A Day Out and Antiquing

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One day last week our daughter-in-love and her husband came to visit and take David and me to lunch. She is my son’s ex-wife, but we are still friends and she is the mother of my grandchildren so we keep in touch.   Anyway, they wanted to take us out to eat and asked where we wanted to go. I didn’t hesitate to say Cracker Barrel.  I don’t eat breakfast or lunch most days and usually am not hungry until mid afternoon, but I can eat at Cracker Barrel anytime because I can get French toast, which I love.

So off we went to Cracker Barrel.  I could not eat all my French toast, so I gave the last slice to David.  Then our friend could not eat all his bacon so he gave it to David.  David can eat a lot of food and still stays skinny. He ate his breakfast and parts of others’.  I just sit amazed that he can eat like that.

While on the way home we mentioned an antique store that would be interesting to go to so we went there next.  At this particular store, a lady has a booth where she sells fabric and other sewing things.  I always find some fabric there and I did that day.  I also found some other goodies.

I got these jars with what was inside them for under ten dollars. There are so many spools of perle cotton in the one jar it more than paid for me to get them.  The old clothespins will be used and I got the other jar because of the cute jar holder it sat in.

I bought this fabric which I will use to make bears.

I got this just because it was red and I am doing a lot of Christmas sewing right now.

David has been collecting buttons for years. He as thousands of them.  Jars full of them sit in my shop.  He found three more to add to his collection.

I enjoyed sorting through them to see what was there.  I needed eyes and button noses for my bears.  Did you ever sort through buttons when you were a child?  It was one of my favorite things to do. My mother had a button jar and I loved getting them out and sorting them.  I wish I had that jar today.  If you have children, give them a pile of buttons and some string and they will entertain themselves for a while.

I collect old books, mostly for children, and I found this very interesting one.  Written in the early 1900’s  what boys did then compared to what boys do now is astounding.

One chapter told boys how to build a log cabin from scratch.

Another showed how to make costumes for Halloween.

Or how to dress up like the “goblin man.”

There was a chapter on how to create your own circus.

And how to make the animals for the circus.

It is a very interesting book, but it makes me wonder how many boys today would want to or could make these things shown.  Boys leisure hours today seem to be spent on their cellphones or being in some sport or watching television.  I hope I’m wrong.

It was a fun outing and I hope we can do it again sometime.

I will see you on the other side of Easter.  Remember it’s not all about the bunny and the eggs, but about the risen Savior who died for every single one of us on the cross so that one day we all could be with Him in Heaven.    He arose the third day and that is what we are celebrating.  A happy and blessed Easter to you all. Bye.

 

 

Spring Has Sprung

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I love Spring. My favorite months of the year are March, April and May.  My birthday was in March and it was a good one as usual, but the whole month just flew by like every one of the others have done lately.  The flowers are appearing. We have daffodils all over our yard and the peonies are peeping up out of the ground and will be beautiful if Lucy and Sugar don’t dig them all up. They have already dug up a few of my flowers this year, but as I have always said, our back yard belongs to the dogs, I cannot complain when they do what dogs do.  One hole was so deep, if I had fallen in it I would have probably broken something or landed in China!

All the flowering trees and bushes are ready to burst out and if we have a few warm days, they will.  And I must get out and enjoy every minute because their beauty won’t last long.  As for beauty……..

My Christmas cactus has surprised me and bloomed once again and has a few more buds on it.

Behind the cactus is the poinsettia I almost killed by forgetting to water, but now it’s got new leaves and I’m going to transplant both plants into larger pots with new soil in hopes that by next Christmas they will be beautiful again.

I spend many hours of most of my days in my shop sewing for my Christmas sale.  I keep thinking of more and more things I want to make.  And the fabric I ordered way before Christmas finally arrived. David had told me he would buy fabric for me for Christmas, so I pre-ordered some and it’s finally here.

I must have really loved this because I ordered four yards.  It will make nice aprons.

