Succulent Flower - Photo of the Week

While walking out of our home one day,  I noticed this beautiful flower on one of our succulent plants.  The succulent plants are new for us, so the flowers that appear on them just take my breath away in surprise.

Oh, how the flowers and birds singing brighten my day...

One Hippo and Two Turtles

This past week I decided to crochet some smaller projects and had so much fun crocheting these cute creatures......Lourdes the Preppy Hippo and Striped Turtles.

I started the Hippo back in April when we were in England visiting our daughter's (otherwise know as sunnystitching) family.  My cute granddaughter Evie was so excited about it as was her brother Canaan.  I finally finished this one which is for Evie.  I will start Canaan's in a few days.

Lourdes the Preppy Hippo

A Closeup of Lourdes' Beautiful Flower

The pattern for Lourdes the Preppy Hippo is in this book called Cute Little Animals by Amy Gaines.

I found the pattern for the turtles here. You will need to scroll down the page to find the Turtle Pattern, but the trip is so enjoyable.....there are so many cute creatures to greet you along the page:):)  Of course, I will make at least 2 more of these turtles for my other granddaughter Corey and her brother Henry.  Corey wants a purple/yellow one and Henry wants his blue/yello like Canaan's.

This pink turtle is waiting for a hug from Evie:):)

I bet this blue turtle wants to be friends with Canaan:):)

I really never thought I would get "hooked" on crocheting these little amigurimis (well, I would call Lourder Hippo little) but guess what!....."Never say Never"...they are so fun to make!

Crocheted with love and Given with love

Yummy Apple Cake

Saw this cake on Creative Chaos this morning.  My goal was to bake some cookies from box mix but quickly changed to "I want to make this apple cake!"

Luckily I had all the ingredients  and look how great it turned out.

Thank you so much Jutta, for sharing it on your fabulous Creative Chaos blog.

May have to sample it this afternoon with some tea:):):)

 Sharing is such a blessing.

Fleece Child Hats and Scarves

Well, Threading My Way has a theme this week for their linky party which is Hats, Bonnets, Beanies and Scarves.  At the beginning of this year I made fleece hats and scarves for my grandchildren who live in England where is does get "cold".  I had crocheted hats for them in the past but wanted to try sewing fleece ones that would really keep their ears warm.

I was able to use the 40% off coupon at the local Joann's Fabric Store to purchase the pink fleece for Evie's and Jerry, my great  husband, found the brown fleece in the remnants at the store and it was marked down to $2.50 for the whole piece which was more than enough!!!!! Excited!

Used McCall's pattern M5772 which was also on sale, version " and had fun sewing them, adding the flowers and the pompoms! The fleece was so easy to sew...no raveling edges....

Jessica (sunnystitching) sent me pictures of Evie and Canaan wearing the hats and scarves.  Now, is it possible to just choose two (one each) when I am looking at all these "cute " pictures....not for me.  So of course, I have included all of the photos:):):)  I especially love the ones with them blowing the dandelions.

A grandchild fills a space in your heart that you never knew was empty.

Featured on Easy Digital Scrapbooking and Crafts!

Thursday, as I was linking to "Thursday" Linky Parties, I went to add my post to Anything Goes only to see that the Ruffled Up Onesie was featured on the page for the new week's links.  I was so excited...thank you so very much Jessica.  You can view both the ruffled up onesies here.

Thank you also Jessica, for hosting Anything Goes weekly.....I have greatly enjoyed linking to it.

Featured on Threading My Way

What a wonderful surprise on Saturday Morning to see that Pam of Threading My Way had featured the Train T Shirt and Cargo Pants I had made for my grandson Canaan.  The theme was for hand embroidered applique projects and I had used embroidery stitches to applique the train and clouds onto the t-shirt.  You can view it here.

Pam has a wonderful linky party that has a theme each week plus the party is ongoing so links can go up at anytime under the proper category.  Since the linky part is categorized, it is so easy to find ideas.

An extra surprise was that my daughter Jessica( sunnystitching) also had a featured item...a dress  that she made from two old t-shirts for her little girl for St. Patrick's day.  My daughter can sew, crochet and also make lovely pinatas (just a few of her talents)!

So excited to be featured on

 

 

May this day be an inspiring one.....

 

True Story About Ruby

This is a true story about a very special dog named Ruby....a very sweet pitbull who has been given another chance to have a happy life, at last!

Ruby was saved by Flirting with Fido rescue out of Canada on her last day at the South LA County Shelter before being euthanized. She was brought in as a stray, and was pregnant. Per strict LA County shelter policy, the shelter aborted sweet Ruby's puppies when they spayed her. 

Our neighbors Deanna and Trevor brought her to their cozy loving home to recover from her surgery, both physically and mentally.

