I Love Color

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I’ve been working with fabric all week. Something I find very satisfying and enjoyable.  I do have a rather large selection of fabric since we had a fabric store years ago and I have added to it since we closed our little shop.  Sometimes I miss the store and being able to order fabric. It was like getting to pick out my Christmas present just about every month and when the fabric would be delivered it would be like Christmas morning.

I ordered some fabric this past week. It’s dangerous for me to go on fabric store sites because I love just about all that I see.  No color is off limits to me.  I even like orange if used carefully in quilts.

These look like they could have been material used in my mother’s aprons years ago.  So bright and cheery.

These made me think of vintage French material.  So gorgeous. I wish I could have bought the whole line, but I will find a place for these in a quilt.

I bought six yards of this. It’s prettier in person. A dusty pink.  It’s going to be hard to cut because it’s so pretty.

This is Lori Holt’s fabric from her line of fabrics for Riley Blake.  Lori likes bright, cheerful colors and she has designed some of the cutest quilts.   Anyway, I got enough of this to back a quilt.  Don’t know which one yet, but who cares.

I’ve been making blocks for my Grandmother’s Fancy quilts.  I need 115 of them for five quilts.  It’s going to take me a while.  But it’s so much fun going through all my fabric to pick out what I need for each block because each block is a different color.   I’ve even come across fabric I forgot I had and it’s like, well, Christmas, once again!   I have found fabric I have never cut and didn’t remember buying.  But that’s okay. It makes it interesting.  I don’t know if you remember when I was cleaning out my fabric and I gave a lot to a local charity shop and several bags full to a friend who was making lap quilts for nursing home patients.   That still left me with boxes and boxes of fabric.  I will never use it all in my lifetime so my kids will have to haul it all to a charity shop because none of them sew or quilt.  I’m sure they will thank me. Ahem.

I told you we went to an antique show Saturday. Sometimes you kiss a frog before you find a prince and this time I was disappointed.  I have more nice antiques than this sale had. It was more of a flea market. But David and walked through the two buildings it was held in and saw some interesting things. One lady was selling bunches of flowers and she had planted a lot of little succulents in tea cups and other small dishes. Her booth was cute. Another booth had all old laundry items such as a wringer washer, old wash tubs, old clothes pins three for a dollar!  I had to laugh at that as I have so many of those in an old clothespin bag in my shop.

When we were just about to leave, I saw a box of books.  I always look at old books when I see them, especially when they are in a box all jumbled up because you never know what you will find.  I love old children’s books and in one box this man had was the book, “Bambi.”  Three dollars, the man told me and I snapped it up.  It was copyright  1929.  It was first published in 1923 just about the time Walt Disney was young enough to read it and start dreaming of making a movie.

Felix  Salten was an Austria writer and critic.  He is best known for his book, Bambi. I’m so glad he wrote it.

Deer even run across the inside cover.

I love what John Galsworthy wrote about the book. Notice he recommends the book to “sportsman.”  Not Bambi!

Bambi’s mother.  When I saw the movie for the first time and Bambi’s mother became a victim of the hunter, I was too little to realize what happened and my mother would not tell me.

Could this be the model for Thumper who Walt Disney created?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading this.  Glad I found it.

Coming home we stopped at another antique store we like called Vic’s.  Outside it is parked all manner of old army vehicles, an airplane, old cars and this…….

 

Wouldn’t it be crazy to drive this down the road?   It would certainly make other drivers take a second look….or wreck!

And this caught my eye because it made me think of my sister-in-law.

About the only thing that looks like her is she’s blonde, but her name is Terry.

We had a fun day and ended it by eating out at IHOP.  And something happened there that was so cute. We were done eating and walking out and a little boy with Down’s Syndrome waved at us and said, “Hi,” and I smiled and said “Hi,” and as I passed him he grabbed my hand and would not let go so  I went back to him and patted his hand and said “aren’t you going to let me go?”  He had a big smile on his face. He was so darling.   His mother told him to let go and he said, “Bye,” and I said, “Bye,” and we left. I told David I wish I could adopt him he was so cute.

Here’s to beautiful fabric, wonderful books and darling little boys. Bye.

 

Sorry, I’m Lazy

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Here I am and it’s February already.  When I was learning how to spell February in elementary school, I thought it was odd there was an “r” after the “b” because I had always said Febuary and no one had ever corrected me. Spell check just corrected me! Ha!  But it was impressed on me so I never misspell it now.  Anyway, I’ve got nothing right now to show you because I’ve grown lazy taking pictures.

It’s not to say things aren’t happening around here. It’s just that I get up and before I know it, I’m going to bed again and I wonder where the day went.  I have a grand plan to make so many quilts this year and give them away.  To accomplish that, I need to get into my shop and sew like mad.  But right now I’m only accomplishing one or two blocks  a day so my grand plan isn’t going as quickly as I wanted.