I am going to make pillows for my sofa that sets in a room I sit in and do handwork and I am redecorating the whole room this year.  We are going to paint it a pale green and I’m covering the sofa and a chair with white duck slipcovers.  I was going to buy a new sofa this year as our old one is over twenty-five years old, but it is still in good condition and it’s cheaper to slipcover right now. I bought a new rug also.  I hope we can get everything done before hot weather when I want to be outdoors swimming and playing with the dogs.

Anyway, back to fabric..

More aprons will be make from this.

I love this, but haven’t a clue what to do with it yet.

I love all things British and this is the first fabric like this I’ve seen for a while.  I’ll find a good use for it.

This is more Christmas material I will use as backing on small quilts.

This I will use to make a skirt if I can find the time.

Anything with chickens on it, I love.  This is the cutest fabric I’ve seen in a long time.  I just wish I had bought more of it.

This is coordinating fabric.  More chickens.  I never thought I’d become a chicken lady, but I have in the past few years.  My daddy raised hundreds of chickens when I was growing up. They provided us with lots of eggs that my mother cooked with and also sold to a little grocery store near us.  We would have big baskets of eggs sitting in the kitchen waiting to be washed.  The chickens also provided us our Sunday dinners.  I would watch my daddy wring off the chicken’s head, yes, wring off, it’s a technique, and the hen body would flop all over. Me, being a very curious  and rather devilish child, found this rather funny.  Not so much for the chicken.  After the chicken was dead, I would help my daddy pluck the feathers off and he would then take it to my mother to cut up and prepare it to fry the next day.    In later years, my mother taught me how to dress a chicken.  It really isn’t hard and I found it very interesting too.  My mother usually prepared two chickens each Sunday. She would get up early and fry the chicken, go to church and come home and finish preparing the meal.  I want to tell you, that was the best fried chicken I have ever eaten in my entire life. Was it because the meat was so fresh or the way my mother prepared it, I don’t know.  But it was so good everyone wanted to sit at her table and eat it.

Back to fabric..

I REALLY wish I had bought four yards of this.  I love it.

More sewing fabric.  Quilting fabric started to be big back in the 80’s and 90’s. When I first started sewing quilts in the 70’s, it wasn’t easy finding good quality quilt fabric.  We had a fabric store and we sold lots of fabric, but the industry seems to have grown by leaps and bounds since then.  It seems ideas for fabric have not run out and more and more cute fabric is being produced. The new designers have really outdone themselves.  I use to know who all the fabric designers were as I bought the fabric for our store, but there are some really talented men and women producing some beautiful fabrics now.

I use to make these little rabbits and sell them.

I still use them in my Easter displays.

This tray holds some of the toys my children received in their Easter baskets back in the 70’s and 80’s.  Antiques now!  Ha!

I wrote that I would show you some things I am making for my sale. But I will only show you little bits and pieces right now.

Pieces of something I am working on.  I have a bed piled high with things I have already made since last Christmas.  I sew three or four hours every day and I have gotten a lot of things made.  This is all I will show you right now, but be assured, there are lots of other things I’ve made or will make before December 3rd, 2022.

Do any of you watch Home Town?   It’s a show where a young couple redo and restore old houses in Laurel, Mississippi and it’s become one of my favorite shows.  You can find it on HGTV.  Anyway, on one of the show, they were demolishing a kitchen and on one of the cabinet doors, Erin, one of the stars of the show, found some recipes taped and she saved them and had one of the cakes baked from a recipe.  It was called Miss Dot’s Pound Cake. She contacted Miss Dot and Miss Dot baked one for her.  It looked so good.  The pound cake and Miss Dot have become rather famous. You can look up Miss Dot and the recipe online.

I made Miss Dot’s pound cake the other day and it did not disappoint.

The recipe makes a very dense and delicious cake that needs no icing although you could ice it if you want to.   It didn’t last long.

