After my last post, my life got really crazy! But that's not really anything new, is it? I spent most of December frantically finishing gifts, many of which had been planned since March, and should have been completed by August. Several times, I wanted to sit down and write a blog post, but something else was always more important. The day of my last post (Dec. 11), we learned that Callie, our Calico cat had a tumor and would have to be put to sleep. The day after she was put to sleep, and friend of my Dad's was struck by a car as he tried to help someone caught in a snowdrift. I had only met him once, but members of his family have helped us with yard work since my Dad's cancer diagnosis. I was unaware of his injuries until the next day when I heard on the radio that he had passed away. Yet, through this tragedy, God was glorified. A local radio personality saw the accident, and stopped to see if he could help. He found tracks and a Bible in the man's pocket. He was also greatly moved when the man's wife arrived, and instead of praying for his life to be spared, as one might expect, she prayed that God's will be done. He was so moved that he talked about it on his radio program. I have been amazed at the number of people I've encountered who heard about the accident.
After all that, I really had no interest in blogging, and was really scurrying to finish up gifts. Now that I have had a few days to decompress from Christmas, my thoughts have returned to blogging, and all the things I wanted to blog about before the end of this year. Although they won't be published this year, I will try and get all the posts written today, and set them to auto publish during the coming weeks.
We have adopted a new kitty from our local animal shelter, Lollipop Farm. Her name is Cassie, she is approximately 2 years old, and part Russian Blue. She is full of energy and loves to play. She also loves petting and napping next to me while I'm reading. She has so much energy that we sometimes call her Crazy Cassie. This past week, she decided that walking across my keyboard was pretty cool, so I've been calling her Miss Computer Kitty. I will always miss Callie, but Cassie has helped fill the hole left by Callie's absence.
I hope you all had a merry, Blessed Christmas, and enjoy your New Year Celebrations!
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. The picture of the teddy bear was cropped using 
. The remaining photos were cropped square to the size I wanted, then I used a corner rounder on them.
. I have made them several times, and prefer to use them as motifs, rather than earrings. 
. The pattern was easy to make, although I did have to think through some of the instructions several times before fully comprehending what I was supposed to do.
. I used the paisleys to write information about the patterns, where to find the pattern, and the date completed.
, rounded the corners, and pasted it in the bottom left corner of my page. Both the pictures fit nicely on the sheet, and it gave me the effect I wanted. 
. The largest label is cut out of a DSP with small pastel hearts on it. I used it to journal about the project. The two smaller ones are on solid colored paper and have information about the hat patterns I used. 
I'm not sure this was the best idea I've ever had. It took forever, and gluing them down was difficult, to say the least. However, given that my original idea was to draw the x's by hand, this method was probably better.
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The larger die that has the pattern and yarn information is from the 
set.
. For the flower clusters, I just experimented until it looked right. Some of the flowers have quilled centers. For the ones that didn't, I glued on a small flat-backed gem.
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