Category Archives: Knitting

Oh, Glorious Days

I love Autumn. I use to love Summer, but I have become heat intolerant the older I get and I don’t like to sweat so there’s that, too. We have been having some glorious days and today was one. Driving back from Indianapolis from my daughter’s physical therapy we saw some of the most beautiful red leaved trees in a field. The leaves are indeed starting to change. They are later than usual, but that’s okay. It will be beautiful in Brown County in another week and the leaf gazers will be out in force.

We have been busy doing things with the Grandboys. Once again we attended Grandparents’ Day at the Christian school two of our Grandboys attend. We always enjoy it. And we take them out to eat and get to have some one on one time with them. It’s fun having a real conversation with our older Grandboys about all kinds of subjects.

This one went from a little boy to a young man almost overnight. I hate it, but what can I do? Kids grow up right before our eyes almost.

This one is a Junior. Ack!

Taller than us both and such a nice boy. We love them both so much.

Then soccer with this Grandboy. His team won both games. Yay!

This boy can kick a soccer ball. He made several goals.

Sitting on his mama’s lap between games.

This is our “baby” Grandboy. Getting so tall also. He played goalie for a while.

Sometimes he didn’t look very interested! His team won their games, too. Yay!

Since this was the last of the soccer games for the season there were concessions, booths giving away things from water bottles to Tide sticks and some were selling soccer paraphernalia. And this guy showed up since Target was sponsoring the whole thing.

The sky was so blue that day.

Trees starting to turn. It was just glorious and nice to be outside although right after the games the wind picked up and began blowing pretty hard. Leaves flying everywhere.

In Autumn it seems the flowers give their last hurrah as if they know that soon they will be resting for a few months.

My hydrangea had more flowers on it than ever before.

I’ve always wanted blue hydrangeas and this year I finally have one. I do have to add something to the soil so they will turn blue.

I’ve done very minimal Autumn decorating this year as I won’t be around for most of it.

Fairy lights, pumpkins and Halloween figures on the mantel.

A tray of tiny pumpkins and a Buttered Maple Syrup scented candle. I haven’t lit it yet, but maybe tonight.

And of course, new yarn has been ordered and received. I used up a bunch of yarn on patchwork socks and so I needed a new stash.

These colors are so beautiful. My horrible photography does not do these colors any justice at all, but believe me, they are deep colored and delicious looking. I can’t wait to get them wound and let the knitting begin. I’m really going to have to relearn how to knit sweaters because I have knit so many socks this year. I use to knit sweaters and things for my kids years ago, but it seems I have forgotten all I ever knew.

Enjoy these glorious Autumn days because Winter is right around the corner. 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.

Once There Was A Summer

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Remember those first few days of Summer when you thought they were spread out before you like a gift just waiting to be opened? So many plans made for picnics, road trips and long, lazy days by the pool. Blue, blue skies? Warm sun on the face?

Days when clouds had curls on the top like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone?

Summer didn’t quite turn out that way for me. I have spent a great deal of Summer painting and gardening. We have talked for years about painting the house so this year we have decided to get it done. But first, we wanted to try some paint colors to see what we would like. We painted the shed and my shop a deep, dark syrupy chocolate and I like it.

Between David and myself we got them both done with two coats on each. We are having the house painted. No tall ladders for us.

It’s rained so much this Summer so we painted between the rain drops. The rain has done wonders for my garden, though.

The pumpkin vines have spread everywhere and I have seen a few pumpkins starting to form.

One vine grew up and tree and then down and there is a pumpkin hanging in there somewhere.

And the vine continues to grow down to earth again. Who knows where it will end up?

These pumpkin vines are waist high on me. The leaves are huge. I hope the pumpkins won’t disappoint.

Being a farmer’s daughter, I am always glad to see that the farmers have good stands of corn and soybeans in their fields. I heard on the radio that harvest may come early this year. Good for the farmers.

And even though it’s Summer, I have still found time for knitting. In the early morning or in the evenings I try to knit a bit. Here are a few of the socks that have come off my needles.

With all this yarn I knit a pair of patchwork socks.

Not sure anyone but me will want to wear these colorful socks, but I do love them.

Another pair of socks from odds and ends of yarn leftovers. I rather like these, too. These were a bear to knit for some reason. I tore out one of them three times, once when I was at the toe. Grrrr.

And I found the colors in this ball of yarn almost matched my patchwork socks.

