Our Furry Kids

I love it when my dogs have just had a bath.  Billie, the dog beautician, got majorly carried away with the powder today, and it is bothering not only my nose, but the dogs'!  They are worn out, and I am glad.  I am keeping them in until I leave tomorrow so they don't roll around in the muddy back yard that was rained on for the last two days.

Here's a real short video if you want to see my grown-up Goldendoodles:

I have started packing.

Thank goodness, we aren't going anywhere that requires fancy dressing because I am not comfortable dressed up.  Some people love to dress up, but I never have.  I'm a "comfort first" type of dresser, and then color and style.  I could not care less what is "in style" according to whatever magazine.  My Mom was that way.  I think most styles look ridiculous anyway.

Mini skirts.

Baggy pants falling down and ANYTHING with a skull!!!

Shoes that have toes!

Half a dozen skinny straps hanging half on and half off shoulders.

Clothes that look like underwear.

MOST color-blocking.

Did you know that this Fall the latest "rage" is to have FURRY shoes?

Some of them look like the girl ran over squirrels on her way to work and decided to stop the car, grab up the hides and stuff them into the bottom of her flip-flops!  I'm not kidding!  Fur sticking out on the sides and between her toes!  GROSS!

Here is a lovely pair of FUR SHOES!  These are walking down a runway!  Probably cost thousands of dollars.  N U T S !!!  She looks like a Dr. Seuss character.

Here's a lovely set.  Maybe Jerry would like to try a pair of these.

I bet you thought I was kidding.  Here's some more.  These are probably for dressing up as they appear to have a high heel hidden somewhere inside that fur.

And here are some classy strappy designs.  (PUKE!)

Okay.

I cannot STAND anymore of those hideous shoes!

WARNING:  If you buy those and come to visit me, you may find me dusting my house with them.

I've got to go anyway.

I am supposed to be packing.

Hugs, Joy

Teamwork Makes Dreams Work and Owly Update

That was Matt Hagee's message today.  He is looking SO handsome in his beard and 'stache.  We all must have a dream or a dream will never happen for us.  You must work toward whatever your dream is.  You can't HAVE a dream and not WORK to achieve it.

You must hire team members that are WILLING and ABLE.  Not easy to find that combination these days, but with God's help, all things are possible!

And Terry was here this afternoon to quilt the pretty black and white French Braid lap quilt she made for me because she is such an AWESOME friend.  The pantograph pattern is called FANTASY FLAME.

Here's a little VLOG I made for you.

When Terry left with my quilt, I had to jump into HIGH GEAR and get this sewing room cleaned up.  You could see a short clip in the video of the fabrics I have all over the place that I have cut owl parts out of.

I am not done chopping up fabric for owl parts by a long shot, BUT I have decided to put them all on hold until after Deb and I visit the big fabric shop in Branson.

And speaking of owls.

Here is a picture I have just PHOTOSHOPPED a few of the owls on.  They tend to look like cats before they are finished.  Some of the owls haven't been stitched around yet, so they look funny.  I painted a few outlines with PS on some of them, but I'm not very good at that.

Only eight of the owls here are finished with the satin stitching.

If anyone out there knows how to:  CHOOSE A SHAPE and have PS Elements AUTOMATICALLY OUTLINE IT, please let me know.  I can do it with my embroidery software, so surely, it is possible.

The owl in the upper right corner was outlined with PS.  Looks like I had a bottle of booze for breakfast!

Anyway, here they are so far:

How WONDERFUL are my falling leaves?!  That is a new Accuquilt die I purchased.  This quilt will have falling leaves from top to bottom when it is finished.  That was the part I really liked about it!

Gotta go.  I'm going to clean up this room, and then go to work.  Tomorrow, I will be heading to our Edmond home to get some things done there before we head to Deb and Jim's on Friday.  Jerry and I are SO EXCITED!   Thank goodness we are going in a VEHICLE.  Poor Terry has to go the whole way to Branson on a MOTORCYCLE!  And she thinks that is FUN!  And it could RAIN!  Oh, my!  Doug just bought her a cycle that is called a "trike".  I'll show you a picture when I get one.

Have a wonderful week my friends!

OH!  OH!  OH!

I wanted to show you this picture of an actual, real life owl, just in case you think my owls are strangely colored.  I looked up "owl images", and they come in every color under the rainbow.  I was really surprised.

