Baptism

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? Is everyone all done with their Christmas shopping? Have everything wrapped? Cards sent out? Baking done? If you answered yes to all of these questions, let me pat you on the back! I am still trying to get a few things done. But then... I've been busy playing with my grandson! And yes, I am going to use him as an excuse! ;-) He is just sooooo cute! And sooooo adorable!

This past Sunday he was baptised at our church. He wore a batismal romper that was made from my wedding dress. It turned out beautifully. My friend made it for me (since I'm not a seamstress at all!) She will be making a baptismal gown for me also. Anyhow, here are a few pictures of the wonderful day.

My honey's parents, our son and daughter-in-law and grandbaby!

And here is a picture of the four generations of the Parsons men, plus the oldest generation represented by my father-in-law of his father. (The red sweater my father-in-law is wearing is one that was made for and worn by, his father. Thus, great-great-granddad is represented here!)

That is what went on on Sunday. And there has been alot more picture taking going on since then!

We have not had much snow at all this year. My honey is okay with that. But dilly-girl and I aren't so happy. We are both hoping that there will still be a white christmas! We will have a full house for Christmas this year and my honey and I are so very happy to be able to say that! I hope ya'll have a very Happy and blessed Christmas!

A dusting....

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to share the little bit of white we got from yesterday evenings precipitation.... It's still a ways from Christmas, but I'm beginning to get a little nervous here. Our first Christmas here in Nebraska was nice. Lacking a bit in the snow but nice none the less. Then the next two years were awesomely loaded with snow for Christmas! Last year, we had SO much snow that it annoyed most everyone! But this year.... I'm a little worried that it's going to be skimpy in the snow department. Our dilly-girl is heading out here and I told her about the white christmases that we'd had in the past and she is looking forward to that! But, well, as I said earlier, it's still a bit early for a Christmas forecast.

Last night, as I walked to church for Chime Choir practice, it was looking a bit like it might snow! After our practice ended, I walked out and heard little chink-chink sounds. Icy rain was falling. This morning I looked out and this is what I saw from the upstairs window.

These photo's were taken from our upstairs balcony. I love looking out over the tops of the houses across the ally way. Anyhow, I've got my fingers crossed and I say a prayer everyday in the hopes that come Christmas time we'll have a nice coating of snow! Oldest son and his family will be here on the 17th and baby girl and darling fiance will be here on the 23rd! It will be SO nice to have our kids and their families all together again!

Okay, I've got errands to do! Picking up the Baptismal outfit today! There is still enough fabric to make a gown next. Anyhow, will show pic's later of how it turned out.

Hope ya'll have a fabulous day and don't get stressed out! Enjoy what the good Lord has given you!

Uber large noggins....?

I am wondering... does my family REALLY have uber large heads? Seriously. What is the average size head? Because silly me, I've been sitting in this house, and at bible study and various waiting rooms just a knitting away trying to get some projects done and I didn't really think about these things potentially not fitting. I followed the pattern directions, for adult sizes. So, they should fit. Right?

And yet, when I tried one of the hats on .... it didn't fit quite the way I thought it was supposed to. And then I tried on another hat, this one was a bit snug. And then I had my honey try one on... same thing. A little too snug. OH MY GOSH! So now I'm in a panic! I'm asking myself, is it really the hats? Or is it our heads? I always knew that my honey's side of the family had rather (okay, excessively) large heads. But now it looks as if I too have a larger than normal head circumference! It couldn't be the patterns themselves... I mean, the many people who bought these books and patterns would have complained... right?! So, since I followed directions and I used the correct yarns and I did the swatches... that all means these are made according to the pattern directions, to fit the average size heads. Which means..........................

OUR HEADS ARE FREAKING ENORMOUS!

So, my next question is... will blocking all these items make them larger? Because these items were made for my family. And they have heads like us. So if these are going to be usable items, they MUST become somewhat larger! So, are there any knitters out there that read this blog? And would answer this question for me?! Because I don't have time to make more things especially if I have to go and alter the patterns to fit our monster heads!

Question:... will blocking my knitted items make them some what larger?

(Please say, yes!)

