Category Archives: Family memories

Autumn Weekend

Autumn has officially began with all its glory. No, the trees are not changing color yet, but lots of things shout that Autumn is here. Everywhere you go, you see pumpkins at roadside stands, in fields and at grocery stores. Mums in all different colors are displayed and tempt us to buy one, two or three.

Candy corn and candy pumpkins are put out in the stores. We have already gone through three bags of candy pumpkins or I should say, David has gone through three bags of pumpkins. I ate one pumpkin, but I think they taste like wax. I did some baking in an Autumn theme. Cookies for a bake sale iced in orange icing and sprinkled with orange sprinkles. My daughter said they made $275 for the MS Society at the sale, the charity the children chose to donate to. I also baked a caked, iced in orange icing with candy pumpkins on top.

I am slowly decorating for Autumn.

The little tray I bought at an antique store filled with, what else, pumpkins.

I love getting out all my Autumn quilts. I am working on a pumpkin quilt right now and have an apple one to finish. Maybe this week or next I will be done painting and will have time to devote to quilting. Speaking of painting, I have been painting on something since the first of the year. I painted the inside of my shop, the shed, the outside of my shop, boards for our new screened in porch, stained and polyurethaned two screen doors, and today I finished staining the floor of our front porch once again. I also am preparing to paint four new barn quilts to hang on the front of our house. To say I am growing tired of painting is an understatement.

I love changing out my wardrobe from Summer things to cool weather things. I am getting out my clothes and washing and ironing them getting ready for a new season.

Our Grandboys spent the weekend with us. It’s always fun to have them here. We went to see the movie, “Small Foot” about a man taken in by the Yeti who considered him an object of curiosity. It was cute, but I thought the music was way too loud. The movie, “Goosebumps 2” that is coming looks really good. I don’t see too many movies anymore because most just aren’t my cup of tea. There are very few movies made for adults that appeal to me. There is always a hidden message that I don’t care to see. Why does Hollywood do that? Just make a good movie with good dialogue and we will come.

Took the boys to church and right in the middle of it, one of them left to go to the bathroom and was in there for a very long time so David got up to check on him. A while later, here they came and Foster had lost a tooth. He put it in his pocket to take home, but later I saw it lying on the floor underneath a pew. Wonder what the janitors would have thought about finding a tooth in the sanctuary? I use to clean our church. I found some strange stuff at times.

Anyway, he put the tooth back in his pocket and I hope the tooth fairy was good to him.

We took the boys home and visited with our granddogs. I love Golden Retrievers, but I will never have one because of the long hair that has to be brushed all the time. My daughter’s Goldens are just beautiful and the sweetest things. I took lots of pictures of them with the boys.

Lily, on the floor is the mother.

Two sweet faces.

Now that’s a doggie smile. My son-in-law was telling me that one day when he was off work, he was putting his shoes on to take a walk and the dogs all knew what was happening and he said they all looked like they had big smiles on their faces because they knew they were going out for a walk with him. Oliver, the dog who lost his leg in a trap, still wanders sometimes. You would think he had learned.

This is Oliver, the one I wrote a story about. He is so beautiful and you hardly notice he has a leg gone.

You can tell the boys and the dogs love each other.

Really tried to get a picture outside, but the dogs didn’t cooperate. They wanted to play.

My grandson made a basketball goal out of paper just because he wanted to.

I like to encourage creativity. I think he did a good job.

This week will be more trips to Indianapolis for my daughter’s PT. We had a little excitement coming home last time. We were driving along on the interstate and a car with some men inside, drove up beside us and a man pointed to our car and wanted us to stop. Me, being the paranoid person I am, and having heard of scams where men do this to women to get them to stop, I told my daughter to just keep driving. The men had pulled off to the side of the interstate thinking we would follow them. We were near our exit and the outlet mall where David works so we drove to the store and I went in and he came out to see. Lo and behold, we had a sort of flat tire. David looked at it and had us go to a filling station to fill it with air. A side story. Once when we were traveling through Arizona, we stopped at a filling station and suddenly a man came up and looked under our car and said if we didn’t have a certain thing repaired, our car might flip. David, being a mechanic in the military, knows about cars and blew him off. We traveled thousands of miles in that car afterward with absolutely no trouble, so I believe we were being scammed in that instance. But me, I worried all the time about that car flipping! I am completely useless when it comes to cars and their repairs.

Remember when we had the kittens under our porch? Our daughter took one and Sunday was the first time I had seen him since she adopted him.

He is beautiful with a beauty mark on his face.

But very hard to hang on to. He’s made them a nice pet.

Here’s to Autumn, Goldens, Grandboys and Cats. Bye.

September, I Hardly Knew Ye

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I’m sitting here with a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee laced with Pumpkin Spice creamer watching WPC56, a British crime drama on tv. David and I have a penchant for British shows, especially ones that take place in the middle of the last century when he and I were just babies. We pretty much watched all they had on Netflix, quit Netflix and started Amazon Prime which has a large selection on Britbox. One of my favorites I’ve watched in the past few weeks was the Village about a late nineteenth and early twentieth century British village and all the happenings in it. It was before women’s suffrage and during the first world war. Very interesting.

But enough about what I’m watching. This month has flown by in a haze. Earlier David and I had both gone in for eye exams and because I have had problems with one of my eyes and am blind in it, I figured the doctor would find something wrong with me, but instead, David found out he had very bad cataracts and had to have surgery to remove them. He had told me a while ago that when we were sitting and bird watching that the birds looked a little blurry. I thought he just needed a new glasses prescription. Surprise to us. So, this week he had the first eye done and while the doctor was in there he fixed David’s astigmatism. After he gets his second eye done he won’t have to wear glasses any longer. Just use reading glasses. I have only known him wearing glasses and I’ve known him since I was twelve, so it will be strange to see him go without them. He has already seen a difference. Amazing what they can do nowadays.

