I spent six weeks in California (left November 10th to go by Amtrak- got there November 14th) helping my son, daughter in law and our grandchildren move to a new apartment. It was a lot of work, but fun too.  I helped by packing boxes,  (I have to admit I didn't carry too many) I helped clean up the old apartment before turning the keys over to the landlord, and then I unpacked boxes and helped by making curtains, pillows for their new barstools they eat on now, etc. I made each granddaughter pillows for their beds too and bulletin boards to match. They each painted signs with their names on too so their rooms would be "coordinated". My dil is going to send me a picture when it's all assembled as Christmas came in the middle of it. Then I went home (Dec 28th) and then my dil had to have major surgery that she is still recovering from (so the curtains aren't up yet).

Here are pictures of the girls with their pillows: The first one is Brianna and then Amber.

It was so much fun to make the stuff for them-- we walked almost every day to the "Michael's Arts and Crafts Store" which was about a 15 minute walk. Then Joel and our sons Chris and Rob came and we went down to be there for our son Tom's commissioning into the Air Force.

I went home Dec 28th. A good time was had by all.

Valentine's Day Pins

I made pins for my granddaughters for Valentine's Day. I knew they really liked the fabric I'd used for their pillows so I used that fabric for their pins. It was comparatively easy to make these pins-- I just made large yo-yos and gathered the top into a point, secured it with a button and sewed a pin on the back I tied a ribbon around the button to further accent it a bit. Sent 'em off and they got there in time for the big Day. The girls loved them, even more than the candy I sent :-). This made my day. Here is a picture of the pins, in case you'd like to try them.

Brianna's pin

 

Amber's pin. 

They were fun to make, and done in like a half hour a piece!  

Making progress...

I know this is not about crafting, per se-- but it's what's been going on in my life. I figure I have to get through the thinking process of this mess if I'm going to be able to do any crafting at all. So here goes: (if you don't have this problem, just come back to read what's happening next time -- I promise it won't be about cleaning house! :-)).

Joel, my husband of 35+ years, has been working in Dallas TX (we live in Raleigh, NC so we have been about 20 hours apart for all but about 6 weeks since July!). This happened in July of 2004, because the money from our savings just "ran out" after Joel had been out of work for almost a year, (give or take a few small contracts that he had -- he teaches Java programming).

It's been rough. He's lonely-- I'm lonely. He's bored, and I'm anything BUT bored-- in fact, lately, I rarely get to do any where near as much crafting or working on my business as I'd like to.

Well! Yesterday (Saturday) Joel came home for a week- just in time for Valentine's Day, mind you :-D! In preparation for his coming home, I got the house cleaned for the first time since he left at the beginning of January. It feels sooo nice to be able to find things again-- I'm not totally sure how it got so out of hand, but I definitely hope to keep it from ever becoming like that again.

Tomorrow, I am going to tidy up the house from the weekend's activities to try to keep it nice and not have to dig out again like I did this last few weeks. (One big problem for me was that I put all the Christmas stuff into my son's old room, and kept telling myself I should go through it and get rid of the stuff that is just taking up space. Finally, I just put it all in the closet, and then somehow, I could think so much easier! Now why didn't I think of that earlier???? Amazing how it just kept nagging at my mind to get it out of the way, and when I finally did, I was free to think of what else needed to be done.

Anyway, after I do the tidying, I am going to work on my jewelry. I will post what I get done. Wish me luck ;-)