Joan's Good Life

Chrysanthemums & bread machines

2011-10-15T07:43:00.008-05:00

Hello everyone! I do believe Fall has arrived! The trees are losing their leaves, the chrysanthemums are blooming and the bread machine is back on the counter!

And to kick off this wonderfully cool weather, last night we had Beef & Barley stew and home made whole wheat bread!! Yup, the ice cream maker has been put away and the bread machine brought out. That is my way of saying, Fall is here and it's time for comforting warm foods for cold nights!

The beef & barley stew was just one of those made up things. You just sort of take stock of what you have and then chop, slice and use up. You really can't go wrong when you just wing it for stews and soups. And the thing I really like about making soups and stews is that you can let it simmer for hours and hours and it only makes it better at the end of the day!

But the best thing about Fall is the bread! I ADORE fresh baked bread! Straight out of the oven, sliced, buttered and oh my goodness! The bread crust is crunchy/chewy and the center of the bread is warm and buttery and slides down your throat! Oh my! Just thinking about it makes me want to go and cut another slice off and toast it and add a dab of jam on it!

Anyhowwwww. I have an old Sunbeam, 2lb. Expressbake bread machine. My honey got it for me way back in 1996 or maybe 97'. I didn't use it much back then. I wasn't a real big fan of bread machine bread. I didn't care for the way it looked when you took it out of the machine. And the texture always seemed to be off. But then I discovered the dough setting. That setting has totally changed my life! I now use that setting exclusively. Although I do have a Kitchen Aide mixer, I don't use it for making pizza crusts or bread doughs any longer. The bread machine kneads the bread and takes care of the first rise process with no hassles. And then I take out the dough and shape it and let it rise again and then bake it off. And it comes out perfect EVERY TIME!

Yesterday I made a whole wheat bread using a recipe that I had never tried before. I got it out of my "Bread Machine how to prepare and bake the perfect loaf" by Jennie Shapter, that Baby Girl gave me years ago! I followed the recipe, Light Whole-Wheat Bread, and then set it on the dough setting. When it was done, I took it out, shaped it and set it in the bread pan and let it raise again. Then I baked it at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

For those of you who would like to make this bread here is the recipe. I'm not sure how you would go about adjusting it, if at all, for those who will not be using a bread machine. But if you are interested in making this bread here is the recipe.

Light Whole-Wheat Bread

1 3/4 cups water

3 cups whole-wheat bread flour

1 1/3 cups white bread flour

2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. butter

1 1/2 tsp. rapid-rise active dry yeast

1 Pour the water into the bread machine pan. If the instructions for your bread machine specify that the yeast is to be placed in the pan first, rexerse the order in which you add the liquid and dry ingredients to the pan.

2 Sprinkle each type of flour over in turn, ensuring that the water is covered. Add the sal, sugar and butter in separate corners of the bread pan. Make a shallow indentation in the center of the flour and add the yeast.

3 Set the bread machine to the basic/normal setting, medium crust. Press Start.

*OR*

*Set the machine to dough setting at this point if you'd like to shape your own bread.*

At the end of the dough cycle. Turn out the dough and shape as you like it. Then set it aside in a warm place until dough doubles in size. At which time you may then place your bread in a pre-heated oven set at 400 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes or until done.

For those of you who have a bread machine, do you use your bread machines for the whole bread or just the dough setting?

Hope everyone is planning on a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by! ;-)

Babka and....

2011-10-12T09:32:00.007-05:00

Hello everyone!

I have been a busy, busy girl! I'm in the middle of three major projects! (Major for me) I have been knitting baby girl things, I found a lovely and simple baby sweater that I only made three mistakes on! (sheesh) working on the baby bonnet made from silk hankies (not finished because I also worked on a baby quilt and quilt finger and silk hankies don't work well together.) I am currently working on the baby quilt for my granddaughter who will arrive in November (Yay!) AND.... I am working on a new vanity bench that I got off Craigslist a while ago! Phew!

So, I have no new pictures of the baby quilt I made for my niece. She did send me a picture of it but you can't really see anything of the quilt, just her adorable baby girl named Naomi! And I don't have pictures of my granddaughters quilt, sweater, bonnet or booties because I have absolutely NO natural light today. Just cloudiness and I didn't take any pictures of them when we did have nice, beautiful natural light all last week! ;-)

But, what I am going to do today is post the Babka recipe here instead. I had a couple of requests for said recipe and you know I'm all about being receptive to requests.... ;-)

So, here you go. And I hope that someday you will remember this recipe and make it because it is seriously delicious!

Chocolate Babka

Makes 3 loaves

1 1/2 cups warm milk, 110 degrees

2 (1/4 ounce each) packages active dry yeast

1 3/4 cups plus a pinch of sugar

3 whole large eggs, room temperature

2 large egg yolks, room temperature

6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature plus more for bowl and loaf pans

2 1/4 pounds semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped*

2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon heavy cream

Streusel topping (see below)

Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and pinch of sugar over milk; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, and egg yolks. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture, and whisk to combine.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Change to the dough hook. Add 2 sticks butter, and beat until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, and a smooth, soft dough that’s slightly sticky when squeezed is formed, about 10 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few turns until smooth. Butter a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Place chocolate, remaining cup sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter until well combined, set filling aside.

Generously butter three 9-by-5-by-2 3/4-inch loaf pans; line them with parchment paper.

Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon cream; set egg wash aside.

Punch back the dough, and transfer to a clean surface. Let rest 5 minutes. Cut into 3 equal pieces. Keep 2 pieces covered with plastic wrap while working with the remaining piece.

On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16-inch square; it should be 1/8 inch thick.

Brush edges with reserved egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of the reserved chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Refresh egg wash if needed. Roll dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch ends together to seal. Twist 5 or 6 turns. Brush top of roll with egg wash. Carefully crumble 2 tablespoons filling over the left half of the roll, being careful not to let mixture slide off. Fold right half of the roll over onto the coated left half. Fold ends under, and pinch to seal. Twist roll 2 turns, and fit into prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining 2 pieces of dough and remaining filling. (When shaping the babka, twist dough evenly throughout the length of the roll a full 5 to 6 turns.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of streusel topping over each loaf. Loosely cover each pan with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place 20 to 30 minutes. (The babka can be prepared up to step 8 and frozen for up to a month before baking. When ready to bake, remove from freezer; let stand at room temperature for about 5 hours, and bake.)

Bake loaves, rotating halfway through, until golden, about 55 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until babkas are deep golden, 15 to 20 minutes more. Remove from oven, and transfer to wire racks until cool. Remove from pans; serve.

Babkas freeze well for up to 1 month.

* After chopping the chocolate into moderately sized chunks, I used the food processor to pulse the rest of the chocolate in two batches to small bits. It saved a lot of time!

Streusel Topping

Makes 3 3/4 cups

1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and butter. Using a fork, stir until fully combined with clumps ranging in size from crumbs to 1 inch.

And there you have it. This is a Martha Stewart recipe and it is absolutely, dangerously delicious! I do hope you all will find a time to make it!

Blogger comments and food

2011-10-03T16:18:00.012-05:00

Hello everyone! So, I only just realized that I had comments that had never gotten posted. So sorry about that. I am not sure what happened, but I finally got around to looking at my comment moderations page and wouldn't you know it, there were comments I hadn't seen before!

So, I believe all comments have been moderated to date. Phew!

Now, on to one of my favorite things..... FOOD!

I have not been very good about blogging the foods that I have been making. I generally try new recipes every week. And then there are those days when I just go with the tried and trues. Well last week I saw a recipe for Rice noodles with beef gravy (kwaytiow neua sahp). It's a Vietnamese dish and it was AWE-SOME! I found it at Sidewalk Shoes. I had the foresight to paste the recipe into Evernote so I was able to make the recipe. And I'm glad I did because this one is a keeper! It was super YUMMY!

I LOVE fish sauce! Seriously! It's not the best smelling thing you'll ever open a cap to. But, boy howdy it sure does something special to the taste of a dish! There was really only one bad thing about this recipe. And that was that it tasted so good that we, my honey and I, both had seconds! You know how it is, you're stuffed, full to the gills, but you just want more of that taste in your mouth so you grab a second helping. That was us with this dish. Seriously, yum-o!

Now, here is something I made last Friday! And it took ALL DAY FRIDAY to make this!

What you are looking at is a Chocolate Babka! It is what is left of the three loaves I baked last Friday! I got this from Goop which is a site I subscribe to and I get weekly e-mails with all kinds of interesting things. Like one week it will be about fashion or another week about restaurants in various cities. Well, last week it was about Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Lunar Calendar Year. And to help with the celebrations you could serve something like, Rugelach, or Honey Apple cake or Chocolate Babka. Well, they had recipes for all three of these sweets that I mentioned. But the one that captured my attention was the Chocolate Babka because of the Jerry Seinfeld Show! We used to watch that every week. And now we enjoy watching the re-runs every evening. Anyhow there is an episode where Jerry and Elaine are invited to a friends house and they decide to go to the bakery on their way to the get-together to pick up a Chocolate Babka. They end up not getting the Chocolate Babka because the person before them had gotten the last one! So then Jerry and Elaine find out that there is another Babka! A Cinnamon Babka. Of course, it's not the Chocolate Babka that they had their heart set on. In their eyes the Cinnamon Babka was an inferior Babka. But, they couldn't go to the get-together empty handed! Of course there is more to the episode but you get the important part which was..... The Chocolate Babka!

So, anyhow, when I saw the recipe, well, I knew I had to make it. I've never seen a babka before, other than on the Sienfeld Show and even then they don't give you a very good shot of it. So I wasn't too sure about what I was doing. But the recipe was pretty easy to read and understand. It just took ALL DAY to make!

Let me tell you what! I now understand why Elaine and Jerry made such a big deal over that Babka. I made three loaves (that's what the recipe made) and when we took a bite, it was LOVE AT FIRST BITE! It is chocolate in bread that also had a nice little crunch from the streussel topping! OH MY GOSH! There were alarm's going off in my head! I knew this was going to kill any resolve I EVER had about eating less! If I didn't get these loaves out of my house.... Well, it would be the death of me! So, I gave a loaf to my neighbors across the street! I gave half a loaf to my next door neighbors! Then I gave a half a loaf to our friend and Choir Director! She has two small kids that are rod thin and can get away with eating this bread! We also gave half a loaf to Baby-Girl but she left our house and forgot it so we gave it to another friend of ours! We ate half a loaf. And if we hadn't given the others away when we did, we'd be eating them right this second!

And man let me just say, Chocolate Babka is wicked good!

Who's the daddy?

2011-09-21T14:41:00.012-05:00

Can you tell which

which?

Isn't life interesting? ;-)

Garden Tuesday ~ Natures bling

2011-09-20T07:45:00.008-05:00

This is the prettiest thing that has grown in my garden all season! Just look at the sparkling, gold collar on this delicately shaded jade green form. Amazing!

This will be my entry for Sidewalk Shoes Garden Tuesday.

Makes me giggle....

2011-09-13T10:04:00.001-05:00

I love my fil!

2011-09-12T08:31:00.005-05:00

Hello all!

So, I must say, I absolutely adore my FIL! That's Father-in-law, in case you didn't know. He has been so, so kind in making me things. First as you may recall was my lovely, one of a kind, spice rack.

It has been so wonderful to be able to have ALL my spices in one location! It's certainly made my cooking time faster now that I don't have to go searching for any particular item!

And so now, he has taken pitty on me and made me a beautiful oak book shelf that looks like it's a built in! He moved a light switch to the other side of the wall which is so wonderful. I'm not sure why it is that it wasn't like that to begin with. But it's done now and it makes sense!

;-)

Anyhow, as usual. In my excitement over having this wonderful new item made for me, I forgot to take a bunch of before pictures. I took a few of the book shelf when it was already installed and I was beginning to stain it. So here is that photo.

