Not so Monsoon~y this year!

Good evening all! Thought I would try to update my blog for you all while awaiting dinner to get done cooking. So yeah, as my title indicates, monsoon season in AZ has not been the greatest this year :(  Praying for rain every day because AZ desperately needs it! Yes, it does get humid this time of year around these parts, but the rain is always worth it. Without the rain, it is more than HOT!!! You tend to stay indoors where the air conditioning keeps it bearable!

I am sending prayers up constantly for the health and well being of my Florida family...a very ill Uncle in the hospital, and an Uncle who was diagnosed with throat cancer. It is so hard to live so far away from those that you love and care about when something happens, you are unable to be there to offer your love and support or just your shoulder to lean on. You do the best you can from a distance and you hold strong to your faith that God knows best in all things, and send all the prayers you can up for His healing touch, His love, His comfort and His guidance for your family far away. You ask for prayers from your friends, coworkers, and face book friends....knowing that everything happens for a reason and in God's timing, what will be, will be. To ALL my family and friends, I love each and every one of you, pray for you all the time and with this posting reach out and send my love always, whether I see you all the time or rarely....KNOW that I love each and everyone of you, and thank God for the blessing of having you in my life from near and far!! <3

I have met (maybe not in person, but on face book) so many beautiful kind people since I have started this beautiful group Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals, that I could live to be 100 and still not be able to express my thanks and gratitude enough to everyone who has contributed in some way in helping it grow by sharing blog posts or donating yarn or supplies and even monetary donations for supplies. I am so blessed to be able to do this and MAKE A DIFFERENCE in someone's life by making hats and journals while they are fighting their battle. Each and every one of you touch my soul and restore my faith in humanity itself. For instance, this beautiful soul I met online through my cousin's wife, she has created an event to collect 53 skeins of yarn for her 53rd birthday, TOMORROW!!!! First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATSY, and may you have many,  many more and continue to bless those around you by continuing to make a difference on your birthday by giving back to someone or some organization that helps others! Her total this evening is 23!!! So blessed and grateful for her generosity and kindness!!!

Keep up the AWESOME work Patsy, I know I've not met you in person, but sending HUGE hugs and lots of love your way!!!

Now I do have three hat pictures to share with you....the pictures were taken with my new fancy camera that my wonderful hubby bought me for my birthday (yes, VERY EARLY)!!! First up is a ladies fuzzy brimmed hat that my sister made on her loom. The brim was made with some "eyelash" yarn mixed with the normal yarn, and I absolutely LOVE it!!!

This next hat is a lovely pink ladies hat that I made over the weekend from a pattern that another friend I met online sent me the pattern on. I love the lacy look of this hat, and will probably use it for a few more!!

And the last hat I have is a man's zig~zag hat that I finished up yesterday morning while waiting to go to work. I found this pattern over at Idea Ivana and it worked up fairly quickly! Next time I make this one, I may have to make an adjustment on the brim row, as it seems a little loose and not snug on my glass model :)

 

 

My daughter and I were unable to get anything done on Journey Journals this time, as this past weekend was a "rest and recuperation" weekend for us. Sometimes you have to take that kind of weekend despite what else is going on so you can recharge for the upcoming work week :)

 

 

Well I guess I am off to locate a pattern for a man's hat, maybe some other color than blue, yes? LOL Have a blessed evening everyone and until my next update, much love and gratitude and...may the light of God's love touch each and every one of you and help you to Glow from Within......<3

Everyone can be creative!