And here they are. See the mistake? It’s hardly noticeable, but I know it’s there.

And I also did some patching of holes on some older socks I knit. These are some of the first socks I ever knitted. I knit little squares and sewed them over holes.

Then I did a little yarn embellishing. I will be glad to wear these on a cold Winter’s day.

The children are all back in school sitting at their desks hopefully filling their brains with useful information that will get them far in life. Our oldest grandchild started college this year and our youngest is in fourth grade. How fast they have grown. Soon the leaves will begin to change. The air will have a crispness in it that I have longed for all Summer. I am not a hot weather person. We have plans for this Autumn. I will be making trips to Indianapolis with our daughter as she takes part in a physical therapy study for MS patients. Pray for good results. Then we will all go to Walt Disney World together and have some fun. That’s our plans.

Hope your Summer was full of everything your heart desired and that Autumn will be the same. Bye.

Oh, and Belle and Molly give their regards.

Woof!

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.

Authors in the Family and Letter writing

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I always have loved to write. If I were disciplined enough and didn’t have so many hobbies like quilting, knitting, gardening and reading, I might have had time to write a book. I have written short stories for my grandchildren in which they are the main characters, but that is as far as I have gotten to being an author. Writing here on my blog seems to satisfy my need to write.

Our oldest granddaughter actually wrote a book when she was fourteen and had it published. One of our grandsons likes to write and wrote a story about me trying to get to my birthday party.

I guess that’s me in the picture!

Wish you could read it. According to the story, I took a subway from Chicago to Lafayette, Indiana. There was a ship wreck and cyclone I had to deal with also. Quite a feat if I do say so myself. But I did get to my birthday party!

His brother made a really nice birthday card for me also.

Better than any store bought card any day in my estimation.

I got a letter the other day from the same grandson who wrote the story, asking for a size 11 pair of socks. I think he was asking for his dad because I did not knit his dad socks for Christmas this year. Not sure. I was just glad to get a letter. The art of letter writing in this day of cellphones and texting and E-mails has gone the way of the Dodo bird. It takes time to gather a pen and paper and sit down and write down your thoughts, then find an envelope and a stamp and go to the mailbox and mail the letter. If someone does that for you, it’s a real blessing. It means they are thinking of you and you are worth their time. I wrote him back and also told him to tell his brother to write me also and I would write back. Maybe we have started something here. Maybe I need to sit down and write a letter to everyone who means something to me. Have you ever written a person and told them what they have meant in your life? A teacher, or relative or friend? I bet if you did, they would be so happy to get it. I got a birthday card a couple of weeks ago in which a friend had written a prayer for me and it meant so much. For some reason, a letter means more than a text or even a quick phone call because it means the person thinks you are worth it.

Do they even sell stationary any longer? I remember as a girl looking at all the pretty stationary and spending time selecting some. Stationary came in pretty boxes and there was usually a picture of something on the top of each page. I had pen pals I wrote to in Sweden and around the United States. The two girls I wrote to in Sweden would send me little gifts and I would send them something and we did this for a few years and then we lost contact. I still have a picture they sent me of the two on them on ice skates by a lake. Hard to imagine they are old ladies like myself now. I often wonder about them. I tried to find them on the internet, but someone I contacted, who I thought might be one of them, never contacted me back, so I figured it was the wrong person.

I just finished writing a story based on my daughter’s Golden Retriever who lost a leg in a trap a few weeks ago. I tried to write it from the dog’s point of view and I tried to imagine what he went through, caught in a trap in the middle of the forest for fourteen days. I still am amazed he survived his ordeal. My daughter says he runs fast now and coming toward you, you can’t even tell he is missing a leg, but he limps when he walks. It’s amazing how resilient animals are. After I have done some polishing of the story I will give it to my daughter and her family to read and then I may post it on here.

Have you written a letter recently? Is there someone who would LOVE to hear from you?

In other news, the work on my shop is going quite well. I have several shelves painted and all but one wall painted and now I am working on the floor. It takes two days for each coat of paint I put on the floor to dry so it’s a slow process. Plus, I can only do small portions at a time as I have to move stuff from one side to another. When this gets done, I am done for a while. I did mention to David that my girly room is in need of fresh paint and he told me to get one project done before I started thinking of the next one! Maybe this Autumn that room will get freshening up.

