Just a Reminder for the Locals!

I hope I will see you this year at the 2nd Annual Porch Sale! Last year was awesome!

Here are some pictures from last year:

I hope you can make it!!

I am off to work in my studio to prepare! Send me any special requests you may have!!

~ Jennifer ~

September Giveaway! Come sign up! | Blessings in the Country

September Giveaway! Come sign up! | Blessings in the Country:

You have to check out this blog and the awesome give away from Jessica at Blessings in the country (Click on the title above). Here is just one of the prizes you could win!

Hope you guys are having a great week and don't forget to find a little stitching time!

~ Jennifer ~

Trees

I finished up a Christmas tree last night. Natalie, my 12 year old, says it looks like a Christmas tree from Whoville so that is what I am calling it. I couldn’t get a great picture of it but it is a cutey.  I will be listing it on my selling blog today!

Here is the only damage we had from Irene, a large tree limb fell and took down a smaller limb. It makes me happy because the tree it fell from is this huge leaning tree in our backyard. It is taller than our house and has a mean lean to it. I had asked the builders to remove it but they wouldn’t. They cleared out so much land around he one side of it that I am scared it will one day fall onto our house. The top part of the tree has been dying over the years and the part that fell is that dead part.  It dies a little and then when we get a storm we loose a little. So I guess Mother Nature is slowly removing the tree for us.

I am off to sleep, I have work tonight and I have to get up earlier so I can walk on the tread-climber before I go.  I am quite sad I gained 1.3 pounds this week. I did horrible the month of August and I weigh the same as I did on our first weigh in of August. Bad month for me. I am very sad today.

Have a great day and I hope you can find a little stitching time!!!

~ Jennifer ~

Finally Some doll Finishes!!

I am very excited to show you a couple that I have finally completed. I have been so ADD working on my dolls lately. I have so many in different stages it is driving me nuts. But I think I am in the right frame of mind to finish a lot of them, of course tonight is my last night off so I have to try and do as many as I can since I am in this frame of mind.

So here are a couple Halloween kitties. The first one is adapted from a Cat Nap Primitives Pattern called Junk Yard Cat, I added and changed a lot, I can’t find my pattern so I had to just do what I thought would look nice.

And this is my little guy. He is a cutey with his sisal tail!

I have done several ghosts that I am not happy with so I need to work on them a bit longer, a couple witch dolls that need dresses, a bunch of the Junk Yard Cats and I think that is really all I am doing for Halloween this year. I am about to list these items on my selling blog tonight.

I still need to give these gals a good dusting of glass glitter but I had to take a picture because they look so sweet.  They are done using Moonchild’s Primitives pattern Snow Angel. I can’t find my glass glitter so I had to order some more today. It is very pricey so I am a little upset, I can’t imagine where it is. My studio is quite messy so no telling.

I used up all of my Bri wax and had to order a replacement. The company that manufactured it is no longer in existence so I used what the Cloth Doll Supply said was a good replacement. I am sort of concerned because it feels “liquidy” and Bri Wax was not. I have not opened it to give it a try yet so I am not discrediting it yet. I order from Cloth Doll Supply a lot. It is an awesome on line store to get patterns and supplies. And she always throws in little exta goodies. I just made this order a couple days ago and got it today in the mail today. Lightening fast shipping.

Well I am off to list the dolls and get back to work. I hope you are all staying safe tonight and Hurricane Irene isn’t causing too much trouble for you.

~ Jennifer ~

Irene, Stitching, and Dolls

So tonight is the night, Hurricane Irene is currently reeking havoc on the Carolinas.  We are further inland so it shouldn’t be too terrible. We are getting bands of wind and rain and thunder but nothing major yet.

I finished up a couple stitcheries this past week:

I have also slowly been working on my piles, they are everywhere. I had some dolls sunning today on the front porch but it began raining and I had to bring them in.

Here is my basket of the to be stuffed and being stuffed dolls.

You can see in this picture, the middle right side, that is my spot to sit, Louise sits on the pink blanket (as long as I have animal crackers for her).

Little Louise, she has become a beggar. She has always had food allergies so for her 14 years of life she has never eaten treats. Well, I happened to give her an animal cracker the last week and she had no bad reaction to it, so slowly we have given her a little more each day.  She doesn’t eat much and was loosing a lot of weight, she is at 2 pounds right now. We figured she likes the animal crackers and will eat them so we are going to let her eat them. She is now a crazed animal! Just look at her!

