New Baskets and an Angel

I have been very crafty this month along with baking a b-zillon biscotti, peppermint meringues and pumpkin I managed to weave up a few goodies. 

Modified Sugar & Spice
Design by Pauline Asbury

Other side of Sugar & Spice

Chili Pepper
Desgined by Debbie Hurd

CJ's Mail Basket

Open Weave Angel
Designed by Marcia Ballewig

I have also been busy making changes to my blog as well as preparing for my 15 projects for the CJC 2012.  I did not finish my 2011 list so I plan to add them to my UFO/WIP page.  the 2012 projects will be small--good way to insure I finish them this year.

Happy New Year!!

See ya!

CJ

Two Totes

I love tote bags, I have several and I can't stop temptation when one catches my eye.  I just love totes, they are so useful and I never have problem finding things to put in my various totes.  I have two totes for my basket weaving materials, one large tote for cross stitch, several totes for grocery shopping, a tote for each child and bunches of extra's just in case I need them. 

Now I have taken it to the next level--I have a basket tote.  It is called My Favorite Tote, pattern by Marcia Ballewig of  Oklahoma Basket Supply.  It is small, 4x9x10 and I use it to carry my basket weaving tools.  It was so easy to weave, so easy I had to make a second for a gift. 

Enjoy!!

CJ

My poor, neglected blog.....

Dear Blog,

I am so sorry I have not visited you at all this November.  Oh, what a November I have had full of activities, celebrations and doctor visits. Where do I begin?  Hmm..

I guess the beginning is good.  The first weekend of the month I attended the Oklahoma Basket Weavers Guild annual Weavers Weekend at Canyon Camp in Hinton,  There I spent hours upon hours making baskets, weaving a bench seat and a footstool.  I tried some Christmas ornaments but they were a total disaster.   Overall a great weekend spent with four good friends (despite the 5.6 quake in Oklahoma) and good food.  Exhausting but fun, fun, fun. 

I returned from my weekend to find my DS sick with fever that would not go away.  Monday morning we visit the Urgent Care Clinic to discover he has the dreaded STREP.   Poor boy had to stay home for two days and miss his class field trip to River Bend Nature Center. 

Then Friday rolled around, Veterans Day, both hubby and I are retired vets.  The kids had to go to school--no holiday for them.  But they had a special meal that day so Dad and I had lunch with the kids and 600 other people.  Afterwards DH and I went to see to the movie to see J. Edgar -- little date for us.

Saturday morning DH and DD#1 headed to Dallas for a weekend of fun.  They visited Legoland, Bass Pro Shop and attended the Cowboy-Lions game.  While they were gone I had to make the second trip in one week to the Urgent Care Clinic.  My DS woke with fever and nasty urine -- he has a condition that makes him prone to UTI's.  So after a dose of intramuscular therapy and new antibiotics he was good to go.  Although the shot did make him want to walk like an 80 year old man.

Then here comes the next week.  My DD#2 has a meltdown at school and misses half a day.  My son has an ultra sound to check out his kidneys, hubby and son both visit the dentist and my MIL comes for a visit.  I bought a laptop and WiFi router for hubby.  We ended the week with my hubby having foot surgery on Friday. Which means he is off his feet for a minimum of one week so his mother and I are waiting on him for his every need and desire (thus the need for laptop and router). We are WiFi enabled now--but in a secure way.  During all this I managed to finish my last part of the Village Stitcher's Round  Robin and get it in the mail--forgot to take a pic of it. 

I did manage to visit the annual Hangar Holiday Christmas Fair put on by the Officer Spouses Club.  My dear friend and basket weaving buddy had a booth there so I stopped by to give her a potty break.  She did very well at this year's event and signed up to do it all again in 2012.

DD#2's class had a Friendship Salad Celebration on the 22nd.  each child brought fruit to share.  I helped her teacher prepare a fruit salad and make popcorn for the kids.  This is a great lesson on sharing, turn taking and talking about being thankful.

The kids have been out of school since the 22nd, I have baked four batches of biscotti and one batch of giant ginger cookies.  I completed a tote basket for a Christmas gift, cooked Thanksgiving dinner and cleaned up my craft room (the dinning room) so we got to eat at the big table.  As for Black Friday, I headed out at 7am, but there was not much out there that I wanted so I only came home with a few goodies for the kids at Christmas. 

