Where Have I Been?

Goodness, it's been a long time since I've written. It's funny how busy I can be without doing much!! I can now relate to my Mother when asked at age 80, "What did you do today?" "Nothing much but I was busy all day."
Mother did read a lot, starting with the morning paper. She read it ALL, including every word of the Editorial page. I'm too cynical to read the 'letters to the editor' on the editorial page but I have been reading a whole lot more books than ever before in my life. The latest book I've read is called The Shack.

It's been a long time since, when reading a book, I have wanted to underline some profound truth that I want to remember. My copy of The Shack has several pages with bright yellow highlight. One that really hit me hard in the stomach is on page 142 and 'God' is speaking, "do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely ever, pictures Me there with you."
The first four chapters are really hard but thankfully I stuck with it and I'm so glad I did. In another place in the book, it is said, "God is not in a box...and He's not in a book either." Meaning we confine God to what the bible says about Him. And He is SO much more and wants to BE so much more to me and to you.
I heartily reccomend this book. I got mine at Cosco for $9 in paperback.

The Wee Folk move in...

The four story doll house was made when my girls were little. The boys are good at moving the furniture around but they leave all the cute little extras in the box.John-Thomas and Emmett 'creating their own Wee Folk. They did all the work themselves including the wrapping, cutting, sewing and face painting. Stewart made his last week. Having had only daughters, my grandsons continue to amaze and delight me.
Did you notice the 'swords' in their wee little hands They were robbed from my pin cushion. Home Sweet Home

Scanning Fabric

I had some fabric left from making matching dresses and purses for cousins,
Anna-Kate and Elise. I scanned the fabric into my computer and my Photoshop elements. I cropped out each flower and removed the background. Some of the flowers I changed the hue and brightness to give them a different color. I isolated one of the heart petals, added a bow and some shadow. For the flowers across the bottom, I 'drew' the green stems on my background paper, then added the flowers I had made. All in all, pretty cute even if it did take most of the day.

Can be addictive!

Emily told me about a booklet, 'Wee Felt Folk' by Salley Mavor, she saw at Michaels. We looked it up on the internet Library and found it at the library next to her church. So off we went.Found it there and we both checked out a copy. Just looking at the booklet is a feast for the creative eye.
I started scavenging my saved goodies and had everything I needed to make my first Wee Folk except paint for the wee faces. Mine was dried out. I'm sure an organized person would cringe at all the 'stuff' I save, but they are priceless to me. I even had olde cotton pipe cleaners. Must have had them for 20 years!! It was much more fun to make these Wee Folk with my olde cotton pipe cleaners than new acrylic ones would have been.
If I get a twinge of conscience and throw some old thing away...never fails...within a few weeks that item is just what I need for something I was making. SO, now I don't throw anything away.
Back to my Wee Folk. They were easier to make that I thought they would be and a lot of fun too. When I was quite a bit younger, I loved making small things. The smaller the better. But now, my aged eyes and hands have caught up with me and it's now, the bigger the better. I am going to make my next Wee Folk not so wee and see how that goes.
The question now is, what am I going to do with these Wee Folk. Woody, my cat, has already tried to pull out the hair.

And the winner is...

Got-a-minute is a favorite family word game with the Swift/Gideon families. Stewart is good with words and tries so hard to win. When he comes to Grama's house he wants to play scrabble and was determined to win one day. That day came, and the day after. He beat me twice! He was so proud and rightly so. He doesn't just put down a good word but is very good at placing his letters to get the maximun points. I am so proud of you Stewart, Way to go!

And it only took four hours...

Finally, after a year or more of saving tons of digital scrapbook freebies, and viewing a youtube tutorial, I would not let myself stop until I had completed ONE page. Well, I did learn alot and I have much more to learn...another day.
And it didn't cost anything in supplies. Just a stiff neck!

FELIX...that's the cat's name.