David and I have been thinking about vacations and where we should travel to this year. We’ve been to every state but Hawaii and Rhode Island, many of them several times.  One of my favorite bloggers is having a special event this Spring and I just mentioned it to David and he said, “Let’s go. Put it on your calendar.”  So I did. I will tell you about it later when I’m sure we can get tickets and pet sitters and all that.  Whenever we plan a trip, our dogs and chickens are first on my mind. Who will watch them? How can they ever do without me?  Will something horrible happen to them if I go away?  So far we’ve  been pretty blessed with pet sitters and our animals have been well taken care of. I checked once with our vet on their accommodations and I was appalled at how small the pens were and the run for the dogs to get outside was about eight feet long. My dogs would go crazy there. So that was out. But I’ve found a girl who does sitting and she does a very good job, so I will be calling her. And my dogs can stay home where they are comfortable.

But back to February.  I do love the cold, wet, and snowy days that are part of this month. Even at that, there are days when you can smell Spring. David and I sat on the swing on my shop porch and I could smell the earth and hear the birds and it almost felt like Spring.  The other day I saw a flock of Sandhill Cranes go over.  We see them every year, but they are early this year.  They fly in large groups and there are several that fly over. If they are early, does that mean Spring is not far behind?  Part of me says, “I hope not” and part of me says, “Yay” I’m ready for warm weather.

We are going to an antique show tomorrow.  I know I don’t need one more thing put in our house, but I would like to see what they have for sale.  There may be that ONE thing I just need to have.  I got a box today with more fabric in it. Yes, I ordered more fabric. I love fabric.  The colors in the fabric I chose are so vivid. I’ll try to get some pictures taken and I will tell you where I get my fabric online.  There is a store where the fabric is one or two dollars less a yard than most other places. I only ordered it two days ago and already have gotten it.

Well, David and I are off to Sam’s Club.  It’s one of my favorite places to shop and I don’t like to shop.  I’ve rambled today, but that’s the kind of day it’s been.  I’ve just rambled through it.

And I’m only going to say this once. I am very thankful the impeachment fiasco it over and President Trump can do his job without being harrassed.

Have an almost but not quite Spring Day.  Bye.

It’s a Beginning

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I love to start quilts almost as much as I love to finish them.  I love every part of quilt making. The picking the pattern.  The choosing of fabrics. The cutting out of the quilt.  The piecing of the quilt.  And finally, the quilting or tying of the quilt.  It’s called a comforter when a quilt is tied. At least that is what my mother always told me.  It’s only called a quilt when the fabric, batting and backing are sewed together in tiny quilt stitches.

If you have ever made a quilt, you understand what I am talking about.  And once you make one, you almost always have to make another one and another one and another one.

Right now I am working on a certain quilt that I have made before called Grandmother’s Fancy.  I found the pattern in a quilt magazine I bought almost twenty years ago.

I use to buy this magazine all the time. I don’t know if it is still sold.  It always had some interesting stories about quilters and at the back it had several of the quilt patterns that were shown in the magazine.

As you can see, I wrote Grandmother’s Fancy on the front so I would know this particular pattern was in this particular magazine.  I have done that a lot through the years when I wanted to keep a pattern I found in a magazine.

And I write myself notes in the pages while I am working.  Sometimes I write something I have heard on the radio or some advertisement I am interested in. My quilt magazines became sort of diaries through the year.

This magazine was good about showing how to put each quilt together.  This may look hard to some, but it’s really an easy pattern.  I would love to make one for each of my grandchildren, but the ones I am making now are for our bed.  As it’s a king size I haven’t made very many quilts for it because it’s getting harder for me to quilt a big quilt on my home sewing machine.  I may have to hand quilt these.

This was the first quilt I made from this pattern.  I made it many years ago and it’s been used and washed several times and is beginning to get the vintage look I love in quilts.

It is on our guest bed in our guest bedroom.  We haven’t had too many guests to stay here for a while and the bedroom started to look like a storage room until this week when I put everything away and cleaned the room and made up the bed again.  I’m glad I did because I like how it looks.  Maybe now I will have guests again.

This is a king size version of the pattern.  I plan on finishing it this year.  It’s on the top of my list of quilts to finish. Because…….

I’ve made enough of the blocks to make yet another one.  One that will be more Spring like.  I really love making these blocks.

I still have a few more I want to make before I decide what fabric I want for the borders and sashing.  I’m thinking I’ll use some shirting material for it.  I’m reading a book right now about some people during the WWll times and one of the women in it is a seamstress and she said, “Textiles are a woman’s delight.”  I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.  I delight in textiles.

David took a week off for his birthday and we thought we might do something, but we haven’t done a darn thing except go out to eat a couple of times, but that was all right with both of us.  It’s been so cold all I want to do is stay in where it’s warm and work on quilts or knit and David has been working on our taxes and almost has them done.  I’m so glad he likes to do that because I would be lost if I had to do them.  I’d have to hire someone to do my taxes even though I actually took a class on taxes in college. A lot has changed since then.

We did go see our two youngest grandsons in their orchestra concert.  Children from all the elementary schools, middle schools and high schools in Bloomington joined together to put on the concert.  Each class had a song to play and at the end the whole group played together. It was awesome. The middle school group played a song from Star Wars and their bows were lit up and they turned down the lights and it was just wonderful.

