Id Mubarak

This is one of the lovely daughters of my gracious hosts'

Another beautiful daughter in green and a future daughter-in-law in pink.

My friend and her youngest daughter with myself, during dinner. The dinner with guests and the Poppa of them all. (center) :)

The young lady who started it all and introduced me to all of these wonderful people. (below

Id Mubarak is a celebration after

Hajj is over and everyone spends the day with family and friends.

Hajj is a pilgrimage to the holy land were one follows on the path of Muhammad, pbu, during his life and learns more about Islam to strengthen one's belief.

One of my customers who I worked for on Sunday, Amera, gave me the beautiful clothes you see me wearing here. They were an Id gift.

There was a carnival at the Mosque with vendors of clothes and wonderful foods and Islamic gifts. It is a joyous day and enables one to strengthen their faith and renew old bonds and kindle new ones.

If it's not quite obvious, I had a wonderful day and evening with the Elayman Family who have graciously taken me into their hearts and home and call me one their own.

Stumbled onto these

I spent a ridiculous amount of time organizing my "myspace" page this evening because of my inexperience and because of my dial-up speed.

Anyway while I was doing that I discovered this picture of my Roddy and realized how fast time flies when you're just living life.

He turned 8 this October . And my grand son, Marcus will be 5 in a matter of days. I turned 47 in Oct. also and the two older dogs, Sheila and Brewer are 14 and 12 respectively. Sheila's birthday is in January, but Brewer is in late Nov.

I can remember the first time I saw each of them and fell in love with them.

Weekend at the races

Wishful thinking :) Ice Cream on a cold day More wishful thinking. Can you see that price tag?

A day at the races and classic and muscle cars. This is the culmination of an active weekend with my eldest grand child. We went to see Madagascar: escape 2 Africa on Saturday afternoon. The first 10 mins. made me laugh till I cried, it was great and a good lesson too, as all Disney movies are.

It was cold for Florida after a cold front came through on Sat. afternoon. That's why we did the movie on Sat and the races on Sun, so we wouldn't get rained on :-D Nonis think ahead. We got 10 brand new Hot Wheels in packages for $1 a piece and found a vendor who was selling coffee for a civilized price of only $1 per cup, 8 oz., instead of $2 per cup. They really see you coming at these things, and then if it's cold they have you by the chill bumps.

Anyway, we had a great weekend even though he was sick, you couldn't tell. His cold meds. worked really well, no coughing or runny nose. Good old grape!

His Birthday is the 24 th, but we'll be partying on the following weekend so there'll be more pics then.

Finally finished

Actually it's been finished, but I just didn't get it up here until now :)

It turned out really nice. I'm still a little irritated with the one row that I couldn't quite match, but it's good and there is plenty of room to pray, it's protable and soft to boot.

So over all I'm happy with it until I make another one :)

The Latest addition

Jude Valentin was born on October 25th at 4:15 ish am and is my Son, Jacques and his S.O.'s, Chenoa's, first born and my second grand child.

Ain't life grand sometimes.

My step Mom, Rachel, got to see him in person first since she lives just a state over and I couldn't find a ticket at this time of year that I could afford.

At least I got to hear how well Jacques interacts with him and learned that he's a natural. I knew Chenoa would do well just talking to her, but sometimes kids used to stress Jacques out, but he has brought his usual mellow self over to parenthood. Of course that will all change the first time they have to run to the ER with a cut or something like that. He'll be real calm and then fall out when it's all under control. LOL

He used to have a very calming effect on me in later years when I'd get all freaked out over something and he'd say "Mom, if it's supposed to be, it will be, calm down!" Typical, our children are teaching us now :) I'm happy to learn.

YES WE CAN!!! YES WE DID!!!

GOD IS AWSOME!!!!

I have been blessed with a new "job". I'm sewing Teachers/Staff Shirts for a local Islamic school and I'm very much enjoying it.

One again, God has "opened a window" and also taught me a lesson that I should have remembered. I didn't have the funds to go run out and buy a new pattern without any previous cutting so after praying and REALLY thinking about it I just made my own and , Al'Hamdulilla, they came out great! :-D

I forget to have confidence in my own "God given" abilities sometimes and then he reminds me to "just get on with it girl! "

So, Insh'Allah, I will be posting more of these. I'm very happy doing this. I won't get rich, but it is fulfilling and useful too. It also allows me to afford grand baby gifts :-D

Until later...

That Chair I've been trying to finish

It came out really nice, It just took me for ever to get a good hot day AND the time to paint it.

I'd had the covering ready for quite a while.

I just wanted to update my "Crafts" section

Just a couple Wedding Pics

The Beautiful Bride and Groom

Of course I'm quite biased, but that's a Mom's job :)

I was so busy taking pictures with both of our cameras that I didn't have the chance to cry.

