Checking in

I'm just checking in.

 

I do hope you are having a good Thanksgiving weekend.  We mostly slept the day, went out for dinner at "The Dinner Bell". drove around for a bit, then back home, to sleep again.

 

We are not feeling Bad, we just are not feeling good either. We have both managed to hurt our right knees.  Jerry's happened a few days before he got laid off of his job and Mine started three days ago.

 

Now we are waiting for a phone call.  There was a Email but it came in way to late to be able to make the call. Jerry will try to make that call today but it's iffy if anyone will be in an office on the day after Thanksgiving.

 

Growing up, Mom almost always had to go to work the day after Thanksgiving. On those few occasions that she did have the Friday after off, we usually went to visit our Grandmother in Missouri. 

 

Saturday after Thanksgiving, we would decorate our Christmas tree. Even after leaving her home and getting married, I decorated the tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I have no plans for a tree this year.  There is no place for one here.  I will be decorating for Christmas, I just won't have a tree this year.

 

An Ornament I made for a friend

I know I said I would post this picture a few weeks ago. I got distracted. I made these for our friends Donna and Larry. Donna had a love bird who was named Barney and was almost 14 years old when  died this past summer.  He was a very special bird and I know he is waiting for his human friend at the rainbow bridge that all pets wait at, to greet their human friend.

 

Larry loved Roosters.  When I saw this rooster I knew it was the perfect gift for him.  Unfortunately, Larry passed just a week after I gifted him this present. Larry loved to tease people that he liked and he must have liked Jerry and I cause he would smile and tease, just a little, every time we were over for a visit. 

 

 

 

 

How I made these.

Miniature figurines

Plastic Drink cups from Dollar Tree

A Large roll of Cork from a crafts store, Hobby Lobby if I recall.

     (I'll be using more of it very soon)

Silver Braid (Wal-mart in the ribbon section of the fabric's area)

E-6000 Glue

 

    I cut the cork with a circle Die that was just a bit larger than the rim of the cup with my Cuttle-bug.  It did get flattened out a bit and distorted a little but not enough to make it not work as I wanted it to. I glued each figure o the cork with some E-6000, making sure that the cup would still sit on the cork once the glue was dried.  I had thought of some artificial snow but then thought better of that. But if you want a snow ball effect, this is the time to add some to the cup.

    Once the figure was dried, I used the same glue around the rim of the cup, then placed the cork on the rim, and allowed that to dry. Turn over so the cork is now the floor.

I then glued the braid around the rim of the cup, the small ridge at the bottom (now the top) of the cup, and a loop to the dent of the cup as a hanger for on a tree.

 

I considered a few bows for around the top, but ran out of time to make those.  But then I could have used a couple of artificial Holly leaves and berries if I had thought about it.

 

Next time I get to a Crafts store, I am going to the mini train area or the Christmas village area and find more mini's to work with.

 

 

 

May your day be blessed and may you find joy in the small things of living every day.

Billie C.

Hello.  Oh I am so sorry for not keeping up on my blogs. My surgery went well but it's taken me longer than I expected to heal and feel better.
I just haven't really worked on anything for any Holiday.
I have sorted through my storage room. It's a bunk-bed room at thefront of the camper and where I put the dogs hen they need to be put up or at night, to sleep. I just can't trust that smallest one to be behave if left out of that room, and I'm not awake or in the room with him.


Labor Day weekend, Hubby, Two Grand-kids and I went and emptied a storage unit we had in Alabama. Well worth the trip but we still can't believe how little we really had in there and now much we put in the trash. We had a number of empty boxes that I had saved to use when we moved the Air Stream. No longer needed, so they didn't come back with us even though we paid a lot to keep them stored.  Oh,  if I had known just how much room I had left in the trailer, I would have brought home two, older sewing machines.. for free.  Hubby is so happy that I decided to not bring them home with us. I really don't need yet another sewing machine.


The land we are living on is so quiet and peaceful. I do hear traffic along the busy road that really isn't that far away from the camper. It's about 1/2 a mile from the camper to the stop sign and just a few more yards to the main road between Dunlap and Whitwell TN.   This last week has not been so quiet because the land on the other side of the driveway is being cleared.  Lots oh heavy machinery and, of course, a radio at full blast. I do think that they are harvesting the few mature trees that they are felling. From time to time I hear a Truck leaving the area. I have walked down after they have left for the day, and taken a few pictures of what has been cleared.

The Girl Scouts troop my grand daughter is in, is having a yard sale in October and her mom has asked if there is anything I can donate to the cause. Well, with just emptying the storage and what I have stuck here and there in the camper, of course I have stuff I can send their way. So far three boxes of stuff. More to add as I'm not near done with the stored stuff yet and need to go through the boxes on the bunk-beds again.