As for today, well again it will be busy.  I have to make Peppermint Biscotti for MIL, Banana Rum Biscotti for my niece and weave one more basket.  Oh, yes and answer hubbies calls from the bedroom.  Hopefully football will keep him occupied today.  I also need to fit in taking the kids to see Happy Feet II.   Good thing the laundry is done, thanks MOM!!

So as you can see little blog I have been very busy and did not mean to totally neglect you.  I promise I will be back very soon with my TUSAL update. 

See ya!!

CJ

Basket Weaving Weekend

Hello Bloggin Friends --

This year I made my second trip, along with my friend, neighbor and weaving mentor Sue and fellow weaving buddy Becky, to the Basket weaver Guild of Oklahoma Weavers Weekend in Hinton, OK.  I decided to take it easy and only weave four baskets this year instead of the seven I did last year.  Since we arrived late (long story) I opted to skip my first class to shower, nap and unpack the van.  Glad I did cause I needed a little rest since driving rattles my nerves.  We stayed at a Methodist Church Camp in a small canyon outside Hinton, Oklahoma and the weather was absolutely wonderful for early November.  Here are some photos of what I weaved that weekend.

This basket is called and Irish Knitting Basket.  It is a version of a melon basket, called that because of its shape.  I loved making this basket and the instructor was fabulous.  I gave this basket to my son and daughters first grade teacher.  She has had all three of my kiddos in class and she likes purple.  I will be making more of this type basket it is one of my favorite styles.

 This is an old wooden salad bowl that has a decorative woven top added.  A great way to reuse an old bowl--eco friendly weaving.  This project actually gave me the fits while I was weaving it.  The weave is called a Gretchen weave and my weavers kept breaking at one point I said "enough, I have had it"!!.  Fortunately, I had the kindest, most patient instructor that did not give up on me.  I will be making more of this one it makes a great candy dish.

Here is the pincushion basket I made.  This was so easy and fun to weave.  Wouldn't this make a great gift for some of my stitching friends?  Definitely more to come of this little gem. 


We had such a fun time this year.  Sue has invited two of the instructors to come to Wichita Falls to teach classes for our little group.  One of the instuctors is offering a Bi-Monthly Basket Club, if you sign up by 1 January shipping is free.  She had the club baskets on display and they were beautiful.  Each of them are decorated with small beads you can see them on her Website, of course I signed up and so did Sue. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!  I will be at the Cowboys game today--woohoo!!

See ya!

CJ

Hey Everybody!!

Boy, it has been awhile since I have taken the time to post, but believe me, we have been busy.  Since my last blog entry we had a virus that attacked out PC so we bought a new one and fixed the old one.  Once new PC was on-line we lost our internet/phone connection for two weeks.  Apparently our phone line traverses a heavily wooded, nearly inaccessible area in our neighborhood that needs to be replaced/updated, but will only be patched until enough of us complain to AT&T to get out there to make a permanent repair.  Every time we get some serious rainfall the phone and internet get real noisy or just drop off all together.  Of course when you turn in the trouble to AT&T they always assume the trouble is in the dwelling--well, they don't know that I am married to a retire AF Telephone Technician that can easily spot and repair a phone problem in our dwelling. 

On top of that our baby had some behavior issues at school, got a paddle from the principal, so I had to quit my long term sub job a week early to take care of her since we all decided it would be best for her to only go to school half a day.  Half days at school and trying a new medication has worked wonders.  All is well and she has been promoted to 1st grade.  She is ADD and we suspect she has Asperger' Syndrome, although trying to get a proper diagnosis is worse than pulling teeth. 

We have spent the last 6 weeks and beaucoup bucks having our yard landscaped.  Erosion was a problem in our backyard so we called a guy for some grass, now we have a three flower beds in the back along with a stone pathway.  The beds in the front have been cleaned, landscaped fabric installed and completely covered with granite chips/stones.  New plants also, Japanese Maple, Purple Fountain Grass, Nandina and Mounding Juniper were planted in front.  I put Purple Fountain Grass, Sweet Potato Vine, Red and White Flame Petunias in my big pots and I have one hanging basket of bright red trailing Geraniums.  It all looks really nice, I am so glad we had it done because our backyard was so depressing.  There is one more Japanese Maple and a Crepe Myrtle to be planted along with changing the edging in the front.   
Oh, we did have some sod put down in the back.   The picture is in our back  off the patio.  There is a similar bed on the other side of the pathway.

