Very Quiet Saturday

I know for most people it is still very wintery, we have had a few days of nice sunshine but now we are getting ready for more rain here in the Valley of California. In a little town of Ripon about 12 miles from here they had their Almond blossom festival, which means that the blossoms are out. I did notice going to the pharmacy the other day that most of the orchards are getting those real pretty blossoms on them. I love the look of them but not the smell, I have allergies very bad and they just seem to bother my nose. I was looking at our tree, the one we planted last summer and couldn't believe the buds and blossoms. It is a Magnolia Atlas tree and has the prettiest blossoms, here are some pictures of the blossoms~








Today has been kind of lazy and quiet, I sat and did some embroidery ~









I bought this fabric last night, just love the green and purple together, though this picture the colors don't look as good as they do in person




Roger and I have been watching some old movies lately, we have seen~ Gone with the wind ( my first time for seeing it~can you believe it), Singing in the Rain~I love Gene Kelly,Sergant York with Gary Cooper, Little Women (the original one), Meet me in St. Louis I just love movies from this era, the beautiful dresses and such, Ben Hur~ This one I really like though it always bothers me when I see wise men at the manger in anything, The Ghost and Mr. chicken with Don knotts what a funny movie,
I think old movies are just so wonderful, the acting was so good compared with what you get today and the scenery and music is just so nice to see.


Tonight we plan on watching My fair lady and I of course will be embroiderying.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend

This is something I read in the book Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie tenBoom and it really touched me, so I will leave you all with this poem


My life is but a weaving,between my
God and me,
I do not choose the colors, He worketh
Steadily
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in
Foolish pride
Forget HE sees the upper , and I
the underside.
Not till the loom is silent, and shuttles
cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas and
explain the reasons why.
The dark threads are as needful in
the skillfull weavers hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
in the pattern He has planned

Author unknown

Blessings,Joann

Weigh in Wednesday's

Today was another Weight watcher meeting, I really like the lady who does the meeting her name is Angie and she really likes what she is doing and encourages everyone so much.

My weight loss for this week is 1.4 pounds which brings my total up to 27.8, the weight seems to be coming off much more slower than I had hoped but in the process I am not starving myself and I am definately learning how to eat better. Tonight we are having tostadas for dinner without the cheese of course. I was a big cheese eater until I seen how many points they are, then I just stopped using it and I don't miss it a bit. For lunch I had a ham sandwich, some chips and a pickle. I don't really eat a breakfast, but around 10 or so I will have some toast and some fruit. I eat so much more fruit and veggies now that I have ever eaten before and I am actually liking it.Can't wait till summer when all the local fruit stands get set up.

Blessings,Joann

Things I have been doing...

It's been a while since I posted last. Things here are just kind of busy and I don't use the computer as much as I used to. There were days when I would spend oh up to 4-5 hours at a time on the computer. Now I get on check my e-mail, come to my blog and then go and read some of my favorite blogs and that's it. Sometimes it ends up being less than an hour or two a day. Wich you would think would give me so much more time for things like housework and laundry but No those things don't get done like they should. I spend most of my days thinking and worrying about things going on in my life. I know that God's word says not to worry but that is soooooooo hard for me to do.