Hello

Hello. I had every intention of keeping up with all my blogs, and I have failed. I am not giving them up though.  We have moved from Iowa, back to Tennessee. Hubby is working in Cleveland TN and we are very happy to be back in Tennessee. For the first month, we were living with our daughter. our dogs were not allowed in her home though and we kept them in the camper. But as the days got warmer it was harder and harder to keep them quiet and comfortable. Then the cats started to climb on the neighbor's cars and that got us in more trouble with the neighbors.  We were able to move the camper out to some property that her boyfriend owns and the cats can roam and the dogs can bark, and run around without a lead on (most of the time) and we are comfortable since we have power for the air conditioner to work.  So all is good. 

 

Hubby changes jobs here from the one we came here for, to the one we had hoped would call us, while we were in Iowa. This job is suppose to last a couple of years. Maybe even longer. The only draw-back is how far away it is from where we have the camper. It take over and hour to make the drive each way.  We were doing good with that, until the job went from 10 hours a day 6 days a week to 11 hours a day 13 on, one off.  That's a lot of hours to be awake and then to have to stay alert while driving, well that was not going to work at all. so Hubby has moved into a motel room that is much closer to the job. Meanwhile I'm still at the camper, with the pets. Our daughter and her children are making sure I am not lonely.

 

I will be having surgery on July 20 (yes, Hubby will be there with me for this).

I will have a total hysterectomy done. Found out I have cancer in the lining of my Uterus.  But, unless things are much worse than expected, I will not have to have Chemo or Radiation treatments afterwards. I won't know on that until after the removed organs are examined, and I have my post op check up on Augest 27. I will be in the hospital over night when I have the surgery. The doctor told me he wants me up and walking by the end of the evening. That it would be better for me to be up and moving so soon afterwards.

 

Right now. my daughter and her family are planning on camping out in a tent at our place (her boyfriends land) the night of the surgery, and will take care of our pets while Hubby stays with me. She and the kids are going to be taking care of me, as hubby will have to be back to work on Wednesday after my surgery.  (have to pay the bills somehow, right?)

 

I will try to spend more time on my blogs from here out, but no promises.

 

Billie C.

March 30

Hello. I know, it's been a while since I've posted to any of my blogs. I just don't deal will with cold weather and this past winter has been more than the normal "cold" to me.

We didn't expect to spend a winter in the upper mid-west. We know what the weather can be like and we had hoped to be back in the southeast before Thanksgiving.

Add to that we traded the Air Stream for a newer camperand we are still bringing things out of storage back to the newer camper. We have more room but not as much "easy to get at" storage space, so I'm am still trying to find the best places to keep things. We have decided that we will just have to find mini rental storage units every time we move, just to put the stuff we don't want to get rid of but don't need right at the moment. Things like out of season clothes, The air pump, the propane heater, the air conditioner... and well, just things like that. 

 

For this past Rudolph day though, I didn't do much at all except sleep. I've not been feeling the best, Not been feeling bad, just not good either. But in my dreams I did "see" an idea of what would be nice ornaments for my family. I just need to get my Cricut out of storage, and some pictures of all the Kids and their Kids and I will be set. I thought I would make a Santa Ornament for my son, with his face for Santa's face. Santa's wife, for each of my girls and either Elfs or Gingerbread people for all the little ones. Well, Bailey isn't so little at 11 years old now but you know what I mean.  Of course I'll make a set for me while I'm making each kid their set.

 

With the new camper, I have walls that I can put pictures on. All I need is picture frames and then decide where to put each family.

 

I don't have all my crafting things here at the new camper yet. And as usual. I have half of what I need to make anything at all. I have my Cricut carts but not the Cricut machine. I have my Cuttlebug, and not the embossing folders or die cuts.  I will get them sorted and here soon, but in the mean time, about the only thing I have going is a crochet Blanket I started early last year and after two rows set aside.

 

Billie C.

God Bless America

"The Joy of Little Things"

 

 

 

"The Joy of Little Things" by R. Bell Chapman
from the IDEALS Christmas Magazine 1960

 

The purest joys that Christmas brings
Are found in just the little things.

 

The coming of the hallowed time
Adds to them all a touch sublime;

 

The tiny candle burns more bright
Because of that first Christmas light;

 

The ringing of a distant bell
Sounds in our hearts as "Glad Noel";

 

In every baby's smile we see
The Christ Child's sweet humanity;

 

And gifts of love, however small,
The Wise Men's offerings may recall.

 

Such joys be yours, dear friend, I pray
To bless this happy Christmas Day.

 

Billie C.

God Bless America

Christmas Fulfillment

 

 

Christmas Fulfillment

This Christmas,
may you have the fulfillment
of seeing around you
the people you love the most.
May you have the satisfaction
of creating special memories
they will remember with pleasure forever.
This Christmas,
may you feel peaceful and contented,
knowing what Christmas means,
and celebrating it your way.

By Joanna Fuchs

http://www.poemsource.com/Christmas-poems.html

 

Billie C.