And because David and I love our desserts, I made a pineapple upside down cake a few days later.

It, too, did not last long.

Today David and I went antiquing with some good friends, but I will share that with you another day.

Happy Spring.  Bye.

 

Work in Progress

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I don’t have much to write about right now. I am buried in fabric and my brain is loaded with ideas that want to come out.  I will try to get some pictures of some things I am working on although I can’t show much as it’s all for my Christmas sale in December.  I have a bed already piled high with things I have sewn and/or quilted.  I’ve become rather obsessed, I must say and it’s a good obsession because it keeps me off the streets.

Today I went through yet another plastic box of fabrics and found some I really don’t remember every buying, but I liked them so they will be used.  I also found a lot of the fabric I bought when we were in Alaska.  Really bright, vibrant colors.  I need to incorporate them into a quilt.    As you can see, it doesn’t take a whole lot to keep me entertained.  Just give me a box of fabric and a sewing machine and I’m off to the races.

I will try to get some pictures next time and maybe not be so boring. But life is mostly boring with a little excitement thrown in, isn’t it?  Although I can honestly say I have never been bored so I must be the one causing the boredom in others!  Oh, well. Bye.

It’s a Miracle!

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So three days after calling the pest control man our skunk was caught.  Notice how I called it our skunk.  It was beginning to feel like a permanent, rather stinky member of the family for a while.  You know that saying guests who stay longer than three days start to smell like fish?  Well, this guy or gal did not smell like fish. I would have welcomed that.

David came upstairs before he left for work to tell me not to go out on the front porch as the skunk was in the cage.  I asked him to take some pictures if he could.  So he did and did not get sprayed in the process.

How can such a beautiful animal smell so badly?   Look at that fur.  Women would love to have a coat made from fur like that.   Glad they don’t have, though.  It looks much better on the skunk.   Poor little thing looked so sad, but a little angry which is why I did not go out to see it.

So the skunk saga was ended, I hope, although there is a chance there may be more under there.  The house doesn’t smell like skunk when you come in from outside and that’s a big plus.  Did I tell you the pest control man’s name?   I didn’t?  It was Mr. MIracle.  How about?  He performed a miracle for us because if David or I had tried to get rid of that skunk it was almost guaranteed one of us would have been sprayed.  He came, threw a cover over the cage, picked it up and off he went.  I called him later and asked him what he did with the skunk. He lives out in the country and he said he let it go.  I wonder if skunks have a homing instinct like dogs? Will that skunk return?  I hope not. He said to call him if we notice another one under there.

 

And another miracle happened.  Or at least I like to think of it as a miracle.  After Christmas of 2020, I cut the leaves off an Amaryllis I had grown.  It had been so beautiful.  I didn’t know if it would rebloom again, but I put it in an upstairs bedroom and watered it sparingly all year when I thought of it.   I actually had completely forgotten it for months and then just the other day I went into that bedroom for something and there it was.

The amaryllis had grown tall and bloomed again and I almost missed it!

It was beautiful. So now I will trim the leaves again and mistreat it for another year and see if it will bloom again.  Miracles.  Believe in them or not, they happen.  Bye.

Stink, Stank, Stunk

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A few days ago I woke up and I thought David was cooking breakfast, but it smelled really bad.  I got up and closed the bedroom door and went back to sleep.  Later, when I woke up again, I went downstairs and asked him what he had cooked.  He said he hadn’t cooked anything. “What is that I smelled?”  I asked him.

All day long I kept smelling something bad.  Sometimes it smelled like something was hot and was burning.  I have a very strong sense of smell so anything different in our house, I notice it right away.  This smell really was bothering me. I was worried that maybe the furnace was getting too hot, but David said it wasn’t that. David has no sense of smell to speak of so he did not notice what I was smelling.