I haven't mentioned much about my son Matthew, on my blog. Matthew turned 18 last April. In August of 2007 when he was returning to our house after being at his Dad's(We have been divorced since Matthew was 2) house for about a month we had a falling out, I won't go into the details but basically he didn't like to follow rules and do things around the house. We decided (one of the worst decisions of my life) that he could go and live with his sister. She lived close to the High school where he was starting his Senior year, she had 2 children and could use some help so we figured it would be the best. Well to make that part of the story short, he didn't go to school, was out all night and most of the time no one knew where he was. Jennifer called me one day and said "Mom, Matthew won't do anything I ask him to do and he won't follow the rules" I said "Jennifer--Welcome to my world." Up to then she thought I was being too hard on him and now she was seeing for the first time what was really going on. She ended up kicking him out, so he went to live with his father who also kicked him out, he ended up at a girlfriends house and stayed their until they got tired of him and then he started all over again, Jennifer's house, his Dad's house, where ever he could stay he would. He had no money and would not get a job, he said it would cut into his friend time too much. So I under lots of stress decided to let him fall on his face, hit bottom and prayed that he would grow up. Well this was put to the test when he showed up at our house one night around 1AM and asked if he could sleep here, he was at the pool hall all night and now he had no where to sleep. I told him NO, it was very hard but I figured I had to stick my ground, let him find out what the real world is like. I didn't hear from him for a few weeks but eventually he did stop by, he never mentioned what he thought of me telling him no. He eventually dropped out of high school and just started staying wherever he could.Most of the time I didn't know where he was, if he had a place to stay or food to eat. I had kept telling him to joing the service, I felt it was what he needed, plus you get food, a place to stay, training and medical coverage. He didn't want to. Since all of this happened he has kept in touch and I Love him with all my heart but I don't like what he is doing to himself. Last week he stopped by and gave me a sticker to put on my car, this is what it says~






He will be leaving June 2 to go and take a GED test, since he doesn't have a diploma and then will be going to Ft. Knox,Kentucky for boot camp and advanced training as a mechanic for the Bradley fighting vehichle. I am so proud of him, he is finally growing up and taking responsibility for his life. He received some sad news over the weekend that his father is in the hospital and probably won't be coming out. His father has been an alchoholic all of his life and it is finally cathcing up with him.Matthew went to visit him on Friday night and he didn't know who Matthew was,which is very sad for Matthew, he never got to tell him that he joined the Army.

I am very proud of my son and I knew that he would finally grow up,we have been through a lot these past few years but now I can breathe a little easier and not worry so much at least for a little while.

I do still have the worry of Roger not working but we both have put that into God's hands and are confident that the right job will come along, the one right for us.

Roger's brother is having an operation tomorrow in Palo Alto, so Roger is driving himself and his Mom over there in the morning (it's about a 2 hour drive) so I will have the whole day to do what I want. I should spend it cleaning, but in reality I will probably sit and read or do some stitching!!


In the crafting area, I have been busy transferring patterns onto some of that nice Kona cotton, here are some of the things I got transfered this weekend~





















then I packaged them up into ziplock bags with the embroidery thread so they are ready to go when I want to start working on them~




Here are some fabrics I would like to make a purse out of for spring and summer, haven't decided which color I want to make first, the purples or the blues.






This was my reading for the weekend~




the Losing it book was real good, made me think of Valerie Bertinelli in a different way. I always loved her when I was growing up and thought that she was such a goodie goodie, but this book tells lots that I didn't know about her. I did find it nice though that she was so honest about her life.


I am sorry this has been such a long post and so boring...I did have some good news when I went to my e-mail today I had one that gave me the name and blog address of my spring swap partner, it's a secret one so I can't say who it is but I will be visiting her blog to get an idea of who she is and what she likes. This will be so much fun....now I just need to find what I want to send..

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, I plan on filling mine with good thougths, lots of prayer and hours of stitching so there will be no time for worrying...I would like to ask for prayers for Matthew, and for Roger for work.

Blessings,Joann

Sewing side of craft room finished!!

Finally the sewing side of the room is actually finished, well sort of...it's finished for now. There are many more things I want to do and add but for now it will do. I can at least come in here now and sew or cut fabric.

