Spring Fling

Sad Day

I told you about my baby chicks in the last post and today I have a sad thing to tell you. My Auracanas did not make it. They looked a little puny after a day and yesterday one of them just sat and did not do anything and this morning the second one looked unwell. I knew it was just a matter of time. David, as usual, took care of the bodies for me, like he’s done ever since we’ve been married and I have had pets. He’s less attached than me. Sometimes you get sickly animals when you least expect it. We had a dog once who was always nervous. She was scared of her own shadow. When I’d walk her, she would shy away from mailboxes. We always wondered if she had poor eyesight or some nerve condition. And one day she just up and died. No warning or anything.

Growing up on a farm there was always the chance of an animal dying. We had cows, pigs, one sheep, a horse, chickens, ducks, guineas, rabbits, dogs and cats. There was always the chance of one of them dying or being part of a, ahem, meal. So we learned early not to get too attached to the animals that were our food. We did have one bull calf we named Penny because he was a beautiful copper color. I helped hand raise him and he grew up big and strong and lord over all the cows. But he was destined to be meat for our table and one day, the man who did the butchering, came to our house and shot him and dressed him for my father. I stayed in the house all day and cried. I vowed I would never eat any meat my mother cooked from him. Long story short, my appetite got the better of my sadness and I did help eat Penny. But I still remember how beautiful he was. If this disturbs some of you, just remember that was and is farm life. Most people don’t get to see where their food comes from and vegans would never have eaten Penny, but I was not and have never been a vegan. We raised our own vegetables also so I know where they come from, too.

Boy, did I get a long way from the death of my baby chicks. I guess it’s to say, it’s the circle of life. Some live longer than others, just like we humans and we feel sad about it, but we go on and maybe I will get more baby chicks in the future. I still have four of them that are hale and hearty and I hope will grow up to be good layers. I just won’t have blue eggs like I was hoping for.

Maybe you have a sad tale about a pet or animal you loved. If you grew up on a farm, like me, you probably have several tales to tell. Bye.

Life’s a Little “Cheeper”

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Turn your tv off. Stop listening to all the talking heads who only have opinions. Put down your cellphone, unless you are reading this on it. Take a deep, hearty breath of the fresh Spring air, if it’s Spring where you are and come visit with me for a while. The more I hear the news, the more I want to turn it off because according to most “news” people life will end soon. So I have decided since I have such a short time to live, I may as well enjoy myself.

I indulged myself this week and got some baby chicks. I had argued with myself that I really didn’t need even more critters around that depend upon me for their livelihood. Then I walked into Rural King and back to the troughs where they kept the baby chicks and my heart melted. I have lost two of my hens in the past month and it’s been kind of traumatic for me so I felt like I needed some little cheepers. They are so adorable. I had to get six as that was the fewest Rural King will sell at a time so I got two more Buff Orpingtons, two Barred Rocks and two Auracanas, ones who lay blue eggs. I’m so looking forward to seeing those. And here they are.

The Auracanas looked like little chipmunks. In fact, I asked the guy who was getting mine for me to get the ones who look most like chipmunks. David said I should call them Chip and Dale, but since they are females, I am going to call them Chippy and Dahlia. The Buff Orpingtons are Rosy and Peony and the Barred Rocks’ names are Violet and Pansy, keeping with the flower theme. In the past my chickens have been named for women in the Bible and women in my Sunday School class. This made it kind of bad when one of them died and I’d have to say so-and-so had died. Miss Mary Foster is one of my older hens and the name of a good friend of mine and I’m thinking when Miss Mary Foster dies, I’m not telling anyone for fear someone would get the wrong idea.

They are as curious about me as I am of them.

Can you see why I think she looks like a chipmunk?

They keep me company in my shop while I sew. One of them was cheeping all afternoon.

I have had to use this seam ripper several times with these blocks.

This is what I have been working on. I am sewing a mystery quilt featured on Kathleen Tracy’s blog. If you go to her blog and click on the files on mystery quilt, you can get the directions for four months of quilt blocks. When we have them all sewn, she will show us how we are to put them together into a quilt. I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but this has been fun and I look forward to each month’s new block. And while going through some of my fabric, I found this fabric that has all the colors in the blocks.

If you are a quilter or sewer, you can understand how I felt when I found this fabric. Kind of like Christmas. I can come upon a fabric I had forgotten about and it’s just like that to me! I’m hoping I have enough of this for a border for this quilt.