My daughter has MS and has entered a new physical therapy study in Indianapolis and I volunteered to go with her two times a week for moral support. Plus I have to get her scooter out of the car and put it back in again. Let’s just say, I have very little upper body strength so it’s been fun getting that scooter in and out of the car. We practically have to take it all apart so I can lift it, but we get it done. She has a very nice therapist whose name is Depak who is very inspirational and makes us both feel like he can help her movement a lot more. So I’m looking forward to the next ten weeks as she is put through the paces.

I have been knitting up a storm. David and I took a road trip to a little town that had a really nice yarn shop and I bought this yarn

I’ve already knit one sock from this.

This is knitting up into a beautiful sock.

This is the yarn I am using. It was a bit pricey, but the yarn is wonderful and knits up so well and I can probably get a couple of pair of small socks from the remaining yarn when I get the larger socks knit. As of today I have knit fifteen pairs of socks since January and hope to get several more done before Christmas. I was thinking I would like to knit socks and sell them and was checking out what other people charged for handknit socks and the prices ran from $40.00 a pair to $65.00 a pair depending on the price of the yarn. I may have to start selling some socks to feed my sock knitting habit I have acquired. Believe me, the time it takes to make them, getting a pair of handknit socks is a wonderful gift. I did knit one sock in a couple of days this week only because I was challenging myself to see if I could do one that quickly. I know there are lots of faster knitters than me out there, but I never thought I would ever be able to knit one sock, let alone dozens of pairs.

I am hoping to branch out into larger knitted items. I found this pattern at the same store. It looks fairly easy. Just knit rectangles and sew them together. I’m thinking of knitting it in a soft lavender.

I had Thanksgiving dinner Sunday for my family since we will be gone on Thanksgiving this year. I hadn’t made a big meal like that for months and it plum wore me out. I baked a pie, homemade rolls, made homemade noodles and several other dishes to go along. After I have cooked a big meal like that, I am not hungry until everyone goes home and then my appetite suddenly comes back and then I eat. As you have read, cooking isn’t my favorite pastime, but I can do it when the need arises. This next week I will be baking cookies for a bake sale. One of our grandsons is in a club at school where they do things for others and they are having a bake sale and the profits will go to a charity they have picked, but they have to ask people to bake something for them so my grandson called me on the phone and asked me if I would bake something. Of course. I would do anything for my grandchildren if I can. Glad they are teaching the children to think of others. We need more of that.

I didn’t get any pictures of our “Thanksgiving” dinner only the aftermath.

The table really looked pretty. You’ll have to take my word for it. But I find I am living more in the moment nowadays and don’t think of taking pictures until it’s too late. I used my Fiestaware dishes and it was a very colorful table.

Then we gathered around the tv to see some videos of Disney World rides we will be riding( well, some of us will be riding) when we all go there together. I’m afraid riding anything that drops suddenly is off my list of rides, but I am sure I will have plenty of things to see and do while we are there. See the guy in the red shirt on the floor? That’s our oldest son. He is almost fifty and he loves amusement parks. He has a season pass to King’s Island in Cincinnati and goes there almost every day before and/or after work. He’s ridden all the roller coasters. This is the kid who was afraid of heights and once when we had to sit way up in the uppermost seats at a Cincinnati Reds game, he was afraid. Things have changed.

October will bring another surgery and more trips to Indianapolis. I’m hoping to get some quilting done. Ever since we remodeled my shop, I have had hardly any time to just go out there and sew. I did finish sewing together a wall hanging today which thrilled me beyond all reason. Plus we are getting our house painted and a new screened in back porch built. It’s going to be another very busy month.

Hope your days are filled with some work and some play and that you will enjoy the Autumn weather because the heat will soon go away. Halleluhah. Bye.

August and Where did Summer Go?

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When I was a girl, I lived for Summer. School was a necessary evil. I did well in school and made good friends, but I preferred to be outdoors and with my animals. The last day of school was such a celebration for me. I feel sorry for children now who seem to be going to school all year around and don’t have the luxury of long, lazy Summer days to do just what they want to do. It seems children’s lives are so planned now. Even times to play with friends are called “Play Dates.” Sports and other things fill children’s time. When do they have the time to be bored? Being bored is not a bad thing. It’s been made to be a bad thing in today’s fast paced, go, go, go society. One must be entertained every moment of every day.

I was never bored as a child. There was always so much to do on the farm. I did have chores to do, but when they were done, my time was my own. If I wanted to play a game of baseball, I joined my brothers in the barn lot where we would play all afternoon. A game of croquet or badminton sometimes was the order of the day. But mostly I played with the dogs and the cats and the calves and baby pigs and chickens and ducklings on our farm or swung on the swing and read a library book for hours. Because we lived in the country, I didn’t have friends close by to play with so I had to entertain myself. I learned to sew on Mother’s sewing machine, how to cut apart a chicken for Sunday dinner and how to saddle a horse. I was in 4-H where I learned to embroider, bake cakes, tube paint, weave baskets and raise a sheep.

I still love Summers, but they seem so busy now. Every year we plan a project and this year it is painting all the buildings on our property. Most have not been painted for years so they are due. I wanted to paint the outside of my shop, but first I had to remove everything that was on the front porch.

This is not all of it. It looked like we were having a garage sale.

And so I began to paint.