Later I was outside and came up on our back porch and there it was.  The smell, but this time it smelled like skunk.  I was worried the dogs had run a skunk under the deck.  But, no, there was no skunk there, but David did some searching around the house and found what looked like burrowing under our front porch and it smelled like skunk. That’s all we needed. A family of skunks under the house!  He said it looked like something was living under there.

Since we built the new front porch we have had two kitten litters from a feral cat and a woodchuck take up residence under there.  This was by far the worst occupant we have had under there.  The first kitten litter David caught the kittens and mother cat, who scratched him up pretty badly.  We managed to find homes for all of them except the mother cat who got away.  The second litter, the mother cat got hit by a car and we think the kittens died under there, we are not sure.  The woodchuck also got hit by a car so that problem went away. But now, we have skunks!

David did some searching online for pest control people and he had a man answer who said he would come out and try to catch the skunk or skunks.  He came out and brought his trap and set it up.  He was a retired minister and a jack of all trades now. I wonder if he had ever caught a skunk before.   The first night he caught nothing so he moved the trap to another location and still no skunk trapped.   This time something ate the marshmallows he had put in the trap. Marshmallows!  Who would have thought of that to catch a skunk?

Remember the cartoon Pepe Lapew?   He was an amorous skunk who was constantly going after this cat.  He had a French accent and was very debonaire.  I thought he was sooo funny.  You could always tell his odor put off the cat.  Well, the skunk under our porch is putting me off.

The worst smell is in our basement. David says there’s a tunnel under there something has dug.

So far no luck catching the skunk.  I’m hoping we get it gone before porch sitting weather!  Bye.

Dinner and a Show

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Yesterday was my birthday and it was a very nice one, indeed.  I told David I did not want a cake as I wanted to get tiramisu at the Italian restaurant we were going to.  So, instead, I awoke in the morning with fresh coffee brewed and Boston creme donuts with two candles on them with the number 7 and 3.   I let you guess how old that made me!    So right there the sugar intake started.   Even though I wanted to have less sugar.

David said I should do whatever I wanted to do on my birthday and I know this sounds boring to many, but I spent the afternoon sewing upstairs.  Sewing and listening to talk radio puts me in my happy place.  But it wasn’t to be for long. David came upstairs and said, “You need to come see something.”  Now whenever David says something like this to me, I never know if I should expect the Queen of England to be at the door or that the dogs have found a new toy.  I never know.   “Is it company?”  I asked since I wasn’t dressed for company.  But it wasn’t company.  I came downstairs into the dining room and there was a beautiful vase of flowers and a large box of Whitman’s Sampler on the table.  “Do you have a boyfriend? David asked me.  “I don’t know.” I replied.  You would think I would know.   I read the note on the flowers that wished me a Happy Birthday and called me Mom so I knew it was somebody who called me Mom.  So that narrowed it down.  They had not signed their name.

And more sweets!  I was not going to eat sweets except for the Tiramisu, but I ate two chocolates, one being a caramel which, while I was chewing it, made me remember this was exactly how I pulled the bridge off a tooth a few weeks ago while eating a Sugar Daddy.  “Idiot,” I said to myself, but I didn’t do any harm this time except for adding a few hundred calories to my day.  The day I wanted to eat tiramisu.

My daughter-in-love called me to wish me a Happy Birthday and she said she had not sent the flowers and candy.

My very best friend from school where we went from first grade to graduation together, called  from Florida where she and her husband were spending a few weeks.  We had a nice talk.  She and I can get together after years and it’s like we have never been apart.  We went through a lot of things together while growing up and she will always be my friend.

I received a few cards one of which is from a lady in my church who always includes the most wonderful prayer for the recipient of the card.  She is so awesome and her prayers are so heartfelt.  I cherish them when I get them. She had sent David a birthday card and prayer also.  She hasn’t been to church for a long time because of Covid and she is not in the best of health.