This was his debut performance on his cello. Our youngest grandson.  He’s so cute and funny.

For some reason the picture is sideways, but that is his brother smiling. This is his second year of cello and I am proud to say he has signed up for orchestra in middle school next year.  I love that they are learning an instrument.  My biggest regret of my life, and I have very few regrets, is that when I had the chance to take piano lessons I refused to take them and my poor mother could not talk me into it.  Now, when I hear our church pianist play, and she is wonderful, I think to myself that could be me up there if I had listened to my mother.  I can pick a few songs out on the piano and can read music a little, but not like I could have if I had taken lessons.  I did take violin lessons when our boys took them.  I was in the same class with them at one time and I could play somewhat well, but I found that getting the time to practice was getting harder and harder and violin fell by the wayside.   I gave my violin away.  Now I wish I had it again.

David and me and the parents of our grandsons, our daughter and son-in-law.   Sara took piano for eight years and violin for a couple of years.  Jeremy plays the drums.   Out oldest son played cello in orchestra and our youngest son played the Bass.  I use to haul them to class every week, the bass bigger than our son until he grew into it.  They both were pretty good. I guess you could say we are a musical family.

What have you been up to?  Do you have any projects you are enjoying these Winter months?  Here’s to musical grandboys and quilts to made. Bye.

 

 

I’m Wondering

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Here it is, the middle of January in a brand new year already and I’m getting nothing done.  I find myself dreaming more than I am doing.  Does that happen to you?  I wonder when I will get energetic enough to get all the things done I want to do.  I want to clean out closets. I want to begin my walking regimen again. Now that’s a good question. I wonder when that will happen again.

Just a few years ago I was walking at least five miles a day and then my health went all downhill. After getting a pacemaker in I thought I’d be walking miles again real soon. Well, it hasn’t happened yet.  I can barely walk a mile without getting tired out.  I have got more done this past year than I have been able to do.   But I want to walk again without wearing myself out.  I want to stop whining about it also.

I wonder if I will finish many quilts this year.  I have been working on blocks for the same quilt for the past several weeks. It’s called Grandmother’s Fancy and I’ve completed one quilt from this particular pattern that I love and another that is just waiting to be quilted so, of course, I started another one.  The blocks are just so much fun to make and are using a lot of my scrap fabric.  It’s like a display of a lot of my old fabric.  I have flour sack fabric in it and fabric we sold at our store twenty years ago and fabric I got from my mother’s stash after she died.  If I get the energy to take pictures, I’ll show you the quilts in my next post.

I’m wondering if David and I will take a vacation this year.  We didn’t take one last year because of, well, you know, my medical problems.   We are planning on buying a new car, maybe a Jeep this Spring and we tell ourselves we need to break it in by taking a really great trip somewhere. Alaska again?  Maybe.  Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.  Sounds wonderful.  Martha’s Vineyard?  That’s somewhere I have always wanted to visit.  Who knows.  I just know If we don’t take a trip I will feel like we are getting too old to try again and I really don’t want to think that.

I remember my mother’s and daddy’s last trip to Colorado. They got into a blizzard and had to stay in a church for a while. Mother always had snacks with her and shared them with people around her.  It was a trip they talked about a lot, but it was their last one.  They visited some friends in Colorado and went out to dinner with them and the man got choked on some food and my daddy performed the Heimlich maneuver on him and saved him.  Yes, it was their last trip.

I’m wondering if this trial against our president will ever come to an end.  No president has had to go though what President Trump has had to endure.  I know some hate him so much they will believe anything about him that they hear, but he’s done so much good since he’s been in office. If only the media told the truth.  I’m praying it will all end and he will be allowed to do his job without being harassed constantly.

I wonder how many people decided they weren’t going to read my blog anymore because of the above paragraph.

I’m wondering if we will have a blizzard this Winter.  I know some people really don’t want to see snow, but I’d love to see one really big snow before Winter is done. Last year Winter was so mild, we had very little snow and it just didn’t feel like Winter.   Just one day where everyone has to stop and stay at home.  Just one day to snuggle down with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book before it’s time to get outdoors and plant a garden and work in the yard.

I’m wondering if I will lose the weight I really want to lose.  Well, not enough that I didn’t eat a big piece of David’s chocolate birthday cake I baked for him.  It is really good!   I have to stop baking which I like more than cooking.

I’m wondering what other people in blogland will be talking about this year.  I read several blogs. Some I never miss because they are such good writers. I wonder about their lives and how they are doing all the time.

I wonder just how quickly this year will pass by. If it’s like the last one, I will be writing my 2021 blog before long.

What do you wonder about?   Life if full of wonder and delight.  Hope this new year is going well with you.  Bye.

 

Remembering 2019

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The end of the year is a time for remembering and looking forward.  While there were many blessings in the past year, I must admit it was not the best year I’ve ever had what with spending so much time in doctors’ offices and in the hospital. Having a pacemaker put in was not on the top of my list of fun things to do, but it was a last resort sort of thing so I did it.

But now that is all past and just  a memory as I look back on Christmas and the wonderful times we had with friends and family.