Going from the color Chocolate which has been on our house and our buildings for years and years to Oxford Brown or as I like to call it Dark Chocolate. The paint looked just like chocolate syrup in the can. Between David and myself we have the shop just about done. I love how it looks. We are hiring someone to paint the house because no more going up high ladders for David and my anymore. We have wood fencing all around our property which we have been painting on for years and this year we hope to have most of it completed. I love to paint, but I have been painting on something since January and am about done for a while.

Since it’s been our 50th anniversary month David and I have been doing some traveling and visiting places from our youth

The church where we said our “I dos” 50 years ago. It looks pretty much like it did fifty years ago. Golly, but it seems like only yesterday. I can still see the people at the door of the church throwing rice as David and I got in the car to drive around town. David’s brother was driving. He came up from the Virgin Islands, where he lived, to be David’s best man. They drive on the left side of the road there. When he left the church, he was driving on the left side of the street and we had to holler at him to get to the right! It was one of the best days of my life. It’s been a great 50 years.

David’s Grandmother’s house. She’s been gone many years, but we use to visit her often and she would cook us dinners. She was a very good cook.

We’d sit on this front porch and watch the town go by. It was and still is a little town where everyone use to know everyone else. I don’t know if it’s like that now. I miss it. I miss Grandma Henley. She was so good to me.

We’ve done a good bit of swimming with the grandboys. We got this wild steer for them to ride in the pool.

We are still getting rhubarb. Made this freezer jam.

Rhubarb sauce which David loves. He even puts it on ice cream.

And Rhubarb crunch. Yum.

And we have done some antiquing and other things.

Found this clock for my shop which was perfect.

This cute little tray.

This tablecloth which matched the clock completely.

A birdhouse I found. A four holer. Hope the birds can decide among themselves.

We ate at a German restaurant which had very good food.

Sitting out on the shop porch one evening, we watched a rainbow be born. I have never seen it happen before. First it was very dim and got brighter and brighter and lasted for quite a while. God’s promise.

There have been quite a few rainbows lately.

And so Summer continues on for just a little while. I will hold it to me as long as I can. I have so few Summers left on this great planet of ours. As long as my garden is blooming, it’s Summer to me.

And my garden is blooming profusely right now.

The view from my back door. Everything is so lush.

The best hydrangeas I have ever grown. Right by our front step.

I think these are called Tiger Lilies. Their seeds look like ripe blackberries.

I call this my kitchen garden. Not much food grown here except a few tomatoes.

Hibiscus grow all over the yard from one plant I got from my neighbor years ago.

Lawn children play among the flowers. A long time ago real children played in my garden. Now they are all grown and live away.

Just a couple of the day lilies I grow. They are one of my top five favorite flowers for beauty and ease of care.

Belle roaming in her garden. She loves to sniff the flowers.

And, of course, Molly follows me everywhere I go.

So, Summer slowly leaves us now. I’ll be looking at these pictures in the midst of Winter snow, sleet and ice. I know in some places fires are raging so we must send a prayer for all those in the areas, for the people and for the wildlife. Be safe. Bye.

It’s Not Even Summer Yet

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I can’t believe all the things we have already done in the past few weeks and it’s not even Summer yet. ( I wrote this a few days ago when it wasn’t Summer yet.) We have several family things and trips planned for this season

For the first time in years I have been swimming in the pool before July. Usually June has cool nights and the pool was never warm enough for me, but because of very hot temperatures, it’s been really nice for swimming. We have already had a couple of pool parties.

I love having a pool full of kids and toys. I hope I see this scene many times this Summer.

I love seeing boys enjoying a Summer day, sitting on the swing on my shop porch. My grandchildren are growing up much too fast.

I love eating cold watermelon and freezing the rinds and feeding the to my chickens. How they love it.

After eating, a quick ruffle of the feathers and on to other things.

I finally finished my shop. Except for some curtains and a few paint touch ups it’s done and I have been able to work on a quilt. Right now everything in so neat and clean. Hope I can keep it that way.

In my shop I am surrounded with things I love.

I bought this pretty poster in Laurel, Mississippi on our last trip. The town where Hometown is filmed. One of David’s and my favorite fixer upper shows.

I Mod Podged two and a half inch fabric squares all over this dress form. I like how it turned out so I’m thinking of Mod Podging maps all over another one.

A friend and a very talented lady who was also Nana to my Grandchildren, painted this straw hat for me years ago. She has since passed away, but I think of her every time I look at this hat.

This hanging lamp has been in our kitchen, our dining room, my shop, taken down and stored in our basement and brought back into my shop once more where I hope it will stay. I’ve had it for about thirty years.

I have a little reading corner where I can read a book or look through quilt magazines and books for ideas for more quilts. And yes, I have read all those books on the shelves. People ask me that when they see my book shelves. Now most of my books are on my Kindle, but I still read every single day. My mother taught me the love of reading when I was a girl and for that I will always be grateful to her. She was a voracious reader. She’d read James Michener books like eating candy. Michener was not known for his thin books.

I did this ceiling a few years back, painting quilt blocks on boards and David nailing them to the ceiling The fun part was deciding what quilt patterns to use.

My exercise bicycle which I don’t use as often as I should. I have had it for a long time and we cannot find one just like it. Before the mileage meter broke I had ridden over 25,000 miles on it. I keep it to remind me to exercise.

I use these Edison type bulbs around the shop to give it a soft glow. It’s taken months to get my shop painted and cleaned, but I am so happy with the results and I have so much more room. And I love my big cutting table that David built for me. One of a kind. It can be moved easily and I can lay a big quilt on the top.

This past weekend we took a trip to Squire Boone caverns in southern Indiana with our grandboys.

They had never been in a cave before so this was quite the adventure for them. People ask if they are twins. No, they are brothers born one year apart.

They thought the cave was awesome.

