Project Room

I have been working on organizing and cleaning my project room for the past couple days. I am much more creative when my room is neat and tidy. The room can be viewed by anyone standing at my kitchen sink so I really wanted to get it into shape by the beginning of the new year. On December 21 I showed a photo of that room in all its gift wrapping mess (I'm sure there is a way to link to that photo, but I can't figure it out). Today is the “after” photo. Not only did I take care of surface stuff, but I cleaned out a couple cupboards and filled a bag to take to the dump I tend to keep way to much “stuff” and have a hard time getting rid of anything… Now, on to the kitchen to begin the undecorating process!

Snow

It snowed tonight and I took a photo outside my sunroom door when I let the dogs out. I didn't actually venture out myself but I couldn’t resist a photo with the snow hanging on the trees and everything covered in white. I’m not sure how long this all will last but it was very pretty tonight and I took a few minutes and watched it come down and enjoyed the peacefulness of it all! I love snow!

A Day to Lounge!

When I was in my 20's I worked at a university and it always closed between Christmas and New Year's Day. I looked forward to and loved that week off. A lot of my friends were home that week and we often stayed up late and caught up on life. I am a night person and loved that time to stay up late and sleep-in as long as I wanted. I could just lounge around without a care in the world. Just the way my daughter spends her vacation time, doing whatever she wants without a thought to anything else going on around her.

How I long for a couple of days with no responsibilities to read blogs and drink tea or do what ever I want while i finish up the leftover Christmas goodies in anticipation of the New Year. So today I made a cup of tea and relaxed a few minutes. Instead of grabbing a mug from the cupboard, I got out one of my tea cups and made an event of it. Instead of a few minutes I'd really like a few days of nothingness.... guess I'll keep dreaming!

Christmas Brunch

I have become an avid blog reader during the past few weeks. I just love seeing the beautiful homes and I have really enjoyed seeing how they have been decorated for Christmas. I read blogs of decorators (shabby cottage style), and crazy quilters mostly. I think it would be so cool to have the talent of the various artists that I read about.

I am going to be working on my blogging skills and most importantly my photography skills this coming year. The light in my home is mostly wrong and when I use a flash I seem to burn the photograph! I have a problem seeing with my eyes. I wanted to take a photo of my table before our brunch on Christmas Day so I put everything on the table and grabbed my camera thinking I was ready to photograph a pretty table. As you can see my daughter has already removed her frozen fruit slush and put two pieces of toast on her plate. Apparently she used the paper towel that is also on the table to carry the toast in because the paper towel was not part of the tablescape. I used the green overlay as a last minute attempt to add some color to the white dishes and off white table cloth, but I neglected to iron it, hmmmm. Of course I never noticed any of that until today when I downloaded pictures onto my computer.

So, as I think of New Year’s Resolutions this year one of them will be to improve my “eye” for taking photos! Anyone else making New Year’s Resolutions?

Christmas Festivities

We had a lot of fun on Christmas this year. My sister Lindy was here from Connecticut and her daughter Megan is staying here during her semester break so I had a Christmas brunch with just the 5 of us. Then we went to Al’s mother’s to visit in the afternoon and came back here and put lasagna in the oven for the Kline family later Christmas night.

My niece took some family photos of us but didn’t realize that you have to press the shutter slowly so that it focuses…so I can’t show those… since I was cooking and trying to get everything out on the table for the buffet dinner I forgot to take photos. Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me? I am a scrapbooker so you would think that I would remember to take photos! Here is one after everyone had eaten and I remembered the camera! My nephew Jason and another nephew's wife, Emily are on this photo. I served the food buffet style and I had tables set up in the dining room as well as the sun room and living room.

Meg invited a friend over later that evening and we played Cranium which was also fun.

Two more Days!!!

I made a trip today to the grocery store for what I thought would be the last time before Christmas…then I found out that I would be having 4 more for dinner, and I noticed that Molly ate some of my lettuce tonight for her supper… uh that was for a salad on Christmas, oh and I forgot the meat for the lasagna so…one more trip to the grocery store and I should be done.

I did a lot of gift wrapping today and actually finished that job so now I can go to Al’s family Christmas party tomorrow and not worry about what has to be done at home. Here is a photo of what I ended up doing with my cookies. I put them in a clear plastic box and added some Hershey’s Kisses and a tag. I wish I would have had some of those silver balls to decorate the cookies with, I’ll plan ahead next year!

This afternoon I was thinking about my Christmas table. Here is a photo….notice the centerpiece in the background. I needed something small because the table is not very wide and it fills up quickly with food. I like something low so it is easy to see around for conversation. I think this will work for me.