I received my new business cards from Vistaprint.com. I love them. I added a few pictures of a couple dolls and a stitchery. I think I am going to change the photos every time I reorder. It was hard to get a picture on her, I tried scanning and the camera and it wont let me really get a good picture. I guess they do that so you can’t just copy the card yourself. They are so inexpensive I wouldn’t want to spend the money on my own ink printing them anyway.

I wanted to show you a picture that my 8 year old Alice drew of one of her favorite cartoon characters. It is Phineas from Phineas and Ferb. Isn’t it cute, she did it on a dry erase board so I made her left me take a picture of it.

Well, I know I wore you guys out on pictures tonight. I am going to continue working on dolls.

I hope everyone stays safe tonight and finds a little stitching time!

~ Jennifer ~

Gingerbread Men and Sneezing!

I traced stitcheries onto fabric this weekend, 75 to be exact, so I have those to add to my 100 or so I already carry around with me to stitch on. They are all Christmas designs. Currently I am adding wool Gingerbread men to some of them. I don't know if you can tell my the pictures what designs they are, I took it with my phone and it doesn't have a good camera on it. I will show better pictures after they have been stitched.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was very busy. The kids and I took a trip to a mall on Friday and walked around it for a little over 4 hours. We were so tired by the time we got home. It was so busy, but I guess being the last weekend before school starts it is no wonder. They were able to spend all their hard earned money and some of mine on things they have been wanting.

Saturday I don't know what happened to me after I cut the grass I decided to clean out the garage. It is so clean in there, makes me feel good, I even sprayed around the entire thing for bugs.  I was outside working for five hours straight, it was hot, I had given myself about 3 showers with the hose and changed clothes twice. Then we went for our family walk, another 45 minutes, another change of clothes and a real shower. I was so happy because before I got into the shower I had no reaction from all that I had done outside. But after my shower, it hit me. The sneezing started, just a couple here and there, so I decided I would do the sinus cleanse and take my nightly dose of my nose spray. But then my eyes started swelling, and the sneezing became more frequent and my nose started to close up and I had to use my inhaler, it was here, the "non-allergy attack".

It became the family joke the rest of the evening, that I was faking it. My kids would just walk up to me and look at me shaking their heads saying, "You are a good faker." By two a.m. I was still going, I took some allergy medicine, I know I don't have allergies, and a little something to help me go to sleep, and I laid in my bed sneezing until I eventually drifted off to dreamland. Now I am doing good, feeling better and stitching away.

I have decided I am going to make me some face masks to wear. I have a subscription to the Japanese magazine "Cotton Time" and they always have patterns for them.  I think it may help me when I am working outside or cleaning.

Have a super Monday and I hope you can find a little stitching time today!!

~ Jennifer ~

Allergy Testing

Today was the day. I had put it off for years and looked forward to it for years. All for nothing, well maybe not “nothing”.  I will fill you in in a minute.

I have been working the last two nights and I am anxious to get back into my craft room. I am almost finished up with a great bunch of items. No pictures yet of the stuffed ones. I have finished up some stitcheries and stained those when I got home from work this morning.

This is a stitchery design by Moonchild Primitives.

This is a stitchery design from Primitive Blessings.

This one is a Primitive Stitches pattern.

I am stitching a little slower than normal. My eyes have been very blurry lately, I think they are tired.

I had about 50-60 skin pricks, test came back with possibly allergic to mold and bermuda grass, so the doctor ordered up the next tests because he did not believe the first one. The next test  would include more of like a shot just under the skin, 17 of those. I was there for two hours, my little care taker Alice came with me and snapped some pictures of my arms, which are quite sore right now.

Bottom line is this, I am NOT allergic to ANYTHING!!!!!! That’s right, all of you who know me and who have witnessed my so called “allergy” attacks, well I must be a good faker. I am upset, I was hoping to go and find out what I was allergic to and get a series of shots that would do wonders, but that is not happening. I am most likely allergic to guinea pigs, the doctor said he did not have a test for that, but since they do cause be to break out in hives, the doctor assumed that one would be positive.

I was a little upset at first but after talking with him he assured me we could still fix it, well mostly. My diagnosis is Non-allergic Rhinitis Nonallergic rhinitis involves chronic sneezing or having a congested, drippy nose with no apparent cause. The symptoms of nonallergic rhinitis are similar to those of hay fever (allergic rhinitis), but there's no allergic reaction involved. Although nonallergic rhinitis is more annoying than harmful, it can make you miserable. Triggers of nonallergic rhinitis symptoms vary from person to person and can include certain odors or irritants in the air, changes in the weather, some medications, certain foods, and chronic health conditions. A diagnosis of nonallergic rhinitis is made after an allergy is ruled out.(definition from Mayo Clinic)

I can stop popping the benadryl and all the rest of the allergy medicines that don’t really help much. I have a new nasal spray, sinus rinse once a day and maybe a higher dose anti-histimine if the first two don’t work in the next two weeks.