I think it’s pretty awesome too. To think that water helped form all these formations. A constant drip, drip, drip and in several years you get a stalagtite or a stalagmite.

Sometimes you even get fried eggs!

Squire Boone, Daniel Boone’s younger brother, owned the land this cave was found on and he loved exploring it and they buried his bones here.

It was a fun day, but very hot. Almost 100 degrees. The boys mined for gemstones and got some things at the gift shop and we decided to leave and get dinner. We stopped at Frisches and they both ate a big meal.

So on the way home this is what happened.

Completely wiped out with all they had done. They slept almost all the way home. The only thing was, they got a nap and were well rested and ready to go again while Grandma and Grandpa were tired and ready for a nap. We swam all evening, watched a movie.

Ready for church Sunday morning. They were up with the chickens.

It was a fun weekend ending with another pool party and an impromptu birthday celebration for a new teen who turned thirteen who was visiting us. His cake was made of Twinkies and we ate vanilla and chocolate mint chip ice cream.

I will end this post with a story of life and death. What happened right before my eyes on our front porch.

A battle between a big spider and a stink bug. I was rooting for the spider.

I don’t think the stink bug had a chance. The spider wanted its meal too much to let go. Nature can be cruel sometimes, but that’s the way it is.

Here’s to caves, little boys and Summer days. Bye.

JUNE!!

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June is busting out all over. I remember when I was a girl on a beautiful June day walking down the gravel road to my older sister’s house, singing the song from the musical, State Fair, June Is Busting Out All Over. I use to know all the words. But I had a song in my heart, was free as a bird and happy to be going to my sister’s house. She was like a second mother to me being eleven years older. School was out until September. A long, lazy, fun filled Summer lay ahead on the farm. After breakfast and my chores were done, I had the whole day to wander the farm, play with the animals and lay for hours on the front porch swing reading books from the library. I was in 4-H which kept me busy, too, sewing, embroidering and baking cakes or yeast rolls.

Now that I am retired from any outside job, there are days when I get the same feeling of freedom. I can choose whatever I want to do and I’m telling you, it is a grand feeling. I hope all of you get to feel that way one day. I could burst into song right now!

We had a graduation a week ago. Our oldest grandchild and only granddaughter graduated from high school. It just seems like only yesterday I was all excited about her being born and driving up to Chicago to see her for the very first time. I was in love. She has been the most wonderful granddaughter a grandmother could have. We are so proud of her.

She is cute, funny, smart and full of life. She has a bright future ahead of her.

Here she is going up to get her diploma.

Here she is with her dad who is VERY happy she has college practically paid for already. She has worked hard for this.

The choir held hands as they sang. It was very touching. The kids in this school are extremely close. There is no bullying there and everyone is treated with respect. When you enter that school, you can feel the goodness there. I can’t explain it, but when a school is Christ centered, it just feels differently. Most schools use to be Christ centered until God was taken out of schools. Sad.

I would recommend this school to anyone who wants their child to get a well rounded education. Most of the graduates are either going to college or the military.

My grandson. He’s growing up, too.

And his older brother. He graduates in two years. I still am not use to the fact he is driving.

The next day they had a party and it was fun. There was so much food and almost all of it was eaten. I think about one hundred people came through the house that day. I made a big pot of macaroni and cheese and had to make another one.

The tables were decorated with books as our granddaughter is a bookworm and has had a book published.

Lots of pictures of her were on the walls.

She displayed some of her artwork.

Her dad, who is an Indiana University graduate wore this shirt……

He said he never thought he would ever wear a shirt with Purdue on it. His brother went to Purdue and there was always a competition going on there. Never say you will never do something because you will find yourself doing it!

I made her this quilt. This was taken in my house. See that floral chair? That’s my new Lazyboy I got for Mother’s Day. The pattern on it is called Van Gogh so now I can say I have a Van Gogh in my house!

I made this quilt this past Winter. I was so afraid I wouldn’t get it done in time, but it had been completed for a long time only I had not made a label for it. So the week before graduation I finally got the label made.

I try to label all my quilts. I find it sad to find an old quilt with no name on it. I always wonder about the women who have made some of my quilts that I have purchased at sales. I have so many and don’t have a clue who made them or when.

It was a fun weekend but we were both exhausted when we got home.

Yesterday we went to a textile fair not far from home.

There were booths and several buildings at the fair ground with yarns and other textiles for sale. I was in heaven. This particular booth had the best selection of feed sack material I have ever seen and why I didn’t buy any, I don’t know. But I can see why women back in the thirties and forties made clothes out of feed sacks. They are very colorful. Many florals that would have made pretty dresses.

This lady had a camper full of yarn and yes, I did buy some. Traveling the country with yarn in the back of your camper sounds like a great thing to me.

There were sheep there. Some man was walking around a little, black sheep, but I didn’t get a picture of it. Do any of you remember the Disney movie back in the fifties called So Dear To My Heart? It was about a little boy who raised a black lamb and all the trouble the lamb got into with the boy’s grandmother and how he showed it at the county fair. It was my favorite movie when I was a girl. The little boy got to see the racehorse, Dan Patch, taken off a train for exercise. As a girl who was mad about horses, I loved this scene in the movie. Dan Patch is mentioned in the musical, The Music Man when Professor Hill says, “want to see some stuck up jockey boy sitting on Dan Patch, make your blood boil?”

There were llamas too.

Any animal that provides wool for yarn was there. There were angora rabbits too. They had the most beautiful fur.

There was one booth where young girls were learning to card wool and spin it into yarn. What a wonderful thing to learn while you are young. One girl was explaining the process to me and she was so well informed and so mature acting. Conner Prairie, a pioneer village which is based on the people and times of the year 1806, sponsors this and it truly is a way to keep the old arts going.

