Hello

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Life has been crazy. The baking has gone crazy, which is a good thing. I really enjoy it and it is a great artistic outlet for me and Nikki. I am just usually so exhausted after our 12-16 hour days I just want to come home and sleep.  LOL

I have gotten some outside yard work done in the past few weeks but there is so much left to do it makes me tired to think about it.

I never did finish Tracie's dress or even start on Jessica's birthday gifts! BAD GRANDMA BAD!

I hope to get something done this weekend, keep your fingers crossed for me PLEASE.

My newest little granddaughter will be here on June 2nd so I probably won't get anything done for awhile after that. I am so excited to finally get to hold her. You can see them so clearly now in the ultrasound that you want to reach out and touch them.

I did go to the movie "Bridesmaids" it was funny, but not what I expected. Did any of you see it?

Time for an energy pill and getting busy, talk at you later

SORRY

Sorry I haven't been here! life's been crazy, I will try to catch up with everything in the next few days!

Talk at you later!<3

Good morning!

How was your weekend? Mine are never long enough.

I didn't get anything done, I have to find a way to motivate myself. I am such a horrid procrastinator and the longer I put stuff off the farther behind I get. We are not promised tomorrow so please pray for me that I can beat my demons and get myself together.

I went in and helped Nikki finish a birthday cake for a one year old with egg allergies. We made her an egg free cupcake for her smash cake. The mom was so excited, because her daughter had never tasted cake.  She ordered a "Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar Cake" which I had never heard of until Nikki showed me the book. It is a cute book and Nikki said she read it to Cai when he was a baby.

This is a stock photo, as we didn't assemble it. Cute huh?


After I delivered it, I swung by Pecatonica and picked up these two beautiful little parakeets. Their owner had developed a serious lung disease, and she had to give up all her precious birds.

 The one on the left is a pretty pale yellow with a sky blue on it's belly and some spots of black on the wings and the one on the right is a teal with a pale yellow face. I don't know if they r boys or girls. The lady said their names were popcorn, the yellow one, and chicory the blue one! I thought maybe "Cap'n and Tenille", or "Sonny and Cher", my granddaughter said "Neil and Howard" and my grandson suggested "Waste" and "of Money" then their mom chimed in with "Cat" and "Food". LOL  Any thoughts?

Let me share with you how my yesterday evening went!

Does anyone know if a balloon tire is supposed to look this flat? It better not be flat cause I will get a real attitude then.

When I let my dogs out in the evening I noticed the flat tire. ARRRRGH!

So I went in the house and started water boiling for supper. I went back out and got everything out of the trunk, the tire, jack, and wrench, went back in the house and poured my macaroni into the water. I went back to the tire, it took me 12 minutes to get it off. Once it was off, I went into the house and assembled my tuna casserole. Then I went back out, it took me 22 minutes to put on the balloon tire and put everything away. After that was done I went in and ate my supper. TADA!

Pray for me that I get a clue, and get some stuff accomplished today! I can't keep putting stuff off

Oh and yeah "go USA" good news about Osama Bin Laden. Right? what better way to celebrate than this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruNrdmjcNTc&feature=share

Love you all. Have a great day talk at you later.

Doesn't quite matter who you were a decade ago, a year ago, or even yesterday. What matters is who you are today & who you will be tomorrow! God is good!!!!!

No Post

No post it is my bed time, but I just wanted to show you what we have been doing this week. Talk at you later.

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH

Well I think the gloomy weather has finally gotten to me! I have no enthusiasm for today! woe is me! Oh yeah, and I don't think I am going to get Jessica'a dress done on time or that I am gonna get there for her Birthday, second time in her 12 years. Pity party me.

Getting ready to head to Nikki's, I baked 4 dozen cupcakes, and 9 cakes yesterday and I have a humongous sheet cake to make today! I am actually getting to help with the fondant decorations today, I am excited. I usually just do the baking and cleaning, BORING!

Just wanted to say HI.

Hopefully I can come back and with some good news later.

Have a great day. Talk at you later!

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.       Psalm 118:24

and I will!

PRAYER PLEASE!