Okay, I have to go now. I think I'll go do some shopping. I may need (backup) Christmas gifts to hand out to family! Maybe knitting isn't for me after all......

blah!

I hope all of you are having a great day!

(I'm working on mine...)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We finally got our Christmas decorating started. We (I) was under pressure to get it done because we were getting ready to have a houseful of people over for a Christmas Caroling night yesterday evening. This is the second time we've hosted this event. We didn't do it last year (can't remember why....) I hope this becomes an annual event! This year we got bales of hay from our friends the Nielsons and our friends the Betts' provided the transportation. He has a flat trailer type thing that the bales sat on and then we covered the bales with blankets so that no one would turn into sopranos when they sat down on them! (Did ya like that Kris?) ;-) Anyhow... Once again I failed in the photo taking department. Had I had my head in the game... I would have taken pictures of our musical accompanists! We had two sax players and a flautist (?) and having musicians made such a difference! Hopefully, we'll be able to get them again next year! Although.... Jordan is a senior in high school so we may have to work around her college schedule next year. She is a supremely talented person. She taught herself how to play the sax a couple years ago!

So, my honey and I managed to get the tree put up and the lights up in the windows one night and then I did the rest on the day of the get-together. (Nothing like waiting until the last minute!) Here are a few pic's of the decorations for those of you who might be interested. I didn't do as much as usual since I was a bit crunched for time!

Sorry for the mess. Just ignore that part of all the pictures. And the sun is not wanting to come out so I can have good light for all these shots either. As a matter of fact we've got a little snow flurry thing going on right now. I'm praying for snow on Christmas Day! Well, actually I'm always praying for snow during the month of December!!!!

Okay, one last picture and that is of my Italian Bread Pudding with Almondine Sauce! It's made with Pannatone Bread, which is SO good on it's own! But when made into this concoction.... OH MY! ;-)

Ta-daaaaa!

And let me tell you! It was YUMMY!

So that is it for today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm heading out with my honey to take care of more Christmas stuff. Hopefully the weather will not make our driving too difficult!

Grandbaby alert.....

I was going through my photo's and I saw this cute little face and I had to put it in the blog. This is what he looked like on the 13th of November. He is such a cutie-pie to us! And the little smile he has is just so... adorable it makes me wanna just snag him up and snuggle him! And maybe even smother him with a ton of Nana kisses! (I'm gonna get those in before he gets too big and starts to really complain about Nana kissin' him too much! Oh wait! What am I saying? He'll never do that! He's our grandbaby and our grandbaby is perfect!

;-)

So, this picture was taken in November and he looks like a solid, little guy! I know, he's a big one! We are in the process of having a baptismal gown made for him (by a wonderfully, lovely friend of mine (thank you M!) our of my wedding dress. Baby girl found her dream dress which is a total DREAM! So, my dress was sitting down in the basement just taking up space. But I didn't want to just throw it out or give it to goodwill, so I talked my, said friend, to make a baptismal outfit out of it. I haven't seen it yet but I am really excited! We believe there will be enough fabric in the dress that we could actually have a baptismal gown made as well. Plus she is using the lace to make a jacket and a baby bonnet to match. Seriously, really excited here! Anyhow, I'm praying that it will fit him!

<----

And this is what he is looking like these days. He looks like such a happy baby! And that has everything do with his happy momma and daddy! They just spoil him and love on him and he just shares all that lovin' with the world! Just look at those thighs! Don'cha just wanna grab him up and make slurpy noises on those thighs?! Well, I do! And I'll be able to real soon! Well, I hope so anyhow. He's 4 months and he is becoming more aware of his surroundings and familiar faces. He may just take one look at his ol' Nana and decide he doesn't want anything to do with me! And if that happens, everything will stop and all I will be doing is trying to get the little guy to become familiar with me. Cooking, cleaning, socializing will all come to a screeching halt until our little grandbaby decides he's okay with me! Theeeeeeeeennnn, maybe I'll share him with his granddaddy!

A few days ago our Dilly-girl called and put grandbaby on the phone and he was just a babbling like crazy! (takes after his ol' Nana! ;-O ) It was just the cutest thing EVER!