It looks like the walls are pink, but they are dazzling white.

It’s so nice to have clean, freshly painted walls on which to hang things again. I have decided I am not going to burn candles in here anymore as everything was blackened by the candle smoke. I have burnt a lot of candles in here through the years. While I love to burn candles, they do leave a bit of soot even if you cannot see it at the time. So air fresheners will have to do unless someone can give me some advice on what to use. I’d like to do something with peppermint extract because spiders don’t like peppermint.

I also am trying to make some little quilts from these two books I got in the mail a couple of weeks ago.

I really love this quilt on the cover and want to make it. There will be some appliqueing in my future. In this book, Kathleen Tracy writes of a young woman, Adelia, who lived during the Civil War and shows us some of her diary entries. It is very interesting. I love reading about this time in American history although it was a very hard time and many lives were lost.

This is another quilt in the book that I want to try. I love green and pink together. So Spring like.

I am working on this quilt right now and am loving the process.

It’s a small quilt and just about all I can handle right now. Its from this book by Jo Marten. I want to make every single quilt in his book. I’m thinking of having a quilt wall in my shop of all little quilts.

It’s becoming Spring in my neck of the woods. Daffodils are blooming on the south side of my shop and many more are getting ready to burst into bloom. I know this sounds crazy, but I’m kind of sad to see Winter go as I had so many plans to finish so many projects that did not get done. I did get some more socks knitted.

Believe it or not, David loves these and wore them to church this morning.

These go in the gift bag. I have another pair completed and am working on my Christmas socks. Yes, Christmas. I think about Christmas all the time because I make so many presents. But the Christmas socks will be mine. The first pair of Christmas socks I knit turned out to be too pink, so they go in the gift bag also. I also have yarn to knit David Christmas socks. So, there you go.

Spring starts next week. Enjoy it because right behind it comes Summer and the heat. I hope we have a mild Summer this year. Not too hot or cold.

I will leave you with a smiling face.

Molly Marshmallow says, “Hi.” Took her to the vet for some shots and she remembered him from when she was there a few months ago because she got so excited when he walked in the door like she was greeting her long, lost friend. She doesn’t greet me like that! Here’s to happy dogs. Bye.

Happy Valentine’s Day or How Being Sick for Three Days Really messed up the Amour

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It’s Valentine’s Day. The day for lovers. The day you send special greetings to the one you love. Flower and candy companies make a killing.

David and I have been sick since Sunday. The full blown flu with body aches chills, temperatures, coughing a lung out and just general malaise. I’m not sure where we picked it up. At the doctor’s office or at church or at a restaurant where a little girl in the booth beside us was coughing so hard I thought she would hurt herself. Wherever we got it, we got it good. I spent two full days in bed trying to stay warm with the heated matress pad set on high, a heating pad at my feet and three blankets covering me. David actually took a day off work, something he NEVER does no matter how he feels. I didn’t think he should have gone back today. but he did. Our daughter just called and her whole family has been down with the flu. Our oldest son was in the hospital with high blood pressure. Yes, we are a sickly family right now. Today I feel halfway to normal and hopefully the worst has passed.

The really sad thing was the first day I started to feel poorly, I went out to feed and water my chickens and Shannon, my big, beautiful, white Brahma was lying dead in the yard and all the other hens were cowering in their nests three to a nest. I knew something very traumatic had happened in the coop, but since they couldn’t tell me, I will never know. But Shannon had been murdered that was quite evident. I really felt so sad because she was the one who was always afraid and I hate to think what her last few seconds of life were like. I am wondering if it was a hawk. It doesn’t matter how many times I find a dead chicken, I always get a sick feeling in my stomach and a feeling of loss. I still have ten hens left.

I came downstairs today to find this.

Roses and a card. David wrote some really romantic things on the card that I won’t share here. Just know I didn’t think he could be so romantic! It was a nice start to Valentine’s day. I decided, despite how I felt, he deserved a home cooked meal. I haven’t cooked for a week. I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, peas and cranberry sauce. David was very happy. He’s been living on leftovers, cold meat and frozen food for days.

I have been working on some little projects for Valentine’s decorations.

Little felt hearts. These were so fun to make while I watched tv.

Then I made this with them.

A heart garland. I have to make the other half to cover the entire fireplace mantle.

The postman brought me a treat.

More sock yarn. And then a few days later….