We had Thanksgiving with family and friends. This is our oldest son’s girlfriend’s son with his dog, Annie. Annie is so cute. I made her some scarves for Christmas.

My son and his girlfriend. They love Disney World and last year they had a season pass to it and were down there almost every week it seemed.

The tree was up with the help of two of our grandsons.

These two are growing up way too fast.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.  I knit 24 pairs of stocking this year and I’ve already started for next year.   I just let everyone pick out the ones they like.

I was gifted this beautiful Christmas cactus. I saw one on Facebook that was one hundred years old and had been in the same family all that time. It was huge.  I’m not sure this one will make it that long, but I hope I can manage to keep it going until next year.

This was our front entry this year. I bought the cubby at an antique store and it held a lot of my smaller Santas and other paraphernalia.

My daddy made all the little wooden houses and the church years ago. He use to make them and sell them and they were quite popular.  I made the trees from a pattern I found on Ann Wood’s blog.  She’s a very talented and creative artist who provides free patterns as well as selling them on her blog.

Packages under the tree and I just love the way the sunlight comes in this window in the Winter.  This is the room I most often am in, cutting out quilts or knitting or just watching tv.  It’s not the warmest room in this old house though.

While hurrying to make gifts, wrap gifts and prepare for the holidays, I  sewed this pillow from a dish towel I bought in Nashville.  I don’t know why I always have the urge to sew something entirely not to do with Christmas when I’m right in the middle of the hustle and bustle, but I always do.  I think it’s my way of calming myself because sometimes the days can get hectic. I really tried this year to slow down, take it easy and just enjoy the real reason for the season.  I tried reading the entire book of Luke in the Bible. There are 24 chapters and if you read a chapter a day before Christmas, you’d get the full story of Jesus and why He was born and how He died for everyone.   I didn’t get it all read, but I’ve read it countless times before so I know the story.

This is the time of gray, cloudy days, but we have had some beautiful sunsets.  I can’t get a picture of just how beautiful this one was, but it was gorgeous.  This is our lone tree we have that was left after our neighbor cut down all the trees on his property. This one set right on the property line and I asked him not to cut this one down.  This makes me think of that one scene from Gone With the Wind where Scarlette and her father are talking about the land and Tara is in silhouette.

I did most of our shopping online this year and I think I found some very good presents for my loved ones.

David likes to play Santa.  He wears this hat at his workplace and all the children think he’s the real one.  True story. We were in line at Wal-mart and there was a little boy about three years old sitting in a cart in front of us and he was eyeing David up and down and then he blurted out, ” You’re not the real Santa Claus!”  His mother was so embarrassed, but David looked at him for a few seconds and then said, “No, I am not. I’m one of his helpers.”  Well, that little boy just kept starring at him.   It was so cute.  David gets a kick out of things like this.

He also likes to play Santa at our family Christmas gift giving.

He surprised me Christmas Eve with this….

Flowers that I used for a centerpiece on our table.

I love watching the grandkids opening their presents. The big hit this year were woolen hats with beards attached.

Oh, my.

Our daughter’s son thought she ought to wear one of the beards, soooo….

She did!  Everyone had fun with them.

He looks like he belongs to the group ZZ Top.  And guess what movie we are watching on tv.

Our granddaughter got a beret. She looks so cute in it.

This is an alarm clock that has a sonic boom sound when it goes off. It can also shake your bed. I bet this will make my grandson popular in his dorm at college next year!  Ha!

I always seem to get a chicken themed gift every year.  I don’t know why?!

So, Christmas is over for another year. Sometimes I wish it would last longer and that the days before were not so hectic.   I’m going to try to buy gifts throughout the year so that I won’t be scrambling for gifts a week before Christmas.  I believe Christmas has become way too commercialized and I want to get away from that and focus more on what it means.  It’s like no other day.

So the new year is here and already almost a week old.    We did some antiquing yesterday at one of my favorite antique stores.

We found this little buggy. David thinks it was for some rich little girl’s dolls at one time. Part of it is missing, but I thought it would be something I could decorate for Christmas next year. And it fits right in with our old house.

The little Radio flyer wagon behind my snowmen was another find.  This is my small collection of snowmen I put out after Christmas.

I found this little snowman at the antique store.

A friend gave me this Jim Shore snowman years ago and I love him.

I also found some red fabric at a booth where  the lady sells all things to do with quilting and sewing. I have found a lot of fabric at her booth.  I just completed a quilt with flannel backing from flannels I found in her booth and I’ll probably be back for more.

January brings seed catalogs. Even deep in Winter one can dream about the garden.

I’m thinking I want to try to grow pumpkins again.  My last try was a bust.

So many kinds to choose from. If I had a lot of acres, I’d plants lots of pumpkins.

