How I pulled off Christmas...

 ...these, folded up and wrapped into these....

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Hope you have a wonderful, safe and happy day filled with making wonderful memories!

And don't forget the real reason of Christmas - about the One who humbled Himself by coming down to earth as a helpless baby to save you from your sins!

Christmas???

What did you say?? Christmas is in 3 days?? Oh... ya I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Making Christmas presents isn't even on my radar yet! 

What's that? Your Christmas presents are all made and done?? And even wrapped??? Well, good for you. I'm glad you have had lots of time to do that, and you are soo on top of things!

Why aren't I done yet? Why haven't I even started mine or decided what I'm making for that matter?? 

Well because, I just got home today from spending 3 weeks in another state caring for some awesome kiddos while their Mommy went to Ukraine to adopt their little brother. There were 8 kids I was responsible for, the last week they were all on Christmas break, most of them were sick, and two of them ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and are still there. Crocheting really hasn't been very high on my priority list, nor have I had a lot of spare time on my hands.

No, I'm not a saint. I'm tired, sick, and a bit cranky - not feeling very saint-like. I was just doing what God laid on my heart to do by helping them out in that way with their adoption.

Nice talking to you too. Glad you don't have to work on Christmas presents the next few days like someone else does. Good bye.

Just a conversation I am having over Blogger with my imaginary friend... ;) You should try talking with them sometime. It's fun.

Only for you, Dax

I promised myself I would never again take custom orders for Angry Bird hats. I had to break that promise when I was asked to make one for Dax.

Only for you Daxy. Only for you.

Smile!

Smile, because Jesus loves you!

And I'm smiling because this order is done! :)

A Turkey!

Isn't this turkey awesome? Right now, and through the next week, until the 8th of November, you can download it for free! It's not to often that you find great patterns like this for free. So, go over, right now, to Crochet Me, and download it for yourself!

I just downloaded it, and I can't wait to make it! :)

Jimmy's Benefit

Just realized that I never posted about Jimmy's Benefit on this blog! Below is a repost from my other blog.

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Tonight was Jimmy's benefit. I blogged about the benefit/him here. There was a great turnout, but no total yet!

Rachel and I had a table of our stuff, including some Ghana flag themed items. :) The donation basket on our table (we did prices labeled as suggested donation, not actually sold it) $166 for Jimmy!! Praise God! Ironic thing is, that's the same amount as our farmers market last weekend for  Lilly! :)

The tables all set up, ready for lots of people to eat lots of pie!

And the pies.... yes, I'm being cruel and making you hungry. Bwahaha (evil laugh)! ;]

All the people watching the groups that played tonight...

In Harmony...

Con Brio...

Don Shire...

And the Ott Family led several songs at the end, one of which I will share when my ridiculously SLOW internet finally finishes the 1 min 30 sec video after 2 hours. No, I'm not joking.

And then there's the fun in the nursery! :) My little 3 sibs - Elijah, Rachel, Jonathan, my mom, "big" Rachel, and half of the Prevost family, including Caleb! :)

It was an awesome night to bring an awesome little boy home!!

Ghana & Jimmy & Flag Dishcloths

On Saturday night, there is an adoption benefit to help bring Jimmy home from Ghana, Africa.

I blogged more of Jimmy's story over on my other blog if you would like to read it.

And if you are local, you are invited!

Rachel and I will be there, selling these Ghana flag dishcloths, as well as some other items.

We'd love to see you there! :)

Craft Sale

Pictures from the Craft Sale/Farmer's Market yesterday morning that Rachel and I did.

Shared this on our FB page - our hat booth!

Rachel and I

Right before we started

At the end of the day (around 12:30pm) - shows you how much we sold. :)

Not much disappeared from this table - two duct tape pens (made by our younger sisters) and a hairbow.

Just a table runner from this part of the table

And just the purple baby blanket from what you can see here.

Random facts about the sale:

-The weather was at one point predicting rain and wind, but PTL it was only cold! We took a chance not taking a tent, and at one point we thought we may have to squeeze under our nice neighbors tent.... the pink tent - the people on the other side of us were dressed up (last farmers market before the 31st) and they were freaking Rachel out because we couldn't figure out if the one ladies hair was a wig or real and she didn't take her sunglasses off ever (it wasn't sunny)... like I said, random facts.

-We made $166 for Lilly, which is a LOT for a craft sale! Thank you Jesus!

-We had a newpaper reporter take pictures of friends of ours who stopped by our booth, and he was asking about our booth and Lilly and what we do. I said all the sales go to Lilly, who is a little girl waiting in a Russian orphanage for an adoptive family or something along those lines. He says "So she is from around here?" Umm no, you aren't understanding. ;) Don't know if anything will come out of it, but it was a great reminder how uneducated the majority of the population really is about the orphan crisis. Makes me want to advocate harder.

