NEW GAL

I saw the above gal on someone elses blog and they kindly mentioned they had bought her at Hobby Lobby. Well we do not have one around here so immediately mailed a pic to my daughter and she went into her local one and found her. Not only did they just have one left but were 50% off at that time. She bought her for me and mailed it down. I put her on the bakers rack in my sunroom. What a sweetie you are Sue. It has hooks on it to hang jewelery I assume but I thought of putting some of my wonderful tags I have received from people the latest being from Suzy Quaife. Hers is on the bottom right hnd side.

HANGERS

I have not found too much of great excitement at the flea market lately but I did make one buy that tickled me. It was these two hangers with a roller attached to hang things on. I am not sure but they do look old. I have never seen any like them before. I paid 6.00 for the pair and to be truthful would have paid that for 1 because I liked them so much. I was not sure what to do with them and then it hit me this morning that they would be good to hang in a bedroom or bathroom and put some old linen on the roller part. I took one of my guest bathroom towels and put over one for the picture. Unfortunately both of my bathroom down here have no empty wall space but the yellow one will hang off a robe hanger inside the bathroom door. It will be seen when people use the room. The turquoise one will go home to Chicago with me and I will try and find a spot for it.

CHRISTENING DRESS

While looking for old pictures I might have for Jenny's book on the computer I did find the pictures of the Christening gown I made for her. I remember taken the fabric up to our cottage and sitting all one afternoon going round and round 90" of fabric doing the series of pintucks. The fabric was 100% batiste from Switzerland and all the laces were French. The Christening was in June and I remember my DIL Jeana holding her in a non-airconditioned church and the gown was a mass of wrinkles by the time we got the poor baby home. She had a full length slip and bonnet on also but I don't have pics here of those. She has it and hopefully children of hers will be able to wear the outfit. I made smocked white rompers and a hat for all the grandsons to wear.

GRANDMA'S GIRL

When my grandaughter Jenny was little she would come and spend time with Harv and I and her brother Nick would go to his maternal grandmas. We used to call Jenny Grandma's girl. Well my girl is going to be 18 on February 20th. Before we left Chicago I went downstairs and went through all the photos we had and came up with some really cute ones of when she was little. Unfortunately I could not find any very small baby ones but these are certainly her. I am making a scrapbooking journal of her to send her on her birthday. I will show you a couple of the first ones I did. Alltogether I have made 20 and now have to get them in order and start inserting them in the book. Here are 5:

WELCOME

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I am a flea market addict, crazy quilter, knitter, smocker, embellisher and I think you will guess by now that I like doing a lot of things or at least trying them. I have made many wonderful friends around the world since I have had my blog. We are retired and I live 6 months of the year in my home in the Chicago suburbs and the winter 6 months in our home in Mt. Dora, Florida. I feel we have the best of 2 worlds. I am the mother of 2 sons and 1 daughter and have 6 grandchildren, 5 boys and 1 girl. I enjoy gardening and love to read. The library has been my friend for my whole life. Mt. Dora is a small, antique type town that is well known in Florida for their wonderful Art Fest that falls in early Feb. and we have between 200,000 to 300,000 visitors to that every year. We also have various other festivals, etc. all winter long. We have Renningers flea market about 2 miles down the road from my home. They are open every weekend but 3 times a year, Nov. Jan. and Feb. they have a large Extravaganza with many vendors and buyers coming from miles away to participate. It actually is this weekend and I will be there tomorrow. Hence my mention above of being a flea market junkie. I use the things I find in my many endeavours. If you like my blog and would like to become a follower I would appreciate getting to know each and every one of you. I in turn will be out there reading many of yours this weekend. Hugs FredaB If you would ike to follow my blog I would appreciate it and I in turn will be

SMOCKING

I learned to smock when my daughter was little and made her quite a few dresses, etc. I stopped as she got older but when I had my first grandaughter (and only one) I started smocking again. I made Jenny all her birthday and Christmas outfits plus matching American doll outfits until she got older. When Jenny was just 2 is when my husband had the terrible accident that put him into a wheelchair. I started smocking quite a few things for Jenny that I never got around to sewing. They have sat for quite a few years (she will be 18 in Feb.)and when cleaning out last summer I came across a few of them and decided to finish them and give them to my daughter to put away for future little girls. Between 5 grandsons and Jenny I hope at least 1 of them will have a girl. I brought one down to florida with me and have started working on it. I took a couple of pictures of the smocked pieces and here they are.

