Parties and Craft Fairs and more....

these cuties were given to all members knitted ornaments

in front of the tree

 Good Morning Bloggers...it is December and the busiest time of the year for me! I had a loooooong weekend with back to back gatherings and parties with friends and clubs....what fun....Thursday was my "Stitch n; Chicks" party, and although it was a smaller group this year, due to illness and such, we still had our usual terrific evening! Patricia won the door prize Angel, Debb [me] won the "Christmas" colors contest. We exchanged gifts and of course sang our Christmas song[with changed wording to match our group] and ate a yummy meal!!!

me in front of the tree

some gifts

my gift all handmade

 Next Friday was my Red Hats party with the Social Butterflies.... :) It was at the Vice Queen's house and she put on a fabulous affair...we entered to her player piano playing Christmas songs, all indulged in song yummy food and then drew tickets to choose our gifts that were under the tree, I got a beautiful cashmere scarf and gold pin, then the VQ continued to serenade us with Christmas songs that we all joined in on singing...a fantastic evening...I even won the cutest toy soldier ornament as one of the door prizes....thank you ....

my gift at the Red hat party, mmm cashmere

the food

Saturday a few of my stitching gals and I went off to our usual Christmas craft fair in Norco....it is always a favorite as they make and sell the best Gingerbread cookies ever....mmmmmm just smelling them makes your mouth water.... and my BFF stopped by to join us for lunch. :)

this little piggy is a regular at the craft fair

this man and son direct the traffic at the fair 

getting ready to go the wind was up

me in one of the buildings

I got this from a member of my
stitch group  as a goodie bag,
the lights blink I love it 

 Sunday DH and I went to our car club's party...it was a dress up affair and they had rented the whole restaurant...wow....it was an Italian restaurant....yummy!!!! There was a lot of chatting and munching on scrumptious hors d' oeuvres and they had an excellent band where DH and I got to put on our dancing shoes and swirl around the floor several times.... ate a grand dinner and played a fun Bingo game....

DH and I 

All and all it was a wonderful weekend, and now I need to send out my cards....and SHOP!!!!

Hello I went to the gym today and instead of being bored while on the treadmill I listed to an audio book...it is a great way to pass the time...check out some options as I wrote an article about it

And while hopping around the blogs I visit I found this fantastic way to add some new fashion to my summer wardrobe and all I need is one of DH shirts.. :) so easy to do...just snip and sew and then a new top is born!!! Smashworks has a great tutorial on it.

Ok who would of thought??? A Hexnut Bracelet??? There are 3 versions here. The one above by sliding the hex nuts onto the fabric and just tying it to close around your wrist, or one with twine and braiding or one crochet!
Over at C.R.A.F.T. blog she made one with rope and braiding and hex nuts. I am changing it to Chain stitching instead with my colored twine I got at ACE Hardware Store. You can choose either way:

You will need:

• colored twine or rope
• hex nuts [again at the hardware store]
• some type of pliers to hold the twine with

• or a size H crochet hook if you are crocheting it

First I will show you the tutorial that
C.R.A.F.T. s blog did ....then I will step you through my version.

The twine ball will be your clasp... don't be scared to add another string if you don't like the shape of your yarn ball!

You can use the vice grips to weight the string down...

This part can be frustrating....the braid will want to flip around a little and this will mess up your flow! All you are doing is a simple braid adding a hex nut after each strand is crossed...use your fingers to manipulate the hex nuts!

Make a braid long enough to wrap around your wrist 3 times...

Make sure loop is a good size for your twine ball to fit through... not too small, not too big...just right, you know like Little Red Riding Hood :)

You can make silver or mixed silver and gold...or all gold?  Which one do you like best?

Now if you are crocheting  you will need:

1. Crochet Thread # 3
2. a button
3. Crochet hook H

Crochet a 3 strands of Crochet Thread #3,or nylon thread any color you want, knot it and then add the washers in the same manner with a braid, then knot it and crochet a chain st the rainder, then finish off. make a loop the size of your button and secure it with several stitchs wrapped around both thicknesses. weave in ends. Sew your button on the other end.

Craft Fair Saturday

I did a craft fair Saturday, it was fun...I had a ton of people looking and ooggling over my items....I sold a few, not as well as I would have liked but I had fun...

What a Great Holiday!!!

I had a wonderful holiday and went up to our cabin in Big Bear for 5 days!!!! :) I played the "tourist" and took some surrounding photos... :)  One of my favorite colors is PINK...so I couldn't resist taking a pic of this PINK Corvette driving down BB Blvd...even my tulips were blooming. It was a beautiful weekend with tons of sunshine, fresh air, and lots of birds tweeting...I even went to the Elks Lodge craft fair and was able to get some beautiful glass beads.... :)

 

Taking the Train South

My friends and I took the train last weekend to San Juan Capistrano and went to their monthly craft fair they have the 2nd Sat of each month...that was fun and the 1st time I had ridden the train ...it was a treat and cheap...the ride was smooth and very comfortable... :)

I was amazed how fast they travel and how short of a time they stop....1 minute and they are off again...

We walked around a lot and saw a lot of vendors. I did get to talk a few and they seemed to like doing it there. One booth had a gal that made the cutest caps.. :) with mohawks...going to have to try and make one of those. And then there was another booth that had the pretiest felted bags....I loved them!!!

Another booth had uniques Celtic necklaces and I had to but one..mine is the Celtic Knot in tourqouis... :)

This tree had the strangest looking trunk and it was huge. It was down in the Historic district in front of one of the old homes. this other is of one of the old time buildings that they convert into shops...

Under the tarp was a 2 piece group playing some "coffee shop" blues. They were fun to listen to.. :)

The "Men Wanted" sign was one we passed by while looking through the antique malls ...I thought it was cute.... :)

This was the Mission, really huge...can you see the bells? They are in between the 3 openings, you may have to click on the photo to see it better...