Even some of the bags had sheep on them. And I bought several skeins of yarn.

The lady selling this yarn had a sock knit up with it and it was so pretty I had to buy some.

One of my grandsons said he wanted me to knit him blue and black socks so this should fit the bill.

I cannot wait to knit this up.

On the way home we stopped at an antique store called Vic’s just north of where we live. We are looking for an old floor lamp. We got one there a few years ago, but I knocked it over and ruined the lampshade. We were also looking for old lampshades, but I found this instead.

An old tablecloth, but I am either going to make curtains with it or a Summer skirt. It is so soft and the colors are so pretty.

We have several things planned this Summer since it’s our fiftieth wedding anniversary year. Next trip will be to some caves and a pioneer village with our grandsons.

Here’s to high school graduates and wonderful fairs. Bye.

Summer Daze

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Okay, I know it’s not quite Summer yet, but it sure feels like it with the heat and humidity. Today was a picture perfect day with hardly a cloud in the blue, blue sky. The seasons are running together now for me. I no sooner get ready for one season then it is another one and so on and so on. This is my favorite time of year when the birds are building their nests and raising their families. David and I watched a daddy bird feed one of his babies in our bird feeder today. There are so many birds. Cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, Titmice, sparrows, cowbirds, blue jays,( who are nasty critters, I must say) starlings,who lay blue eggs I learned this Spring, purple finches and some I don’t know what they are called. But the feeder is constantly busy. I saw a humming bird also. They have been very secretive about coming to the feeder and I can never catch them.

The garden just burst into bloom. When they say something bursts into bloom it’s true. One day nothing and the next day flowers everywhere. If you don’t believe in miracles, go out into a garden and you will see so many all around you. I always wonder how a tree knows when it is time to unfurl it’s leaves. When a daffodil knows to pop its head out of the ground. Who tells the birds when to fly north. I know, but do you? It’s all perfectly miraculous. It’s going on all around us every single day and most of us are blind to it. That is why it says in the Bible, be still and know that I am God. Just sit quietly in a garden for a while and if you don’t believe there is a greater Being making all this happen, I don’t know what to tell you. I believe and I see it every day.

Bursts. See.

The peony is one of my top five favorite flowers. I have a lot of them in my garden and I just ordered seven more to be planted this Autumn.

I want to just stop and look and look at these, but there is work to do.

But then, there are these beauties. The Iris. On my top five list. They multiply and you don’t have to do a single thing to make it happen.

I never have enough flowers, but I am running out of room.

My daughter and son-in-law gave me this for Mother’s Day. I love it. But I am not very good with hanging baskets so I hope I can keep this as beautiful as it is now. By the way. I had a very nice Mother’s day. My grandsons learned to play Chinese checkers the last time they were here so they wanted us all to play. Six people playing Chinese checkers takes a long time. Especially when some people refuse to move! But it was fun. We played on the Chinese checkerboard I received for Christmas one year when I was a little girl.

This is not David’s grandmother’s clematis. This is one we transplanted here years ago and it has really taken off. It’s what I see from my backdoor.

Just gorgeous.

And Molly Marshmallow has to get into the picture. I love this dog. So much.

I always say the back yard is the dogs’ garden because I don’t get all upset if they dig something up or lay smack dab in the middle of a flower bed.

Here is Belle demonstrating her gardening capabilities. Which pretty much amounts to snooping, sniffing, pooping and digging. But that’s okay.

I have managed to complete one small quilt in the midst of all the gardening and painting my shop. It’s another one from Kathleen Tracy’s book.

It’s nice to do a small project once in a while where you can see the results so much faster.

And I am nearly finished with this quilt.

I hand quilted it instead of on the machine and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I still have the border to quilt and the binding to put on. I already have another quilt I am planning to hand quilt on my mind. It is slightly bigger. It fits the top of the table David is making me.

Here’s the table on its side so that he can screw the bottom shelf on.

And here it is on its feet. The top still needs staining and polyurethaned but it’s almost there. You can see I still do not have the floor completely painted. Trying to think what I am going to do with the grandchildren’s handprints and pictures they painted on the floor years ago. I am keeping them for sure. I love this table. We got the idea for it at the Indiana Home Show a couple of years back where I saw a kitchen island that looked like this and I loved it. The price for the kitchen island? Ten thousand dollars! The price of this table with lumber, stain, screws and casters? Under $500 which is still not cheap, but a whole lot cheaper than the one we saw at the home show. It will last my lifetime and one of the kids will inherit it if they want it, but they will have to have a big place to put it as it’s huge. I can see myself this Winter cutting out quilts and laying quilts on this table to pin before I quilt them. And there is so much storage underneath. I am going to buy some baskets to hold projects I am working on. Thank you, David. I love you.

I have my mother’s Singer sewing machine. The machine I learned to sew upon. When my mother got this machine, it was the newest one out and she was so proud of it. David, who has worked on many sewing machines in his life says this is the best sewing machine Singer ever put out with metal gears. So many of the sewing machines today have plastic gears. And talking about sewing machines. I came in my shop with wet Crocs and feet the other day and sat down to piece a quilt square and got shocked. I blamed the machine and immediately began to look for a new sewing machine online. David says it’s because I had wet bare feet that I was shocked, but I have talked myself into a new machine. A heavy duty quilting machine. I have worn out a few machines and mine are all over twenty years old with a lot of miles on them so I am getting a new machine. But no more sewing with wet bare feet!