Good Sunday Morning all! A beautiful start to the day, finished up a ladies slouch hat this morning with some button embellishments and the day is off and running. I sure do wish my weekends would go slower than my work week :) Looking back on my previous post, I realize that I have not added links to where I found the lovely patterns for the hats that I shared. Arghhhh, this oversight will be corrected at some point today! It is so frustrating to have all of your links saved on your laptop, but unable to post a blog update from there because it won't upload my pictures. I think we all have little and probably sometimes BIG annoyances with technology! LOL

I've stated before that my beautiful daughter says she is not creative, to which I say "hogwash", because seeing her create Journey Journals is pretty awesome! I love each and every single one she has created (and God bless her for catching that creative bug and helping make a difference), and she has created a lot!! I believe her total is 11 so far, and I encourage her to create as many as she wishes! My sister's response to seeing all of her journals was, "Well, shoot, by the time she gets done, we'll have to cover a ton more with fabric and paper LOL", and we both know that is fine because the more we get created, the bigger the difference we make is!! So let me just share her creativity with you, and then we have a few pictures of hats created. I'll let you all guess which is my favorite.... :)

What a fantastic job! Now I haven't taken any pictures of the back, or inside covers...but some of these have been decorated on the inside covers, back cover or even the spine. See, now isn't that cool? My sister and I tend to try to keep it simple because primarily it was us doing the majority, but Baby Girl has just gone above and beyond. I'm so eternally grateful for the blessing of having her as my daughter! <3

Now let's see if I can share a few shots of hats created since my last update. I seem to be stuck on the number of 3 hats per update, WTHeck?! :/  Sincerely trying to get better/faster at making these, but cannot find the energy after work anymore :( which leaves only the weekends for me to created hats....grrrrrrrrrr...yeah, this is a source of frustration for me! Now on to the first hat (will add links later today to the pictures I don't have links attached to)...a man's hat is what it should be, but it turned out rather small, so a lady could wear it also, and I like the natural colors of this hat.

Next up is another man's hat, and these blue's are just fantastic! There is a twist in the stitching, but because of the variegated color of yarn, you cannot really see the detail of it.

And the hat I just finished this morning is a ladies slouchy beret style hat. I tweaked the pattern here and there for my own liking (took out a few rows only), but I found the pattern over at Cat's Rockin' Crochet where she has some fabulous free patterns!! Added a couple of gold buttons instead of a flower for embellishment, and it is good to go!

If I hadn't already designated this beautiful creation for donation, I would probably even wear it myself when it cools off around here! :)

I've titled my post today "Everyone can be creative" because I believe everyone has creativity in them. You may think that you have no talent for this kind of thing, but we all have talent! I encourage you all to find your creativity and put it to use in some way. It may be making jewelry, creating greeting cards, home décor, decorating cupcakes, or any number of other things!! It is so satisfying to watch something come to "life" from your own hands and know that you created that. I must also throw this in here, it is even a greater feeling when you make a difference in someone's life by donating or even spreading kindness to someone else :)  I truly believe that kindness and love can make all the difference in someone's life no matter what battle they (or you) are fighting, we all fight harder and better with a little help from our family, friends and even complete strangers!

My housework is calling my name (I tend to ignore these chores when I'm focused on creating) today, so I must get busy on the chores.  Until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.......<3

Some routines are hard to find..

Good Morning all! It is bright and early here in Arizona, and humid as all get out this morning, the air is so thick I feel like I'm back in Florida without the convenience of a beach anywhere around LOL. I am STILL trying to get into a routine, wow it is hard to find when you aren't used to working until 5...by the time I get home, I'm so tired I have no energy to do anything but sit and enjoy my honey's company!! Trying hard to get into one, but it is really hard to find right now....my weekends have been so busy since the last part of May that I feel like I'm not getting much accomplished. I am positive this will change and soon (I hope!)

This past weekend was filled with covering journals with fabric and paper to get them ready for a Journey Journaling party, that I still haven't figured out when I'm going to have LOL. My sister was here for a good long 3 day visit, and we got a lot accomplished. My beautiful daughter helped cover the inside pages with paper, as she has been wanting to help and she also knew that my wrists couldn't take much of squeezing that glue bottle. We did use a spray adhesive on the outside for the fabric and it went way quicker than I expected!! We were able to cover 34 journals in fabric to add to the 10 I covered before I discovered this cool spray adhesive. So here is our stash so far...

I received a surprise thank you card in the mail from the Houston MD Anderson, and it is always cool to get little surprises in the mail like this, warms my heart and lets us know that we ARE making a difference, no matter how small!