Anyway, I hope you guys are having a great week and are finding a little stitching time!!

~ Jennifer ~

A little Vacation

I have not had a chance to get much sewing done, we have been out of town since Wednesday. We went to visit with my in–laws in Solomons Island, Maryland.  We had a fantastic time!

The kids were all hoping to do a little swimming but there were too many of these around, sea nettles.

I remember their sting and I wanted no part of it. They were everywhere.  Alice and Gordon attempted to swim a little but I think they both were too worried they were going to get stung or bit by these little guys.

Crabs, great for eating but not as swimming partners. Alice and I only lasted on the boat for one trip. My verdigo/balance issues had me hanging over the side a little too much. I love fishing, but I guess I have to stick to pier or shore fishing. I spent most of my time with a net chasing the crabs around pilings of the pier. The crabs and fish were busy eating from the pilings. I got pretty good at it but the bigger crabs were still a little too fast for me.

Alice was the first to catch fish, she caught 2 spot at the same time.

Gordon was next with another spot.

Poor little fish!

Natalie and Gordon caught a bunch the next trip out. Here is Natalie with her Grandpa and her big fish. I think that is also a spot. I was a little disappointed no one brought any back. I was hoping for some fish for dinner.

Natalie also had a chance to steer the boat a little!

My men, so handsome!

I put this picture in because there is a story that goes along with it. If you click on the picture you can see Gordon in the air. He kept jumping up and down. After my husband took this picture he walked back to the house. About 5 minutes or so later, Gordon came running to the house, soaking wet.

Apparently he continued jumping but was jumping backwards instead. He fell off the pier and was so scared about the crabs and sea nettles he just kicked his legs and arms in terror. Grandpa could not hear his wails inside the boat, Natalie (a.k.a. Super Twig – that is her new name) jumped to action and pulled her little brother on to the pier. We are so proud of her. Gordon could have stood up, the water was only about 2 feet deep at the point where he fell in but he was too scared to realize that.

We also enjoyed visiting with their little CJ, isn’t he a cutie!!

My favorite part of the trip, besides visiting my in-laws was the crabs! I have not had steamed crabs in so long. They were so delicious.

So Yummy!

My first one of many!

So that is what I have been up to. I took a lot of doll bodies and stuffed a bunch when I could, but I am way behind and anxious to get back to work.

I hope you guys are having a great week and have been able to find a little stitching time!

~ Jennifer ~

Will Summer Ever End?

I am climbing the walls, well, I am not climbing the walls, the kids are climbing the walls. Natalie is with me, she is ready for them to go back to school.  I think they are beginning to forget how to behave.  Ahhh, I feel better now. I guess I just needed to vent!

I finished up the baby quilt and delivered it to my customer. I did not do fancy quilting on it because I did not like how it looked on the back with that sateen fabric, I think that is what it is called. Here are a couple shots of the front and back.

I will be getting the quilt back to add some additions. They want the binding to be made from one of the dresses and a couple other things done, so I will be working on it soon.

The last couple years my husband has been wanting me to make a Candy Corn doll. Last year I made one big one, which I sold at the Rusty Bucket.

This year I made two little ones. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Kandy Korn! Aren’t they the cutest. Well they are much cuter in person. I still have some tweaking to do but I am liking them so far.

Here is my sewing room floor today, after I cleaned up a little.

Last night I could not sleep so I stayed in there all night and today. I did not get much accomplished besides making a big mess.

I did get a healthy box sewn up of items to be stuffed. I have about 50 different bodies in there.

I will admit I have been keeping something from you guys because I was embarrassed. Remember I said the last time I had a real bad allergy attack I was making an appointment for the Allergist. Yeah, I never did. So Saturday I got it bad, was dosing up on the medicine all weekend. Now I have a migraine and am sick to my stomach from all the medicine. But the good news is. I did make my appointment. On the 16th I will be tested and maybe just maybe I can get some kind of handle on this thing. Bad news is I cannot take any type of allergy medication for five days before the test. I gasped when the lady at the office told me that, she asked if I was okay and I told her she could not be serious and she confirmed she was. I am going to be a mess by the 16th. Egad!!

Okay, back to life, I guess I will let the little ones out of their rooms now! Mean mommy!

I hope you all find a little stitching time today!!

~ Jennifer ~