Free Christmas Ball Ornament Contest!

Here is your chance to win an original DustyOak Christmas ornament!

I am having a Name that Ornament contest for this beautiful, though nameless ornament.

Click on the link to my website to send in an entry….who knows you could be the lucky winner!

But hurry! Contest ends November 25th 2008

Cranberry Truffle - Quilt Ball Ornament

I introduced this quilted ornament with my fall and Thanksgiving 2008 collection. But, with it's beautiful burgundy and gold swirls and sparkling glitter, it would be just gorgeous with Christmas decorations too. The deep burgundy tones give it elegance and really make it look rich.

There are still a few left in stock. Visit my website; www.dustyoakornaments.com if you'd like to take a peek. It's listed on the first page.

I miss you Mom ~ I'll see you soon!

Edith A. Jolly (Gigi), February 4, 1935 – August 22, 2008

On August 22, 2008, Jesus took my mama home to be with Him in heaven. As a child and as an adult, I can honestly say that God truly blessed me and my sisters with a wonderful, wonderful mom. With one hand in the hand of our Lord and the other in ours, she guided, taught, scolded and praised us with an unconditional love.

I wrote this poem to honor her. Yet, it in no way tells her entire story, but it touches on what Mom was best known for – Her absolute love for people and her desire to serve with her best. She was an incredible cook and many, many people have enjoyed fellowship around her table of love.

The Table of Love

Abba, I don’t understand, I cried.
I felt the Holy Spirit draw to my side.
He lifted the sorrow from my chest.
My troubled mind became calm and at rest.

As pictures formed one by one,
Of far away days when I was young.
Of pancakes on the beach and tables in the sand
Splashing ocean waves, laughing hand-n-hand.

Giggling sister sessions late at night.
Milk and cookies made it right.
With cheese and crackers, she broke the rule.
To picnic in the park, we just skipped school.

Clothes pins lined up by my plate,
A reminder, to keep my manners as I ate.
After school tea, with dainty pastries cut into hearts.
Chicken salad sandwiches and strawberry tarts.

Candlelight suppers just for fun
And goody bags for on the run
Of always forgetting the bread
And serving “after dinner” rolls instead.

Of peeking inside a restaurant fine
To count the forks before we dined.
Of Christmas tables set with a goose,
Or a lamb, or a duck and once a moose.

Of setting the table, a delightful treat,
Mixing and matching china at each seat.
From her stash within the hutch,
Pretty, printed napkins the finishing touch.

On nights when Daddy was away,
Around the table we would pray.
She told of angels with swords of fire.
God’s protection, from our enemy the liar.

Her three little girls, she could boast.
Have grown to be the sweetest hosts.
She taught us well to love our guests,
To make each feel, like the favored best.

Whether our table was made of glass,
Or a checkered cloth upon the grass.
A bed with crumbs between the sheets
Or a coffee table, loaded with sweets.

There was always laughter and sometimes tears.
She showed us faith through all the years.
Taught us to trust our Father above
And we grew in grace around Mama’s table of love.

A quickening in my heart so deep,
As I saw her pray instead of sleep.
She asked for blessings, kneeled beside her bed.
Gigi’s tears, a grandmother’s prayer, a holy covering upon each head.

As the last child’s name was said,
She pulled the covers about her head.
And dreamed - of the wedding banquet, of the Lamb.
When the Bride of Christ would take His hand.

The glorious meal we all would share,
And a Rose of Sharron upon each chair.
Then, she heard His voice, whispered in her ear.
“Come Edith, My child. Come help me prepare….

My Friend,
The invitations’ been sent. It’s printed in Red.
And the tables are set with the wine and the bread.
The arch angel stands ready, with trumpet in hand.
On the mount of Zion, at attention he stands.

The time is short, your reservation is due.
Jesus is standing. He is waiting for you.
The spirit says come with the voice of a dove.
Will you take His hand, and be seated, at The Table of Love?

I miss you Mom... but, I'll see you soon.
Sandra Jolly-Kalnasy

New Fall Ornament Collection

The fall ornaments are ready!

To see my new Handmade Quilted Ornaments
for fall and Thanksgiving

Click here to visit my website:
DustyOak Ornaments
Then, click on the copy of the above banner.

Free Scavenger Hunt for North Bossier City

This Scavenger hunt is for a mystery supper in north Bossier City. Teams have to solve the riddles and discover the cypher code to know where to meet for supper.

If you would like to have a free copy just email me from my website on My Contact Page

It should take between 40 to 60 minutes to complete and ends at a local resturant in Bossier City.