Feeling the Stress

Ok, well I'm starting to feel the stress of the upcoming holidays. I have to much to do and to little time. Gift wrapping looms large on the list! Here is a photo of my gift wrapping area. This is where I do most of my creative work. I put the papers and fibers away and got out the wrapping paper. I've got quite a few bags full of stuff yet to wrap. I really hope to put a dent in it tonight. I took a nap this afteroon so that I can stay up late and get started on the cooking with an occasional break to wrap something. Well that sounds pretty ambitious.. . Here is my list for tonight:

make pickled eggs


bag up the granola


wrap 10 gifts


bake sticky buns for Molly's boyfriend's family


design and print some gift cards



Anyone else reading blogs instead of working? I'd rather get lost in the decorating blogs than get to the reality of Christmas dinner!

Christmas Cookies

The Christmas cookie baking was a success! I am not big on baking cookies but I stumbled upon a web site (http://kitchengifts.com/cookiedecorating.html) with what seemed like easy directions for royal icing and step by step directions on how to do it. When I saw the beautiful cookies, I decided that I need some of those to tie on gifts. And upon further investigation I see that they have some really cool cookie cutters and my wheels are already turning… I can see some really cute cookies for Molly’s sorority sister’s for Valentine’s Day…

So... Friday night I baked cookies and Saturday night I iced them and today I am feeling pretty good about the end results! I wish I would have had some of those silver balls to put on my cookies when I was decorating. Next time I bake sugar cookies I will plan ahead. Anyone who needs some encouragement to bake and ice these cool cookies, don’t hesitate to drop me a note because if I can do this, anyone can! Truly, all it takes is patience.

Estate Sale Purchases

I went to an estate sale today…. It was for the parent’s of my best childhood friend, Barbie Gross. I really wanted a remembrance from her home, the only problem is that the sale was in Pennsylvania and it was about 30 degrees there today! So, I dressed in my warmest clothes (and since I am not an outdoor person, I really don’t have warm clothes) and sat at a sale for about 4 hours. I did learn a few things today. #1 We will not be having my parents estate sale in December, January, February, or March…April and November are very questionable as well! #2 A warm pair of boots is a definite “must have”… I am going to get a pair with Christmas money! #3 The dogs can not be trusted to be home alone. Stewart must be crated when I am not home!

So this is what I bought for my $33.50….I think they only sold one piece of ironstone all day and luckily no one else wanted it, an ironstone oval veggie dish. I love most all Bavarian plates and found one. My sister wanted me to get her a piece of flow blue. She wanted a serving piece or a plate to hang on the wall but most of the flow blue had chips or were otherwise damaged so I was not really successful. She will have to settle for a cup and saucer. I also have a stack of "junk" still in my car that will be going directly to the dump but I did pick out two Christmas pieces in some of the "extras" that were with the stuff I actually wanted; a clear dish with a Christmas scene on it and a white plate with a tree could be filled with cookies and "regifted". It says not dishwasher or microwave safe....gee doesn't sound like a dish for my house! Oh and there is a silver plated nut dish that I can surely figure out something creative to do with.

So, I am just about thawed out and ready to tackle another project.

Christmas Gifts

I'm feeling a bit less stressed as far as the Christmas gift giving goes. Yesterday Al and I did our annual trek to the stores. I don't know about your husbands when it comes to shopping but mine is about worthless at a mall....unless of course he brings his credit card, which he did yesterday. So it was not a wasted trip!

Does anyone make Christmas gifts? For those people who have everything, I like to give something from the heart...something that says I went to some trouble of more than picking up a gift card or putting a check in an envelope. This year I more or less didn't get it together as far as making anything. However, there is one person on my list who sends cards and so I made some "thank you" notes for him.

And on the homemade note, I have been inspired lately by some beautiful sugar cookies I have seen on some blogs and I'd sure love to make some really nice cookies to package individually and tie onto some presents. I am in the process of baking right now and have 4 beautifully baked cookies.... After Grey's Anatomy I will bake a few more....the real test comes tomorrow night when Molly and I try to transform ourselves into Martha Stewart! I may or may not post about my cookies! I am not very good at baking....I used to do a layered cake from scratch every year for Molly's birthday, after a few years of being embarrassed about those efforts I found it a whole lot easier to just take a family vacation on her birthday and let Ruby Tuesday or Red Lobster do the baking! But I'm older and wiser now....I think I can decorate a cookie!

Sunroom decorations!