PRETTY IN PINK

Tuesday I went to JoAnnes armed with a 25% off coupon for your total purchase. When I got there I found the yarn already 25% off. I went just to buy yarn so this was a great time. I found a similar boucle to the one that I had used on the other 2 scarves I had made for the breast cancer program at Vickies www.twobagsfull.blogspot.com. This came in two colors of pink so I bought one of each. They are very large skeins so should make at least 2 out of each skein. I also found some very pretty pale shell pink mohair type yarn. I am knitting it now and will show you when done.

MORE DEC. WORK -SOCKS

I decided to knit socks this year and made 2 1/2 pairs. The first pair were done and went up to my daughter in her christmas package. I forgot to take pics but the denim colur ball of yarn I used is shown in the pick. The second pair were for me and they are the pink ones. I used the self striping sock yarn and you never know how they are going to turn out. The 1/2 I referred to is the one blue sock as I have not finished the second one. Each pair used a different brand of yarn and the first two pair were fine but the yarn in the blue pair was difficult to work with. The yarn kept splitting and if you dropped a stitch was very difficult to pick up. One little thing that helps when you are working with fine yarn is to keep a crochet hook handy so if you drop a stitch or have to back up it is very easy to pick it up and even go up 3 or 4 rows with a small hook as compared to a needle. The hook grabs the yarn and helps lever it up. I should also tell you that I had a time weaving the toe and that is why the pink ones are still on the needles plus it is in the 80's in Florida right now and no need for them. Maybe my daughter will get another pair or two. Now I am back to knitting pink scarves at night for the Pink Scarf Program I mentioned in an earlier post.

LIFE

Some of the joys and sadnesses of life living in a retirement community in Florida is the wonderful people we have met in our last 13 years in our winter home here. We have laughed, dined, borrowed, lent and such together and every year when we return I am always so eager to see all our neighbours and friends and know they are all still here. We have had a lot of sadness in the past two years. One very good friend lost her husband last year. This December our neighbour across the road passed away with a heart attack. This gentlemen was a very good friend of my husbands and he used to come over when Harv would be outside and they would sit and chat and solve all the problems of the world. He also was a volunteer with Harv. for the AARP - IRS program doing taxes for seniors. He received his 10 year pin with Harv then gave it up about 2 years ago. Harv continues to do it and hope he can for a long time. 2 doors up from us the gentlemen lost his wife 2 years ago then he came down last year alone and not doing very well. No one could determine exactly what was wrong with him. Well this summer going home to Ohio he went to the Cleveland Clinic and they diagnosed him with ALS. A horrible disease. He is still with us but declining rapidly. He did not come down and has sold his house. A very nice couple are moving in mid Jan. and so the cycle goes on. The gentlemen that passed away a year ago has a wonderful wife and friend to all on our street named Janet. She is 86 years old but still plays bridge a couple of times a week, belongs to the lawn bowling club and goes to the club for dinners, etc. Very active gal. She underwent surgery and is now undergoing radiation. She has 2 great daughters who have taken turns to come down and stay with her since Oct. when this happened. One lives in NY state and one in Seattle. Both a long way but they are here. One or the other will be here until radiation is finished and their Mom is okay. Janet knew of my silk tie wallhanging and came down one day with silk ties of her husbands that she thought I might use. I thought of making something for the girls and this is what I came up with. I made two hearts with lace trim and hanging ties and gave them to them the other day. T

hey were so appreciative that I was glad I had made the effort. Hope you don't mind my rambling but this is our life now and in the future. We try and live for the day and enjoy ourselves as much as we can. The

PICTURES

WHY I WAS BUSY IN DECEMBER

In December I was busy making some gifts.  I was reading and seeing so much about
the 12 Days of Christmas advent calenders on various blogs that I decided to make one for my daughter.

She was lucky enough last April to visit Paris for a girls long weekend with friends and was enamoured with all things French. I decided to make her an advent calender with 12 tags that had to do with Paris.  I went to JoAnnes to buy fabric and make a board for them when I saw one called a French Market memo board.  I bought it and proceeded to make the 12 tags.

I sent them to her in envelopes each marked Day 1 thru 12. She opened one every day and put it on her board.  Below are the tags I made and the board I bought.  I had her send me a pic ture of the completed board this week.  I enjoyed making them and she enjoyed the fun of opening one every day for the 12 days.  Here are some pics.



HAPPY NEW YEAR

                              HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS

Harv, Marie and I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope it will be  a happy and healthy year to all
all our blogging friends and family.

I added a few more collars to Marie as she looked a little naked to me this year.  Maybe one year she will get a skirt. She also needs some hose for that garter belt.

 

Hugs Freda