Category Archives: Movies

Busy, Busy, Busy

That headline pretty much says what my life is about right at the moment.  In a few days, I will not be as busy, I hope.  I’ve been trying to plant all the flowers and all the seeds I have received in the past few weeks.  Finally got most of the seeds underground except for pumpkins and some torch flower seeds.  To be quite frank, I’ve run out of room in my yard and garden to plant much more.   My cup runneth over.  I received two really pretty hydrangea plants for Mother’s Day which have not been planted yet.  I can’t plant them where the pups can get to them.  David told me the other day they had dug up something we had planted(it looked like a stick when we planted it) and he thought it was lost, but he found it in the yard and replanted it and didn’t tell me until he noticed there were leaves coming out on it.  I can’t remember what kind of plant it is so we will have to wait and see when or if it flowers.

By the way, David has covid now.  I was really hoping we both had dodged the bullet, but he’s had a raspy throat and runny nose so he went in to the clinic at Kroger’s today and they said he had it and should stay home for at least five days and wear a mask around me since I don’t have it, yet.  Pray it doesn’t get any worse. He will be getting surgery on his shoulder sometime in the next few weeks.  Our Summer is really adding up to being fun, isn’t it?  Ha.

What keeps me sane is working in my shop on the Christmas projects for my sale on December 3rd.     I have made so many things and when I can get my pictures up again, I will show you. For some reason my computer is not cooperating with me and I can’t get my pictures onto my blog and I have a lot of them to show you.  Anyway, I spend at least three or four hours sewing and listening to talk radio and it becomes my calm and happy place.   I listen to Dan Borgino’s talk show. He’s not to everyone’s taste, but I like him.   I told David the other day I wonder what I will obsess about after I have all this sewing done and have had my sale.  There will be something, I know. Maybe I will obsess about cleaning my house.  It gets a lick and a spit once in a while.  It doesn’t really matter how often I dust, it always looks dusty and I don’t know why.  Just in the past year I’ve noticed things are dustier around here, even outside.  Our porch didn’t use to be dusty, but it is now.

I try to spend at least a half hour every day playing with the dogs.  I throw the ball so much my arm hurts at night.  You’d think I would finally have developed some muscle from all the throwing.   Lucy runs for a toy as soon as I open the door. She never wants to stop playing and if you want to see disappointment in a dog’s face, Lucy has it when I tell her we are through.   Molly has become fit as a fiddle where once she was overweight, now she is trim and muscular and loves to fetch also.  Just wish something like fetching would do that for me!

I have watched a couple of really good movies on tv.  I think they were both on Netflix.  One was  called A Walk in the Woods and starred Robert Redford and Nick Nolte as two old men who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail that runs from Maine to Georgia.   I never thought of Robert Redford as a comedian, but he has some pretty funny lines in the movie and Nick Nolte is hilarious as his alcoholic recovering friend he hadn’t seen in years.

Another movie which I found magical, but troubling at the same time was The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.  Louis Wain was an artist in the Victorian age who painted cats. He and his wife were some of the first people to ever keep cats inside their house at the time.   Cats were considered mousers and were kept to the barns.  He painted cats in some of the most magical settings and he became quite popular, but he did not copyright any of his work so he never made much money and died a pauper in an  insane asylum.  It sounds like a sad movie, but it really isn’t.

I find it hard to sit clear through many movies, but these two I enjoyed immensely. Right now, as I type, I have Hairspray on.   I’ve seen it before, but I love the music and it takes place in fifties so it’s right up my alley. There is a show like Dick Clark’s American Bandstand that the lead character, Tracy,  wants to get on.  I loved watching American Bandstand when I was a girl and I loved how the girls dressed and how the couples danced.  Many who appeared on that show became famous in their own right.  By the way, John Travolta plays the girl’s mother and he is hilarious.

I just wanted to stop in so you would know I’m still here.  I started an entirely different post the other day, but didn’t get it finished so maybe I will try to post that one soon.  Or I won’t. Not making any promises.  I had a nice Mother’s Day.  Went out to eat Saturday night with my daughter’s family.  Had phone calls wishing me Happy Mother’s Day and received those beautiful hydrangeas.

Hope your days are busy or not, if you prefer.  Summer is here. The temperature is climbing.  David has been in the pool already. Not me. The water has to be over 80 degrees for me to swim in it.   If the temperatures keep going up, it will be sooner rather than later.

I will leave you to watch the kids dancing in Hairspray.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

Back to the Brontes

I watched a movie about the Bronte Sisters that was shown first on PBS. It is called To Walk Invisible, which is what the Bronte girls had to do when they were writing and getting their works published. They had to publish under a man’s name for a time.  I found this movie very interesting, but what I really loved seeing were the clothes.