It just goes so well with all the blocks. It really does not take a whole lot to get me excited especially when it comes to quilting.

Another project I am just starting is this….

Found in this magazine…..

The blocks are made with one and one half inch pieces, the smallest I will go to make a quilt.

Then there is this square to be appliqued and embroidered. I think I am going to really enjoy making this as I do love handwork like this. I am making this to hang in my shop. I’ll have to hurry because when the weather finally gets warm, I want to be outdoors as much as possible. We are looking at 70 degree temperatures by the weekend.

And speaking of outdoors, we have corn out for the birds and whoever else wants it, but we never have seen anyone eating it until this week when I saw this squirrel busily munching on it.

He/she sat there for quite a while picking off kernels and eating them.

We are still feeding the birds, but soon they will be foraging for food in the wild again and won’t need our help.

The puppies are so happy with the warmer temperatures. I do believe Molly is smiling here.

And she’s in a playful mood. Both dogs’ tails are wagging like crazy here even though you can’t see it.

“Come on, Belle, let’s play!” Belle will be twelve years old this year, 84 in people years so she decides when they play. She still acts like a puppy at times and then at other times her joints hurt and she limps around. I can’t believe she’s that old already. Seems like we just got her as a puppy not long ago. I guess that will be the next new pet I will be looking for.

Hope you are enjoying the beginning of Spring and that it’s warming up in your neck of the woods. Bye.

Gone With the Wind

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No, this isn’t about a problem with gas attacks or a theme on Dorothy’s trip to the land of Oz. I am writing today about the greatest movie of all time that was ever created and put on screen. I am writing about that wonderful movie that came from Margaret Mitchell’s wonderful book, “Gone With the Wind.” Did I say it was wonderful, yet? Well, it is.

I grew up watching Gone With the Wind. I’m not sure where I saw it for the very first time. One would think I’d remember it since I am so in love with the movie. I may have seen it at the theater with my mother or I may have watched it for the first time on the television. No matter, I fell in love with it and I really fell in love with the actor who played Rhett Butler, Clark Gable. Yikes, was he ever handsome. When Scarlett first sees him at the bottom of that huge staircase at the Wilkes’ picnic, I swoon every time. And the best kissing scene in any movie, ever, was when Rhett picked up Scarlett out of the wagon and kissed her before he went off to fight the losing war with the southern soldiers. Scarlett, you idiot. That man loved you so much and that was some kiss. And you rebuffed him!

This past weekend Gone With the Wind was having a special 80th year making of the movie celebration showing at a local movie theater. Well, not so local. We had to drive an hour to get there. We had purchased our tickets weeks ago and I was so looking forward to seeing it again. Not like I haven’t watched it once or twice every year since I’ve been a girl. But it was like the very first time for me. I actually got a lump in my throat when the music started and the opening credits came on. It was like time stood still and I was once again that romance loving, dream believing young girl sitting in a darkened theater watching her very favorite movie of all time for the very first time.

And I swooned when Scarlett saw Rhett at the bottom of the stairs and asked, who is that man? Little did she know how involved she was going to get with him! Eating popcorn and Milk duds, sitting beside my favorite date, I was in heaven. I forgot the movie was four hours long with an intermission, but it flew by. When it was over, I could have sat through it again. Did I say I loved Gone With the Wind, yet?

So today I got out some of my Gone With the Wind books I have purchased or been given through the years. A few years back my kids gave me a CD of the movie which means I can watch it anytime I want, but I still watch it when it’s on tv. I guess it’s knowing I’m watching it with others that makes it special. Anyway, when I was about fourteen, the book Gone With the Wind was celebrating its 25th anniversary of being published and for Christmas that year, I got the celebratory issue. I read it all and loved it, too. There was a lot in the book that was not in the movie. Scarlett had more children than just Bonnie Blue.

The book came in this.

This was the front of the book.

A booklet about the book.

Through the years I have purchased other books about Gone With the Wind.

A book about the making of the movie.

A book chock full of scenes from the movie including back stage scenes.

At an auction years ago I bought this book that was published in l936 about the time the first book came out, but this is not a first edition I don’t believe.

And then at a flea market near our home I found this book in a pile of junk. And what a find it was for me.