Later we went to my favorite Italian restaurant to eat. We went kind of early because I was hungry having already eaten a donut and two pieces of candy!   We had the cutest waitress. She was tiny and elfin like with short hair and the prettiest eyes.  She wore two rings in her nose which kind of bothered me, but it’s her business. I don’t know why people wear rings in their noses. The only ones that wore rings in their noses when I was growing up was an old bull we had or the pigs.   So I have never had the desire to wear a ring there.  But if you do so, it’s your business and if it makes you happy.  Anyway, she took our order and was very efficient in getting us our drinks and bread.  We were having a good time talking while I was facing the kitchen where I like to watch the cooks as they toss the spaghetti and cook on the grill. But suddenly I saw smoke coming from there and all the cooks and waiters and waitresses stopped what they were doing and watched what was happening as one of the cooks struggled to get the fire under control.  “The kitchen is on fire,”  I told David and he turned around to look. The smoke was billowing.  What a show!  No one was running for the door, so I thought it couldn’t be dangerous.    As fast as it began, the fire was out and everyone, the cooks, the waiters and waitresses all disappeared.  David said, “It must have been the spaghetti and sausage I ordered.”  We laughed and the manager came to our table and said it was going to be a while before we got our meal and we were okay with that.  By that time the restaurant was filling up with people and no cooks in the kitchen.  Later our waitress came to the table to apologize that our meal would be late and I said, “It’s not your fault.”  So we waited about an hour and the cooks finally came back and started cooking again and we got our meals and let me tell you, the chicken penne gorgonzola was delicious. It was such a huge serving, I took a lot of it home in two cartons and ate it today.  I also ordered the Tiramisu to go as I was full.  We were there for two hours and it seemed much shorter because we were having such a good time. Then I went home and ate another donut.  I know.  I was lost by that time.

Today I finished the chicken penne and ate the Tiramisu and it was worth the wait.

Our daughter called us that night and it was she and her husband who had sent the flowers and candy.  So mystery solved.  I am so blessed.

It was an amazing birthday and I look forward to more, but I don’t know how they can be any better than this one was.

Here’s to Happy Birthdays, may you have good ones always.  Bye.

 

A Time to Celebrate

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After my last post perhaps you wonder if I’m still around.   After having my leg banged by the pups, it looked pretty bad for a few days, but now it’s healing well and I never had any pain.  David’s arm is doing better. Today he shoveled out the chicken house, so I guess he feels okay to do it.

This is my birthday week so we are celebrating.   David made me some more flower boxes since I just ordered 21 packages of flower seeds.  Yes, I went overboard, as usual and I always am looking for places to plant flowers.   I had a really nice flower garden in raised beds last year and this year I will have more!

So I’m going to make this short today.  My days are so busy sewing, sewing, sewing with my Christmas show and sale in December which seems like a long way away, but with the way this year has already gone, it will be here before we know it.  I don’t sew as much in warmer months as I like to be outside so I’m trying to get as much done as I can before it warms up. I’ve made about fifteen pillows, a couple of small quilts, a table runner, a few pot holders and twenty or so pin cushions and that’s just a start of what I want to make.  I have aprons, more quilts, more pot holders and mug warmers in mind.  I just make what sounds like fun to me.  I will be giving sneak peaks through the coming months at what will be for sale.

So I will see you on the other side of my birthday. We are going out for the day and then dinner and Tiramisu, one of my favorite desserts will be on the menu.   Bye.

Accidents Happen.

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Accidents happen to people all the time. Some are silly and not harmful. Some are terrible and cause much pain and suffering.  I’ve had a few accidents in my life. None life threatening, but painful, nonetheless.    Two of our grandsons were in a car accident right before Christmas when someone ran a stop sign and broadsided them.  One grandson had a concussion and the other one got his feet cut by walking on broken glass from the accident while he was stocking footed.  I was so thankful because it could have been a lot worse. They were going to get pizza with a friend.  A last minute decision and their mother didn’t even know they had gone until she heard about the accident and found out her kids were in it!    A parent’s worse nightmare.  I know.  That’s another story.  This past week was a week for accidents at our house.