Then we had the end of school.   As usual, I decided to make gifts for the teachers.  What did I make?  Baskets.  For how many teachers/staff?  Eleven.  All the bases had a laser engraved image of my kiddos names written by them.  Neat thing that laser engraving--good thing my friend's husband has an one.   I made six pencil cups with variegated reed, I made variations to the weaving pattern so that each one was slightly different.   The other basket is called an Oval Gift basket.  I made four of them (the one pictured is my hubby's) with different colored accent reed.  One was red/black as pictured for the nurse, another had smoke/black accent for the principal, I used kelly green/natural accent for DS and DD#1's teacher and then golden yellow/purple for my DD#2's teacher. 

I have been busy with making cards and cross stitching as well.  Now that school is out I plan to make some changes to this blog and post more frequently as well as stop by your blogs to see how you all are doing.  But most of that will have to wait till next week, right now I am preparing for a neighborhood garage sale Thursday-Saturday.  Wish me luck.



See ya!!

CJ

I'm am Stitching Again!!

Can I hear on big WOOHOO!! I started stitching again, only for an hour or so at a time and it is great.  My CTS is under control and so very happy.  I'm only wearing the brace a few times a week at night.  Wearing  the brace and losing weight has really helped my wrist/hand.  Hope it stays like this forever.  As for weight lose I am down 17 pounds.

Stitching Update

So what am I stitching?  I am playng catchup still working on BRD "Stop and Smell the Flowers".  I also plan to adapt a portion of this pattern into a biscornu for a challenge I am hosting on swap-bot.  Check it out perhaps a few of you would like to join me. 

I have some PIF's to finish up that will be going out in the next few weeks. Then I plan to host another one to support "Stand Up to Cancer".  Still working on the details for this one.  Speaking of cancer check out Nancy's blog.  Nancy is collecting "Think Pink" items from her friends and followers to raffle off on her blog in the month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness.  What a great cause, please stop by and give her a shout out of encouragement.

Papercrafts

Since I have been working full time for the past 7 weeks--3 more to go-- my card making/paper crafting has been put on the back burner so to speak.  I have a few swaps coming, I will try to take a few pictures to share with you as I get the cards made.  I am also considering hosting a card making party for OWH this summer.  To support OWH from now on, each time I make a card for an exchagne I will make at least on extra for OWH.   I think that sounds like a good plan.

Basket Weaving

I did make a new basket, actually two recently.  One is an oval gift basket accented with black and red, the other is an Easter basket.  I plan to make several more oval gift baskets for my kids teachers and one wine basket for a retiring teacher friend.  

Reading

Currently I am reading a cozy murder mytery called Crewel World (Needlecraft Mysteries, Book 1) that I picked up from paperbackswap.com.  I need to come up with a creative way to display what I have read, what I am reading and what I intend to read on thie blog.  If you have any ideas please send them my way.

Other Stuff

As for the family we are doing great.  DH is down 28 pounds--you didn't think I would go on a diet by myself now.  The kids are fine.  One is in the Miracle League and two are playing soccer.  My oldest DD will take some art lessons next month, turns out the kid loves to draw.  We are also looking at summer camp activities.  Can't believe we are only weeks away from summer break.  Thank goodness my job will be finished in 3 weeks and I can get some things done around the house before the kids are here 24/7.

Oh well, time for coffee.

BTW - Meari, love your new car. 

See ya!!

CJ

It a Monday Update!!

Hello, Happy Valentine's and Happy Chinese New Year!!  All is well in our little patch of Texas.  We spent the weekend visiting my MIL in Amarillo.  It was so good to see her after missing Christmas with her due to the blizzard in North Texas and Oklahoma.  My hubby and I are not big on Valentine's, the most we exchange are cards.  I did make Valentine's for my kids teachers and classmates but that was it.  As for Chinese New Year we took the kids and MIL to eat Chinese, a family tradition.

Stitching Update

I managed to work on a few projects this week, but nothing to brag about except the lovely biscornu I recieved form JeanieBeanie in a Swap-Bot exchange.  It is so beautiful, I love the colors.  Thanks, Jeanie.

More Swap-Bot

I particpated in a Tea, Bookmark and Coaster Exchange and posted a picture of what I was sending in my last blog post.  Here is what I got from Renee in California.  A really cool handmade bookmark, three types of tea and two bar coasters.  I was very happy with this exchange. 