Okay folks, I talked to the Dr.s yesterday and pretty much everything in my body is normal for a person of, are you ready? " of "MY AGE"  I thought the ma'am thing was degrading now I have reached the "of my age phase" of my life! Oh well, I am celebrating this milestone even though it took the wind out of my sails. I did get one piece of info that tickled my funny bone. The spots in my brain, are called UIBO'S, pronounced ubeeo and defined as "unidentified bright objects" so I guess that would make the space cadet as far as intelligence a true thing, right? LOL

Now to a more serious' subject, remember yesterday I asked for prayer for my friend Linda Montoya? I found out from her daughter that they have found a huge mass in her liver and they will go in on Thurs. to see what their options are. She has successfully fought breast cancer and kidney cancer and now I am sure she will beat this too, but if you could please keep her in your prayers for a swift and easy battle for this new obstacle I would appreciate it and I know her family will too. THANK YOU!

Yesterday another wasted day! Dr.'s appt.'s and working on fondant that flopped, finished the cake last night, turned out cute! What do you think?

Gotta run, busy day with cakes, cakes, cakes. Have a great one and remember prayer for my friend PLEASE!

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Good morning, not a whole lot to post this morning.

It's a mild rainy day here, how about where you are? Please feel free to leave comments, I get lonesome!

I don't know if today will be productive or not. Not so much ambition lately, I ran out of one of my medicines and went without for 2 days, so I am not sure if that is why. Whatever it is I hope it goes away soon.

I still haven't finished Tracie's dress, I keep procrastinating not sure why? I got the zipper in so easily! I love youtube.com. I went on there and watched an instructional video, it was wonderful. I think my problem now is deciding whether to line the skirt or not. What a dufus! The hem is so simple just turn up 1/2 inch and fold again and sew! Duh.

I mailed my son-in-law Tim's birthday card yesterday! Monday is Jessica's 12 birthday and then the 9th is Tracie and Tim's 20th anniversary! busy few weeks right?

I don't know if I told you but I found the Hoop slip that my mom wore in my aunt's wedding over 55 years ago, my mom was the Matron of honor, and I was the flower girl! It is in really bad shape but I want to rebuild it for Jessica's "Gone With the Wind" dress!

It has been hanging in the attic for over 40 years so it is water stained and dirty! I will keep the bone forms and scrap the fabric. This is going to be a family heirloom so I hope I don't screw it up. My mom was only 5'2" so the size should be very close to Jessie.

Nikki just called and she needs me to come in early and help her with the fondant on the Donkey cake, so I am heading out soon. 

I have my appointments with the Neurologist and the General Surgeon today about my test results from the MRI of my brain and the Ultra sound of my Carotid Artery's in my neck, OH JOY! I will let you know what I find out.

Please include my friend Linda Montoya in your prayers, she has successfully battle cancer twice and is going in today for tesst to see why her blood count is off! She is a fighter and I know she is gonna be okay! But a little extra insurance never hurts, Right?

Have a great day! Talk at you later!

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

HAPPY EASTER!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16 (King James Version)

Enough said! Have a great day.

Hello

So yesterday was a kind of throw away day. I did help Nikki frost and decorate 6 cakes for easter. She also delivered 6 dozen cake pops; bunnies and chicks and peeps bunnies and chicks, they are decorated differently.

We also decorated sugar cookies with a wonderful glaze frosting that hardens and stays shiny so you can stack the cookies and not worry about them getting ruined.

No sewing and when I got home last night I laid down for a nap and slept like a baby all night long.

 Did I mention Nikki and Bobby fed me supper last night? 

When they went to deliver the Easter goodies, I stayed home and cleaned up the kitchen and all the dishes while Cai played, and colored Easter eggs. I had brought hardboiled eggs and easter colors from my home and let him color them, the only downfall there was that I didn't have a dipper and he had to use his fingers which he didn't mind until they were all done and he noticed his fingers were all green, yellow, blue, purple and a little pink. I thought maybe the kids would be mad at me for his hands turning colors, but they didn't say anything. 

They went to Papa Murphy's and got a stuffed crust pizza with bacon, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, and spinach. It was very yummy! Thank goodness for pregnant cravings! The first time Nikki ordered this combo she was like, "what? I don't even like spinach"! LOL  The next time she ordered she added artichoke heart, but found she didn't like them because they were pickled! The best way to eat them I think. Bobby is in heaven right now, Nikki is a plain cheese pizza kind of girl since she was pregnant with Cai, pepperoni started to tear her up and she just quit eating it, and like me Bobby likes veggies and meat on his pizza.

I hope to sew this morning and get Tracie's dress in the mail.

Hope it is sunny where you are. Talk at you later.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16

OH WELL!

I got Jessie's dresses and hat done, but not Tracie's!

I decided I didn't like the beads on the collar of the doll dress so I took them off!

I tried to stay up all night Wednesday to finish Tracie's dress but I got sick about 3 am so I laid down to just doze a little. I woke up at 7 am and started to sew, I found I had not cut out some of the pieces I needed and  that I had cut out some of my pieces wrong! Another testament to procrastination as a no no!

