2 Blogaversarys to mention

Both of these blogs are very new to me. And both of them are celebrating their Blogaversarys and have giveaways also in conjunction with their celebrations.

The first blog is  Lucy over at Charm About You. Here is the link to her site.http://www.charmaboutyou.com/
Please pop over and tell her hello.  She is celebrateing her 2nd year Blogaversary.

The other new to me blog that is Celebarteing. her 1st year Blogaversary is Jusmom 1 who blogs at Ugga Bear Cottage.  http://uggabearcottage.blogspot.com/
Please go visit her as well and she also is sponsoring a lovely giveaway as part of her Blogaversary celebration.

Keep on sewing & quilting until next time

                                     Tammy

August 22, 1993 the first day of my journey into Motherhood

20 years ago today I welcomed my son into the world with open  arms. My big guy is 20 it is so hard to believe. Some of you may know my son is a special needs child.   He has a slew of health and mental health issues. But to me he is perfect. A wonderful loving child.  One I prayed for for a long time and one that God gave to me to have as my very own. To raise and to love and to care for.  So today we celebrated his birthday. Things are all ways a l little low key for our celebrations as he is Autistic and doesn't like noise and crowds and all kinds of other things. But what a fabulous day  for our family and him. Due to all of my medical issues we will will take him this weekend to pick out his gifts. Today was all about  the cake......And boy was it yummy.   I also had anothr fabulous surprise this afternoon. The florist delivered flowers to me from my friend Barb from California. He husband is a tv producer and I miss her and her family so much.  We used to be neighbors for about 8 years. What a gal. One of the best. And what a big surprise to get her flowers.  Love ya girl and the flowers are gorgeous.

Keep on Stitchin & quiliting till we meet again,

                       Tammy

Mail Call & Update

Update first. Had to go see the plastic surgeon this morning. He did  remove one of the drains out of  me  today. I have one more left in place. I have to return to see him on next week in hopes of that drain being removed as well. Then to evaluate to see if he is ready to start slowly inflating the tissue expander.  And new meds. Thank goodness I hope these will work . The muscle spasms are no fun and are very painful for me.
  So when we get home I have a total surprise...yes mail call....Nothing ordered nothing I'm waiting for just a lovely surprise. My friend Rhonda over at http://ravelly1-quiltzblog.blogspot.com/    had sent me a lovely surprise. Oh my goodness. She is a very generous spoiler this one.  Love her dearly. She is so talented. If you have never been to her blog please go leave her some love and follow her blog. She does the most amazing applique projects. Each project just amazes me more and more and they are all so totally life like. So to reveal her beautiful gift to me  wich came with a beautiful note. I also got a lovely and beautiful get well card from my Aunt today as well.  Without further ado here is a picture of Rhonda's gorgeous gift.

Absolutely stunning small quilted wall hanging. Oh I can not wait to display it this holiday season. Thank you my friend. I love it.

 

Keep on stitchin & quilting until next time.

 

Tammy

Old Passions Are Being Rekindeled

Well  as you all know a while back I joined up to do Jenny at Elefantz new BOM  Shabby Roses Home . You can check it out here if you aren't familiar with it, http://www.elefantz.com/p/free-2013-bom.html
 Well might I add my old passions for hand embroidery or hand stitchin as some folks call it have been rekindled. I am having a blast. I organized one of my embroidery thread boxes. Then a few days before my surgery  Hubby and I made a trip to the city to Joann's Fabric store. I needed to by some iron on stabilizer to back  my embroidery pieces. I also needed to purchase some new needles and some more threads. Unfortunately I bought the wrong size needles. They are too large more for tapestry or cross stitch. But that is OK they will get used at some point, As luck had it all the normal DMC floss was on sale for 28 cents a piece. I obught this multi pack of floss because the colors are all varigated. And  I thought they would look very  lovely in projects.

I had never bought these ball type yarn flosses before. but they were on clearance for 75 cents a piece if they are too big for  me to use for embroidery I will give them to my older sister who is learning to crochet and I know she uses this type thread as trim on baby blankets .  

