Wicked Blog Hop! My Day!

                                                 
Hello! Thank you for joining me today on the Wicked blog hop! Some of you know that my husband and I lost our house to fire on October 9, so the pictures I'm going to show are not great. I had them on my phone and they were taken before the projects were complete, but at least you can see what I would have shown! I did finish them, but lost them in the fire.

First of all, I live in south Texas, where many of my friends with a Mexican heritage celebrate Dia De Las Muertas or Day of the Dead. They have explained to me that this is NOT a zombie type thing for them, but simply a memorial for friends who have passed on. It is celebrated from October 31 through November 2. Some of the decorations are a little macabre to some of us, but are not intended to be spooky or creepy. Candies called sugar skulls are part of the celebration, as well as other skeleton figures posed in common positions they might have had in life. Flowers and pretty colors also play a part.

My first project is a doll. She is intended to be a skeleton doll wearing a pretty floral dress and a flower bedecked hat. I was in the process of making her some shoes and underwear, but they are not on her in this early photo.

                                                                                              My second project was a wall hanging depicting two "ladies" enjoying a sweet feast! 
                                                                          
The speech bubble says, "Finally I can eat whatever I want and I don't gain a pound!" This was a fairly large wall hanging and I had finished quilting and binding it, but not in this photo. I quilted in many details that are not in this picture.

Thank you to our sweet hostesses, Madame Samm and Wendy! Be sure you visit our other blogs on the hop today!

Grammie Q's

Stitchin By The Lake

Quilted Delights

Buzzing and Bumbling

Vroomans Quilts

Life in the Scrapatch

The Quilted Cat

Meadowbrook

Patchouli Moon Studio

The Nosy Pepper

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Sugarplum and her little friend send their wishes for a happy hop! (Can you tell she's chewing on the skeleton foot!? I had some cute props! I wonder if they gave the firemen a scare! If so, I'm so sorry, but what a story those firemen would have to tell!)

P.S. - Sugarplum is happy as can be in our temporary apartment! It happens to be over my parent's garage area and is connected to their house. Sugarplum thinks she rules the entire house now and even goes downstairs to make sure my parents are awake when we are! She stands on a trunk at the foot of their bed and makes mewing noises to tell them to get up! We are all doing fine and are getting lots of love from our family and friends here! My love to all of you who have sent prayers and well wishes our way! I can feel your hugs from here!

                                     

                                

A Real Set Back, But NOT a Tragedy!

I haven't been able to access my blog for a week now, but I have an excuse. Our house burned to the ground last Tuesday night. Here is a pitiful photo from my phone. This is from the garage side looking in to the house. The shell of a car was my husband's fairly new car. I'm told that coming back from a fire is a long process, so I'm hoping that blogging a little about it will help me.

                                                     

The fire started in the garage and quickly spread to the attic in the house. Our garage, although detached, was connected to the house with a breezeway and roof. We were told that our attic was on fire before we even knew there was a problem. We saw our lights flickering and looked out the window to see the garage on fire! We grabbed the cat, my purse, and the hard drive and ran out barefooted.  Poor little Sugarplum, the very talented cat you've seen in previous posts, was in such a panic she fought me really hard to get out of my arms, but I managed to hold on to her.
Our house was a total loss. Since we live out in the country, the volunteer fire department couldn't get there in time to save it despite their heroic efforts. Fire departments from four surrounding counties came. There just wasn't enough water to control the flames.
I stood among MANY friends and family who showed up to support us. Our sweet neighbors brought us shoes to put on and water to drink. It is very surreal to stand and watch your house burn. I shook uncontrollably for several hours despite the heat. I kept thinking, "This is not the kind of thing that happens to ME!"
Thank goodness, God took care of us and we escaped unharmed. We are so blessed to have family nearby. My parents have a little apartment above part of their house and we are very comfortable here until we can rebuild or find a house. We are keeping this in perspective, too. This is NOT a tragic loss. Losing a child or a spouse would fall into that category. We will come back from this and be just fine. We have each other as well as family. We don't need anything except patience and a clear mind to deal with the aftermath. Insurance will eventually replace most of what we needed. We're sad, but not grieving the loss of material possessions.
I am not writing this to gain your sympathy. Many of you out there are suffering losses much greater than this and I DO realize that! I'm so thankful for all my blessings!
I will participate in the Wicked blog hop started next week. My projects are gone, but I had a couple of photos during the process that I had taken with my phone to show my sister what I was doing. I will show those. You won't see them in their finished state, but close enough that you can use your imagination!
Thank you so much for being here, reading this, and coming back in the future. I will get back on track. My camera will be replaced as well as my computer. (I am borrowing one now.) In the meantime, blessings to you!!!