In the picture you can see how dark it is. I ended up going over it with another color stain to add a bit more red to it. I was trying to match it up to the stain that was already on the window and door frames.

It's still a little more brown than I wanted. But I was nervous about making it too red. The shelf actually matches the color of the baseboard more than the window and door frames. And the T.V. is something that get's moved from one room to another. So the cords are all showing. But, I'm okay with that. Normally the T.V. is in the sun room which is kind of our small family room.

So, I've got most of my cookbooks on the shelf. I've downsized quite a bit! Now I need to figure out how to use the bottom of half of the shelves as a pantry too. I don't want to nail or screw any holes into the shelf so that limits how I can use it as a pantry. But I'm not thrilled with the plastic containers sitting out there in the open either. I like my cracker tin that is on the bottom. I would love to have some other tins to maybe store my pasta's in. Or, maybe some pretty glass jars? OH! Maybe some larger WECK jars..... Hmmm, I might have to see if I can get my hands on some of the large jars.

And so this project continues. ;-)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! See you soon!

OMG! That Yarn Harlot....

2011-09-09T13:39:00.007-05:00

Is anyone else as annoyed as I am over the Yarn Harlot and her never ending bevy of adorable baby knits? Perhaps, *annoyed* is not the correct word I want to use. Envious is definitely more appropriate! She is the reason why my grandbaby has so little in the way of Nana-knitted items. (I hope the Yarn Harlot doesn't mind me using her as my new excuse!) The Yarn Harlot has churned out four baby items in just that many days. As for me.... I've managed to complete 16 rows of my baby bonnet that I started 10 days ago!

Every morning I go on line and see that she has yet another item up for show and tell. And I sit here wondering how the heck does she do it!?! Okay, I know that she's been knitting for a long time and all. And I've only started three years ago. And yes, I have gone on-line and I have seen her actually knitting! And it doesn't seem human to be able to knit THAT fast!) But still! I'm depressed. I'm bummed. I can't seem to *get over it*!

AND to top it off.... I'm also working on a baby quilt for my niece who is about to have a little girl this month. And quilting and trying to knit using silk hankies does not equal easy or smart!

I have this problem where when I quilt, the middle finger on my left hand becomes all prickled. (I think that's a word. I'm too frustrated right now to look it up to make sure.) So then when I go to knit with the silk hanky, my fingers get all tangled up with silk fibers. It was already difficult even before I started quilting. No matter how well moisturized you think your hands are, the silk will tell you how rough your skin really is!

So, this is the quilt which is still needing quite a bit of stitching done to it.

And here is the baby bonnet.

This is a whole new technique of knitting for me. And this idea was taken from reading the Yarn Harlots blog. She made the cutest, most adorable baby bonnet out of silk hankies and I wanted to make the same exact bonnet. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out what pattern she used, which probably wouldn't have made a bit of difference had she told me because I'm sure that pattern was WAY out of my league anyhow. But, the idea of using silk hankies was so overwhelmingly fascinating to me that I decided to see if there were some Youtube videos out there explaining how to knit straight from the hankies. And sure enough, there were! So, although I don't have the antique-y looking pattern that she used, I did find something that looks like a bonnet and I'm making it. We'll see how cute it turns out. As you can see, the fiber is all wonky. That is because I did not quaddrupple check my hankie strand before I began knitting with it. But, I believe I've gotten the hang of it and it's looking a bit more even now.

But, back to my title...

I think I'll just stop reading the Yarn Harlots blog until I can get a few more knitted baby items of my own completed. Or.... until Jen's baby is born! ;-)

Okay, back to the needles........

Year of the non-garden

2011-08-23T07:05:00.007-05:00

This year we haven't really had an *official* garden at our house. It started off being more of a forced garden if you ask me. One day early this spring I saw a bunch of little mounds of various color greens sprouting up. It was all the volunteer lettuces coming up. I sort of let the garden we had the previous year get away from me and plants went to seed like crazy. And so this year, even though I hadn't planned on having a garden, well, I was forced to have one anyhow. After the lettuces showed up, I began to notice that there were tomatoes coming up as well. That's when I gave in and bought a few more tomato plants, cucumber plants and herbs. But, it was still not the *official* garden.

Well, I have not tended my garden at all well. I've let it get crazy when the weather got so hot that I couldn't stand outside without breaking into a major sweat! I watched my garden (through the window) grow among the weeds. Watched the many severe weather storms drag and pull our plants about. Some of our tomato plants were cut in half from the winds that came up! Some lost their cages and are now growing sprawled along the ground.

But even though they went through sever heat and were buffeted by strong winds and even through times of drought. It still produced. We had wonderful salads from all the volunteer lettuces that came up. We had succulent strawberries. And tart red rhubarb. We even had our first small serving of asparagus this year! And our black berries have been super yummy!

Our tomatoes have not fared as well. We've had some. But they have been struggling.

And initially the cucumbers did not do so well either. But, now that the weather has begun to cool off a bit... well, we've seen many more blooms on the plants. If I"m lucky I may be able to make a few jars of refrigerator pickles after all! Yum!

Here is an over all view of our sad & oh so neglected garden.....

Isn't it the saddest sight? I am embarrassed to show you how badly I've treated our little plot of ground. And I do feel badly because, as neglected as it's been, it still produced enough to feed myself and my honey! We've enjoyed this little non-garden this year. And I vow that I will show my appreciation by carefully over-wintering this little plot of ground and preparing it for a comfortable winter so that next year it will be well rested and truly loved and worked as it should be! Amen.

I will be linking this to Pams Garden Tuesday. And see how well others have minded their gardens!

More wedding....!

2011-08-22T09:59:00.016-05:00

Hello all!

As usual it's been a busy week. Nothing spectacular to blog about. Just the regular stuff. Although, my in-laws and my favorite Aunt-in-law came over this weekend. And it was a very nice visit. Aunt Betty came over and saw our home for the first time! That was nice since we had stayed with her and Uncle Ernie MANY times over the years, it was nice to be able to share some loving hospitality in return!

But, I am not going to blog about this visit. Although, I may, the next time she comes for a visit!

This time it's going to be about Baby Girls wedding. We finally got the professional photo's done by, Matt Frye of One Tree Photography in Kansas City, and there were TONS of them! But I am just going to (try) and pick out a few of my favorites to share with you today. Enjoy!

Flowers from Manhattan, KS

(The ring bearer.)

Wedding party

Parsons/Ising

Level surface...

First dance.....

Mr. & Mrs. Ising

This is just a few (seriously, there were SO many more that I wanted to share) of my favorites. It was such a wonderful day full of family and fun! Thanks for visiting and letting me share our wonderful day with you all.

Where have I been?

2011-08-18T07:32:00.008-05:00

Hello everyone!

The question is... Where have I been? The answer..... here all along.

It's been a blur of a summer. Not sure where IT went. Time seems to be moving at lightning speed these days and I feel as if I'm standing in place watching the blur of time pass me by.

I do remember cleaning. I did some intense house cleaning! Intense as in vacuuming from ceiling to floor (from picture mouldings to baseboards and everything in between!) and then wiping EVERYTHING down with a damp cloth from ceiling to floor. Cleaning air purifier filters. Changing out A/C filters. Basically trying to get rid of any cat hairs or dander so that my family members who have extreme allergies to cats won't step foot in my house and die! We have two of them. Not cats, although we do have two of them too. But, family members who are allergic to them! Happily, both of those family members were able to spend time in our house and not have too much of a reaction. But, I was exhausted! That is some intense cleaning! Well worth it, mind you! But, I would NOT do this for anyone I didn't absolutely love and adore!!!!

I've also purchased fabric to make baby quilts out of. I've gotten as far as washing the fabrics and ironing them. (Yup, I'm a pre-washer) but I haven't touched them since. I've purchased yarn as well for baby items, but... alas, haven't done anything with them either.

We've had the Sarpy County Fair already and that was a busy time. Our church has a food stand at the fairgrounds so every year we (from the church) work hard to prep chicken and other foods to sell at the fair stand. We're known for our broasted chickens and TONS of homemade pies! And we spend a week cleaning the fair stand to get it ready to open up, then man the fair stand into the evenings for four days. Then clean it again in preparation for resting until the next years fair.

Oh! I do remember actually doing something other than cleaning or working for the Fair! I made a little owl for my grandbaby! I haven't sent it yet though. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for him but it didn't get completed in time to send with his other gifts. But he will be going soon!

Isn't he cute?! I got the pattern out of the Knitsimple magazine, the Holiday 2010 edition. I had never made anything like this but the pattern is so well written that it was a breeze to make! And it went so quickly that I am considering making another one in a slightly different yarn color.

And, while I've got your attention.... notice the chair? This is another Craiglist item. Baby girl sent me the link to these chairs (there are two in two different but coordinating fabrics) to check out. And I got them! The price for them was WAAAAY too good to pass up! Thank goodness Baby girl has the same taste as I do! ;-) I LOVE them! And if you look at the chairs you'll notice.....

Sorry about the photos. It's a bad picture taking day. Dark and cloudy.

the chairs match the color of the wall. (I have not managed to get the walls repainted yet). I LOVE the bones of these chairs. Eventually, I hope to get them recovered. But they are in pretty good shape so (thankfully) there is no hurry to get them recovered yet.

And speaking of painting. I finally got the floors of our front porch re-painted. We had some of the floor boards replaced and the carpenter primed the new boards but I was supposed to paint them. Well, after nearly a year! I finally got them painted. Yay!

So, I guess I have done a few things since the last time I blogged. It just doesn't feel as if I've done enough because there are SO many more things I need to get done before the middle of next month! Like the baby quilts and baby knits! Not to mention the slipcovers! ACK! I need to get busy.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. ;-)

I'm old and I'm HOT!

2011-07-23T07:57:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! So... today's topic is old age. As some of you may know, I just celebrated my 5oth birthday!!! Yay! I'm good with being 50 years old. But, what I'm not so "good" with is what comes with getting older. Those of you who are looking at the tail end of their 4o's may understand better what I'm talking about. I am not so fond of the wrinkles that I'm seeing more and more of. Or the graying hair. Or the fact that I've begun to grow sideways instead of upwards. Or the fact that the ground is getting closer to more parts of my body. And at the top of the my list of grievances with getting old is..... Hot flashes!

I am really not liking how my own internal thermostat is going all wacky on me. I dress in layers. Not because it's a fashion statement. But because at any given moment I may become super, stinkin' hot and removing various articles of clothing is an attempt at self survival! (Not that it helps all that much to tell you the truth.) But after the hot flash is over, I may end up being a bit chilly in a room that is air conditioned. So, back on goes the clothes, until the next time. All this is also making me a bit cranky as well. (That may be yet another perimenoposal symptom. The hormonal crankiness......) So, far though. I am not sweating enough to where I'm dripping with sweat. I don't look like mini-water falls are irrupting from my body (Thank goodness. I've seen women who do though, and I feel badly for them) And I pray that that will not be my lot.

I'm not planning on taking any Hormone Replacement's anytime soon. I'm currently trying out the herbal supplements and for the most part it does seem to help. And one of the good thing about having made it to 50 is that I've become wise and I've learned not to spew uglies when ever my temper flares (which seems to be far too often lately!) I am able (for the most part) to keep my yapper shut and just glare at the offending person (which more often than not happens to be my poor husband)!!

I just hope he appreciates my new found wisdom!! ;-)

Weekend Cat Blogging #3

2011-07-16T08:19:00.005-05:00

Things around here are getting awfully hot and sticky! And our Ashie and Ethan are perfectly happy to be indoors.......

looking.......

at the world......

through the glass.

This will be my entry for Weekend Cat Blogging In Honor of Sher - hosted by - Billy Sweetfeets Gingersnap.

