I'm off to see the..................

fabrics and patterns, of the wonderful Hobby Lobby and maybe JoAnn's.  Since those are really the only two stores in our area that carry fabrics.  Well, I take that back, there's also Gina's and Katy's, so I may visit those, as well.  I've talked with my daughter, who is the mother of Misses K, J, and R.  They have looked at the Justus website and these are the dresses they like for the holidays and band/chorus concerts.  The first one is the one that Miss R, who is almost 6, likes best.  She wants it to be pink, however.  I will probably put sleeves in the dress, though.                                                                                    

 Below is Miss K's favorite.  She's 11.  She does want cap sleeves, though, so I'll need to look for a similar pattern with sleeves for her.  I probably have one already.

 Finally, this is the dress that Miss J likes best.  This is very similar to the one she liked best last year.  Finding the ombre fabric was the hard part, so I had to compromise.   I hope I'm able to find it this year.  Miss J does want sleeves, too.

 These bolero sweaters are pretty and practical.  I don't know that I'll try to make these, but I might keep my eyes open for possibilities.

Lil'E and Lil'B don't live where they did last year, and they are both able to wear the dresses they had then, with adjustments to length.  So, I'm just going to make them cute little holiday jumpers that are reversible, maybe.

The boys, Big Little Man and Little Little Man, both need some dressy clothes and not much else, so I will be on the look out for patterns and maybe some houndstooth fabric for jackets and coordinating fabrics for pants, shirts, and ties.
I'm on my way!!!!!

Santa and the Nativity

These are my latest paintings in store windows.  I painted these same windows last year, so I was happy to be asked to do them again!  The owner of this furniture store wanted one Santa picture and one  of the nativity.                                                                               

 

I enjoyed painting these except that I fell off the ladder and bruised my hip and elbow, but at least nothing was broken. 

Winter Wonderland???????

On Thursday night of last week, we were at our daughter's house in MA.  It snowed, which we thought was pretty incredible, seeing as how it was only October 27th.  That evening we drove in snow to our daughter's house in CT.  It was pretty scary driving in all that snow!  Our MA daughter ended up with about 4 inches, and our CT daughter had about 2 inches. Amazing, right? WRONG!

 On Saturday, which is actually when we planned to leave up there and head back toward TN, this is what started happening!  This is our daughter's back yard after only an hour or so of the snow beginning to fall.

 This photo was taken from our hotel room in Hartford, and it's actually on it's side.  The snow was not falling to the ground, it was blowing horizontally because of the blizzard winds!!!  We were in a hotel, because our daughter's power went out, trees were falling and breaking everywhere, and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to make it to the interstate the next morning.  We had decided by this point to wait out the storm and drive straight through on Sunday.  Our daughter and her family went to the hotel with us, because they were afraid a tree might fall on their house during the night, and like I said earlier, they had no power.

 Following are some of the photos I shot on the way through Connecticut and New York.  Interstate 84 was closed near Carmel and Kent, NY.  We had to detour, and of course had no idea where we were going.  We ended up getting back on 84 a mile or so before the detour began, so we had to detour again.  This time we turned the other direction, and ended up on highway 50, which was also closed.  We spent an hour or more at a Blimpie's until the interstate opened back up.  The entrance ramp was right next to this Blimpie's.  We drank coffee, ate a biscuit, and listened to lots of comments by lots of other people who were also stranded!

 Some of the sites were beautiful!

 See the fall colors peeping out from under the snow and ice?  Weird!

We made it home, though, with only a couple of hours added to our normal drive.  We both had to get up and go to work yesterday morning, and even though we are tired, we managed okay.  Our daughter in CT still has no power, her children haven't had school so far this week, and it's been called off for tomorrow already, but worst of all, Halloween was called off in CT!!!  Our daughter in MA fared a lot better.  Her power is still on!