Family Reunion

Our little church was full of Husband's father's relatives last Sunday-even more than usual. Our church has many relatives in it already, but last week Mother-in-Law was host to the S. family reunion. About 90 or so people attended. First we met at church for a catered lunch, and then some cousins told about a recent trip to Ohio and finding family history in a cemetery there.


After the talk, people looked at old pictures and family records. The copier got a workout disseminating family information. Then some went to the local cemetery where 38 relatives are buried (so far.) Others retired to Mother and Al's for bars, ice cream, drinks and more visiting into the afternoon.

Some of the kids had a meeting about Mother's upcoming 80th birthday party. The man in the front with the blue shirt (second picture) is a distant cousin and looks amazingly like Husband's Dad did. Those genes run deep!

Duct Tape Fun

The girls have been designing duct tape bracelets, inspired by the one their friend "Jim Bob" made for M.'s birthday.

L. designed this owl and the Pac Man bracelet. W. made the bee, owl and sea animals. These were made by a 16-year-old and a 9-year-old.

The bracelets are made totally out of duct tape. Tape can be found at hardware stores and places like Wal Mart. To make the band, they cut or tore off a strip about 9 1/2 " long and another strip about 8 1/4" long. Place the strips sticky sides together aligning the sides and the front edge, leaving one edge with some sticky backing sticking out. (Bottom yellow picture.) Use the sticky part to attach the bracelet around the wrist after decorating the front. If you wish, bend a little of the edge over to make it easier to hook and unhook it. (Last picture.) Tip we learned: It is helpful when cutting circles to copy a coin or dot before cutting. Coins can just be stuck to the sticky side of tape before cutting around them, and then peeled off when done.

Little House Dresses

When my folks were home they brought some Little House period costume dresses for the girls. There is a whole box of assorted dresses, and another box of aprons to go with them. M. and Friend A. had fun last week dressing up in them and playing in the yard. Just their style.

Shiny Happy World

A bit of my work was posted at one of my favorite blogs: Shiny Happy World. click here to see it: http://wendigratz.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-show-tell-time.html?showComment=1314401454927#c5246935860835344185
Thanks Wendi.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Lucky me! I picked up this book this week on a rummage for 50 cents. What a lovely read it was. It consists of letters written between an author and a reading group from the English island of Guernsey. Guernsey was occupied by German forces for five years during WWII.

Author Mary Ann Shaffer worked with books her whole life and dreamed of someday having one of her own published. She finally wrote this one, but got cancer before the final editing could be done. Her niece, Annie Barrows, who was already a published author, took over the project and finished it. Enlightening, humorous, touching, joyful, lovely to read.

Embroidery, Etc.

I've been working on more embroidered dish towels. It has been my summer fun project. The tea cups are iron on patterns. The horse pattern is from http://www.french-knots.com/. I have also designed a few of my own patterns. The bee/sunflower and the violets are two of them.

The first violet picture is of sketches I made from reference pictures off of the internet. The second picture is the sketch I came up with from the different elements on the first page.

"Model" Children

For some reason, this was the outfit chosen this morning, collected from here and there around the house. The "top" and "skirt" are scarves.

Then I saw these models at "Savers" later in the day.

Grandma and Grandpa

My folks are here for a couple of weeks. Let the games begin!

Pies, Pies, Pies

Three eight foot long tables of homemade cut pies for the ice cream social. We served about 200 people, down a bit from last year's 285 number. It was a beautiful night for a social.

Mother, Niece Andrea and Sister-in-Law G. cut pies.

The girls cleared table and served pop/drinks.

With Auntie G!

New Earrings

This flower fairy got her ears pierced this week. We were waiting until Aunt Rose could do them, but could not wait anymore, so went to town and got it done.

Edged in Gold

Today's Postcards from God. The girls were jumping on Uncle G's round bales and brought these home with them.

Last Day of Vacation

Our last day of vacation we went to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in LaCrosse, WI. I liked the chapel builing on the hill the best. It looked like a Swiss chalet.

All our girls.


Beautiful things. After a satisfying visit to the gift shop, Friend H. played Ave Maria on her violin as a thank you in the visitor's center. A lovely ending to our vacation. Then off across the midwest plains to home.