Happy Birthday!

2011-07-10T18:36:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday honey!

Love you MUCH!

Great deals, living room change up...

2011-06-23T08:31:00.012-05:00

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to post a little living room re-do. I believe I told you about having found a Pottery Barn apartment size sofa on Craigslist. It is the Buchannon Apartment Sofa. Then I purchased a slipcover to go over it because the sofa was WHITE! With two cats and a dog AND a grandchild (and another on the way....) the white really wasn't very practical. So, the slipcover was definitely needed! Unfortunately, the slipcover was not on sale so the whole "great deal" thing doesn't apply to that.

But Everything else in the room is second hand. Either purchased at yard sales, thrift shops, antique shops, auctions or found on the road (except for the slipcover). There are a few things in the room that was made by me as well.

The little table with the stained glass lamp on it (on the left, in the above photo) was found while "junking" in Stuttgart Germany many years ago!

It was one of those cute pieces that didn't need a lot done to it. I put new knobs on it and put a sheet of thick glass in the last little pull out on the bottom (I think this was a tea cart) The top is a little warped and it had a few water marks on it, but I took a little steal wool and stain stripper and lightly went over the top and... voila! Good as new, well, almost. ;-) Still, I love it, and I have fond memories of when I got it. I was with my favorite "junking" partner when I got this. She was my "Ethel" (Aka, Corinnea) to my "Lucy" back in those days! And if I remember correctly, I believe our daughters were with us on this particular junking escapade.

Anyhow... I digress.

This trunk (above photo) has been with us for nearly 30 years! It was one of the very first "antique" purchases my honey and I ever made together. Keep in mind, we were super, stinkin' poor! I saw it at a yard sale and convinced him we "needed" it! I don't remember how much it was, I want to say it was like $20 dollars, but what I do remember was how happy I was when he liked it too! (Or at least he said he did) Anyhow, we still have it!

Another Junking find... this little sled. This one was picked up in Wiesbaden, Germany. Junking wasn't as easy in Wiesbaden as it had been in Stuttgart. Or maybe I just needed someone to go out with. Either way, I didn't get as many things through Junking in Wiesbaden as I had in Stuttgart.

Sorry about the picture above. I'm not sure why it's so bad but... the little chair off to the left is an Auction purchase. $5.00! Eventually, we'll have it upholstered in leather. And then, there is the ottoman that I purchased from my favorite Thrift Shop and then slipcovered in painters drop cloth, which I made! (I'm rather proud of that!) Eventually, I hope to slip cover the plaid chair in the right side of the room. That too is a thrift shop find from my favorite shop! You can see it in the photo directly above this one.

And you can't see it, but the table under the photo's and flowers and such is actually a big, wooden box that is also a Stuttgart, junking find! The crystal candle holders and crystals were purchased with "Ethel". She took me crystal shopping the last time I was in Germany. That was fun! And the flowers are from my honey for our anniversary earlier this week. (Yup, 31 years and nope, I didn't blog about it).

I believe I'll be re-painting the room again soon. As much as I liked the green when I first painted it. I'm ready now for a change. I was so excited to be able to paint any color I wanted in "our" house at the time. Now, I'm ready to do something a little more classic.

So, there you are. My living room for now. I'm thinking about a new color for this room and I'm also going to be working on my "computer" room next. Paint color AND re-arranging the furnishings. I'm a little ADD in that I can't seem to complete a single room to the finished end. I seem to be hopping from one room to another. But part of it is that my tastes are changing a bit and I'm trying to find my new tastes and fit them in to my old house. ;-)

Have you found your decorating tastes changing lately? Or am I the only one? ;-)

NOW, I'm allowed to announce.........

2011-06-20T09:30:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone! Hope everybody had a great weekend. Did yours go by as quickly as ours did? I mean seriously! And it's not as if we did anything spectacular or especially fun. In fact, I can't really recall in any clear detail on what we did. I just remember thinking "yay! It' Friday!" and then suddenly it's was "oh my! It's Sunday already?" And NO, there was no drinking involved! Well, a little wine with our dinner on Sunday. Which by the way... the wine? Super yummy! If you enjoy a good bottle of dry red, then you really need to try ANY and ALL bottles of Concannon Vineyard wines! (Pam!) About the only memorable thing about our weekend is the dinner we made on Sunday. We bought a 16x16 inch stepping stone that we bought specifically for our gas grill. Then we made pizza! We had the Concannon Cabernet Sauvignon with it and it paired beautifully with our pizza! We are still playing around with the pizza on a stone concept, but our first try turned out really well! And no, I didn't take any pictures. Sorry. We were too hungry! The desert was home made strawberry/rhubarb sorbet (both of which were picked from our garden!) which turned out super yummy! And no, I didn't take pictures of that either. Sorry! I know, I'm a slug!

Speaking of which... (pictures, not slugs. Ha-ha) I do have one picture I want to share with you all!

*************************************************************

One of the first pictures of our newest grandbaby! :-)

At the time of the picture, we didn't know what gender it was. Now we know! And it's a girl!

This will be Oldest Son & Dilly-girls second baby! And I'm sure they are even more excited now that Grandbaby #1 is turning into a walking/running little boy already! If I could figure out how to upload videos I'd show you all how well grandbaby #1 is walking at 10 months!

So, there you go. My announcement! What an exciting year it's been so far! Grandbaby walking, Baby-girls wedding and a new grandbaby on the way! :-)

Yay!

Thrift shop find!

2011-06-18T17:10:00.012-05:00

I found this in one of my favorite thrift shops in West O. This particular thing that I found recently is a.... Daybed! Not sure how old it is. But......

L-O-V-E!

I fell in LOVE with the cane work on either end!

LOVE the fact that it has a really strong/sturdy metal spring & frame system!

I adore the scroll work on the bottom front.

I love the legs...! And...

Initially, I intended to slip-cover all the cushions and pillows.

But... now, I'm kinda thinking, maybe not.

What do you think?

;-)

Wedding Day! (Photo heavy....!)

2011-06-16T14:02:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!

(For those of you not interested in seeing wedding photos. You may want to bypass this post)

So, this is the situation. I still have no new pictures of the wedding. I had hoped to get some from others who were there but... (I won't even go into that.) I was having such a wonderful time watching our baby girl and our new son-in-law and enjoying the speeches and just having a fine 'ol time that I just didn't take as many pictures as I should have. Unfortunately for all of you, I was too much in the moment and not enough thought went into the "later" for the blog.

Anyhow, I decided I'll just post the few that I do have.

First, imagine the outdoor setting. The air is warm as you are sitting down in the seats, you are seated under the shade of a huge white tent. You're facing a beautiful lake and listening to the violin soloist, as you wait for the bride who will be walking across the grass with her parents on either side......

This is where everyone was seated. (It was decorated beautifully for the wedding)

Violin soloist (aka, baby-girl's cousin)

Okay, you have to imagine her in her wedding dress at this point.

I wanted you to see the backdrop.

*These will not be in any sort of order. So, here it is. Enjoy.*

First dance as husband & wife.

With her Maid-of-honor & bridesmaids.

Baby-girl and husband!

Looking up at me as I take a picture of her from the upper opening of the barn.

Cake was made by Baby-girls mother-in-law who wanted to do a fancier cake,

but was limited by baby-girl who wanted a simple cake. MIL's concession...

The grasshopper on the cake! Lovely! Well done MIL!

First meal together as husband & wife.

Father of the bride speech.

The back of her dress.

Baby-girl, all grown up!

Father/daughter dance.

Wouldn't this make a great Coke ad?

Husband & wife

looking out from the upper window of the barn.

And there it is. The photographer took TONS of pictures but as yet I have not had a chance to see them. Hopefully, they'll be up soon.

The evening of the wedding turned out to be very nice in the area of Kansas City that we were in. Through out the evening of dancing and festivities out side, you could look up and all around us, you could see constant flashes of lightning. It was truly spectacular! The rain eventually came around 11:30 p.m.

My apologies for the photo heavy post. Although I feel I don't have very many pictures of the wedding day. I certainly had enough to show you the gist of Baby-girls special day. I would have liked to have posted some better photo's of the two of them. But, the ones I have show them enjoying themselves. And when I see them, I'm happy.

Thanks for viewing our special day! Have a great one!

A cloudy Flag Day and the babies...

2011-06-14T08:23:00.007-05:00

Today is Flag Day.

Have you put your flag out?

And these are the baby House Finches in the fern basket.

This is my contribution to Pams Garden Tuesday!

For those of you who are awaiting the wedding pictures... I am having difficulties with the red eye situation in many of my photos. Seriously, not sure what my problem is. But, I do have a Sys. Admin. guy that is going to help me. I just need to get with him on it. (Honey....I need help!) ;-) Thank you for your patience.

One of many...

2011-06-07T07:25:00.008-05:00

Just a quick post to show ya'll my pink ruffled tulips.

I figured if Pam could post a general pic of lavender (sorry Pam) instead of a pic of HER lavender on her post, then I could do this, which, is actually a real picture of MY tulip plant (from a month ago). Of course they have all gone away by now. But, they were just too pretty NOT to share with you this year. These are bulbs I planted earlier this year and they bloomed for the first time in May. They looked almost like peonies or double roses!

IF, I were really on the ball I'd have pictures of my peonies which are in full bloom now. But, it's already hot (!!!!) here this morning and I'm too lazy to go out and take some pic's of them. I did take some pictures of my flowers that were in the old canning jars that I had picked yesterday. But, I can't find my usb cord to upload them in to i-photo, so..... These tulips are what you get.

I hope to get more of these and others like them to fill in more places in my beds.

I"ll be linking this post up @ Pam's for Garden Tuesday!

And since I have my i-photo's library up....

I can't get over how adorable this little guy is! I could look at him ALL day! But I'd much rather play with him!!!

And for those of you who are HOUNDING (yes, I said "hounding") me over the wedding photo's.... I'm working on it! I only had a few taken with my camera and the professional shots have not come up yet! I'm trying to scrounge up some from other people who also had their cameras with them. So, don't think I haven't forgotten posting about baby girl and her wedding, cuz, I haven't!

Ya'll have a great day and..... I'll be back! ;-)

I'm baaaaaack!

2011-05-31T07:27:00.005-05:00

Is anyone out there anymore?

I am sooooo sorry I haven't posted in FOREVER! The last time I wrote anything was just before my visit to the kids in WA. Which, by the way, was a fun and enjoyable trip! Grandbaby learned to crawl while I was there! I was there for 8 days and it was so nice to get to know grandbaby. I even got to watch him while his momma & daddy went for a hike and out to dinner.

When I returned.... I hit the ground running! It was time to get a few things taken care of AND I also came up on our local carpenters list so he began working on our closet situation. Did I even mention how I was slowly getting eased out of "our" closet? My honey has become a clothes hog! All those years of being in the Army and wearing the same old thing to work spoiled me. Now he's got more clothes than me! (but I've still got him beat in the shoe department!) Anyhow, I now have my own walk in closet! Yay!!! And it's neat and tidy and my clothes are lined up by color (I know, I'm a bit anal that way). And of course, I never took a picture of how the closets used to be. But basically, I stole space from the guest bedroom closet, which was also a walk-in. And closed it up to make a smaller closet for that room and gave myself the rest of the space. Our carpenter took one of the doors from downstairs (we have a walk-through closet between our two office spaces which we will eventually take down the walls to eliminate the "closet" there) and he made a door frame for that door so I can access the closet from our bedroom. I'm still working on matching the stain for a small portion of the flooring and the door frame. Our carpenter did a fantastic job with all the wood work he did. He matched the style of the door frame to the rest of the house. And he was able to re-use the base boards so that the whole thing (both closets) look like they've always been this way! So, now I'm back on the bottom of his list. I hope to be back up to the top in a year or so. I've got more things I want him to do for this house! ;-) He's VERY much in demand! But since he goes to our church, I see him every week and I can remind him that I still need his expertise for more projects on....... this old house.

