Merry Christmas from Michigan

This is the pier at Grand Haven, which is near where we live. Family has begun arriving, work has stopped, food has been prepared, and the snow is still coming down!! We are settled in for a few days of Christmastime, remembering the reason we celebrate.
"But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you, You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Luke 2:9-14

May you all have a peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
As always, thanks for stopping by.
Suzanne

Merry December!

Well, I sure hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did!! Spent Turkey day with my family at my mom's. We had a wonderful time. Then on Saturday, my DH's family came up to our house. Fun was had by all. We ate way too much, but it all was so good. Monday was quite the emotional day, as our son began his deployment. We sent three crying kids to school and then had to take him. The Lord did bless us with an absolutely beautiful drive, as it had snowed the night before and every limb on every tree was covered. The roads really weren't bad, and we had sweet conversation all the way there. God is Good! Please just keep Alex in your prayers. Thank you!!
I have been knitting a lot, but because everything I am knitting is for Christmas, there really aren't alot of pictures. I will however, be posting tons of them afterwards!!
I hope you like the new Christmas background. The first one I did seemed so easy. This one was a pain in the butt!! Please reward my frustrating efforts with tons of great comments! :) I am only half kidding of course. :)
I did receive the most awesome swap package from Jane. She send some wonderful oatmeal, chocolate monster cookies. A beautiful dishcloth, and cute fish tawashi. She also sent me two boxes of fudge, a cute little chocolate cookbook, and two skeins of cotton for more dishcloths. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but it was a wonderful surprise. OOps, I just realized that I don't have the pics for that yet. I will have hubby send them asap. Sorry. But it was a lovely package. You'll see!
Better go, just wanted to touch base. I have lots of knitting to do. Is anyone done yet??? Kudos to you if you are. Why don't I start this in January?? A question for the ages I suppose.
Thanks for stopping by.
Suzanne

Still Here!!

I everybody, Yes, it is true... I am still here. I haven't blogged in, wow, a week and a half, simply because I have been busy, and I have a ton of pics to share, but my husband has been so busy that he can't email me them!! Don't ask!! :) We so need to get our set up changed, so I can do the pics myself. I have been knitting some, lots of dishcloths it would seem, as I have had two bridal showers, and lots of Christmas knitting. Needless to say, those pics will have to wait. This post will be short, but I did want you to know I'm still here. I have been lurking on your blogs, and seems like some of you are as busy as I am!! :) Nice to know, except that I miss this and all my bloggy friends. I hope to have some pics and at least one more post before Thanksgiving. I also just sent out my goodies for this months Dishcloth swap, so when she receives all that, I will post pics. Thanks for being so loyal, and I;ll hopefully be back soon!
Thanks as always for stopping by!!
Suzanne

Happy Birthday USMC

Being a Proud USMC Family, we pray for those who choose to make a great sacrifice daily, by serving our country. We pray for those in all branches of service around the world. Thank you for serving and for keeping the liberties that my family enjoys safe, may God watch over you and protect you. Thank you, and Happy Birthday!!

Little Trip

Okay, I'm back!! I really don't like this not posting as often, but with working, My knitting projects are taking longer, and I'm a little tired. Oh well, enough grousing, I'm glad you decided to stop by and visit, so I apologize for grumbling right out of the bat. A few weekends ago, My DH and our good friends Tom and Kim went on a little trip. We went to Allen, Michigan.
It is suppose to be the "antique mecca" of Michigan. Well, we left early Friday morning, and found quite a few antique malls, but no real mecca!! We were kind of disappointed, but we did have a very, very fun day, very relaxing, and we did find a few treasures. We had a late lunch (something that is hard to do with 4 kids(they have 4 too) b/c they are always "starving" at 12:00!!! :) I just realized I didn't take a picture of some of my treasures, but I will. Then, after lunch, @ 2:30p.m. we ventured into another small town called Jonesville. Well, Jonesville has this store called Knit & Knacks. Need I say more!! We told the guys to take a nap and Kim and I walked into this store. We knew we were in big trouble the moment we opened the door. THis was a huge store, and she had yarn EVERYWHERE!!! :) Not messy, she had yarn in baskets, that were gorgeous, and I think every shade of Cascade 200 you can imagine. I don't think I'd ever seen half of these shades. It took us an hour(not kidding) just to "look around" then, we had to go back through, and decide what we were gonna buy. Oh man. I think Kim and I decided that a trip every Fall without the hubbies would be on the docket now!! THe lady there was very helpful, but left us alone to drool. I bought some Online sock yarn ( yeah I know, but I couldn't resist). I also bought some Cascade Cloud 9 in a beautiful red, for some fetchings (by Knitty) that I have long been drooling over. (I drool alot, don't I?) :) I also bought a skeing of Berroco Comfort. In a lovely Olive green color. I didn't buy too much, or anything too out there, I am always afraid I won't know what to do with it. If you are ever in Jonesville, Knit & Knacks is the place to go!! I had every intention of taking pictures, really I did, but the yarn!! The yarn!!


