Soooo Excited and Then Shocked!!

Look what was sitting on my porch when I arrived home this afternoon....

Mary Ann over at a very mary design mailed this to me as part of the Paying It Forward project. It is an amazing bag made from a old and apparently very much loved quilt to hold my yarn and stuff. Plus it had a bright bold pink skein of yarn tucked inside.

This was the "soo excited part." I love this bag.This bag not only traveled by way of the US Postal Service, it is now going to take a trip with me to Honduras. I had already gathered my knitting materials ready to use in case we have to sit in the Atlanta or Miami airport longer than we are suppose to because of late airplane connections, or whatever. Instead of using my usual bag, which does not even come close to being as nice as this one, I'll have this gorgeous one. I know I'll have comments of envy from my sister-in-law once she sees it. Love it, love it, love it!!! Mary Ann is the best! Thanks!

Now for the "Then Shocked" part.....

If receiving the bag wasn't enough excitement, Mary Ann nominated me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger.

I am speechless. Thank you, Mary Ann. I never considered my blog as ever coming close to all the wonderful, well written and creative blogs as there are in blogland. You know....like yours, Mary Ann! Thank you, sweet, sweet Mary Ann!

Busy as a Bee

Before I share with you all that I have done the pass few days, check this out. A flipbook that shows you how to knit from Flipknit.com.

In a week, my husband and I are taking our first trip out of the US. We are traveling to Honduras to visit my older brother and his family. I have never met his oldest daughter. He adopted her several years ago, so I am very excited to see this child in person. I know her only by telephone and email. We are meeting another brother of mine and his daughter in Miami and flying down to Honduras together. They will be flying back from Bolivia after spending 2 weeks on a mission trip with the youth from his church in NC. They were missionaries in Bolivia for 4 years and every year return with his youth group to work on something for that community in Bolivia. His wife and 2 sons did not go on the Bolivia trip nor will be making the trip to Honduras. Wish they could. There is a third brother of mine and his family who won't be able to go to Honduras either. Wish they could, too. Anywhoooo, I am jazzed and a little nervous about this trip. Older brother and family live in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras. He is an engineer and builds mines in various places in Central, South and North America. He recently finished a project in Peru and is actually working in Arizona presently. He has lived in Honduras for 10 or more years. After marrying a wonderful Honduran woman, he adopted her daughter and together they had another daughter. He keeps telling me that where he lives isn't going to be anything like I think it is going to be. As it turns out, both of these girls will be having a birthday while we are visitng. So not only will we be meeting the older daughter, we will get to meet all of his in-laws. This will be quite interesting because my husband and I speak absolutely no Spanish. The other brother and daughter do speak some Spanish from living in Bolivia and, of course, older brother is fluent in Spanish. We are counting on them to be our translators.

Here are a couple of little gifts made for my youngest Honduran niece -

A pencil roll and pouch made with Raggedy Ann fabric. Hopefully I can find a Raggedy Ann book to go along with it.

I also have made a couple of bibs for the child of a young couple who are medical missionaries somewhere in Honduras. The once missionary brother of mine will be visiting these people while we are in Honduras.

This almost completed bib is adapted from the Nubbins Dishcloth pattern. I love the nubbins at the end of each row.

Look familiar?

I also have been sewing a few little items just because. No particular reason. Tissue holders, pin cushion and sewing needle holder.

Pay It Forward

This sounds like fun. I got this from one of my favorite bloggers, a very mary design. Would you like to join in on the fun?

“PAY IT FORWARD. The first three people that leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three others on their blog will receive a handmade gift from me within one year (July 21, 2008) of this posting. I will read your blog and get the essence of who you are to come up with an idea.”

Here is the latest creation....
I used Amy Butler's Frenchy Bag pattern


I have entered it into the Amy Butler Bags contest at Flickr sponsored by U-Handblog. Can I be so lucky as to win? We'll see.

Surprise Visitor (Blogger won't let me put in a title. Ugh!)


The other afternoon I was watering flowers on the front porch. I have some impatients growing in a container on a wall under a window. (Wish they would bloom more than they do.) Anyway, when I reached up to water these plants, I noticed a little visitor sitting in this container...







It was a little frog sitting so contently in the shade.







Can you see him peeking out from under the plant?





Today I finished what will be a new quilted wall hanging. I need to add the batting, backing and binding. Then I need to decide how I want to quilt it.





I used a Moda Jelly Roll. It is nice and easy to have the fabric already cut into 2 1/2 inch strips.

Don't You Just Love It When...

Someone is so generous with their sewing talent. A big shout out to Raesha for this cute brown and blue polka dot zippered pouch. I was the lucky one picked from one of her numerous giveaways. I love the choices she made with the fabrics. Thanks, Raesha!


Check out these....

Lemons Dreams - buttery cookies with a lusciious lemon topping. These were so good, I had to make 2 batches. Nothing is more refreshing than lemons. Yum, yum!