DSCN6704

More sock yarn. I am seriously loving this yarn. David wanted a pair of socks from it, so that is what I am doing.

Really loving how this is knitting up.

And look at this wonderful yarn. I have enough new yarn for seven more pairs plus I can use the leftover yarn to make patchwork socks like I have done with these….

Three or four different leftover balls of yarn to make these socks. I’m loving these, too.

And this was some self striping yarn I had to make these socks.

And a while back I wrote about some Christmas socks I wanted to make with this particular yarn.

It wasn’t as Christmassy as I thought it would be. Too much pink so I ordered some new yarn that does look like Christmas colors.

I sit in my knitting chair and look before me at all the wonderful yarns to work with and I am loving it. There is my Christmas yarn on the left. I know, we just got done with Christmas, but it is always on my mind since I do tend to make a lot of presents.

I do a lot of online shopping and order almost all my clothes online as I don’t like to shop and am an impulse buyer. I have found I save money ordering online because I don’t buy a lot of stuff that I don’t need. Well, I ordered this denim jacket and it is my favorite all time purchase online ever. I put it on when it arrived, wore it all day, wore it out to the store and kept it on all evening. It will look good with just about any top I have and it is so comfortable. Great jacket for Spring. Plus I love all things with flowers on it. There are flowers on the front and back of this jacket. I wrote a great review for it at the online store.

I hope you are having a wonderful Valentine’s Day. No one buy you a Valentine? Buy yourself one. You deserve it. Just know I love you all that are reading this today and I really think about you and your lives and hope with all my heart that life is treating you well. Hugs and love. 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.

Signs of the Season

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I’m not in the mood to write a whole lot today, but I have a whole lot of pictures from the past few days and weeks that I want to post here, so here goes.

Our tree and presents beneath the tree.

These little birds live in this Snowball bush in the Summer, but it is only in the Winter when we can see them.

This little bird bit off more than he/she could chew and spent quite a bit of time trying to get this piece of corn chewed up and swallowed. I have been filling the feeders every day and every day the food is all gone within a few hours. Time for another trip to Rural King. We are having frigid temperatures here and they are going to stay around for a while.

A few of the things I made people for Christmas. Through the year I knit socks and when I would get a pair completed I put them in a sack in a bedroom in a closet upstairs and forgot about them. When I got ready to wrap presents I found I had knitted thirty pairs of socks!Enough for almost everyone to receive one or two and in some cases, three pair for gifts.

That has not stopped me from knitting, however.

Here is some new yarn I just received in the mail today alongside two more pair of socks I have knitted since Christmas. Maybe I will get fifty pair knitted this year.

I really love this yarn. I wanted to knit myself a pair of Christmas socks this year, but didn’t get it done. That yarn on the right is going to be next year’s Christmas socks for me, myself and I. I can’t wait to get started with it.

This is my drink of choice during the holidays.

A good cup of coffee with peppermint mocha cream. This is only sold during Christmas and I wait for it all year long.

David always gets me calendars for Christmas. Or rather, I pick them out and he pays for them. I especially love this one, Reading Women. I am a reading woman and this just caught my eye and the pictures inside are works of art with beautiful women reading books. It will hang in my shop which I am renovating this Spring. New paint, curtains and a complete clean out and when the weather gets warm, I am having a huge garage sale for one day to try to get rid of a lot of things I really don’t need or want anymore. I am putting it on a date on my new calendars, circling it and will hold myself to getting this done. It will be a lot of work. I really don’t like having garage sales, but it’s better people come and take stuff away rather than me having to haul it to Goodwill.

Christmas day was unusual this year and I didn’t have anyone here for dinner. The grandchildren came in the afternoon and opened their gifts. Besides the usual clothes and socks the boys got these.

Hoverboards! As soon as they opened them they were off sailing through the house. I was amazed how good they were on them. Some had had practice, but others hadn’t.

Our granddaughter didn’t get one as she got a lot of other things, but she was proficient on them, too, and I told her she needed one to get around college next year.

David enjoyed playing Santa. He no longer has his beard as he shaves it off immediately after Christmas. I tell him he looks twenty years younger without a beard and he does.

I am looking forward to the new year when David and I will be celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary all year. We have some vacations planned. One to Oklahoma to visit Pioneer Woman’s mercantile store. I can’t wait.

Happy New Year and may it hold blessings overflowing for you. Bye.