In my previous post I talked about how people really wore colorful clothes back in the 1800’s.  I’m sure the people at PBS tried to be as historically accurate as they could be while making this movie about the Brontes.  The clothes were just beautiful. Now the Brontes were not rich by any means, but the clothes they wore were still beautiful.

I would love to see women dressed like this coming down the street. Look at the rich colors, the plaids, the florals.  The wonderful capes in such beautiful colors.

Kidskin gloves. Tight bodices.

Tiny, corseted waistlines.

Even the hats had pretty, bright ribbons and look at the floral fabric in her dress.  I have some reproduction material that almost looks like this fabric.

The Brontes were trying so hard to get their poetry and books published.  They had to pretend to be something they were not. To be invisible. It was a man’s world and women just did not do something like write a book. How silly that sounds now with all the women authors we have now. I can’t imagine what it must have been like back then to know you could write and really wanted to write, but it was discouraged at every turn. These women were so brave and ahead of their time.

But back to the clothes, here the sisters come walking down the street all dressed up in their gorgeous dresses, capes and scarves.   The actresses who played the Bronte sisters were excellent.  The sisters had to deal with their brother’s drug and alcohol abuse and he had an affair with a married woman which was quite the scandal back then.

I’m in love with this dress. If only I could go back in time for just a while and dress like this.

Not a good picture of it, but this dress looked like it was made of satin. Very dressy to be an every day dress.

I love this shawl.   And there is that floral fabric again.

I’m going to watch this again and really look at the clothes.

I may just get a pattern and some reproduction material and try making a Summer dress. I haven’t sewn clothes in a long time.

This book has been keeping me busy.

Sewing little 4 1/2 inch blocks. Seventy-two of them, plus I sewed nine extra to go in the center. The pattern calls for a center medallion, but I didn’t like it so I sewed eight flying geese blocks and one log cabin block and I will call my quilt, “Geese Around the Cabin.”

Here is the center of the quilt.

And here it is, almost done.

I still have a sawed tooth border to go around it and then a six and 1/2 inch border around that and then it will be ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I think I may quilt this one by hand. I have another one almost done with the same patterns in Christmas greens and reds.

This quilt has come together surprisingly easily and I really have enjoyed making it.  It’s going to have to be hung on a wall somewhere after it’s done.

Here’s to the Brontes and all brave girls everywhere. Bye.

 

 

The Old Lady from Up.

Have you seen the Disney movie, Up?  It’s a delightful movie about love, loss and renewal and I love it. It’s about two kids who meet, one’s a nerd and the other one is a full of life girl. They become friends, grow up and marry and grow old together. Then the old lady dies and  the old man is left with one wish on his mind. To complete a dream his wife had.  So he blows up hundreds of balloons that carry him and his house and a little boy scout stowaway to the adventure of their lives.

In one scene of the movie, the old lady is becoming ill and can no longer walk up a hill where they have picnicked often.  She gasps for breath at the exertion.  I have become that old lady.

For the past several months I have gone through a myriad of tests in Florida and here in my state and the doctors could find nothing wrong except I had a slow heart rate and an extra beat to my heart.  They think they have controlled the extra beat, but my heart rate is not what it should.  My heart beats at forty or fifty beats a minute and the average for women’s is in the sixties.   It has become increasingly difficult for me to climb stairs or walk any distances.

Sooooo, tomorrow, bright and early the doctor is putting in a pacemaker.  I’m  not thrilled about it, but it’s a last resort kind of thing. I pray this will take care of the problem.

If you believe in God and are a praying person, please send up a prayer for me that all will go well.  If I wake up and see Jesus’ face or David’s face, I will be just as happy so I’m not worried. It’s just an inconvenience to me and I will be glad when it is this time tomorrow.

I have so much more to tell you about a little trip we took this past weekend on the back roads of Indiana.  There are lots of surprises when one takes the back roads.   One never knows what they will come across.  So after this is all over, I will tell you about our trip.

Here’s to good health and may I have it soon.  Bye.

Wonderful, Weathered, Wambled, Wandering,Wacky Week in Weview

This week has been a doozy.  We have been hit with snow storms and flu bugs.  Blessed with grandchildren and friends.  Shop hopped ”til we dropped.  Suffered aches and pains.  Had really weird dreams.  So, let’s begin.

We started out the beginning of the last week by going on a shop hop.  A shop hop is when several quilt shops get together and offer prizes and have quilt blocks you can buy at each shop to make a particular quilt that they have chosen.  Two friends, David and I left on what was supposed to be a snowy day and we were not disappointed.  The roads weren’t too bad until we were a few miles from home.  Then we hit a very slick stretch which made me sit on the edge of the car seat until we got home.

