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Happy Birthday To Me!

Recently I received this card from my friend Trish. I hadn't been expecting anything from her and so I was suprised. I was even more suprised when I opened it and read that she was wishing me a Happy Birthday. My birthday is in July!

I thought she'd gotten my birthday mixed up with someone else's until I continued reading what she wrote. She did know that it was very early or very late... LOL

How many times have I found the perfect card for someone, set it aside till their birthday and then completely forgotten about it, only to find it long after their birthday has passed?

I have to say.... I like this idea.. Find the perfect card for someone... just send it! When my birthday comes along, I will remember that a good friend thought enough of me to be sure that she didn't miss wishing me a Happy Birthday. Isn't that sweet?

A Life Overflowing

I glitch in Blogger switching from old to new version has made it impossible for me to post updates on the 'A Life Overflowing' blog and so I'm posting my updates here.

In this group we are paired up with another person, round robin style. Partners are to pray for each other, keep in touch and since this exchange has a coffee/tea/drink theme, we are to gift our partner with items we believe they will enjoy based on info they've supplied.

The most recent request or assignment is to post photos of our favorite cups.

Here are some of mine ....

A gift from daughter Tina, porcelain with ming style cobalt design, comfortable to hold, nice and big.











A gift from friend Lynn L. If I'm reading, counting stitches, whatever and someone starts talking to me while the cup is close by.. I only need to lift it or point to it and they understand to give me a second to finish counting or reading.

I think there needs to be cups that say. Shhhh.. I'm thinking... or maybe just Shhh I'm _________ and then one can fill in the blank .

A gift to myself... note the little dragonfly and garden theme. A nice stoneware cup for maintaining the temperature of the drink it holds.

A gift from Sis. Just before she gave me this, someone had greeted me saying Feliz Navidad!

Spanish was my first language, but I grew up in the states and so English is my main language now. Sometimes I'll hear an English word or phrase and not understand it cause I'm listening in Spanish ... and the same with Spanish phrases.... does that make sense? *G*

When this person greeted me.. I thought.. what did they say about fleeces? Duh! And then I realized they were wishing me a Merry Christmas.



I live with a pack of Lhasa Apsos and this Lhasa puppy print caught my eye, bought it for my den. Later a friend gave me this cup. When I got the cup I thought, this looks familiar. It wasn't till I set it on my desk one day that I realized why it looked familiar.. *G*







Yes, I know, it's not a cup. But you have to have a creamer right? This cute little staffordshire creamer caught my eye because it has dahlias on it and Mom loved Dahlias.










Mom, known to family members as Mamita, also loved roses.

Before she passed she told me she wanted me to have her china cabinet. I spent many hours as a child making sure things in there were dusted. Along with the cabinet I brought home some pieces with roses. The cup on the far left was a gift from Lynn L and it just fits right in.

The tiny little cup in front was one I gave Mamita as a gift. She like miniature things. The saucer says. "I love you, Mom".



Also in that cabinet are some of Mamita's art deco cups.. I don't dare use them for fear they'll be damaged.


Packed in a box are my grandmother Catatlina's tiny cups. I didn't have a place to display them safely and had packed them away and only just remembered that I had them. Now I can put them in the cabinet with the others.

Catching up....

I can't believe it is January 14th already... my days just seem to be zipping by.. I'm getting in some studio time whenever I can, not always easy to do with family, friends, dogs and local activities. I'll be posting some new things on my studio blog and website as I work on them.

A new year means new projects. My first project completed was a pocket bag. I saw the project in Spindlicity and decided to try it. I made a few changes to the pattern, but used the technique for added the second yarn and second needle in order to work the inside and outside pockets at the same time. I would not recommend this project to a beginner knitter, but I enjoyed making the bag.

The first bag was made from using Serenity Farms (Hi Cary!) Corriedale wool from a sheep named Eve and a blue wool blend, but I gave away the first bag before I took a photo of it. Sorry Cary, maybe that person will take a photo of it for us, or I'll get it another time.

Anyway, I liked it so much that I've since made another for myself and did remember to take a photo a photo at the beginning and end, but still forgot to take a photo before fulling... the color in the photo is off and I didn't feel like fussing with it.. it is mostly shades of garnet red, crimson, gold, black etc.

In these photos both needles being used can be seen.




The finished bag ....




A peek inside, pockets barely visible in the photo but very handy. The blue is a lace project in progress, using one of my laceweight yarns. I love this pattern and yarn and will post more about it soon.