I wrote this mystery supper scavenger hunt for a group in my church and they all said they had a great time...... Be sure your teams read the helpful hints before you let them leave.... I had one team turn up in Shreveport. LOL

To start this one off, I had each team make up a name for themselves. In order for them to get their packet of clues they had to do a song or dance. They had about two weeks to sign up which gave them time to come up with a cheer or whatever....

"You'll have to do a song or dance to get your clue, so make it count the first time through. Or do a cheer, that'll work too."

Also: Don't forget to add a hint hotline number to your packet of clues. That way if anyone gets confused they can give you a call.


Helpful hints:
• You won’t need to leave your car. You’ll find all your clues just by driving by.
• Write your answers in the blanks next to each clue.
• You don’t have to solve your riddles in order. However, the order you choose will definitely affect your time.
• Your clues will not take you south of Interstate 20 or north of Brownlee Road.
• Just like a shoe, for some things, you need two.

Cipher Code:
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ / __ __ __

__ __ __ __ __ / __ __ __ __ __ __ __

Here is where we are having supper:

________________________

VBS - WHO U

Our VBS theme this year was Whoville University or “WHO U” - Life lessons from Dr. Seuss. Our children’s minister, Pastor Lori put most of the life lessons and Bible verses together with each of the Dr. Seuss books and it was FANTASTIC! She did a wonderful job.

Cindi Lou Who


We built the girls and boys dorms and main university building out of Styrofoam and painted them to look “who-ish” for the stage, coned several of our older girls to be the WHO U cheerleaders, and had the workers wear “who hair”. The leaders of each age group of children wore graduation caps and were called professors for the week and we sold t-shirts for all the “students”.

Boy's and Girl's Dorms


Who U Cheerleaders


Who hair



Each day the entire theme was incorporated into all the activities; music, snacks, art, memory verse and games. I volunteered to organize and run the art room. For example; we talked about resisting the devil using the story Green Eggs and Ham, the snack was green cookies that looked like eggs. The art project was experimenting with wax resist and water color. On the lesson about allowing God to use you, we taught about being molded and shaped by God. On that day the kids all got to make their own salt dough and "mold it into something new". We also talked about being adopted into the family of God using the "Horton Hatches an Egg" story. For art we gave each of the children a bit of the three primary colors, taught them the color wheel and let them mix the colors to paint their dough creations. "Blending into God's family makes us something new and beautiful." The kids loved it.

Learning the cheer for the day




Another art activity we did was to place a large canvas in the room. Each day we set out a different color of paint and let the kids take turns making a mark on the canvas. By the end of the week we had a beautiful piece of contemporary art for the Children’s pastors’ office.

Painting days 1 and 2


An original masterpiece!


It was a super fun and very successful VBS! A huge thank you to all the mom’s and teen helpers…. It would have never happened without you.

Who U graduation

Cookie Cake

Saturday was our baby’s 18th birthday party and we had a crawfish boil out at Cypress Black Bayou. We decided on Tuesday that that’s what we were going to do, so I spent most of the week making all the arrangements. Several of our church family and friends were tent camping at the lake and were already there, so it was a perfect plan.

Friday was crazy as I was shopping for all the food and party supplies and I also baked her a cookie cake for the event. I was so proud of my cookie cake. I am not a cake decorator, but I have lots of fun playing with frosting. I made a little crawfish out of frosting on the cake and also decorated it with pink and yellow flowers. It turned out sooooo cute!

We got up early on Saturday morning to save our favorite spot, unloaded most of the party supplies and the cooking pots and covered the picnic tables with plastic and then drove over to Shreveport to pick up the live crawfish. When we got back we put the crawfish out and the rest of the food, then we left our tables and drove over to the tent campsites to get big sister so she could help us. We were gone for about 15 minutes.

When we returned, this is what the cake looked like……. Wanna take a guess as to who the culprits were!







HINT: They flew up into the trees and sat there taunting and crowing about it for about an hour before they got tired of bragging and left to torment someone else…… YES! A pair of crows!!! -Pecked that poor cake to bits….. Oh, and just for the record, the kids cut off the bad parts and ate it anyway…. Yuck!

A few more pictures of the crawfish boil:

Playin' with their supper -

Holocaust Survivor tells her story

Last night, Mrs. Rose Van Thyn, Holocaust survivor, visited our church and shared with us her life story. Beginning with the day she was born, she told us of her wonderful and carefree life as a young girl in Holland before World War II. Giving us the dates and days of the week, she detailed the stories of losing her family members in the Nazi death camps. With grace and humor she brought tears and also laughter as she unfolded the traumatic events and how God’s loving hand brought her through it all and finally to Shreveport, LA.

She is an amazing and incredible woman and testimony to the truth of the horrors. It did happen and we should be sure it never happens again. Friday, May 2nd is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Six million Jews were murdered during the time of the Holocaust. Take a few moments to remember those who suffered, the families that were completely destroyed, and those who survived.