This little girl is graduating from high school this weekend. I can hardly believe it. I remember when this picture was taken. My son and daughter-in-law lived in Chicago and both her grandmas got to go with her mother and her to get her pictures taken. It was so much fun and we grandmas watched all gaga over this precious little baby that had come into our lives. Now she is all grown up and ready to meet the world. I’m still gaga over her and so very proud.

Here’s to wonderful granddaughters, new sewing tables and learning NOT to sew in wet, bare feet. Bye.

Easter Celebration and a Tutorial

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Can’t believe Easter was just last Sunday. It’s one of my favorite holidays for many reasons. For one, it’s the happiest day for Christians all around the world who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ who was beat, tortured and hung on the cross on Friday and on the third day he arose. He took every last one of our sins upon himself. Only God could do that. Because of Jesus, I can face every day knowing that He lives and lives through me. One day I will see His face.

The other reason I love Easter is because of the fun things we do with out grandchildren. We always have an egg hunt. This year two of our grandchildren were in California with their daddy and our granddaughter was in Florida with friends. As our grandchildren grow older, their lives get busier and we see less of them which makes me sad, but that is the way of life. But we had two grandboys and our son’s girlfriend’s son here to hunt eggs so it was fun. David and I prepared 216 eggs. Seventy-five of them had little pieces of paper in them with dollar signs on them. Those who found those got a dollar for each one. Dangling that carrot in front of young boys gives them a big incentive to hunt the eggs. We hid some in he house and in my shop because we were expecting rain and when it didn’t rain, we hid more outdoors.

The hunt was a great success and each boy got a wad of dollar bills. All but two of the eggs were found. I suppose I will run across them sometime just like I do every year.

I cut some of the daffodils from my garden for the table. I had fun dyeing those eggs using just food coloring water and vinegar.

We had a nice dinner and conversation as we ate. In the course of talking we got to laughing about the Debbie Downer character who was on Saturday Night Live years ago. Debbie Downer always found something pessimistic to say when her friends were discussing something. Every time she said something pessimistic, the music would go Wa-wa-wa. It was really funny. Well, we were discussing whether we were getting any eggs and I mentioned one of our hens had died of old age this week and my son went “Wa-wa-wa,” and we all started laughing. Then I tried to think of pessimistic things to interject in the conversation just to get to say it. We were all laughing so hard. I guess you had to be there, but if you have ever seen that sketch on SNL you know what I am talking about.

This week besides painting in my shop, something that seems to go on and on, I did manage to do a little quilt making. And by little I mean the quilts are little.

I have been working on this quilt. Orange peel.

Kathleen Tracy made this quilt. Now I have made orange peel blocks before and the instructions for them are in this book, but I make mine a little differently so as to get uniform orange peels. Here is how I do it.

Take one small piece of fabric.

Draw the orange peel shapes on freezer paper. Cut them out.

Iron one on each piece of fabric you are using for all the orange peels. I used 64 different colors of fabric to make it more patchwork looking.

Next, iron in the ends.

Press all around the orange peel shape. Don’t burn your fingers!

Remove the parchment paper.

Then I go one extra step some people don’t do.

I baste around the orange peel.

Pin it on your square. Sew around it with tiny stitches. Do this 64 times and you will have enough little blocks to make this particular quilt.

I must admit it is quite habit forming making these blocks. I so enjoyed stitching each different orange peel on its block. I have them sewn together, but I will show you that in another post.

We are expecting yet another round of snow tonight. I’m so ready for warm weather and sunshine. We were going to go to the Indianapolis Zoo Saturday, but that’s been cancelled. We will get to the zoo sometime this year. Maybe even go to the Cincinnati Zoo.

Here’s to Spring, wherever she is and may she get here before Summer. Bye.

Twelfth Night and Twisted Weather

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What a week this has been. Where has March gone? If the time passes any faster, I will be going backward.

We were having some decent weather and then, last Saturday, BAM, we got dumped on with several inches of snow. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but our granddaughter was starring in Twelfth Night at her school and they live an hour and a half away from us and we kept hearing how bad the roads were. David said we weren’t going and then he said he thought we could make it. I packed an overnight bag. Then it got worse and we decided we should not try to drive. We kept in touch with our family there and they cancelled the afternoon show, but we were planning on going to the evening show and it was still on. I was crying because this was her last performance at this school as she is a senior and we were going to miss it. Then they called and said the evening performance was cancelled and there would be a show on Sunday. Hurray!.

The next day the sky was blue, the roads were clearer and so off we went. We hadn’t gone very far when we saw several cars in the ditch. We were so glad we didn’t try to get out on Saturday. We saw the show and it was wonderful. I have never read Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, but I knew it was about a girl, pretending to be a boy and another girl falls in love with her/him to her dismay. Even after reading the synopsis of the play, I am still a little confused But it was a good play with several funny places in it. The costumes were beautiful, the sets were amazing and the music was very good. Our granddaughter had a couple of solos and she got to play her ukulele.

Sorry for the poor picture, but here she is dressed as a boy.

Here she is singing a solo.

She has a very beautiful voice and I love to hear her sing. Can’t believe she is so grown up. Just yesterday we were holding her on our laps.

Anyway, if you know anything about the play, she marries the man she loves and the woman who had loved her/him met a man and married him. That is not the man behind her. I don’t know who that is!

Here she is with her stepdad, mom and little brother. I say little, but he is taller than most of us and not done growing. I tell him he reminds me so much of my father, and he does. Except for the red hair.

Here’s her other “little brother” eating snacks from the snack table they set up in the hall. He was eating these cookies.

Some mother made these and they were good.

All the seniors in the play came out and talked and they gave flowers or gift cards to the adults that had helped with the play. They were all so poised. I don’t remember being that comfortable in front of a crowd when I was their age. I still don’t like speaking in front of people.

