Let The Sun Shine In

Here is our partially painted new Family room or whatever it's going to be....family room ,game room??We're going for a light bright look as this is the ONLY window in the room..Rachel has decided to go for Dark Red in her room...Still have a LOT of painting to do....

Jam Session!

For the last 5 years Brad and/or the girls and I have particpated in the St Paddy's Day Parade in Norfolk. We are in the parade again this year. Much practicing has been going on. Last night we ahd practice at our church with the Chaplain( for the proestant congregation)to the left on guitar  and his son on drums( in the back). Chaplain joined us last year and we all had a GREAT time. It was MY first year too.

Here's Britt looking bored while Dad and Chaps jam wtih some 'oldies"

Rae looking equally Bored

Ruby Ring!!

Here are the lastest addition pics.This is going to be Rachel's New Bedroom! She wanted a nice Dark Red. The red is darker then the pics show. She's going for an Asian Theme. The Bright Green peeking out is from her walk-in closet.

Here's another pic of our kitty Amby. She's such a cutie...but SUCH a troublemaker. If there's trouble to be had.... she'll find it!!Brandon came over yesterday to practice guitar and to download and print out some new songs..( he's tired of playing the same 2 songs all the time..LOL..I guess it turns out he doesn't have a printer of his own)...anyway.. it's nice to see him again.....as you can see this is pic #6 ( i think) of the yellow billibong..I think I've seen him MORE in the last 2 months then I have in the LAST year all combined..LOL.it's really nice to ahve him around more...I've missed him!.

Pink Heart

Here's little thingie I made right before Valentines....I sortof made it for the 'think Pink" knit along. even thuogh it's not "knitted"...it's just something fun and goofy I felt like making.

Where I've Been

I found this "where you've been" United States map on another blog and figured I'd give it a try...OMG! I had no idea i've been to every state accept TWO!!



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Added New Links

I 've added a couple of new links to my Links field.I finally added Sara from -Crochet All Day-Like I said I would. I'm slowly getting the hang of things...but it's still all confusing and I can't remember from one moment to the next exactly HOW i'm doing things.LOL...I just 'try " things, then check it out in "preview", and if it looks good there...then I figure I'm good to go..LOL

I also added a link to My Paper Crane. This girl does some REALLY cute stuff...she spins some of the kewlest yarn. And does all kinds of REALLY kewl crafts. She's VERY Talented...and...

I joined another Blog ring. A Southern Crochet Ring. The South STARTS in VA!!

Puerto Rico or Bust!

I can't believe it's only 3 count them 3 days till we leave for Puerto Rico!! Our friends are leaving the day before us and will be ther a day before us. We are driving to NY to catch the flight. It was cheaper to drvie up to NYC and fly out from JFK then to fly out from here in VA. We are meeting my friend Ns family and will be dropping our car off at their house. Then they want to 'feed' us and give us a chance to 'rest " before taking su to the Air Port! They are so sweet!

Going .going...gone?

Not much Crocheting going on the last few days....I decided to share my auction links....in case there's anyone out there interested....I have some things on eBay.and just recently listed some stuff on Yahoo...mostly things that I've listed a few times on eBay and still haven't sold...eBay just eats up the fees....Yahoo has much better fee pricing...but doesn't get much traffic..I figure I'll give most things a couple of tries on eBay then switch them to Yahoo if they don't sell..I'd like to set up my own WebShop that way I can do away with 'fees" altogether...but I'd probably still have the traffic issue?

anyway here are the links....http://stores.ebay.com/KwirkyKittyKreations

http://user.auctions.shopping.yahoo.com/show/auctions?userID=magnoliableus&u=%3amagnoliableus



Anyways I DID pick up Alein Illusion the scarf I'm knitting for my older daughter Rae. Wouldn't you know I messed up the first row I did today and didn't notice it until about 4 rows later?? UGG...I decided it doesn't hardly show and is just NOT worth frogging.....LOL

Another Year Older

Today my friend N. is a year older(I can't share her age as she's VERY age senstive)...E. bought her a VERY beautiful Cake...not sure what kind of cake it was...it had a slightly spicy flavor to it and there was bavarian cream between teh layers... it's decorated with shimmery looking white chocolate shells....It was a fun little get together....PR is only a few days away and we are ALL getting Excited....

