E is for Embroidery

Good afternoon!  I won't invite you in today because I have some sort of stomach bug.  Ugh!  It has been a picture perfect day here in the south and I have spent most of it in the bed.  Horrible.  I really hope it's over soon and I can enjoy our spring break!

For the letter E, I am sharing my embroidery machine with you today.  I have always wanted to be able to monogram Darbee's clothes myself and make her those cute appliqued shirts.  When I got my machine for Christmas, I was beyond excited.  It has taken me a while to learn but I am loving it and loving making her all sorts of things.  

I saw a picture on an embroidery forum of a machine riser that would allow you to stitch shirts much easier.  I sent my dad the dimensions and he delivered.  He is so good.

He even added a neat little drawer on the end to hold my bobbins.

How clever. 

He made it and Darbee Rae stained it. 

I love it and it makes things so much easier.

See how it keeps the shirt up under the machine so it doesn't risk getting caught in the hoop?  

Perfect.

I will share a few things I have made so far.

Hope all of you are having a great weekend!

Until next time....

D is for Dates

Hello everyone!  Thanks to all of you new friends who have stopped by to say hello.  I can't wait to visit your blogs as well.  This blog challenge is so much fun.  I am so happy I signed up to do it. 

Today for the letter D, we are talking about dates.  

This evening, I had a date with my girl.  There was a theater company putting on a Fancy Nancy musical at our local performing arts center.  When I saw the e-mail about the show, I knew we had a date.  I bought tickets right then and kept it a secret.  It was a secret until the flyer advertising it came home from school.  Woops!  She was so excited!  I was too.

My class had our Easter party and egg hunt this morning at the park.  I kept Darbee with me and she went too.  Thankfully, the weather held off and we were able to have it.  As soon as it was over, Darbee started asking when we could go.  It didn't start until 7:00.  We had a ways to go.  :)

Finally, the time came to get ready.  They were having a costume contest before the show.  She saw that on the flyer and wanted to dress up.  Thankfully, we have a TON of dress up clothes and we were able to put together an outfit that looked a lot like Fancy Nancy.

This was the look we were going for.

We had the pink tutu and the purple sparkly shirt.  I didn't have any plaid ribbon but we made do with white.  We even had glasses pretty similar to Fancy Nancy's!  We added some fancy rings and bracelets and a fancy necklace and were set.  I put her hair in pigtails and made them into buns and tied purple ribbons in her hair.  She wanted a feather boa like the one Nancy wears in some of her books but we didn't have one of those.

I think we did pretty good though.

She even had a cute zebra jacket to match because it was a little chilly.  

It was packed!  

And guess what??  When we got there, they were selling Fancy Nancy boas!  Guess who got one? 

Yup..her outfit was complete.

We found our seat and couldn't wait for the show!

It was time for the costume contest!  All of the little girls got to have their time to walk across the stage in front of the audience and judges.  We ran into a friend and she and Darbee walked across together.  It was so cute!

Here's my girl all ready for the show!  The boa was a little itchy so it came off.  :)

The show was fabulous.  It was so cute and we had a great time.

I love dates with my girl.  

I can't finish this post without mentioning the dentist.  Darbee had a dentist appointment yesterday.  Ugh!  I don't like it when she has to have work done but she did GREAT!

She is cavity free!  Hip Hip Horray!

Cuddles makes it all better.  She was such a good girl!

That's all for today! 

I hope all of you have had a great day.

Until next time....

C is for Celebrate

Good evening friends.  It's been a warm day here in the south.  We are hearing forecasts of storms tomorrow but hoping for nothing bad.  

Today for the letter C, I chose the word celebrate.  

Isn't the fact that God gave you another day of life enough reason to celebrate each day?

This subject has been heavy on my heart for a while and I knew quickly what I would write about for the letter C.  

When I was living at home, we celebrated everything.  We always did the obvious stuff like birthdays and holidays but I'm talking little things.  My mama made a big deal out of most everything and it was fun.  I have those memories to cherish.  I can remember one winter when it snowed, we celebrated.  We decided to give gifts and have a "Christmas" in the snow.  We all had to choose one thing we already had that we wanted to give.  We wrapped up the presents and had a party and exchanged gifts.  Silly?  Maybe but oh what a memory. 