How gorgeous is this white one with TURQUOISE eyes!?  My quilt will have one like that.

Hugs, Joy

VLOG Hello and New Quilts

Hello friends!

What a fun day this has been, and how unbelievable that because of Terry, I SUDDENLY planned a vacation for Jerry's 9-30 birthday.  Terry and Doug are going on a motorcycle trip with our church to Fayetteville, Arkansas.  Then they are going on to Branson for a few days.  Terry said, "Why don't you and Jerry meet us up there?"

Jerry has been wanting to go to Branson forever, and we have new friends, Deb and Jim very near there that we are anxious to meet in person; SOOOOOOOOOOOO, I immediately got on line and found a hotel.  Called Jerry first, of course, and he was very excited.  Promises he can take four days off.

THEN I remembered that we have this entire ZOO that we have to take care of, and I thought, "We CAN'T go anywhere!"  What will we do with the 4 pets?  Well, my sweet daughter and her husband love our dogs, and they said they would keep them.  My daughter says the cats will be fine in a garage for four days, so I guess we will do that.  Nobody here where we live that would want to deal with any of that.  I hate to board them because they put them in cages.  Ick!

Trips always stress me to the max.  Don't know why.  Plus, this is September, and the world is supposed to come to an end or something close to that according to my brother.  I will try to remain calm.

Here's the little VLOG I made for you.  It is all about Peggy's Monday webcast.

I will catch you up on my owls tomorrow.

Here is the quilt Terry quilted on the longarm today.  It is so SOFT and PRETTY.  I told her it reminds me of whipped cream.  I LOVE the panto she used on it.  I think I will have her do that one on the quilt she made for me.

And Terry must have breathed in too many fumes from her car or something because this picture she took of me with my lap quilt makes me DIZZY!   You may recall she is a professional photographer.  Must have been my cheap little camera, lol.

Here is a better pic of it.  I LOVE blacks and whites, and I really like this French Braid design.

She JUST HAPPENED to know all of that.  (-;

She would already have this quilted too, but I wanted a black/silver/white variegated thread for it.  It has not arrived yet.

Gotta go.  Time to fix dinner already.

Be back soon.

Hugs, Joy

You SHOULDN'T Judge????

It is SUNDAY, and God is so good to me!

I am so thrilled that we went to our church this morning to hear our Pastor, Duane Sheriff, preach.  He preached my FAVORITIST sermon of all.

I have been cussed at, told off, called names and had my own children and grandchildren say to me:

                  "You SHOULDN'T judge."

I tell them all that that is the biggest lie the devil has ever told!

Duane preached it this morning.

It was excellent.

He probably wanted to tell me to QUIT SCREAMING "AMEN" LADY!!!

OF COURSE, we are to judge.  All through the Bible there are comments about justice and judgment.

You make a judgment every time you make a choice or a decision.  If you know the Bible, hopefully, you make wise and just judgment calls, but they will be made -- wise or stupid.

I have been on a Skype call with my new friend, Deborah, for the last hour, so the exact wording of this morning's sermon has skipped my mind.  I will revisit the subject another time after getting the CD and listening to it again.

Deborah and I got our husbands to meet each other before ending our Skype call.  We have so much in common, and we are definitely going to get together.  Her husband upholsters collector (?) cars.  I'm not up on the lingo for that, but I decided that when they come, Doug and Terry will fit right in with the four of us.  He also loves to fish, and they live between Springfield and Branson, MO so are near to lots of lakes.

She just got back from a retreat at Louise Cutting's place in Florida.  I had to hear all about it.  She loves to sew and has taken all kinds of classes -- like me -- and she uses Sure-fit Designs.

If you are keeping track, you will recall I lost one sewing friend, but God has given me TWO new ones!  Actually, I now have THREE new sewing buddies if you count Debbie from Texas who is coming to sew with Terry and me real soon.  She is going to make a quilt for someone for Christmas.

 
I've got three more owls done, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see their cute faces and find out their preacher names.  I actually showed our preacher's wife his owl this morning.  I told him about it.  I'm sure they are both wondering if I need intercessory prayer!