The last project completed in 2006 other than a pair of socks were two hats, one for Connor and then because his mom liked it so much, one for her. I dyed worsted weight merino for something that would go well with denim and they turned out well.






Speaking of Connor... grampa bought him new slippers and Connor likes them very much. Here he is wearing his slippers. When he saw the camera, he came over for a close up... funny boy.





He stomped around in his slippers so much that he wore himself out quickly.. By the time he had lunch he could barely keep his eyes open.




In this photo, he was struggling to keep his eyes open ... but he likes to eat and was determined to finish his veggies.




Unable to stay awake and no longer able to complain if I took his food away, off to bed he went for a 3 hour nap!

A New Year's Prayer...

You are ushering in another year, untouched and freshly new,

So here I am to ask You, God, if You'll renew me, too.

But, Father, I am well aware I can't make it on my own.

So take my hand and hold it tight,

For I can't walk alone

- Helen Steiner Rice

Happy New Year!

Felicidades!

My New Year wish for everyone is that they be showered with Blessings.

For Dale...

Here are the photos you couldn't see in my email. You can see the edges of the tree skirts made from round tablecloths. So check out those after Christmas sales!

The cute puppy under the tree is Tara as a pup and then as a young adult. She is 6 years old now and generally known as Tara the twirp or Tara the terror. She works hard to live up to those names. I should have known such serious eyes on a puppy meant trouble. *G*

For some reason known only to her, yesterday Tara's half and older sister Krystal aka 'Diva' aka 'The Princess' decided after all these years to see if the crocheted skirt tasted good. I caught her before she did a lot of damage...... grrrrrrrrrrr!

How did this go from being about tree skirts to griping about dogs?

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas ....

Merry Christmas!

I enjoyed reading Pamela's blog post where she shows some of her ornaments and memories attached to them. I felt as if I'd stopped in for a visit even though she lives 'across the pond'.

This is our tree this year. We placed it where it could be seen from both sides of the house and I like it there. I can enjoy it all day long. The second photo was taken this morning when I was the only one up and enjoying a cup of coffee at the kitchen island. The photo is a bit blurry, but you get the idea of how it looks with just the tree lights on.

Normally we put old toys under the tree instead of gifts, things like trucks, baby dolls, etc. Most of these toys aren't safe for very young children and with 2 grandchildren under the age of 2, we decided to leave the toys out this year and the gifts in place so the kids couldn't easily reach all the ornaments.




Our Tree Topper.. We've had this for quite some time and every year it's getting harder to keep her upright, but I like having both a star and angel at the top of the tree.




Another angel, this one from when I collected porcelain dolls and learned how to make them. A couple of older and smaller angels can be seen, one a beaded angel and another made of porcelain. And a jointed teddy for all of Eve's Bears made for more than 20 years. Hubby likes Norman Rockwell things and so there is an ornament behind the teddy with an Rockwell theme.



When the children were little we made ornaments every year. One year we made the folk style Santas from aluminum foil, paper clips, papier mache and paint. Another year we made lots of peppermint candy. The drummer boy in the photo is part of an older Avon metal 12 days of Christmas ornament set. The kids like to look for each one of the ornaments on the tree.



Tina made this ornament in grade school and you can see another peppermint ornament.



The little stork ornament was given to Tina as a baby and the ballet bear was from her ballet days




For the year Tina performed in the Nutcracker. As you may have guessed, she like ornaments more than the other kids.



Mom has been gone 11 years now, but on my tree hangs a little doll made from one of her hankies. It reminds me of how much she loved flowers.



A spider because I like buggy stuff and because I like the story of the Christmas Spider



Another just because I like it.



Each year I like to add a new ornament to replace one that has broken, been given away or become so fragile that it can't go up on the tree. Last year I was given this one.




And this year's new ornament from Pamela, a Cicada bug tiny bag.. adorable!

Since trees in our house have been known to be wiped out by kids or dogs getting just a little too frisky, we keep our very favorite and fragile decorations in a curio cabinet and not on the tree..

A gift from a friend... a carved santa holding an Eve's Bear.

Tree decorated with glass beads Tina made. Blown glass ornaments made by family membersat a local studio. Mr snowman there now has a girlfriend and living happily ever after.

And little snowbabies made by a local doll maker. Connor has been checking these out and trying to figure out how to open the cabinet... uh oh.. There remind of playing in the snow, something we may get to do soon as snow is predicted for tonight.