I have run into some problems with the pattern and I am struggling to finish it and mail it still this weekend! 

I did get Jessie's dresses in the mail on Thursday so they should arrive by Saturday in time for Easter. I am sad I didn't get Tracie's dress done in time, but that is totally my fault. 

I hope to get Jessie's "GONE WITH THE WIND DRESS" done in time for her birthday May 2nd. Which means I need to start now, don't let me procrastinate, K?

I could have maybe finished Tracie's yesterday and still got it in the mail in time, but I had a full day of work with Nikki and our bakery so it didn't happen. 

I am heading out soon to go to Nikki's and finish up our weekend projects.

Talk at you later!

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, 

rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person 

someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we 

were still sinners Christ died for us."  

Romans 5.6-8 

2 down and 2 to go!

Yay! I finished the doll dress and the girls hat! Well mostly I am tearing apart one area of bias tape off the edge of the hat and redoing it because I didn't like the way it looked. It was puckery.

I have the girls dress all cut out and actually have had for weeks now. I have to cut out my daughter's Easter dress and sew it, and get everything done today.

I need to mail these things tomorrow and I have now had to schedule a Dr.s appt. about my carotid arteries they called yesterday and he needs to talk to me about my ultra sound from Friday. I don't know anything about norms for blood flow, but I do know from the numbers the girls were throwing out as they ran my tests I may have a problem. My blood flow numbers went from 140 to 40 and 54 to 38, a big difference I am afraid.

I looked it up online and a lack of blood to the brain can kill off brain cells and it is usually the white matter that suffers. All those years of joking about killing brain cells from drinking, who knew I was killing them with poor diet and lack of exercise!

I am thinking I need to change my lifestyle. Eating and exercising mainly, I need to lose weight but I have always needed to lose weight. I have a really bad attitude about giving things up as far as diet. I feel I have given so many things up that I enjoyed, and I don't want to give up more. I need to get over that mentality. Any suggestions? I know the payload (a longer, healthier, and happy life) should be enough, but as a procrastinator (did I tell you I was the prom queen of procrastinators?) I keep putting it off until tomorrow.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! As scary as these test results seem I am thankful for them. At least we know they work and they are an early warning, if you are just smart enough to follow them.

But I digress, I have to finish the dresses, I went in town yesterday afternoon to get interfacing as I couldn't find any at home. Well I ended up jacking around for 3 hours, and after I got home and cut out my pattern pieces I still didn't have enough. Duh! So I need to go back today and get more for both dresses.

Nikki informs me we have to make 6 dozen sugar cookies, 2 13x9 cakes one chocolate and one white for our world famous cake pops decorated for Easter, 4 carrot cakes and a horseshoe cake, and by we I mean me.

So tomorrow should be a very busy day!

Talk at you later, keep your fingers crossed for me to be productive.

⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me,^[a] “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
⁶ And He said to me, “It is done!^[b] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. ⁷ He who overcomes shall inherit all things,^[c] and I will be his God and he shall be My son.     

Revelation 21:5-7 (New King James Version)

Today is a new day!

Good morning.

Yesterday went well even though I did not finish any of my projects, not true, I had finished the nursing necklace and Nikki did not like it! I only hope Alliyah does!

I took a realistic look at the time, I have a problem with realism as I live in a fantasy world when it comes to time.  I realized I would not be able to finish the blanket and get to the shower on time and I was taking the momma to be so I sacked it for yesterday. I will finish it before Alli gets here.

I have got so much to do today lets see what I accomplish.

The sun is shining and the birds are singing so I am in good spirits. I am gonna get busy, say a little prayer for me and I will talk at you later.

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.   Psalm 118:24

Look at what I made!

Good morning, Yesterday was not very productive. Nikki called me first thing in the morning to ask if I could come in and set with Cai, he was running a high temp and had thrown up through the night, and she had an appointment first thing. So I let the dogs out made sure everyone had plenty of food and water, then I headed in.  On the way I called to make sure she had started coffee for me and when she answered she sounded terrible. She wasn't feeling well either. So I let her sleep for another 45 mins. When Cai wakes up he comes to the top of the stairs and whispers, Grandma! When I answer him he yells grandma and comes running down to jump on the couch with me and he snuggles up with me all cozy and warm.

When Nikki came back she asked me if I could take all their bedding to laundromat for her. They have super California King size bedspreads and sheets and both of theirs were dirty and so was Cai's bedding. So I took them and finished them and then headed to my Ultrasound appointment in Monroe.

