12 Days of Charity - Day 4

We have supported Mosaic Pregnancy & Health Centers for many years. We participate in their baby bottle campaign every year through our church.  It is a fun way to raise money.  Each family takes home an empty baby bottle and fills it with loose change to donate to Mosaic.   Last May, I was on a work trip near home.  The man I was working with pulled out a baby bottle from his backpack and put his loose change in it after paying for his lunch.   He started to explain and I just smiled and said "We do that too."  He was collecting for another pregnancy center but it seems to be a common fundraising campaign.
I also like to knit or crochet hats for infants with my scrap yarn throughout the year and donate to Mosaic.  If I have larger amounts of yarn, I make baby blankets.  They are always grateful for any ot these items that I drop off.

These are the hats I am donating this week.  I used up a lot of scraps and cleaned out some of my excess yarn. 

Five baby blankets are also going to Mosaic this week.  I experimented with some new patterns. Some I will use again - and some I was glad to only being doing a small baby blanket :-) 

This is some fleece that I bought on sale at Joann's specifically to make this blanket to donate to Mosaic.  Some mom or dad will just love this for their little one.

If you knit or crochet, this is a good way to use up extra yarn or to even practice a pattern to see if you would like it for a bigger project.  There are lots of free patterns  (all levels of expertise) at sites like Lion Brand Yarn.

My card to share today is one of my favorites -

I love the color combination of Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake.  The double ribbon (Very Vanilla and Cherry Cobbler seam binding) turned out really cute and the decorative punch on just the one corner gives it some character.  

12 Days of Charity - Day 3

Sending and receiving Christmas cards is one of the joys of the season.  I also love designing and making our Christmas cards every year.   We both come from large families and we also give cards to all the families at church so this year I made about 140 cards.

This year I am adding a new family to my Christmas card list.  Addie is a 6 year old little girl who is not expected to live for another Christmas.  Her family's request is for her to receive a 'lifetime of Christmas cards'.   Addie especially loves handmade cards or artwork by other children.

You can read her story here - today.com
or visit her Facebook page

I'll be sending Addie a card  - won't you consider joining me?  The card does not have to be handmade.  The family appreciates anything they receive.

The Christmas card I will be sending Addie and her family -

This is a stamp set I bought many years ago.  I love the calico angel and letters.  The ruffle is made by using the scallop punch on a long strip or paper and then crimping it with the crimping tool. The crimping makes it more flexible to glue around the back of the oval.  

The card has a surprise - a pop-up trio of calico hearts.   I will put some tabs on it so they know how to pull it to make the hearts pop up.  I love making the pop-ups but always wonder if the recipient figures it out :-)   I hope this will bring a smile to Addie's face as well as her mom and sisters.

12 Days of Charity - Day 2

The Salvation Army is not a new charity for me.  Every year while shopping I would drop some change in their familiar red kettle and wish the volunteer bell ringer a 'Merry Christmas'.
Occasionally when I clean out closets or de-clutter the house, I throw the items in a box and arrange to have the Salvation Army pick up the box(es).

This year I had a new experience with the Salvation Army.  I was a volunteer bell ringer!  Our church arranged to ring the bells over several hours and asked for volunteers for 30 minute intervals.   My daughter and I took one of the slots.

First, we are thankful that it was a warm day - we didn't even need our coats.  We greeted everyone we saw with "Merry Christmas" and got lots of smiles, thank yous and Christmas greetings in return.  A large percentage of the people coming and going stopped to add to the kettle.  Some with a few coins and some with $5 bills.  At one time we even had 4 people standing in line to add to the kettle.  What a great thing to see with the economic hardships we hear of every day.

It was especially heartwarming to see children putting in a few coins.  Kudos to the parents who are bringing them up to give to others.  Charity does begin at home.

I was curious as to how the red kettles came about and found this article describing the founder.
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/red-kettle-history

And as promised - here is another Christmas card design.

This card was based on an original designed by my niece, Jamie.  Using the Gorgeous Grunge "splatter" I made a tree of Old Olive.  I added some Cherry Cobbler stars and the sentiment.  This is mounted on some Cherry Cobbler DSP and then the Old Olive card base.   A fun card and no two would be exactly the same.

