Crocheting and Chickens and Surgery...oh MY!

More baby hats. Lots more. They have been selling well for me at Farmer's Market. I have several listed now in my Etsy store also.

Miss Jaidy loves the chickies! She wanted to catch them all and gives them lots of pets. Her expressions were so cute. And then Penny is THE chicken whisper.

And now the not so fun part of the post. I see the neurosurgeon on Wednesday in Indy. It is a pre-surgery consult, so should know the date of my surgery that day. This has been a long time coming. I have had this brain tumor or more than one, for about 10 years. Technology is now allowing the removal. I just want it. Over. With. Now to get my lungs to play pretty with everything and we should be a go. I still have pleurisy (and one cracked rib) and they want that to be healed before surgery. I would appreciate your prayers in all this. As always, God is why I am still fighting a good fight and not pushing up daisies.

Hope you are in a cool shady place today. Enjoying life and your loved ones.

ps: And a big thank you shout out to those who donated to my starting a Project Linus chapter! I will have this done before surgery.

Asking for your help

I am wanting to start a local chapter of Project Linus. There is not one in our area and there is a great need for snuggly blankies for children and teens. Project Linus only accepts new chapter applications once a year, in August. And there is a application fee of $100. I have spoken to them about this. There is no "scholarships" or other assistance available. The monies go towards a variety of expenses and so on. I am asking for donations towards this amount if it touches your heart to do so. This is a wonderful opportunity for blankets to go into the hands of children in need. I thought with the backing of the Project Linus name, it would make more impact in my community when it comes to donating the blankets. Hope this makes sense to you. I have had this on my heart to do for sometime. I have saved up a portion of the funds needed, but with my health expenses, well honestly, I just can not come up with it all. If you feel led to donate anything towards this, I can accept PayPal.

If you have quilts, afghans or children's panels you would like to donate, let me know and I will send you my mailing address. Please know I put a lot of prayer and thought into this before I sought donations. This is not for my personal gain. I promise.

Thank you so much for your consideration of this. (I have never used this format before, if you have problems with the button, please let me know.)

How to lanolize wool soakers

Crocheting for babies has always been a great love of mine. Now I am crocheting lanolized wool soakers. These are diaper covers that help keep the baby dry by wicking the moisture away from the cloth diaper. You can use these with disposable also. The wool has a natural antibacterial property that neutralizes the urine. Cannot do too much for good ole poo though. :o) There are several styles to use: diaper covers (without legs), shorties (with just a bit of a leg), longies (full leg coverage) and sleep sacks. The sleep sack is perfect for newborn and small babies that do not move a lot. Makes for an easy sleeepytime diaper change with the open end. 

Here are pics of a couple of my wool soakers listed on Etsy.

I sell my soakers, lanolized and ready to wear. This is what keeps them waterproof. Here is simple tutorial on how I do mine.

 I use liquid lanolin, a small jar and a teaspoon. This is my soaker sleep sack. I mix 1/2 teaspoon of the liquid lanolin to hot water in the jar. (The hot water helps melt the lanolin. This is the only time you will use anything hot). This is per soaker. If I was doing 2 soakers, I would add 1 teaspoon. Then shake like crazy. Then shake some more. You want the lanolin to evenly disperse and be a creamy milk color.

Fill the sink with tepid water. Not cold, but definitely not warm. You do not want your soaker to felt or full in water that is too warm. Add your jar of mixed lanolin. Use your hand to mix it throughout the water evenly. 

Place your soaker into the water. Gently push the soaker under water until it stay. Let soak 5 minutes and turn over. Let soak another 5 minutes. Turn the soaker inside out and let soak 5-10 more minutes.

Gently fold the soaker into fourths and squeeze the excess water out. Place the soaker onto a dry large bath towel. Roll the towel and gently squeeze.

Remove the soaker from the towel and place somewhere safe to drip dry. You do NOT machine dry your wool soakers. It will compress the fibers and shrink them up. Drying time depends on many factors: weight and twist of yarn and humidity are the top ones that come to mind. Right now with the hot and humid Indiana weather we are having, I am thinking it might take 3 days. Eeek!
I hope this helps those who had questions about relanolizing their soakers. We need more babies in our family! I am so ready to be a grammy!!!! :o)

Goings on

The farmer's market that Penny and I vendor at, had a wedding. It was so sweet. The young people had met at the market last year while their parents were vendoring. Love blossomed. And they had their wedding on the town lawn, after market on Saturday. All the market vendors and customers were cordially invited.

A sign someone made and set up.

The musicians.

The happy couple walking under an arch of garden implements for the processional. :o) The guests were instructed to bring a canning jar for flower bouquets to hold and their garden implements for the arch.

This lil sweetie is wearing one of my cotton crocheted hat. Her parents are vendors and she is the highlight of my day on Saturdays. Love my baby holding time.

Another lil dolly has one of my children's hats. Look at that natural curly red hair. She is pure sunshine. Love watching her and listening to her talk. Someone asked her this past Saturday where she got that pretty red hair. Her reply? Jesus. :o))))) Her mom said she hadn't ever said that before. Being only 4, you never know what she will say.

I have reopened my Etsy store. Have been working on wool soakers for cloth diaper babies. Although, they are also great for disposables. Wool allows the body to stay at an even temperature, so helps with diaper rashes. I am lanolizing them, so they will be absorbent yet will not easily leak. Making baby and children items gives me great pleasure.

