The Gift

For DoDo's birthday I made her a blanket with all of our names on it. I pieced the squares together and put fleece on the back of the blanket for warmth. Well that and I had no clue what else to do on the back. My friend Jennifer embroidered all of the names for me. She did an amazing job and if you ever need something embroidered I highly recommend her!

Any ways that is all for today...

Have a fantastic day!!! I am off to start another project.....

DoDo turned 80!!!

My grandmother turned 80 last Saturday and we all came to surprise her.

Here is how it went down....

After planning the party for a year it all went as planned and she had no idea about any of it.

First my Uncle Dummie (I was told to call him this when I was younger and it stuck) and Aunt Lana came in on Friday. They were sitting at the table at my Aunt Sheri's and when DoDo saw them she dropped her new purse (that she opened BEFORE her birthday) on the floor and screamed. And if you know DoDo she probably cried too...

We arrived Saturday morning. We hid the truck in the shop because we figured with the Texas license plate, red truck, and the motorcycle chilling in the back it might give us away. So we were sitting in the kitchen of my Aunt Sheri's house my cousin Tim and his wife Kacie were talking so DoDo wouldn't hear our voices. When she walked through and finally saw us she hit the counter, hard, with the paper she was holding and screamed again. Oh and cried can't forget the crying.

OK here is the story they had been telling her. They (my aunt and uncle and cousins) were taking her to Columbia, the big town an hour away, to eat at Hu Hots. When the real plans were to have a surprise party right up the road from my Aunt's house. SOOOOO

DoDo leaves Aunt Sheri's house to get ready to go to Columbia, she leaves about 2 and we weren't leaving until 5:30, do you think she was a little excited? Well we are all talking about the party and how we think we have pulled it all off when who comes driving back up to the house, yep you guessed it DoDo. Now we are freaking out to say the least and trying to figure out how to get her back to her house. When Lana, who is an AMAZING liar convinced DoDo to leave with them.

So we arrive at Noland's Catering for the party. About 60 people came to celebrate with us. I saw people to this day I have no clue who they are but I am sure glad they came! Uncle Dummie and Lana bring DoDo to Noland's by telling her they have to pick up a cake for dinner in Columbia. When she walked in this was her face....(Sorry it was far away...I was in the corner)

After she walked in and cried!!! We ate dinner it was delicious!!! (I highly recommend Noland's Catering if you are ever in need of catering and in Macon, Missouri!!!!)

After dinner everyone started, well continued talking and I helped Danny and Cindy (my cousins) wash dishes. They thought I was doing it to be nice and helpful. But we all know I did it so I wouldn't have to talk to strangers.

DoDo had a great time and so did we!

The rest of the week flew by way to fast...

We had absolutely nothing planned other then the boys riding the motorcycles all around Missouri. Apparently Missouri is beautiful with gorgeous hills and curvy roads, but how would I know my father never took me on a ride. I'm not bitter at all, I promise... ok well maybe a little but next time I'm asking Uncle Bernie to take me on a ride!!!!

On Tuesday the boys wanted to go on a long ride and meet us in Hermann (my new favorite town in the US) so we all went down. My cousin Tim and his wife Kacie live in that adorable town, that I am seriously considering opening a bed and breakfast in! Kacie took us girls to a winery, my first wine tasting, and I'm not gonna lie when I say I officially like wine!! Well one wine at one vineyard that doesn't ship to Texas, oh well. After our wine tasting we went to downtown Hermann and shopped at one of their many antique shops and then Kacie took was to the Custard Shop and I ate ice cream!!! My day was officially perfect!
(me and Kacie at the wheel thing on the Missouri River)

After our day in Hermann we went back to Tim and Kacie's house they have the best view ever!!! We ate bratwurst and grilled veggies! And for dessert Strawberry Shortcake!!! Again I will say it my day was perfect!!!!! (well it would have been better if Tim had grilled me that chicken breast!! Love you Tim)

The ladies drove back to Macon and the boys spent the night and continued there trek through Missouri on Wednesday. Aven, my little buddy, came over to hang out. He is Danny and Cindy's number 3. He is super cute. He taught me to say "Holy Macaroni and Cheese" and I laughed all day when he would say "What the hAAck!" He's too cute. Here he is...( Sorry this is the only picture I got of him. I tried to take a picture with him but he refused, apparently I am not cool enough to take a picture with)

On Thursday we went to the cabin, Uncle Dummie grilled.... yep you guessed it Bratwurst (sure wish I liked those things) and burgers! We had fun playing cards and hanging out.

Things I learned at the cabin...
1. There is no cell reception unless you stand in one spot and don't move, breathe, or talk, which is complicated when you are trying to verbally give someone directions to the cabin.
2. It is gorgeous out there on Bloomberg Lake!
3. DoDo does NOT buy anything when playing Hand and Foot.
4. Never sit next to DoDo when playing Hand and Foot.
5. And Lana is intense when it comes to Hand and Foot.