I also painted one wall of my kitchen. I'm trying to find a color I like and I think I have. I also got my wall clock fixed and it now hangs in my kitchen and with the new wall color it looks fabulous!

I also moved out my winter furnishings in my sun room and replaced them with my summer things.

I also found a Pottery Barn Buchanan apartment sofa on Craigslist and bought it! I also bought a Pottery Barn slip cover for it! I'll have to show you that set up of our living room as soon as I'm done with that. I'm still looking for a couple of overstuffed chairs and maybe another ottoman.

I painted our bedroom too! Once our carpenter was done in our room I went and painted it a grey/brown. And yes, I will post that as well one of these days......

I also finished making the last of the doilies for baby girls wedding AND I painted her wedding tree. And oh..... my...... goodness..... the wedding! I'll have to share that with you all in the next post. But what I will say is this. It was absolutely, very baby girl in style and totally perfect in every way!

And, on that note, I will leave you. I PROMISE to show you pictures of baby girls wedding! But, before I do, I will show you a bit of pre-wedding prep. photos.

Below on either side of Baby-girl, is cousin Emily and sister-in law, dilly-girl.

The buntings have been hung in the barn and the flowers

are being placed in the canning jars.

Flowers in the jars and on the doilies!

I know it's not much (jess) but that's it for now. I was hoping that I'd be able to get a few more photo's of the wedding before I actually posted them here. Since Baby-girls momma and daddy both walked her down the aisle, it was a bit difficult to take pictures during the ceremony. But, hopefully I'll have some of the professional shots soon, now that baby-girl and our new son-in-law are back from their honeymoon.

So, hope that satisfies ya'll for now. And I'll be back with more next time!

Going

2011-04-12T08:03:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone.

I know I've been gone for a while. Life is just kinda busy lately. But all is well.

I just wanted to let ya'll know that I'm going for a visit to see this little guy!

It will only be for a week but... at least I'll get to see him! And then they will be coming here next month for baby girls wedding! Bye the way, ya'll should see baby girls dress! She looks SO beautiful! I'm sure I'll be posting wedding pics here afterwards so don't you worry. ;-)

Anyhow......

Okay, I've got tons of things to yet to do.

QUESTION: How long....

2011-04-02T15:25:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone!

The question for today is.... How long does it take to make one pair of socks?

Well, if you are me.... It takes darn near for EVER!

I am still working on my first adult pair of socks. I have taken these apart 14 times! But, this is the longest they have ever been. I believe these are actually going to be completed this time. I am about 3 inches away from starting the heel flap!

The top photo shows the tops of the socks. The second photo shows the bottoms. Notice anything? Go ahead, scroll over both the photo's again and see if you can see the problem. Look at the sock with the marker on it. Notice the colors? Well, I only noticed myself as I was posting these pictures. And I am seriously thinking I might have to unwind and start all over again. I'm all about matching. I'm about symmetry. I like things that are supposed to look the same, to BE the same. And these socks are not the same! I wound the skein of yarn wrong. Not sure how I did that. But I did and now... I have a decision to make. If I continue to knit these as is... can I live with it? Or will it drive me too crazy to wear them and see that they don't match, even a little bit. I'm not a perfectionist! Okay,maybe I'm a "wanna be" perfectionist. But, I'm also old and tired and I think I'm good with the colors not matching. I don't want to unravel this and begin all over again on my 15th attempt at these socks! So, I'm going to continue knitting these and so long as there is no other "obvious" mistake, I'm gonna have myself a pair of socks in the VERY NEAR FUTURE!

Okay, I'm gonna get back to my socks. Thank you for listening. You may now return to your regularly scheduled routine. ;-)

Garden planning and a Give-A-Way!

2011-03-30T09:31:00.008-05:00

Hello everyone!

As you've seen, we've been getting some more snow lately. Of course I am just thrilled! But, others are not and evidently, they don't appreciate the smile on my face nor the cheerful comments about the "lovely snowfall"!

And, even with the snow coming down and resting on my emerging plants... I too am looking forward to new growth and implementing new ideas for our garden and landscape! ;-) I actually pulled out my garden books this morning and started looking to see what I want to do this growing season. The first opened book is my old garden book. It's the one I started when we first moved to this town. Having moved into a new place, I had no idea what to expect from the yard. And then little by little I added to what was already there. THEN, we moved to our current home and once again I had to wait around to see what this place had to offer in the way of plantings. The colorful third book from the top, is the book that my honey purchased for me and I use it for our new houses garden/landscape. But I still refer to the top book because it has lot's of info I can apply to this place. (Seeing as how we only moved around the corner and up the block from our old place!)

I also purchased a Garden planning and design book. There are ALL KINDS of neat things in this book. Ideas that I'd like to incorporate into our yard.

I also decided to draw and paint in my new garden book. Might as well work on my "artistic" skills as I'm working on creating an interesting, artistic yard. Right?!? Pretty to look at and full of information!

I've put in pockets to keep all my plant tags. I've got tabbies to keep track of info that I will need regularly. And I've pasted information that I found in other magazines and newspapers and internet.

And I've made it quite colorful too! Different color pens, highlighters, tabs and drawings (some not so good but, oh well.) I have so much fun getting ready for my new season of plantings for the garden and the yard. ;-)

What are you all doing? I'll bet some of you have already been planting. Do you have books that you keep yearly information about your garden in? Leave me a comment telling me about your techniques in keeping up with what you've done! I love new organizational ideas! AND if you blog about my site AND this topic I'll put you on my list of potential winner of a GIVE- A -WAY I'll be doing on Friday April, 8th! I'm not going to say what the winner will get, that is part of the fun. Don't you think? ;-) So, let's see what grand ideas ya'll have and also, what you have done so far to plan for your growing season!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll talk to ya'll soon! ;-)

A Nebraska Spring and our grandbaby's feet!

2011-03-28T07:54:00.014-05:00

My Nebraska Spring!

This is what I woke up to last Friday morning! Lot's of white stuff everywhere! It was so pretty! It snowed some the next day too! It didn't last long, although we had nearly three days of snow fall, it was the first day that actually accumulated like this. And today, most of the snow is gone! AND, the good thing is that none of the plants that were beginning to come up, were damaged.

These are the smaller of the two pairs of socks I made.

They fit him now.

He is growing SO quickly! And he is beginning to really move around! It won't be much longer now before he's running everywhere!

Something else I wanted to show you all. My mother-in-law made a quilt for her great-grandbaby. It's a 3-D type quilt in that the little animals all stick out of the quilt. It is SO cute! And Aidan loves touching them! You can see he is sitting on the quilt in the first photo. And here it is with the MIL holding it. Isn't the quilt adorable?! My MIL has sewing skills that are just amazing! I wish I could sew like her and Corinnea!

Okay, that is it from me. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I'll catch you back here real soon! ;-)

Come out, come out, where ever you are.......

2011-03-24T08:07:00.005-05:00

Spring

Is it really spring? 'Cuz, I'm not seeing it. Not in the "Sunny Spring Day" kind of way. When I walk around the town and around my house especially, I see bulb plants coming up. I even see my bleeding hearts curling up out of the ground.

But, it's soooooo dreary when you look around. The sun, for the most part is hiding. It's come out a few times later in the afternoon. But, what I really love, adore, is to wake up to see bright sun light and hear the birds chirping away! And there hasn't been any of that yet.

My tulips are coming up.... as are my crocuses, daff's and bleeding hearts (as I mentioned) I've even seen my rhubarb poking through, but, the sun is hiding....

Socks & Singing

2011-03-21T07:55:00.005-05:00

Hello all!

I know it's been a while since my last post. Life has been a bit busy lately. Busy and yet, not so bloggably interesting.

I finished another pair of socks for grandbaby. Although... I must admit, I was knitting these under some stressful times. Nothing bad mind you. Just having headaches for days on end and having too much to do and not enough time in the day. So these little socks became a bit smaller than the other ones that I made (tension shows up in the knitted and crocheted products!). And because of that, they don't match the first pair I knitted up for him. So, instead of having a pair of green socks and a pair of blue socks. He now has two pairs of miss-matched socks. BUT, one pair has a taller leg knitted on them and the other is more of a ankle cuff sock. So, these will probably fit him relatively soon. And the longer socks when he's two or so. Michelle was correct in saying that knitting two at a time alleviates the miss-matched sock situation. Something I hadn't even thought of. I was always concerned about not ever making the second sock!

I am currently working on a pair of socks for myself. I thought I should give myself a little more practice before I attempt making socks for other adults in my family. Namely my husband. He's liking the idea of homemade socks right now, I don't want to mess that up by making him a bad pair! ;-) I knitted on my socks while driving out to Grand Island, Nebraska to see the Sandhill Cranes. Our Church choir went on a field trip out to see the cranes and also to sing at our choir directors hometown church. We all had a really fun time!

The church we sang at even put us on their board!

We had so much fun that we've all decided to do another field trip next year!

Well, that'll be it for now. I'll post some pictures of spring next time. ;-)

SOCKS!!!

2011-03-11T08:28:00.004-06:00

Good morning everyone!

Well, I did it! I finished my little socks and I must say I am quite pleased with myself. I thought for quite a while that this would be the end. That I would give up and quietly hide the sad, sad half finished little things. And then try to distract you all with other things that I've done. But, sometimes my stubbornness shines through and I actually use that quality in myself to do something good. Like finishing the things I say I'm going to finish.

So, take a look at these little socks.

Now, keep in mind that they are straight off the needles. I haven't blocked them yet. But aren't they just so cute? I can't wait to see if Grandbaby will wear them. You never know, with my luck, he'll be a kid who hates wearing socks. BUT! I hope that by the time he is big enough to wear these (they are sized for a two year old, so he'll probably be able to wear them by the time he's one year old!) I'll have gotten MUCH better at making socks and I'll be able to size and fit a pair that he'll be SO comfortable in that he'll wear EVERY Nana made socks! ;-)

I cannot tell you how happy I am that I actually figured out the heel. I found that making a heel is all about having faith. (I'm pretty sure that Michelle said that!) I tried and tried to understand exactly how all the wrapping and turning and knitting back and forth was going to have me end up with a heel. I was getting all wrapped up in the words "heel flap" and "gusset" and knit-picking everything. When I finally just let it all go, and decided to just to follow the directions and not question every step, and have faith that it would turn out the way it's supposed to..... Well, that is when it turned out!

So, now I've got my first pair of sample socks. I am going to make another pair so that I have two matching pairs of socks for our little guy. THEN, I am going to try to make a pair using Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' book. I like the idea that the socks Priscilla teaches you to make, allows you to make repairs to heels and toes when the need arise. Although, you can make repairs with the technique I just learned, it is more along the lines of darning, or patching. From what I understand, with Priscilla's technique you actually just pick up live stitches and cut out the bad part and just knit up a new heel or toe. (Not sure if I explained that correctly but, I am sure that the Priscilla way is better for making socks that will last tons longer through easy repairs!) All I have to figure out is how to make them using only ONE circular needle. Because I REALLY like how these little socks turned out and I didn't have to fiddle with a second set of needles. One set of needles, two pair of socks! So totally fantastic! ;-)

Okay, all of you out there who have been wanting to make socks! Go! Make! Socks!

And Michelle. THANK YOU so much for helping me and showing me how to make simple toe/heels and being so unbelievably patient with me. For not only skype-ing with me but also for putting up with me calling you several times and having you talk me through the steps over the phone too!

Have a great day everyone! I'm off to make another pair of socks! ;-)

Very first slipcover!

