Emskyrooney

Around here, we like to make holidays and special events last as long as possible.  Which means that LP's birthday tends to blur right into Christmas.... It makes for a whole 6 weeks of fesitivities! Two weeks ago my parents came up to celebrate an early Christmas with us since we couldn't be together for the actual event.   There were piles of presents: A cute little boy: A doting Nana and Pappy: And some wanderings around downtown Plymouth the following day: (Plymouth shots were taken with my new 50mm lens that my parents gave me for Christmas- love it!!!)   The following weekend we celebrated early Christmas with Paul's parents as they were heading to Las Vegas to be with Paul's brothers for Christmas day... Once again, there were presents... A dapper little boy (thanks to GG and Aunt Cindi for the adorable outfit!) And a doting Grammy and Papa:   Tonight and tomorrow, for the first time ever, it's just the three of us for the holidays (well, 5 if you count the d...

Since all of these gifts have been given already (with the exception of the ones for Paul and LP who don't read my blog) I thought I'd share some of the homemade gifts I gave this year. My local girls got little ruffly clutches: And their families got jars of gingerbread caramels and heart ornaments made by LP (the ornaments, not the caramels!):   My mom was in the market for a new apron and I happened to have the perfect fabric in my stash so made her this one: Along with some coordinating hot pads:   After Christmas we're heading to Vegas to visit family so LP got a felt play set to entertain him (hopefully!) on the long plane ride: I printed pictures of all of the Lion King characters on the computer and then laminated them.  Glued the scratchy part of some velcro to the back and the stick right to the felt.  The whole thing rolls up.   Whenever we travel Paul throws his hairy razor into my toiletry bag so I decided it was time for him to have his own. I foun...

Every year I like to do a little holiday sewing for us to enjoy around the house (beyond my usual list of gifts to make for people).   This year I found this adorable vintage looking Santa fabric with lines and pictures from "Twas the Night Before Christmas" that I decided to use to make a throw for the couch.  You can see it in this picture of LP enjoying some iPad time one night...   I wasn't too thrilled with the Christmas pillows I made last year as they were pretty boring so I decided to do some quilted ones this year.  And while I followed some misleading directions on how to make snowball quilt squares, causing some wonkiness, I think they turned out pretty cute:   Last year I mentioned that when I was a baby my mother handmade a Bucilla embroidered Christmas stocking for me.  I decided to stick with the tradition and finished up LP's last year.  And this year, finally, I finished the one for Paul that I started back when we were engaged.  ...

Growing up I had a plan of how my life would go.  I’d go to college, move to a big city for a few years, then meet the man of my dreams on a blind date (set up by friends, of course), get married, move back to my hometown, and have three children before I reached my 35 th birthday.   My husband would go to work and I’d be fortunate enough to stay home and raise our perfect children.  Actually- my plans sound a lot like the path my mother’s life took (especially those perfect children!) – although she probably had something completely different in mind while growing up.   Of course, as everyone except idealistic teenagers knows, life rarely goes the way you’ve expected.  Plans change, dreams change, people change.  I changed.  I ended up moving farther from home than I ever thought I would – 5 hours by car.  It might not seem far to some of you but I grew up in the town my father’s family has lived in...

2011-Christmas-List-Web , a photo by emskyrooney on Flickr. Just finished up my first scrapbook page in a few months! Wanted to get LP's Christmas List written down (although this is just a small sampling of his list- he literally wants every single thing that Andy from Toy Story has, including a little sister with 2 legs and a body!)

This week at I ♥ Faces   the theme is "Furry Faces." We have two furry faces in our house (not counting BP of course with his goatee!) and I had a hard time narrowing it down.... I've always loved this photo of Socks though- she's so adoring and protective of her family and I think the look in her eyes really captures that part of her personality... Be sure to go to I ♥ Faces to check out the other entries!

I'm fortunate that I have many friends who I can count on in any situation.  There are the friends from my hometown, who even though I haven't actually hung out with them in person in many many years they know the me that I was in 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th grade.  And I know that if I'm visitng my parents I could call them up and we could get together and reminisce about working at Clover together or riding our bikes to the "old Laneco" or working on the canal boat together or driving around town late at night and hanging out at Taco Bell.. It's been years (decades, even) but we could still enjoy spending time with each other. Then there are my high school friends. I went to a boarding school and so my high school friends are scattered about the world a bit, some as far as Africa.  But if I post on Facebook about something that happened way back when, or looking for advice about something happening currently, one of them is likely to respond.  And al...