I finally thought of a "B" name for a preacher owl, so "Blaze" has been changed to "Billy".  Everyone knows Billy Graham.  My "F" bird is going to be Franklin after Billy's son.  I couldn't think of an "E" preacher name.  Anyone know one?

I'm having lunch with a friend tomorrow, and I am looking forward to it.  Haven't seen her in ages.  She has been to Hawaii and Alaska this summer.  We have been nowhere but home, but that is our favorite place to be.  I will enjoy hearing all about her adventures.

Be back soon.

Hugs, Joy

Andy Through Cecil

Good afternoon friends!

This has been the MOST DEEEEEEEEEEELIGHTFUL DAY!

I woke up this morning -- like any other day -- about 7 AM.  I walked to the foot of my bed where I throw my pj pants every night because I get too hot if I leave them on -- then to my closet to put on my slippers -- then to the sink to wash my face and arrange my hair in something other than the Albert Einstein hairdo I wake up with every morning --  then to the kitchen for cuppa number one which is always waiting for me because my sweet hubby makes a pot of coffee for me every morning, and he doesn't even drink coffee.

I took a few sips of coffee to alert my body that it was actually morning and to come alive.  Then I wandered out of the kitchen with coffee in hand to look for my laptop which is supposed to be by my bed, but it wasn't.

Finally, I settled into my living room corner chair with my feet up on the ottoman, and I opened up my laptop to check my email.  Not many months ago, I had a friend that I received emails from and sent emails to a dozen times a day.  I miss that.  Terry doesn't do email.  She does Facebook.  I am a total retard on Facebook, so we pretty much text each other to keep up on each other's every move.

So I glanced down through about a dozen emails from sewing places and stores and Craftsy and John Hagee Ministries, and my eyes fell on an email from someone called "Celebrations".  I wondered what that could possibly be about, so I clicked on it.

Ever since I read it this morning, I have been CELEBRATING from CLOUD NINE!

The email was from Deborah from Missouri.  She got my email from Glenda Sparling.  It was a very long "letter" about my blog and how much she enjoyed it.  She talked about herself and her husband and said we were so much alike.  She sews!  She teaches sewing in her spare time.  She said if she was my neighbor, she would visit me all the time.  Terry and I would LOVE that!

BUT,

HERE is the BEST PART!  She wants to meet me.  She comes to a town not far from here on occasion due to her work.  I told Terry about it, and she said, "DEFINITELY, we MUST meet her!"

So I am excited.  Don't know what will come of it, but I'm believing God is sending me another friend to replace the one I lost.  God is so good.  I will keep you posted, and HELLO DEBORAH if you are reading this.  I sent you an email this morning.  Hope you got it.

Before I left our store earlier today, I was talking to Lou Ann about my latest quilt.  The Owls.  I told her to check my blog so she could see the three I have done.

Here is a short little VLOG for you all to see Andy through Cecil.

 I'm going to start on Pastor Duane RIGHT NOW!

Hugs, Joy

VLOG, Fun Girls and Andy

Here is the VLOG I promised you.

Yesterday got busy, and I didn't get to post, but it doesn't make a hill of beans difference, lol.

God is SO GOOD to me!

I love children, and now that my grandbabies are all grown up, and I'm not allowed to be anywhere near my only great granddaughter, I have been really missing precious little ones.  For those who don't remember, the child's father has no rights.  Hence, grandparents in Oklahoma have no rights either.  Insane!

Fortunately, my friend Terry hasn't found a good reason to dump me as her friend yet, and she actually loves me to be around her grandbabies.  They are majorly adorable, and I got to play with them Saturday.  I am invited to their brother's one year birthday party next Saturday.  How SWEET is that!?

I just happen to have some fun things to do here at my house because I love crafts so much.

I poured a bunch of wooden beads into a big bowl, and I found some black necklace cord that I received as a "free gift" from Fire Mountain Gems.  The girls had so much fun building their necklaces.

You would never know these two are sisters by their coloring.  McKinley (on the left) looks just like her Mama.  Riley (on the right) looks like Terry.

 Here they are wearing their creations and loving them.

After we made necklaces, we found some pills as we were looking through Lindy's drawers for a bathing suit.  You put them in warm water, and in about 10 minutes the pill opens up and turns into an animal.  The kids were delighted.  Those things had to be 20 years old.  I was so glad they still worked!

And would you believe that these two tiny little girls were not one bit afraid of my giant dogs?