2011-03-08T14:57:00.006-06:00

Hello everyone! It's been another long while since my last post. But I've been keeping busy. Since I last posted, I've had my in-laws for a visit, had another skype session with my friend Michelle. She's been helping me learn how to turn a beautiful and easy heel for socks. Poor thing, I've been a real pest and still have nothing to show for it. Ah well, all in good time, eh Michelle? ;-)

Something I've been working on and finally finished is.........

Ta-daaaaaa!

My slip covered ottoman. Yay me! I cannot believe I actually did this. I've been reading other blogs where they slip cover furniture and they make the most beautiful coverings. And every time I'd read/see those slipcovers I think..."Why don't I try to make one myself"? But then I talk myself out of it. I REALLY didn't want to spend a bunch of money of fabric and then not finish the slipcover or worse yet, cut up all the lovely fabric and have it all go to waste! Fabric don't come cheap ya know. But then, I saw slipcovers that were made with painters drop cloth. They are really inexpensive. And then... I found an ottoman that only cost me $2.00! So I thought, now I need to try to do it. So I went out and bought some painters drop cloth for $5.00 and proceeded to "think" about how to go about doing this. I bought a couple of books on Slip covering furniture. But for the most part, they didn't really help me all that much. About the only thing I did get from it was on making the pleats. Which I finally did a couple weeks ago. But then I got stuck once again. I wasn't sure about the cording. If I should put cording on my slip cover or not. There was already cording around the top of the ottoman and I thought it would be too square-ish if I put cording on top of cording. In the end, my mother-in-law actually suggested I just rip off the cording on the ottoman and re-use it to put on my slip cover. And that is just what I did. The ottoman itself is not the best looking thing. It will always need to have a cover over it cuz it's actually rather gross and ugly looking. (I did clean it but it didn't help it much to look at). And I'll probably reapholster it at some later date because it does sink down in the middle. It needs to have new cushions and some kind of stablilizing board or something. But, for now, it is stylishly usable. Can you tell I'm sort of patting myself on the back? I am just so stinkin' proud of myself for having actually done this. And it doesn't look half bad! I would show you more pictures but for some reason I'm having an issue with blogger not wanting to upload my pictures. If I can get them on later, I'll do it. That's how proud I am of how it turned out!

So, yesterday I finally got my new book "Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy". This is the book that Michelle suggested that I get. She makes toes and heels with these directions. I've watched her do it and it looks super simple. Although, having read directions... it suddenly doesn't sound as easy as Michelle made it look. But I'm going to give it a try here in a few minutes. Now that I've finished the slipcover, I want to finish at least one pair of socks!

Okay, not sure what the deal is. I'm just not being able to get more pictures up so I'll just let it go for now. I'll try to put up more pictures later. Now, I want to get some knitting done. So...

Hope everyone is enjoying their day and I'll catch ya'll later! ;-)

Socks II....?

2011-03-02T08:47:00.012-06:00

Hello everyone!

So, it's been a few days since my last post. Which is not unusual. It's not because I've been overly busy with crafting, cooking or even eating. Although, that last one I seem to be doing a lot more of. I'm actually trying to eat smaller meals more often. Otherwise known as, eating ALL the time! ;-) Which I really LOVE doing! But... I digress..... Actually, I have been doing a few things, I began working on a foot stool to slip cover. I worked on making the pleats yesterday and I must say, they have worked out quite nicely. Even easier than I had thought. But, the hard part, I think, is about to begin. I have to attach the pleats to the top fabric of the slipcover. I'm debating on whether to use/make cording to go around the top or just stitch the pleated fabric onto the slipcover top. I am now, at yet another, "thinking/figuring" stage of my sewing. (I do this a lot when I'm "wing'n it" in my crafting". No pattern being used, just making it up as I go along.) Sometimes the "thinking/figuring" time can be quite extended. This may be another one of those times. And when I get this way, I usually go on to the next project I've got going, 'cuz ya know, I've got another project in the works. In this case, the other project is one that I was stuck on when I decided to go back to the slipcover project (because I was stuck on what I wanted to do with that one, pleat or ruffle?) Are ya'll confused yet? ;-)

Soooooo! I am stuck in my knitting. I know, I know, I was talking about how wonderful this book is and how well I was doing. But then I had/am having a major brain cramp! I can't seem to figure out her heel! The pictures in the book aren't really helping me either. Up until this section if I had any difficulties with the wording I'd then look at the picture and suddenly be able to figure it out. But, the heel is a different story. I'm just not getting it. I sat for several HOURS trying to figure it out. I knitted, ripped out. Knitted, ripped out. And knitted and ripped out some more. I did that so many times that the yarn is becoming frayed! Out of my total frustration, I decided to call on a new friend. One who is always giving me information on great books. One who knits socks and other wonderful, useful items regularly. One who left me her phone number in one of her e-mails! Those of you who read my blog, probably reads hers as well. And if you don't, you should! She is funny and down-to-earth and so, so, so helpful! She is also the one who went out, the very day I called her, and bought a computer camera and installed skype! The amazing Michelle! If you want to hear more about the Skype session go to her blog. She posted about just that.

The skype session was AWESOME (say that as your voice wiggles while saying the word awesome!) It is so fantastic when technology actually works the way you want it to! I finally got to meet Michelle through skype and talk with her and laugh with her. Fortunately, there was no crying involved although, I nearly did do that after the skype session. Because, during the, oh so fun, skype session I got to watch her making a sock heel. I sat there and was amazed! It looked so easy. So simple. So....totally like I could actually do it. If only.......

If only I had grabbed my yarn and needle and followed her. I know. Crazy. I had this fantastic opportunity to learn something I needed to learn and what did I do? I just sat there watching her! Mesmerized by how simple she made it look. Listening to her talk about how and why she did what she was doing. And laughing nearly hysterically at times. (I'm telling you, she will crack. you. up.! And her boys are like that too! I know this because they hammed it up for the camera.) ;-)

And so, to sum it up. I still have socks that look like this:

It's further along than it was a couple weeks ago. But, not by much. Hopefully that will change soon! On Michelle's advice, I decided to purchase another book on sock knitting. Hey! If Michelle says it's a good one to get, then by golly I'm a gonna get it! Oh and while I was at it I picked up a set of interchangeable circulars too. Well, I had to get something else so I could get free shipping! ;-) Those should be along in a few days! Yay!

Until then, I will go back to my slipcover and try to complete that so I'll have something to show you all that I actually finished! I think I may have figured out how I'm going to put it (top fabric and pleats) together. Sometimes it doesn't take too much time away from a problem to figure it out. Let's see if this is one of those times. ;-)

I hope ya'll have a great week! ;-) And thanks for checking out my blog.

Snow and Soup

2011-02-25T07:11:00.011-06:00

Hello everyone! I hope ya'll have had a really good week. Today is Friday. YAY!

So, yesterday we had a wonderful amount of snow fall. We got about 3 inches and everywhere I look has a most beautiful coat of snow. I went up in to West Omaha yesterday just as the snow was trying to start (in the event that the snow REALLY came down) I wanted to be sure we had enough coffee in the house to be able to withstand being snowed in. AND I also wanted to pick up a few things so I could make a craft item that I thought up. Not exactly sure how it will work, but I picked up the necessary things in order to make it so we'll see.... I'm going to begin work on it this weekend. ;-)

Back to the subject. Yesterdays snow.

It was so pretty. But, driving in it wasn't. It was rather dicey until the snow plows showed up. Then the roads were quite drive-able. It always amazes me how so many people drive too fast in snow. On my way home, there was a truck that I thought was going to slide on top of me. He was (yes, it was a man no less) who was driving too fast and began to slip and slide and suddenly he stopped half way up a hill. I saw it and realized that he had stopped as I was beginning my climb. I slowed down even more and was thinking about cutting onto a side street to avoid him. Just as I was about to do that, he got his truck moving and going up the hill. And wouldn't you know, after he got up the hill he sped up. Still slipping side ways, mind you. ACK! Driving in the snow is not difficult. But driving in the snow trying to avoid getting into accidents with other (less safe driving) drivers is a whole other story! Sheesh!

Okay, done with the snow part and on to the soup part.

A few weeks ago I found a new blogger. She is actually a relative to a friend of mine. It is Rhonda at "What's Cooking with Rhonda". Well, I went back to see what other posts had been put up and found a recipe for Lasagna Soup. It sounded quite intriguing so I decided to make it yesterday. It was a cold day with lovely snow, why not have a nice warm bowl of yummy soup. Right?! Well, I must tell you. This soup is wonderful! And amazingly enough it does taste like Lasagna! We had invited our neighbors son (neighbors are on a trip and their teenage son stayed home because he didn't want to miss school) and he LOVED the soup. So much so that he asked me to give his mom the recipe! I altered it somewhat. I felt that it needed some herbs that I normally put in my Lasagna recipe. And once I had done that, it just put it over the top! And it's really a very easy recipe.

*****************************

Yummmmmmm!

Lasagna Soup

2 pounds ground Italian sausage

4 cups diced onions

2 cups diced carrots

4 Tbsp minced garlic

1 1/2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. basil

2 tsp. parsley

8 cups chicken broth

2 lrg. (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

1 (15 oz) can tomato paste

4 cups sliced mushrooms

1 cup campanele pasta, uncooked

2 cups fresh spinach

shredded mozzarella cheese

shredded parmesan cheese

Brown meat, onions and carrots with garlic. Add broth and crushed tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes. Add tomato paste, mushrooms, pasta and cook until pasta is al dente. Add spinach and cook until wilted.

Serve soup with mozzarella and parmesan on top.

(Rhonda's note: When I made this I was a half cup short of the 4 cups of onions. I had some asparagus left over from the previous nights dinner. I put it in the food processor with the carrots and put that in the soup too. I think you could play with this recipe a little if you wanted to add different vegetables. Kids probably wouldn't even know.) Enjoy!!

**I added the oregano, basil and parsley since those herbs are also in my lasagna recipe and it made the soup taste even more like my regular lasagna dish!

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So, there you go. A most delicious comfort food in a bowl! Give this recipe a try and tell us what you think!

Now, I must be off. I've got a sock I'm working on ya know! ;-)

Ya'll have a great day and I'll see you back here soon!

South side Kitchen cabinets done.

2011-02-23T16:20:00.007-06:00

Hello everyone!

So, I have FINALLY finished the south side. I'm sure there are those of you out there that are saying... "well, why didn't you just do the whole kitchen?" Well, let me tell you. I have to do this in small spurts or I will go CA-RAAAAZYYYYY! It drove me absolutely bonkers to have all my dishes scattered around the dinning room and kitchen! The next set of cabinets I'll be working on will be the west side of the kitchen and those have all my baking ingredients and paraphernalia in them. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage having all those things scattered around!

Anyhow... It's not really too much of a change. But it will do until we can do our total kitchen renovations in a few years.

Before

After

I really like the way the back of the shelf wall turned out.

I still would have liked the beadboard look better but this will work for now.

This is the south side of my kitchen.

It still looks rather old and tired. But if you could have seen the shelves up close you'd have seen how REALLY old and tired they looked. Now at the least the paint perked it up somewhat and it looks clean. I think I can live with this for two and a half more years. One thing is for sure. It was alot easier to cut the wallpaper for the back of the shelves then it would have been to cut wood (bead board)!

Tomorrow, I'll show you how far I've gotten on my socks. (No, I have not finished them yet!)

Hope ya'll have a great day!

Socks...?

2011-02-19T08:46:00.012-06:00

Hi All!

I have begun! I started my socks. Actually, I'm knitting my first pair of practice socks. I picked up a book written by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. She is the Best-selling author of 2-at-a-Time Socks. I had seen her book some time ago and thought "oh, how cool". But then put it back on the shelf and proceeded to purchase other knitting books not having anything to do with the making of socks. But! The other day, I saw THIS BOOK!

And, as you can see, this book I did not put back on the shelf... noooooo. This book I picked up and purchased because... This looked like the book for someone like me!