Hope you had a love Independence Day.

Sunday's thought

Life goes on.

Whether things are good. Or bad. The sun is going to come up. And the sun is going to set. Until the Lord comes. So we may was well find a way to deal with life's issues in a healthy, nondestructive manner. Being creative, being a blessing to others, caring for our earth...making a joyful noise whether we feel like it or not. The spirit of the Lord will rise up within us and we will begin to feel it. But we have to make the effort. Which in itself can be an effort. But we have to live life. Not just exist. But live.

And on ANOTHER happy note, after about getting whopped today by some yayhoo

When life gives you lemons...

I am just saying....

14 years ago my world changed forever

And in a very good way. I became a mommy.
To our Heather. Who was 8. 

We have come a long way baby! Love you.
This is one of my favorite photos. Her and my parents, Poppy and Granny.

Choices

Last week my primary care doc informed me in a "very strong" manner, I was stubborn. And he said some other stuff about not paying attention to him or my body, overdoing things and basically yelled at me. My reply was to tell him to stop yelling at me cause he was about to make me cry. Then yesterday I received a telephone call from the neuro-ophthalmologist. They thanked me for my patience at an appointment I had on Monday. Used the words gracious, patient and considerate. I choose these words. Maybe both doctor's spoke the truth about the specific situation. But I am going with the positive and pshhhhhing the negative. Just saying. :o)

UGH!

This is me.

Pleurisy and 2 cracked ribs. They say it is from the lupus. I do not have TIME for this nonsense! Just sayin'. The last couple of weeks we have been the bug. Hopefully soon, we will get to be the windshield. :o)

They say things happen in three's, what about four's?

Or five's? Our hot water heater and dryer both went out. Then our washer caught on fire. I had a blood transfusion. Then Mark totaled out his truck. All in under a week. Yep living the good life here. Hopefully the same talented son-in-law (we only have one by the way) who installed the new hot water heater will be able to get the truck runnable again. Hopefully.... They think there is hope. But really, we always have hope, right??

On a happy note. Penny and I (and Mark) are doing a local farmer's market. And having a good time people watching and selling a bit of our wares. Our life is a fundraiser you know. LOL Here is a pic of our lil space today. Folks are set up on either side of the sidewalk. Some on the lawn and some on the street edge. Either way is fine with us. It is just 4 hours long. Actually the table is fuller than it looks. I have felted wool bags, infant hats and dishcloths stacked up. The red suitcase is full of zippered small bags and pouches. Penny has beaded earrings on the right corner (on a spinner rack) also and a basket full of hand painted wool yarn. The wooden bowls are holding paper pieced pincushion.

On the health front...I am seeing a neuro-ophthalmologist, June 7th. They will be determining if my brain tumor is putting pressure on my optic nerve and other factors. All this is preparation for the removal of the tumor. It is a pretty big deal. BUT I am grateful that technology has caught up with me and it is now possible. The crazy thing has grown rapidly in the past months and it very necessary for it to be removed. So...let the games begin. I am not letting it scare me off new projects. Am in the planning stages of starting a Project Linus chapter in our area. Have a quilting retreat planned for November. Holiday plans. Yep I am making my lil' girl plans and that is just THAT! I do request your prayers in the coming months. I just want this behind me. :o)

Hope you are having a lovely long weekend. Take time to rest and just give yourself permission to take care of YOU! When you are at your best, you can give other's your best. Think of it that way if you feel guilty for taking time for yourself. 

Be blessed my friends.

A great read

Another great novel by Sandra Dallas. I read it through twice. Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. That is the marker of a good book for me.

Prayers for my sister Debbie's family please. They buried BOTH of her in-laws today. They were elderly and passed away 8 days apart. Very very hard on the family. Single funerals are hard, double funerals are horrible.
Still trying to get caught up on my rest from retreat. Had the family over for a funeral dinner today. Which was a blessing to do. Tomorrow I rest. Saturday, Penny and I are planning on vendoring at the farmer's market with our wares. This is IF it isn't raining. Who is over the rain?? Glad it hasn't been snow! :o) But come August, we will be cryin' around wanting it. :o)
Be blessed.

I love my friends and sisters!

Front Row- Vickie, Lori, Patti, Peggy, Me, Connie and Nancy

Back Row- Christie, Conni, Deb, Robin, Laura, Penny (my real sissy) and Michelle

This is the group shot from our annual online quilt group's retreat. Us in front were sitting on a soaked wooden bench! :o) We were missing some who couldn't come. (Prayers for my sister Debbie's family. She has lost both of her in-laws in 8 days. Very hard.)  These ladies are so great! And so fun. And so talented. And so bad! :o))) Much laughing and eye rolling occurs at our retreats. But all in good fun. No drama. Just relaxing and a respite from some of our real life. There was quilting, crocheting, beading, knitting and crafting all accomplished. No cars were totaled by storms either. How boring!!!!!!!!! hahahaha

I will be hosting a first time retreat in November. Looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones! By then, I will be needing another get-a-way for sure!

More photos to come.

Our mom

I love our mom. Debbie, Penny and I are blessed. And I can only get by with these photos because she will never see my blog. :o)

Come see Penny and I

Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival

 Friday, June 4, 12pm-8pm

Saturday, June 5, 9am-5pm

Johnson County Fairgrounds

250 Fairground Street

Franklin, Indiana 46131