We had fun, though, and I got a new supply of fabric I needed like a hole in my head, but, then, I do have several holes in my head, so what’s one more?  Here are some of the fabrics I purchased.

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I am going to make a sun dress from this. Sun?  What’s sun?

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Don’t know if you can see, but there are chickens on this fabric.  Curtains for the chicken house maybe?

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This will be the binding on a quilt I am hand quilting right now.  I hope to have it completed by Summer.

A few weeks ago I bought this top for Easter and I wanted to make a skirt to go with it.

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Here is the fabric I found to make the skirt.  I am so happy!

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The roses in the fabric match the roses on the top.  A very inexpensive outfit for Easter and that makes me glad too.

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I bought a few pieces of wool felt for my stash.

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I found this cute pattern for a wall hanging to be made from wool and wool felt.

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That little spotted hen is so adorable.  Gosh, I wish I could raise baby chicks from eggs.  My hens sit and sit on their eggs, but they will never hatch because there is not a rooster in sight.  Do you know how warm it is under a hen?  Warmer than you would think.

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We love our chickens’ eggs.  Had a double yolker for breakfast this morning.

We ate at a restaurant I had never eaten at before, Bagger Dave’s.  They make their own sodas and everything is made fresh.  I got a grilled chicken salad with mozzarella cheese and it was delicious.

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We had two of our favorite people over for the night while their parents went on a much needed time out.  These guys keep me on my toes.  Despite the fact I have been battling a bad cold or flu bug all week, they made me forget it for a while.

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I love these guys.  I made the shirts they are wearing and I must say, they are almost too small already.  We hadn’t seen them since Christmas and I believe they have grown a couple of inches in that time.  I wish they would stop it.

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We put together a puzzle, went out to eat, went to Rural King to see the baby chicks and ducks and to buy our pup some new chew toys.  I am still our pup’s favorite chew toy.  I wish she’d stop.

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They helped me bake and ice cupcakes.  They did most of the work.  I just stood by and offered help.  Never can learn too early how to feed yourself.

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I learned more about Pokémon than I ever knew or wanted to know.  I kept calling it Poky Man and they would say, “Grandma, it’s poky MON!”  Some of these cards were accidently(?) dropped into the toilet.    Bye, bye Pokémon cards.     Reminded me of one time when our younger son had two friends over for an overnight and the next morning I found one of the boy’s clothes in the toilet.  No one ever fessed up to how they got there.  You never know with boys.  I tell ya’.

We watched a really good movie on Netflix called Earth to Echo.  We all got so engrossed in it that bedtime came and went.  The ending was really good.  I took the boys upstairs to bed and I think they were asleep before I got to my room.   They slept all night without a peep.  We all went to Sunday school the next morning.  I help teach a pre-K class and the regular teacher is gone so I taught and I had the biggest class we have had for a while and on a morning after a big snow in our city.  I was very pleased.  I was also very under the weather.  We ate lunch with our daughter’s family and then we went home and I went to bed where I had a dream that actually made me feel sick.  I dreamed I had made five pies and I  ate a piece from every one of them with a whole container of Cool Whip on top.  I was actually nauseous when I woke up, but was so glad I hadn’t eaten all that.  I told David it’s turned me off pie for a long time!

We have had snow and cold now for quite a while.  I try to keep all the pets and the wild birds fed and watered.  It’s a tough time for them, but we will get through.

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Be sure to feed the birds.  It’s hard for them to find food when the ground is covered.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinning a Quilt

Back in the seventies when my babies were babies and I didn’t have much money but a lot of determination, I decided to make a quilt.  There were no quilt shops all over the country.  Not many books teaching quilting or magazines about quilting. There certainly were no blogs about quilting and the International Quilt Market was just a dream.  The only place to get material was at the JC Penney’s or JoAnn’s fabric. I searched the library for books about quilting.  My sister had been making quilts for years, but I never really paid attention to how she did it. So I began the odyssey of learning how to piece a quilt and how to put it together.  Back then Better Homes and Gardens put out a craft magazine that had all kinds of crafts in it.  My mother used to get it and when I got married I would get it.  In one issue there were several quilt patterns.  Not like in magazines today where the quilt patterns are the actual size of the pattern, no.  I had to draft the quilt pattern myself from a drawing the magazine had of the quilt pieces on squares that you had to draw, each square equaling one inch and then draw the pattern.  It wasn’t easy, but, like I said, I was determined.  There was one pattern I especially liked called the pyramid quilt made up of triangles.  I told my sister what I was going to do and like some bossy sisters are, she told me it was impossible for me to make a quilt out of all triangles.  I’m the type of person that if someone tells me I can’t do something, that’s when I will do it and I proceeded to begin the quilt. I didn’t have the fabric stash I have now, so I had to find material wherever I could get it.  I sponged some off my mother who had been sewing for years and had her own stash.  I had material left over from sewing clothes for the children.  Soon I had enough fabric to piece the quilt.  I worked on the quilt every chance I got. With two small children at the time it was not easy.  I finally got it pieced and it sat for years waiting to be quilted.  I didn’t finish that quilt until about fifteen or twenty years later.  Then I washed it and some of the fabric ran, because at that time I didn’t know you should prewash your fabrics if you don’t want them to run.  I still have that quilt and love it. Fast forward to 2015 and I am still quilting with the same passion I had at the beginning.   Maybe more so.  I still have several quilts waiting to be completed, but I still keep starting others. I decided to get one ready to quilt this week.  The one in my header. DSCN0093