I know myself. I know that if I were to make a sock, I'd probably get the first one done and then never get around to making the second one. It's true. It's one of my many flaws. I get bored easily and I want to be able to say "done that" and then move on to something else. And it's probably the reason why, although I have a bunch of sock yarns in my stash, I've yet to make a pair of socks. I'm sure ya'll remember my "yoga sock" fiasco. What a mess. I never even finished that one sock and I'm sure I wouldn't have finished the mate to it had I even bothered to finish the first one! So... what makes this sock project different you ask? Well, let me tell you.

Firstly... This author teaches you how to make TWO socks at ONE TIME!

Secondly... This author teaches you how to make TWO socks at one time from the TOE-UP!

That means that for someone like me, who is constantly wanting to check if everything is going accordingly, I can actually put my foot into the sock to see how much further along I need to go in order to get just the right fit. I don't necessarily HAVE to rely TOTALLY on my math skills (which, I must admit, is rather poor).

Thirdly... I can get little bits of instant gratification every time I am able to put a little more of my foot into the ever growing sock! I mean seriously! Who doesn't love being able to get bits of gratification as you go along?! ;-) LOVE!

This author is a GENIUS!

I looked through this book at least 10 times. Then I read all of her directions three times. Then I looked at the patterns she has in the book. And all this I did IN the book store before I even bought the book! Then I took it home and looked through and read it again and got so excited because I think (feel strongly) that I can do this! Of course, I didn't have the circular needles that I needed so I had to go to the knitting shop to get those. But I had the yarns so, yesterday, with needles and yarn in hand, I cast on and started.

So far so good! I've got the beginnings of the toe bed made. It hasn't been too difficult and I've only ripped out my work once. I'm sure it was me and not the authors fault that I had to rip out the first attempt. Thankfully that happened after the second row so I hadn't gone very far and the author was kind enough to give little directional check ups along the way and that is how I figured out I had gone wrong at the second row. I LOVE THAT!

I'm at the point where I think I'm doing it right. The directions aren't as clear at this point as I would like. But then, it's probably just me being "not so bright". I'm not so clear as to how many actual rounds I'm supposed to do and not exactly clear on when I'm supposed to make my increase. But, I'll just keep plugging away and see what happens. At least there are pictures that I can look at to see if mine is looking like hers. And it's only the sample sock so.... oh and did I mention that the sample sock is small? Like for a toddler size small? So, not only will they not take as long to complete, but, in the event that I do get these completed, my grandbaby will have a pair of socks that are two different colors but still a "pair" of socks! And I really do think that the excitement of having completed my first pair of socks will be so great that I might attempt another sample pair in the same colors just to get more proficient in sock making and then my grandbaby will have TWO PAIRS of socks! ;-)

Okay, now that I've shared this with you. I want to get back to knitting some more on these socks. But! I cannot. I must go back to work on my kitchen cabinets. My house is a wreck with dishes everywhere and painting things ever where else!

Tonight. Tonight I will get to play with my knitting!

I hope ya'll have a great weekend! And......I hope to have the South Side kitchen cabinet reveal on Monday. (Still trying to decide what I'm going to do with the West Side of the kitchen cabinets). Blah.

;-)

How to say thank you...

2011-02-18T09:11:00.006-06:00

Hello everyone! This post is about saying thank you to a special friend.

Okay, so I wrote out a waaaay long post about my two longest known friends (I'm a military brat so, that's a whole 'nuther story in and of itself, but if you know anything about military life that explains alot about friendships and the term "longest known friends".) But I scrapped that post because I realized I was a bit too emotional for the blog. I wanted to explain how much these two specific friendships mean to me. And then, realized that it would probably make them uncomfortable. Mainly because these friendships mean more to me then it means to them. (They are normal, I have issues.) ;-> So having said that...

My friend Corinnea, whom I've known now for 18 years but haven't seen since... 2003(!), sent me a package two days ago. In it were two items she made for my grandson! And, two items she made for me! I am SO happy that she thought of my grandbaby and me. And I am SO embarrassed at the same time. Because she recently had a grandbaby too and did I send her or her grandbaby anything? NO! Not only did I not make him anything, but I did not buy him anything either. Anything I could make, they (my friend and her EVER talented daughter) could make better! That also goes for anything I could have bought! So, I did nothing. (So much for showing my friend how much she means to me eh?) Then I get this package and I just want to cry.

She made my grandson THE most adorable backpack and the blanket is so cuddly! It's soft and fuzzy and I'm sure he's going to take the longest naps with it! ;-)

Just look at the swirly fuzzy fabric! And it is SO soft! (I almost want to keep it myself!) ;-)

Oh my! These pictures just don't do these items any justice at all! Trust me when I tell you, these are SO much better in person!

(I really need to work on my picture taking skills!)

I've already put my bags to use. The long tubular bag hold the necessities for my IPad paraphernalia and the larger bag I have my camera items, ie., instant camera, cords, mini tri-pod and lens cleaner. I LOVE them! And I can't wait for you to put more bags up in your shop so I can purchase others! (I adore bags of all shapes and sizes! It makes me feel so organized!) ;-)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

And while I was trying to write a post that would not make you feel badly in any way... because I certainly didn't intend for you to feel anything but happy and good about your lovely and very thoughtful gifts. I do want you to know just how much YOU mean to me and how deeply your thoughtful gesture has touched me. AND in the process of writing this, I actually came up with an idea for something that maaaaaayyyyyybbbbbbeeeeeee, might be Micah worthy!

So. I end this post with a less guilt ridden thank you and a more hearty THANK YOU!

Love you Corinnea!

My old house.

2011-02-17T07:41:00.015-06:00

Hello folks!

Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for all the "grandbaby love" in the last post. I think he's just about the cutest little guy ever! Hopefully I'll be heading out to see him in a couple of months! Not sure how much longer I can stay away from him.

And so... one of the many reason for working on my kitchen. It will keep me busy and not focus on how much I'm missing of grandbaby's many new accomplishments. (Evidently he is now mobile! Waaaaah)

I've talked about how our house used to be the Community Church in 1915. And how it was converted into a house in 1930. Well, I don't think the kitchen has had anything done with it since it was first put in. Initially (last September) I took off three of the cabinet doors thinking to strip them and then repaint them because..... My Honey said (at the time of purchasing this house) that we would have to wait 5 years before we could renovate the kitchen. And at that time I was just so happy that he wanted to buy this house (because we had only recently bought our other house) that I would have agreed to just about ANYTHING! Since then, I've come to despise my kitchen cabinets. Okay, AND counter tops. And floor! And sink. But mainly the cabinets. The cabinets were gross! No matter what I used. They were sticky. Like the paint had developed some kind of sticky residue that would NOT come OFF! Plus the paint was chipping and the inside of the cabinets were lined with sticky backed shelf liner in a baby pink floral design which was peeling away in places and then there were some interior cabinet walls that were not painted and was all brown-ish looking. Anyhow, when you looked at them it made you wanna say "eeeyyyyuuuuu". Well, it did for me anyhow.

This is what the doors look like. Definitely old looking. There is some paint chipping on the doors.

Here are some "eeeyyyuuuu" shots.

Can you see where the shelf liner is beginning to pull away and bubble up. (Top shelf in case you don't see it)

You notice that the doors have been removed on the one set of cabinets. I had started the paint stripping of the doors last year and then the weather got cold and I stopped. So, over the holidays, I was without doors. And then My Honey and I decided we sort of like the "no doors" look so... I decided that we would just go doorless. At least, on this side of the kitchen. I'm still un-deciding about what to do with the other cabinets.

So yesterday, I ripped out all the shelf liners and found that there were shelf paper that was stuck on the shelves. So with a bucket of diluted T.S.P. I got to work cleaning and wiping down the cabinets.

Gross!

Clean at last but still yucky to look at. Love those particle boards. NOT!

Then, I had picked up some paintable wall paper and applied it onto the backs of the cabinets. I had initially thought about getting some Beadboard shelf paper but all the ones I found did not have enough of a raised design on them so had I painted over them, the design would have disappeared and... well, it would not have worked. So, I found this tin ceiling tile paintable wall paper and thought it would do. (Seriously, it will only be up for a couple years and then the REAL renovations will begin).

Here is a close up of the wall paper.

Another shot of it up in the cabinets. Don't mind that it's not up there perfectly. I'll be painting the whole thing today.

The cabinets are not level or squared. It sags in some places and the spaces are all UNEVEN! I had to cut each section of the wall paper individually because none, I repete, NONE are the same height! (Ahhhhh, the beauty of having an old home.....) :-)

So this is what I've gotten done so far. I'll keep you posted on this little (ha!) project as I go along.

I hope you all have a great day! See ya back here soon! ;-)

Silly little bibs and our little model...

2011-02-16T09:59:00.008-06:00

Hello everyone! I just got some pictures of my little grandbaby wearing the bibs and blanket that I made for him. He is growing so quickly! And his hair has gotten longer! (his daddy didn't have hair for over a year!) And he's even looking more and more like his daddy did (except for the hair) at this age. Although, I still see his mommy in him too. He's a little chamelion just like his mommy! A running joke in our family is that Dillygirl looks different in every picture she's in. Anyhow. Here's the little cutie. And just so you know, this child can make anything he wears, look adorable! ;-)

Even stuff his Nana makes.

And here he is with his upside down bib.

There you go. Just a few of the pictures that I have of him. I could put more up but, I don't wanna bombard you with all of them. ;-)

So, I guess I need to make more things for him. They do say.... "Practice makes perfect" don't they? ;-)

Hope ya'll have a great day and I'll catch you back here again very soon!

Phew. All done!

2011-02-11T13:23:00.006-06:00

Hi all!

So, I finished the quilt yesterday. I'm going to say that I got it completed on time and then just barely. But the reality is, her birthday was on the 1st of February and I only managed to give it to her yesterday. Fortunately for me, she is a sweet and wonderful woman.

The colors are all spring timey (that's a word isn't it?) ;-) I know that Ms. Orlu is a bit tired of the cold so I thought these colors would remind her of spring and how it is on the way, even though we've had temps at -8 deg. in the past few days! Today it's supposed to get up into the 30's! Yeah!

Anyhow, I know that I did not do the binding correctly. Yes, I KNOW I didn't. But, that's okay. If I had done it correctly, it would have been another week before I could give it to her. I did what I had to do in order for it to be completed in a relatively timely manner. And if you're not a quilter you'd never know that is was wrong.

The really good thing is that she isn't up on the correct way to make a quilt. She's always saying how she's not the "crafty" sort. She didn't do hand work type things so she was so happy to get something that I made by my own little ol' hands. ;-) And I LOVE how much she seemed to love the quilt. She is such a special lady and she is such a joy to me and anyone who meets her.

So here is the completed quilt and even though I took my camera with me when I went to visit her. I totally spaced taking pictures of her with the quilt. But, I did take pictures of the finished quilt before I wrapped it up. So, here it is. And Corinnea, I'm so thankful that tiny, even, stitches are a thing of the past because there was no (NO) way I could have managed that in the short time I gave myself to hand quilt it!

This was taken outside.

This too.

This was taken inside. You can see the color is a bit off.

As is this.

The quilting was rather sparse. I only did the outline of each of the blocks. I used Warm & Natural batting which is my favorite because it makes the finished quilt look old fashioned. At least, that's what I think. And, I only bent three needles! But then it was a small quilt. ;-)

So. This is done and now I can get started on my kitchen cabinets. And, crocheting more doilies. Okay, it's back to work for me. And thank you all for your kind comments. Ya'll are a constant boon to my ego! Hope you all are having a great day and working on some fun projects! ;-)

Week 1

2011-02-04T11:34:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone!

