March Craft Swap & Special Gifts

Good Evening, I hope this finds you doing well today. I am so happy to be sharing with you this wonderful craft I made for the March craft swap. I sent it out weeks ago but forgot to take a picture. I wanted to do something special for the ladies staying with the Story’s and I thought this would be perfect. Don’t you just love this?????

                       

                  This is what it looks like in the frame!

                            

         

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did making it! Blessings, Lori

Smocking for love…

I am smocking for one special baby that should be born in the next month. One of the young ladies that works with us who is also my daughters life long best friend and my other child is going to have a baby in late April and I told her I would smock something for the baby to come home in. We know that the baby is a “He” and his name is Harlin. I am going to make a bubble outfit. This is how much I have done.                                                             I have a few ducks to add along with some buttons. I think it’s going to be beautiful. The last smocked item I made was a gown for the birth of my 4th grandchild. We didn’t know the sex until Graham was born. We had a family gown that I made 12 years ago but had a little accident with it. I’ll have to share that another time. I worked on this today while I took the day shift with the Story’s. We are still needing help for the weekends. Hopefully we will be set by next weekend. God has been so awesome providing the help he has. Mrs. Story has been lots better the last two days. Thank you, Lord. Hope you have a wonderful week. I have lots to share this week. I hope to have the time.

Blessings, Lori

24 Hours in a Day

This evening I'm still at work while the embroidery machine is still running a job that has over 54000 stitches, and I'm tired. I got here at 6:30AM and been on the run since.
These last few days have been really stressful. Hospice is in place for Mrs. Story and we have secured at home care during the day. We spoke with the nurse today and she suggested that we begin to find round the clock care. That is 24 hours!!!!!! It is hard to find someone that wants to work for 8 hours let alone 24. It's just almost more than my mind can get around! I hate managing people, in fact I'm horrible at it. God just didn't give me that gift. I can but I stink at it. I just want everyone to do their job. I have two employees at the store and now it looks like I'm gonna have at least 5 more!!!!!
The lady we have for the day is AWESOME!!!!!!! She does a great job and I don't have to worry about anything while she is there.
I am so THANKFUL!!! There is always a beautiful flower in the garden you just have to look for it.
As you can see I'm really tired and rambling.
Hope to share soon.
Because He first loved me,
Lori

Life Touch Hospice

Heading down to the Story's to get Hospice set up. Mrs. Story is not feeling well today, her breathing is labored, more than usual. I am hoping to get her some antiobatic for the lung infection that I know she has. No I'm not a doctor or nurse but I have taken care of her and my parents long enough to know when they need something medical. Guess I should have been a nurse.
Blessings, Lori
P. S. While I'm waiting I will be smocking something special. Can't wait to finish it and show you.

Sharing My Heart

Today I just want to share what is really on my heart. We are in the process of making decisions concerning my in-laws. They are precious Christians who love the Lord but need lots of help. They have needed help for several years but the their sons (my husband & his brother) just couldn’t bring themselves to make them do it. Here is a little background. Mrs. Story (AKA Nanny) is 88 years old, she has COPD (never smoked a day in her life) and RA. She can do very little for herself and it’s been that way for years. Mr. Story (AKA Papaw) is 87 and has Alzheimer's or Dementia. I think there both the same. He can remember a few things but not much. For the last 15 years he has been the hands & feet in the relationship and she has been the brains. He can no longer remember the things he needs to do for her and she is unable to make him understand what to do. She has lost over 10lbs in the last 3 months. Most of us would say that would be Great, however that bring her weight to 68lbs. She is all skin & bones. I tried for a couple of years to get them to agree to some help. No way was that happening. My husband has the most tender heart and doesn’t want to hurt their feelings or make them mad. His brother is unengaged and not ready to deal with the fact they are old and can’t care for themselves any longer. Lynn goes to their house in the morning during the day and in the evening. Over the last few weeks they have called at night for him to come over for something. He is completely worn out!!! This evening we had a family meeting with Lynn’s parents & his brother. They decided to have hospice come and we would see about the other help. Mrs. Story is just unwilling to help us help her. I plan to move forward in getting help for them full time. Thank you for allowing me to vent! Please pray for us as we make these necessary changes.                                                                              Blessings, Lori                                         

Craft Swap

These are the thing I received from my March Craft Swap!!! I think they are precious but I LOVE the necklace! Many of you know that may birthday is in February so I love anything hearts!!! I've already sent my March swap and can't wait to see what I will receive.
Happy St Patrick's Day, Lori

The Unpinchables

I wanted to share the St. Patrick's day tees/onesie that I made for the grands. I think they are just precious. They are made with white vinyl and on sweet Bliss' I added some green swarovski crystals with e6000. My special friend Tena made a hair bow and I added a few crystals to it. Let me know what you think!!!!                                                             Blessings, Lori

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cricut Gifts

Happy Sunday, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. I am inside for what I hope to be my last Sunday. Started some new medicane today and I'm actually not coughing as much.
I wanted to share one of my newest crafts for the craft swap I'm participating in over at The Great Create. I didn't get my February craft out until last week because I was sick so she got a March and April craft. I hope she liked it as much as I did making them, one for her and one for me. I got this idea from one of the wonderful blogs I follow just can't remember who. I will find out and post it.
For the clovers I used the Cricut Doodlecharm cartridge and cut out 3 hearts on 3/4" of 4 different papers for each picture. The stems were made by hand just cutting out what I thought one should look like. I placed them and attached them using Creative Memories Tape Runner. I've used Creative Memories since I began Scrapbooking over 7 years ago thanks to Gail Wood. I love her so much!!!! I use foam behind the butterfly to help it stand out. It was placed in a frame that is like a shadow box which makes it look 3D. I just love these.

Now on to the part that's my favorite. I turned the paper over and began to make something for April. Here is the final pictures. I used the Doodlecharm cartridge for the basket and the eggs. The bunny and tag were from the Stretch Your Imagation cartridge.  I hope you enjoyed seeing my Cricut Craft Project! You can email me at itsybitsystitches@gmail.com if you have any questions or would like additional information about these.

Many Blessings to you, Lori

Look what I won!!!

Hello I have been away from my blog a couple of weeks while I've been sick but hopefully I'm back for good. I have so much to share with you but I wanted to do this first. Recently I have won a couple of give-aways and I was soooo excited! I love winning and surprises!!!!! This is what I received from Natalie over at NatSprat. . She has an
awesome blog with lots of tutorials, crafts and much more to share. Head over there see what she is sharing today. When I opened the envelope this is what I found. It was wrapped so beautifully and a felt hair clip was attached to make me feel special. This precious cupcake pin cushion was all snuggled up waiting on me. I can't wait to use it. It is going to be so cute in my sewing/craft room. Thank you Natalie for the wonderful give-away. I LOVE IT!!!!

I never ever win anything. I guess I can't say that anymore. Can't wait to share with you my next win, will do that when I receive it. Thank you again Natalie!

Blessings to you all,

Lori