I have been decorating today, I'm working in my dining room but took photos of my sunroom. This is the room that I just painted pink this summer, last year it was dark sage green and very country looking...I don't have many decorations in here yet, I usually purchase a few things every year. This first photo is part of a large shelf unit. The shelf unit is about 4 feet wide and about 6 feet tall.

Here are two photos of my quilt rack and small dresser below it with an arrangenment in an old basket. I found this magnolia in my travels a couple weeks ago and bought a couple of them to use in this room. I collect children's tea sets and have drug them out and used them here and there during the holiday season.

I'll be posting the rest of my photos as I finish decorating and get pictures taken. I am tiring of the whole process...I just put up some garland with lights in it and plugged it in and it doesn't work so I have to replace the lights. That takes the joy out of decorating real quick!

Hoping for renewed enthusiasm tomorrow!

Interesting Discovery

Today I made an interesting discovery. I was shopping in downtown Selinsgrove trying hard to stick to my Christmas list.... wanting to get a few names ticked off the list when I glanced up and read a sign "quilting and yarn shop". Well, even though I don't have any quilters on my Christmas list I couldn't pass that up. I decided to check it out and was very pleasantly surprised to see a small shop jammed full of inventory for quilters, knitters and wanna-be's. The fun part was that the lady who owns the shop, gee, I wish I could remember the name of the place, was so sweet and pleasant and eager to show me around. Tonight is "First Friday" where the downtown merchants have artist's in their shops and they are open till 10. The woman in her store tonight is a spinner..... (Kristin, you should have see the beautiful alpaca wool she spins!!! you'd be dusting your spinning wheel off in nothing flat!) The owner of the shop had all kinds of projects with blue ribbons hanging on them and she encourages people to come in and knit with her, she teaches informal classes. She also does wool felting and had all kinds of supplies for that. So.... after Christmas I think I need to plan a field trip there and learn something!

I found a few things that I thought I can use in my crazy quilting and all this stuff only cost me $3.50. So for my $3.50 I had a pretty fun half hour of shopping. Then on to the mall and the reality of an ever growing Christmas list.

Saturday's Stash

On Friday night I decided that it was imperative that I have bugle beads! I had a couple colors but not the colors I was sure I needed. Saturday morning the feeling did not go away, I still needed them and getting them became more important than decorating the house. Oh wait....I might need some white poinsettias for the mantle as well as the bugle beads.... Yep, so I called a couple people to see if anyone wanted to go along with me but was not successful so I enjoyed my own company on the hour trip to AC Moore (craft store) and this is some of what I brought home. I did manage to find some white poinsettias as well as a rubber stamp that I will use to make some cards and some scrap booking and card making supplies. I had a very enjoyable morning. I came home and did nothing the rest of the day....Sunday I decorated and tonight I'm going to put my bugle beads to use on a crazy quilt block I am working on for the Encrusted Class I am taking.

I really should put that down and make a few Christmas gifts....time is running out. I am feeling a bit like Kristin with her knitting, so much to do, so little time!

The decorating begins!!!

I've started my Christmas decorating project this week. The sunroom, kitchen and living room are finished. Well I do need a tree in the living room yet and I have the dining room to do as well, but I am on my way.

My husband thinks decorating for Christmas is a matter of pushing the furniture into one corner of the room to make room for the tree and then adding a few other things that I keep in boxes all year long... when what I actually do in every room is rearrange furniture, move some stuff out of the room and bring other pieces into the room. I also clean well as I am decorating and do all all that deep cleaning that only gets done a few times a year. Today one of the things that was moved out of the living room was a huge fern that had some dead leaves in it so I took that outside and shook it well before finding a corner for it in the dining room. Each year I decorate differently so it just seems to take forever. I will take photos later this week when the light is good. Right now, I just have a photo of my mantle to show for my efforts.

PS. One of the candles on the mantle does not match the rest but since I took the photo I found the candle that I knew I had somewhere and replaced it so that now all three candles are the same!

Progress on my Block

Here is the progress I am making on my block. I am not moving very fast on this, I have had a lot of life's little interuptions! We are starting lesson 4 on my online class already and I am way behind. One nice thing about the class is that I have been getting a lot of worthwhile information that I can apply at any time in my stitching progress. It seems most others taking the class are in the same boat that I am as far as time goes. Since I am a beginning stitcher our teacher has encouraged us to make a sampler to practice our stitches so I am doing that as well and trying to make sure I get my technique down!

One of my goals this weekend is to find some time to stitch....and find time to decorate!