At Last, Fall

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Busy days around our house. Once Autumn gets here, it’s like a locomotive goes out of control and we speed through the days until Christmas. I have already been Christmas shopping. I know. I’m crazy, but I think about Christmas all year and what things I would like to give to people. It becomes a little bit obsessive sometimes.

I love the Fall, with its cooler temperatures, although for the past several days we have been in the nineties here in southern Indiana. So, of course, I choose those days to do a little outside painting. We are replacing boards on our back porch one board at a time. I stain the wood and David puts it down. I find painting relaxing as long as I’m not on a ladder and on beautiful days like today, I crank up talk radio and stain to my heart’s content. When these get done, I am going to paint some old fencing that David is going to use as woodwork around my shop windows and then…. I am planning on painting all the walls in the shop white. I’ve been looking at pictures on Facebook of rooms that are all white and for some reason, they appeal to me. Since my shop is pretty well, my shop, I can do anything I want to it and I want it all white and lace and quilts. When I get it all done, David is building me a new, larger work table so I can lay out my quilts on it instead of on the floor when I get ready to pin the layers together. I love having projects. When we don’t have any, I think up some.

Here are a few of the things that have been going on around our house these past few weeks.

Winds were blowing from the hurricanes down south. I hope those poor people are getting things done and getting their lives back together. The Caribbean Islands and Puerto Rico are having a really rough time. My mother-in-law lived in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands the year the last really bad hurricane came through and they were without electricity for quite some time. It shirred the palm trees and made a complete mess of the island. Not so sure I would want to live on an island now. Sounds like this hurricane was as bad, if not worse.

Loving the glow of the sun through the trees. I love the light of Autumn. It’s different than at any other time of year.

Closing the pool time. Doesn’t seem like we had a Summer. I know we did, but where did it go? I sold our hot tub last week since David and I rarely use it and it takes a lot of electricity and is just one more thing to take care of. It was fun, but it’s time to move on.

Reading some really good books. I love it when I find a new author who has written many books. I just read one about WW2 and the Italian Resistance. Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. It was hard to read in places because war is well, hell, and cannot be glossed over. This book is being made into a motion picture. I’m not sure I will be able to watch it. Saving Private Ryan had me so choked up most of the time I could hardly stand it.

Jan Karon has her new Mitford book out and I have it on my Kindle. Her books need to be read slowly so they will last longer, but I always hurry through them. I have read her entire series through at least three or four times. It’s like visiting with old friends when you read her books.

Enjoying the last of the Summer flowers. It won’t be long until the first frost and they will all be gone until next year. I have planted some more lilies and fox gloves so will look forward to seeing them when they bloom.

Picking pumpkins. I think we ended up with about fourteen. We gave some to our grandkids and I am decorating with the rest. Pumpkins are so much fun to grow. Very easy, really, although they take up a lot of room and grow over the fences and through gaps wherever they can reach.

My little vignette on our front porch.

The young chickens are starting to lay now. We get about two to three dozen eggs a week. I give some away and with some I made these….

Homemade noodles. I must say these were delicious. I think we will be having chicken and noodles for Thanksgiving this year instead of turkey since my family doesn’t like turkey all that well, and I don’t like all the leftovers.

Still knitting socks. I call these Café Au Lait. I love the colors and someone will be getting them sometime. Shhhhhhhh.

I have a quilt in the hoop and this is all I can show because of nosy people in my family.

And I bought this for the binding. I ordered more fabric today. I think I’m getting my quilting mojo back after a long period of sock knitting. I found the cutest pumpkin quilt pattern on a blog and ordered it and had to order some fabric so I could start it immediately despite the fact I have at least ten quilts that need finishing! If you are a quilter and fabriholic, you will understand this tendency to have to buy more fabric and start more quilts even though you have more than you can handle right at this moment.

My BFF sent David and me hats she had knitted for us. They are thick and soft and will be really warm this winter. Thank you, thank you, Carol. You are such a good friend. I didn’t get a picture of David’s but its blue with a white stripe.

As the days grow shorter….

and the nights grow cooler, and they will,

I light candles to make the house seem warmer.

Bake a cake for us to eat.

And think how blessed we are right now. It was a wonderful Summer but Autumn brings school activities at our grandchildren’s schools that we will attend, like Grandparents’ Day and Veteran’s Day celebrations, trips to King’s island with our older son and our daughter’s family and a Harvest Festival at our church where we provide games and candy for any children who want to come. It’s a fun night and lots of children show up.

