Happy Birthday, Jessica!

My oldest child is turning 29 today. Gulp. I can't believe it's been 29 years since I became a mom. I couldn't have had a better experience with a first baby if I had written the script myself. Jessica was and is a marvel to me. How I could have produced a child that is so motivated, so intelligent, so sure of herself, so "most likely to succeed" is beyond me. She is a terrific daughter, a wonderful wife, a special sister, and an awesome Tia/Aunt. She is creative, talented, spiritual, kind, and loving. We share a lot of the same interests and I'm so lucky to have her to talk with about politics, world events, cross-stitching, reading, music, and a host of other subjects. I am so proud of her. Jessica, Happy Birthday with all my love!

Happy Birthday, Dan!

I just love my husband. He is absolutely my best friend in the world. He is funny, kind, loving, intelligent. A fantastic husband. A terrific dad. An awesome Gramps. Today is his 57th birthday. We have been together through thick and thin. Through sickness and health. Through richer, poorer, and absolutely flat broke. Through it all he remains the calm to my anxieties. He's the rock to my quicksand. I always enjoy our time together. We can talk about anything. He does a great job of being interested in my life. I love him completely. Happy Birthday, Dan!

With Sunny

With Thunder

With Skye

Week 34 - Stitching Update

Finally, I have a finish to share. I finished the baby sampler I made for one of Katie's friends.

Happy Birth Day for Girls

Sue Hillis Designs

Now it's back to Christmas stockings fast and furious. I'm going to have a lot of stitching time (I hope) over the next 10 days so I'm hoping to get Katie and Gabe's stockings and finished.

I'm saying this now so that you can hold me accountable in January: I am ONLY choosing small projects for the 2013 Crazy January Challenge!

Craft Blog Directory

While I was visiting new (to me) blogs today, I ran across this Craft Blog Directory. There are too many craft blogs to count listed there. I foresee hours and hours of blog reading ahead of me.  Click here for link.

TUSAL Update

Is it just me, or are the updates coming faster and faster? Most of my ORTs this month are from Katie's Stocking and a baby sampler I'm making for one of her friends.

If you're like I was last year and you wonder what in the world TUSAL stands for, let me fill you in. Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long. It is hosted by Daffycat and you can join in at any time here. You will find an explanation of the rules as well as a list of the many bloggers participating.

Birthday Fun!

I had a great birthday party yesterday! Twelve of us gathered at The Spicery at 1895 House in historic downtown Glendale for lunch. We talked, laughed, ate, hugged, and reminisced. It was terrific. I had so much fun. Dan watched Sunny and Thunder. They showed up in their football jerseys in honor of football season starting. Sunny wore the Raiders and Thunder wore Chargers. I'll begin the photos with them...

Sunny helped me open some presents before we left. No, I was not brave enough to wear my hat to lunch!

Sunny loved my hat.

I think she enjoyed my gifts as much as I did.

Two Handsome Guys

Tia Jessica and Thunder

Marti - 15 years of friendship

Joanna - 11 years of friendship

Kelly - 34 years of friendship

Ashley - 3 years of friendship

Mom - 56 years of friendship

Francesca - 20 years of friendship

Jessica - 28 years of friendship

Leslie - 20+ years of friendship

Beth - 15 years of friendship

Katie - 26 years of friendship

My beautiful daughters

Followers

When I first started blogging in October 2009, I added the "Followers" gadget to my blog. But I'm going to be brutally honest here... only a few people followed me. I got discouraged and removed the gadget. The past few months I've had several people comment that they want to follow me. So, I put the "Followers" gadget back up today.

I follow many blogs. I don't always sign up as a follower, but once I put your blog on my blog roll, you can rest assured that I read it every time you post. I guess I need to get better about signing up as a follower... after all, I don't want to be part of discouraging a fellow blogger!

As always, the comments you leave are so appreciated. That's the thing about blogging that I just love... we may not meet face-to-face, but we get to know each other and can count each other as friends.

So... Please, if you enjoy reading this blog (or my holiday blog - Christmas 24/7/365 ) join in as a follower.

Thanks to all of you who have been kind enough to encourage me to add followers to my blogs!