So I hope the new year will be good to you.  I hope your dreams will come true and God will pour all His blessings on you and your household. Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the new year

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Before I finish posting about Christmas and before the new year gets here, I’m going to rant about something that has been bothering me for a while.   I like Facebook. It keeps me in contact with lots of family and friends I don’t see that often if ever.  I like politics and it keeps me up on my favorite president and the real news that is happening.   I also like to comment on Facebook and this is what has caused me problems.  I have been put in Facebook jail for a month for something they say was offensive. I have not posted anything I haven’t already seen on Facebook. I don’t use curse words or foul language like many do and those seem to be okay. There are certain groups evidently protected more than others on Facebook.  I have read some pretty bad things about people that I would never think of writing and yet these get by the Facebook censors.   I back everything I write. I am not ashamed of anything I write.  I believe everything I write is the truth.   So to be put in Facebook jail seems very wrong to me.  And once you are censored, even though they say you can protest, they make it impossible to fight them against their injustices.   I’m wondering if it’s just conservatives who get censored. 

If you look all around and see what is going on bad in the world, one would think it’s all President Trump’s fault.  If you watch only CNN or MSNBC, you will never know all the good our president has been doing since he took office.   You will only hear about his impeachment, a farce that the Democrats are hellbent on keeping going far into the next election period.   I’m  a     fierce fighter and proponent of President Trump and it angers me when I see baldfaced lies being reported daily about him.  When we have a certain man running for president who got his son a lucrative job with the Ukranians, a job he was not qualified for, and he is not judged as harshly by the liberal media, it angers me.  Fair ball is not played by the liberal media or Facebook.  Free speech is only for those with whom they agree.  If you believe all you see and hear on liberal media, you are being kept ignorant of so much more.   We truly are a nation divided with two types of media reporting.  Lies and the news.  Even then  I wonder if we are getting the news we really need to hear.

But back to Facebook.  I will continue to try to use my God given free speech and I will see just how Constitutional the Facebook censors will be to people with my viewpoint.  Or do they follow the Constitution. It says our free speech is not to be abridged. No matter if it offends someone. No matter whether you agree with someone’s speech. There is a lot of speech that I find offensive. Many blogs that are offensive to me.  A lot of hate filled things toward our president I find offensive, but I believe people have the right to speak or write what they want. Every day I see this freedom being taken, little by little.  Just like gun control where one governor, Virginia’s, is trying to take people’s guns away.  If we the people don’t fight this, we will wake up one morning with all our rights gone.

My next post I will go back to my life as I’m living it.  It would probably be better if I had never heard of or taken part in Facebook, but it’s too late now. I know people who have said they are going to quit Facebook and then I see them still posting there.  It’s almost addictive, like using a cellphone.  I belong to several quilting groups and home decorating groups that I love to visit on Facebook, so I will continue to use it until the censors abuse me once too often.

Have you had problem with the censors on Facebook and do they target conservatives more than liberals?  I’d love to know the statistics.

Here’s to freedom of speech and to those who uphold it.  Boo to those who don’t. Bye.

 

The Night Before

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Every year it comes.  No matter who were are, what we believe. Whether we celebrate or not.  Whether you know who Jesus is or you don’t. Christmas will come.  The world cannot stop it.  Some have tried by blocking people from saying, “Merry Christmas,” but that isn’t what the season is about anyway.  If no one ever said “Merry Christmas again, it would still come. It would come if there were only one person who believed.

It would come because it’s not about the tree, the tinsel, the presents, the huge meals. It would come if there were no Santa, because he really isn’t the reason that makes Christmas so special.  It would come even if you wish it wouldn’t.

Christmas. What is it about this one holiday that makes people so happy or sad?  Some people are sadder this season than at any other time I have read.  Some people love Christmas and everything about it and there are even Facebook pages celebrating the day where people talk all year about it and can’t wait for it to come again. It’s just one day, but it feels different for some reason.  It’s a day like no other. No holiday is more cherished than Christmas. No holiday has evoked so many memories, good or bad for millions of people.

Just what is it about Christmas that causes some people to pine for it and some people to dread it?

I know when I was growing up Christmas was a feeling that started for me right after Thanksgiving after we had spent that holiday at my aunt’s house with all my brothers and my sister and cousins. We would watch the Macy’s parade on tv and when Santa Claus would appear we knew Christmas season had begun.   Then it became a time when my mother would begin her candy making and cookie baking.  My mother sewed red flannel stockings for her Sunday School class and filled them with all the good things she had made topped off by a gingerbread man with raisin eyes and buttons and with icing piped all around the edges.  I remember helping her put on the raisin eyes and buttons and how all the gingerbread men looked all lined up on the kitchen counter.  The children loved getting their stockings.

There was shopping in the city. Going to a store called Veaches where their whole basement floor was filled with toys of all kinds.  Trains and dolls and games and bicycles.  One year I looked at a blue Schwin bicycle and wished with all my might that Santa would bring me one just like it.  My baby brother and I would walk around with our eyes aglow seeing all the wonderful things that we could only imagine having.

At church we began  to sing all the Christmas carols.  “O Come All Ye Faithful,”  Silent Night,”
“Joy to the World,”  “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”  I loved those carols and still do to this day as they tell about the birth of the Savior on Christmas Day.