Friday night the ladies and I went back to Danny and Cindy's to hear their band practice. These were my tweets from that night....

Listening to my cousin's band play... I'm waiting to amazed by their amazingness!!!!

30 seconds into their first song and I'm officially amazed!!!

They were great!!!! If you are in Macon on June 30, or something like that, you should go listen to them play!!!

We had a great time and miss them already!!!

I am now going to show you way to many pictures but this for my sister-in-law who didn't get to come. Love you I.V.This is Bret, Dan and Cindy's #2. He's cute, sweet and 8. I love him!!
Here is DoDo's cake!


Here is Danny and Natalie (#4) She's adorable, she will like me one day, she sounds like a little lamb "maaa", which is adorable. I love her! Danny, he's my cousin, he's funny well sometimes, he is a great dad, he will come to visit my one day, I love him!


This is my mom! She is amazing, she is a great person, I love her!
Sheri, Uncle Dummie, DoDo, and Mom, I love them all!
This is my cousin Tammy, I love her too!
This is me and Cindy, she is amazing, she is a great mom, she is an amazing singer, I don't remember her not being my cousin, she will come to visit me, I love her!
This is my Aunt Sheri and Uncle Bernie, I love them!
Kacie, Matt, Chase, Danny, Cindy, Natalie, I love all of them!
Becca, my cousin Tim, me, and Kacie, they are cool, fun and awesome. I love them too! Thanks for letting us come to your house!!!

This is DoDo and Tammy. All of these pictures are from her, thanks for sharing Tammy! I love her!

And that was our week in Missouri....

I'm Baaaack!!!!

It has been forever but you are in luck! I had surgery on my foot today and I can not walk on it for two weeks, and in case you were wondering if I can drive that would be a big fat stinkin' NO. So I am stuck at home expect for the two days that I have begged and pleaded for my friends to drive me to "work" and back which will consists of me taking care of my favorite 5 year old in the world!!! She is on vacation and I have missed her tons!!!!

I am sure in the next two weeks I will blog about the surgery so be prepared.

I have a list of things I need to get done in the next two weeks.... (maybe if I post them to the universe I will get them done) ( but I know what your thinkin' she has Netflix so the lists are not getting done) (and you are probably right)

Here it goes...

Things I want to sew

1. Drawstring backpack (to use with my lovely crutches) ( on a side note... if I don't have amazing biceps when I am done with these crutches I will be ticked)
2. Pillows for my parent's new bedroom set
3. Pillows for my bedroom
4. A bag ( Carrie has the pattern for this and I need borrow it, hopefully she is reading this! wink, wink)

Things to craft
1. A sign for my parent's bedroom (shhhh don't tell my mom it's a surprise) (Well poop she reads this ... Mom forget that you read that) (My dad doesn't read this... so unsupportive is he, just kidding but if you are reading this and you happen to know my dad, could you remind him he was supposed to come up with a quote or Bible verse...ok thanks!)
2. A sign for my dad with a quote he wants.
3. I'm in the mood to make some coasters, however I have ZERO supplies to make them...guess that will have to wait til I can drive again.

OHHHHHHHHHH Wait Best news coming up next.......

Emerson Ann Ward is coming on Thursday, March 24. Will keep you posted and of course bring the pictures of Emmy and Piper, who just so happens to be my favorite 18 month old.

Love to anyone who is reading this,
Kaitibeth
AKA
Hopalong

A New Friend

While we were in Colorado my RoRo was also in Pagosa. RoRo was there with her friend Sue. Sue has the best condo I have ever seen. She has every sewing machine needed to make anything you could ever think of making.

Someone forgot to tell me about RoRo being there so I was not prepared to sew. However there is the cutest quilt shop I have ever seen (ok so I will admit I have never been to any other quilt shop in my life but still). This quilt shop was in the back of the hunting, fishing, and pet store!!! RoRo got me a pattern and the fabric to make a bag. It is called a "quilted jelly roll purse". RoRo also wants me to learn how to quilt, hence the quilted part of the bag!!! The bag was a little intimidating at first but with the two best sewing teachers in the world I managed to learn how to "stitch in the ditch", quilt, and put grommets in a bag. I think the bag is super cute and I love it. It is huge and I can use for almost anything.

This bag is not only adorable, the handles are adjustable. In the picture they are in the normal bag over the shoulder position, but they can also cross over one shoulder (like you would carry a messenger bag).

RoRo did very good picking out a bag that I would love!!!

I am so glad I got to meet Sue and hang with her for a couple of days. She is awesome lady who has many, many talents.

I love you RoRo you are the best stand in grandma (even though you are way to young to actually be my grandma) a girl could ask for. Thanks for always coming to my programs at school when I was little and for not being scary when I was 2!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok so when I got home I had to make another one but this time I made the small version here is the finished product.
Here it is in the normal way to carry a bag.



Here it is over the shoulder messenger bagesk.

