I left so much unsaid and no pictures in my last couple of blogs. So this blog I will try to fill in the pieces much like the puzzle my husband is doing right now. David got a couple of puzzles for Christmas and he finished them both in record time so he rooted around in one of our closets to see if there was one he would like to put together and he found a Gone With the Wind one I don’t remember ever having. We have another one that he has done, but this one is a 2,000 piece puzzle that is becoming a little harder to put together. It has taken over our entire dining room table.
Gone With the Wind is my very favorite movie and this puzzle has a few scenes from it that are memorable.
This is one of the Christmas puzzles that has been done and put away already.
This is a puzzle made from wooden pieces cut into very interesting shapes. David said it was the hardest puzzle he ever put together mainly because it didn’t have straight outside pieces like most puzzles. He always puts the outside together first most times, but not this time. It is a pretty puzzle, though.
I painted all my grandchildren’s pictures with paint by number pictures I ordered online. You send them a picture and in six to eight weeks they send you a canvas with the picture printed on it with the numbers of the colors to paint and all the paints needed to finish it. I really loved doing these paintings and I think they all liked them.
One grandson plays on the Lacrosse team at Taylor University and I painted this of him. It is not done in this picture, thus the white splotches.
This is our one granddaughter and her husband. The picture was taken last Christmas and it was the very first picture I painted by number. That shirt of his has about twenty different colors in it even though it looks like only three or four and took me so long to paint. I have a rule now, no more plaid shirts in my pictures. The same goes for backgrounds that have a lot of trees in them. But it was a learning experience. I already know what I am going to paint next.
I painted this boy with his dog, but I cannot find the picture on my computer at the moment. This would make a nice paint by number picture, though.
I always think of January as a time to rest after all the holiday uproar. It begins at Halloween, through Thanksgiving into Christmas and the new year and it’s nonstop. I always wish there was at least a month between the holidays, but January has nothing but David’s birthday which is pretty low key. I baked him a cake and took him out for dinner. He is three quarters of a century old now. Wow. I never thought I’d be married to an old man, but then, he never though he’d be married to an old woman. Honestly, it seems such a short time from our I dos to this time in our lives. You know the saying, “grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.” I don’t know if it’s the best, but it isn’t bad and I am glad we have made it this far. David still works and I have my hobbies and animals to keep me busy.
Speaking of hobbies, this is what I have made since Christmas.
Autumn Leaves designed by Kathleen Tracy. She had a sew along and I liked this so much in blues and browns, I made two.
I have made two sampler quilts using this book by Kathleen Tracy. All her blocks are four and a half inches and there are seventy-two of them in this quilt, plus a center medallion. My first one was made with reproduction fabrics, my second in Christmas colors and now I am working on a brown and blue one.
I love these two colors together.
Some of the fabric I am using is from the line of fabric, Hibernation, which has little animals in it asleep for the Winter. I love it so much.
And I am still knitting socks although I don’t plan to make so many this year. Everyone got a pair at Christmas.
This yarn is called Fiesta by Abiyarns. She dyes all her yarns and has some wonderful combinations.
I love to knit and I knitted a few hats for Christmas this year that were very popular. I cannot just sit and watch tv, I have to be doing something with my hands and knitting seems to work for me so I probably won’t be stopping soon. I am hoping we still have some wintry weather where I can stay inside and work on my projects, because as soon as it starts warming up, it’s garden time again and I have more time and better weather to play outside with the pups. We have had such dreary weather the past couple of weeks and it has rained almost every day. I look forward to seeing some sun this week.
Something else will be coming to our house this year, I hope. I saw an ad for Yoderbilt green houses on my Facebook page and have been doing some research on them. They have a Facebook page and you can also see them on Youtube where they tell you how to set up your greenhouse, among other things. I have wanted one for years and I do believe this is the year. We are getting our house painted this year, also so I don’t want the greenhouse delivered until after that is done. So much to look forward to. We don’t do many big trips any longer so we feather our nest and try to make our surroundings happy places to be. You can do it too. Pick something you love and organize things for it and surround yourself with only things that comfort you.. Throw out the old, as I have been trying to do, but I have so much old stuff. I refuse to allow my house to get cluttered. Whenever I feel it is, I watch an episode of Hoarders and I am soon cleaning and throwing stuff away. We all have too much stuff, really. We spend the first half of our lives acquiring stuff and the last half trying to get rid of it. So, here I am, going to buy a greenhouse which I will probably fill with stuff. I have already told David our Christmas tree is going in it this year. There are so many pictures on Facebook of greenhouses all decked out for Christmas and I want to do that, too! So, you see, it never ends, no matter how old you get. But you cannot take any of it with you, so be sure your family knows what they get when you die.
I baked homemade rolls yesterday. I wish you could smell them when they first come out of the oven and that is the very best time to eat them, too!
With the same recipe, I made cinnamon rolls and I didn’t skimp on the icing. Oh, but it’s good with a cup of coffee. I don’t know who invented coffee and sweet rolls and donuts to eat with it, but God bless them. It’s the best tastes together in the world as far as I am concerned.
Hope you are keeping warm and safe where you live. We had a really cold, cold spell last week and then when it got up into the thirties, it felt almost warm. I saw where Florida has been cold, too. And they are not prepared for it. Until next time, have a Happy Valentine’s Day. Hug those you love and give your sweetheart an extra big hug and kiss. Bye.