Friday, August 31, 2012

Last Day of August & The Bookcase

Can you believe it, today is the last day of August.
This summer is a blur of scorching days 
and warm nights.
I don't know about you but I am so ready for 
cooler weather. School has started around here.
The buses are running twice a day.
This evening there will be thousands of 
football games played around the country. 
Years ago we use to be a part of those, 
when our daughters were members of the 
school's marching band.
It won't be long and leaves will be turning and 
pumpkins will be showing up on doorsteps.
I always loved fall. 
Working outside on cool days 
and coming into the house with something 
smelling good in the crock pot, getting all cosy 
with a quilt or afghan blanket in my favorite chair, 
reading a good book or watching a movie.
But the bestest thing is continuing the love affair 
I have with my hooks & needles.
Fondling the yarn, does that sound bad, 
hopefully only in a good way, lol.
So, that brings me back to my current 
affair with this new (to me) pattern.


Oh, do I love this one!!!!!
I added a few more rounds last evening and 
if it wouldn't have been that my eyelids were 
getting so heavy I would have played around 
with it some more. 
I love how it is turning out.
I love that it is eating up some yarn. 
I love how scrappy colorful it is.
I love how simple the pattern.
With every strip of color added you will be 
using more and more yarn. 
Eventually it will take more time for each 
color and more of that color. That is okay 
with me cause that is what I want is 
to use up this stash yarn.
But, I do have plenty more yarn, a tote 
full of soft lovely Vanna and 
a basket full of beautiful, soft Stylecraft.
I have been saving these for another time.
Well, enough about me and my passion.
You folks will be seeing a lot of this 
blanket as it progresses and will be sick of it 
by the time I get done playing with it.


When I came into the living room to snap the pic 
of my WIP I spied someone in hubby's chair.
Can you see him, peeking out the corner, 
waiting for his buddy to come home, lol.
If you want to know what the best seat is in the 
house, just ask the dog, lol.
Miss Trixie usually lies behind the chair 
but is in her crate sleeping. 
She is too short to jump up on anything.


I have been wanting to do a post on the things 
my husband has made for us (me, me, me).
I should be ashamed to even show this in 
it's present state because it is in such a 
shambles. Yes, if you look closely you will 
spy Waldo, lol, no just kidding, you will spy 
a can of Pledge furniture polish.
The maid must have left it there, ha ha ha.
I will surely have to get onto her about that!
We are book lovers from way back.
At one time we belonged to 2 book clubs.
I had boxes of books, in the closets, under the beds, 
here and there and what seemed like everywhere.
Please, please, please, we need bookcases.
And so one November he sat down and drew a 
plan and he started measuring, and a trip with a 
friend to Toledo to by oak wood. The first 
section to go in was the one on the far left.
It took about 4-5 months to complete this entire
project. All pieces were sanded and varnished 
out in his shop, and we carried each section in 
from out there. All are solid oak, no veneers.
The exposed backs of the shelves are also 
oak bead board. I love that feature. 
There are storage cupboards under each unit 
and there are 3 shelves in each cupboard. 
All shelves above and below are adjustable.
And yes, the cupboards are full, more books, 
family albums, and movies, etc. 
It is an all day job to dust and clean it, 
with many trips up and down on a ladder.
When the day comes that we can no longer live 
here, it will be a tearful moment having to leave 
this one behind. It is permanently fastened 
to the far wall of our living room.
By far, this was the biggest project 
he ever tackled not counting the house.
It is one of my favorite things
that I wanted to share with you. 

I really need to rearrange my blog page 
to allow for ex-large photos, but you can always 
click on any pic to get a closer look.
The only good thing about smaller pics is 
you don't see the dust, lol. 
Wishing all of you a safe and lovely weekend.
God Bless You All!
~♥~

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Oh Happy Day!.....Rotten Peaches

   

 Loss of my mojo.
I have been drifting for days. 
I seemed to have no desire to do anything 
except rummage through my patterns and 
look around blog land.
I have pulled out plenty of ideas 
but none seemed to catch my interest.
I tried about 3 different motifs.
All were cast aside.
Then I ran across Dutch Girl Diary 
and found her blog right here.
Go meet Erin and read her delightful postings.
The thing that really caught my eye was 
her tutorial on the Log Cabin Potholder 
which can be found on her sidebar. 


