strandfam

I am first of all a mother of 5 wonderful children and I currently have two grandsons (can't wait to have more to brag about). One is 11 year old and the newest is 2 weeks old. You can see the new baby at my blog. I discovered my jewish roots about 15 years ago and have been studying Torah ever since then. Our heritage is rich and I love how complete I feel in this knowledge.

I am very involved with my family and love all the domestic chores of sewing and cooking. I also love growing herbs and flowers. My husband takes care of the veggie gardening. I love collecting recipes and recently started research for my own cookbook. I want this book to be more than a recipe book...I want to include much about preparing for and celebrating G-d's festivals.

I work at a community college and love it. I enjoy working with students of all ages. Currently I advise all incoming transfer students. I'm so excited to belong to a swap focused on Judaic crafting.

I've been sewing since I was a teenager. I love embroidery, crochet, quilting, and bead embroidery. Right now I am very busy sewing for my new grandbaby and completing quilts for my two married children. My son-in-law made me a beautiful quilting frame that is truly a piece of art. It is totally his own design and is truly one-of-a-kind. I belong to a quilt guild filled with wonderfully artistic and interesting ladies. We do a lot of charity work and are very community oriented.

My favorite colors are blue & yellow but I love any pastels, plaids, gingham, and roosters. Like tunamarie, I totally love cotton crochet thread and wish like crazy that the stores in my area would expand their inventory. There are so many wonderful colors online but the shipping charges are outrageous. Really would like some size 3 or 5 crochet cotton. I really love traditional style quilting patterns. I also do hand-quilting and love reading quilt history. I collect Quilters Newsletter magazine as well as Piecemaker.

I love fabric swaps. One of my favorite "activities" in our guild is the monthly charm swap. Each lady brings a ziplock bag with 14 6" squares of a specified fabric. During the meeting the charm swap lady swaps all the bags of squares and each lady brings home 14 different squares. I've been collecting all of mine to make a special charm quilt using the hammerhead pattern.

Have been really looking into embroidery with beads and bead jewelry. I've dabbled a little but I usually saturate myself with knowledge before I get really involved with a medium.

Two of my children are recently married, one is getting married in November, and my two youngest graduate from college in May.

I consider raising children to be my greatest contribution to the world and I am so proud of them for who they are.

I love folk music. Carly Simon, James Taylor, Carole King, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as well as Crosby himself. Baroque and sometimes soft jazz.

A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford. I also love John Grisham, Perri O'Shaughnessy, Jennifer Chiaverinni, Anne Dillard, the poetry of Helen Steiner Rice, Louisa May Alcott. Other authors: David Baldacci, Kathy Reichs, Faye Kellerman, some of James Patterson (love the suspense hate the darkness). Am always on the lookout for legal suspense authors.

My absolute favorite TV station is foodnetwork. Second is Cold Case Files and FBI Files.

Psalm 37:3-4 Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Jeremiah 17:5-8 Thus says the LORD, "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD. "For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, and of salt without inhabitant. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. "For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.