They are going to be here in 10 days! I have 10 days to get everything ready for their arrival! AND Baby girl and fiance will be coming here soon (no exact day yet.) but soon we will have our WHOLE family together! We are going to be so happy! (doing the happy, happy, joy, joy dance right now!)

Okay, so I need to get back to work. I REALLY need to get out and go for a run. The kitties and puppy are staring me down 'cuz they're hungry! And I have a BUNCH of things I have to get done today so.... they are not going to get done if I continue to sit on my duff, here at the computer.

Take a moment to reflect on a mindful joy every few hours through out your day!

I will NOT be the cat lady!

I am writing today to say... THIS IS IT! NO MORE! I'M DONE! I'm talking about the cat situation. Let me give you the back ground of this story.

Once upon a time we had two female, kitty cats. And then we moved and had to fly with one of the kitty cat (the other kitty is another story). Which then turned nutzo after the flight and hid in my parents garage and would not come out! Needless to say, my parents kept the cat. Then years later, we came back from another trip. When we came home, we found a little, teeny-tiny, female, kitty in the corner of our back yard. Poor thing was beaten pretty badly. She had broken ribs, tail, missing claws and her bottom lip was pulled up under her chin, her chin showed through with no skin to cover it. She was a mess. We took her to the vet and the vet told us, if we were going to keep the kitty, the vet would do the surgery free of charge. All we would have to do is pay for the meds and the anesthesia. So we decided to keep her. A few years later, we had to move overseas. So, we put the kitty on the plane and when we got to the other end of the flight.... We had another nutzo cat. We found a home for her where nutzo was okay. And at that point I decided that Army life was not conducive to having cats. Then we ended up (many years later) with our yellow tabby. Let me just say, it was all my hubby's fault! HE WANTED the cat! Unfortunately, the cat turned out to be a MAJOR MOMMA'S BOY! The GOOD thing was that he travels VERY well! I have been happy to have a cat again. But I kept telling hubby that this was it! For real, we will only have dogs once the cat is "no longer". And then it happened, a friend of ours moved away and left her cat. IT was an outdoor cat. It had never been indoors for longer than a few hours. And our friend couldn't take her with since she already had an indoor cat. So... we ended up feeding her. Outside. Then one day she got hit by a car and... we took her to the vet and they fixed her up (thankfully she had very minor injuries) but still needed medication. So, we decided to try to turn her into an indoor cat. Evidently we were successful because now, she stays in when the weather is yucky.

Where once, she was a wild and free kitty....

Now she is...

A spoiled kitty.........

But THIS is IT! NO MORE KITTIES! I don't care who moves, I don't care what the circumstances! NO MORE and that's final!

The End!

Sheesh, have a good day folks. ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Busy pretending....

Oh my goodness! Hello every one! My apologies for having been gone for so long! I've been busy pretending. Yes, pretending. I've been pretending to be like the Yarn Harlot! Okay, not so much knitting in her style (have you SEEN her actually knitting?) or even in being as prolific a knitter as she is. But in my head (I'm knitting like the Yarn Harlot who knits like the wind blows here in Nebraska!), I've been knitting up a storm! In the last nearly three weeks I've actually knitted FOUR hats! Did I mention I did that in nearly three weeks?! FOUR HATS! Oh, and I should probably mention I even started and ripped out (at least a couple dozen times) a pattern for (knitted) fingerless gloves. But, alas, they have yet to be made. I did find a pattern for fingerless gloves that didn't call for a definite left or right hand. But, so far, no luck in getting those completed.

I did, however complete one pair (of crocheted gloves) that I complained about a while back. I say, "completed", did not say "completed correctly". You can see that the thumb gussets

do not match in shape and the cuffs are different.

The gussets were a problem for me. One that I could not figure out where I was going wrong. But, the cuff I know exactly what I did wrong. (Yay me!) The one on the left I crocheted in each of the chain stitches, the one on the right I crocheted around the chain stitch. So, now I know, I will not be lazy and and crochet around, I will always crochet through each chain. The good thing is that they are wearable. So I've been wearing them. I just don't let people look at them too closely! ;->

So, there you go. I've been busy pretending. In my head, I was pretending to be the Yarn Harlot and it worked for me. I actually got quite a bit accomplished (for me, that is) and I hope to continue in this until I get all my knitting and crocheting completed! ;-) So, it's back to the needles for me! But, after I'm done with all my projects for the holidays.... I'm going to SERIOUSLY work on how to ACTUALLY knit like the Harlot! It's amazing! Someday I'm going to be a cottage style knitter! Oh yes I am!