 I was hooked.
This is my start to another colorful way 
to use up that stash of yarns, the left overs 
from various projects.


 This is my kind of fun. 
So I immediately grabbed my hook and 
got started. I admit to tweaking Erin's pattern 
just a tad. Instead of doing ch2 turn, I am 
doing a ch3 turn, I know, no big deal really, 
but I found the end ch3's were easier 
when it came time to join at the end of a row.

 
Now on the flip side,   
I will have these to deal with. 
I am promising myself not to get too 
far ahead of myself with tackling those 
lose ends. 




It will be great to be making a big dent 
in all these yarns because I intend to 
keep crocheting around and around till 
there isn't much of this stuff left. 
Who knows, maybe even a pillow or two is 
in the future here. 
With a log cabin design one usually keeps 
all the light colors to one side and 
all the darks on the other. 
I don't plan to do any of that, 
I'm just gonna go with the flow and 
not follow any set rules.



I did keep with the tradition of a 
red or yellow center. 
That signifies the ♥ of the log cabin 
which was usually the fireplace.
The warm color represents the fire 
in the hearth.
Okay, so I am a happy camper now 
and once again my hook is workin' it.

Before I sign off I want to show you 
what my husband brought home from 
the grocery store on Tuesday.
He went into town to get the gas cans 
filled for the lawn mowers.
I told him how about stopping and 
picking up some fruit. He did get a bag 
of apples and some oranges. Bless his ♥,
he happened to pick up 3 loose peaches 
and bagged them up.
When I first saw them I thought maybe 
they were "freebies" and the store was 
just trying to be rid of them.
Wrong, he said he paid over $1.70 for 
these.......


I about crapped! Peaches are expensive 
always, it is no matter that they grow them 
locally around here, they are always costly.


Too costly to be selling this kind of rotten 
produce. So I just couldn't let it go and I 
called the store and told them what I 
had cut into, and that I wanted our $ back.
Of course the manager had to be called to the 
phone and I explained to her that I had 
3 rotten peaches and that the person who 
was in charge of their produce section 
needed to go check out those peaches and 
not sell them. I also told her that I was not 
coming back into town that day to retrieve 
less than $2 but I would come and get our 
$ or 3 good peaches the next time I had to 
make a trip into town. I mean it would defeat 
the purpose if I had to burn gas for a round 
trip to and from the store. I told her I took 
pics of them as proof and would show her. 
She was actually very nice about it and 
told me to come in when I could and they 
would make it right. I guess the squeaky 
wheel does get the peach.
Those peaches are like gold.
It has been years since I bought any.


Four little slices from the first peach, 
and they were kinda mushy.
You really have to watch what you buy, 
that is for sure. 
Other than that my day was peachy, 
peachy keen with a skein of you know what!
~♥~





 

Monday, August 27, 2012

Rainy Monday & Rambling Thoughts


I have been sitting in front of this pc 
for over 2 hours. 
My butt is numb.
I have been trying to find "the" next 
project. 
You would think that a woman 
who has blogged about her tons of 
pattern books would be set for life 
with all sorts of ideas. 
WRONG!
I think I collect patterns and books 
"just because".
I have been doing that for 42 years.
When the mailman drives up in the driveway 
my poor hubby automatically walks 
out to greet him as he hands another 
Amazon package to him.
He use to ask me what I bought.
Now he already knows. 
But here lately it is not just books,
there is a baby who needs some toys
(yeah ya, like he doesn't already have 
so many we could open a day care). 
I was told to save some for Christmas.
Since when have I ever listened to anyone?
 
Okay, Pammy Sue, I guess I will be 
attempting to make a Kitty Kat.
I will be putting away the baby yarn 
and dragging out the worsted weight. 
I keep telling myself to dust off the 
sewing machine and get busy stitching.
I don't see that happening for awhile.

