Learn to make this very quick and easy Georgia Bulldog apron. Super easy for a beginner and super fun for an experienced sewer.  The kit is $15.00 and also available if you choose not to take the class.  Class fee is $15.00.  One class will be Tuesday night 1-31 from  6:30 to 8:30pm  and the other class will be Saturday evening 2-4-12 from 2 to 4pm.  Call shop for more details  229-686-3378.
Joni is also offering her rag quilt class again Thursday 2-2-12 (6 to 8pm) and Saturday 2-4-12 (1 to 3:30). Cost is $15.00 plus supplies

I Hate Hard Candy

OK, I'm sure this will not be a popular post, but I cannot keep quiet anymore.  My family went out to eat tonight and on the way out the door my grandson had to have a piece of gum from the bubblegum machine.  NOT a little chicklet, NOT a little piece of dentyne, but a giant, hard, round ball that would choke an elephant.  I'm sorry, but I just do not get it!  Why does our country go to such effort to make sure a small tire will not come off a toy tractor because it might choke a child but it is perfectly acceptable to entice them with candy that will do the trick??  Have you been to a parade lately??  Heck, Santa even promotes it.  "Here kids, take this candy. Even though it is bigger than the little tire on your little tractor that your very common-sensed family has taught you NOT to put in your mouth, you CAN put this in your mouth and suck on it (down your windpipe)."   Don't believe that the lollypops on a stick are any safer either.  My 2 year-old grandson was sucking on one and "chewed" the stick off about 1/2" from the candy.  I went balistic. I knew he had the candy and all I could see was a little piece of the stick between his lips.  He just about bit my finger off while I tried prying it out of his mouth.
My fear for all this stems from personal experiece.  I choked on a piece of peppermint like the ones pictured above.  I was in my early twenties when it happened.  Old enough (as compared to young children) to know how to handle it in my mouth, but down my windpipe it went.  Luckily I was with my mother who was in the process of  rushing me to the emergency room when it finally came out.  The pain and fear was horrible.  I will NEVER forget it and I cannot handle the thought of it ever happening to my grandchildren so call me old fuddie-duddie,over-protective grandma all you like.  THAT, I can handle.