Here is the process, the brackets got put back up~






Then the shelves got put back up~





Then I had these boxes that were just a mess, so I emptied them~





This is what came out of the boxes~




Here are the boxes all organized and filled~




I spent many hours yesterday folding fabric and going through finiding all the small pieces of fabric. I only folded the fabric that was 1 yd. or more to put on the shelf~




This is what was left in my container after folding the fabric,lots and lots of scraps~






I have a plastic storage thing under where my sewing machine is that will hold my Kona cotton, light fabric under 1 yd. and dark fabric under 1 yd.~





These table top storage things are for scraps of fabric, light/dark and for other sewing and embroidery things~





This is the finished project~



Here it is looking in from the doorway~





I have been doing a lot of thinking and planning of what to do in here color wise. I first wanted it to be pink and white, but now after really thinking about it I am going to go in a totally different direction and make it very "prim" I just for some reason always gravitate toward the primitive colors and patterns. I am thinking of putting up some blue/beige plaid curtains and then making some small wall hangings with embroidery on them for the walls. I don't know for sure so I may change my mind. I was telling my husband about it and telling him how I just love all of the prim things on peoples blogs about how they have decorated their house and I said do you mind if I started changing our house to look like some of these, he said go ahead what ever makes you happy. Money is real tight right now but over time I will start doing some small things and just go from there. Thank you to all who left comments while this craft room project was going on, I know sometimes I felt I would never get to this poing. Your many words of encouragement were very helpful. I have many more things to get done but feel like I have conquered the hardest part now it's just some organizing and decorating. I still am working on the other side of the room where my computer is but that shouldn't take too long to get organized. I will post some pictures of that when I am done.

Blessings,Joann

Weigh in Wednesday's

I am so happy to report that I lost this week at Weight watchers! Last week I had gained a little so I really tried to make better eating choices and it worked. This weeks weight loss is 1.6 pounds, that brings my total to 26.4 pounds lost so far. I have many, many more pounds to loose but I have a good attitude about it and it is coming off even if it is slower than I was hoping for.

I will be posting pictures of what I have gotten done in the craft room sometime later today.

Blessings,Joann

We have been busy here at the Allen household...

Today is the first day I could access my computer. We have been busy!! I had to remove everything off the table top in the craft room so Roger could paint.That was a time consuming task. You all remember from my previous posts what the table top looked like well this is what it looked like after taking everything off~








This is where everything ended up~








This is what the window looked like with the ugly old curtain on it~






Roger put the primer on~
The window area~


shelves removed on walls~






Then this morning he finished up with the painting ~

The window area painted~


This is the wall where the shelving goes back up~The south/west corner~





The shelving brackets were just put back up tonight and I haven't taken pictures of that yet so that will have to wait till next time. I am a little excited to get things put away now and actually use the room for some crafting. Hope to post some more progress by Monday but will have to see what I can get done by then.

Blessings,Joann

Weigh in Wednesday's

Today was my Weight watchers meeting and sadly I gained today! Only .8 but I have not gotten discouraged. I kind of new going to the meeting that I haven't kept track as good as I should have. So that is going to be my priority this week, track all of my points daily and also to try and get in some excersise. So now I am below the 25 pound mark but only by .2 I have to keep a positive attitude.

Blessings, Joann

update on the craft room...

You know I started to re-do my craft room about a year ago, this included taking everything out of the room and giving it a good cleaning. When that was finished Roger made me a table top to go with the existing table top so I have table top basically around the perimeter on three walls. We took the ugly wallpaper off of the walls on the East side of the room, this is where I set up my computer area, books, etc. We also painted and put up shelving. Our next step was to move everything from one side of the room to the other so we could finish up the room. But things didn't work out that way, days turned into weeks, then months and now it's been almost a year since we started. It still isn't done, I had planned on just organizing all of my crafts and leaving it this way until we had some time and money to finish it all. Of course with Roger still being out of work we have plenty of time but not the money. Last night we were talking and trying to figure out what we could do without is costing any money. We realized we still had some paint and if I could take the time and remove the old wallpaper off the walls on the other side of the room we could at least paint and it will be a little closer to being done. So last night about midnight I came in here and took down as much wallpaper as I could reach. Why am I telling all of you about this, well it has made my progress go backwards a little bit. I ended up taking the shelving down on two of the walls and now I have everything sitting on top of the table top, frankly it's a mess....to show you what I have done I did take a couple of pictures, though they are messy, also I am going to post the picture of what it did look like..

