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!

Finished! Whew!!! Luna Lovegood will have a sweater!!!!

I finally finished knitting and crocheting this bolero for Luna Lovegood, aka Miss J.  Yes, I did write knitting and crocheting.  The main body of the bolero is knitted, but I crocheted the front border and the triangle design, which you can't really see here, on the bottom sides of the front.  The sleeves are crocheted.  The one button is also crocheted.               

 I didn't have a pattern, partly because I'm still just learning to read them!  I did find one that was similar in an adult size, but I decided that I would just see what I could come up with on my own.  I made it up as I went along, and I could not tell you what I did from row to row.  I do know that I knitted two and purled two on the main body.  Below is the back.

 And, of course, Luna has very long, very blond hair.  No, I didn't make this wig, but I did go to Walmart, and three dollar stores, before I thought to go to Walgreens, where I found it. 

I am very excited to be taking this, the Fleur Delacour, Hedwig, and the two Monster T-Rex costumes to my grandchildren soon.  I hope to get photos of them all dressed in their chosen character's costume.

Finally, another one finished, another ALMOST finished, and two on the models

Here's Fleur Delacour's, aka Miss K's, dress and capelet.  The long collar and cuffs are detachable. 

 I'm hoping Miss K will be able to wear this dress as a real dress and not just a costume.  The fabric is a cotton knit that is very soft and comfy.  The clothes hanger is too large for the shoulders on this dress, therefore making the sleeves look a little weird.  I assure you that Miss K's shoulders aren't that wide.

 I really struggled with how to make this hat.  I actually MADE one from blue felt, but I am not showing it to you, because, well because it didn't turn out so great.  So, I went to Walmart and bought a gray felt hat.  I wet the top of it until it was pretty soaked.  Then, I stretched it with a broom handle until it almost tore a hole in it.  I didn't know if this would work, or not, but it did pretty well.  Then, I spray painted it to match the dress.  It took a couple of coats of paint, but I was pleased with the outcome.  The hat is rather stiff with the paint, but at least it's the right shape and color.

 

Now, for Luna Lovegood, aka Miss J's, outfit.  In the scene of the movie that Miss J especially liked what Luna was wearing, she had on a peasant top,

                                                         a pair of khaki jeans, and .............

 a purplish-blue bolero style sweater.  This is all that's left to be finished.  I've actually done a little more since I took this photo.  Perhaps I'll get it finished in the next day or two.

 Now, for two little models in their costumes.  These two visited us last weekend.  Lil'E said she would be the prettiest fairy of all!  Lil'B just thought she looked adorable.  She paraded around with a huge smile on her face!

                                          An Undersea Fairy with a sea shell dress and crown. 

 These are purchased wings, but they were trimmed all in black!  So, I painted the black parts pink and added pink seaweed (ribbon).

 Here's our little pink sea-horse from the front, and.........

 

from the back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I posted last Sunday, my mother finally found peace one year ago.  In the fall, one of the first things she would want to do was buy some miniature gourds to put on her dining room table.  I went with her many times to buy them.  So, whenever, I start seeing gourds out in the grocery stores and at the roadside stands, I think of her.  So, last Sunday, I placed this arrangement at church in her memory. 

 She would have been so happy. 

A Year Ago, today..........

..........was when my mother finally found peace. 
This was a bittersweet weekend.  I was really sad all week thinking about how much Mother was suffering a year ago, but then today, it was that same feeling of relief that I felt when she was finally at peace.  I miss her terribly.  Nearly everyday, I think of something I need to tell her or ask her.  My car still thinks it's supposed to turn down the road to the nursing home.  It has done just that a few times!
But, one of our daughters and her husband and two little ones were here this weekend.  It was so much fun to have them here. 
My brother, his wife, my cousin, and my daughter's family were all at church today.  I put an arrangement of fall gourds, Mother's favorite fall thing, on the altar table.  I sang in a trio with a couple of other ladies.  We sang "Seek, and ye shall find", which is my favorite scripture put to music. 
Got my house fairly well straightened up.  The circle from my church is meeting here on Tuesday night!
I also got my grade cards done.  They go out tomorrow.
Going to bed.
I don't know what I'll do about my machine, yet.  I'm waiting to hear from the repairman.

Our insurance..............

.......... will not cover my machine!

Up In Smoke!

My sewing machine went up in smoke on Saturday, as I was sewing on it!  I just got it back from the hospital intensive care unit (sewing machine repair shop)  a couple of weeks ago.  I had not had much time to sew on it until this past weekend.  I started sewing early Saturday morning.  I was still sewing late Saturday afternoon, when it "CRACKLED" and then started SMOKING!!!!!!!!  And I don't mean just a little bit of SMOKING, I mean a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of SMOKING!!!!  I guess it wasn't well enough to have such a work out!!!!  Whatever the cause, I do believe that if I hadn't unplugged it, as quickly as I did, that it would have gone up in flames!!!!!   Luckily, I was finishing the last of the seven grands' Halloween costumes, and I still had my friend's machine here, so I was able to finish Fleur Delacour's outfit!  Actually, I haven't made the hat, yet.  It will be a bit tricky, but I have an idea of how I might be able to make it.  We'll see.  I am still working on Luna Lovegood's sweater, but I'm about 2/3 finished.  I will take photos soon.

Okay, back to my machine.  I took it back to the hospital (repair shop) yesterday.  I truly don't think there is any hope for it.  The transplant for the electronic system is going to be more expensive than it is worth more than likely, so I think we will just put it out of its misery.  I am trying to contact the insurance adjuster whom I talked with before.  I last told him that my machine was fixed, but now I need to let him know it isn't.  I just hope he will at least negotiate with me and my sewing machine store folks!  If not, I guess I'll go to plan A from before and borrow my daughter's machine.
One of my daughters has started sewing some really adorable outfits for her girls.
I have really rambled in this post, but as I am teaching my third graders about finding the MAIN IDEA, I hope you picked up in this rambling mess, that the M. I. is that my machine died.  Some of the stuff is just SUPPORTING DETAILS.  Some of it is very unnecessary information that I would tell my kids to leave out of their essays, if they wanted to make a good score!!!!