I have a new great-niece!!!

She was born on Tuesday the 24th. She weighed 6 lbs. 9 ozs. and is 21" long. Here is the happy family. Her daddy is my sisters son. (She still doesn't have a name!)

Here's her big brother, Connor bringing mommy roses. Isn't that sweet?

I kind of went overboard making baby things. The first is a rag quilt with dancing bear queens. I made one for Connor too with boy bears.

This little hat and mittens were pre-made but I glued on the rhinestones. What baby girl doesn't need a little bling?

Seven polka dot bibs and seven burp cloths. I make these for Newborns In Need a great charity for mothers and babies. I used their pattern and I think they're great!!! My other great nieces and nephew had them and their mommies used them alot.

Please be sure to look up http://www.newbornsinneed.org/ and find out about sewing or all kinds of other charity work they have available. It's really an outstanding organization. All of the things we make are distributed locally so that makes it nice to know we're helping our neighbors.

This was one of those unfinished picture frames from Michael's. I painted it, embellished it with some bling and framed a piece of the cotton material from the quilt.

Ok, no more baby stuff... I was talking via email to one of my hooking friends, Ter'e about how much we like bright colors and how I had just checked out a book from the library about Mexican textiles. I LOVE the bright colors from Mexico. So I was inspired to draw a new hooking project. I haven't been hooking lately-haven't felt good. That's another story. Anyway I've also been kind of obsessed with this type of Mexican pictures of Mary. I'm not even Catholic. There's just something about them that I'm attracted to. I even bought a paint by numbers painting last summer of Mary that someone else had painted. It's very naive and I love it.

I printed this photo onto fabric and will put it in the middle of the hooking. I am going to make sort of a triptych. Three hooked pieces held together with leather strips.

Here is the rough....very rough drawing of what I have in mind.

I also want to include Milagros charms. I learned more about them today on http://www.craftychica.com/ Milagros are silver charms that can be held in your pocket. I am going to use five of them in my hooking.

The head: knowing is wisdom.

The heart: how we love.

The hand: your hands connect you to others.

The foot: your feet support your journey through life.

And the mouth: our words are as good as our deeds.

This is going along with my thinking "outside the box" theme this year. I want this to be a kind of altered hooking project. I am so enjoying the journaling. It's really opening up my mind. That could be dangerous!!!!

Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted with pictures often.

Peace,

Sheri