BUSY BUSY OVER HERE...

Well it's late Thursday afternoon and I have had a busy, busy, week.  I did have to throw in the towel on getting everything that I had planned done, and concentrated on what HAD to be done before we leave.  And that was first of all the PJ'S.  I am happy to report they are all COMPLETELY finished, and in fact a couple pairs of them have been delivered as well, lol.  And then the next on my list [and by far the most time consuming] was the Advent Calendar.  I mean seriously what is the point of an Advent Calendar if you don't have it by the first of December right? lol.  Soo Monday I began working on my last one.  There are of course 24 design envelopes, each of which have to be individually done of course, and honestly take way longer per design then you might think.  Some were quick in that they only had a single color change or maybe two, but MANY of them had as many color changes as seven or eight.  But even the quickest designs took at least 20 minutes, and some of the longer ones took 45 to 50 minutes.  That meant that I spent ALL day Mon and Tues [eight/nine] hours each day sitting at that machine getting all those envelopes done.  I was able to use my metallic threads this time though, and they added a good look.  But by the time I was finished I was kind of hurting in a few places I am not going to lie, lol.  Which was good that then Wednesday I took a break and we had our weekly bible study at my house.  The study is going really well, and all of us have felt we have really learned a lot.  I am soo grateful that we are able to do this.  After the girls left it was kind of late in the day but I still needed to run to the store and get a new hot glue gun. The trigger on mine has not been working well for a while, and considering you can buy one for a few bucks I decided it was worth it to get another considering I have LOTS of gluing still left on that project.  Plus, I hoped to find some ready made bows to glue onto the numbers, so as to not have to hassle making 24 little bows.  I also wanted to run by Penny's and look for a couple of new tops. Now I know I have done a lot of whining on this blog about my knees, so I don't have to tell you that shopping and my knees do NOT go together well.  Especially late in the day.  But I took off anyway, determined to get it done.  Well, I found 3 new tops but not very quickly, and by the time I left the store I was kind of walking slow and hurting kind of bad. I pressed on to Joannes for my glue gun and bows however.  Here's where I probably should have just gone home, lol.  First of all they did not have enough ready made bows in ANY color, let alone the color I needed.  I was tempted for a minute to just by a mix of colors and call it a wrap, but I knew I'd not be happy with that.  Soo I dug around and found some eighth of an inch cream colored ribbon and just resigned myself to having to make all those little bows myself.  Then I remember that I needed more embroidery stabilizer to finish as well and got that and headed to the cutting table where there was a much longer line then I hoped for.  I stood in the line waiting my turn wondering how much longer I could really work my legs.  With it finally cut I headed to the front of the store to pay, and when I saw THAT line honestly I was tempted to just lay everything down and come back another day.  But I stood in that one too [over 20 minutes just there] and crawled almost literally to my car.  As I was entering the freeway it hit me that I had forgotten to buy a new glue gun.  Honestly I would have just worked the old one with the broker trigger except for the fact I was out of glue sticks too.  Not caring if I ever glued anything ever again though I just headed home, lol.  I was never soo glad as to hit my couch last night though I can tell you.  This morning I was feeling alot better thank goodness and made quick work of embroidering all the numbers for the envelopes and making all the little bows.  That was such a non event I honestly wondered why I had ever made such a fuss about it.  I had enough glue to glue all of the ribbons to the numbers [you just need a drop!] and some of the numbers to their envelopes.  But I had a nail appointment this afternoon, so I left, stopped and got my glue gun and sticks and headed to the nail salon.  How wonderful that all felt let me tell you.  When I got home I finished gluing all the numbers to their envelopes, and here I am.  Soooo now tomorrow I will glue all the envelopes to the big piece of felt and embroider the header on there and I will be finished.  I imagine it will take me most of the day to do that, but then I will be officially done until we get back from New Mexico for Thanksgiving.  Let me show you some of the envelopes.....

QUICK LOOK AT THE PJ'S WITH THEIR BRASS BUTTONS ON....THEY WERE ALL EXACTLY THE SAME, SO IF YOU HAVE SEEN ONE PAIR YOU'VE SEEN THEM ALL, LOL

SO HERE IS MARY, BABY JESUS AND JOSEPH  THE DESIGNS ARE CUT TO THIS SHAPE AFTER STITCHING, AND THEN THE BOWS AND NUMBERS ARE GLUED ON LATER

HERE'S A COUPLE OF THE SHEPHERDS   I CHOOSE MY OWN COLORS TO DO THINGS IN AND I REALLY ENJOY THAT, LOL.  A LOT LIKE COLORING

HERE'S THE THREE WISE MEN.  THEY GOT SOME OF THE METALLIC THREADS, THOUGH IT'S HARD TO SEE IT HERE

SOME OF THE ANIMALS

A COUPLE OF THE ANGELS AND YES METALLIC HALOS

A HAY STACK AND A TREE.  THESE WERE PRETTY QUICK

So now hopefully I will finish that up tomorrow, Sat we will put our tree up [yes we did get ALL the rest of our holiday decor up last week-end!] and Sun we will go to church and relax a bit and Monday we will pack up and head out.  I am SOOOO looking forward to the time at Melody's I can hardly stand it.  I have not seen or held that baby in 4 months, and in baby time that's a long time!  She is sitting up now, rolling over quickly, and has moved on to some solid foods.  She giggles and laughs and enjoys her brother's to pieces.  I am just hoping she is not scared of us since we will be practically strangers to her.  We will be back on Sun, and the following Thursday Mel and her family will arrive HERE to celebrate Christmas with all of us a little early.  I will gab more about that later as it is getting late and I need to see to dinner.

I have MUCH to be thankful for this Thanksgiving as always.  The Lord has blessed me in sooo ways I feel like I can't really list them all.  I KNOW the world is in such a mess right now that it is somewhat overwhelming, and evil is absolutely everywhere and worse then ever before.  But God is still on His throne, and the victory does belong to Him in the end.  I will focus on that for now while praying unceasingly for answers to soo many of our dilemmas.  Wishing all of you a blessed and happy Thanksgiving Day with your families and friends.  I will be around visiting when I steal the moments here and there, but probably won't post again until AFTER Melody leaves here in December.  Many blessings and much joy to you all!  Debbie

IS THIS JUST THE CUTEST THING EVER?

CUTEST TURKEY EVER! LOL

I DON'T KNOW WHOSE ENJOYING THIS BOOK READING MORE...LUKE OR CLAIRE!?  SOO DARLING

JUST HAD TO SHOW YOU WHAT'S HAPPENED WITH MY HAIR.....FIRST IT FADED A LOT WHICH WE KNEW IT WOULD DO.  BUT AFTER I WENT BACK TO HAVE THE ROOTS TOUCHED UP I HAD HER THROW A FEW HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS IN AS WELL, AND IT LOVED THE WAY IT CAME OUT.  THE OTHER WAS A LITTLE DARK FOR ME.  STILL STRUGGLING STYLING THE SHORTER "DUE" BUT IT IS DEFINITELY QUICKER

HOW I LOVE SAM....CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM ALL NEXT WEEK!