Lazy Sunday

Just enjoying a lazy Sunday today.  We've all done some reading and played video games together.  The boys played outside in the backyard with their friends for several hours, and I did some stamping.  The dog decided that the screen door would be much better with a flap in it, and created her very own dog door to the sunporch.  Ryan was not terribly happy about her decorating idea!

Ryan mowed the lawn, and when he was done let the kids drive the tractor a bit.  Ear-to-ear grins on both of those boys' faces getting to drive for the first time!  And they didn't run over any trees, or the garage, or the tool shed.

I've got a few more layouts of our trip to the Cape done in the last week or so.  The first one of Jeremy running to catch up when he saw Uncle Bill showing Matthew his fishing gear.  (Credits can be found here.)

And this picture of my niece, Tori. She's a lovely, confident girl and held her own with the boys.  Not "tough", but secure in herself and able to stand her ground when necessary.  (Credits here.)

And this layout of Jeremy, playing last February in Asia at the Animal Kingdom at WaltDisneyWorld.  He's so good at entertaining himself and having fun!  Over the years I've become used to how roughly the boys play, but I have to admit that him throwing himself onto the pavement at multiple points in the game he invented did get to me once or twice! (Credits here.)

Shelob's Lair - Bwa ha ha ha!

Just when you thought it was safe to reach into the candy bowl on Halloween...  not in my house!  Shelob is guarding her web, down at the bottom of this delightfully scary treat bowl. 

Ok, well, maybe it's more terminally cute than scary.  But I love the new bowl I've finished for Halloween.  Based on Susan Breier's It's a Wrap: Sewing Fabric Purses, Baskets, And Bowls, this bowl is made from clothesline wrapped in fabric strips.  The white stars in the black and white fabric glow in the dark.  And I could not resist pairing it with the neon lime green spiderweb fabric.  You can see that Shelob's already caught a few critters who are bug-eyed wondering what's going to happen to them...

But for my money, what takes this over the top is the big furry spider with her glittery legs!  I used a Crop-a-dile to punch holes at the end of each of the legs, then sewed them directly onto the edges of the bowl.

And yes, I'm a Tolkein fan and decided that she could be named for his famous (or is that infamous?) spider.  Hmm, that reminds me, I haven't re-read LOTR in quite a while - maybe it's time to pull that out again...

My Military Month

So mid-August through mid-September has been a military type of month for me.  I have a great respect for members of our military, and their families.  They all give up so much to secure and maintain our freedom.  I figured that the least I could do was support our military, in one way via cards that go to our men and women serving overseas and in another way, to support a humanitarian effort spearheaded by one of our servicemen.

I spent most of the month making cards for the Cards For Heroes drive at ScrapStreet.  On Thursday I packaged up and shipped the 154 cards that I made.  Christmas, birthday, miss you, and other types. 

And through my friend Michelle I learned of IBOL - that's Iraqi Bundles of Love.  From the website created by Maj. Art LaFlamme: 

Iraqi Bundles of Love is a short-duration project, set to last about six weeks, originally intended to surge fabric and sewing (and knitting!) materials into the area around which I live in Iraq.  It is timed to coincide with both Ramadan, and the departure of my units from Iraq.

The general premise is this.  I am in Iraq, and I can get mail through the US Postal System.  Willing contributors can send to me a flat-rate box of sewing / quilting supplies, all bundled up.  I’d open the box, pull out the fully-contained bundle, and hand it off (with others) to our counterparts in the Iraqi Security Forces (Army and others) or the local police, for them to distribute.  Some of the bundles will also be delivered by US Soldiers. The stated intent of this operation is to put sewing and quilting and knitting supplies into the hands of two types of recipients:  locals who desperately need such things, and local sewing co-ops and other small businesses who have received grants or loans (typically to purchase sewing machines, rent space, etc).

Maj. LaFlamme's original goal was to receive 50 packages and deliver them to folks who need them.  As of this morning, his website count stood at 1921 packages received.  One of them was from me.  More are still arriving since the mailing deadline was last Tuesday and it takes a while for mail to get there.