I did wake up to rain this morning. 
We still need it.
Of course it is rather late for flowers and 
veggie gardens, but we take what we 
can get and no use to complain.
I am also feeling a bit guilty.
Notice I used the word "bit" because 
I fixed a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese 
and I ate the whole thing myself. 
As long as I stay off of the bathroom 
scales I can linger with that "bit" of guilt.
There are times the only thing that will 
make us feel better is comfort foods.
And the winner is mac & cheese, with 
Ben & Jerry's running a close race for 
first place. 
Sometimes a girl has to do what a girl 
has to do, and it may not be a pretty 
sight, but that is why we have 
eyelids.....close them peepers.

Well that's all folks.
I am done rambling for this rainy 
Monday morning and it is now past noon.
I need to go find something healthy to 
cancel out the calories from last evening.
"Oh Honey, what's for lunch?"
~♥~

 

 
 

 

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Feeling Mulchie, Thank You Teresa & Holden

We got the 45 bags of mulch down 
on Wednesday.
I was in a real sweat.
My hubby said he thought it wasn't too 
terribly hot out there.
All I know is that I had sweat 
running down into my eyes. 
I finally had to get a dew rag and put it on.
Thank goodness that back breaking job is over!









At least 5 inches deep in most places.
There is still stuff to do, 
like digging up that hosta that gets 
way too much sun.
It needs a shadier spot.
I also need to find a shrub to put 
in the bare spot where one 
died a couple years ago.


Now for the fun stuff.
Just look at these darling earrings made by 
a fellow blogger Teresa Kasner.
What a talented lady! 


 You can find her blog here
where there is a link to her Etsy shop.
Look around at her jewelry, but also check out
 her artwork. She shares lovely posts 
about her family, crocheting, her home and the 
surrounding areas that 
make her State of Oregon so 
special. These earrings are so much prettier 
in person. They are very delicate.
I was going to keep one pair 
back to give as a gift, but I am finding 
it hard to turn loose of either one.


 Teresa was very fast at making them and very 
speedy getting them into the mail. They arrived 
yesterday (Saturday) and she did a great job of 
wrapping them securely in bubble wrap and 
then again in a padded envelope.
 

The whole process from start to finish 
was probably less than a week's time.
I find that amazing since she sent them 
all the way from Oregon to Ohio.
If you look at her business card you 
will notice those cute pine cone earrings.
Wouldn't those be cute for the holidays? 
Go visit her and say "Hi!" and 
tell her I sent ya.


And now my little darling ♥
I just spent the last 3 days over with my sweetie
Holden. He was 6 months old on Tuesday.
His mommy wetted down his curls on top 
of his head and brushed them out. 
He took his hand and messed up his hair.
Jeanie, if you see this, that is one of 
the burp cloths you sent Rachael.
They get used everyday.
Okay, I leave all of my lovely friends for 
now. It is Sunday evening and I need to 
start sewing together the granny squares  of 
the latest baby blanket.
Any suggestions of what I should make next?
I have a million and one things running 
through my head.
Looks like I will have to pay some of you a 
visit and see what is going on in your 
creative corner of the world.
Have a safe and great week.
Only wishing the best for all of you.
~♥~

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Why My Hair is Gray & Falling Out


On Tuesday my hubby went to Lowes to 
retrieve some mulch.
Now normally I go with him to make sure 
he is getting the right kind.
I decided to let him go by himself, 
but I did send along a note as a reminder 
of just what kind to buy and what I 
did NOT want.
My note stated:
I want PINE BARK MULCH,
NOT Pine Bark Chips
NOT Cypress Mulch.


He did get the right mulch, 
but holy smokes, 
look how the guy from the store loaded 
the truck up!!!!!!!
I would not have wanted to be driving 
behind some nut 
who had this on the back of his truck!
And to beat all, my husband actually drove past 
a Highway Patrolman who was parked 
along side the 4-lane State Route.
Why he didn't get stopped is beyond me.
Now just to show you the difference between 
men and women, the woman who sold these 
45-3 cubic feet, 84 liter bags to my husband 
offered to break down the shrink wrapped 
skid, but the guy who loaded it said, 
"Oh that isn't necessary, this should be just fine."
And my husband allowed him to go ahead and 
load her up.
Had I been there, 
that truck would not have left the parking lot 
loaded down like that.
Gray thinning hair, and bags under my eyes.
I am not a pretty sight, 
but I do have my mulch and when looking 
at it now all I see is WORK!
~♥~
 
 

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

New Tablecloth & Chewy


Coffee use to be the thing I wanted to start 
each day, but now it is 
our sweet, little Holden's face.
I won't apologize, all of you who are grandmas
know what it is like.