A very interesting book about Margaret Mitchell’s life and how she came to write, “Gone With the Wind.” Years after the movie became so successful, she was hit by a speeding taxicab and died. A sad ending to a very interesting life and an illustrious career. I will always be grateful to Miss Mitchell for writing one of the best books ever written, in my opinion. It should be required reading. In today’s attempt to get rid of all our history because it offends some people, we need to know our history more than ever before and to learn it from someone who was there or knew someone who was there or at least knows the real story. Her story is full of the history of both the post and pre-Civil War South. She learned it at the knee of old Civil War soldiers when she was a girl. We should never forget. One of the books had a newspaper article slipped into its pages about Margaret Mitchell’s brother and how he kept her story alive and kept up with the Gone With the Wind profits from sales of books, movie tickets, CDs, etc. Profits were still in the millions at the time of the newspaper article. She certainly left a legacy for her family. She had no children.

I don’t know if I will be alive when the 100th year of the Gone With the Wind Movie is shown, but I hope there will still be people interested and that it will never be forgotten.

Here’s to the best movie ever made(in my opinion) Gone With the Wind. Bye.

A Family of Bloggers

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I got into this blogging thing late. While many had already been blogging for years and made friends and grew businesses from their blogs, I was still learning about the computer and Facebook and E-mail and didn’t know there was a whole other group of people out there who wrote about their lives, their passions, their families, etc. One of the first blogs I ever read was Pioneer Woman and you all know what happened with her and all her fame and fortune.

The first time I read Ree’s blog I laughed so hard and sent her a comment and she answered me back and I was hooked. I have kept up with her family and watched her children grow from little kids to almost adults. I watched her grow her business and become a household name and get a tv cooking show. I had no such ambitions. The next blog I got hooked on was Posie Gets Cozy. It’s a delicious combination of family, knitting, quilting and creating and adoption which took a sad turn at one point and then turned into a wonderful story when the Paulsons adopted a baby girl and I was enraptured by their story. I have watched their little girl grow and become a school girl. Alicia’s wonderful way with words makes her blog so sweet to read. She doesn’t hold back when she is sad, but most often she is a bright, shining star who shows us all the beauty that is in this world. I discovered Canadian Needle Nana and am astounded at how many quilts she has made and continues to make. She is a an artist at quilting and inspires me to do better. And for laughs, I love reading The New Sixty by Arkansas Patti. A woman with the best sense of humor and she makes you think. I have laughed so hard at some of her posts. She only writes one every week and I always look forward to Monday when I can read another installment of her very eventful life. She has done some interesting things in her life and has a humorous take on almost everything. This week is about things better than sex! Yes.

I finally began a blog and it was called, I Love My Dogs,” because, well, I love my dogs and still do. I learned how to post pictures and really enjoyed writing about my life. I considered it a diary for my children who may one day want to know more about their mother. Then, one day, most of my pictures disappeared from the blog because David had been tinkering with them and lost them all. I was dismayed, to say the least. Fast forward and I decided to start a new blog. My son paid for my website and I was off and running again with “Snicklefritz.” In case you don’t already know why I named my blog Snicklefritz, it’s because that is what my daddy always called me. Snicklefritz means a mischievous child and I was that.

Many blogs I read and loved have gone by the wayside because of family issues or work or the blogger was just tired of keeping a blog up. It does take time to write a blog and if you add pictures that takes even more time so I can understand why some have given up their blogs, but I really miss some of them. One in particular, Posy, a blogger from England quit because she was having trouble with her computer and never came back. I loved reading her blog and I have heard she may start one up again and I hope I can find it and read it when she does.

As for me, I just love writing. Doing this blog gives me an outlet for it and there is so many things I want to write about. I’ve got several stories I have written about when I was growing up that I intend to post on my blog eventually. I have also written some children’s stories with my grandchildren as the subjects in them that I may post one day. I enjoy sharing my hobbies, my travels and just my humdrum days. I don’t live an especially exciting life, but it’s my life and I’m content with it. I don’t think I take exciting too well, anyway.

If you are reading this and have never tried writing a blog because you think your life is not interesting enough, believe me. Everyone’s life is interesting. I love to read about the every day things. If there are some especially exciting or wonderful things, that’s nice too, but I think everyone’s life is a story that needs to be written. So if you have been holding off writing a blog, now is the time to start. You will find out things about yourself as you write. It’s cathartic in many ways.