It was a wonderful afternoon, but we had to head back home. When we got home there was a card from the local sheriff on our door saying we had been in an accident. What!?

David went down to the sheriff’s office the next day and they could not tell him much as the accident report was not done. He told them we had not gone anywhere on Saturday which was the date on the card. Then David came home and saw this.

Our mailbox on the ground. Neither of us had noticed this when we came home.

Tire tracks from the road went through our yard. He called the sheriff’s department and told them what happened and called our insurance company. Then I noticed our lilac bush in the front yard was pushed down. Someone had run off the road, hit our mailbox, continued into our yard and hit the lilac bush. I hope they are okay. We never saw anything or heard anything so we think it happened while we were in Indianapolis and the sheriff just put the wrong date on the card. I guess exciting things happen when we are out of town.

It was a good mailbox. A friend had given me those quilt stickers to put on it

Here’s to grandchildren. And sudden snows, even when they interrupt life. Bye.

A Birthday and Celebrating Christmas in March

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Well, since I wrote my last blog I have been busy. David was sick for most of the month of February and has had this weekend off for my birthday. He is planning on going back to work Tuesday.

Today was my birthday. We started celebrating it Friday by going to this place…..

With my best buddy by my side we set off on a glorious, almost Spring day.

The skies were so blue. A welcome change from the dark clouds that have been in the sky for days.

Zachary’s is a candy factory with an outlet store. I had read about it in a magazine we get.

Well, I was like a kid in a candy store. I was looking for Easter candy and we loaded up two large bags with candy. There was candy of every kind made fresh at the factory. They only use ingredients produced in America which is another reason I liked it.

We saw this mural on a building in Frankfort. Remember Grandpa Walton on the Waltons show? Will Geer was the actor who played him and he was born in Frankfort, Indiana.

We also stopped at the best antique store where I met the two nicest ladies. We talked about a lot of things, but one thing we discussed was Saturday Night Live in the days when it was funny. If you are old enough, you will remember Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken in a skit where a band is practicing and Will Ferrell’s character was playing a cowbell. Christopher Walken’s character kept saying he needed more cowbell and Will Ferrell would bang that cowbell so hard. It really was one of the funniest sketches on SNL ever. Well, I bought an old cow bell in this store and I will use it to call David inside when he is working outside. I don’t know if he appreciates it, but I am having fun with it.

I don’t know what this building was, but I like the look of it. It’s not their courthouse. Looks like an old hospital. But we didn’t drive by it, so it will remain a mystery.

Today started out with me feeling sick to my stomach. We were supposed to meet some family after church for Chinese. I didn’t make it to church and thought I might have to call it off, but I took some Pepto-Bismol and felt a little better, but I didn’t eat much at lunch. Then everyone came back home for cake and ice cream and to celebrate a late Christmas.

David bought me a cake because I didn’t want to bake my own birthday cake, but our daughter brought a chocolate cake she had made.

Dark chocolate with peanut butter icing. The sugar high we are going to have. It’s back to veggies, fruits and protein next week.

It was just like Christmas day again. With paper all over the floor.

Watching people unwrap presents we have gotten them is one of my biggest pleasures.

I think he was surprised with his quilt.

I love this quilt pattern and how colorful it is. I hope he gets many years of pleasure from it.

He knows what is being unwrapped because he got one for Christmas. A hoverboard.

Our son gave us all wristbands for Walt Disney World. He is taking all of us there this year and I cannot wait. It’s his 50th wedding anniversary gift to us. We are going to stay in a rented house with five bedrooms and four baths so we shouldn’t be too crowded. The last time we did this it was with our older grandchildren and that has been at least twelve years ago. We had such a good time then.

I am still working on my shop. It’s been a slow process with us being sick and very tired for so long.

I am dusting, cleaning and painting every surface I can. I am going through all my fabric and have taken two large bags of it to a local charity. I still have boxes and boxes to go, but it’s getting there slowly but surely. I really am enjoying going through all my fabric, but some of it I will never use and hopefully someone else can get some good out of it.

This has really become a major project. I wonder how people on those hoarder shows ever manage to get out from underneath with all they have accumulated. It’s funny. You spend the first several years of your life getting stuff and the last remaining years of your life trying to get rid of stuff. I have become a minimalist in thinking, but my shop doesn’t show it. Hopefully, when I am done it will.

I did manage to make two little quilts this week. I cleaned off my cutting board and cut them out and pieced them and have one almost quilted.

I call this one Rhapsody in Blue and Birds. I used some bird fabric I love.

Kathleen Tracy has been showing these quilts on Facebook and I figured out the dimensions myself, but she has a small quilt book you can buy on Amazon. I bought one of her quilting books this week that I will share with you later. Check her out. Her quilts are darling.

I love my grandsons and granddaughter. My granddaughter grew up too fast and is a senior this year and is going to New York City this week with all the seniors. What an experience that will be. I have never been to New York City, but David drove through the center of it once. He said he got a lot of one finger waves while doing so! Here are my two younger grandsons who always make me laugh.

Candy corn teeth!

Oh, and if you think I am done buying stuff, I’m not. We went to a La-Z-Boy store on Friday also and I ordered a new rocker recliner in fabric called Van Gogh. Bye.

Year in Review

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How was your year? Was it pretty good or did some bad things happen to you? Did you lose a loved one? I am very sorry. My niece lost her husband just before Christmas and I had two friends at church who died then, also.

Did you take a vacation? Did you do something new you have been wanting to do for a long time? Did you lose weight? Did you gain weight.(I can relate.) Did you get married? Did you get a divorce? I know the pain that can cause. Did you have health problems or were you at the peak of health?