Have a great day! ;-)

First snow!

Hello everyone! Last night we had the beginning of our first snow fall of the season! It snowed off and on for a few hours and we probably got about a half an inch. But, it is warm out so it's melting rather quickly. And by warm I mean it's 39 degrees outside. ;-)

But that's okay. Because this is only the beginning. I don't know if ya'll remember, but last year we got our first snowfall on October 10th! THAT was early for us. This year it's still a bit early but not overly unusual. The thing I truly love about this place is that for the most part we have white christmases. And I absolutely ADORE that! The only bad thing about snow around christmas time is that fact that the roads get rather icky and I worry about baby girl and her fiance driving up from Kansas.

Anyhow... I've been keeping busy. I've been doing some knitting and I'm getting better all the time! (what a surprise huh?) I've actually finished the fingerless gloves, although, they didn't turn out quite as well as I would have liked. They look good, but I have issues with the cuff on the right hand and the gusset on the left. Blah! But when I actually put them on they aren't half bad. That was a crochet pattern. I think I'll look for a knitted pattern and see how that goes. I even finished three other knitted projects for gifts! And those took about three weeks! See? Getting better! ;-)

The guest bedroom is nearly done. I ended up picking up another project to do for the guest bedroom that I hadn't planned on doing. But, it's a needed item so.... And... my honey put up the shades we bought at Lowe's and they look fabulous in the sun room! Not only do they look great, but they also help keep the room a bit warmer. The windows in that room are OLD! They are so old that they have the wavy glass in them. And I know that they are not economical as far as keeping the cold air out and the warm air in... but, they do LOOK wonderful and I love looking through them. The room is on the North side of the house and it can get pretty chilly in that room. But these blinds help minimize the chill in the room. And with my new japanese kotatsu table, it's quite nice to sit there! And that is where I've been doing most of my knitting.

So, as you can see, I haven't been a total slug. I've been keeping busy and getting a few things done around here. I PROMISE to have a little show and tell of the rooms once I'm done.

I apologize for not having touched base with ya'll sooner. Have a great weekend everyone!

Oh by the way... I had this picture of our little grandson that I just had to share! We just think he's too darling for words! ;-) And when we get new pic's we like to share, as you have seen!

And on this note, I will leave ya'll to have that wonderful weekend! Catch ya'll later!

2010 Halloween Parade

Hello everyone! I have today, photo's of our town's annual Halloween Parade. What is that you ask? Well, in our town we have an elementary school on Main street. And every year the children and teachers that attend the elementary school get dressed up in their costumes on the last day of school before Halloween and all walk down one side of Main Street down to our small downtown area and then walk back up again to the school. The downtown businesses hand out candy to them as well as our church and the Masonic Lodge and some of the other businesses that are here in town but don't have their buildings on Main St. The weather for this years event was absolutely beautiful! Earlier in the week we had gale force winds! AND it was really getting quite cold out! But yesterday was ideal! And everyone who was involved had a great time! And just for the record... Our church handed out full sized Hershey Chocolate bars! Yup. We sure did! ;-) Ya'll should have seen the looks on the kids faces!

So here are a few photo's from this fun day!

Pastor Marvin helping to hand out candy.

One of the lines of kids in the parade.

Here's one of the many teachers dressed up.

Ooooo, some scary kids.....

Of course, we must have at least one Nebraska Fan!

And here is the Masonic Lodge folks getting in on the fun!

And here is our wrapped FULL sized candy bars!

Because I was helping to hand out the candy again this year, I couldn't get down to the downtown business area to take pictures. These are all photo's near our end of Main Street. Hopefully, next year I'll be able to get pictures of the Businesses handing out their goodies! I think it's so great that there are businesses that participate in what is going on in the town that they have set up shop at.