There was excitement at school as we practiced for the Christmas program.  Our music teacher would take a classroom of children, most with little talent, and turn us into little performers for our parents’ delight.   Christmas trees were in every room.  Every class had a party.  My mother was room mother one year and she brought little  Spritz Christmas trees made with her cookie press and squares of ice cream.  We had drawn names for gifts and one year I got a Raggedy Ann book and one year a necklace.  It was all so much fun.    The excitement was palpable as we children could hardly contain ourselves waiting for the “Day.”  I don’t know how the teacher got any teaching done that last day of school before the holidays and when the final bell rang we children ran out to the buses or to walk home with smiles on our faces shouting, “Merry Christmas!” to one another.

The days before Christmas were busy with wrapping presents, baking cookies, making popcorn balls and playing board games like Monopoly.  Some of our Monopoly games would go on for days.  We’d attend the Christmas program at church where the children would sing and the choir would sing and there was a wonderful, warm feeling as I sat there with my parents and heard the old, old story once again how a virgin became pregnant with God’s only Son who was born in the tiny town of Bethlehem. How there was no room at the inn for the new family so they had to bunk down in a stable with all the animals. How the shepherds heard the angels, singing God’s praises, on the hills where they were guarding the sheep. How the three Wise Men came with their precious gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh, gifts fit for a king because Jesus was a king.   I would listen in awe and wonder why God would send His Son down just for us.  I didn’t understand the full story for a while.  All I knew was that it was special and Christmas was special because of this story.

So as we sit here on Christmas Eve waiting for yet another Christmas, my only hope and prayer is that more and more people will learn and understand just why Christmas is such a special time.  It was a time when God came down.  That God who loves us all so much He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

I don’t know how you are spending Christmas. I don’t know how you feel about Christmas. All I know is Jesus is for everyone. Every single person reading this. Every single person in the world, no matter what religion or race.  This Christmas, if you haven’t already, make room in your heart for Him.  Make your heart the inn this Christmas.  God bless you all and Merry Christmas.

 

Twelve More Days

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I looked at the calendar today and realized there are only twelve more days until Christmas. I have been busy making gifts and ordering gifts. Thank goodness for the internet. I really don’t like shopping and we haven’t had a whole lot of time to shop this year, so most of my gift buying has been on the computer.   You can buy just about anything there nowadays.  And it’s brought right to your door.  I have heard that some people have been having trouble with people stealing their boxes from their doorsteps. I’m usually at home when the mail or the UPS  man comes so I get my boxes inside right away.  Besides that, I have dogs who alert me.

Speaking of dogs, I babysat two of our daughter’s dogs recently.  She won tickets from Sirius Radio to go see one of her favorite groups, Phish, at the Met in Philadelphia.   She is always winning tickets, but this was a big one. It was a closed group with only ticket winners going to the show. So she and her husband got sitters for their boys and dogs and had someone come and feed and water their chickens and they took off for Philadelphia.  They had a wonderful time and we got to have our grandpets for a few days.

Remember Oliver who got his leg trapped in a trap and had to have it amputated?

Here he is still going strong and getting around quite well on three legs. But he was homesick for his buddies, I could tell. He was not at all happy to be here even though I fed him treats and gave him attention, I knew he was kind of depressed. He looks sad in this picture.  One day I thought he had died, but he just was feeling sad and wouldn’t eat.  When they came to pick him up, he was like a whole different dog. So happy and jumping up and down. So when people say dogs don’t have feelings, don’t believe them. They do and they miss their families when they are separated from them.

All the dogs sat outside the door and stared in whenever I was inside.   All these dogs are people dogs.  That’s Molly in front, Farley behind her and Belle is laying down.  That’s what she does most of the time anymore as she is twelve years old.

We bought a new fake tree this year. We have been using the same tree for several years, but it takes so much time putting it up, every branch having to be  put in place, so we decided to get an easier one. This one comes in three pieces and sets up in minutes.

 

I put the flags on in honor of our military men and women who are stationed all over the world and won’t be with their families this year.  A friend’s son is in Korea and his wife is expecting a baby this Spring so it’s hard for them to be apart.

David and I took a day trip to Frankfort where the candy factory is.  Last time we took our grandsons with us to pick out candy, but this time we picked it out ourselves.  It was fun looking at all the candy and the grandchildren will be happy this Christmas when they open one of their boxes.

I was looking at the Atlas as we drove. I always have an Atlas in the car even though we have GPS because I like to know where we’ve been and where we are going.  Anyway, I saw we were near Rockville, Indiana where they have the covered bridge festival in October every year and thought it would be fun to go there off season.  So off we drove. It was a beautiful late Autumn day. The sky was so blue and it wasn’t too cold out.  During the covered bridge festival it is bumper to bumper cars and the crowds are so thick, it’s hard to get around. We went one year when it was like that. There are flea markets and craft booths set up everywhere then with all kinds of things to sell. The smell of caramel corn and sorghum is in the air. It really is fun, but it’s nice to go there when there aren’t crowds.

Some places were like a ghost town with the stores boarded up and no people around. This is a whole little town that’s been closed up for the season.

I guess you better not go play on the dam.

And old mill not in operation at the moment.

One of the covered bridges that goes over this dam.

There were a lot of places with the name Raccoon around these parts. Raccoon hunting must have been popular back in the day. There was big Raccoon Creek and Small Raccoon Creek and Raccoon Road, etc.

