Great Product So Far

YIKES!!!! Has it really been four long months since I posted anything! And I ran into an old friend at the store just before Christmas who told me that she still faithfully reads my blog. Well, that's not good. I must be the world's worse blogger! I hate to keep checking into blogs and finding nothing new, so I wouldn't even keep up with myself as a reader. Does that make sense, well anyway, here is something worth talking about.

First of all, Happy New Year and yes there will be more to read here in the coming few weeks. I did attend a couple of workshops back in October, but have been waiting until after my presentation to my quilt guild before posting any pictures here. The presentation is this Wednesay and after that, there will be pictures!

In the mean time, I've got to tell you about my new Christmas Present from my daughter. I specially requested this soap dispenser and finally got it all set up this morning. It's hands free so no messy or germy hands need to be touching it.

It can be found at http://www.simplehuman.com/ and can be found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond which usually has the 20% off coupons.


Two reasons why I wanted this soap dispenser. First of all, it takes regular liquid soap which is cheaper than the cartridges that you must buy for the Lysol hands free soap dispensers I already had. NOTE: Since originally posting this, I can not find the dispenser with the changeable volume control so I have to downgrade my recommendation until I'm able to locate that model. And second and most of all, the volume of soap that is dispensed can be changed! The volume can be turned down to only allow a little to come out at a time. (My son thought we were talking about the sound it makes when dispensing the soap, too funny, it's not really too loud to begin with!) Anyway if you have small children or grandchildren and want to teach them to wash their hands often then you really should get one of these. I've got it filled with liquid soap (which I mixed with a little water with to let it come out easier) and the volume is turned down to a very low amount. Adults who may want more can simply put their hands under it more than once, but for toddlers or elementary school kids with little hands it's just right! Now tomorrow it will be kid tested and we'll see how well it actually does, but so far I'm very happy!

Still Creating

Hello Everyone and no I haven't forgotten the blog, it's just been a very busy summer! My husband loves Barbeque and BBQ contest. (I'll link to earlier post about this later when I figure out how) and we are very involved in the contest for KCBS a Barbeque organization that runs contest. We've been to New Jersey twice and Maryland twice as well as Chicago earlier in the year. All of that was flying and on a very tight and sometimes delayed schedule. Now we're back to working the North and South Carolina areas so hopefully it won't be quite so bad. Anyway back in the spring I took a workshop with my local quilt guild with Susan Sorrell and it was fantastic! That was class in person with lots of great friends. It's hand embroidery and sewing and brings me back to my roots as far as fiber art is concerned. I first learned to sew by doing it all by hand at my grandmother's lap. I think of her often as I stitch now. It's also what I did alot while in High School during the '70's. It was the fiber art of the time. Now I'm able to use these skills again to create a little art. I'm working on one piece that I carry with me to these BBQ contest and work on in my spare time. I've also taking an online class from this same instructor and it's on making little felt pins. Very quick and satisfying gratification. So if you'd like to work on these yourself check out Susan Sorrell's site at Creative Chick Studios She's a very sweet and supportive instructor and an awesome artist! Did I mention this is an online class? Love online classes!

Here are some of my pins as they progress: (Please excuse the photography skills, it's late and I was just trying to hurry up and get something posted for the online class.)

Now I'm going to add beads and things. We'll see how that goes from here. Hopefully since they're small they may actually get finished!

She Did It!

Our daughter, Elise McClure, just finished her Master of Arts in Educational Media from Appalachian State Unv. in Boone, NC and we celebrated! This is a degree that focuses on using technology in the classroom and Elise is certainly doing that! This was a great area for her to study! It's been a long couple of years, wrestling with technology that sometimes decides not to cooperate at the very second it's needed and meeting countless academic deadlines, but it's finished and she's done! Yay! She teaches Kindergarten and now with all of these added technology skills these kids will really be starting off to a great future!

Here are a few picture highlights from our week-end of celebration!

Graduates receiving a Masters Degree don't flip a tassel, instead they get "hooded." Here she is getting ready to receive her hood.
This is one happy graduate! We're so thankful the College of Education hood color was a nice blue color! Some were, brown, dull green, tan, pink, etc. (She would have liked the pink, but not the music degree required to get that color.)
The back of the hood shows the school colors of Gold and Black.
My husband and I are so happy and very proud of her! While thankfully we didn't have a monetary investment this time around, we did support her all the way!
And the rest of her cheering squad at the Graduation Ceremony, Elise's husband, Josh and Morgan Shupe. Morgan was a member of Elise's very first Kindergarten class and they have grown very close over the last 6 years. We all had a great time and certainly lots of fun marking this milestone in our daughter's life!