So here we have the way the shelving and wallpaper looked on the South wall~



Here is the same wall with no shelves and most of the wall paper gone, notice everything piled on the table top??~





Here is the West wall with the shelving and wallpaper~




And here it is with the shelves gone and as much wallpaper as I could reach gone~



So that is all about the craft room..it's still a mess and I think we are going to start painting in here this weekend sometime.

I also sat down last night and finished up that Valentine heart I was working on a while back, it turned out real nice. It smells so nice, I put rose petals in it and now of course my craft room smells like roses too. I love the smell of roses so it doesn't bother me at all.

Here is what the heart looked like all finished~




I can not wait for this room to be done, I see it in my mind exactly how I want it to look. I plan on making a new curtain for the window in a cute pink print and want to make a cover for my sewing machine in the same pink print. Mainly it will be white with little bits of pink all over the place. One thing that I was wanting to do was to change the location of the sewing machine and the computer but because of logistical reasons it's best to keep them where they are. I have a nice area for my cutting mat, even though you can't see it because of all of the junk sitting on it right now. I also have an area that will be blank until I get my light box, Roger has promised to make me one when he gets working again. I have wanted a light box for quite a while now and have just the right place for it to go.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far...tomorrow is my Weight watcher meeting in the morning and then I have a dr. appointment in the afternoon.

Roger and I watched the Charlie Brown Valentine shows that were on tonight, they are such cute shows but I always feel so sorry for Charlie Brown...he never gets a Valentine!!

Blessings,Joann

Grocery shopping day..

Roger and I went grocery shopping today. We also went to Walmart for a few things. I took a picture of the groceries on the counter~




but this wasn't everything because all of the cold things were already put away. As you can see by the picture we bought a lot of chicken, 14 packs to be exact. This is Foster Farms chicken breast and it was on sale for $1.17 per pound~




that is a great deal around here so we bought tons. I came home and packaged it all up into freezer bags, with 2 breasts in each bag and I ended up with 33 packs so that is 33 meals for us.

I am feeling much better, thanks for all the prayers everyone. I am still very tired and don't have a lot of energy but that will come with time. So I am going to start tomorrow working back in my craft room. That project was put on hold while I was sick and I now just want it to be done and be able to do some actual crafting in here. I plan on working only about an hour a day or more if I feel up to it but for now I plan on just starting with the hour. I have given myself a deadline of March 1st for the enitre room to be done, but want to get it in enough order to work in here by next weekend. I have lots to do but at least now feel a little more motivated to get it done.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Blessings,Joann

I hit 25!!!!

I know that I haven't been posting because I have been sick but I just had to come and tell you all that today at my Weight Watcher meeting I hit 25 pounds lost!!! Isn't that just so cool??

Strange that something so small can mean so much to me...





I hope to be back to posting by the end of the week, right now I just got done with my Weight Watchers meeting and I have not been to bed since two nights ago, so I am headed to bed for a few hours...I can't wait till this feeling of being worn out and sick is over.

Blessings,Joann

Still not well yet!!

Just another short note to say thank you to everyone for all of the prayers and concern. I have been sick since last Tuesday evening and I am feeling a little better but not up to par yet. Roger just started feeling bad on Sunday. I have done nothing in the house except Lysol everything every few hours. I am hoping to feel better tomorrow so I can go and read everyone's blogs and see what I have been missing. I sure missed all of you, I haven't been on the computer since Wed. evening so we know I'm not feeling well, not much will keep me away from the computer. Mainly I have been sleeping, laying in bed, or laying on the couch. We basically ran out of food and HAD to go grocery shopping Sunday night, that was miserable..but we at least have some food now.

Lisa~ I did get your e-mail but just haven't sent one back yet..hopefully in the next few days.

To everyone else who left comments, thank you from the bottom of my heart, it is so nice to have people who truly care about you...

Blessings,Joann