-We were cracking up at how many BOYS hats were getting brought for girls. Mostly for babies, but one teen girl who was with some friend bought one of the red with grey border 3-5 yo size owl hats in the pictures above. For herself!

-As one lady was paying, I said something to the effect of all money will go to helping orphans find families, and here's a business card (everyone was getting them with purchases). She says "That's nice. Oh I don't want that!" and put the business card down. Ummm ok. Some people you just gotta laugh at because it's ridiculously funny how rude they are. ;)

I'm tired and I'm going to bed now. 'Nite all!!

Finished Saturday: Hats for Steve and Sam

About the only thing that comes to mind right now that I finished by myself this week without any part of it done by Rachel (she did part of the pumpkin hat) are these two hats for Steve and Shad Clanton. Maybe I should post stuff she and I worked on together anyways because she isn't posting FF herself?? Hmm.... And I should really start calling it Finished for the Clanton's, not Finished Friday!

Made the pattern up for both.. very simple, nothing fancy. The challenge getting them close enough the my guess of the right size, which it is a problem with beanies like this and why I usually don't make them.

Me posing with Steve's on... I told Steve he was lucky he even got it , because I did NOT want to take it off to send it, I loved it so much!

Tried a new stripe technique - white sc, black sc, white dc, black sc, and white sc, instead of what I did for the other two hats - a round of dc in the contrasting color, a row of dc in the main color, and a row or dc in the contrasting color. It was meant to be more like his coat (see below), and I really how it turned out!

So did they like them?? Umm... judging from this pic, and the fact their mom asked me already if they were machine washable already (they only got them yesterday), because they aren't taking them off - I would guess yes! :)

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If you would like to join me in this Finished Friday quest to finish projects... please blog about your project(s) you have finished the past week on Friday's, and come back here and leave a comment with your blog link. If this is successful, in the future I might set up a linky list you can join. Projects do not have to be projects you procrastinated on, they can be anything, sewing/crocheting/knitting or any other fiber art, and they need to be FINISHED! :)

Bloggers currently blogging FF frequently with me are: 
Brianna - http://briannascreativecrochet.com/

Can't wait to see your projects!

My Little Pumpkin Munchkin!

I just finished a pumpkin hat for an order! And I'm very grateful to my little pumpkin munchkin for modeling it for me! :)

Is he not the cutest!?! Love him!

The pattern I based it off of can be found here @ nothing's creative anymore. (I never follow any pattern exactly, and the fact I followed this one as close as I did without making major alterations is a huge compliment! ;)) 

It was very easy to make (not saying it was super quick, but it didn't take forever!), and very easy to adjust the pattern to the right size.

Happy October!

Finished Friday - Hats Galore

I skipped last week, because, frankly, I didn't have anything done! I had a ton of projects ALMOST done, so I have a lot of HATS to share this week with you! :)

Preemie Baby Bluebird Hats for twin baby girls in the NICU. :)

I can't take all the credit for these - Rachel and I made them together! :)

Angry Bird Hat for an order that's long overdue... Rachel also helped me make the facial features on this one, and mom sewed the eyes on (I have yet to figure out the blanket stitch!)!

Side-view

Hat's for the Clanton "twins"!

Sam and Sarah - Love these two!! So adorable! They were born half a world apart, to different biological parents (Sarah is adopted), but look how much they look alike!

Sarah's Hat

Sam's Hat

Yvonne (the "twins" mommy) shared this adorable picture of her and Sarah!

I also finally got these two Angry Bird Hats done.... and again, I can't take all the credit as Rachel did most of the facial parts, and actually she did the main parts done as well.... I just sewed them together. (Which is the reason why I HATE making these - sewing them together!)

And a bluebird hat that was for an order until they changed their mind on sizes. ;)

I also have a football have almost done.. it's missing the stitches, and am working on several other hats, but you'll have to wait until next week to see those! :)

It's hat season! Happy Friday!

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If you would like to join me in this Finished Friday quest to get rid of all the half finished projects we all have... please blog about your project(s) you have finished the past week on Friday's, and come back here and leave a comment with your blog link. If this is successful, in the future I might set up a linky list you can join. Projects do not have to be projects you procrastinated on, they can be anything, sewing/crocheting/knitting or any other fiber art, and they need to be FINISHED! :)

Bloggers currently blogging FF frequently with me are: 
Brianna - http://briannascreativecrochet.com/

Can't wait to see your projects!