Hi guys,

I've been on a bit of a craftster hiatus for a while but now I'm back and I need your help!  I am having brain surgery in March and I will have to shave my entire head for the surgery.  I am still very overwhelmed about needing the surgery and everything and I keep going back and forth between wanting a wig and not.  Wigs are expensive!  They look difficult and itchy!  I found an awesome seller on ebay who makes some beautiful head wraps for chemo patients and I will be ordering a few from her.  I'm wondering if anybody has ever made any of these hat/head wrap type things or has ever seen a pattern or has any tips on making them.  I am a VERY BEGINNER sewer but my mom is very good and she has offered to make me a few.  I'd like some different ones for wearing to work/sleep/grocery shopping/etc.  I've loved my long hair for so long and it might sound superficial but I've grown quite attached to it and I don't think I will look very cute with a bald head.  I don't crochet or knit so that's out of the question. 

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much in advance 

As a native New Englander transplanted in the Dallas, TX area I deeply miss my old lilac bushes.  After doing some research online, I was very sad to learn that most lilacs need a cold summer and acidic dirt to grow in and they might grow but will not bloom in warmer climates. 

THEN I found the Miss Kim Lilacs online which is supposed to do well in the southern states where other lilacs have difficulty.  They are supposed to be able to grow in zones 3-8 (I'm zone 8 ).  On an impulse, I bought 3 2-gallon plants online. 

But now I'm worried if I'll have trouble growing these.  I am by NO means an experienced gardener, I only have a sad little flower patch in my backyard with sunflowers and misc other wildflowers and such.  Has anybody has this type of lilacs?  Am I doomed to not having these beautiful fragrant flowers in the south?   

I have been collecting fabrics to start making a quilt and would like to start very soon.  I haven't done ANY quilting since middle school (gosh, 10 years ago!).  I didn't start sewing again until recently when my guy got me a new machine, so I am very much still learning.

I remember when I was in middle school and we were making quilts that our teacher gave us all these magnets to put on our machine to use as a guide.  Feed the fabric through, and you get the same size seam and a straight line every time if you run it along the side of the magnet.  I am wondering if this is a trick my teacher used or if they actually sell things like this and other people use them?  I remember the magnets were rectangular and stood up maybe a 1/2 inch.  I've tried to use refridgerator magnets with no luck.

Does anybody use anything like this?  Any suggestions?  Or should I just learn to sew straight 

I did this as my first embroidery project. I've done cross stitching before but I learned a lot on this!  It's Sublime Stitching Darling Dachshund pattern.  I can't do french knots so I used beads instead.  The lunch bag is from The Container Store if anyone is wondering




The transfer went a little wonky on this bit, it kindof moved under the iron.  Oh well 



What do you think?  Comments and criticism appreciated.  Thanks for looking!

My fiances mother sent me this recipe of her grandmothers to try.  My guy has been dying for me to make this for over a year, so finally I did.  It was so good I wanted to share it with all of you:

Apple Dutch Cake
Grandmother McCabe's recipe

-1 1/2 sticks softened butter
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-3 eggs
-3 cups flour
-3 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-3/4 cup whole milk
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 bag (3lbs) apples

mix above ingredients (except apples) until smooth
pour 1/2 of the batter into a 14x9x2 greased pan
cover with a layer of thin sliced apples using 1/2 of the apples
sprinkle the apples with sugar&cinnamon
pour the other 1/2 of the batter over the layer of sliced apples
spread it out as evenly as you can
slice the remaining apples thinly over the batter
sprinkle the top with sugar&cinnamon
bake at 350 uncovered 50-60 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean
ENJOY!!!!

a tip for you: when pouring the batter in bottom of pan try to have a little bit more than 1/2 left for the top because it will be hard to spread cleanly over the apples!

When I was making it I used a 13x9 pan instead of 14x9 and it seemed like there were too many apples and not enough batter BUT it came out really good.








An action shot had to be taken of my fiance enjoying it for his mom 

I would like to share with you this hat my mom made. She made a Victorian hat a couple of years ago for my Nana.  Every year she goes to a Victorian tea at her church and they all get dressed up.  My mom bought this hat as a vintage piece at an estate sale originally - but it was disgusting when she brought it home.  I don't have a before pic but trust me it was BAD.  Originally only going to replace the lace, but when she started to pick it apart she found all kinds of bugs so she completely re-did it.  She pretty much rocks.  She replaced the fabric added new lace, flowers, feathers, and beads.






Not a great picture but here is Nan and I after her lunch

Well my fiance and I bought our house back in September and our yard is pretty bare.  We have some type of flower tree out front, and some bushes, and out back we have a very small tree, and that's it.  I was working on digging up a patch of grass to make a small flower garden, and I discovered this little lovely budding!  Any ideas of what it is?  Sorry if it is obvious, I am VERY oblivious to this type of thing!  I didn't even realize one of the bushes in our back yard was actually ROSEMARY until a house guest pointed it out!  I am very excited to have inherited some pretties though 






And since I worked so hard digging up the dirt and pulling weeds, here is my future flower garden.  I can't wait for them to come up!  So far I planted a mix of wildflowers, but I have sunflowers to plant (maybe tomorrow), and bluebonnets, and some others I can't remember.

I posted one of these a couple of weeks ago (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=294038.10) and I finally finished the other two I was working on.  They are bowling balls covered with flat marbles.  The stands are simply pillar candle holders, the two taller ones are from the thrift store, and the smaller one is from a yard sale.  Total cost of materials (bowling balls, stands, glue, marbles)- under $20 to make all three of these.  I just love them!  They are pictures on my fireplace because I haven't decided where to put them in the yard yet.  The purple one I showed in a previous post, sorry for reposting it but it looks so pretty with the other two  The others are a red bowling ball with clear marbles, and a blue bowling ball with dark blue marbles. 

(I hope this belong here, if not please let me know!)

I love photography and I love having a slim digital camera that works great that I can bring everywhere. My flickr has literally thousands of photos. 

However, I am by no means a professional photographer!  Most of my pictures are missing parts of heads or blurry or have bad lighting. Finally, FINALLY I took a picture I am really proud of.  Ok, the lighting might not be the best but I really impressed myself with this one.



And just for fun, here are some photos from the amazingly beautiful Bermuda.  Although, I think it would be hard to take a BAD photo with this amazing landscape.



















Sorry for all the photo's, I haven't had anything to share for a while. 

I have been in love with this idea since I first saw it on here.  My fiance and I bought our first house this past fall and I CAN'T WAIT to have a garden this year!  (On a side note, any recommendations on what to grow?).  Since our backyard is virtually empty, basically, we have a hose, and that's it, lol, I thought this idea would be great to "pretty it up".  I finally found bowling balls at my local ReSale for $2 and the perfect holders for $1.  I finished the first one and I am very proud of it, so here it is!  It was originally swirly purple and covered with small clear half-marbles.

By the way, my fiance thought I was absolutely nuts the entire process.  Men. 




You can see the other holder in the back that I am going to use for the next one


In-Progress - I had to work in sections because they kept sliding around