Basket Weaving

Here is a my latest basket weaving project.  This is a Friendship Basket.  I have made many of this basket with the ceramic base.  It is a very easy basket to weave and it makes a great gift.  This is the first one I have made with the Sunflower design.  This will be a teacher gift for the end of the school year.  Now I only need to make 5 more. 

Other Stuff
Tomorrow I start my temp sub job at a local elementary school. I am looking forward to working at this particular school and with this special group of kids.  Because of the job I have really backed off with my swaps and exchanges.  Plus I need a break there wer times I had a few too many crafty irons inthe fire, if you know what I mean. Not to mention we will be going see the Lippenzaner Stallions, a rodeo and Monster Jam next week.  With that schedule who has time to craft, thankfully I can stitch in the car--can't read in the car, I get violently ill, but I can stitch. Go figure!

Anyway, I am tired and the Olympic are on so I need to go. 

See ya!!

CJ

Merry Christmas!!

Whew! We made to another Christmas. It has been crazy busy around here with all the holiday stuff and just life in general. The last month or so I have been working, volunteering at school, baking, stitching, card making, basket weaving, and taking care of my family to include 10 doctor visits since early November. We had gutters installed on our house and hubby took me to the Dallas Cowboys/Washington Redskins game at the new Cowboy stadium. While we were in Dallas we visited the Holocaust Museum.

We have also had an unusual amount of family visitors lately which can frazzle anyones schedule especially mine. While I love the company the unscheduled visits can easily get me frazzled then I end up dazed, confused and stressed.


Stitching Update

I finished one stitching piece for a Swap-bot exchange. It is a monochromatic biscornu in a beautiful shade of blue. I really liked how it turned out, it was difficult to mail it away. Still have many other stitching projects going too many to list. I am working on my 2010 craft plan, I really need to get better organized--I feel like this is a recurring theme in my life.

I sent and recieved an Advent package for the exchange on CSE. I enjoyed the Advnt exchange but I found it to be very stressful. It was very difficult to come up with 25 gifts for one person. I don't think this type of exchange is for me, but I am glad I tried it out. Unfortunatley, I decided to leave a few of my stitching groups. I was just overwhelmed with e-mails I barely read and inundated with unfinished projects because I kept commiting to group activities. I have decided to stick to one stitching and one card making group with a few Swap-bot exchagnes. Sometimes change is good.


Paper crafts

I am always doing something with my paper crafts--mostly card making. The Card Swap forum is really fun and I plan to do more with them in 2010. Once I find my camera I may post a few pics of some recent cards. Besides making cards I have started to cover bird houses with decorative papers for Christmas.


Basket weaving

I weaved two pencil cups for Teacher presents and prepared 5 Nativity baskets for family gifts. Thanks to my mentor/weaving buddy Sue for the help with the Nativity baskets or else some folks would only get a card and cookies this year.


Other Crafty Stuff

The kids and I made Cinnamon ornaments with their initials stamped on the back for our family. It smells like a cinnamon explosion in my kitchen. I was surprised how easy it was to do. The hardest part was finding a large container of cinnamon.


Baking

This is the time of year that I bake until I can't stand it any longer. I have made six types of biscotti, lemon cookies, and giant ginger cookies. Time permitting I will bake some cranberry cheese bars later today for our little trip to Granny's house tomorrow.


PIF

I have sent out Meari's PIF. Take a look at her blog for the goodies. My objective is for fit all I can in the USPS Small Priority mail box. I plan to do one a month until all nine are completed. I have lots of goodies for all my PIF pals. Barb, you are next cause I know your favorite color. I will be mailing your package in January. Anne, Carol, Chars, Chiki, Donna, Janet and Lynda keep checking back to see when to expect your PIF. Don't hesitate to e-mail me if you have any questions or concerning regarding the PIF.

Book Reading Challange Update

I manged to finish four books, I thought I could do better than this by the deadline of 31 Dec 09. Maybe next time.

1) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling-Finished
2) A Tisket, a Tasket, a Fancy Stolen Casket, Fran Rizer - Finished
3) Murder Unleashed, Elaine Viets - Finished
4) Murder with Reservations, Elaine Viets
5) Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone, J. K. Rowling
6) a mercy, Toni Morrison
7) Hey Diddle, Diddle the Corpse and the Fiddle, Fran Rizer - Reading
8) What Happens When Women Walk in Faith, Lysa Terkurst - Reading
9) The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
10) Accessory to Murder, Elaine Viets - Finished

Happy Holidays!! See you in 2010.

CJ