Eventually I will take some time to make a scrapbook/album with pictures of the hats and journals that have been created and these little thank you cards. I try to make sure I document here in my blog all of the exciting things happening, but I'm sure I have probably missed something here or there :/.

I have created hats to share with you, but I feel like I'm not creating enough...again, that time thing and getting into a new routine is tough. I am determined to start getting more created and I WILL succeed in this, with God ALL things are possible, and my faith is great!! Here is a man's hat that I created, and my daughter says it reminds her of "Harry Potter" colors...or perfect for a Florida Seminole's fan... :)

Then I decided to create a couple of patriotic hats to celebrate 4th of July for the ladies...this first hat took a little longer than I expected but I LOVE how the stitch looks on it. I may have to make a couple of more in this stitch..

And the stars on this "country" colored patriotic beanie....even if they are sewn on a tad crooked LOL! I think it just increases the charm of this hat ;)

That's it for the hats right now, I have picked out my next hat that I'm going to make and will get it started as soon as I'm done updating in here. Oh (slap to the forehead), I almost forgot to post the cute hats my sister made on her loom, AND I believe I have forgotten to post a really generous donation of yarn by the beautiful MaryRose (whom I met through facebook and Robert Welch). A huge THANK YOU for that donation, I just sent half of the donation of yarn home with my sister so she could make more hats on her looms....We could not do this with out all of you helping with donations and supporting us on our journey, so with deepest gratitude we thank you from our heart and souls!!

My sister (who was here for a short visit), created this lovely ladies hat from her loom...I don't know how it is done, but I love the stitch on these hats.....

She also created a man's hat, and I really do like the little roll brim's on them...aren't they just the cutest?! :)

I will have to watch her one day while I'm visiting at her house to see how it's done and maybe purchase one of these looms for myself or my daughter...we shall see. Oh, speaking of my beautiful daughter, she created 4 beautiful Journey Journals for us (she has been wanting to help, and she did a marvelous job)!! I think they look fantastic, and she always says she isn't creative.....well....let me just say (And I am bias) she is and these are beautiful!!!

This one above was created on Sunday afternoon....and the ones below she created after I went to bed and was sleeping (she and her dad are awake at night, while I'm the morning person). What a way to start the day seeing these beauties lying on the table.... :)

She did write over in black what this purple journal says, I just haven't taken a better picture of it yet... "Motivation is what gets you started, Habit is what keeps you going~Jim Ryun".  I'm so excited that she is able to help make journey journals, even if she can't crochet a stitch LOL. The littlest things get me excited about our group and journey.

Ohhhhhhhhh (another forehead slap)....and let me share one last picture with you.... this is another beautiful soul that I have not met yet, but I am so very grateful to her and her friends for wanting to help and join our group...can not express my gratitude enough!!! <3 You all make this journey possible and for that I'm eternally grateful!!!!

How blessed I am, that each and every one of you has touched my life and an integral part of my life that makes this all possible. I thank God each and every day for my blessings and for my struggles. Last month was really rough and filled with far too much sadness for me personally, but I'm still grateful for that struggle and the lessons it has taught. One day soon, I will share a poem with you that my sister shared with me when I was struggling a few years ago and it still gets looked at and read, especially when I struggle....for it is....In the valleys where I grow..... <3  I don't have the full poem with me right now, but I will bring it home and type it up to share in my next update. See the beauty surrounding you, acknowledge it, be grateful for the love you have in your life (for even if you think you have none, you DO!!) and thank God for your many blessings and struggles...until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.....<3

A rough June

Good afternoon all! Hope this update finds everyone healthy and happy. :)  It has been a rough month to say the least, but thankfully it is almost over, and better days are ahead. June, especially Father's Day, has always been rough to get through for me and my sisters. This marks the 27th year of our Daddy's passing, so we always feel the pain of missing his physical presence a little bit sharper in June. My older sister feels it even sharper as she lost a dear friend on her birthday many years ago also. I guess the blade just wasn't sharp enough for me, so June decided to sharpen it's blade on me as well. In the early morning hours, about 12:30, our precious princess Coco (our littlest dog) was being the bravest little guard dog and barking at 3 dogs outside our back fence. She was tiny, but she was fierce and she wasn't the typical "ankle biting yapper" that most small dogs are, she only barked when there was something amiss. She was taken from our back yard and our lives forever by a vicious owl. :'( We were all heartbroken and devastated as she was such a sweet precious puppy, who blessed our lives for the 5 years we had her. It was a horrid way to spend Father's Day, and it is forever doubly marred for me. We will forever and always love and miss you Coco!!! <3 <3 <3 I vowed not to fill my blog with any sadness, however, I felt I owed you all an brief explanation for my long absence from updating my blog.