So I intend to embrace Autumn with all it has to offer. Walks through the leaves, eating a new, crisp apple and baking pumpkin bars. It’s all good. Have a great day. Oh, and Molly sends you a big, wet kiss. Bye.

Through the Shadow and Back Again

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Here I am at last with something to tell you about some of my health issues. I feel like I took a slight detour with my life the last few weeks.

It wasn’t a detour I chose to take and it was rather worrisome despite all the prayers going up for me, but think I am on the other side. Knowing that millions of people suffer diseases all over the world much worse than anything I have ever experienced, I feel rather silly even discussing what was going on with me. As you read in my past post, I had a heart scare. A scare caused by something an ER doctor told me. I have had more pictures taken of my heart than I had taken of me during my wedding! My heart has been very photogenic the last few weeks!

I have spent weeks thinking I might have to have surgery or a stent or something done to my heart. Well, today was my visit to the cardiologist who pretty much told me my heart was in excellent condition, my arteries were clear, my heartbeat was strong and my lungs sounded great. Sooooo. All that worrying for nothing. I still have the winded feeling so don’t know why that is continuing. The Dr. told me to start a walking regimen. So that is what I will do. Plus she took me off one of my meds and halved another one. The fewer meds I have to take, the better, I always say. No more water pills that made me, well, make more trips to the bathroom than I would like.

Speaking of bathrooms, this arrived on our front porch this week.

The top for our bathroom cabinet. Finally. Today our contractor came with his helpers and a plumber and they finished my bathroom. So happy I can brush my teeth and wash my hands in our brand new sink. Now I have some decorating to do. When I get it all done, I will show you. I ordered a picture today to hang on a wall above the bathtub. I think you will think it’s appropriate when you see it.

To keep my mind busy, I kept knitting socks. I’m getting quite a pile of them.

And finishing this pair.

My grandson told me he wants to learn to knit so sometime this Summer I am going to teach him. He wants to knit socks too!

I have been adding to my stash of yarn just like I use to do with fabric. Honestly, I have not been near a sewing machine for months except to repair some things.

Self striping yarn. It’s like a box of chocolates. I don’t know which one to take out first.

This brown and tan looks so yummy.

Then there is this yarn. Varigated and oh, so pretty. I have a lot of socks planned.

Our garden is blooming and we added more lilies to it this year. There is a place called New Creation Lilies that is in southern Indiana and they have fields of beautiful lilies. We went down there the other day. It was pouring rain and I almost told David to turn around and go back home because I didn’t want to make the people have to go out in the rain to dig our lilies. You go out in the field and write down the lilies’ names you want and they dig them on the spot. It let up raining a little so we continued on. We walked around the fields under umbrellas. It was buy four get one free day and I very quickly picked five lilies as the rain was getting stronger again. We sat in a barn and were kept company by an old black lab while our lilies were being dug. Chickens walked around free range around us. It was such a neat atmosphere. I could have stayed there all day. I hope to go back next year on a sunny day.

I actually got these lilies at a little grocery store. I have divided these a few times and have them all over our garden.

Phlox.

Hollyhocks and larkspur. I don’t know what that bush is called behind the larkspur.

We sat out on our back porch the other day enjoying the garden and decided to start planning a little trip we want to take for our 49th wedding anniversary.

We got the atlas out and started dreaming. We have been in almost all the states except Hawaii and it’s becoming harder to decide where we want to go. Next year for our 50th anniversary we are planning a long trip, but don’t know where yet and we are going to Walt Disney World with our oldest son, his girl friend and our daughter and her husband and family for nine days. It’s going to be a busy year and we are planning now. I’ve always thought part of the fun of taking a trip is in the planning.

We may just go where the wind blows us. Who knows.

I want to thank all of you who said a prayer for me during my health scare. I believe your prayers were answered and for that I am very grateful to you and to God.

Here’s to good health, trip planning and lily fields. Bye.

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Snicklefritz

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

Category Archives: Knitting

Oh, Glorious Days

September, I Hardly Knew Ye

Once There Was A Summer

JUNE!!

Authors in the Family and Letter writing

Happy Valentine’s Day or How Being Sick for Three Days Really messed up the Amour

Year in Review

Signs of the Season

At Last, Fall

Through the Shadow and Back Again