They are so happy, I wish my Mother could have lived long enough to see this. Erica looks so much like her.

Because of were I live, I have dial up so I can't do very may of these, but if you know us you can go to Erica's "My Space" page and see them all. I think they are listed under the Frith Family now. :-D

Pictures of the next batch of grandbabies

The first is of my Daughter and her Husband, as of October 11, 2008, at almost five months. When I get a picture of an ultra sound I'll post it too :-D

The other on is of my Son Jacques and his Significant Other, Chenoa and their little Jude. It's hard to see, but he must have liked the sensation of the sound waves because he pushed his little face right up to it.

More later, :)

Update on last post

This is much better. I tried a new stitch from my Mother's stitch book and like it pretty much. My aim was to have functionality and beauty. It remains to be seen if I accomplish both :-D

The Jacket !@#$%

I have been doing a LOT of sewing lately due to my lack of funds and needing appropriate clothing to go to the Mosque in.

Most of my work comes out really nice. I tried a new pattern this week and MAN! It came out sooooo large I have to say that I was really surprised and disappointed too because the material was on sale at Wal-Mart for $1.00 a yard and it's really great. It's a deep forest green and a little stretchy. I didn't realize it was until I started to work with it, but that's not why it came out so big.

The reason is that I actually followed the pattern and cut it to the right size, but then I didn't sew it at the called for 5/8" margin. It's just such a waste of material and these days it has become less expensive in many cases to just buy what you want and make do even it it's not quite what you want. (if you can sew it'll make you crazy)

It doesn't look very flattering in the picture, but it's really nice and has great shape if you really are a size 18, which I'm not, but the measurements matched my measurements, a size 8-10. When you sew you end up using sizes that don't match up with the store sizes so you have to get over the "number" thing and just get a match with the measurements. Anyway I'm very disappointed, but its quite pretty, maybe I will find someone that it fits :)

In the mean time I'm going to cut the pattern down a couple of sizes and try again ;)

Trip To Alabama - Sept. 5,6 & 7of 08

I started knitting this one just before leaving for AL and didn't like it so I started the next one Thursday this week and like the look of it much more.



These were both done in Red Heart, Blueberry Pie yarn. The knitted one also has Red Heart, Navy blue and it's double strands, using US 10 circulars, but it wasn't what I was trying to achieve so I used the Blueberry with a US "G" hook and got what I wanted.

I'm trying to make a prayer rug. After I get the crocheted one more rectangular, I'll start doing shells around it to enlarge it over all. I'm not sure yet, maybe shells. I've re-found a crochet stitch book of my Mother's and may try something different.

I've crocheted since childhood and sometimes feel that it's old hat, but then when I can't achieve what I want with knitting needles I fall back on the much easier to manipulate crochet hook. It probably feels easier to manipulate than needles because I've only had a couple of years doing the knitting. I taught myself from books and CD beginning in 2006 and seem to learn something new every day.

I plan on finishing the knit one and just making a small layette or lap cover. I hate it when I start something and then don't finish it.

I must say that I am pleasantly surprised how soft the "yarn" is considering it's that darn acrylic stuff, but this one really is. After you've used natural materials you become a bit of a snob. The way it feels when it moves through your fingers will really win you over and you become much more sensitive to different kinds of textiles.

As I progress I'll update the photos.

September Visit to Tennessee

I got a lot of sewing done and finally got to spend some quality time with my Step-Mom. Both of my parents have passed over so I usually call her Mom2 after her e-mail.

Since her surgery in February, when we almost lost her, she is doing much better. She's off of the feeding system and eating real food. She wasn't gaining any weight and we were getting worried, but now we know why. Her thyroid (?) wasn't cooperating. They don't think there's any cancer, but still need to do some "figgerin" to fix the problem.

I will have pics of the visit if I can find the Kodak easy share software or get them to send another copy of it. I suspect it's in Alabama in a box!

She's about 6' with shoes on and still hasn't broken 100 lbs. yet. It's not like she's not eating, her body just won't let her gain any weight. She has finally gotten her home empty of the free loaders (family of course) and it has made all the difference in her state of mind. Stress will keep you from gaining weight also. I discovered this when I was there five weeks out of eight earlier in the year and lost 15 pounds myself with all of the stress of caring for her stroke victim husband and then her too when she was able to come home after 32 days in the hospital.
Anyway, all is much better now :-D
Suphanna Allah!!

Gone Fish'n

Well we went fishing on Saturday and I thought it would be one of those regular fishing days. Get there before daylight and find bait and go find some to fish, then cruse on home around 3 or 4 pm.

Well oddly enough ,very oddly, Robert didn't get up when the alarm went off. I woke up and it was daylight so I jumped up thinking I'd missed something, I just wasn't sure what. Then, of course, I remembered and he was still sleeping so I woke him up and asked if the alarm had gone off since it was 7 am. He said that it had and he'd decided to sleep in for another hour.

