An Afternoon Project

I decided to jump into a project today. I haven't been sewing lately...life is rather stressful, and my heart just hasn't been in a sewing mode lately. But today, I decided to change that! Sooooo, I made the pretty springy looking handbag. I've been admiring all those pretty (and pricy) quilted handbags that are in style and I KNEW I could make one even better,...and MUCH less expensive. =) I used fabric from my stash, and scraps of batting. The ONLY thing I bought was the pattern (which I purchased last summer,) and the zipper. It needs some buttons on the ends & the outside pocket - which I plan to buy tomorrow...but other than that, it was cheap & fairly easy. The pattern was somewhat hard to follow at times, but once I caught on - it all came together. From start to finish - 3 to 4 hours.

What really surprised me - this purse held everything my old one did! It has lots of inside pockets to keep thing neat & organized.

So, all in all.... that mountain of laundry didn't need to be folding today. This handy dandy handbag needed to be made! *G* I feel better for having spent the time on it.

Photoshop ~ what an awesome thing

Last Sunday was Easter. He is Risen! He is risen, indeed!

After church we did the usual family pictures
1. because it has become a tradition, and
2. because it's rare to see my family dressed nicely, clean, and all together respectable looking. (The boys are usually in t-shirts, and ragged jeans..by choice. Blake is usually in a denim shirt & jeans...by choice, and I'm just not a dressy-dress type person either. *G*)

ANYWAY,.... we dutifully stood in front of a peach tree in full bloom, smiled & tried to look happy & Eastery. I didn't look at the pictures until later that night. Lo and behold did I get a surprise! Dear Cole had made a wacky, weird face in EVERY family picture! The ones taken by either Blake or I were fine. But the ones of all 4 of us together - taken using the tripod & timer - were all Cole-ified. Eyes crossed, contorted face, and smirks are over the place. Grrrrr! I stopped myself from deleting them....I think I'll keep them for future 'black mail' usage.*g* So this afternoon I made a first MAJOR attempt of 'photo magic' with Photoshop. WOW! What an awesome tool! You can hardly tell I took Cole's head from one photo & plopped into the family photo. Cool, huh! And no wonder the tabloids can make it look like Britney is dating Elvis, or George W is dancing the hula with Hillary. This tool is cool - but dangerous. *G*

Our Other Family Members

Here are some pictures of our other family members...the 4 legged ones. Riley the beast is huge, funny and lovingly protective of us...unless it's storming. Then all bets are off, and he hides under the bed! He weighs almost 100 lbs...it's so funny to watch him squirm his way underneath our bed, but I guess that's where he feels safe. He sleeps there a lot too. It's hysterical to wake up during the night to the sound of Riley howling in his sleep. He must have some wild & crazy dreams.

Ethel is our sweet quiet calico cat. She's just too much of a lady to put her face into Riley's water bowl & drink. (Riley drank up all the water in the cats' water bowl.) So she touches the water with her paw & delicately licks it off.

Bobbin is bobbin, she has no tail. She hunts creatures at night, and she has a personal problem with feline flatulence. She can clear a room in .01 seconds. But other than that, she's sweet. She sleeps in her own personal "cat box" courtesy of the USPS. I don't know WHAT she was doing in this picture...but she's squatting like a bullfrog! Maybe she's practicing for catching frogs when it warms up soon? Maybe she's trying to look 'all pumped up'? Maybe she ate too many squirrels? Funny little cat.