A few days later I went to a store called Big Lots. They are a discount store and I go a few times a year to stock up on things that I   can get much cheaper their. As We are all ways on a budget and I needed to stock up on stuff before my surgery. Well guess what I found fabric....yes the first time I had ever seen any their. I have no clue as to the quality of it. But being as I am not a fabric snob at all I thought it was a fabulous deal. . I want to make something for special family member out of it. One who all ways seems to help me out no matter what I can always depend  upon her day or night.

 

And I finally found these frixion pens I have been looking for. I found them at Target while back to school shopping for my daughter. Yea.....score for me

 

and fianlly my baby sister has brought me 2 quilting magazines the past couple days when she has come to visit me since my surgery.  She is the best.  I would be so lost without her. My very own perssonal nurse. She is the most loveing person.  She is a Geriatric's  nurse in a nurseing home.  She bought me one of these cause thier is a owl on the cover she said. She knows how I love owls. 

 

 

I don't get to do much shopping or buying  things for my hobbies these days. So I feel like I have won the lottery here lately.  So enjoying all my new cool crafty items. I just had to show off all my sweet new items.....

 

 Until next time keep on stitchin and quilting

 and please follow my blog you will find all the appropriate buttons to the right .

 

 

Tammy

Update And A Great Big Thank You

Against my sisters better judgment I have decided to post anyway. She seems to think it is a bad idea for me to post while on medication. She says who knows what I am liable to say on here. So to try and keep it safe just a quick update. I had my surgeries on Wednesday August 14th.  I was then released from the hospital on the evening of August 16th.  Thank goodness for my wonderful husband who was by my side the entire time.  My family are all trying to help out. Thank goodness for my very good friend Jean who is helping to get my daughter to and from school for me each day. And thank goodness for the meals she and my sister have been providing for us.  I am still in quiet a bit of pain and on medications. I have 2 drains still attached to my surgical site. That I have to empty several times daily. Overall I think I am dealing with things the way I need to be. My surgeon called me late Monday evening to let me know that the lymph nodes he removed were clear no cancer cells at all and that all my surgical margins are clear as well. That he got all the cancer out this time. Thank goodness.  I go to see my plastic surgeon on tomorrow. So he can start working on inflating that tissue expander.  Ladies if you know anyone battling this disease. Be a friend. No matter how small of a thing you can do for them please do it...Just a cooked meal or a card to cheer them or a quick call to let them know you are thinking and praying for them all does wonders.  It is so hard for me me to bend and stoop and pick things up. And the muscle spasms are the worse. They wake me up at night.... Any way this is my little update on me. I thank you to those of you who have send me emails asking about me. Thank you so much. It is so nice to know that no matter how far apart we live in Blogdom that someone cares enough to  check up on me. It brings a smile to my face.  

      I also want to say a great big thank you to Anne of Bunny Hill Designs. She blogs over at http://bunnyhillblog.com/. if you have never been by to visit her . Please stop by and leave her some love.  Recently she had a book giveaway on her blog. And it is a book I have been drooling over for a while. Should I say drooling and dreaming of owning..

And low and behold I actually won the book. She actually gave away two of these. I was so lucky. When I got in from the hospital and got settled in bed my daughter said Momma I have a happy surprise for you look what came in the mail. and she gave me Anne's lovely package. Anne sent me a beautiful card and  a Moda Jubilee mini charm pack as well. All I can say is wow....Thank you so very much Anne. You made my week.... What lovely treats.

Thank you Anne for everything....

 

Until my next post keep on stitchin and quiltin

 

Tammy

Important Update no pictures today.