The Beautiful Martinez Canyon

This is Chimney Rock, it's between Pagosa Springs and Durango, Colorado.

We went to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. I have officially decided, next to Texas, Colorado is the best state. The reason for the trip was for "the boys" to ride their motorcycles in the mountains. We had a very eventful first day... First we had a motorcycle incident (you will have to ask my dad for this story, I don't think I am allowed to give details... Just know that I am freakishly strong and can lift 1200 lbs!!!). Then my cousin Matt was rushed to the emergency room. Long story short after two trips to the emergency room, a trip to another hospital in a larger town, and a billion different diagnosis the doctors finally decided to send him off of the mountain and declared it altitude sickness.

The fun times on the trip were plentiful, I promise!!! I have no idea where the boys went most of the time. I believe, Chama, Taos, and Telluride were some of the stops along the way. I weaseled my way in to one of the rides. YAY!!! We went to Creede, Colorado. A very cute little town with alot of history, best known for being the largest silver mine in Colorado. The ride was beautiful. When we arrived in Creede, we found the Mining Museum. This was a cool (and by that I mean COLD) place, my uncle worked in a mine years ago and added to the musuem. We had a great ride. We got rained on the way back which was my first experience with pelting rain drops to the face at 50 MPH, I don't know how Seth survived because he was about 100, I am just kidding DoDo. But we made made it back to the cabin safe and sound and oddly enough dry.

Here are some pictures from our trip....


This was the Creede Underground Mining Museum and Community Center!!!


If you have ever been to South Fork, Colorado, you have seen this large and I think very random lumberjack named Biggin.


We also went to Mesa Verde on our trip. I have been to Colorado, a billion times and Pagosa Springs, a million times. (I was told, on this trip, I exaggerate!!!) But I have never been to Mesa Verde. If you have never been I would suggest you go, however if you get car sick, are afraid of heights, don't like the way someone drives up a mountain, you have been warned. I, myself, who has never been car sick a day in my life can now safely say that it is no bueno. After I got over that my mom and I joined the rest of the family and went exploring. Mesa Verde is amazing, the cliff dwellings are crazy nuts!!! We were able to go into one and I do not even have words to describe how cool they were. We saw many different types of cliff dwellings from afar, as well.

I have to say thank you to Seth, my cousin (who might be a mountain goat, he was so fast) for giving us the idea to go to Mesa Verde.

More pictures....

This is the one we explored.

Here I am in front of the cliff dwelling...it was four stories tall... one is below ground.


Another cliff dwelling...
If you look closely in the middle of the picture there is a cliff dwelling...

Here's my question how did they get in there?????


We had a great time... We missed the part of our family who had to leave early, it would have been a lot more fun with y'all there, but somehow we managed!!! I don't think there was one night we didn't play games (Speed Scrabble was the favorite, no matter what Seth and Uncle Dummie say). We laughed till our stomachs hurt and ate more then anyone should, but hey that made it a great vacation....

And for Seth I leave you with....

Whaaaaattt?!?!?!

I had the day off and my goal was to make pajama pants. That didn't happen but I did end up making pillows for my parents and I. Just had an idea for pillows so I followed my whim and here they are.

I also finished a wallet for my mom. I found this fabric at my favorite fabric store City Craft!!!! I saw the teapot fabric and immediately thought of my mom and this is what came of it. This is one of the types of wallets that I am selling the "Quilted Wallet".Here it is folded!

Here is the inside!

That is all that was accomplished today!

DoDo and an Update

Well hello, it has been forever. I have been crazy busy the past month I have started a little, and I do mean little, business. I am selling some of the things that I am making. But more on that later. We had Vacation Bible School at my church, I had an amazing time with a great group of kids. There were over 2000 kids and they gave almost $14000 for drinking wells in Ghana. My family and I went on a vacation to Riviera Maya, more on that later (with pictures I promise). We also went to my grandma's in Millican for the 4th of July weekend. We had a great time down there with the family, Piper is getting so big we all celebrated her 10 month birthday with a monkey cupcake. The boys went fishing and Hannah, Emily (Hannah's friend) and I joined to shoot the guns. Thanks to Cody (Jake's friend) we were able to shoot an AR15 along with the shotguns.

But now I am back at sewing and crafting.

I got a Cricut!!!!!!
I have had so much fun making random things learning how to use it.

I made a bag for my grandma, we call her DoDo, and no I have absolutely no idea why we call her that but everyone does! We are going to Colorado next week and so I decided to make her a bag. My mom's customer and now my friend Alice gave me this pattern. It is made with an old pair of blue jeans. I liked the pattern but I don't think that I would use blue jeans next time they were stretchy and very difficult to cut to the right size. But they do add alot of detail to the bag. The edges are sewn on the outside which allows for the edges to fray. I also added the prairie points to the top, super cute. The pocket on the outside is made from the back pocket of the blue jeans with the state of Texas appliqued to the pocket. I think it turned out very nicely.

I hope she likes it!!!