THE WEEK-END ACTIVITIES AND WRAP UP

Well I enjoyed every minute of our week-end, and I hope you did too.  Sat morning we had a nice breakfast and sat around having coffee and tea and enjoying some good conversation.  We got busy after that on my latest dilemma.  I just first have to say here though how grateful I am for a husband who is ALWAYS willing to help me out in the way he is.  It is ALWAYS appreciated, and makes me feel like he is one of the best guys around, and he and the Lord (who blessed me with him!) love me. Which is a GOOD way to feel.  Let me tell you what my problem was.  I had an embroidered on a nice piece of white flannel the verse in Jeremiah where it speaks of God's plans and having a future and a hope.  It is such a wonderful promise from God and of course MANY people's favorite verse.  I feel like it is the perfect verse to display at a baby shower, or hanging or sitting in a baby's room.  So I printed it out in navy and kelly green and figured I would just have to figure out a way to display it in a frame etc. later.  Of course I have seen this occasionally done in stores, but had not idea how they took fabric and stretched and pinned it somehow into a frame.  I started on Friday calling both Joanne's and Michael's to inquire about having this professionally done.  WOW! is all I had to say about that, lol. The least expensive quote was around 50 or 60 dollars!  So far this project had cost me nothing but my time, and yet I wanted to keep it REASONABLE at least, lol. So hubby and I headed over to Michael's to see what we could find in order to do this ourselves. Well the guy working in the framing department there told us EXACTLY how to do it.  He cut the little piece of "sponge board" to the correct size we needed (soo helpful and only charged us a dollar for this...just what I always feel like spending) and then showed us the size of pins we needed and where they were located, and explained how to stretch and pin the fabric so that there wouldn't be any wrinkles etc., and then we simply picked out an 8 by 10 frame which was on sale. We both felt like it SHOULD be easy, but you know how those things go. Nothing is ever as easy as it sounds.  Anyway, after we had our supplies we stopped at hubby's choice for lunch which was The Lazy Dog.  I had Maggie's snake river salad and was honestly almost in heaven. Soo good. Spinach and lettuce mixed with crispy bacon, tomato, onion, feta cheese, walnuts and cranberries, and a wonderful balsamic dressing.  Yummy....just my kind of salad. Hubby had their blueberry pancakes that came with blueberry butter (looked awesome!) and syrup.  They did look good, but my salad would have been very hard to beat.  After lunch we decided to go to the movies and it was hubby's turn to pick so he decided on the Monuments Men.  It was based on a true story about recovering and returning to the rightful owners all the priceless art and statues etc. that were stolen by the Germans in world war 2.  It was good. After that we stopped and did our grocery shopping for the week and went on home.  After everything was put away hubby sat down to get the picture put together.  I headed to the nearby couch to stretch my knees out and keep him company while he worked.  Let me just say this.  It turned out sooo much better than I had even hoped for it would be hard to express it.  The picture I took of it does NOT do it justice.  I tried several different angles and lighting trying to get it right.  I did NOT dig out the good camera though which of course is what  I should have done.  But without any further explanation, let me show you...

HE GOT THIS WITHOUT A SINGLE WRINKLE OR PUCKER AND PERFECTLY CENTERED. (which wasn't easy!)  I DID GIVE IT A GOOD IRONING (WITH STARCH) BEFORE HE BEGAN, WHICH DID HELP I THINK, BUT THE PIECE OF FABRIC I HAD IT ON HAD TO BE TRIMMED ETC. TO GET IT TO FIT SO THERE WAS LOTS OF ROOM FOR ERROR.  I SOO LIKE THE WAY THIS LOOKS THAT I COULD MAKE UP A FEW MORE AND DISPLAY THEM AROUND OUR HOUSE TOO.  SOO MANY POSSIBILITIES.

I also have done up a couple of onsies.  These came together soo easily it made me grateful that I FINALLY have everything involved with this process all figured out.  Embroidery on the small little shirts has a definite "fiddly" feel to it, (which if you have read my blog for a while you know is NEVER my favorite kind of feel) but it honestly all goes pretty quick and easy now.  I do have a few more to make up, both for Jessie's new baby and for Luke and Vinny.  I hope to get those finished up today.  And I have one more scripture picture I'd like to do too as I have ALL the supplies already for it, which would make it free, lol.  But we will see.  Let me show the onesis I have done.

HAVE DONE THIS DESIGN WHICH I LOVE FOR BOTH LUKE AND VINNY.  I AM SEEING THIS ONE WITH A LITTLE PAIR OF PLAID NAVY AND GREEN SHORTS

AND JUST HAD TO MAKE THIS ONE FOR MY SISTER.  THIS IS HER FIRST GRANDCHILD, AND TO SAY SHE IS EXCITED WOULD BE PUTTING IT MILDLY.  I AM SOO HAPPY FOR HER!

Sunday we drove down to San Diego for church as always.  It was SUCH a good service.  I do appreciate the time and effort James puts into his messages and studies, and am thoroughly enjoying this study on Revelations.  After church hubby and I left right away as we were going to stop by my youngest sister's house on the way home to pick up some bags of clothes she had collected that her son has out grown for my two grandsons JD and Jeffie.  JD is only 7 and Jeff is almost 10 but they are wearing the same size.  JD is such a big boy!  I am thinking he might reach 6' 6" or so if he keeps this up.  It was nice to have a good visit with them.  I have not seen then since before Christmas, and was surprised at how their kids have grown. There is an abundance of clothes to pick from, and I am grateful to get them as I know my kids's families will be too.  After dinner hubby finished putting the snaps on the rest of the bibs I had waiting for him.  All 13 of them! And yes Vee, he did resort to using a hammer even with the tool, lol.  But I secretly think he enjoys doing this, lol.

A busy, busy, week is looming here in front of me as I honestly want to try and finish up EVERYTHING for this baby and shower by Friday.  I'd love to have next week to relax some and put this gal back together so to speak, lol.  I have a hair appointment, a nail appointment, an eyebrow waxing appointment and a shopping trip planned out to try and get that done.  And I do have my weekly Bible study lessons to get done, and next week is my monthly one as well.  Sooo again, best get off of here and get cracking.  I have a few random pictures to leave you with that I want to share, but more importantly want to have in my books. Hope you all have a GOOD week!  Blessings to you all!  Debbie

ENJOYING BEACH WEATHER IN FEBRUARY!

VINNY AND HIS BEAUTIFUL MAMA

GUESS WHOSE POTTY TRAINED GRANDMA!  SUCH A BIG BOY SAM!

MY OLDEST SON AND HIS STUDIO WERE FEATURED IN A BLACK BELT MAGAZINE RECENTLY.  SUCH AN HONOR   SOME REALLY GOOD PICTURES AND A FEATURE SECTION ABOUT JOE.  I TRIED TO TAKE PICTURES OF IT SO YOU COULD KIND OF SEE....

THE COPIED PICTURE OF HIM ALONE CAME OUT BETTER!  LOL