I am really excited about what I did today. Today I began a painting, worked with watercolors, with Catherine of Tigs White Canvas . And instead of my usual down playing of what I have done. I'll just post it. Although, I do have to say, I have issues with perspective! Yes. I. do! And I hope that these lessons with Catherine will help me learn/develop my sense of perspective.. So, without further ado........

I worked on it for about 2 hours (probably should have left it alone around an hour into it) and I ended up going over area's I wished I hadn't. But, oh well. This painting doesn't even look like what I was trying to paint. The actual painting looks better than the picture of it. At least, in my own opinion.

So, week 1 accomplished. Now I will go back to my quilting. Nope, still not done. But I'm getting there!

Does anyone else want to join in on the fun of painting with Catherine? Check her blog out and give it a go! I must admit, I had fun, even if painting with watercolors is a bit too loosie-goosie for me! ;-)

Have a great day ya'll!

On a rolllllllllllllll

2011-01-28T16:38:00.005-06:00

Hi everyone!

This year is going pretty well in the crafting department. I've shown you all a few of the things I'd been working on so far. Nothing fancy, nothing uber cool. But, stuff that I hadn't really tried to do in a loooooong time.

I've been really getting into sewing lately. And one of the many things I'm planning on doing this year is to make all the gifts that I plan to give to friends and family. And THAT is a tall order! I've always loved making things. But I have always been a bit embarrassed to give my things to others. Since I don't normally stick to anything for a long enough time to become proficient in that craft, most everything I make then becomes a bit of an experiment. But, this year, I've decided to just go for it.

So, the last couple of days I've started a little lap quilt. Not sure if I'm doing it right. But I do know that it is possibly the best quilt top and back, I've EVER made! (I've made three finished quilts and one quilt top. None of which was done with any direction. Just used pieces of fabric I had on hand and winged it all. And they look like it too.) I must give credit to my friends. Like Corinnea who makes the most beautiful quilts! Just whips them up. And maybe I don't get around much because she was the first one I knew that made the back of a quilt just as pretty as the front! So, having seen all the quilts that she's done, I took her idea and went with it. And I actually made one that I think is going to be nice enough to give away! (Well, if I can figure out how to do the binding. I may have already messed that up, cuz I have a feeling I should have thought about that part when I put the back together.)

So, I had planned on showing you my teeny-tiny sewing room and the mess that I deal with in order to do my sewing projects. But, I decided not to. That would be too scary! ;-)

So here's what i've been working on and now my plan is to hand quilt it VERY quickly since I plan on giving this to my friend on the 9th of February. YIKES!

Front

Back

Okay, everyone help me by, praying that I'll get this quilted and figure out how to put the binding or (fudging) a binding on as quickly as possible!

Thank you for your help! ;-)

All about Monday

2011-01-26T07:45:00.013-06:00

So, I've been busy. Too busy to blog evidently, which is what I keep trying to get to. So today, I'm just here for a quick visit to say, I'm still knitting and still sewing. I knitted another cowl only this time it was for a friend of mine. And I'm making another hat for My Honey, because the first one , although he says he loves it, is a bit on the short side so I'm making one that has a nice wide band to go over his ears! And, I've advanced to something other than lined baby bibs & fleece baby hats! I've got three (non baby) projects going in the sewing department. Yay. Hopefully, I'll be showing those to you all soon.

We've had a bunch of snow around here lately. The good kind. All dry and fluffy and easy to shovel. And it's looking pretty outside. ;-) And the house looks good with the snow on and around it. I'm liking the color choice so far. It looks great in the Fall when things are turning colors and it looks good in Winter with all the snow. I hope it looks good in the summer when everything is green!

Mondays are especially busy for me. I try to cram in too much stuff to do. One of the things I do on Mondays is go to the church and water the plants and change the sign. Ricky LOVES to go with me because on Monday we get there before the cleaners do so there are always LOTS of little cookie/donut crumblies on the floor for him to suck up! He knows when it's Monday and he follows me all around the house anxiously waiting for me to say the word "church". And once I say that word he tears out for the front door! Seriously, he does!

He generally is a good walker. He doesn't pull on the leash. But on Mondays he's running up ahead of me trying to get to the goodies!

He won't even look at me when I call him. Normally I call his name while we're out walking and he'll look up (because he is normally right beside me. Mondays he's out in front of me) I got him to stop but he's still facing the church just barely able to keep still. I was trying to take a picture of him in his little fleece jacket that I made him a few years ago. But, he's not having any of that. All he can think about is the church that he's got his eyes on (literally)!

And then once we get through the doors and I unhook his leash.......

He's off and running! First thing he does is tears off running all around the place! He knows that there is not a single cat lurking about. That there are no Ethans lurking around the corner just waiting to pounce on him. Once he gets all the running out of his system (which isn't long because he's normally a lap dog so he only gets this kind of exercise on Mondays!) He buckles down to sniffing out the treats. He's like a little hound dog with his nose down on the floor and his little sniffing sounds going. Every now and then you'll hear little lip smacking sounds and then the sniffing continues. He'll do this the whole time I'm walking around watering plants. By the time I get to pulling letters for the sign he's settled down beside me waiting to head outdoors to change out the sign.

Every Monday I walk to the church and change out the sign (okay, there have been a few times when the weather is just too horrid to go out there.) But, for the most part, sign change occurs on Mondays. I get things to say from a couple books I ordered from Amazon and I also get contributions of sayings from various people in the congregation. But, if any of you have any good sayings or quotes, please share. ;-)

So, there you go. This is my monday. Work out - church - laundry - vacume - dust - water house plants - wind all the clocks and then, if I have time, I sit down and watch General Hospital and knit for an hour. Then it's off to finish the things I haven't finished and start dinner because Monday night is Bible Study night.

It's a busy day but I like it. And it's one of Ricky's favorite day! Next to Thursday. I'll have to tell you about Thursday some day.

Ya'll have a great day and I'll be back soon!

Knitting, adopting the Amish way....

2011-01-14T08:35:00.008-06:00

I'm baaaack!

Firstly, (I think that's a word, but I'm too lazy to double check) I must thank all my friends who commented on my last post. You all are one of the main reasons I keep trying to make things! Your words of encouragement mean a great deal to me. And it keeps me from looking at all my hand made items as terrible or horrific failures! (I know, I tend to be a tad bit dramatic) ;-)

Yesterday I did go back to try my hand at the perfect bib. But, I was just not into thinking that hard so instead I made another hand warmer. Which was difficult enough, but not as difficult as working on the bib. That took me a good hour to make and then it was off to visit my neighbor across the street. Ms. Orlu is such a sweet lady and she makes coffee and we take turns making something yummy to eat with the coffee every Thursday afternoon. And as always, I stayed longer than I had intended so I didn't get back to sewing last night. And as much as I want to keep trying the "sewing" thing, I've got errands to run today and I need to get that done before we get another snow fall which is expected later this weekend.

So, I decided to post the knitted cowl that I made for myself. I made a cheater mobius cowl for dilly-girl and then I decided to try to do the real thing. I found this really delicious yarn

Art.#135 Color #098 Houston Cream Super Bulky

And, believe it or not... once again I forget where I got the instructions from. But it's super easy! And if you're interested, I can send the information out to you. Although, after having seen a You Tube video on Moebius cast on, this pattern that I used is still not technically a true Moebius.

So, in the interest of accuracy, I must admit that because I messed up the pattern as I was knitting, this is no longer an accurate design of the pattern. I actually put in two full twists instead of the one that is called for in this particular pattern. But, it's still fun to wear and I like how it sits on my shoulders. And I am taking to heart something one of the my wonderful blog friend told me. Which is... The Amish always include one mistake because only God makes perfection. So there you go.

As you can see, there are two full twists to this cowl. Thus, making this a non-moebius.

Now, as much as I like my cowl, I still want to make a Moebius Cowl. And I found wonderful directions on You Tube done by Cat Bordhi. She shows you exactly how to do a Moebius cast on. Check it out and if you decide you're going to make a Moebius or Infinity scarf, please share with us how it went!

Okay, so that is it. I must be off to run my errands. Have a great day everyone and meet you back here soon! ;-)

Just when I thought I was sewing ....

2011-01-13T10:08:00.017-06:00

Hello everybody. Hope ya'll are doing well. Having a great day so far?!

All is well here. I did some sewing yesterday and hope to do some more today.

Now, keep in mind that I am not a sewer! I go through spurts of ambitious sewing energy which normally peters out after about half way into any given sewing project. The reason being, I'm not good at it. Part of my problem (most of the time) is that I tend to pick projects that are out of my ability level. And I must say that that is the (direct) result of having friends who are very talented in that department. (Ya'll know who you are!) I see their work, I get excited and I want to emulate them and sew fabulous things! And so I go out and get all the necessary items and proceed to mutilate the thing I'm trying to create. This time, I found a pattern that I thought I might be able to follow. It's a one piece pattern (how difficult is that? I tell myself.) So, I made a bib. I made a bib that has a piece of coated fabric that will keep drool from soaking through the bib. The pattern is all of one piece. All I have to do is cut three pieces of fabric. One front, one lining and one back. It has no zippers or button holes. Seriously, a small child could do it, right? Well, I had issues. Naturally. I made the first one. I will show it to you but please, don't laugh too hard.

As you can see... It looks pretty good. But then...

You can see the poor stitching on both sides. I did not like that.

Yikes! It's even worse on this side!

So then, I decided I could do better. So I tried again! But first, I made a simple blanket. It's just two flannel fabrics sewn together. But, I tried something new. I tried to overstitch with a fancy stitch design. (For me that was huge! HUGE!)

Blanket (background)

Blanket edge.

(don't look too closely at the corner on the green side. I forgot I don't really need to backstitch and automatically did that.)

Okay, so the stitching is a little wonky. But, I used a different stitch design, which I've NEVER done before! So, yay me!

Then I felt appropriately proud of myself so I went and tried again to make a bib. And this time I decided that I needed to figure out a way to show as little of the stitching on the velcro as possible. And in the process, I managed to make two mistakes!

First, notice how you can't see stitching on the front of the bib? I actually, thought ahead!

See? No stitching on this side either!

Alas, I forgot to change the thread to white which would have been less noticeable AND...

The fabric on the front of the bib was upside down! BLAH!

The really funny thing (to me!) was that I didn't even notice it until I finished top stitching. Because I was SO excited about the top stitching design on the bib! (And okay, because I may have been patting myself, prematurely, on the back.)

To me, the design of the top stitching makes it look "finished".

As you can see from this post. I worked nearly 5 hours on these items and I don't have a single thing that is right. BUT, I did learn something! Evidenced by the no stitching showing on the outside of the fabric that has the attached velcro! AND, the fancy design top stitching! Again "yay me"! ;-)

Now, I will go upstairs in my cramped little sewing/laundry room and I will make a perfect bib.

Wish me luck! ;-)

Birthday girl...

2011-01-11T12:57:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

This is more like it....!

2011-01-10T08:37:00.012-06:00

Now this is what I'm talking about! The only problem is that it didn't look like this on Christmas morning! Ah well, at least we'll have some snow this winter.

We woke up to this after a long day in Kansas. We had a great time with Baby Girl and her Fiance. Had brunch at a place that My Honey and I used to frequent (waaaayyyyyy back when we had to save our pennies for a loooong time, in order to go and eat a meal out!) The Chef Cafe. And the food is still good even though (I believe) the place has new owners. So after a yummy meal of (Eggs Benedict for me, Breakfast Fajita for Fiance, Special of the day sandwich (some kind of chorizo thing) for Baby Girl and a I can't remember what my Honey got! We all headed back to Baby Girls place and let her open her birthday gifts and eat cake. I made her her special birthday cake, Paisley Cake which has crushed Candy Canes in the filling! This is what I made her for her birthday gifts...

Painted Bee pillow

Lavender infused hand warmers

And I also made her a calendar (a mini one) that had a picture of her and her fiance and their dog Cooper. It was a really good picture of the three of them taken when they were here for Christmas. I forgot to take a picture of that little gift.