Gene and Angela

This ornament is my wedding gift to Gene and Angela. They were married the first of the year and had a beautiful wedding. Angela’s colors were lavender and a pale cream, really pretty. The flowers and leaves came from her table decorations and I quilted the ornament using the bow ribbons from one of her candelabras.

Congratulations Gene and Angela and may God give you many happy years together.

Famous for one minute each day

A couple of years ago, my youngest daughter and I, and half of the youth in our church, flew to Denver, Colorado for a National Fine Arts Festival. Our sign language group earned a “superior with honors”. All of the kids did really well and we were so proud of them, but that is another story.

One night, a couple of the girls posed for this picture on the address monument of a local building….. Remember the lyrics, “I wear my sunglasses at night”? Anyway, the picture turned out so cute and it fit right in with the 4:10 am time slot on the Human Clock, so we sent it in. You have to be up at 4 in the morning to see it. LOL But, they are famous for one minute everyday – how cool is that!

More Spring Flowers

We had a light rainfall this morning along with a little lightning and thundering. The storm moved off rather quickly, but it is still cloudy and damp outside.

I grabbed my camera and took these pictures right after it stopped raining. This beautiful dogwood sits all the way back behind our house next to the pond. It’s the only one we have and I look forward to seeing it bloom every year.




There is a little story to this Azalea bush. I planted it about 5 years ago and was just about to pull it up. Why, you ask. Well, It has never bloomed……until this year! I don’t know what took it so long to get happy, but I’m glad it finally did. It’s just beautiful!

The bush with the white flowers on it is always happy…. It blooms twice every year and is loaded with blossoms.

A Lasting Memorial

This is a picture of a collage shadowbox that my mom made and surprised me with for Christmas.

In fact, she made nine of them….

The picture in the center is of my grandmother who recently passed from this Earth into Glory. She was 98 years old. (I think she is 16 in the picture.) My mom collected pieces of her favorite jewelry, crocheted doilies made by her, all of her gloves and other little what-not’s, from her home, to create these beautiful memorials.

She made one for each of the grandchildren and each one is different. What a unique treasure!

Thank you mom! I love it and will keep it always.

I'm going to be in a movie!

Several weeks ago a friend, “conned” me into working as an extra in the movie “Comeback”, staring Ice Cube.

I don't know who took this picture, a friend sent it to me...... yes, the same one who got me involved in the first place....Yep, Cindy, I'm talkin' about you..... Just for the record. She got me to go, and then she didn't! Anyway, it was taken during down time between scenes. I am on the third row from the bottom, next to the fence, pink shirt, blond hair.

The film is based on a true story about a young girl from Illinois, who is a quarterback on a football team. Ice Cube, plays the part of her uncle and coach. It was a really interesting experience, watching how a single scene is filmed from a dozen different angles. The weather was perfect and I even got a little bit of a tan.

I was an extra as a football fan for the game. It took two days to film the game and I only remember seeing five downs, just filmed from lots of angles. We were all given props; pom-poms, coke cups, popcorn and such and then we jumped up and down like crazy on cue… It was really funny, because we weren’t allowed to make any noise…. Just pretend to be yelling. The scenes had dialog from the actors, so we had to be quiet. They are going to add the yelling in later. Crazy!

The set was fascinating. The Pop Warner game is set in Miami, Florida so, they brought in palm trees and planted them around the stadium and built up the beds with pineapple plants and sand. It really did look like we were in Miami.

I didn’t like the long days, though. I had to get up at 4:30am to drive to Shreveport and we weren’t finished until 6:30pm…. It took me almost a week to catch up with my sleep… But the food was GREAT! We were served buffet style and had snacks and drinks offered to us all through the day. I was very impressed with how organized everything was…… Also, a shout out to my two new friends – June and Sheila. They were tons of fun and I really enjoyed getting to know them. You’ll see us sitting together in the stands.

The movie is set to be released on July 25th, so watch for me in the stands during the "Big Game". I'll be wearing a pink shirt.

Easter Sunday

Yesterday was Easter Sunday…… I love Easter! The whole earth seems to love it, too. The air is warm, the flowers are blooming, the trees are putting out new leaves and the birds are singing. Children are all excited in their new Easter clothes and there seems to be a smile on every face. There is joy in the air! Jesus is alive! Praise God!

I hope that with all your feasting, egg hunts and shopping, you took some time for Jesus. He died, descended into the pit and rose again….. for you and for me. He loved us so much that He chose to take our place. Praise His Holy Name!

Jesus said, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death!” (Revelation 1:18)

The Best Scavenger Hunt I ever wrote!