She is a SWEET, gentle, mild-mannered approx 2 yr old girl. She is a huge lover, more interested in cuddles and kisses than anything else. She's dog friendly, crate trained, potty trained, great with kids, and an all around wonderful canine companion. 

Me, Jerry and our granddaughter Corey and Henry visiting with Ruby

She was diagnose with heartworm (a very serious and deadly disease) right before she was to go to Canada to be with Flirting with Fido Rescue.  Her foster home here in San Clemente California decided to keep her here for her treatments.  Her treatment will last approx 2 months.

Our neighbors Deanna and Trevor are involved with several Pet Rescue Groups and will facebook stories about dogs who are in the kill shelters.  We all hit "share" to spread the stories to our friends, then to friends of friends, etc.  This sharing greatly helps some of the dogs to be saved....and go on to be adopted into loving homes.


I fell in love with Ruby... All she wants to do is cuddle and hold her pink pig.  Being with her has been a unique experience.

Deanna and Ruby and the Pink Pig

The picture below is so cute of Ruby saying Thank You to everyone who contributed to her heartworm treatment.

I think I created this post more for myself...to have documented Ruby's story and to encourage anyone who reads it to maybe contribute to rescue dogs from the kill shelters or even adopt one.

It is good to have compassion.

Train Puzzle-Dedicated to Evie and Canaan

On Tuesdays, Henry comes to spend the day.  We usually go to his speech class and then to gym where I exercise and he stays in the kids club.  However, today Henry had a cold and cough so we stayed home.  He loves to play outside, play with legos and watch Sid the Science Kid, Barney, Bob the Builder, etc. So, he is really easy to spend the day with.

We decided to have a restful day and stay indoors.  He was getting a little bored so we decided to make a puzzle.  I got a great idea from wikkihow and we started our crafting.

We are dedicating this posting to Henry's cousins, Canaan and Evie who live in England because they love to do crafts, color and play with puzzles but mostly because we love them!

First, we found a picture of a train and printed it.  Then we colored it together.

Next, we gathered the supplies we needed from wikkihow.

Then we traced the outline of the train page on one side of the cereal box and cut it out.

We drizzled on glue and Henry spread it around with the foam brush.

I glued the picture of the train to the cereal box piece and we let it dry.

Then we drew squares on the back of the piece from the cereal box and cut out the squares.  Henry cut out the last square.

He got so excited when he turned it over to see part of the train picture and even more excited when we put the puzzle together.  

 We got a zip lock bag to keep the puzzle pieces in, and labeled it Train Puzzle.

 We are already looking forward to making another puzzle.

It was a wonderful day with Henry today.  We talked about many things but a lot about how excited we are for Canaan and Evie to come so Henry can color with them, play legos, go to the beach and all the other fun stuff they do together.

My heart is full.

Crocheted Sweater for Canaan

My daughter sent me a photo of a sweater I crocheted for Canaan when he was probably a year old.  I had really forgotten that I made it and seeing it brought back the memory of my enjoyment while crocheting it.  I loved the colors.....

PS...it is laying on a flannel blanket that I made for him also.  Jessica did pick out the fabric for the blanket while we were together at our local  JoAnn's Fabrics during one of her visits to California.

The pattern for this sweater can be found on this page.

To see some really wonderful ideas and creations check out my daughter's blog sunnystitching !

I am so thankful to be able to be creative.

Flowering Succulent - Photo of the Week

I see this every day as I walk in and out of our home.  The flowers open up in the morning and close at night.  It is a joy to see....a lovely flowering succulent.

Heart Fleece jacket

I have started taking part in Threading My Way weekly link party.  A category is given for each week, and for this current week it is "Jackets, Coats, Raincoats and Ponchos for kids and adults".  

A few years ago I sewed a beautiful jacket for my granddaughter out of really pretty light blue heart fleece fabric.  The fleece was a very soft and cuddly fleece.  I used McCall's Pattern M5743 used the size 3 which fit Evie perfectly.  I really liked the sleeves on this jacket...so fluffy and cute.

  

I had two pieces of light blue heart fleece that I had on hand to use for little blankets when the grandchildren would come to visit and used those two pieces to make the jacket.  I had to go to JoAnn's Fabric Store to buy the buttons and just a small piece of solid blue for the collar facing.  This was the first jacket I had ever made and I was excited!  


Some views of the jacket are below.

Front View

 Back View

 Fluffy Fluffy Sleeves

 Front Yoke Detail - I loved the Rounded Collar Look

 Back Yoke Detail

 My precious granddaughter.  My daughter - sunnystitching (her mom) assured me Evie was sad not because of the jacket but because she wasn't in the mood to have her picture taken:):)

 Evie models the Heart Jacket

 Evie is definitely much cuter and more cuddly than the jacket!:)

I never take for granted the freedom I have to be able to sew.