SO! At this point I would normally give credit where credit is due. Because, these three gifts that I made were from ideas garnered from other Blogs that I read. Or possibly from blogs that I happened upon because of links that were given from the blogs that I normally read. Unfortunately, I did not write down the blogs from which these particular ideas came from. EXCEPT the mini calendar one. The mini calendar idea came from Mary at Very Merry Vintage Style! Click on her printables link and then you'll see her newest link which is the mini calendar tutorial. And fortunately, I have this information because the tutorial that I printed out had this on the printed page. Now, I need to say this as well. I got this link through yet another link. The bad thing is... I can't remember who linked this to their page. You know, it's one of those deals where you see something and you think "oh, this is a fabulous idea! I'm going to try to make one". So you print it out and then in the rush of getting to other things, you forget to mark where you actually got the idea from. SO, in the event that the person who actually linked this from their page, actually reads my blog. PLEASE don't be mad at me. Please write in my comments section and remind me it was you who gave out this fabulous link or idea! That goes for the Bee Pillow tutorial AND the Hand Warmers as well! And if I end up locating the information, I'll be sure to let everyone know about it in a later post!

Needless to say, Baby Girl loved her gifts. These were such great ideas and they actually turned out rather well if I do say so myself! ;-) And I must say this as well. There have been many times when I felt rather guilty for sitting here reading various blogs. I felt like I was wasting my time since most of the time I was getting all these fab ideas but not doing anything with them. But all those times of sitting around finally paid off for Baby Girl!

So, Thank you to all of you who put out great ideas and tutorials for all of us to share! And I PROMISE to write down or annotate from whence I get my information in the future!

Okay, have a great day ya'll! I'm gonna go out into the snow! ;-)

*added after posting: I found where I got the handwarmer idea from! yay! Click on my link then click on her "sewing" category and then you'll find it! Now, for the pillow case....

What I want to see.....

2011-01-07T08:45:00.009-06:00

Hello everyone!

I am sitting here just stymied by the fact that our weather here has been all kinds of strange! Very few here around these parts are complaining. Only some of us are! Because it is January and there is no snow! We've had nearly zippo in the snow department! And I'm sorry folks but one of the things I LOVE about living here in the midwest is that I get four different seasons every year! Unfortunately, this year, this winter, when I look out my window or go out for a walk, I see a winter more like the winters I experienced in Florida! And let me just say, I am not happy!

This is the kind of scene I've been witnessing!

Very UN-winter like for around here! Other than the porch swing being hung up for the winter, everything else looks like what you'd see in Florida. (Sorry, I keep picking on Florida because I wasn't too keen on the place when we lived there.) (Okay, okay, so I'm still not so keen on the place! There I admitted it!) Sheesh.

There's been talk of snow off and on for the last month or so, but nothing of any merit has fallen. What I want to see when I look out my window or go walking about is,

something like this....

Or this...

or this...

So this week end we will be going on a road trip. Just a short one to sing Happy Birthday to Baby Girl! And, wouldn't you know it... the forecast is for blizzard like conditions beginning Sunday afternoon. Not happy about that but, you never know. The weather people have been saying things like this for the last couple months and we've gotten only mild winds with a little bit of the white stuff. ('course we didn't have to do any traveling when they forecasted that all the other times....) Ah well, it'll be nice to spend time with baby girl regardless!

Well, I hope that the next time I show you pictures of our place, it'll be surrounded by lot's of white stuff! ;-) Have a great day!

Lucky me with my new spice rack!

2011-01-06T10:35:00.013-06:00

Hello everyone! Today I'm going to talk about my old & new spice rack.

First of all, it was a spice rack that probably sparked our (my honey and myself) first married argument. It wasn't too big an argument but big enough. And it was probably our first fight over money or lack there of. (I say probably because my mind is not what it used to be. AND because My honey and I tend to remember things a bit differently, if you know what I mean....)

So, I found this fabulous spice rack in a thrift shop and I talked the owner down from $20.00 to $10.00. (I was so proud of myself for saving my honey some money!) It was a really nice sized spice rack too! (That was back in the day when I only used the basic spices in my cooking!) I brought it back to the house (we were visiting my folks at the time) but there was no way we could take it on the plane with us so I brilliantly thought I'd mail it. Well, that fabulously inexpensive spice rack ended up costing us WAAAAY more than we could really afford! But, I got my way (my honey usually lets me get my way.) ;-P

Anyhow... once we got it back to our place the spice rack resurrected yet another fight. Because there really was no place to hang that large spice rack in our (extremely) small kitchen! At least not according to my honey. We finally did find a spot and all was well, until the next time we moved. And the time we moved after that and so on and so on, for most of our moves. A couple of months ago, I was in the kitchen when suddenly there was a HUGE crash! It was my beloved spice rack. The spice rack hung on the wall by a heavy gage wire. That wire held that rack up on walls all over Europe and the United States. But it was the screw that the wire was attached to that finally gave out. My honey came running out to see what had happened and (I think) may have had a little smile on his face when he saw the damage. I'm not exactly sure because I was just flat out devastated by the complete and utter destruction of my beloved spice rack! Fortunately, NONE of the bottles and jars broke when it all came down!

So, a few weeks ago, my father-in-law who is a brilliant carpenter brought over the shelf that he made for all my spice jars and bottles. I'm sure he's still not sure how he actually got talked into making it for me. But he did it and brought it over when they came over for the Baptism. I finally got it stained and my honey hung it up and it is......Ahhhhhhh

....Beautiful!

My bottles and jars, all mismatched.

Please ignore the rest of the kitchen! I still have to wait another three years before we tear it out and put in my dream kitchen! ;-)

I just LOVE my new spice rack! I still have a bunch of space but if I can find more of the those Jadite glass spice jars then the spice rack will be full! And much more visually appealing!

So, I am on the hunt for those spice jars! So far no luck. I'm looking for ones that don't have any writing on them at all since I do tend to have some rather unusual spices in my arsenal of recipes.

I have a request. If any of you out there know of or have seen this type of spice jars in the jadite color, let me know! Thanks!

Okay, gotta get some gifts completed for a birthday girl!

Have a great day everyone! And thanks so much for checking out my blog! ;-)

This time, too big!

2011-01-05T08:39:00.012-06:00

Hello!

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a little while, you'll know that I try my hand at hand made things. Lately I've been hooked on knitting and actually made a few things that I gave as Christmas gifts. Luckily for me, they were given to family members who love me enough to humor me and wear those gifts. They are such sweet people! ;-)

Anyhow, someone that I have had trouble making things for has been my sweet little grandson. I made him a few things before he was born only to find out that those items were far too small for our little chunk monster! Well, when our dilly-girl came for Christmas this year, she wanted to learn how to sew. Of course I told her that I am NOT the person to teach her anything in the sewing department. (I've been known to throw sewing machines over balconies in the past...buuuut, that is another story for another time.) Anyhow, I had purchased a pattern for a baby hats and I bought some fleece and the two of us proceeded to pin, scrutinize, cut and sew. She did the beginning of the project and then far too quickly it was time for them to pack and get ready to go back to their home. So, while they were doing that I decided to finish the project. I also made a different hat! Amazing! I actually made a hat AND finished at hat in one day! But, the problem was... It turned out to be way too big! Yup. Really, it was rather silly! Something that should not have happened at all since the child was on the premises! I could very easily have checked on his head size and adjusted accordingly, but...... nooooooo. I did not do that and so.... this time, too big!

This is the hat that his momma started and his Nana finished. At the rate he is growing he'll be able to wear it by next winter. I hope! You can't tell by looking at this picture, but I could make a fist and stick it inside his hat with his head in it!

But he is such an angel that he gave me the sweetest look while I took this photo. Kinda like to say... "it's okay Nana, I trust that you'll eventually get it right". ;-)

Well, I didn't get a picture of the other hat I made. At one point I put his hat on while he was in the highchair and turned around to call for his momma. I was standing behind the chair and when I turned around to show his momma what I had made I noticed that his head kept turning from one side to the other as if he were looking at something flying back and forth. (insert little giggle sound here.) We both walked around to see him from the front and guess what? It wasn't that he was looking at something... he was actually trying to see! His hat that I made had fallen down over his eyes and he was trying to find a way to be able to see again! :-)

So, I have more work to do before I actually make this poor child something that he can wear/use now. The good thing is, I know now that I can actually make things! I just need to make something that will fit him!

So, there it is. A little chuckle for you today. ;-) Have a great one you all and thanks for stopping by.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-04T09:12:00.010-06:00

Happy New year everyone!

I'm a little late getting this out. Many reasons but probably the one I'm going to go with is... As much as I loved (LOVED) having our kids and their loved ones with us, it was also nice to have the house back to ourselves again! I was pretty tired AND I ended up catching a cold! First cold in a VERY LONG TIME! I must admit, I played somewhat more this last Christmas with them here than I have in the past. I didn't stress nearly as much about having the "perfect" Christmas. And that's huge for me! HUGE I tell you! The absolute best thing was that we were all together! My son and his wife and baby boy. And our daughter and her fiance. It's the first Christmas I've had my kids together since 2006 and I was a very happy Momma! It's the nicest thing to see your babies grow up and become adults who have a happy life sharing and growing with someone they love! And then to top it off.... They gave great gifts! Our Son and his wife (dilly-girl) gave me a Wii board! My honey, gave me a Wii system! And my daughter gave me the cookbook I've been wanting, Barefoot Contessa at home! And those were just a few of the bountiful booty of Christmas this year! Tonight we're having Eli's Asian Salmon and Herbed Basmati Rice recipes out of the book! Baby girl also reminded me that I should make more homemade soap. She gave me & dilly-girl a small bar of some lavender soap that she had picked up and it smells so good and it feels so yummy! So now I'm on the hunt for Lye. It's not easy to find these days at the grocery stores, but I hope to find some and then make my own soaps again this year! Anyhow....... I got tons of stuff, but the one thing I used alot (as far as Christmas gifts goes) was the Wii system. It was so, SO much fun to play with the kids! We even had our friends over (julie and jordan) and played a bit with them. But, alas, I did not get pictures of anyone playing the Wii. (although, dilly-girl did get a video of her fil and our son playing Wii doing the Hula-hoop game! And as entertaining as that video is... we will not be sharing it with the public!) ;-)

And now, I'll talk a bit about the New year, 2011. I have a feeling it's going to be just as busy as last year. But in a good way once again! The main event this year will be our daughter and her wedding in May. I am so, SO happy for her! Not that she is getting married, so much as her having found someone to share her life with. And he is such a great guy! And we are so happy for them both! I'll also be doing some traveling to visit with our grandbaby (every 4 months) and visiting my parents this summer. There may even be a road trip ahead this year with Dilly-girl and grandbaby and my parents! So... busy, busy, busy.

On that note... I'll leave you with some pictures of our kids and grandchild!

(My apologies for all the red-eye. I didn't realize I hadn't fixed those.)

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season and your new year brings joy and good health to you all!

Baptism

2010-12-21T09:56:00.006-06:00

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....

2010-12-16T08:22:00.006-06:00

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....?

2010-12-15T07:53:00.007-06:00

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...

2010-12-11T09:48:00.015-06:00

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.....

2010-12-07T07:30:00.015-06:00

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!

2010-11-27T08:32:00.008-06:00

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!

2010-11-25T12:01:00.006-06:00

Busy pretending....

2010-11-24T08:48:00.009-06:00

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!

2010-11-13T07:46:00.008-06:00

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

2010-10-30T08:40:00.011-05:00

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?.....

2010-10-27T08:54:00.008-05:00

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..

2010-10-21T08:15:00.010-05:00

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...

2010-10-02T17:37:00.007-05:00

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. ;-)