Here’s to blogging and all the bloggers who put their lives out there for us to read about. Bye.

Winter Hangs on With Gusto and Seventy Came Too Quickly

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Just when we thought Spring might be just around the corner, Winter hit us with another blast of cold air and lots of that white stuff that likes to stick to the ground and on the roads and makes us have to work whenever we want to go anywhere. It’s really pretty and does make things look a whole lot better outside. The outdoors had begun to have that ugly, muddy, dirty, just before Spring look it gets every year when nothing looks especially pretty unless you like dirt, mud and grey.

This week I’m celebrating my seventieth birthday which kind of astounds me when I think about it. I remember sitting in Home Economics class with some of my girlfriends many years ago, discussing how old we’d be in the year 2000 and most of us would be 50 or 51 and we thought that was so old. Now I’m nineteen years pass 2000 and looking at a whole new decade that I never thought I’d see for at least a few more years, but here I am. How did I get here so quickly? If you are reading this and you are in your thirties, forties or younger, just know, one day you will be seventy one day if you are so blessed, and you, too, will wonder where the years have gone. We take youth so for granted, but it really is fleeting so enjoy it while you can. You will not be young forever. That is not to say you can’t remain young at heart. I still find things pretty miraculous at times. I love nature and baby animals and babies and listening to stories and playing outside in the fresh air. My body doesn’t cooperate like it use to. In fact, my body tells me, “No,” many more times than I like. I can’t run up steps two at a time anymore. Sometimes I feel downright shaky on my own two legs. I tire easier. But that’s okay since when I’m tired I can still sew, quilt, knit and read, all things I love to do. I’ve knit two pairs of socks in the last weeks which kind of tells you I’ve been a little tired lately.

I still want to get one more puppy and a kitten. I still want to get more baby chicks and raise them to adulthood and gather eggs every day. I still have a lot of places I’d like to see and people I’d like to visit. I’d like to walk five miles a day again. There is still a lot of life in this old girl! So I will celebrate my birthday by eating cake and ice cream and thank the dear Lord I made it this far. Whatever happens in the future is in His hands, so I’m happy with that.

My very best friend in grade school was a girl whose name is Mary Jean. She and I were born in the same hospital, on the same day and our mothers shared a room while there. We found each other in first grade and we have been friends ever since. We grew apart in high school, mainly because our classes were not the same and I was boy crazy and dating and found David, the love of my life in high school, but we re-ignited our friendship after high school through letters we wrote to each other. She married and moved clear across the country and raised three children, one of them named Kate, and we stayed in contact. One year David and I drove out west and I wanted to go see her so I called her and she was so excited to hear I was coming. We drove and drove over the mountains to her town and found her house. It was like we had never been apart. I met her children and her very nice husband. I was so glad she found a good man. Sadly, he has since passed away. She fed us lunch and homemade pie and we sat and talked in her back yard and she took David and me to see a neighborhood garden that was so beautiful and the fact the people allowed the public to tromp through their garden was very special. Our visit was way too short. She gave me some flower seeds to plant when I got home. When we left I felt so sad because I knew it was probably the last time we’d see each other. We continue to send cards to one another and when I was sick this past November, she was so concerned for me and wrote me a letter saying so which was very touching. I wrote back reassuring her that I was well. This is true friendship when the love for a friend never dies no matter how far apart you are. I have so many stories I could tell about her and my escapades when we were girls. I’m hoping she will have a happy birthday and know that I am thinking of her.

Our daughter and her family brought me some beautiful flowers for my birthday.

Several different kinds.

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A sunflower which makes me think of Summer days when I complain about it being too hot, so I better enjoy this cool weather now.

Little roses. So pretty and dainty.

Are these carnations? Not sure.

I really wish someone could tell me what these are. My son-in-law didn’t know either and he knows flowers. They are gorgeous.

They also gave me this card.

Why do people think I like chickens? Hmmmmmm? I just ordered a T-shirt with a chicken in a headscarf on the front of it, so maybe I do like them a little bit. I lost another one of my older chickens this week. I went out today and couldn’t find her and David found her under the snow. He thinks she probably died before we had the snow because there was no snow under her. It’s getting closer to the time I will have to get more chickens. They have them at Rural King and I have been looking at them.

And one of my grandsons wrote me this birthday greeting.

There was a piñata.

A slide for me to go down!

A birthday cake, of course.