I have had too much fun the past couple of days.

One of the girls in my daughters youth group had her 18th birthday. So, I spent Thursday and Friday writing a scavenger hunt for her surprise party.

She was totally surprised! And that scavenger hunt was the best one I have ever written! (I’ve written a lot of them!) With the kids being older, I got to make the clues really hard. Soooo fun! They had to have a flashlight, a camera or camera phone, a compass and a pen. The hunt started at 8 pm and ended at 10:30 pm.

I had those kids all over the parish! Lol I gave them my phone number as the “Hint Hot Line”, but they lost 200 points if they called. Only two teams called in and both of them were standing right next to the prize and just didn’t see it….. They were so mad to have lost those points :-)

There were 5 categories: Collect the letters, Photo gallery, Sounds shop, Trivia and the Bonus clues.

To collect the letters, they had to go to a dozen places looking for objects or words and collect one of the letters from it. Then they had to unscramble the letters in order to know where to meet at the end. (Starbucks)

Here is a sample: Find the bull’s eye, see the red and green dots. Look to your right…… Hola! Collect the 4th letter.

That was Target of course, but they had to stand in front of the entrance (green dot) and look across the interstate to see a local Mexican restaurant. One team totally missed that one.

For the Photo Gallery they had to take pictures of some crazy things…. Like the eye of the tiger, a street sign with the name of someone in the youth group on it, an alligator…. There are pictures of alligators all over the place, but one team went all the way to Bass Pro and took a picture of a real one. LOL They lost almost 40 minutes for that and it was only worth 100 points. LOL

They really got creative on the Sound Shop. Several teams went to a cop to get the sound of a siren. Only one team was able to get a whistling tea kettle…..They got 300points for it too!

Trivia was like a fill in the blank….In this town, Debbie sells insurance. What do the kids learn next door? Another one was; this church has a new chapel with pretty stained glass windows. How many down spouts does it take to keep the roof dry?

And then my favorite! I made four 1000 point bonus riddles. The theme of the party was Batman. So, I hid four pictures; Robin, Batman, Cat Woman and The Joker.

For the batman riddle the kids had to figure out that they needed to be at a shopping center in one town and from there they had to drive to the Post Office in another town. Once there, they had to find a sign that said children weren’t allowed to play in the parking lot. The team that found it took second place. Here is the clue.

Choo, Choo….. That’s where the cash is. But, somewhere in the region, you’ll find Steve. He’s right in the thick of things and with a donation. From his hanger he can see the eagles take flight. Follow the eagles to their eastern home and the site where no children play.

The choo,choo is a train on the top of a sign near the pizza house and there is a “Cash” Reality next door. Across the highway is a “Steve’s” cleaners in the Oak “Thicket” shopping center. It’s right next to the Goodwill Store. In the parking lot there is a “Regions” bank and next to that there are two priority mail boxes with “eagles” on the side.

The Robin one started with: “Holy Bat-burgers! That redhead has been hiding spies.” That took them to Wendy's.

The Riddler started with: What’s not at the beginning and surly not alive? This one was a little more tricky, but all of them found the dead end sign.

Now this one was the best! Cat Woman……this was so good.
I didn’t give them any clue as to where they were to go. It started with “Act dignified as you follow the kitty through the hedge.” The clue was about a page long and it meandered around trees and fountains and benches. I had them stop to lick their paws or scratch their ears……I would say things about the people around and at the end the kitty took a nap under a tree. Only two teams figured it out and they LOVED IT! It was in the cemetery.

What a treat for us all. I enjoyed writing it and the kids loved solving it.

Spring Daisy Ornament

Introducing my new ornament for spring

"Lazy Daisy"

I found the fabric for this ornament in the rement section... I don't know how I missed it before. The daisy is my favorite flower!

This charming lilac fabric is sprinkled with daisies and dusted with iridescent glitter.

For the bow, I used two ribbons; one is a shear iridescent lilac ribbon with a satin pattern. It’s just enough to pick up the shimmer on the fabric for that extra touch of sparkle. The other is a thin lilac satin ribbon. I added clusters of white Shasta Daisies and small leaves to the loops of the bow, giving it that freshness of spring…..I can’t wait!

Check my website for availability.

Snow on Friday

We almost NEVER get snow in Louisiana.

But last Friday, we certainly did... we had a blizzard! (Louisiana style) The snow came down in billions of thick, fat, flakes, sticking to the ground and trees, turning the landscape into a wonderland.

The kids ran out and made quick work of snowmen, snow angels and of course snowballs. LOL

It was simply beautiful, but very brief. By nightfall, it had all melted away, leaving behind only the memory and soggy mud.

This picture is of the drive that leads down to our house.