Wednesday, January 12, 2011

No I'm not dead


you might think my poor neglected blog is! I won't go into a long string of excuses, just suffice it to say that life remains busy between work and just general busyness!

Well, of course a lot has happened since I last posted on NOVEMBER 8th!! There was Thanksgiving which we spent at Emily's where we had a wonderful meal. Work has been pretty busy for me and also during the time before the holidays our choir was practicing and getting ready to present a Living Christmas Tree musical. This was performed the second weekend in December, so it seemed to be here before we knew it after Thanksgiving. It was a very moving experience for both those who sang and those who listened. Being the procrastinator I am, Christmas was upon us before I knew it. I almost didn't put up or decorate a tree, but Kerry suggested us getting a real tree this time, so that did the trick to get me more into the Christmas spirit. It turned out really pretty, so I'm glad we went to the trouble.




I was working the week of Christmas including Christmas Eve(Saturday)so Christmas Day ended up being our Christmas Eve and the day after our Christmas. When your children grow up and get married, you do the best you can! Holly and Chris were able to come home for a Christmas visit, although Chris had to leave on Sunday to get back to his job. Holly is teaching now and was able to stay for a couple of weeks. I had taken off the week after Christmas, so I was fortunate enough to have that time to spend with Holly.

She wanted to make some jewelry while she was here, so in between visiting family and friends that she wanted to see while she was home, we spent a little time working on a couple of new jewelry pieces for her. She designed and did most of the work of putting the ideas together. I did the sewing for the red, black, and white necklace and attaching the fasteners to both. Thought she came up with some really great ideas and that they turned out really pretty! You can see them below.



For the necklace above, we followed the ideas from a couple of jewelry mags I had. We totally used scraps of fabric and beads I had on hand,including red and black velvet, white organza, black and white dotted fabric, various beads and buttons all sewn onto a white crocheted piece on top of black felt. The starting point was the houndstooth fabric-covered button and then Holly's imagination took off from there into the red/black/white theme.



The necklace above is turquoise, amber, and brown beads of various kinds. Wasn't a ble to capture a good shot, so imagine the colors being lots prettier than they show up here.




Also, Holly wanted to take home a jewelry piece I had made earlier but not totally finished. I put together a collage of fabrics and ribbons for the necklace part and here she is modelling the finished product.

On New Year's Eve eve, we travelled down to Tuscaloosa to see Emily, Craig, and Thomas. Holly and Emily wanted to spend a little more time together before Holly had to head back to Texas. This pic of Thomas below is of him playing outside that day while his Mom and his Aunt Holly had travelled to the urgent care center. Emily woke up sick New Year's Eve with flu-like symptoms. Craig's parents had also come and we had all planned to have a family New Year's Eve celebration which of course was cancelled. The Nolen's ended up taking Thomas home with them so Craig could look after Emily. Kerry, Holly, and myself left for home, too. Unfortunately, everyone who was there that day ended up being sick within the next few days excepting Thomas and some of us are still trying to fight it off!



Life was somewhat getting back to normal. Holly made it safely back to Texas and we all went back to work. My work was really hectic and busy after the holiday slowdown. This week has been been very surreal for us in Alabama. We've had a good bit of snowfall, at least 6 inches here, and it has brought us kind of to a stop. Schools have been called off and I've not been able to get to work the last couple of days. Hope to get in tomorrow. I'll try to post snow pictures soon. Wanted to take this opportunity to get a post done while I had some time at home.

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