Tagged

I am late getting to this .
I was tagged by Carmen at http://lilhatshack.typepad.com/ ( i haven't really figured out how to do links in my posts.
Music Meme:

Total number of music files on your computer: I'm not sure.....LOL..i've maybe downloaded 5! but my girls have probably down loaded more...I'm not even sure how to check..HA

The last cd you bought:

Martina McBride's Greatest Hits...I had to replace my other one it got a scratch! and started skipping all over the place.

The last song you listened to before reading this message:
When You Believe by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston from The Prince Of Egypt....my daughter Rae is singing it in her school variety show and we were listening to it, so she can learn it.


Name 5 songs you listen to often or that mean something to you:

hmmnn....they'll probably mostly be Martina McBride she's my favorite and I've ben listenign to her a lot lately...
1. When God fearing Women Get the Blues---because it's just a fun hilarious song!!
2. Where Would You Be-----sometimes that's how feel about my DH and I
3. Strangers- same reason as above..
4.Concrete Angel-..it's a sad song makes me cry everytime..
5. a song my daughter wrote....i don't know the title...it may not even have one but it's good and very catchy...



3 people i'm gonna pass this to and why:
Sara---because i don't think she has been yet and she comments on my blog a lot and leaves me LOTS of compliments!!

Tink--again because i don't think she has been and she has posted comments and compliments as well!

and Rebecca for the same reasons!

Yellow Billibong Alert!

Pic #5 of Brandon in the Yellow Billibong! He came over sunday for more guitar lessons..

NON Crochet!

Just thought I'd share a little about our weekend. Every year our neighborhood hosts a Wine Tasting Party. A different neighbor hosts it at their home. This year it was at one of the neighbors down the street from us. Everyone Brings appetizers and a bottle of Wine to share. We place the bottles in paperbags and number them .Everyone tries each one and rates them 1-10. then we see who wins. Here was my contribution for appetizers. It's Salami, Cheese, Guava Paste( this makes it 'interesting") and olives. Everyone liked it. And it sure looks purty before people start pulling off the toothpicks...LOL



After we drank all the wine.( and EVERY couple contributed at least TWO bottles of wine not to mention we opened up THREE bottles of Champagne afterwards..so needless to say we were ALL feeling 'good"..LOL) the guys broke out in song! My hubby is in the middle.

My Latest and Greatest!

Here are my latest projects.....I really like the idea of just throwing stuff together with scraps and I LOVE how this hat turned out.....much nicer then I expected!! this is my daughter Britt modelng!

And this is a sortof matching purse I was making that day too...I actually finished crocheting it last night and just need to add a lining and sew on a couple of flowers I made for it.

I'm just sooooo happy with how these turned out!

Both Kitties

Here is another picture of both our kitties...I've noticed Cat ownership seems to be a prerequisite for having a crochet/knit/ craft blog....LOL

Purses purses everywhere

I made these cute little handbags right before V.Day..I was hoping to get them done in time to sell them on eBay for Valentines....but I was lazy getting them 'lined' ..I'd never lined any purses I've made in the past, but wanted to with these...I hate when things poke thru....I was 'dreading" doing the linings but they turned out kinda cute and weren't too hard...I did it all by hand...I have them on eBay now....we'll see if they sell....my luck comes and goes with eBay it seems....somes weeks a bunch of my stuff sells then the next nothing...oh well...

and then this lavender one is just lined with plain lavender felt.