Thank you, Tristan. I really enjoyed this card and will save it forever.

I have several friends who are now in their eighties and still going strong. Our contractor told us he believed his father was going to live to be one hundred. I’m not so sure I want to live that long, but we can’t chose our time to die, so whenever God calls me home will be my time. I’m hoping David and I have many healthy, happy birthdays ahead. Anyway, we are celebrating all week. I don’t plan to do much cooking or baking and a whole lot of eating out and maybe some shopping. We are going to pick up the new sink for our bathroom which is getting remodeled this Spring. I’ve always wanted a pedestal sink and since David picked out the sink and cabinet for our upstairs bathroom, I am choosing the sink. Off to Home Depot we will go! I love remodeling. I think I would have done well on one of those fixer upper shows on HGTV. I love seeing a room and changing it into something completely different. Heaven knows, I’ve done it several times in my lifetime. I have done most all the painting in our house. The paint section in the lumber yard store is my favorite place. I’ve made some bloopers in my time like the Pepto Bismol pink bedroom I painted once. We lived with it for several years, but David never let me forget it. We’ve papered, stripped paper, painted and painted again all the rooms in this old house of ours. Right now I’m pretty content with all the rooms, but give me time.

We live on a fairly busy road, especially during the week and I have seen many things go by in all the years we have lived there. Because there is a train track right across the road, we see a lot of trains which my grandsons love. Me, not so much although I’ve gotten use to them. We have always lived where we could hear the trains go by. We lived on a hill in Richmond and down below us was the train track. It’s now a walking trail which I would have loved when we were living there. The neighbor girls and I went raspberry picking along that track years ago and got the best raspberries. Raspberries use to grow wild in a place near our house where we live now and David would go and pick a quart or two for a pie. The gravel pit expanded and they covered up the raspberry plants, so no more raspberries. Boo. By the way, I got off the subject of the train track. David looked out the window the other day and said, “What is that?”

I was thinking space ship. It was extra long and the truck driver was having a hard time turning and getting over the railroad track.

Traffic began to back up.

Then he finally got over the track, but he got stuck and I began to worry about a train coming because they go through often.

But in a few minutes a guy from the gravel pit came riding up on this front end loader and lifted that thing right up and over the track. It’s called a trommel. Our word for today. A trommel is a rotary cylindrical or conical screen for sorting ore, coal, gravel, etc. I would have never known that, but David watches all these shows on tv where people are digging for gold. This one will be used at the gravel pit.

That’s all for today. I’m going out to eat for the first time this birthday week. David took the week off so we are eating out every day. Yay! And we are eating dessert first.

Here’s to best friends, birthdays, trommels and painting fanaticism. Bye.

Fresh Air and Fresh Findings

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Ahhh, fresh air at last. It’s either been too cold or too rainy to spend much time outdoors, but finally we had a break and I have been out playing with the dogs with my new ball gun that shoots a tennis ball clear across the yard for the dogs to chase. They do love the game. I think Molly would play it forever. Belle gets tired and starts to cheat and run a little bit toward the ball and then run back with Molly to get the treat. I’ve got your number, Belle. But she always gets a treat, too, because she is so cute. Today we are getting rain and snow again. If nothing else, the weather sure changes around here.

We are on the right side of winter now. When I go outside I can smell Spring coming. And around the garden, the flowers are awakening.

The Hellebore is ready to bloom.

Daffodils are pushing their heads above the soil. In a month or so the garden will be a mass of yellow blooms.

This time of year the birds even sound differently. Soon we will have to watch for the Sandhill Cranes coming back north. They always fly above our house every year. I don’t know how we got so blessed. You have to be outside at the right time to hear them. Their call is like if you take your tongue and flutter it against the roof of your mouth. They fly in large groups and sometimes there are more than one group. They are heading to Camp Atterbury, an army base near us, where they will stay for a time at a lake there. David worked at Camp Atterbury for several years and I use to take the kids swimming at the pool there every Summer. There is an outlook you can climb and see Canadian geese in the water below. Geese don’t migrate like I remember them doing when I was a girl. Now they stick around all Winter. I taught the boys to drive on the roads at Camp Atterbury because there wasn’t much traffic there at the time. Still scared me out of my wits! Camp Atterbury was once a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers during WWll. The old barracks were still there when we first moved here over forty years ago, but through the years and the wars in the Middle East, the camp has been restored to its former glory with new barracks and roads and fences. Sometimes we can hear the soldiers as they train firing their weapons and once in a while huge planes fly over practicing touching down and taking off at our local airport.