I am STILL trying to get into a new routine since my work hours have changed to 8-5. I still get up at the same time every morning, but seem to be going to bed an hour later LOL This does not do me any great favors, as I'm totally exhausted by the time Friday rolls around. Hopefully soon, I'll have a routine down and will have more updates of hats and journals for you. I do have 3 new hats to show off and I spent most of the day cutting fabric for Journey Journals. I now have a stack of 101 pieces of fabric cut and ready to cover journals. I still have 3 large pieces of material to cut yet, may do some more this evening just to get the fabric all cut and stacked and off my hubby's pool table ;) I'm sure he would appreciate that, God bless him, he is so patient with me and my craft stuff lying about all over the place! I know school sales will be starting soon, so I'm keeping that in mind because we can get composition notebooks a lot cheaper by the case when they are on sale.

So here is the first hat for you, I just simply LOVE how this one turned out....will have to add links later on as I don't have them on my desk top computer. A ladies lovely green summery hat. I found this pattern over at MNE Crafts where you will find lots of patterns!

A ladies pink breast cancer awareness sun hat is up next. I found this pattern over at Craftsy , they have free patterns and patterns for sale on that site.

And I finished up this man's camo surface braid hat this morning. This pattern was found over at The Laughing Willow.

I think they all turned out pretty great, and I'm anxious to get back to making more hats, so won't spend a lot more time on updating. I am still planning on having a Journey Journaling "get together", just haven't mapped out the "when" and the "where" of it yet. If anyone has any ideas on this, please feel free to contact me through my email or text me if you know me well enough to have my number ;)

I send my love and prayers to all with this posting, life is so very short, whether it be for us as humans, or for our pets (we love and treat them as our family because they are) as animals. Losing one of our family members is extremely painful and heartbreaking for those of us left to carry on, yes we know that they are waiting for us on the other side, but the loss of their physical presence will always be a pain that is felt sharply. Please love and treat each other and your pets with love, dignity and respect and always spread kindness wherever you go, you never know who's life you will touch or what battle they are fighting. Until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.....<3

The Believe Show radio interview and other happenings...

 

Good afternoon all, I hope this Saturday finds everyone in great health and spirits! :) A couple of Sunday's ago, I was privileged and honored to be on The Believe Show on KVSL and interviewed by the lovely Barbara Bruce! It was very exciting to share with people who were listening, what my passion is, and that of course is Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals. I am not as computer literate as I seem to think I am, so I am unable to share the interview in my blog. :( But if you would like to listen, please shoot me an email and I will send it through email to you if you'd like. :) I am so very grateful for that opportunity, and appreciate Rob Welch making that connection and helping spread the word for Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals. What an inspiring journey he is on, as well as, the lovely Barbara Bruce . I could never express my gratitude enough for all their help and all of the help God has blessed me with!

It has been a busy couple of weeks, just with "life" getting in the way of my crocheting ;) Seriously though, I did make a man's hat and I had a special request from my sister in MD to make a hat for her friend's niece who is going through her 2nd round of treatments. You can check out her face book page here Holding Hands for Haley , sending my prayers for a swift recovery for this precious little girl!  I will be making another hat for her maybe tomorrow morning and sending them both out next week. I was able to also complete another another man's hat this morning, and it was challenging to say the least, but I persevered and finished it! Let's just get to sharing the pictures of our latest creations, shall we?