No cars were allowed on any of the covered bridges, but you could walk across them.

In Bridgeton there is an old mill that has been restored and still grinds grain.  We visited it years ago when this man and his family had bought the mill to restore it. They’ve done a good job. There were different kinds of ground grain to buy and I bought some pancake mix that had been ground there.  Notice to self…..although it sounds good, old fashion type pancake mix is not made from the regular refined grains in mixes like Aunt Jemima.  I made pancakes from this mix and did not like them at all.  Sorry. My tastebuds lean more toward the refined grains.  But I did buy some maple syrup made right here in Indiana and it was delicious.  Very different from your store bought syrups, but very good.  The man who bought the mill was still working there.  I bought some things just to help him out a little.  He had lots of things for sale besides all the packages of mixes he had ground.  I try to help small businesses when I can since David and I ran a small business for twenty years and one of our competitors was Wal-mart.  It’s not easy to keep a small business going under those circumstances so we were happy to have loyal customers who would come in and buy from us. Keep that in mind when you are shopping this Christmas.

I wanted to take some pictures of some of the things I have made this year. This is just a few of the quilts and pillows I have made.

The small quilts are patterns I got from Kathleen Tracy’s blog. She gives out free patterns every month or so, plus sells quilt books, some of which I’ve purchased.  Her quilts are fast and easy to make. Sometimes it’s nice to make a quick project. I have been  working on some larger quilts that I cannot show right now as they may or may not be gifts sometime.

Well, I hope you are looking forward to Christmas and are getting as ready for it as you want to be.  There is a man who has built a small village in Canada who posts  pictures of the village and writes a story about each building that brings back memories of a quieter, more peaceful time. I think he must have grown up like I did, in the country, with simple pleasures and close family ties.  That is the kind of Christmas I would like to have.  One of peace, with simple things being the best and being with family around the table. I wish that for all of you. Peace, love and Joy. And remember that Jesus is the center of it all.  Bye.

 

Happy Thanksgiving and the Beatles!

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First I will finish up my last blog with pictures of some cards the children made for the veterans and handed out. David got a few of them.

See the soldiers on that one?

David loves getting these. A lot of these children have mothers in the military.  Some came in their military uniforms.   I think it’s wonderful that this school takes the time to honor veterans.

This past weekend was fun. First of all, David took me to the Hobnob Restaurant in Nashville, IN, which is a nice little restaurant in an old building with antique memorabilia along the walls. The food is like homemade and they even serve liver and onions which I have had before and it was very good, but this time I got a Rueben sandwich because I hardly ever get these and it was so delicious.  I ordered some hot chocolate and it came with a pile of whipped cream on it.

Then we went to the music center in Nashville, which has taken the place of the Nashville Opry that burned down years ago.  David had bought tickets for us to see a Beatles impersonators show.  We were about eleven rows back in the center and those were really good seats as we could see the stage. When I saw the real Beatles back in the sixties, I was way up in the peanut gallery in the coliseum at the state fair in Indianapolis and the people on stage looked like ants.
Girls were screaming and jumping on the chairs.  My brother, who took us to the fair, had no tickets but got some outside and got front row seats and told us what a good view he had of the Beatles and we were so jealous.  Our tickets cost three dollars. I don’t know what he paid for his.

Anyway, fast forward to now and we were going to see the Beatles again although not the real ones.  When they came out on stage, they did look like them, but when they started playing I thought, “Oh, no, some high school boys formed a band and think they sound like the Beatles!”  But you know what?   As the show progressed, those young men morphed into the real Beatles and sounded just like them.  It was an amazing show.  I knew the words to almost every song, unlike today where I know the words to no popular songs.   But I did not know I was going to get in a rumble before long.

You see, I don’t like cellphones all that well and I don’t like people showing up late for a show.  So as the program progressed and the Beatles were into their second song, four what looked like high school girls came noisily in with their cans and glasses of beer and sat in front of us and began to immediately hold up their phones to video the show. They would do this constantly. They also were singing loudly and throwing up their arms to where people in front of them could not see. David and I were two of those people. I could tell people around them were getting uncomfortable.  I could deal with all that, but then they all four stood up in front of us and began dancing.  They were the only ones doing this except for four old ladies farther up who were trying so hard to act cool.  I stood it for as long as I could and then I reached over the seat in front of me and grabbed one of the girl’s coats and laid it on the back of her seat and she turned around and said, “What are you doing?!” To which I answered her, “We bought tickets to see those guys up on stage, not you girls.” Well, have you ever heard cats screech? One of the girls turned around and acted so offended that we should want to see the show. I just laughed and came up close to their faces and said, “And I  can get you all thrown out, too.”  At that, three of them sat down and muttered among themselves while one kept dancing and then she left.  Later she came back and got the other three and they all left and we all clapped.  Believe me. I am not a brave person, but obnoxious people should never be allowed to get away with being obnoxious.  Those girls did not know who they were dealing with.  I was prepared to go to the mat.  What movie is that from?   Anyway, after the show one of the people sitting next to us thanked us for getting those girls to behave.   Why are people so afraid to confront bad behavior?  I don’t like fights, but I was willing to get into one because those girls were taking the fun away from the rest of us.