After my appointment, I did ask enough questions to get a biology lesson, I went to the Walmart up there. I was looking for material for Nikki for curtains for the baby nursery, she wants a fushia and white hounds-tooth check. Needless to say not finding any. I looked in Rockford the night before with no luck either.

Now we have discussed my addiction to shopping, right?

When I got to the fabric dept. I had to pass the boys and babies dept. and they were running all these $1 and $3 sales. Oh No!

I lost my mind and bought $150.00 that I didn't have, but I got such cool stuff; little fleece sleepers for Alliyan, a cool toy story shirt for Cai, and tons of little onesies and pants for baby, I got my 2 boyfriend shirts for myself, a piece of fabric for $.50, a v-tech motion game for Cai on sale for $10, a Christmas present for Alli ( a cute little rocking horse that talks when you pinch her ear,) was$45 marked down to $20, lamp oil for my hurricane lamps storm season is upon us, a backrest pillow for my day bed, and miscellaneous groceries for my new healthy eating plan.

Didn't realize how much I was spending so then I was sick all the way home!

When I got to Nikki's I made her pick out one outfit and she decided to by the fleece sleepers, I am returning most of what I got.

I need to pay bills and have money for gas and pet food and litter.

Nikki's shower is today and I am not gonna finish the romper on time, but I am still gonna give her the sandals and hat and finish the romper later. I have decided to make her baby quilt this morning the shower isn't until 2:30. She asked me yesterday if I could make her some cute little animal hats for Alli.

I also made a nursing necklace for her this morning. I had never heard of them until Cai was born. One of her friends made one and sent it to her. It is a necklace the baby can grasp onto while they are nursing. One of her very closest friends also made her a necklace, but this way she can carry one in the diaper bag and keep the other at home. It has all different textures and colors to stimulate the babies senses, and to keep them from pinching.

As you can see the there are big diamonds, butterflies, and varying sizes and textures of  balls, the biggest and center piece is a purple dragonfly! I hope she likes it.

Gonna go for now and get busy. Have a great weekend. Talk at you later!

 Smiling is infectious,
You can catch it like the flu.
Someone smiled at me today,
And I started smiling too.
~Author Unknown

Hi

Just a quick note, we didn't get done until 2 a.m. with the catering items for the MOPS meeting this morning and there were a couple of flops I will tell you later. Remind me.

I fell asleep at 3 a.m. and got back up at 6:45 a.m., gonna be some major napping later today!

Everything seemed to go well, we took dozens of everything and it all pretty much disappeared! Which I guess was a testament to the fact they all liked our stuff! Yay!

I have 2 days to finish the shower project, and 6 days to finish all 3 dresses, yay me!

I am going to Rockford right now to pay my electric bill so I don't get it shut off! I am going to Village Green, and local nursery in Rockford. Channel 23 WIFR, the CBS affiliate in Rockford holds a savings event every Thursday morning that they call Dollar Doublers. They have a local business's put up gift certificates for half price. Last week they offered $50 gift certificates for $25, limit 3 per family. I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase 2.

I always plant a big planter for my mom's front porch for Easter and then her back flowerbed for her birthday, and something else flowery for Mother's Day. She really enjoys them so much. She is of an age where she pretty much goes and gets whatever she wants. I decorate a wreath for her front door every season and I have fun coming up with something bigger and better every time.

She is so cute! I just love her so much! It is fun surprising her and the littlest thing can make her so excited and happy! I gave her some little tin snow angels at Christmas time, because I didn't have any money, they were sale gifts I had gotten a number years before. I wrapped them so I would have something to put under the tree, for her to open, and I made my step-dad sugar cookies with nuts as they are his favorite. You will never believe how excited she was about those angels! She called me 3 days in a row to tell me how much she liked them!

Whenever you are gift giving go with your heart! Don't try to guess what the other person wants, give them something you want for them. You can't go wrong, if they don't like it they can return it, but I think it is fun to see what my girls think of when they think of me in their hearts rather than their heads! Try it and let me know!

Got to go, talk at you later!

"I believe life is to be lived, not worked, enjoyed, not agonized, loved, not hated."
            Leland Bartlett

Good morning!

Well another day another dollar, I wish.