Bad News - Good News

Yesterday Molly's boyfriend was on the front page of the local newspaper. Here is the link: http://www.dailyitem.com/servanos/local_story_331073205.html
This story is just heart wrenching and has been on my mind and in my prayers for a few weeks. As I understand it, the parents of Molly's boyfriend have lived here in the US for about 25 years, they have raised 4 productive children, he is a dr. with about 2000 patients here in Central Pennsylvania and she owns and operates a small asian grocery store in a nearby town. They are well respected citizens of the community. When they applied to come to the US they were single but before they were granted permission to come here, they were married and they didn't change the status on their paperwork. And now they are facing deportation in less than 2 months unless one of our senators intervene and get a bill passed which is not an easy task....so I'll keep on praying for this deserving family to be able to stay here.

On a brighter note, Molly talked her dad into buying her a new car, they finally found just what she wanted in Allentown of all places so this morning Al drove the 2.5 hr. trip to look at it and purchased it and this afternoon Steven drove Molly there to pick it up. So tonight she is the proud owner of a 2008 Mazda 3 S Grand Touring car. It's white with black interior. I hope she keeps it cleaner than she kept the Dodge Neon!

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving, dinner here with my sister Lindy and her daughter Meg, nephew Tim and his wife, Emily and us. Today Molly and I left the house at 6:30 a.m. for Black Friday shopping. Lindy and Megan hit the speciality shops and didn't leave town till 11:30 and were gone all day. Molly and I saw a beautiful sunrise on the way, so it made the trip worthwhile. we were home by 10 am. I bought some gifts for Molly but nothing else really. I must get on the ball and get some gifts purchased. Megan went back home tonight and Lindy will leave tomorrow.

I started to decorate tonight but since I am doing all pink and white this year, I will need a couple more shopping trips before finishing. I hope to do some stitching next week to!

Thanksgiving Preparation

My husband reminded me Thursday night that I was planning to have actual curtains or something on the windows in the sunroom by Thanksgiving, so Friday I added window treatment to my list and came home with some beaded sheers. They do make the room look much more finished.

I took this photo this morning during our first snowfall of the season. I spent the afternoon enjoying it from my window and stitching on my block for my class. I need to do quite a bit more before I will show the progress but I am slowly working on it.

Online Class

I'm taking an online class at Joggles and am quite excited about it. I read 47 pages this weekend and pieced two 8" blocks that I plan to "encrust" with threads, buttons, beads, etc. Well that is the plan. Of course in the next 5 weeks I'll be making Thanksgiving dinner, doing the traditional Black Friday shopping, cleaning and decorating for the holidays and finishing up Molly's scrapbook for her sorority sister. I have to make time for stitching somewhere! These are the two blocks I pieced today.



Yesterday was Parents Weekend at Susquehanna and the Kappa Delta sorority had a luncheon for their parents and a little ceremony where the parents got pinned with the sorority ribbons. It was nice of the girls to plan something for their parents....of course after the lunch Molly and I went shopping and it cost me a down filled vest at American Eagle... Next week is her "gotcha" day and of course she doesnt' forget an event if there is a gift involved :)

Book Club

Our book club is reading “The Mermaid Chair” by Sue Monk Kidd. I just started to read it this week and am really enjoying the book. Kristin, if you are reading this, go get the book, it’s a fast read. Book Club isn’t till the 12th you will have plenty of time to read if you can put down the knitting needles!

This week we have crafts on Wednesday night, a couple of us get together and bring whatever craft we are working on and enjoy an evening with no kids or husbands and we get to enjoy each others work, etc. A couple of us decided we would like to learn more about needle felting and we are going to discuss and decide whether or not to invest our time and $ in learning it. Anyone have any experience with needle felting?

Latest Layout

Al drove my parents to their winter home in Florida this week and so I enjoyed a few days at home alone with no responsibilities that come with being a wife or mother. I worked on Molly’s sorority scrapbook and shopped. Molly is a member of the Kappa Delta sorority and she has a “little”. One of the responsibilities of a “big” is to make a scrapbook of the pledging process to present to the "little" with all the pledging activities, etc. Since I am a scrap booker Molly assigned me the job. This is one of the layouts I did of Molly’s “little”.

Being home alone seemed like a good time to start my Christmas shopping so I’m proud to announce that the shopping has begun and I purchased a few things….ok, a couple things and I bought a few things for myself. I hate that I enjoy “things” so much…. The stores are decorated for Christmas and stocked with goodies. There were lots of sales although I don’t’ think I bought anything on sale!

New -Old Dresser!