12 Days of Charity

I've decided to highlight 12 different charities each day until Christmas  - hence the 12 Days of Charity.   The first charity is one that is new to me.   This is the House of Hope which is a soup kitchen for the Community Hope Center.  My friend Natalie and her family volunteer there regularly.   Each week they provide meals on Mon, Tue, and Wed.  Next week (12-15 through 12-17) they will be serving a full Christmas dinner from 10 am to 1 pm.   Wednesday is also a toy gift drive so they are expecting a large group that day. If you live in the area and want to help them out, let me know and I can connect you to Natalie.


They can use help with prep/serving/clean up from 9-2 on Wednesday and can still use food donations.  I will be working so can't help out with the work but did make some cookies to send with my daughter who is going to volunteer on Wednesday.


I made some Christmas Krinkles.  This is a recipe I have had for years but they were called Whippersnappers.  The recipe -
1 box of cake mix (dry)
2 cups non-dairy whipped topping (like Cool-Whip)
1 egg
powdered sugar

I found this Christmas cake mix at Aldi's.  Since the box held two 1/2 cake mixes (one red and one green) I bought 2 and make 2 batches of the cookies.

Bekah and I worked together and made approximately 8 dozen cookies to send to House of Hope on Wednesday.  It certainly made the task easier and more fun having someone to help in the kitchen. 

We also have 2 dozen cookies to take to the church for the fellowship time after the choir's cantata on Sunday evening.   Aren't these pretty cookies?

And since some of you are interested in card making, and someone (Steph) has noticed I haven't posted any cards lately, I will post a Christmas card design with each of the 12 charities.

This card uses some retired Christmas DSP but could be made with any designs you have.  The DSP is mounted on a single piece of Old Olive and a piece of Cherry Cobbler.  I had some gold ribbon from some other project that I used to give it a little accent.   I like the sentiment with opposite corners rounded.

Come back tomorrow for another charity.

A Walk in the Park

Today I ran an errand during my lunch hour and it only took 10 minutes so I stopped at the new park near our house.   Saw some ducks....

and geese....

Checked out the horseshoe pits.   Even have benches for spectators.

This is the view looking across the lake.   It was a beautiful day and I made 3 trips around the perimeter of the park in a half hour.

They also have birdhouses.  They look like gourds but they are not.  Not sure what type of bird is attracted to these - but may have to do some research on that.

As you can see below, they are not finished with the park.  My husband says they are to put in a ball diamond. 

I think I'll be walking there often during my lunch hours. Gets me out of the house and burns some calories.   Come back refreshed and energized. 

Supper tonight was French Onion Chicken sandwich and a Lay's taste test - Mango Salsa (wavy chips) and Bacon Mac 'n Cheese (regular chips).  The Bacon Man 'n Cheese won hands' down here.  Now if they were just wavy too :-)

Still need to taste the Wasabi Ginger kettle chips - I'm not even trying the Cappuccino. 

And another very good chicken recipe that I made last week, Baked Mushroom Chicken.

Little Hats, Big Hearts

I've been knitting hats for the Little Hats, Big Hearts charity. The red hats are to raise awareness of heart disease which is the most common birth defect. The hats are distributed to neonatal units for the children there.   From one skein of yarn ($2.99 at Michael's) I got 8 hats using a quick free pattern I found.

And I used the rest of the red yarn with some other ends of yarn to make 2 more hats. 

These won't work for the Little Hats Big Hearts since they only use red hats but they will be donated to Mosaic Pregnancy Center 

Along with some other hats and blankets I have made with my surplus yarn.

Yes- I have a large surplus of yarn - and still more to use up :-)  And this week I bought more to make some baby afghans.  3 nieces (2 of Tom's and 1 of mine) are expecting and 2 other ladies at church.  Babies everywhere!

Speaking of babies,  haven't posted a granddaughter photo lately.  She's not a baby any more.  Here is my recent favorite photo taken at a local park. It was a little chilly so she had to wear shoes and a jacket - didn't like either one.

More Whale Fun

I played with the Oh Whale set again this evening. We have a baby shower coming up for a little boy. 

The whale is stamped blue on blue. I think he might need a little pearl or rhinestone for his eye. 

What a cute little bib card. It was really fun to make. I know I'll be making more of these. 

This one has a shaker on it.  I filled it with the little pieces that are part of the die. 

Couldn't stop without making a couple girly baby cards. 

Thinking of writing something like 'hoping you make a big splash in your birthday ' on the inside. Any other ideas? 

And I had to make one more anniversary card. 

This one is waiting for its sentiment.