So, there you go. Another year of the Springfield Halloween Parade. How about ya'll? Anyone else have interesting events going on in your town?

Have a fun, safe and Happy Halloween All!

What is it?.....

Yes, it is a table. But! Do you know what kind? It is....(drumroll please.....) A Kotatsu table! Ta-daaaa! This little table has been in my dreams for a long time! Well, every time we lived in a cold climate, I dreamed about someday having a table like this. When I was growing up we'd go to visit my grandparents house and on cold days we'd sit around their table (which was much larger) and I'd listen to my relatives all talking and laughing and eating around this table as I was laying half under it. I would be so cozy and warm. This table, not only does it have a nice thick blanket over the frame but it also has a heating unit built under the frame top! It is really quite ingenious!

Here is the heating element turned on.

The heating element is adjustable and the outside of the heating elements cage is softly flocked and it never gets too hot to touch. Yesterday I ate my lunch there and then sat for a while to do some knitting. It was very nice.

My mother had this sent to me a few weeks ago and I only just got it put together. I had to rearrange the room to accommodate the table. Then I had to find pillows for the floor (the japanese name for the pillows is Zabuton), and these that are shown are not real zabuton pillows. They are actually floor pillows that I purchased from Pier One. But they work, at least for now.

I am not the only one that has enjoyed this table....

Ethan has been enjoying it too! And when I am sitting there he climbs on my lap and then Ricky (the dog) lays down beside me on the quilt and we are all quite the happy little campers!

Thank you Mom for this table and the good memories! ;-)

Posting as a Grandparent..

Hello everyone! I know, I know, I've been gone for a while and you're probably expecting to see some of the things I've been working on. Alas... it is not to be. I'm still working on the guest bedroom and some of the furnishings that will go into the room. I don't even have a sneak peak for ya. BUT! I do have some photo's of grandbaby. So for those of you who are not interested... you may want to move on to another blog. But please don't forget to check back here again at a later date to see some of the changes I've made to our house.

So here we go.

First up. This little boy is quickly growing... Look at those cheeks and his belly! Just makes ya wanna grab him up and cuddle him!

Next... Here he is with a cute little grin on his chubby little face! In this particular pic, he has a slight asian look to his eyes. But, maybe it's just me seeing that. Anyone else see it? ;-)

And we continue.... You know when I look at these pictures it makes me realize (belatedly of course) how much our parent's missed when my honey and I were raising our kids.

Being in the military we moved around quite a bit and we never lived near either of our parents. Sorry Mom & Dad C. & P.!

Dilly-girl and I bought this baseball inspired outfit for grandbaby when I was out there this summer visiting them. It's a 9 month outfit that we thought he would be wearing in December when they came to visit during Christmas. But, no. He is wearing it now. He is two months old. Hmmm, makes ya wonder what he WILL be wearing come December.....!

And here is a nice little family photo of them taken by their Great-Grand Parents who were visiting them this past week. They got to hold their Great-Grandson lot's and lot's! I am SO jealous!

Grand baby looks like a little monkey! He is SO cute!

Okay, I think I've bored you long enough. I just had to share these photo's. AND lucky for you, it was only a tiny portion of the pictures we have because Dilly-girl is SO good about sending pictures on a nearly daily basis!

And on that note, I leave you to go about your day and hope that you all have a wonderful one!

Check back again and I hope that I will have gotten the room and projects completed and on this blog, by then! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Fun finds...

Hello everyone! Hope ya'll had a great Saturday. Today I spent the day working on a few projects that I've been putting off. One of those things are these cute little acorns.

I've seen other bloggers and Etsy sites that have had these. And I've been wanting to do this for a while now. The problem was, I couldn't find oak trees that were dropping acorns! I know, silly. I knew I'd seen some somewhere, I just couldn't remember where. And then the other day I was cutting across the grass under some trees to get to the commissary entrance and I heard crunching sounds. I looked down and... voila! Acorns! I quickly grabbed my portable, re-usable bag out of my purse and proceeded to fill it with acorn caps. And today I pulled out my bags of wool roving and started making them. At first I tried to wet felt them into shape. But that didn't work out so well. (I was really hoping that it would cuz I'm pretty nervous about working with those needles you use to needle felt with). But there was no getting around it. So I very carefully began poking with the needle and after a while I had enough to put together. I love how they look. And I plan on making more. But I think I may make some with caps that have not been varnished. I think maybe it'll look better if the caps aren't so shiny.