They asked to go out and play with them.  I thought, "OH NO!!!"  The dogs will jump on them and knock them over and scare them to death!

Nope!  Riley walked right up to Jackie and hugged her face!!!  I couldn't believe it!

McKinley asked if she could throw the tire.  And she did.  See it up in the air?  The dogs chased it, of course.  It is their favorite game with Dad every night.

Here's McKinley again with the dogs giant rope.  It is the ONLY thing I've bought the dogs that they haven't chewed to little bits.  For some reason, they don't like this one.  Can you imagine a dog coming up to your armpit and not being afraid of it.  My sister and I would have run home crying when we were little.

 Oh, my.

I almost forgot to show you Andy.  I'm going to name the owls from A-Z as I make them, skipping a few letters as there are only 20 owls.

And here is another little VLOG I made for you about the most wonderful movie I have ever seen.  I was truly AMAZED that there actually are christian movies that even exist at a theater.  Not only that, the place was PACKED!  Check it out if you care to:

Gotta go.  Time to fix supper for the master.  I'm always so excited -- really -- when he comes home from work at night.  I feel so blessed!

Hugs, Joy

Death and Hell are the Riders!

Oh, my!





















Wonderful readers, you probably have surmised that I am a Bible-thumping Christian.  I love Cornerstone Church in San Antonio where Pastor John Hagee and his son Matthew take turns preaching.  Today and the last three Sundays, Pastor John has preached on the FOUR HORSES OF THE APOCALYPSE.

Today was horse #4, the GREEN horse.

The rider of the green horse is DEATH AND HELL.

Pastor John Hagee is the BRAVEST of preachers knowing how preaching about Hell has become very politically incorrect, but he preaches it still.

WHY!?

Because it is the truth my friends.

I would love for you to go to GETV.org under the archives and listen to all or one of the horse sermons.  All are very scriptural, and they are done like I have never seen in my life.  The new technology is so helpful for permanent enforcement in our brains of what the preacher said.  Check it out, and you will see what I'm talking about.

I am shaking from just hearing this sermon, and my mind is dwelling deeply into the possibility that some of my loved ones may not be ready.

Fortunately, I am NOT the type to "just not talk about it" and "let them figure it out for themselves".  I shout it loud and clear.  Ask my friends, x-friends, my kids or my grand kids and they will confirm that.  It probably won't be complimentary from some, but they will tell you.

Some will say, "She is SO self-righteous!"

Some will say, "She thinks she is better than everyone else!"

Some will say, "Bless her heart, she thinks the Bible is STILL applicable."

Some will say, "She really believes there is a Heaven and a Hell, but she never went to college, so she is uneducated!"

My husband's brother will tell you that we are CRAZY, and he can't stand to be around us because of our constant talking about the Bible.  Funny how he came here three times to get free of drug addictions, however.  And, as far as we know, he is free and clear of that today!  Praise God!

My own brother will tell you that if we ever lose our money, we won't serve God anymore.  That one has been the WORST blow of all!  I guess he has forgotten the years I was raising my child alone because her drug-addict father ran off with his druggie friends and left us all alone.  We lived on Campbell's soup, and I worked hundreds of hours of overtime to try to make ends meet since my X paid ZERO child support for our daughter's entire life!

I loved God BEFORE that -- DURING that -- AFTER that, and I will FOREVER!

My grand kids will tell you that when they come to Grandma and Papa's house THERE WILL BE CHURCH ON SUNDAY!  Period!  No excuses.  They don't argue.  They don't complain.  They just KNOW that is what is going to happen if they are here on Sunday.  When they were little, I used to ask them questions about the sermon to see if they were listening.  Now, we just discuss the sermon.

My grand kids will tell you that if they are sick, we will lay hands on them and pray for them to get well.

My grand kids will tell you that when we sit down to a meal, grace will be said BEFORE we consume it.

Yes!  Thank God!!!!  I never was liberalized by the lies taught by God-haters in the so-called "higher" institutions.  It is too late for me now.  I already know Jesus.  You could never change my mind.  But for those who don't know Him, my heart aches and breaks.

I made a VLOG for you and took some fun pics, but I will post those tomorrow.  My mind is whirling with this morning's message, and I'm not ready to jump off that track.

Hugs,
Joy