Week 10 - Stitching Update and some other stuff

No stitching photos this week. I started a new project, a free Minnie Mouse pattern I found online. It's six pages long, which is misleading because it's actually a very small piece. I had two pages completed when I realized I had a mistake. I started ripping out. Then I ripped out some more. I ripped out one entire page worthy of stitches and began again. I still had an error. Rather than rip out the whole thing, I started over on a fresh piece of fabric. So far so good, but no picture.

In other news, we went over to start preparing the wedding location today. We strung lights and finalized where the tables, food, beverages, cake, etc. will go. Then we went down for the final fitting of the wedding gown. Katie wanted Sunny to go along to see her in the dress (when we bought the dress in 2011, Sunny would exclaim "no like, Mommy, no like!" every time she saw Katie in it). This time she was enthralled with how beautiful Mommy looked and so was Thunder...

jumping on the trampoline

waiting for Mommy to appear

her first glimpse

her full view of the dress

Thunder liked it too!

Happy First Birthday, Skye!

On March 11, 2011 my second granddaughter, Skye was born. I can not believe it's been a year. Today was her first birthday party. It was held at the Railroad Park in Scottsdale. It was a great party for a sweet little girl. Happy Birthday, Skye - Gramps and I love you!

Grammy with the birthday girl

Skye and Tia Katie

"oooh, let me see your shoes!"

"Yay! They're really cute!"

Papa, Uncle Mark, Aunt Kelly

Grandma Debbie, Grandpa Bob, Great-grandma Barbara,

Great-grandpa Harry, Ginger

Emma and Sunny

Gabe, Gramps, Thunder

Grandpa Bob with Skye

She had places to go...

...and things to see!

Ashley, Skye, Zach

Gramps, Skye, Grammy

Skye with Aunt Kelly

Me, Emma, Francesca, Ender, Katie, Sunny on the Carousel

The greats with the birthday girl!

Thunder and Tia Jessica 

Then Sings My Soul

I've been out of sorts all this week.Maybe it's from lack of sleep this weekend. Or the fact that I'm ready for warmer weather. Maybe it's that the geo-political situation is really starting to irritate me. Or the fact that I'm tired of the media and "good old boys" in the government trying to force Mitt Romney down my throat. Maybe it's that my house is teeny tiny and I feel as if I'm going to explode in it. Or it might be because I'm 55 years old. Who knows? Yesterday, it really got to me. I was irritated at every thing and every body. Then out of the blue, these lyrics filled my mind. I felt instant serenity. The cobwebs of discontent blew away. I'll admit, later in the day the discontent was back. But for several hours, I let go of all the irritants and let my soul sing.

Oh Lord my God

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds

Thy hands have made

I see the stars

I hear the rolling thunder

Thy power throughout

The universe displayed

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great thou art

How great thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great Thou art

How great Thou art

When through the woods

And forest glades I wander

I hear the birds

Sing sweetly in the trees;

When I look down

From lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook

And feel the gentle breeze:

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great thou art

How great thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great Thou art

How great Thou art

And when I think of God, 

His son not sparing, 

Sent Him to die,

I scarce can take it in;

That on the cross, my burden

gladly bearing He bled and died 

to take away my sin

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great thou art

How great thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great Thou art

How great Thou art

When Christ shall come

With shout of acclamation

And take me home

What joy shall fill my heart

Then I shall bow

With humble adoration

And then proclaim My God

How great Thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great Thou art

How great Thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior, God, to Thee

How great Thou art

How great Thou art

Completely Frustrated...

I am completely frustrating with blogging right now. I'm feeling as if I'm not technically savvy enough to be doing this. Evidently when you use Blogger, every time you upload a photo into your blog it goes into a Picasa Web Album. Once your web album reaches a certain capacity, you have to pay to have more storage space. If you delete photos from the web album, they are also deleted from your blog. At least this is what I understand from reading the warning on Picasa.

Seriously?! I just want to upload photos from my computer into my blog without them going somewhere else. Since I'm currently also posting to a 365 photo blog, as you can imagine, I've reached my capacity pretty darn quick.

I tried going on to Picasa to try to understand what the albums are, how to condense them, label them, organize them. But I can't find anything that helps me to do that. My 365 blog will be complete in about two months. When it's complete, I'm going to print it out and then I can delete all of those photos off of my Picasa Web Album. That should open up some space. I also terminated my recipe blog and deleted all of those photos from the web album. I hadn't posted to it in months, so no big deal.

I just don't understand how Google can usurp my photos. They are my composition, my creation, my personal property. How can they stick them on a site without my permission?

If I'm ranting about nothing, please let me know. As I said, it may just be that I'm too limited to know what I'm doing. If you know a way around Picasa, please let me know... but use language that a child could understand. Actually, most kids are probably way more tech skilled than I am! haha

Week 9 - Stitching Update

Even though I had the grandkids for three days this week, I managed to complete one project and begin another. I also received some purchases I had ordered.

First up, I completed Easter Egg Patchwork. 

This was one of my starts for the Crazy January Challenge.

This is my new start. It's a departure from my CJC list.

Sunny asked me to stitch her a Minnie Mouse.

Of course, I'm happy to interrupt my plans to stitch for her!

This pattern was a freebie I found online.

These are the newest additions to my thimble collection.

I was thrilled with their needle art theme.

I also ordered a DMC floss traveling case.

I'm going to use it instead of a zip-lock bag for one of my projects.

I think it will keep me better organized and it's sure a lot prettier!

It Was Fun, But I'm Worn Out!

Sunny and Thunder spent the weekend with us. They came early Friday morning and left late this afternoon. I love having them over. But, I am worn out when they leave. It seems like we go, go, go while they're here. Playing in the living room. Playing in the office. Playing in the playroom. Playing in the dining room. Even in the kitchen!

Fortunately, yesterday Zach, Ashley, and Skye came over. So did Jessica and Adam. Then last night my folks came for dinner. Late this afternoon Jessica came over again for the last hour or so. That really helps. It gives the kids an opportunity to play with someone other than just Grammy and Gramps. It also winds them up even more. But hey, everything has a pay-off!

Here's some more pictures from our fun weekend...

Grammy, Sunny, Duke

Tryin' on Gramps' hat

Helping Papa build the train track

Playing puzzles with Gigi

Gramps and Thunder

Waiting for Papi to pick her up!

Beautiful boy!

Cousins

Skye, Sunny, and Thunder were over at our house earlier today. Got some cute pics of the cousins:

Skye, Thunder, Ashley

Thunder and Skye playing "together"

Adam, Sunny, Thunder, Jess, Skye

Grammy's lap full of grandbabies!

Skye modeling Gramps' hat

Fun with Tia Jessica as Tia Ashley looks on

Bubbles!

Thunder waving "hi" to the camera

Skye - on the move

Skye trying to share an animal cracker with Thunder