I worked a little on the hat yesterday but that was all I got done. I got the most done at the hospital waiting for my mom's tests. She has decided she will never go to the emergency room again. She went in because she had been having pain in her leg which led her to take pain pills which caused her acid reflux to go into overdrive! The lesson learned, never walk into the hospital and say you have chest pains if you are 86! They put her in a room with machines to check her heart, now although they took her immediately and hooked her up right away, she laid in that room for 4 1/2 hours before they told her anything or gave her any medicine for any of her symptoms! When I got there and started asking questions and irritating the nurses is when we finally got a Dr. and they made the decision to keep her overnite. Even after we were told this decision it still took them and hour to fill out the paper work and move her. Needless to say she was distraught and not very happy. The emergency room nurses were not very nice! I understand if you are overworked, but don't take it out on an old woman who is frightened and in pain. They ran every test known to man and found nothing wrong with her heart, did I mention my mom has really taken good care of herself?, they finished the last of the tests yesterday. She went Monday for a stress test and scan, and had to follow up yesterday with another scan, and they still have never addressed the original reason she finally went to the emergency room in the first place. Unreal! My Mom is really stubborn and will not go to the Dr. or Emergency unless she has suffered so long she can no longer stand it, now it will be impossible to get her to go. ARGHHH!

I went to the Dr. for my test results also, his nurse had called me and told me my bone scan was normal, I corrected her and told her the Dr. said my bones were awesome, he said I had the bones of a 30 years old! WOOHOO! That the ultra sound of my Thyroid showed that the nodule was benign, and that the Dr. wanted to talk to me about the MRI of my brain (red flag, red flag)! Originally he told me the MRI was to see if I possibly had MS, because of my symptoms. So brave soul that I am, I tried not to worry! and I think I did pretty good until yesterday and then a combination of fear and caffeinated coffee gave me the jitters. So my blood pressure was high! DUH!  It was still high when the Dr. took it so he doubled my blood pressure medicine!

 Dr. told me there was no sign of MS, yay! But, don't you just love the little but's in life? There was something going on with my white matter, I didn't even remember there was white matter! and the MRI showed that I had some blockage in my Carotid arteries on the sides of my neck! Oh Joy! So now I am having headaches and mini panic attacks, thank goodness he tried not to worry me! Turns out the white matter has a lot to do with memory and cognitive functions, so that explains a lot! Now I am worried about Alzheimer's, among other things. I said to him, well at least I don't have any tumors or aneurysms! and he said the neurologist will talk to you about all that!  WHAT! I have tumors and aneurysms too?

He told me he wants me to see the Neurologist before the end of the month,so naturally the Neurologist is booked up through May the first opening is May 26th. Now my Dr. said he would have to call and get me in sooner if he was booked up so I hope he remembered. I am having Ultra Sounds on my Carotid Arteries on Friday. So keep me in your prayers, please. My imagination is beating me up right now! LOL At least that part of my brain is working!

Back to my productivity, I went to Nikki's yesterday and baked my little heart out, we are catering the MOPS meeting this Thursday, and we have to get everything ready ahead of time. Some of the goodies we are taking are: coconut cream pie, apple pie, french silk pie (did I mention I make I make the best pie crust?), lemon bars, carrot cake, chocolate cake covered in fondant, and a chocolate butter-cream frosted cake both decorated, chocolate chip cookies (great recipe), sugar cookies, cake pops, and cake mallow pies in Easter colors! I am so excited about the last on the list as they are all me! It cost a lot for the materials, but it will spread good will and be good advertising!

Hopefully I will get everything done after today. Saturday is the baby shower, so I am focusing on the crocheting for now, but after the shower I have to kick into mega sewing mode, and finish the doll dress, a girls dress, and a ladies dress by next Wednesday or Thursday at the very latest the get them there on time.

On a lighter note, here is my grandson at his final swim class of the year. He did not pass, because he was to frightened to jump from a standing position on the deck of the pool, or off of the diving board. He was a preemie so he has sensory issues and fear of height is one of them. but at least he learned everything else and the teacher said if the kids (meaning his mom and dad, they are all kids to me,) would work with him outside of class he would pass with flying colors. He's got all summer to learn, his grandma and grandpa Cote bought him an above ground pool at a garage sale! Thank you grandma and grandpa. I stand corrected, Nikki informed that her and Bobby bought the pool, and grandma and grandpa just picked it up for them with their truck! So thanks for the delivery!

Keep me in your prayers and I will talk at you later!

Somehow this seems appropriate for me today! What do you think?

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

- Reinhold Niebuhr

Good morning!

No time to talk, but I did want to update you on my current state of disarray! LOL! I have Nikki's baby shower this weekend and even though I have bought a ton of stuff, I wanted to make something special for little Alliyah! So at the last minute I decided to crochet her something. I had some yarn I found and fell in love with the colors so I bought it on sale. Imagine that :).