I also wanted to show ya'll what I found at the new (to me) Antique shop that I found. I love, love, love, leaded glass windows. And I got this one for a steal!

And then, the lady that runs the shop took me down to the basement because she thought I might like to see more of her things that she hadn't put out yet. And there it was! The little table I've been looking for! It was exactly the right height (I know because I measured it with my handy, dandy measuring tape that I lug around with me everywhere!) And I knew exactly what height I needed because I checked my list (yes, I carry a list of all the things I'm looking for with the measurements listed)! I got the little table for $2.00!

So, for a total of $5.00 I got two items. Okay so only one thing was actually on my list. But who can pass up a leaded glass window for only $3.00? I mean, really!

Unfortunately, in my excitement to get this pretty little table painted, I forgot to take a "before" picture. (oop's.) It was in pretty good condition. Some scratches and cup rings but other than that.... What I really like about this table is the little detail on either side of the legs. I thought it was just lovely.

And the way the table under the top is cut, all curvy like. And the top of the table has a scalloped edge along the side and back. Anyhow, it was a rather sad looking mahogany color and now it is a pretty shade of green. It's actually one of the colors I had initially picked for the house. I like it better on the table. ;-)

So, this guest bedroom is coming along. I am about to begin work on painting the other guest bedroom. Currently it is blue. All blue. As in a dark blue on the walls AND the ceiling! Not sure what color I'll paint it, other than white for the ceiling for sure.

And that is it for today. Tomorrow, after church, I'm going to go to an Antique Flea Market in Omaha. It occurs on the first Sunday of every month. And I only heard about it when I went to the Antique shop where I found my goodies. The lady there was telling me how she was getting ready for it. I am SO excited!

So, hopefully I'll have some fun things to share with ya'll in my next blog. ;-)

Here it is folks...

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I last wrote. Things have been going on and keeping us super busy. And obviously, I'm not as good about blogging and being busy as many of you bloggers are. I just can't seem to find the time to sit and post. But! Here it is. The house is FINALLY finished. As far as the painting is concerned. ;-)

Can you see how they are working on the house? I'm not so sure that the guy on the ladder is really going to be able to do anything if the ladder that is laying on the roof actually begins to slide. And I'm not so sure Miss. Ally will be able to hold the ladder in place if it begins to get pushed from the top. But, I must admit, she'll look cute trying!

So they couldn't get started painting the house because it rained on Saturday. Sunday they began scraping the house and when they did that they found a few places that had "issues". So we are not exactly all done yet. We have to get the handyman out to replace a couple of the slat siding and the porch rail. But then the guy who painted the house will return and paint those new pieces. I'm telling you what. We had the best guys come out and paint our house! They did a fabulous job and cleaned up each time and just plain worked their butt's off!

So, without further a do.... (by the way, for some reason the paint color is showing up more on the blue side. Not sure why, because it really does look a bit more green in actuality)

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

And I must say... We LOVE IT! It turned out better than I had anticipated! AND, I was just looking at my October Better Homes & Garden Magazine and on page 92 was a house that is exactly the same color as ours! Well, theirs is showing more green than ours, but that may be because of my poor handling of the camera! Anyhow, if any of you have that magazine, check it out. AND just to let you know, I plan (eventually) to have the stone work done on our house so that it will look more like the photo in the magazine. As I mentioned in the past, I'm working on getting the house to have more of that Arts & Crafts sensibility to it.

My poor honey, I'm sure he feels like he's working just to pay for the work on the house. But I know that it's only temporary. (Honest dear, eventually, we'll get to that point where we you can sit back and just enjoy.)

Okay, I'll post a couple of things that I found on my Omaha Antique shop jaunt earlier this week. Oh, and a DIY. ;-)

Ya'll have a great weekend and I'll be chattin' with ya soon!