Whatever happened to you in 2017, it’s over now and we can start afresh in 2018. I’m brushing off myself and looking back on 2017, so here goes.

January

Lily, our daughter’s Golden Retriever had her first litter of pups. They were so cute. I hope they are in good homes and are well loved.

We practiced shooting guns in our son-in-law’s woods. I rather enjoyed it.

February

Wintery blue skies. Looks like the new Crayola crayon color “Bluetiful.”

Made some Valentine type projects.

We attended the Indiana Home Show in Indianapolis where I saw this kitchen island which is like a cutting table I want David to build for me for my shop. He hasn’t gotten it done yet. Maybe this Summer.

We actually did some porch sitting even if we did have to bundle up.

I cannot wait to sit out here again. Maybe next week when the frigid temperatures will be gone for a few days. I see thirty and forty degree days on the horizon.

March

My birthday month.

I knit David a pair of socks and he loves wearing them.

Molly Marshmallow enjoyed some sun while sitting in her favorite chair.

More porch sitting.

More sock knitting. These were gifts for Christmas this year.

This flower bloomed in the snow. Helebores. They are so beautiful in the winter landscape.

Wow, do I miss the flowers outdoors.

Did some antiquing for my birthday and bought this tablecloth that I then saw featured in a magazine about antiques.

I really need to get that tablecloth out and starch it and put it on my table now to brighten our days.

April

Bought new chicks. These little girls have become excellent layers. We get a dozen eggs every two days. Miss Mary Foster, my little lame chick, is the one in front. I love her.

More sock knitting. Do I see a pattern here?

Made a quilt for a sweet baby girl in our church.

The redbuds burst into bloom. Spring was here!

Was time to put the Easter decorations out.

The grandkids here for the annual Easter egg hunt.

Flashing the dollar bills they got for collecting the dollar eggs.

May

Finally flowers all over the garden. I am so looking forward to this time again.

We got our upstairs bathroom remodeled. This is the before picture. I can hardly remember it looking like this.

Our baby chicks were turning into pullets.

May or June( I can’t remember the date.)

My fairy godmother….

took me to a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. One of the best times I have ever had and I’ve had some good times. Made me love my country even more than I did.

Our almost finished bathroom. I don’t think I ever took a real after picture. I love my new bathroom and I love soaking in that big tub.

Dame’s Rocket. A surprise flower that came up from my wildseeds I had planted last year.

My other “wild seed.” Miss Molly is such a playful pup.

Clematis growing up on our deck.

Really June

My baby brother’s baby girl got married

She was a beautiful bride.

Her dress was exquisite.

That same weekend, because her brother was home from Germany, my other niece, my brother’s oldest child got married.

Unfortunately, we were not able to stay over another day for her wedding as we had to get home as I was having tests the next day. My health issues were resolved, thankfully.

July.

Found a darling garden shop on one of our little trips.

Bought more sock yarn. This yarn is already socks and most were given away.

The garden just kept getting more and more beautiful.

Played with fire with friends from church.

And watched fireworks, but the music accompanying the fireworks was so dreadful, I contacted the radio station who sponsored the show and complained. The music was the least patriotic music I have ever heard. And rap. Ugh.

David and I made a trip to Evansville so I could see….

Beth Moore. On the drive home we saw President Grant’s childhood home and passed through some wonderful little, historic towns.

August

Went to King’s Island with this crew.

The garden began to look like Autumn.

Pumpkins were growing on the fence.

We took our three youngest grandsons to the state fair.

I think they had a good time and we ate our way through the fair.

Went to my fiftieth class reunion and saw some school friends I hadn’t seen since we graduated. They didn’t look quite the same as in our yearbook!

Although these three really look the same to me. I have many memories with these friends. The lady on the left is David’s cousin and drove us on our first date. We saw the movie, “Joy in the Morning.” I still love that movie. David held my hand through the whole movie.

Visited with James Whitcomb Riley.

September

Went to Grandparents’ Day at three of our grandchildren’s school.

October

Worked on a pumpkin table runner which was given away this Christmas.

Watched our grandsons play soccer.

October

Decorated for Halloween.

Did some driving on country roads to see the foliage.

Made an apple quilt. I’m keeping this one.

November

Attended our younger grandsons’ school’s Veteran’s Day program. Love attending this every year.

Saw our granddaughter in the Music Man. It was wonderful.

Time to get out the Thanksgiving decorations.

Lily had her second and my daughter says, her last litter. She is such a good mother.

I can’t stand how precious this picture is. Everyone should get to hold a puppy every single day. The world would be so much happier.

Drove some really beautiful back roads of Indiana.

And toured some primitive shops on those back roads that hardly anyone ever travels.

Had Thanksgiving dinner where I didn’t get that one picture for some reason.

December

The puppies were older and even more cute, if possible.

Christmas came all too quickly.

I was feeling so nostalgic this year remembering Christmases past.

If we could only spend one day in those times gone by. But it would probably make me cry that I would have to leave it again, so maybe it’s best to leave the past in the past and keep the sweet memories.

Socks were a part of the gifts to everyone.

But when You get right down to it. Spending time with those you love is worth all the money in the world.

I know that it will be a split second and I will be writing about 2018 and looking toward 2019 if I am blessed enough to live that long. So here’s to another year. May it be the best ever, free from care and heartache. Full of love and joy. Bye.

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Snicklefritz

So glad you came. Come sit a spell and read about the tale of my life.

Category Archives: Family memories

Autumn Weekend

September, I Hardly Knew Ye

August and Where did Summer Go?

It’s Not Even Summer Yet

JUNE!!

Summer Daze

Easter Celebration and a Tutorial

Twelfth Night and Twisted Weather

A Birthday and Celebrating Christmas in March

Year in Review