When Darbee Rae came along, I knew I wanted to do the same thing with her.  I make a big deal out of everything I can.  We count down to Valentines.  We count down to Easter.  The leprechauns visited our house on St. Patrick's Day.  We celebrate back to school.  We celebrate the end of school.  We celebrate dentist appointments that were rough and she made it through.  We celebrate it all.  Do I give gifts for all of these celebrations?  No.  We just celebrate and have fun.  We make memories.  We enjoy little moments.

I have had so many lately that scoff at anything I do "extra" to celebrate.  They think I am silly and the things I do are silly. It's so discouraging. 

There is an article circulating around Facebook and many of my friends have shared it.  

You can read it HERE.

It makes me sad to read that and see the attitude parents have taken on today.  No, you don't have to go to extremes, but celebrate with your children.  Let them see you happy and enjoying the little things in life.

So, do you celebrate each day?  

I do and will continue.  I am so thankful for the life God has given me and the child he has entrusted me with to raise.  

I will celebrate her everyday.

I will celebrate another day in God's world.

I will not let others discourage me.

Will you join me?

B is for Blog Books

Hello everyone!  I would like to say hi to my new visitors and followers from the A to Z challenge!  Come on in and make yourself right at home!  I am glad you decided to stop by!  

Today for the letter B, I am going to share blog books with you.  Some of you have read about them here on my blog before but I have since had several ask about them so I thought they would be something neat to share for the letter B!

I started blogging several years ago and when I first began, I wondered if there was a way to print every post and keep it in a notebook.  I wanted to always have them.  I heard of a company called 

Blog 2 Print.  I immediately checked them out and knew once I had been blogging a while I wanted to try it.  Once I did, I was hooked.  I knew this is how I would document our adventures and these would be a keepsake for Darbee one day.  At the end of each year, I order a book.  I have all of my posts from that year from January 1 until the end of November printed.  You can choose a soft cover or a hard cover book.  I always do a hard cover.  Just look at my books.

You can add a photo on the cover and also on the back of the book.

They have lots of designs to choose from too! 

I also order a separate Christmas book each year. 

I always choose the same cover for those and always put a picture of Darbee sitting in Santa's lap on the front.  It's neat to look at them and see how much she has grown!

They are nicely printed and will even include a dedication page and a table of contents if you choose.

They print each blog post as well as your pictures.

I love to just sit and look back at mine.  

To me, they are priceless and I hope Darbee will feel the same about them one day. 

Be sure and check back tomorrow for the letter C!

Until next time....

A is for Afternoon Alone

Good evening friends!  I am so glad you stopped by!  

I read Betty's blog last night saying she was going to participate in an A to Z blog challenge .  I was intrigued and decided to check it out.  I had never heard of it but this is a big thing!  There are tons of other bloggers doing it and all linking up to one site.  I checked just a few minutes ago and there were over 2200 bloggers who have signed up to do it!  The idea is you do a post each day except Sunday and each day has a letter.  Today is A...tomorrow will be B....etc. It will end on April 30 when you have completed 26 posts.  I love this idea and find it a way to get me back to blogging regularly.  Will you join us?  You can check out the original page that tells all the details here.  Betty at Through My Back Door is joining in and also Cindi at Cindi's Primitive Country Corner. You should visit their blogs and say hello.  You will love them.  

So...for the letter A.  An afternoon Alone.  

Mama decided to pick Darbee Rae up from school today and spend the afternoon with her.  I did meet them at the park for lunch but left them soon afterward for them to have their fun.  What was I to do?  I was Alone!  I went and did a little shopping for our Easter countdown.  

Darbee and I are counting down the days until Easter.  I made an egg garland and hung it on the mantle.  Each morning, she can open one egg.  I have them filled with tiny prizes.  She gets so excited and it's a lot of fun.  When we get to the number 12 egg, we will also begin our resurrection eggs.  I will be sure and post about those then.  

I did some shopping and decided to come home and do a little decorating.  I had my Easter stuff to put out still and thought it would be neat to put it out while Darbee was at Nana's and surprise her when she came home.  I won't show you all of the pictures just yet but I will share one.

I had a fun afternoon but it sure was quiet!  I did enjoy my alone time though and I knew Darbee was having a ton of fun with Nana.  I took pizza over there for supper and we had a good evening visiting with them.  

It was a really warm and beautiful day today.  I hope you didn't get fooled!

Check back tomorrow for the letter B!

Until next time....