Here are the beginnings of baby sandals and a hat. I want to make a romper and a shrug too. We will see if I have time. LOL

The pictures I posted the other day were of a purse and scarf I bought for my oldest daughter Tracie's birthday on 4/8. The floral pink and green fabric is what I bought to make her Easter dress, and the purse and scarf match perfectly! I purchased them at Shopko because the don't have any Shopko's there and I know she can't return them. I figure the scarf can be used as a scarf, shawl, belt, or Easter bonnet. I know, I know I haven't even finished the doll dress let alone Jessica's dress, but I guess I just dream big. So as usual, please say a little prayer for me to get stuff done on time. Oh and here are some more pictures with explanations to follow later. Have a great day, I have a Dr.s appt. early and then my mom has tests at the hospital I will set with her and then head to Nikki's for baking fun. We are catering the desserts at the local MOPS meeting on Thursday. I don't know when I had time to work because I am so busy now I would not be to able to fit work it in.

Okay these are your brainteaser pictures, guess what!

These next pictures I can explain now. I walked around my yard the other morning and was pleasantly surprised to find this little display of Spring color. I forget from season to season some of the little jewels I have planted in my yard! These are so delicate and such beautiful colors they take my breath away, how about you? Any surprise in your yard this Spring? Besides dog poop!

And last but certainly least it was so nice out Saturday and Saturday night my 5 year old grandson Michaiah and I had a fire camp (his word for a campfire, I love it I hope I can remember this in the years to come as he out grows all of these fun little faux pas!

have a great sunshiny day! Talk at you later.

For some reason these song lyrics seem appropriate for today. Enjoy.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day.

Hello, this is a post I started on the 3rd

Hi all, sorry I have been AWOL!

Life has been a little crazy here, so I started this post on Monday and never got a chance to finish it. I am gonna throw in a few pictures and I will explain them later. Gotta run. Have a great day! p.s. I finally figured out the fondant, I believe! woohoo

Good morning,

I hope your weekend was good. They are always to short.

Haven't worked on the dress for awhile, and I didn't get anything done for Nikki's shower. I did get to go early and help with the decorations. Nikki's friend threw a great shower, great food, fun games and lots of visiting time. Nikki got great gifts, and guess what we ended up making the cakes!! LOL, Nikki is a bit of a control freak.

We had a number of fondant cakes this week and had mega nightmares with the fondant, which always falls on me as I am the one that does all the baking and all the frostings, fillings, and fondant.
We (I) finally got it to work and we are back to the drawing board.

I get emails from all sorts of cake decorating sites now and a couple have really good tips. Example: Did you know a couple of drops of vinegar with keep your frosting from cracking, and not change the flavor!. Who would ever have imagined? Got to love that vinegar. Between vinegar, baking soda, and duct tape I think I could fix the world. All that being said, I got an email the other day about a pour-able fondant. It really peaked my interest so I checked it out. It is basically the same recipe as the rolled fondant only cooked. Hooray! My problems has become cracks and tears in the fondant as we put it on the cake and cracks as it sets. I actually have been having nightmares!

HOWDY!

I just wanted to stop by and drop you a quick note! I have been suffering from Vertigo for the last few days, it stopped me from going to a rocknroll concert on Saturday night with a girlfriend from Highschool. :( I went to the Dr. yesterday and got some medicine hopefully it will be better soon. I also scheduled; a bone density test, an mri of my brain, (I want to see what is really going on in there), and a ultrasound of my thyroid and surrounding tissue. That is one of the great things about living in this day of modern technology, I get to see my insides too.

I did finish sewing on the other sleeve and the side seam now all I need to do is sew the hem and stitch the bottom of the sleeve bands, sew on the velcro, and do the beading work and the doll dress will be done!

I have one of Nikki's showers coming up this weekend, so I want to make something for that too. I have bought tons of materials (imagine that, LOL) I just have to figure out what I want to do with them. I am very limited on that as I won't have the money to buy any materials I may need. Because when I get my social security check this weekend, due to a bank overdraft situation I will only get $650 and my bills come to exactly $600, so it will be ugly trying to get cat food, dog food, kitty litter, bird seed, gas money, and groceries for the month on that $50. Say a prayer for me on that little matter too. K?

I am on my way to Nikki's to bake, bake, bake! We have a dozen cakes for the weekend and the April special cakes that I baked yesterday both fell in the middle! ARGH! You heard me they were flatter that a pancake in the middle. I read through the internet and it seems there may have been a couple of things I did wrong, go figure. They did taste delicious though, just sayin!