While searching for material for my Bullseye quilts, which I’ve become obsessed with, I discovered a quilt I had started years ago. The pattern was in this magazine dated 2005, so that is probably when I started it.

I had it all cut out. It was funny because I had been thinking about this particular quilt a while back wondering what had happened to it. I also wondered why I had not come across it last Summer when I was going through all my fabric boxes. But it was a nice surprise, almost like Christmas and I have cut out a few more blocks for it to add some of my newer fabrics into the mix and I am having so much fun sewing it together.

I am never happier than when my cutting table looks like this.

And I am so happy to have several projects going at a time. If I get bored with one, I can lay it aside and work on another. I have so many projects I want to make.

I’m going to have to hurry up because outside days are coming.

I completed this little quilt and am ready to quilt it.

Another one of Kathleen Tracy’s patterns. Love her little quilts.

This brings me to the show on tv, Hoarders. David said one time I was getting ready to look like a hoarder with all the fabric piled on my cutting table, but what he doesn’t understand is, this is how I work. I get a lot of fabric out, go through it and get what I need, and then I finally put it all away. Now my table is organized again. I watch the Hoarders only to make me want to keep from being a hoarder. I watched one particular show one evening, and I had just cleaned out my refrigerator, but after that show, I wanted to clean out my refrigerator again! I don’t like to shop, so I don’t think I would ever get as bad as some of the hoarders do. Most shop all the time and bring things home and toss them on the pile. I only buy something I really need or know I will use a lot. Of course, that’s what some of the hoarders say, too!

Being in my nice, warm sewing shop with my trusty dogs beside me on a cold, rainy day, sewing on a quilt, is the best thing I could be doing. Oh, I could be doing housework, the laundry, cooking etc., but No.

Molly has to be in her cage or I would get nothing done because she thinks anytime I am around I should be ready to play.

I’ve been reading the dictionary lately, I know, I’m weird and have decided to add a little something to my blogs. I am going to have a different word and its meaning on each one for while It will broaden our vocabulary and make us all a little smarter. Ha. Of course, if you already know the word, you will be one step ahead of some of us. So this day’s word is…

Contumacious-adj. stubbornly perverse or rebellious. Willfully disobedient. The contumacious boy was sent to reform school.

Hope none of you are contumacious. Bye.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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I know I sound like a recording, but isn’t the time flying? It’s almost Valentine’s Day already and we were just celebrating the New Year. When I hear young people say the time is passing quickly, then I don’t know what to say because if it’s passing quickly for them there is something happening to the space time continuum of planet earth. I often wonder if God is speeding time up for Jesus’ coming as He looks upon us and sees the evil that is in people’s minds and actions. I can hardly bear to read the news or listen to it anymore.

I also believe at times that I live in an alternate universe from many people. I don’t understand a lot of people a lot of the time. Maybe they feel that way about me. I don’t know. Of course, my husband tells me I am weird all the time. The last time I visited my doctor, he called me weird because of how my body reacted to the medicine he says helps everyone else. So, maybe I am weird! But I’m a happy weird.

Well, that is about as deep as I’m going to get today. Just something to think upon and wonder about. I try to live each day with joy and hope and I know how it all ends, so I’m not afraid.

I’ve had so many projects going on and many more I want to do before the warm weather gets here and I will want to be outside in the fresh air playing with my dogs. They have been rather neglected in these cold and rainy days. They have been spending a lot of time in my shop with me, listening to my radio talk shows, ha, and watching me cut out Bullseye quilts. I am addicted to Bullseye quilts. I think I am because I love going through all my fabric and finding material that will go together to make a block, knowing I will cut that block into four pieces along with many other blocks and then sew all those parts together to make a pretty amazing looking quilt. And I am discovering fabric I had forgotten about, so that’s a plus, too. It’s almost like Christmas when I find a forgotten fabric. I made a pillow with a four of the blocks.

I love this pillow way too much. I had had it on the couch for a couple of weeks David just noticed it! My very observant husband.

How can one miss this bright and colorful pillow! I’m going to make some more. Maybe give some away. I have a Christmas Bullseye quilt almost all cut out. Like I said, I’m addicted.