This is the beautiful Bed & Breakfast we stayed in that night!! We were in a room called the Shakespear Room, with a mini library.
I thought that was very fitting. It was a beautiful home, and the breakfast was very yummy!!
I have more to share, but alas, I need to get ready, so I can go teach my bible study this morning!! I will share more soon. BTW, Please pray for my brother and his family, he is in Suriname with 3 of their children on a mission trip (arrived late last night) and my SIL in home with the other 7. I don't know who needs more prayer :) so please remember all of them!! As usual, I love it when you stop by, please leave me a comment, I love that too!! Have a great week!
Suzanne

Bits and Pieces

Hi there all!! I really dislike coming up with titles :( But, I finally have somethings to share. Like my goodies from my swap partner Jill in Santa Rosa, California. Look at all these goodies. I was just blown away.
A beautiful dishrag done in a colorway that I do not recognize. Do any of you know what it might be? A great fingertip towel, beautiful sock yarn,
not to mention another skein of cotton for....you quessed it, a dishrag!! Chocolates! Wow. Even a cute Fall spatula. Never seen on like it! It has little leaves in it, if you can't see it. Its so fun to receive these little goodies once a month. I sent mine out to my partner Karen, the very same day (go figure). It is going all the way to England this time. I tried to mail it out as early as I could, so hopefully it gets there before the end of the month. I made the cutest little amigurumi pumpkin.
It was so fast and easy. I think I shall make more of these. Probably could do it in red, add a leaf of some sort, and viola... an apple!! Nice way to use up odds and ends. Our weather here has been unreal. It was in the 80's most of last week. Now, however, it is in the mid to upper 50's. A little more normal. I love the hot, but you are almost ready for the coolness. Our colors are turning very nicely. Seems like lots of reds this year, which is my personal favorite. My husband and I are going antiquing this weekend with some friends, and I am taking the camera. So hopefully next week I'll have some pics of that. Of course, my friend is a knitter, so I will have specs for some projects, just in case ;) we see a yarn store here or there. :) I have been busy with work. I do love it, but for one who hasn't worked since before kids, really, it takes some adjusting. Plus I'm tired :) My Precept Bible study is going well. I know I haven't talked much about that, part of the busyness I guess. We are doing Covenant. It is just so cool to take this one very important concept, and see how even the simplest of details are of so much importance and meaning and how it all relates from Genesis to Revelation. Very cool stuff!!
Guess that's really everything, except to continue to thank all of you who leave such nice comments on my blog. It is such an encouragement to me!! That's all for now. THanks for stopping by and please come back! Hope you are having a beautiful Fall!!
Suzanne

Catching UP!

Sorry I've been gone a while. Looks like with my new job, I might only have time for once a week. However, there was a few day delay in getting my DH to email me the pictures. I wanted to show you my new cowl. It is the Stacked Eyelet Cowl, I found the pattern on Ravelry. It was a nice easy pattern.
I wouldn't mind making this again maybe even in a little stiffer yarn. I do however, like the way this turned out. I like the way it drapes. I plan on wearing it a lot with a top, not necessarily to keep warm. Speaking of warm, it was NOT warm here this morning. I don't know what the "official" temperature was, but when I got up this morning, there was white stuff on the ground, no, not snow, but a heavy frost. I will need to go check the tomatos, they may be done. Thanks for all your nice comments for my birthday, and I hope you do go or did go see the movie "Fireproof"! It really was awesome!
These photos are of the swap package I sent to my partner in September. Sorry for the one where everything is already wrapped, I forgot to take a picture, and I really wanted to get it out, so I didn't unwrap everything.
I put things in there like crochet grips, row counter, a sample of "Soak", some "Handemade" labels and a few other things. I think she enjoyed everything. I am anxious for Octobers, the person I got is from England, that will be fun! I am trying to get my thoughts, as well as my list made for things I need or want to make (knit) for Christmas! I have some ideas, but I need to write them down, or I tend to go on to the next "great thing" I am really in no hurry for Christmas to get here. I guess that's all the catching up I have, I don't want to ramble...some might be saying......to late :). Thanks for visiting, and Happy Fall!
Suzanne