We have had some ice around the house for the past few days, so David has been taking care of the chickens for me because I really don’t have good shoes or boots for walking on ice.  He’s been doing so good, then one day he slipped and fell.  He came in and told me he had fallen and I told him he should call the doctor, but he refused.

The next day came and David decided maybe he should call the doctor and he went to see him and was sent for x-rays.  Later that day the doctor had seen the x-rays and said he wasn’t a technician, but he believed David’s arm was just deeply bruised.  Today, several days after, David showed me the bruise on his arm and it’s pretty bad.  He’s been in a lot of pain, but he still lifted chicken feed and other heavy things the other day. Now I feel guilty that he has to do this for me.  So now I’m wondering if his arm is broken.  I think he needs to see the doctor again, but he’s stubborn.

I can’t say much about being stubborn. Forward a few days after David’s accident, I was working in my shop with all the pups sleeping in their crates and it was time to put the puppies, who are large dogs now, outside.  Usually I have Lucy and Sugar sit and wait until I open the cage door, but that day I just started opening the door and they lunged for it and slammed it against my shin, really hard.  I thought to myself, “I’m going to have a bruise.” After I got all three dogs outside I rolled up my pants leg to see the damage and to my astonishment, blood was gushing out and running down my leg soaking my stocking.  I looked around for something to stop the bleeding. Luckily I had just brought a new roll of paper towels out there so I grabbed a wad of them and held them against my leg. Immediately they were soaked in blood. Oh, no!   So I grabbed some more and held them tightly on the wound.  Then I took some torn fabric and tied it like a tourniquet around my thigh and tied a few paper towel sheets onto the wound.  I was so afraid I’d bleed out and David would find me dead on the floor in a pool of blood.  I sat on a chair we have in my shop and put my leg up and waited for David to get home.

While sitting there I thought I should go inside and make supper. So I did.  My leg was still bleeding, but not nearly as much.  I got supper ready and when David walked in and he saw me he said, “What did you do!”  I proceeded to tell him and he looked at the wound and said, “That needs some stitches,”  and I said, “Nope.”  I’m tough. It will heal and maybe I’ll have a scar, but who will see it?  So I didn’t get stitches.

I’ve had stitches before.  Many years ago when our boys were little, we took a trip to Colorado Springs with  them and my parents.  We pulled our camper behind and we all slept in it.  When we got to Colorado Springs,  we were setting up camp and the windows were rolled out and as I walked around the camper I hit the corner of my eye on the window.  My mother said I needed stitches so David and I went to the hospital and I got stitches and had a black eye the rest of our vacation.  People would look at me funny and I wondered if they thought I had been hit by some person.

Another rather gruesome accident I had concerned a piece of driftwood I brought back from Michigan one year. It was in the shape of a dragon, but the bad thing about it was it had a huge spike sticking out of it.  I kept it out by our above ground pool for years and no one ever got hurt on it. Then the day came I was working around the pool and took a step by the driftwood and ran the spike right up into my lower leg.  It was in pretty far and there was no one around to help me, so I pulled it out.  It was pretty awful.  I cleaned the wound and bandaged it and when David saw it he said, “You should have stitches.”  But we had planned to drive to Cincinnati to a Reds game that very night, so I said, “No!”  and we went to the game,  I limped the whole evening, but I never went to the doctor and my leg healed and I have no scar there which is amazing.

I’ve had enough accidents to know to keep my tetanus shots up to date.

So David has worn a sling all week and I’m keeping my wound covered with a large bandaid and we keep on doing what we do every day.

I could tell you of more accidents I have had happen to me or to others, but I think I’ve told enough about them right now.

Have you every had an accident?   Here’s to safety first.  Bye.