Asian Market

Yesterday My friend Lynn took us ( me and my friend Nanci) to a Phillipino Restaurant for lunch...OMG it was delicious!! It's this nice little hole in the wall type place and they treated us sooo well. ...they gave us a sampling of just about everything and it was ALL good....for Dessert we had Battered and Fried Plantain...it was to DIE for!!...after that we did some window shopping...we hit the Knitting store( i actually bought some stuff there) ....the stitching store....the stamping store....then on to the Asian Market where i picked up these dipping bowls...Rae and I like to get Sushi a lot....and we needed something for dipping it in Soy Sauce..

then we headed over to the Asain Bakery a few doors down and got some fresh warm rolls.

Then last night I went to dinner at a really nice place in Down Town Norfolk called Sterlings.. Every 3rd Wednesday the ladies in my neighborhood go out to celebrate any Birthdays that month. The Birthday girl gets to pick the restaurant. I had Broiled Scallops( my favorite) with a nice ginger Sauce and asian slaw, crab puff with cheese, and garlic mashed potatoes......then for dessert I shared a fried cheesecake.YUMM

Valentine Dinner

Our church sponsored a V.Day dinner at the Base club....We all had a Great time. Here is a Rare pic of Brad and I..

The guys were all asked to make and decorate a card for thier Sweeties.Here is Brad patiently working on his...I was actually surprised at the effort he was making.

S. and J. ---the Z's --friends of ours . J. sings in choir with Brad.


N. the Actress. note her 'model" pose...

Us girls!!

Me with Britt after the party was over....she provided Babysitting at the Chapel and came by afterwards to help with 'cleanup"

here is my V. Day loot from Brad ..he got the heart shaped box of chocolates when he was in Holland....he says it was 'expensive" and that it's supposed to be the some of the best in the world....it IS pretty good...and at the top is Brad's finished card from the party.

Close-up

Inside...he did a really nice job.....

More Cute Stuff

I got these at Target too...even though they weren't on sale....i just couldn't resist.....I LOVE the colors and the flamingo cookie jar is just adorable.......now i want to redo my kitchen in these colors...kind of a 'tropical beach" theme....

Post V.Day

Well Brad left for San Diego today. Unfortunatley he missed his initial flight. He thought his flight was at 9:00am......at around 6:45am he decided to doublecheck his itinerary only to find his flight was at 6:30am!! he had to reschedule...and got a flight at 2:30pm.... Everything worked out and I got him to the airport in plenty of time for his 2:30 flight....he even lucked out and was then able to get on an earlier flight. then he got to SD and the Hotel didn't have his reservation....so he had to find another place to stay...luckily he was able to get a place at the base...so again things have worked out...he'll be back Friday night( unless he misses THAT flight..LOL)anyways after i dropped him off I decided to go to Target to take advantage of the Post V. Day sales.....and got a bunch of neat stuff...I got all this and MORE for less then $150...I'm in a redecorating mood lately . most of this will be to redecorate our Bedroom and Bathroom

working hard? or hardly working?

Looks like Brad is working hard....and...................
Brandon and Britt are hardly working!!!!

Valentines Treats

Rachel decided to bake tons of cookies to hand out at school tomorrow. So she made a double batch of my Excellent Sugar Cookie Recipe..( i HAD to have her make 'extra' so WE could have some too..LOL)

BTW take note of pic #4 of Brandon in the Yellow Billibong!!! here are the unfrosted cookies she will be giving away at school.and here are the frosted ones for US!

District Concert

The girls had District Chorus this evening. They decided to ahve ti at Deep Creek HS this year for a change ...sure beats having to drive all the way out to Western Branch. All the choirs did very well...there was Festival Chorus which was Middle School kids..then there was Treble Choir whihc is waht Britt was in( 9th & 10th grade girls) and then Distrist Chorus which is waht Rachel was in( 11th & 12th Grade gilrs and all HS boys)

these pictures were hard to get as we were up in the "nosebleed" section and the lighting was bad too..That's Rae in the white speckled dress

and here's Britt