It is a king size quilt and I had to clear out our dining room to have room to lay it out.  First I had to piece the backing for it because the quilt was so large.  I laid the backing wrong side up on the floor and laid the quilt batting over that.  Then I spread the quilt over it all.  Now came the real work.  Years ago when I wanted to get a quilt ready for quilting I would put all the layers down, pin them together with straight pins and then begin to laboriously thread needles and baste the layers together.  It took forever.  Then, I saw a lady from Alaska on television and she safety pinned all her quilt layers together.  I suddenly had an epiphany.   How hard could that be??????

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I got out my little tin of safety pins that I have had forever and began to pin.

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Hundreds of pins later, I am finished and the quilt is ready to be quilted.

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I loved the way the light and shadow played on the quilt.

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Crawling around on my hands and knees putting in one pin at a time. I had entertainment while doing so. I turned on the television just for the noise until I saw the movie that was on.  One of my all time favorite movies, The Big Country, starring two of my all time favorite stars. DSCN0084

Gregory Peck. Swoon.  He was at his most handsome in this movie.  I have always loved his movies.   One of my favorites of his is called Duel in the Sun.  Omigosh, he was handsome in that one.  He was handsome until the day he died.  He was in my town one time and I missed him!  He and his wife were just passing through and stopped at our local old fashion ice cream parlor that is known world wide, Zaharakos.   People come from all over to see it.  Anyway, Gregory Peck was there one time and oh, how I wish I could have seen him.  Loretta Lynn, the country western singer,had quite the crush on Mr. Peck and one time she got to meet him and she acted like a bashful teen-ager with her idol.  I would probably have acted that way too.  There was just something about him. DSCN0098

Charlton Heston.  Swoon again.  I loved every movie I ever saw him in.   Remember Soylent Green and the very first Planet of the Apes?   He made good movies all his life from being Moses in  The Ten Commandments to Ben Hur.  I remember I went to see Ben Hur at our local movie theater with my sixth grade class.   We sat up in the balcony.  All us girls got all dressed up and felt so grownup going to a movie without our parents.  My friend and I got in trouble for talking too much and the usher told us to be quiet.   I still remember the movie and the chariot race, but I think we giggled and talked through the entire movie.  You know, I was one of those kids you don’t want to sit near in a movie?  Funny story.  One time I went to a movie and there were girls just talking constantly behind me so I sat up very tall so that they could not see around me.  One of the girls tapped me on the shoulder and told me she couldn’t see.  I told her I couldn’t hear and that if they would stop talking, I would sit down in my seat.  They were quiet the rest of the movie.  Maybe you might try that next time you have a talker behind you.

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Chuck Conners played kind of a bad boy in this movie.  I use to watch him in Rifleman on television years ago.  I had a crush on the boy who played his son. Can’t remember his name though.

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Burl Ives.  Known for playing his guitar and singing.  He had a unique voice.  He played a poor rancher fighting for the water rights to the Big Muddy River against a rich rancher.  Suffice it to say, their families did not get along.

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Jean Simmons at her prettiest as the love interest for Gregory Peck’s character.  The last time I saw her in a movie she played a quilter in How to Make an American Quilt.   She was still a pretty lady.

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The movie ends with Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons looking out at their big country.  The ranch they both loved.  I love the west.  It does seem like a big country in many places.  It’s called the Big Sky country for a reason too.  The sky just looks bigger out there.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie once again.  Even the music makes one think of the west.

I said I was not going to bake for a while after Christmas and it has been almost three weeks since.  I saw this recipe for Morning Buns in my Midwest Living magazine.  It has twelve pats of butter in the dough, butter in the muffin cups and you spread butter over the dough once you roll it out.  Each bun has over 500 calories so you have eaten one fourth of your calories for the day when you eat one, but oh, they are worth it.

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The recipe makes twelve large buns.  All sugary and good.

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I’d offer you one if you were here.  Bye.