Snow Days and Sew Days

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We finally got snow!  Wonderful, beautiful, white, shining snow!  I was so happy. Quite joyful, really.  I know all you who have to get out and shovel and try to drive in snow weren’t as pleased as I was to see snow, but we haven’t had a substantial snow in soooo long.  I was really hoping for a blizzard and at one time as I watched the snow blowing off the roof of my shop and saw the snow so thick at times it was hard to see very far, but it didn’t last long and after a day it was over.

I’ve been wanting a day like this for a long time.

And looking outside my shop, I was so filled with happiness. Nothing is cozier than being inside warm and snug and watching the snow fall.

But we didn’t stay inside all the time while we still had snow. We went to the hills to watch grandsons sled down them.

Driving back roads, through woods and over hill and dale, we finally came to the hill where the grandsons wanted to sled.

Playing with snow is so much fun.

A lake lies at the foot of the hill and it was frozen solid.

Our grandsons and their father walked out on it. I was a little worried that it wasn’t solid enough, but our son-in-law grew up near the Adirondacks in New York and is well aware of how thick ice should be to walk on.

Ready to go.

Dad and son coming down!

Watch out!

 

Our daughter.  She is so photogenic.

Me, not so much.  I am always caught in the most horrible poses.  I look like I could bite someone here and I was really very happy.  I brought hot chocolate and marshmallows for everyone to drink.  Please, look away from the picture now before you turn to stone!  Some day I will show you a good picture of me. I’m really not that scary.

The snow will not last, sad to say. It’s supposed to be almost fifty degrees tomorrow.

We have done so much already this Winter.  We went to see a Van Gogh exhibit where you are immersed in the pictures. It was wonderful.

People sat around on the floors and watched as the pictures changed.

The pictures seemed to melt onto the floor.

I wore my Van Gogh shirt with these irises on it.  So I blended in well.

Van Gogh was a prolific painter, but he sold very little of his work.  He died a pauper.

At one point he was into chalk drawings.  The drawings appeared to be drawn on the floor at one point.  Some of the pictures came to life, it seemed.  Birds flew. Thunder sounded.  It was all amazing and wonderful.  I could have sat there all day and looked and looked. There was so much to see.  If you get a chance to see this, do.

I took one art class when I was in college and I liked it, but I have never been artistic in this way.  My art is in my quilts.

Speaking of which.   I mentioned I was hoping to have a Christmas sale this year so I have been very busy in my shop making things.

This is what my table looks like right now in my shop.  When I am working on a project fabric gets flung from here to there as I look for just the right fabric piece I need.

I have been making pillows.  I made several of these for Christmas and they were a hit.  I’m also making pillows of my own design.   I plan to make lots of pillows, aprons, pin cushions, pot holders,  small quilts, table runners and anything else I can think of to make.

And because I have been sewing a lot and because you NEVER have enough fabric when you are a quilter, I ordered more.  The line I ordered from is called She Who Sews.

I am absolutely in love with this fabric.   David ordered me a bunch of it for Christmas and I just got it this week.  A  late Christmas present.

Here are some of the other pieces in it.

Each piece has a Bible verse hidden in it. Can you find the one here?

I love, love, love this!

Believe it or not and I’m sure you believe it now, I have ordered more fabric from another company and am waiting for it as it was a pre-order also.  This company sends its fabric all wrapped up in this.

Tissue paper.  I love when companies give that little extra service that makes you feel they care.  This is a great company also if you are looking for fabric.

David got a couple of puzzles for Christmas from the Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

Winter and Fall. He completed them both in record time so I ordered him the Spring one.

And he finished it in a couple of days so he went looking in our closets for another puzzle and found this one.

Different quilt patterns.

Which was only 500 pieces and he finished it in a day and a half.  I’m going to sell this one since he’s done it.    I got my dining table back now and he’s going to have to find something else to do!

I had to buy this book.