My favorite color is blue. If you read my blog 
you saw it on my last post, and I have no 
doubt mentioned it in passing since day one.

 
The curtains in my kitchen 
(purchased from Country Curtains) 
 are a light blue gingham.
Sometimes I was hard pressed to 
find other items of that specific color, 
like my rag rugs that I ended up making
(will share on another post).
I was beyond myself thrilled when I found 
a round vinyl tablecloth to match here.
It happened just by chance back during 
Mother's Day when I found an oval one 
with pretty little cherries for my mom in 
The Vermont Country Store Catalog.


I took it out of it's packaging and of course there 
were wrinkles from it being in there since it 
was manufactured. I threw it in the dryer on 
low heat, that usually works. Oh no, was I going to 
have to buy some of those silly little clip-on
table weights you see for picnic tables!
Maybe it would have been better to have tried 
using a medium dryer setting, but I was worried 
 and didn't want to chance melting it.

 
So I came up with an idea.


I got the clothes pin bag out and I weighted the 
thing down all around with them, ha! 
And I brought out the blow dryer.
I set it on High and commence to trying to 
blow dry out the wrinkles.


It did help some and I removed the clothespins 
and am quite happy with my lovely table cover.
Now I need to make some placemats.
What do you think, some crocheted ones 
made from cotton? Using this doily design 
my friend Faith used here
Scroll down to her Saturday August 18th post 
to see it.
Faith has a wonderful blog full of some of the 
cutest crocheted vintage patterns. Check her out.

 
Now you see this guy, this is Chewy.
Believe it or not my husband named him that
as soon as we brought him home.
He should have been named TERMITE.

 
See this, let's have a closer look shall we.


There that is better. 
You know those little wooden plugs that 
are used to cover up the screws in the 
nail holes on wooden items,
well I have 4 kitchen chairs and don't ask me 
how a dog that was not even a year old managed 
to even reach high enough to chew every single 
one of these things out of all the chairs.
He had to have done it at night.
Do not TERMITES do their work in 
total darkness? 
Oh it gets better, read on.....

 
What, you say, is that on the chair leg?
Well, let's have a closer look at this as well.

 
I show you more of his handiwork.
Back when he was little he decided to gnaw 
on the legs of my chairs.
I tried everything including Hot Sauce!!!
Heck, HE LIKED THE STUFF!!!
Now mind you, my husband did wood 
working as a hobby and I told him to forget
about buying wood, our dog would 
probably be pooping out a piece of lumber 
if he kept chewing on my chairs.
 That stuff on the chair leg, soap, 
bar soap to be exact.
Evidently Chewy was not too keen on 
the taste, and it was how I solved a 
major destructive behavior.
I suppose it is high time I scrub 
that off of there and figure out 
what I will do to fix it. 
Do I need to do some yarn bombing?

 
In the meantime we still have this guy.
He never did poop out that board, and I never 
saw any splinters on his hind end.
Maybe we should have named him 
Woody the Termite, 
but he is still Chewy to us.
He was definitely living up to his name, lol.
~♥~



 