First up is a man's sound wave beanie. I love how this turned out!! You can find the pattern over at The Crochet Zombie where I have found and used  several of her pattern's for the men's beanies. :)

Love when I can get free patterns that are quick and easy to work up, quicker to make, more I can get done to donate! Next is the hat I made as a special request from my sister in MD, it is a girl's big bow beanie. I combined a couple of patterns for this hat! I used the pattern for the big bow from Persia Lou and the hat pattern itself came from CroCreations .

And last, but not least at all is the hat I finished up this afternoon. A man's lattice stitch beanie, that was a challenge to begin with! When I bought this yarn, I thought that these colors would look really cool together, well that must have been the Floridian girl in me coming out because if you are a Miami Dolphin's fan or a Florida Gator fan, this hat would be perfect for you! :)  I started it early this morning, and then got to the "lattice" portion of the hat....yeah, I had to go work out my frustration by cleaning the kitchen because I just couldn't figure it out :( By the time I got that done and sat back down to work on it, I had figured it out in my head and it was a breeze to finish it up. I found this free pattern over at Rheatheylia.com .

That is all the photo's I have to share with you for this update, unless you want to see pictures of my Vegas vacation with my honey....LOL  I'm just kidding, you can always check those out on my facebook page, this is strictly for the hats and journals for Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals.

I want to get some more journey journals covered this weekend. My goal on these, are to cover as many as I can and then have a Journey Journaling party get together! Then we can have a fun party creating the fronts of the journals. What do you think? I've been working on this idea for a while now, just have to set it in motion...well it has been in motion, just S-L-O-W motion....LOL :D

I have many thoughts running through my brain this evening, so maybe I will just leave you with this.....

Sending you all my love and prayers, all who needs it, and all who think they don't need it, because we ALL need it!! Until my next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within......<3

I believe, do you?

Good Sunday Morning all! Sitting here drinking my coffee enjoying the quiet of a sleepy morning. Have not even been outside to greet the sun yet :) I am hoping to have a productive day today in getting a few things done, I have a bookmark waiting for me to put it together as a late birthday present, a man's hat that I still must make (I've been trying on this hat all week) and of course the never ending miscellaneous household chores.

The title's on these posts are kind of hard to come up with sometimes, but today's was pretty easy! I believe that kindness could change the world, I believe that true love is never ending, I believe that positive thinking changes everything, I believe that we are here to learn how to love one another, I believe in the power of prayer, I believe in miracles, I believe in angels and I believe that with God ALL things are possible! I feel that everything happens for a reason and if my decisions are good then the outcome will be beautiful. A long time ago, I used to be such a negative person, I would worry all the time about things I had no control over, I could never see the light at the end of the tunnel and if I did, it was usually an oncoming train! LOL  I have learned that it is not healthy to be that way and that negative energy only draws more of the same! I am a much happier and positive person today and I am constantly striving to be even more so! I accept my flaws, after all I am human and I still fall down and need some help getting back up, but I don't let my flaws rule my life and the way I think anymore! I believe everyone of us can become a better person than we are right this minute, all it takes is a little positive thinking and a whole lot of prayer and faith! I believe, do you?

Speaking of believing......I'm super excited to tell you that today I am going to be interviewed live on a radio station!! How AWESOME and EXCITING is that?! :) I am hoping to spread the word about this beautiful group and what we do, and with faith and the power of prayer, I will get some help crocheting these beautiful hats!! I will be on at 4:30,. and you can actually check it out live on the internet at KVSL Radio Station Show Low , just click the link and then click the Listen Live button! They also have a phone app you can download if you'd like to listen and you won't be near your computer! :) Isn't this EXCITING!!!!!!! :D A GIGANTIC thank you going out to Robert Welch for all his help in making this happen! I am blessed to know you, and thank you for all you do and share! You are a blessing to this world!

I am always busy making hats, sometimes it takes a while to finish one up due to ripping it out a couple of times, and I do have 3 new hats to share with you today! First I'd like to share a surprise donation that I received last week in the mail. It is so nice to come home to a little surprise in the mail for Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals, it's like Christmas in the middle of the year!! A HUGE thank you going out to Belinda Cook for her donation of yarn and buttons for more hats!! I couldn't do this without each and every one of you helping by donating, supporting and encouraging me!