We got to the dock about 8 am and got on with it. All in all it was a beautiful day. There was rain in the distance, but not any for us :)

Robert even took Michael and I out to Egmont Key. The water around that island is the color of the water you always see depicted in the Bahamas also around Bradenton Beach which happens to be a great deal closer :)

All day long they couldn't seem to get lucky and I was happily getting a sun tan and finishing off a really good book and doing a little knitting while I was there sitting on my bum. It turned out to be a 13 hr. day and my poor bum, which is very short in the cushion department, was quite bruised from all of the bumps on the way to Egmont Key and then to the south end of the Skyway bridge and then to the center, where we finally got some civilized sized bait.

When Robert decided we would head for the dock it was almost dark, that put us at 12 hrs., and between where we were and the dock were some grass flats he was going to make a short stop at.

Low and behold that is were we finally hit pay dirt. A school of reds were moving along right behind us and right into our reach without any effort on our parts. Needless to say we caught 5 and kept 3, being as you can only keep one each. WOW! That was fun. I'd forgotten how much fun it is when you are "catching" instead of just "fishing"

A New Blankie For Marcus

Since I was making a new blanket for his soon to be sister from his Dad and Step-Mom he decided that he wanted a new blanket also.

He is growing so fast that I decided to make it in a very large rib stitch. This way it will stretch width and lengthwise as he grows, at least for a little while and then of course I'll have to make another, I hope. :)

Chair Coverings

I finally got around to doing the coverings for the chair that I got from Art. It still needs paint and I have to hot glue the edges down to the bottom out of sight.

I used this pretty gold trim to cover where the back support had to be tacked down because it doesn't have a way to cover it up otherwise.

I got my Hubby to cut the wood for me to match the old decrpit pieces. The back support piece is slightly out of shape, but that's only because I'm an obssesive compulsive :)

My unfinished Noni purse

The flower is crocheted and I'm not really pleased with it so I'll probably look for better flower ideas and I think in the future when I do one of these I'm not going to join the straps in the middle as the instructions say to. I'll just make the strap and join it with the stitches the I'll reserve on a stitch holder at the base so there isn't such a noticeable bulg.

I still have to line it and then work on another way to camo the joining.

Not too happy with that part, but I'll make it right and update the image. :P

Another Noni Bag

I have done another Noni bag and it was at my daughter's request. I had expected her to request a bright or colorful color sceem, but to my surprise she requested Earth tones so we went with brown. This was a little hard at the begining until I caught on to what "Noni" wanted us, the knitter, to do, then it was quite easy.

I had Erica with me when we picked out the lining for the bag and she requested a little poket as you often see in purses for the "little things" that you don't want floating around in the bottom of your purse that makes them hard to find.

I used pattern #114 and Cascade 220 yarn, bouble strands in color #9408 with circular #11 needles.

This was so much fun that I have begun another for myself, slightly modified. I'm hoping to us it during my next trip to Tn. to visit with my Step-Mom, Rachel, henceforth refered to as Mom2, since mine has passed over, unwillingly.

The New Noni Bag #1

As you may have noticed by what I wrote I wasn't all together pleased with this bag. I tried using it and it kept sliding around, back and forth on the dowels. So....I removed the dowels and attached some hardy straps.

I also removed about 2 1/2" from the bottom because it was just too much. I was capable of carrying just too much, which means a person would FILL it up and when the S.O. said "would you put this in there for me?" there would be enough room. If any of you have a husband, you know that once you put anything of HIS in there, it will become a catch all in the future.

It's bad enough that bags this size become a chatch all for all of YOUR stuff, you don't need any help filling it up and if you have any younger children left at home, you WILL need the larger version because you DEFINATELY need to keep track of all of their STUFF!!

Knit & Crochet

I finished this a few days after my last post. It was made with yarn my Mother bought when Erica was born. She was going to crochet something at that time, I assume for Erica, but didn't get around to it as Poppy died.

I found papers relating to that time in the bag years ago before she died. I remember thinking at the time she was going to use it to keep her mind off of the troubles at the time. I was extremely depressed and we were moving into the house off of Harney Rd.

Nice to be able to make something for one of her great grandchildren with it. It's a kind of continuance for me. I also used Crochet, which she was quite good at. There are several doilies around in the family and extended family, some of which are really impressive.

The Spifed-up version

Well, in my VERY biased opinion, he's already an incredible cutie, but this is the bathed and dressed, before anything else could happen version :-D

Personalized Tattoos

Since so many of us in the family have tattoos, my grandson creates his own with markers and enlists the aid of his family members.

Last weekend he decided he wanted to have some like his Dad. So between Mom and himself he came up with some pretty cool ones.

My grandbaby

What a nice weekend. I got to spend time with my grandson. I had the opportunity to snap some shots of him playing tug-of-war with Jindo.