Wanting to let everyone know that I will be away from blogging for a little while.  I hope to be able to return as soon as possible.  Tomorrow August 14th is my surgery. I will be going in to have my mastectomy for breast cancer.  I am also gonna start the breast reconstruction  process immediately following the mastectomy.  I  will not be able to do much for a while.  This will be a long drawn out process to get from ground zero to building a boob.  The only thing I have going for me is the fact that I am not over endowed up top.... The plastic surgeon told me depending on how it goes I have a 20 % chance of waking up with a implant in place  and a 80% chance of  waking up with a tissue expander in place . The tissue expander's are gradually inflated each week . Which in turn stretches the skin slowly.  So it gives you more tissue to work with. And  once their is enough skin then they remove the tissue expander and place your implant.
     Wish me luck everyone. I do believe I will be needing lots of luck on this endeavor. And lots of prayer also.  This is definitely the last thing I ever thought I would be doing  at 43.  
    Their are all kinds of fancy flap procedures one can have for reconstruction. But I opt not to do those as they involve a lot more healing time. Are a lot more painful and create multiple surgical sites on your body. I need to be able to heal  as fast as possible and get my strength back quickly. So I can take care of my 13 year old daughter  and my 19 year old special needs son.  My daughters first day of school is this coming Monday.  

   Keep on quilting and sewing
                                             
                                                          Tammy

My First Time & The 1st Part Is Finished

I have been working on Jenny at ELEFANTZ Blog new BOM.http://www.elefantz.com/p/free-2013-bom.html Shabby Roses Home is the name of it.

      I must admit my hand stitchery or embroidery skills are very very rusty.  The last hand stitchery I did was for my daughters little smocked outfits. Which you can see some of those here on the blog  in the  earliest posts.  So it has been several years now... Let's  see how many years hmmmm......de ....dum....ummmm  since 2008 or 2009 ....Quiet a long while.

 So I have been following Jenny's blog http://www.elefantz.com/ now for some time. I am all ways  delighted to see her  projects. Well when I saw this  project I just new I had to do it. So I jumped right in and  decided to this BOM. It is my very first BOM ever... My very first project badge to  go up on my blog as well.  So here goes some photos of said project.

Step one for me was to audition my fabrics. I decided to use the unbleached muslin for the background fabric of the embroideries them self.  I chose a few older pieces I had.  For the  alphabets I decided on a tiny blue floral print. And for the chimney was a dark brown. I also chose a small green  floral. What it will go on I am unsure but the color ties in with the  lovely fat quarter pack  I chose to use. The fat quarter pack is a recent purchase. It is Home Spun Chic by MeLody Ross for Blend fabrics.  I found it at the Tuesday Morning store for $7.99 which obviously was a great deal as it had a regular price tag on it for $19.99

 

So I got to work   The first Block is actually  2 smaller blocks combined. So here is the first part  which is the alphabets. You use applique and embroidery and machine piecing for this project. 

 

 

Sorry this picture isn't very good.  Their was too much light coming in I believe.  So this is the first half of the block. I messed up on the letter a it is slightly tilted. And I had a hard time centering everything as well....Then I moved on to the next block which is the house part.

 

 

 

 

I was close to completion. but still had more flowers and greenery to do int he lower right corner as well as try and figure out the stitch for the path to the door. Well I bombed on that stitch. I just couldn't get it. I kept having to  pick it out. Then I said to heck with that I would do what I could do and it would just look how ever it turned out. Patience is not something I possess.  Here is a close up of the completed house.

 

 

 

And finally is my finished block. I have a lot to learn and improve upon. I just hope my next block will be a lot neater and prettier.

 

 

 

 

If you aren't all ready a blog follower. Please consider following. You will find  links to the right of this post on the side bar.

 

Until next time keep on sewing & quilting.

Tammy

 

 

 

 

Happy Mail

A few days back I found out that I had won 2 charm square packs of world tour by Parson Gray. I had been entered into Sharon's giveaway over on her  blog.  http://fabricsandflowers.blogspot.com/  I love to visit Sharon she has a wonderful blog. She was hosting the giveaway in honor of her 1 year Blogaversary.  If you haven't been over to Sharon's blog yet. Please go over to visit her. So here is my lovely winnings from Sharon.....

Ta...Daaahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Thank you so much Sharon.  I know beautiful  aren't they...For some reason these just scream fall time to me...Hmmm I am thinking perhaps a table runner?   So what project do u think  you would use them in.  Here is a close up of the 12 pieces the packs contain a piece.

 

Keep on sewing & quilting until next time.

Tammy