And wonderful things have been coming in the mail. I read Mary Etherington’s blog over on Country Threads Chicken Scratch. Mary and her friend, Connie use to have a quilt shop in northwestern Iowa called Country Threads. They wrote many patterns, some of which I sold in our store, Craig’s Vac and Sew, years ago. They closed the store several years ago, but still write patterns and they have a book out right now that I ordered.

I was so excited when this package arrived.

With the cutest little return label.

And a wonderful book inside.

Here’s Mary and Connie.

They are very good friends and were superstars in the quilting world years ago. I met Mary, the one in glasses, years ago when we traveled through Garner, Iowa going out west. I wanted to visit their quilt shop. It was wonderful, but the best part was I got to meet Mary as the quilt shop was located on her farm. You know you see someone who is famous in their field and you wonder if they are as nice as they appear in their pictures. Well, Mary is the nicest person you could ever wish to meet. She welcomed me and showed me around the farm. I’m sure she doesn’t remember me, but she had a hurt arm or shoulder and I grabbed her and hugged her before I realized it and she was so nice about it even though I probably caused her great pain.

I felt like I did when I saw the Beatles. Mary was that famous in my eyes. Their patterns sold very well in our store and I have made so many quilts from them. If you want the book, go over to her blog and I think you can still order it. And they sign the ones you buy from them.

I’m just saying. Superstars! I plan to make several quilts from this book.

I got more flower seeds. I honestly don’t know where I am going to plant them all as my garden is pretty full already, but I will stick them in somewhere.

Zinnias are one of my top five favorite flowers to raise. Just toss the seeds in the ground and in a few weeks you have a wonderful display of blooms.

And I got some more fabric.

Just some basics to use in my Bullseye quilts.

And last, but certainly not least I got more yarn.

It came in a bag that had this on the front.

And each skein of yarn had a yarn marker attached.

An extra little bonus. I will be ordering from this business again.

Her yarns are amazing. And fun to knit up.

Years ago our city had a major flood. They called it the hundred year flood because in theory it only happens every one hundred years. But this week, people were getting worried as the rains kept falling for hours and hours. We drove past a park in town and this is what we saw.

I’ve climbed that tower from which you can see the downtown.

The amphitheater where shows and bands perform. Not going to right now.

The playground. Many years ago before this park came into existence, there were people who lived down by the river in shanties. I have seen pictures from years ago of those shanties flooded. Finally, the city moved all the people and put in this park that gets flooded every so often because the river runs right by it.

Friends of mine, who lost everything in the last flood, were getting concerned and I didn’t blame them. It was looking scary for a while, but finally the rains stopped and the sun came out and the water is receding. Today it is snowing and sleeting.

My church helps support a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Every year we are given baby bottles to fill with money to give to the center. I am always happy to contribute because they are saving babies’ lives there and with what we see in the news today, we must continue to fight for and protect the unborn.

I am glad my church participates in this. I pray for all the babies.

My chickee-poos are still laying during this crazy weather. We get just enough eggs for us right now. I must show you the one a hen laid. She certainly gave her all.

Almost as big as a duck egg and I should know. I use to raise ducks.

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? If I don’t plan anything, we won’t do anything. I do have a delicious looking Valentine Jelly Donut cake recipe I am thinking of making for David.

I bought these candy hearts. You know, the ones that have cute words on them for Valentine’s Day, but you can hardly read the words they’re so dim. And it’s a brand name, too. What is wrong with them! You really have to look to see what each heart reads. Oh, well. That’s the way of things today. I may be getting old, but things really are more poorly made than they were years ago except for maybe cars because one rarely sees a broken down car on the side of the road any longer. When I was a girl you’d see them all the time and cars use to rust out faster than they do today. Our car is ten years old and still going strong and we’d like it to last another ten years. That car has been all over the United States, to Alaska and down the Alaska Highway through Canada. North, South, East and West. I’d like to keep her a while longer.

I sincerely hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day. Whether alone or with a loved one, you still are loved by the One who loves us all. He never disappoints. He will never forsake you. He is the best Valentine a person could have. Jesus. Love you all and God bless. Bye.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

2 Replies

Did you hear the brouhaha about this song before Christmas? That it was “sexist?” People have way too much time on their hands and get incensed about the silliest things. Maybe they need to get a job or hobby that takes most of their time so they can leave well enough alone.

