Suz ie Q, baby I love; oh Suz ie Q. I've never been good at remembering who did what song, so perhaps one of you know which song it is that's in my head as I type this post. This is Susie, you've seen her before. She's quite a ham, loves to have her picture taken and is often a model for me for finished scraves, hats and the like. She said, and I quote; "the blankets no good until it's been test". Now if I had a little smiling face thingy here it would be rollin it's eyes. LOL

Anyway, this is a super soft blanket I finished a few weeks ago. It was requested by my boss. Not like one can really say no to one's boss. This isn't the prettiest baby blanket I've made, the colors? I don't know, what do you think? The yellow just isn't soft pretty baby yellow to my way of thinking; but then she picked out the yarn ...........sooooooooooo there you go.

It's one huge granny square, but the yarn was quite thin, like fingering weight so it took forever to make. I used a small hook (can't now remember what size), and did 3 or 4 rows for the ruffle edge. I ended up with 9 scallops per stitch so you know how long that took.

She gave it as a shower gift for her niece who loved it.

Feeling under the weather the last 3-4 days, better today; but still taking it easy. Didn't go to work, no need to spread the bugs.

Gonna spend some time sorting hats, mittens, and scarves today for the homeless folks and the free clinic folks. Have you visited The Bridge and Beyond? If not, please do; some very big hearted and talented people have donated fabulous items.

Flat Stanley Project

click on picture to enlarge and see detail

Do you know Flat Stanley?  Has your child or grandchild done a Flat Stanley project at school?  It's fun, it's educational.  A co-worker's nephew is doing a Flat Stanley project and so we're doing what we can to add to his project.  I took my Flat Stanley tailgating last wkend; but due to the old camera only working some of the time.  The pictures I thought I had....weren't there.  Errrrrrrrrr, I so need a new camera.  My regular camera broke while on vacation a couple of weeks ago, thus I've been trying to use the old one.  Very frustrating.  So, while Flat Stanley was appropriately colored to be Buckeye for tailgating, those pictures are non existent.

He also traveled with hubby and I last wkend to St. Louis with a car load of stuff for our daughter.  On the way back we made a couple of stops and Flat Stanley got his picture taken in Indiana, and in Illinois.  These 2 pictures with The Bison and TeePee were taken in Illinois on US Route 70 exit 76.  This is a fun stop for all.  The kids will love the TeePee and The Bison, parents will love the very unique gift shop; and furry friends have some room to roam and stretch their legs.  It's not the first time we've stopped here; nor will it be the last.

Here's Stanley in Indiana, again on US Route 70.  He got his picture taken by a nice memorial to our men and women in service.  The Blue Star Highways were started as a way to honor our military after the close of World War II, by ladies garden clubs all across the country.

If you'd like to join in on the project it would be great.  You can color your own Flat Stanley and take him places, photograph it and email it to me.  Or...you could take my Flat Stanley, print it and go visiting.  It's a geography lesson primarily for this particular group of kids; but the kids learn so many other things as well.  I like to add some history info, they can find locations on the map etc.  It started out as a way to get kids to write letters, to journal; but there are many possibilities.  Let me know if you're interested.  Here's a link if you'd like to color your own Flat Stanley

oophs forgot to add Stanley's picture in case you want to print it and take with you to various locations and email photo's back to continue the project.  Remember, my camera (super old one), isn't taking great photo's).  He looks very faded here...errrr

**for the first time in awhile, I was able to visit, read, and comment on each and every blog on my blog roll (all 28 of them).

JACKS, Mother and Daughter and childhood games

Depending on how old you are, you might or might know what this is a picture of.

• It's Jack's. This picture is rather traditional in appearance. I remembering having multi-colored ones too. My Mother taught me to play Jacks. I love to play with her sitting on the front stoop in Marion where I grew up. I can see us there now. The stoop was small and off to the right side was a metal box for the milk man. It was a great game for mother and daughter to play because it really didn't take much time, you could stop and start if you got interrupted easily. Which Mom, usually did to run inside and start a load of laundry, or to hang another load on the clothes line out back. As I got better, we'd play with 2 sets. You really had to get good at bouncing the ball higher to scoop up that many Jacks. You also had to have a bigger hand. Somewhere along the line I remember a friend showing Mom and I a "special ball" she had that really bounced; allowing you more time to scoop up those Jacks. It was the inside of a golf ball. You'd crack open the golf ball, unwrap the rubber bands that were there and inside you had a "special ball".

A fun memory, Thanks Mom.

Did you play Jacks?

If you're new to my blog you might not have seen these Alphabetical Memories of My Mom:


A=Advice, Afghan, Apples
B=Bread, and Bernie
C=Camping, Creativity and Courage
D=Dancing and Delaware Dam
E=Energy and Etiquette
F=Friday
G=Gown (wedding gown), grape pop
H=Hammocks and Holidays
I=Ice Skating and Isaly's