What charicatchers! Marcus would hold out the frond and then Jindo would de-leaf it. The spent half an hour literally tugging each other around the yard. I was fun to watch. The dog caught on real quick.

Between wars, they would take turns chasing each other around the yard. It was a lot of fun to watch.

The four legged children

Jindo

Shiela
Brewer Dino

Rody

In my family, I am often teased about the many four-legged children. My favorite response is "I work for dog food" :)

I thought I'd like to put some of their pictures up since I'd done so with my "other" children.

Our Matriarch is Miss Sheila, she's a Heeler, or Queensland Heeler, or Cattle dog - blue. She is 13 yrs. old as of January.

The black Lab is Brewer, as in he'll drink your brew if you leave it unattended. Brewer is 11 yrs. old as of last November and our "Old Man".

Next is Rody, he's our only mix and my baby. He' getting a little gray now too. He's going to be 8 yrs. old in late October. We're both October babies. This dog is the vassal that carries my heart.

Then there is Dino. :) He came to us as an adult. He's about 4yrs old now and a mixed tri-color Heeler. I saw a picture of him in the Vet's office and thought he'd be good breeding stock. As it turned out he was very good breeding stock, but he was so focused on the female (not shown) that he was losing weight. After the puppies were born and distributed for free, because we hadn't planned on a litter, we gave the female to a cousin in AL because she was making Sheila's life a hell.

And last, but by not means least, is our newest addition, Jindo. Jindo is the Chinese word for his breed which is also a Heeler - Red. We waited three years for this little guy, who is not so little any more. He's frighteningly intelligent, as in he watches everything you do. When I make coffee he comes and puts his paws on the counter and watches every detail, the same with my S.O. when he drives his truck. We decided to really keep an eye on him in case he decides to go for a ride or to make coffee. After all, he's not insured and I don't want him to spill water everywhere. He will be 1 yr. old in July this year.

Entry Table

This table came to me from the afore mentioned junk man. He and his wife are retirees. Being that he has lived in our rural (dirt roads) area since the "beginning" I refere to him as the President of the Old Boy Network. The area is about a 25 mile radius. Of course, he has contacts in all of the surrounding large cities.

As I was saying before I went off on a tangent about the honorable Mr. Art, this table was in a home behind were he lives. The house burned down one afternoon, no one was home at the time, thankfully. So this table was originally an off-white (again) and all of the paint was fire damaged. I was really pinning after it so one afternoon my husband says that Mr. Art would like me to come down to see him. He didn't know at the time what it was all about.

Well I took that table home and went through the same steps as with the entertainment center and "wha la", it is now in MY entryway and what a nice thing to have. I really needed one so this was a nice fix, don't ya think? :-D

An old chair

I've just gotten this old chair. As you can see I've taken the cushions from it already. I'll have to cut wood to size and then recover them. The back support it going to present some challenges. Since both sides are visible I'll have to cover the front and back in two pieces and then use a decorative trim around the edges to cover were they have been attached. It will be fun to see how it turns out.

I'm going to take my husband's grinder with a wire brush attachment to remove the old paint and then reapply a white enamel spray paint.

I was overjoyed to see this chair in his truck bed after doing a job for a customer. It was scheduled to go to a friend who does junk metal, but one look at it and it said to me, " I'll fit under that vanity you've been using as a desk in the bedroom" and winked at me. Well, that was it!

Now I'm daydreaming about what material will go best with the room it will be in.

#1 Noro Kureyon Bag

This is a bag that I have been having trouble getting the dowels for and then it took me forever to find the end pieces, the balls. I finally found them at JoAnne fabrics Etc. and they were only $.99. The dowel came from the local Home Depot.

I started out at the bottom using Plymouth Tweed, color 5319 on us8 needles and then I was at the local yarn shop, one of only two in about 150 miles, and saw the Noro Kureyon color 184 lot D. That was that!

I'm in love with this stuff. It's 100% wool, but it's hand died and the da__ things cost $8.50 each skein. I will buy more of those if I can find them. The other skeins of the same yarn, different color were $11 each, but I bought 3 of them that day and am still using them.

Anyway, since I'd started out using the us 8's I kept using them with the new color I added in, even though they called for a us 7. As you can see it turned out quite pretty. I wish I could have used only the 184 D, but there wasn't any more :(

It felted really well and I will do MUCH better with my next one.

Baby Blanket w/hats

This is the baby blanket that I wanted to post on Friday, but I also wanted to give my Son's better half the chance to see the site before I put this on it.

The hats are a little hard to see unless you double click it, which will enlarge it. There are two sizes so at least one should fit :)

I used U.S. 11 needles with Lion brand 315 Tudor in Moss stitch. It took two skeins. Since we don't know the baby's sex this is a nice nutral color.