Talk at you later, have a great day! It is sunny here how about you.

Irish quote:

“May God grant you always...A sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.”

Good morning!

As usual sorry I haven't been on for a couple of days. Has anyone out there ever suffered from Vertigo? I woke up Sat. morning so dizzy I couldn't get out of bed, which was a problem because I had to go to the bathroom. When it passed I drove to Nikki's and I made 3 pies for our hobby bakery. Luckily she had some dramamine and it seemed to help. I Made 2 apple pies and one banana cream pie. She worked on the figures for some of the cakes coming up this week. we have bulls eye cupcakes to go along with a dead deer, bow and arrow, hunting birthday cake for an 8 year old boy, a wrestling cake for a grown man, baby cake pops and a stacked tiered (Nikki explained this to me as two 10 inch layers with 2 8 inch layers on top, a layer cake is simply one layer of each size! who knew?) cake for a baby shower, Nikki's.

I have a Dr.s appt. this morning, I had made it a couple of weeks ago, for a cold nose! Yes you heard me right, my nose gets so cold I can't stand it. I will be sitting in my house and out of no where my nose will get freezing cold. Not my feet, not my hands, but my nose. Go figure, I have a little lump on my thyroid and flaking peeling nails all of these are symptoms of thyroid problems. I am glad because now I should be able to get some Vertigo meds too. I had some before, but I haven't needed it for so long I lost it. I have suffered from Vertigo for years my first episode was way back when Tracie, my oldest daughter was a little girl. She is 42 and my first attack was when she was 5. I have suffered on and off with it for 30+ years. It only comes every few years praise the LORD!

I did work on Jessica's doll dress

and should be able to get it done today. We have cake decorating class tonight. So hopefully I will check in again tomorrow.

Have a wonderful sunny day and a Blessed week.

I am still stuck on the Irish Quotes, so here it is, enjoy.

“May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live”

Happy Hump Day

Good morning, sorry I haven't been on for awhile! The home bakery business kicked my butt! I am not used to putting in 17 hour days and I have been pretty much been sleeping around the clock since Sunday, as we completed our orders on Saturday.

I hope to get the doll dress done today and I will share it later today or tomorrow.

I volunteered for our area's Stephenson County Teen Conference yesterday. It was interesting. There were 3 schools invited; they were Freeport schools 8th grade, Lena-Winslow 8th grade, and Aquin Catholic Schools 8th grade. They did crafts in our area and went to listen to speakers, they received pamphlets about giving back and volunteering to help others less fortunate! It is truly a great idea, and for the most part it was well received! There were two groups and they came in at different times. There were 6 different craft areas set up, the first was for making birdfeeders, rolling pinecones on a ribbon into peanut butter and then into bird seed, fun and simple, I don't know where these were going as all the craft areas were being donated to an area organization. The next was taking wooden blocks and painting them different bright colors, these were being given to the Health Dept. and to Headstart for screening of children. I don't know what the next site was for it was assembling coloring pictures to construction paper and making little booklets, I saw the one was about feeling angry, so I am wondering if it maybe went to Voices, our area's organization for helping families of domestic abuse. There was a stations set up for the kids to wrap floral tape around fake flowers and putting them into flower pots making bright cheery arrangements for area nursing homes I think. There were 3 tables set up for the children to write thank you letters to our Service men and women. and last but not least there were two stations set up for the kids to assemble little fleece blankets for the pregnancy center, they were two sided, a different co-ordinating fleece on each side and the material had already been cut into strips on the edges, the children simply tied knots with the strips and assembled them into finished blankets. All of the kids were pretty good about working in our area, some were much faster that others and some lost interest when they found out they weren't taking the blankets home. LOL. But in the very last group we had a young girl with a very bad attitude! I mean she was so angry and disrespectful, not to me and the lady I was helping, but to her teachers. She was so lippy I just wanted to shake her or talk to her. Unfortunately this was not my job. I did talk to her and she begrudgingly answered me. I complimented her on her work even though it was only haphazard. She would mumble under her breath out loud and make her feeling well know. It made me sad that such a young girl was so angry and disturbed and acting out like that. I wondered what her home life must be, I always see kids that are friendly and helpful outside of their homes. Maybe they are brats at home but not in public usually. So this was a real eye opener for me. I pray for her and her family. All in all it was a good experience. I wish there was someway they could screen the kids they include in these programs, to the ones that care and want to be there.