It is a facsimile of Edith Holden’s diary she wrote in the early part of the 1900’s. She wrote about the flowers and animals all around her and did water colors of many.  She was an exquisite artist and married a sculptor later in life. She lost her life tragically while searching along a riverbank for some more things to draw, fell in the river and drowned.  She has left us this wonderful  book of her drawings and writings along with poetry and latin names of most of the things she drew.  She was very intelligent.

To be able to draw so beautifully is such a blessing.

Each page is a treasure.   She left us something wonderful to read and beautiful puzzles to do.

February is going as fast as January did so I will be keeping very busy in my shop until warm weather and then it will be time to get back outside and plant flowers again.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. You are loved so very much by the very One who made you.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

January Good Times

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January has always been the month I just wish would go away. Other than having David’s birthday in it, it’s always been such a cold, miserable month, but this January?  It’s been fairly decent weatherwise.  Not much sleet, snow or ice to speak of.  Today we were outside playing with the dogs and I did not feel cold at all which is strange for me as I am always cold in the Winter.  I wish you could watch Lucy playing fetch. She is so engrossed in the process, you cannot pet her or anything because she is so centered on getting that ball!   Maybe I’ll try to make a video of her sometime and show you because it really is hilarious.  I call her our athletic child because she really is good at catching the ball in midair.  She just has not learned how to give it up easily once she has it.   I really believe she could compete in those dog shows where the dogs run and leap off  into the air above water and catch the ball in midair. Lucy could do that!   Sugar likes to catch the ball, too, but she’s not near as excited about it as Lucy is and Molly holds her own even though she’s a few years older than the pups.

I got David two puzzles for Christmas  called  The Country Diary of and Edwardian Lady. One is of Winter flora and fauna and one is of Autumn.  They are so beautiful and David has already put them both together so I told him I would order him the Spring and Summer ones for his birthday. I looked up Edith Holden, who is the artist for the water colors for these puzzles,  and she was  quite the artist in her time. I can’t imagine sitting down and drawing such beautiful pictures of animals, bird and vegetation.  It reminds me of Beatrix Potter who did the same in her time, but she wrote children’s books and put her water colors  in them.  I guess during the time these ladies were growing up there was not a whole lot women were expected to do but keep house and raise children or paint or sew.  But they took their talents and made something wonderful from them for which millions of us are very glad they did.  I will try to have pictures of the puzzles on my next blog or you can see them and order them, if you wish, on Amazon.

One of my presents for Christmas this year were tickets to go see the Van Gogh immersion show that is being shown at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I actually cried when I saw the tickets because I had seen it was coming, but didn’t think I’d be able to go.  There will be a lot of walking, so we are borrowing our daughter’s old wheelchair and David will wheel me through it.   I still cannot walk long distances although I am getting a little better, but there will be a lot of walking at this show.  You walk through Van Gogh’s pictures that surround you from every side. I cannot wait.  I bought a new tunic that is of Van Gogh’s Irises painting and I will wear it and I will be immersed into the picture! HA!

I have been busily sewing in my shop. I’ve made six more pillows and a small quilt and have several more cut out.  I have so many ideas of things I would like to sell at my craft show next Fall.  I plan to finish a few quilts and lots of little things such as potholders and Christmas stockings and pillowcases, etc.   I ordered some new fabric from the line called She Who Sews and I have so many ideas for it.  I love this line and plan to order more if it’s available. It’s been very popular, I’ve noticed.  I had the She Who Sews wall calendar in my shop last year and got a new 2022 calendar for Christmas.

We got the nicest thank you note from one of our youngest grandsons thanking us for his Christmas presents.  We thought it was so nice and what was so cute was he addressed the envelope to Grandpa and Grandma. No names, just the address and we got it.  I’m sure the postman smiled about that.

I really do hope we get one good snow before Winter is through.  One that covers everything in white marshmallow heaps, but doesn’t stay on too many days.  We haven’t had much snow the last few Winters so we are due one.

Hope your January is going well wherever you are. Bye.