Four Christmas Dresses, Three Pairs of PJ's, Etc.

I have 4 of these dresses almost completed. They are all made alike, smocked the same, just different buttons. Rather than do the picture smocking and put however many snowmen, santa faces and other Christmas prints on these dresses and make them only for a few wears, we opted to use buttons that could be changed. The dresses are made of 32nd check gingham, and can be worn all next summer.

This is the oldest pictured here. Her dress is light blue with peppermint suckers, her younger sisters is mint green also with the red trim and has Santa faces on it, and The Banty Hen's is hunter green with green ribbon(the red and white didn't look good on it) with big white sparkly snowflakes. The forth dress will be for my great neice who is celebrating her first birthday today. It is sewn together, and the smocking almost done. We are putting elfs on hers. Hopefully sometime over Christmas we can get a group picture.

This picture is of the PJ's to which I alluded in my feeble atempt to sound like the 12 days of Christmas in my title. I saw some really bold pj's online that were an animal print with big(huge actually) pink flowers and were so cute. They were 34 dollars a pair, so I started looking for fabric to make them. I didn't find what I was looking for, but did find this gorgeous piece of cotton knit that had the best hand to it, and I bought all of it for 14 bucks. It's going to be a bit interesting to get one for The Banty Hen out of what I have left, but I think with a bit of work, it will happen.

Then it's on to Superhero. He wants a cowhide vest(I just happen to have a piece of fabric that will work nicely for that) and he wants a santa suit. So I've decided to make him one out of fleece that he can sleep in and he'll have a new set of pj's too.

I was also planning to make the 3 girls a pair each of pink and white flannel camo pj's and make Superhero a regular color pair of flannel camo pj's. I can find plenty of pink and white, but none for him. And I've been looking for quite a while. I guess I'll have to rethink that idea.

I have figured out the problem with my camera. It isn't my camera, but the software on my pc at work. When I unplugged it in mid transfer, the program became confused(I think unstable is the correct term)and thinks it's still in transfer mode. I've got to take my software to work and reload. Then I think I'll be in good shape.

Thanks for your suggestions. I have to keep that camera working since getting a new one is out of the question.

I hope you are having a great Tuesday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

What's Wrong With My Camera?

I was uploading some very important photos the other day and I unplugged my camera (silly me) from my computer before it finished. Why did I do that, you say? I don't know. I had unplugged it before I even thought about it not being finished.

Now I can see the pictures I take, but when I upload them to the pc using a cord, not the base, I get damaged files that won't open. This makes me very unhappy. I've had this camera about 5 or so years, and I don't use it nearly as much as I should. And now it doesn't matter how many pictures I take, I can't upload them to my pc.

The one thing I haven't tried is to upload at home where I have the base. They may work from there, and if that's the case, I may just need to reload my photo program here at work.

If anyone has ever had this happen, let me know what you did to fix it, please. I took the battery and the card out for a while thinking it would reset itself when I put them back in, but that didn't work. I've been working on dresses for the granddaughters and wanted to put some pics for you to see, but haven't been able to yet.

I hope you are having a good day. Pray for our country. Love one another.

Outside My Window!

What's going on outside your window today? Here in good old NE Arkansas, it's raining. It's been raining since sometime last night, and is supposed to rain most of tonight. It's that cold rain with big drops that might have a little ice in it later.

We had a heavy frost yesterday morning. When I first went outside, I though it had snowed, then I realized it was just frost. But is was really pretty.

It's that chili weather that makes you want to stay inside by the fire with a blanket wrapped around you with a good book and time to take a nap. But alas, I'm not in front of the fire, wrapped up warm and I certainly can't take a nap. At least my boss wouldn't appreciate it if I were snoring and distrubing other workers down the hall.

The radio station that I listen to at work is playing only Christmas songs right now, and some of them I'm a little tired of, but others I can listen to all day. They are playing a lot of songs by the Carpenters. Karen sure had a wonderful voice. Occasionally they throw in one by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby or Dean Martin. The oldies are certainly goodies, but my new favorite is the one that Faith Hill sings and it is in the Grinch. It's called 'Where Are You Christmas' and it's just so pretty, least in my book that is.

My friend has a new grandson. He came into this world weighing 10' 10". I think they are going to let him drive home. What what I can hear, they are all doing well. Congratulations Mona.

I hope everyone is having a good Wednesday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

November - A Distant Memory

It's December 1st. November is gone. Thanksgiving is over. As I told you in an earlier post, I would participate in a total of three thanksgiving meals, which I did. The first at work. The second was with my step-parents and part of the extended family. The third was my children, grandchildren, myself and my brother and his wife.

The food was wonderful at each one. I think the lunch we had at work was the best we've ever had. My step-mother is a great cook, and my family all pitched in and did a joint effort that was really good. We had turkey, ham(oldest daughter brought), dressing(which my youngest daughter made and it was really good), sweet potato casserole(my sister-in-law made, really good also), green bean bundles(made by my daughter-in-law, sooo good), glazed carrots(also made by youngest daughter), potatoes, gravy, rolls, cheddar biscuits(recipe I stole from Chickens in the Road). I made a pecan pie from a cookbook I got in my wedding shower in 1965, and a pumpkin-cream cheese pie that I sorta made up. My sister-in-law made a banana pudding.

Let me tell you about the pumpkin pie. I love a good pumpkin pie if the pumpkin flavor isn't too strong, so I usually try to mellow it out a bit. I used Libby 15 oz can of pumpkin and followed the recipe with these exceptions. Where it called for evaporated milk, I used sweetened condensed milk, and cut the sugar out, and added an 8 oz pkg of cream cheese. It completely filled a deep dish pie pan, but I didn't bake it much longer than the recipe on the can called for. Everyone that ate it said it was really good.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday. Pray for our country. Love one another.