Well I have a Dr.'s appointment this morning so I better get busy. Have a great day, and I will talk at you later.

I so enjoyed the Irish quote I used on St. Patty's day I wanted to share a few more.

“May God grant you always...A sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.” Irish Blessings quote

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Guess what, I am in a hurry this morning, got a lot of baking to do. So I don't have a lot of time , but I am taking my computer along to work on my breaks and get a new post out today.

But in the spirit of the day I wanted to share this beautiful quote with you this morning and I wish it for your whole lives through!

Talk at you later, have a great day!

“May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.”

HAPPY HAPPY MONDAY/WEDNESDAY

Good morning,

I hope you had a great weekend, I know I did! Although it was hectic, it was rewarding. I know you must be on pins and needles wondering if I finished my blanket? Well the answer is yes!!!!!!!! I know right? I am as surprised as you, as much as I procrastinated I did manage to finish it! YAY me. Of course I finished it 20 minutes before the shower started, but the point is I did finish it.

Praise the Lord, I have a sewing machine that has pre-programmed stitches, I used the blanket stitch, No. 16, and it turned out good. I was not sure about how puckery the satin binding was in a few places and the ending corner didn't turn out as well as I hoped. (the perfectionist thing again.)

This sewing machine was only $100 at Walmart, a wonderful investment. It is a brother Project Runway model.

Now for your next question, Yes, she loved it!

When I wrapped it, I folded it fluffy side out, so when she pulled it out all she saw was ivory, as she opened it and she saw the toile her mouth dropped and she looked at me and said "did make this?" when I shook my head yes she said "oh, I love toile, and nursery rhymes, how perfect, oh thank you so much" I told her, "I know I was so excited when I found the material and then when I heard about the shower I knew I had to make it for you!" After the shower a few of her friends walked up and looked at it and commented on how soft it was and it was sure to be the baby's favorite. On the way home, my daughter asked me if I heard Esther say she was going to ask me to make something for her older daughter! LOL

Now back to the hectic part of the weekend, we had to finish the cupcakes for the shower, we had made the toppers earlier in the week so we didn't have to worry about them. I was going to finish the blanket on Saturday morning, in time for the shower, when my daughter called me and told me the toppers were cracking and breaking as she tried to put them on the frosted cupcakes. She was frantic, so I packed up my project, my clothes and headed in. When I got there it wasn't as bad as she thought and she called a friend of hers that has his own home bakery, he told her we needed to store the fondant at room temp. We had refrigerated it. So, lesson learned. (we had many more lessons learned over the weekend and I will get to them tomorrow) I rolled out new toppers and then we had to decorate them, but all was well, and we finished the biggest share of them by 11:30 and she left for the party to decorate and set up. I finished the remaining cupcakes, finished my blanket, and took my shower and got ready to go. I arrived at the shower 10 minutes late but they hadn't started yet, thank goodness. Shortly after I got there Nikki started the shower by letting us eat first, yay. What a good idea that was. Normally everyone gets antsy after awhile, waiting for the cake etc., but not this party. A number of people had brought finger food; there was a veggie tray with dips, chips and salsa, a fruit platter, a wonderful bean salad, with 3 different types of beans, chopped peppers and onions, whole kernel corn, cilantro and a mild chipolte dressing (YUMMO), mints, nuts, and the cupcakes,did I mention the cupcakes were Devils food with a hoho filling and chocolate buttercream icing, and French vanilla with a strawberry cream filling and cream cheese frosting, (YUMMO) and chocolate or vanilla icecream, with coffee and sherbert punch!!!!! What a feast, which was good because I had not eaten breakfast or lunch.

Didn't the toppers turn out too cute?

We played a couple of games and visited, all in all it was a wonderful shower. The mom to be said she was she was embarrassed about much she had gotten! I don't know if she never had a shower or what, but I told her she was silly.

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to post this, I have been trying since Monday! My Chrome kept crashing, so I would start to write in again and it crashed again. The third time I was simply gonna post the pictures and write the descriptions later, but again it crashed. Then we got busy with the bakery, so I tried to get something done between oven batches! Then my lovely daughter Nikki told me that blogger automatically backs up and save your posts for just such emergencys! Yay!!!!!! I still had to edit the pictures in and out but here it is!

I already have a bunch of stuff to talk about for this week! We have been busy, but having fun!

I am going to try to get busy on Jessica's Easter dress and her baby doll's dress too! So as usual keep your fingers crossed!

Have a great day! Talk at you later!

“May you always walk in sunshine. May you never want for more. May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door.” Irish quotes