That said, baby, it is cold outside. We are supposed to have the coldest temperatures we have seen in a long time. I spend my days letting the dogs in my shop and out again. They are mostly outside dogs, but when it gets this cold, I feel happier knowing they are inside where is it warmer. I look back at the hot Summer days when I was wishing for this and now here we are and I don’t feel so glad about it. My favorite temperature is somewhere between 50 degrees and 70 degrees. I can be pretty comfortable then. Anywhere lower or higher and I feel it. Is there a place on this earth where those are the temperatures all the time?

You would think the days would drag by when it’s this cold and I’m not outside all that much and we haven’t really gone anywhere all month except out to eat occasionally, but the month has flown. We did have a late Christmas with our oldest son and his girlfriend and her son where I gave what else, socks and a quilt for some of the gifts. I am already planning quilts for next Christmas and one for a friend who shall not be named, although I don’t think she reads my blog. I’m ordering more fabric just because my stash needs refreshing and I have so many ideas in my head running rampant and I need some new colors. You fellow quilters know what I’m talking about.

Here is the Bullseye quilt I am making that Mary over on the blog, Country Threads Chicken Scratch, has been teaching us.

It’s a little bigger than a lap size quilt. I’m going to sew it together and then with some leftover blocks I have a plan. Plus, when you are cutting out this quilt, you are left with a lot of circles and I have plans for some of them, too. This has been such a fun quilt to put together, I already am planning several more with one being in reds and greens for Christmas. You should see my cutting table. It’s piled high with all the fabrics I’ve picked out for these future quilts.

Meanwhile, I have managed to knit a few socks.

Hey, the colors in the socks match the colors in the quilt!

I do love color. I can’t stand monochromatic decorating. An all white room or an all blue room is not my style. Right now we are getting ready to remodel a bathroom. The contractor who will be doing it, added this bathroom in an addition we put on the back of our house over thirty-five years ago, so I think it’s time for an uplift. We picked the tile for the shower yesterday and I can’t wait to show you the floor tile for the shower. The tile reminds me of a quilt. The room is tiny so I’m going to use light, bright colors. We are also getting our back deck rebuilt and screened in with a roof over it. So there is much to think about for this coming Spring.

David celebrated fifteen years working for Ralph Lauren at the outlet mall the other day. When he retired from over 36 years in the military, he was at loose ends for a time. For nine months he cleaned closets and puttered around the house until he ran out of things to do. So I told him it was time to look for a part time job as he was not an old man. The store was just opening and he was one of the first hires at the time. He’s been part time, assistant manager, manager and now back to part time and I’m trying to get him to cut back even more. He really loves the job and the customers. He has customers who come in and ask for him. Even some from Europe who come in almost yearly to buy clothes. Anyway, the vice president wanted to do a conference call with all the people who had been working for Ralph for fifteen years. I was called and asked to come to hear it, but to keep it a surprise. Well, anyone who knows me knows I cannot keep a secret, especially surprise parties. I have “accidentally” ruined two surprise parties just by innocently saying something I shouldn’t have. I was so afraid I would let it out of the bag to David. But I managed to not spoil it and he was so surprised when I showed up at work. The manager of the store had food and the best cupcakes I have ever tasted and she bought me flowers for being so supportive of David and his job for those years.

Gerbera Daisies which are some of my favorite flowers.

If David works another ten years, Ralph Lauren will fly him to New York for a celebration. I told him he was not going alone because I want to go to New York, too. We will both be close to or in our eighties by then, so let’s see if we make it! I hope we do.

Speaking of birthdays. Oh, I didn’t? Well, David had a birthday this month. We were going to go out to eat with some of our kids and grandchildren, but that was the weekend we had a big snowstorm so everyone stayed home. I baked him a cake and we had our own private celebration.

And we ate it all ourselves! Not all at once, of course.

The seed catalogs came right after Christmas and I have ordered some flower seeds. Found a new company I tried and this was on the outside of their package.

Kind of like I felt when I got the seeds.

It won’t be long before I will be planting these. I got some more seeds in the mail yesterday that I will have to show you another time, because the packages are so pretty.

We are in the deep freeze now so I will be spending my day inside working on a quilt and knitting socks and baking bisquits. Not a bad way to spend a day. I would be content to spend the rest of my days in such pastimes.

Hope you are keeping warm where you live. If you live in the tropics, enjoy the warmth, too. Have a happy day everyone. Bye.