But we enjoyed the show so much.  There was an intermission and then they came back as the new Beatles with their fancy, colorful clothes they wore in the Yellow Submarine.   I knew most of those songs, too, although by that time in the Beatles’ career, I was a young married mother. But I always loved and will always love the Beatles.

Sunday we went to our first Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, my, the food.  There was so much.  We got to see our older grandchildren.

This is our oldest grandson with his girlfriend. They are so cute together.

Our oldest  and only granddaughter. She’s got another year and a half of college and is going to try to get into Harvard for her masters. She wants to be a museum curator or someone who designs and sets up museum exhibits or something to do with museums.  She’s a straight A student so I don’t think she will find it hard to get into Harvard.

Our daughter and her oldest son.

Her youngest son. Her husband was out hunting deer.  He’s already got one. He makes his own deer sausage which is very good and about the only venison I can stand to eat.  They eat a lot of venison.

I didn’t get a picture of my other red headed grandson.   He is going to be the tallest of my grandchildren, I believe. He is fourteen and already six feet tall.  I don’t know where his height comes from because we all are shorties except his dad who is six feet.

It was a fun weekend. Now it’s my turn to cook and have another gang for Thanksgiving.  Also Polo, where David works, is having a two hour sale for employees only Thanksgiving day. I don’t like shopping on Thanksgiving, but this sale will be too good to pass up and everybody likes Ralph Lauren clothes.

While we were in Nashville at the motel we watched a program about Ralph Lauren on HBO.  From what I learned about him, he is a family man and puts his family before going to parties in the Hamptons.   I like him for that.  He has certainly given many family men a paycheck through the years.  And his clothes are really nice.

Well, I hope you all have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.  I will see you on the other side. Bye.

 

 

 

 

Here’s What I’m Doing

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Turn around and the trees have changed and dropped their leaves and all of a sudden we are talking about Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas gift buying.  It’s all strung together into one big to do list that can be overwhelming if I think too much about it.

We watched the last of the soccer games. Our youngest played his tournament and their team won handily.

It began on a Saturday morning when the trees still had their leaves and were beautiful.

We drove to Bloomington where the games were played.

Out grandson is a real hustler.  He really likes soccer a lot and will be playing again next year.

He was put in as goalie which he doesn’t like as much as there isn’t as much action, especially when your team keeps the ball at the other end of the field.  At one point we looked at him and he was dancing.

Later this month our two youngest grandboys’ school honored veterans.  Since their grandfather served in the Army National Guard for 36 years, they wanted him to come to the program. David always enjoys these so much. It’s wonderful seeing school children singing patriotic songs and saying the pledge to the flag.

Here is our youngest grandson.  They go to an International elementary school and this picture depicts the diversity in the student body.   There are children from everywhere who go here. Some of their parents teach at the college and live in Bloomington for a while.   When I was in school there was no one who looked different from me and I always longed for a black friend.  Now my grandsons make friends with people from all over.  I think it’s wonderful.

Kids are kids no matter where they come from.  And they are all so cute!

This is one of the songs they sang

The school orchestra played.

Here is our second youngest grandson in the blue with his class.  This is his last year at this school. Can’t believe he’ll be in Middle School next year.  Just yesterday we were waiting in the hospital for him to be born and he was the tiniest baby.

The veterans were asked to come forward and for their grandchildren or children to join them. We are so proud of these boys.  There are a lot more women veterans than there use to be. Sometimes I wish I had joined the armed forces when I was younger.

Children can be so angelic at times!

There was a nice reception after the program with food for brunch which was very good.  The principal asked the children not to take seven or more things because he was afraid there would not be enough food as so many veterans showed up, but in the end, he was passing out donuts and muffins trying to get rid of them.

It was a very nice day.

Me, I keep making things. Don’t know if I showed this pillow I made from a state handkerchief I had bought.

And, of course, I keep knitting socks.

This yarn is called Monarch Butterfly.

A while back I ran across a magazine with a quilt pattern I have made before.

It’s called Grandmother’s Fancy.  I had a few blocks left over from that quilt so I made some more and bought some fabric for the borders and binding.

Today I finished piecing the quilt except for the border.  It’s huge.  I think it’s at least king size.

Now I have a Christmas quilt I want to get quilted before Christmas and this quilt which I can only show a corner of because it’s for someone.

While cleaning out a drawer the other day I found these.

Post-it notes with what I call my Yellow Book stories. I began writing about this imaginary town with people I made up and drew.  I couldn’t stop writing them. Then I lost them and now I’ve found them again. There are some characters who live in my imaginary town.

I don’t pretend to be an artist, but I drew each character for my stories.  Maybe I’ll finish this one day.

Sunday we have our first Thanksgiving dinner and then I’m having Thanksgiving here and then it will be Christmas all the way. Jingle jingle.  We’ve had lights up for a couple of weeks. David surprised me with tickets to a Beatles’ impersonation show. I’ll write about that later. Can’t wait to see it.

 

Here’s to our veterans who serve our country and to children who honor them. Bye.