 

 

Okay on to the creations for the last two weeks, I'm so sorry there aren't more, but trying to make it more the best I can! First up is a man's camo hat. Yes, it truly is camo, just not the typical camo that we think of LOL I think I made this pattern up out of my own head because I really like the stitch.  

 





Then I decided to try my hand at this beautiful bow beanie for a lady. I love the minty green color of yarn, or sea foam green....baby green maybe....I do love how this turned out. I found this pattern over at Bob Wilson 123. Lot's of great patterns there!

And then I went to a "go to" pattern for a ladies scarf hat because I was so frustrated after ripping out my man's hat twice. So here is a ladies hot pink scarf hat. You can find this pattern over at Ravelry , they have a lot of free patterns!

I went to Hobby Lobby for the hot pink yarn, and I was such a good girl walking out with only one skein of yarn! They have the SOFTEST yarn there and I think this will be my yarn shopping stop from now on. I have always thought that Michael's was a little better priced (they are a little less expensive), but Hobby Lobby had such a great selection of colors and the softness of the yarn they carry is just fabulous! I couldn't stop touching the yarn, ha ha ha!

I must bid you all adieu, so I can get busy with everything I need to do today, time is marching on without me! Remember to spread kindness where ever your travels take you and smile, you never know who's life you will change with just those two simple acts. Until my next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.......<3

Frequent updates sometimes escape me!

Good evening all and welcome if this is your first time visiting :)  I haven't updated in a few weeks, but I have been busily crocheting away, this I promise! ;) I really do apologize for the infrequent updates, I get so busy sometimes just trying to keep up with myself and my own brain that my thoughts sometimes just fly out of my head almost as soon as they fly in! LOL

I have a few thoughts and feelings in my mind and heart that I wish to share. I am missing family this evening, family that lives in Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Spain...well all over really, even here in Arizona. With that being said, I must also state that just because I don't correspond or talk to or have someone on my Facebook page as a friend, does not mean that I don't still care and miss that person or persons, because I do. We all at some point in our lives have to take steps to protect ourselves and remove unnecessary drama from our lives so that we may continue to move forward on our own journey. They have their own journey also, and maybe at some point in time, their journey and your own journey may coincide again, but until that time keep them in your heart and prayers for safe travels and send your love and positivity to them. <3 We were never promised that life would be easy, just that it would be worth it! I send my love and prayers to ALL my family and friends, near and far...you are loved and missed greatly! <3 

And now, my mind is drawing a complete blank LOL Well let me show you some recent creations and maybe my thoughts will do another "fly by" and I can catch them!! :D While my sister was visiting, I found a beautiful country patriotic red, white and blue variegated yarn and I decided to make a man's hat out of it. Now you can't really see the detail in the band, but it is kind of ribbed, and please forgive me this evening, but no links to patterns right now. I may have to come back and edit this later to add them. So, first up an adult's patriotic colored beanie. This pattern was found over at Red Heart.

Next up is a hat inspired by my sister, Lulu because she loves to wear black, but she also loves hot pink too! A ladies hat that I call Lulu's Inspiration. The pattern for this hat can be found over at Crochet Me and I have used this pattern before, a great go to pattern!

Then I made a man's golf hat, but was really unhappy with how large this hat turned out, but hopefully it will fit someone's head!! ;) I found this pattern over at Bob Wilson 123.

Lastly, I have a "pinspiration" for you, I looked at a picture I have pinned on the Pinterest website and decided I could do this very easily (besides they wanted me to order the pattern or the hat itself). So here is a ladies side tie beanie that was made without a pattern.

I am currently making a man's beanie the same way. I pinned a picture of a hat that I really thought was pretty cool, but the pattern would have to be ordered from London, so I think I have it under control without it! ;)  And this hat is awaiting me to return to it this evening, and hopefully NOT have to take two row's out because of a mistake made two rows down LOL

I leave you with these thoughts this evening. Stay tuned for other exciting happenings in our beautiful group! Until my next update....May the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within! <3