My Ribbon Roses

I'm going to say this ONE MORE TIME for those of you who haven't read it before or don't know this: If you send me a question asking for help, then you need to send me an email address to respond. If your "settings" in your blog do not allow me to see your email and it comes as NOREPLY-COMMENT@BLOGGER.COM or as a Wordpress.com blog and there is no email to contact you on your blog, I'm just going to ignore it. It does no good if I have no way to get in contact with you to answer a question or offer help. In fact, it looks to me like the comments are simply spam. Plus the fact that if I try to find someway on your blog to leave a comment and you haven't posted for....oh say, 6 months , 2 years or EVER, then that leads me to believe you're not serious about your question or even worse, (gasp!) a serious blogger. Tell me it ain't so! And I handle spam by deleting it! You won't get past me, trust me, so don't waste your time. Okay? I'm really not mad, just wanted to make this very clear. :-)
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I just noticed the date I'm posting this and let me say since it's been 11 years today that our country was attacked and my heart still remembers it.

I had just gotten out of the shower when my phone rang and my neighbor told me to get over there immediately since we had no television. I stared in horrific wonder at those two buildings coming down. I still get teary thinking about it. I hope with all my heart our country never, ever lets that happen again. Being a very religious person, I knew the end times were going to be tough and our Church advises us to be prepared—economically, temporally and most of all, spiritually. But that day just stuck in my mind, thinking about the moms and dads who wouldn't be going home that day. I also think about those brave NYC firemen and police who tried to help and lost their lives doing so. So mostly I pay tribute to them. I love our brave soldiers, firemen, police and emergency personnel. (I'm blubbering like a fool typing this.) Just be prepared, my friends, to defend our country.
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First of all, I'm doing something on this blog post that I don't normally do. When I was selling on eBay, I would make the photos 2 different sizes so when they clicked on the photo it would enlarge. This can only be done when using a template, which I use every single time I sell on eBay or do these blog posts. This took a bit more time and I decided early on not to do it with my blog. However, I did it on this post with only my own photos. I can't do it with photos I didn't originally take. So if you click on each photo of mine you'll see a larger photo of the roses, etc. I really like large photos but they take up much more storage space on Photobucket or any image hosting so I rarely ever do it here. Enjoy.
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One of my passions is making ribbon roses. I don't use a lot of them most of the time so I don't make many now, but with the redo of the chandelier shades I'm going to make some. I'll need five of them. Below are some of the ones I've made in the past. I have more than I'll ever use but I love making them. It gives me peace when I craft. My dilemma is which one I'll like the best on the shades.

A flower I made years ago. It isn't velvet; it just looks like it. Red—and purple, for that matter—are very hard to photograph unless you are a professional. I'm not!

This is a flower I had hot glued to a craft—can't remember what at the moment—and I took it off. Yes, you can get them off using a heat gun (hubs') but I do not recommend it as you can burn your fingers severely. I haven't so far but I'm very, very careful when I remove things I've hot glued on.

I have no more of this exquisite ribbon or I'd do the flowers I want in this. I can't even find this ribbon anymore.

I wanted to see how a 7/8" ribbon would work. Way too small.

This one worked pretty well.

But this is my all-time favorite ribbon rose besides the red one. They are assembled differently. This one is much quicker to make. Both are lovely.

Making the red rose requires much more work and time. I'm just starting this one to see how it comes out.

This is another favorite of mine. I pinned it to my jacket to wear to church recently. Simple and very quick to make.

My craft room and table are a horrible mess at the moment. I'm very fortunate that I have a room all to myself and can just shut the door if I have someone come over.

I'm thinking of doing a ribbon rose in this polka dot. The only down side is that it's one-sided. Hmmmm...maybe and maybe not. I hate to cut into this ribbon and destroy the 2 long pieces. We'll see. Oh, btw, that's me and hubs during one of our frequent trips to Mexico, but the picture was on a sight-seeing day cruise on the ocean and a dinner. They put that silly hat on him to take a picture. He hated it but was a good sport about it.

While I was in the craft room I noticed a pillow I had. I made this pillow out of some leftover fabric from the 2 chairs in our family room. They have since been recovered in another fabric, but I doubt I'll ever part with these pillows. It's a moire fabric and beautiful, but you all know how photos don't do justice to the actual item. Even though Ethan Allen makes pillows to come with the sofa, I may put these on there in place of or rather with the other pillows. We'll see how they go.

Now, enough of me. Look at this glorious area in a homemaker's kitchen. Cute!

These lamps are among some of the most elegant I have seen. I'd take these in a heart beat.

Haaa, you thought I wouldn't include a little cottage-by-the-road, didn't you?

And more from Green Gate for you to see. Isn't it a "fun" kind of dinnerware?

And a beautiful bouquet of roses in a french pitcher.

And I leave you this day with 3 boxes of beautiful candy, cookies and cupcakes! :-)

I know this is a long post but back here I promised to a few more tidbits on our U.S. Presidents and their Secret Service men from this book, In The President's Secret Service. So here's another tidbit.

At a dinner party given at the home of a personal friend of this President, the Secret Service gave the hostess some recommendations that she really had to adhere to so that the President and his wife could have this small, personal dinner with her and a very small group of friends.

The SS agents asked that draperies be put up on her windows. Agents were stationed everywhere around the yard and no-parking cones were put up in front of the house. Another request was that she empty a closet nearby big enough to fit at least two men as that was where they would take the President in case of a threat. They also selected where the President would sit. (Going out to dinner with friends as a U.S. President requires a lot of preparation. It's not done lightly!) She acquiesced to their demands and she then asked a question about what would happen to all the other guests and what they should do in the case of an emergency. The agent's response was, "Madam, I have only one client: the President." I wonder if she thought about reconsidering the invitation!
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Linking up with WOW and At the Picket Fence.