..it’s being together that counts..But this mom still needs to give a few gifts, anyway.

Our family:

Dan and his sweet girl Annette

Scott and his wife Melainie, parents of Gracie:

 

and Gracie!

My sis Cindy and her husband, Bruce, who live in Illinois:

My brother, Raymond:

My Mom and Dad:

and of course, the doglets!

India

Gracie

and Halo

 

and of course, our extended family and can’t forget our wonderful friends.  I am also thankful for my BLOG friends, a few I have met in person and all are treasured..thank you for being there for ME.

Jealous

Ok, I admit it, I get jealous..it’s a nasty word and feeling, isn’t it.  Right now my main issue is dreaming up snappy ideas and titles for my blogs..How do you witty and bright bloggers come up with ideas to write about..??

I think my problem is I do not have a ‘NICHE’ blog..I don’t speak of decorating much., but I guess I could take some shots of the house and talk about how I decided to do what I did here, decorating style anyway.  There are some awesome decorators out there in blogland who blog about decorating, I love reading their blogs but my niche is definitely not décor! Still a work in progress after 2 1/2 years..

I do like to sew my aprons and trying to branch out into other items.  I have not sewn for many, many years until the spring of 2010 I got involved in a couple of awesome apron swaps with other bloggers led by Val at Yarni Gras and also Shawnee at Flirty Apron Swap.  I can’t tell you how much fun I have had participating in these swaps and they got me sewing again after probably 20 years.  In addition to giving and receiving such fun and aprons and goodies, my sewing skills are much better than they were and it makes me want to move on to other items such as handbags and home décor items!  So  the apron thing is a fun thing for me to blog about, but does that get ‘old’ for you all to read all the time?  I dunno.

P. S. these aprons are all for sale, they really are needing new homes!

I am also blessed to blog about our Grace Lily and my adult kids..I probably don’t blog about the kids and their busy lives very often, again is any one interested in reading about my family?  I also have a sister I am very close to even though she lives in Illinois and I am in southern California and a brother and parents who live close by..

Oldest son Dan and his girl, Netti

Scott and his wife Melainie

Their daughter Grace Lily and one on the way

Me, my sis Cindy and our little brother Raymond, very OLD pictures!

And our parents, married in December, 1950 and celebrating 61 years of marriage on Christmas eve!  How awesome is THAT!

And of course there are our three dogs, Gracie, India and Halo..and no, baby Grace was not named after the dog, lol…now if the new baby is named India or Halo, I will know it’s a conspiracy.  These dogs are elderly but they still get into trouble here at the house, the other day we came home to one of them grabbing an entire loaf of nice wheat bread off the counter, we came home to shreds of plastic in the family room and thank goodness they did not eat the clips holding the bag closed, oh and I think there was a bagel left, too.  And we have one that likes to tip over the bathroom trash can when we are gone..so they are pretty interesting and could qualify for doggy day care!

Then there is travel and scenery.  We don’t travel much right now unless it’s heading north to visit with Scott, Lainie and Gracie..but that is travel and I’m sure there are interesting things along our route we could stop and check out.  So I am making a vow to keep my camera with me for capturing interesting things along our route!

Any way, I am at a loss most days for a catchy blog title, any help appreciated!

Pink Saturday Musings..

Hello to all my pink friends, I am still in a blog fog, but I don’t want to stop posting so will wing it I guess!

I am in the process of preparing for a HUGE giveaway, I should have all the details in the next few days, so stay tuned….yes it is that big..my biggest giveaway yet..just working on a few details..

Here is my normal pink picture, of course it’s my girl Grace Lily..This is her 5 month picture..I might be biased but this girl is a cutie..

I hope everyone has a wonderful PINK weekend, be sure to stop by and give some love to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, and also to visit some of our other pink posters!

Don’t forget to stay tuned for the upcoming giveaway!

Pink Saturday and What’s better than a Sale

I don’t very often promote my ETSY shop on my blog, but I have some wonderful hand crafted aprons that are for sale, and wit over tnh the holidays coming up, I placed them on a better sale, 20% off al aprons currently in my shop..would like to pass these cute aprons along for gifts and how better at a better price!

Head on over to my ETSY Shop and take a look around, if you find something for a nice gift or for yourself (come on, you know we all like to treat ourselves to an thing or is from time to time..

I will be listing a few Holiday aprons in full size and also half hostess styles, so stay tuned…I love crafting these and I hope it shows!

Here are a few available:

and..

and check out this hoot!  What fun this one would be..

I have so much fabric, ok I admit it, I am a fabric a holic, what can I say!  Any who!  I have about any kind of style and colors you can imagine sooo if you would like a custom apron, let me know!

I would so like to thank our sweet Beverly at How sweet the Sound, please stop by and say hi and that I sent you!  So many special pinkies sign up each and every Saturday and its so much fun and enlightening to read our other pinkies stories!

Thank you for stopping by..I can’t leave a post without a picture of my sweet Grace Lily

Grampy Carl with Gracie

With her sweet mamma..

Gramma Barb and Gracie

At the pumpkin farm..

My favorite..

thank you for indulging me today.. Grace just turned 5 months old and guess what!  We found out while on our trip up north that the kids are expecting another little one mid May, 2012…So Grace will be a big sister!  We are very excited, Grace is a bonus for Dogpaw and I, the more the merrier..we could not be more excited..so we we will be very, very busy late next spring and early summer helping out these young grandkids..and could not be happier!

Have a wonderful weekend, and yes I do read each of your comments, and I promise to try t be better about corresponding in the near future.  I love reading all your blog stories!

May GOD bless each and everyone of you..

Hmmm…Being Brave on Pink Saturday!

I have to apologize for my lack of motivation on my blog..I tell you I am in such a blog fog, hoping it passes quickly!  I can’t stand not being able to blog like I want to..what do you do when you get a blog fog?  How can I shake this off?

My friend Parsley posted a dare on one of her posts this week to be brave and post a picture of ourselves.  I just saw the post so here goes:

This was taken a year ago while visiting my sis and brother in law at their farmhouse in western Illinois…Isn’t that an adorable apron, it was a gift from my sweet friend Karen, my daughter in love’s stepmom…It does say DOGMOM DIVA in pink on it..I just love it!  So snazzy!

We are visiting our son and daughter in love and the lovely Grace Lily this weekend, we got here last night and will stay a few days, until Tuesday most likely…I have not had a chance to take more pictures but I will have plenty of picture taking opportunities these next few days.

While blog hopping earlier, I noticed that my dear friend Anne of Phamilyblog posted a picture of a new teapot she found…Here is an image of my Mary Kay teapot..I won it in a contest a few years ago and it’s one of my treasures…and so pretty in pink..

I had given some thought to having a giveaway for it, but so far I can’t part with it.  Maybe one day!

Have a wonderful weekend, I love that you came to visit my blog and especially love your comments!  Stop by and visit our sweet Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, she is our hostess with the mostest!