Monday, August 20, 2012

The ABC's of Me

Just some fun facts about me:
A- Age: 61
B- Bed size: Queen
C- Chore You Hate: Cleaning the Stove/Oven
D- Dogs Name: Trixie & Chewy
E- Essential Start of the Day Item: Coffee
F- Favorite Color: Blue
G- Gold or Silver: Gold
H- Height: 5'1"
I- Instruments You Play: Wax Paper on a Comb, lol
J- Job: Mom/Retired Nurse
K- Kids: 2 Daughters, 35 and 33
L- Living Arrangements: Own Home
M- Music You Love: Enya, Michael Jackson, Genesis, Simply Red,
Tina Turner, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Sarah Brightman, Adele, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kenny G, James Brown, too many more
N- Nickname: Susie/Sue
O- Overnight Hospital Stays: 3 nights when each of my daughters were born, 6 nights when I had my gall bladder removed
P- Pet Peeve: Chairs left sitting out away from the table
Q- Quote From a Movie: "There is no place like home." Wizard of Oz
R- Right Handed of Left: Right Handed
S- Siblings: 5 younger brothers
T- Time you wake up: 5am to 6am
U- Underwear: M & L
V- Vegetables you dislike: Lima Beans
W- Workout Style: Treadmill
X- X-Rays You've Had: Chest, Feet, Ankles
Y- Yummy Food You Make: Spaghetti Sauce, Lasagna, Pizza, Zucchini Bread, Macaroni & Cheese, Cheese Cake, Chicken & Dumplings, Gravy & Biscuits, Gingerbread, Stack Cake, Dried Beef Cheese Ball, Homemade Beef Jerky, Dill Dip, Chipped Beef on Toast, Potato Salad
Z- The best Place to Visit: Gatlingburg Tennessee

 

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Beautiful Day, Household Chores


If one could call Mother Nature and order up
a perfect day, it would have been Friday
and Saturday.
 How wonderful to have 2 beautiful 
days right in a row. 
My Saturday started out by kissing my hubby
 goodbye as he was leaving to go visit with 
his sister in southern Ohio.
Our oldest daughter was taking the baby to 
show him off to her aunt,
and her dad was going along.
Should I feel just a little bit guilty that I was 
glad to have a day and night to myself, 
to do what I wanted without interruption? 


 I decided to stripe the blankets and sheets off of
the beds. Into the washer went the sheets, then 
out to hang on the clothes line. There is no denying 
the smell of clean sheets dried outside is 
one of the best smells ever. I love to see sheets 
and clothes out on the line, 
but I absolutely love to see a pretty quilt 
flapping a bit in a soft warm breeze.


I made this quilt in 1981. I know this is going 
to sound terrible when I say it, but it has never 
seen the inside of a washing machine.
I do throw it in the dryer on air for about 
20 minutes and then out on the line, 
preferably in the shade (to prevent fading 
and sun damage) allowing it to air out.

 
Two years into my marriage I was accused by 
my mil of "washing my quilts to death".
The worst place you can put your quilts is in the 
washing machine. It beats the fabric and weakens 
the threads. People love to display their quilts, 
but unless you protect it from sunlight you will
eventually see sun damage and fading.


I can understand the need to launder a quilt 
if it is used on a child's bed. 
If possible it is best to spot clean with a gentle 
soap. Most quilt shops handle these products 
and can also give you tips
 on the proper care of your quilt. 
I'm sure you can even find helpful 
information on line.
They do make fade-resistant fabrics as well.
If I remember right, those special fabrics are 
rather costly.
And another thing, there is also a website 
related to missing and stolen quilts.
Quilts that have been stolen from county fairs 
and right off of clothes lines.

 
I left my sheets hang out all afternoon and 
finally did get them back on the beds. The rest 
of the day I spent puttering around doing some of
those little jobs that don't amount to much 
unless you don't do them, you know, like filling 
the napkin holder on the kitchen table, 
or putting a new roll of toilet paper on the holder, 
or getting a new box of kleenex out, 
filling the dog's water bowl, taking the trash out,
etc., etc..

I did get some of the thread tails woven in on
my latest batch of grannies. I am just about
all grannied out. I will share a pic soon of 
the new blanket when I get it sewn together.
I have another baby ripple in the works too.
It is just that I have so much baby yarn and want to 
get as much of it used up as possible.
How many times have you heard me say I 
Am going to do something else, yet I sound anymore
like a broken record. I just keep plugging away
with the baby stuff.
My one girlfriend brought me more baby yarn.
I had put a big dent in my stash and here 
she comes with a bag of more yarn.
Of course I was grateful. I couldn't wait 
to get my hands on it!
~♥~
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THAT THE ONES YOU LOVE ARE LIFE'S MOST PRECIOUS GIFTS~