I needed somewhere to store some fabric in my sewing room and remembered this old dresser that had been retired to the attic. I painted it and it looks so much better! I also changed the hardware to give it a more up to date look and it’s ready to store fabric!

Oktoberfest

This weekend was our town's 25th Oktoberfest. My sister came home from Conneticut, my neice Megan came home for the weekend and Molly is on fall break so she was home too. Saturday morning Molly and I got up early and hit the streets. Mostly we were interested in getting pumpkin rolls. One for lunch, one for Molly to take back to school with her and one to freeze for Christmas. I found a cup and saucer to add to my collection, and a couple other things I thought I needed at the time.

I had lunch for everyone and then Molly's boyfriend came over and they carved a pumpkin. So now I have a pumpkin for the front porch. I want to get the impatience out of the urn out front and plant a chrysanthum this week also, my porch is still looking more "summery" than "fallish"!!!

Redecorated Sunroom

My summer project was redecorating the sunroom. Here are the before and after photos. I didn't really start with a redecorating project in mind. I only wanted to get rid of the awful carpet that the dog kept chewing and pulling out so I decided to remove the carpet completely and just paint the floor until my husband got home from 6 months in Alaska. He mentioned getting new carpet in this room when he got home anyway.


So, I thought I'd try something whimsical and fun in here and decided on creamy and plum colored squares because believe it or not the purple went with the pillows and accessories I previously had in the room. After the carpet was gone and the plywood floor was sanded and I putting the paint on the floor I kept looking at the green walls and decided that now was the time to change the walls also... I keep looking at everyone's pretty rooms in the shabby cottage group that I belong to and decided that if I ever wanted to do "pink" the time to try it would be when my husband was hundreds of miles away working in Alaska.


So, I painted the walls pink and brought in a large book shelf from my sewing room, a quilt rack and some new pictures for the walls as well as new pillows for the sofa, painted a washstand that was also in the sewing room and I'm just about done. I haven't gotten curtains up yet because I am out of money currently, but I have curtains on the list and hope to get them before Molly and Meg come home for Thanksgiving vacation.


So that's my summer project!

Crafting

I've been playing this weekend and this is what I made. Molly is a big Audrey Hepburn fan and when I saw this photo on the internet I decided it would make a great wall hanging. So, finished it is an 8X8" square. The quote by Audrey says "Your heart just breaks, that's all. You can't judge, or point fingers. You just have to be lucky enough to find someone who appreciates you. " I printed it out on my computer and I like the results....I'm going to do some more experimenting with this technique.

I have also been working on another block. My biggest problem though seems to be getting background fabric arranged in an attractive way. I am taking the "encrusted Crazy Quilting" class the beginning of November and I hope to get some tips on doing the actual design and placing the fabric on a block. This wallhanging was a no brainer, I used an old cutter quilt for a background!

New Threads

Yesterday I had a dentist appointment....does anyone like going to the dentist? The good news is I had no cavities and then after the dentist I decided to take the long way home and treat myself to some threads at the yarn shop.

I need some orangish threads for the block I am working on and so I looked around and picked some pretty silk threads. Here is the stash I brought home to the tune of $40.38. Geesh, this has turned out to be quite an expensive hobby. On the surface using fabric scraps and some thread seems innocent enough but once the fun begins it doesn't take long to figure out that silk threads are so much more fun to work with and beads and charms and fibers are necessities!

Book Marks

Ok, so I got a great idea a couple weeks ago to make book marks for Christmas presents. I like to have something little that I can give to people that I don't want to feel obligated to give me a gift but I want to remember them with something nice....so this year it was going to be book marks.





I completed a book mark but decided that it is to thick to be a nice bookmark. So, now back to the drawing board.... I'll need to think of something else. Anyone have any suggestions?

I guess I'll give this to my mom for Christmas. Mom's are supposed to appreciate anything, mine does....

Shabby Wash Stand

While Al was in Alaska for 6 months I did some decorating....I always paint something and rearrange things while he is gone. One of my projects was this washstand. I wish I had the "before" photo of this piece. Picture an oak wash stand with peeling varnish or whatever they used on it add some big ugly hardware and that's the before.

I bought new hardware on ebay and painted it white. I looked for a glass knob at Lowes for the door but wasn't successful, all they had was a very modern looking glass knob and I don't want that. I will have to check ebay. In the meantime I just painted what was there and it's ok for now.

I will be posting the before and after photos of the room that the wash stand is in. I need to put up a quilt rack before it's ready for photos and I'll need my husband's help. He has been in Alaska for the past 6 months and his plane comes in tonight at 11:30. I'm pretty sure that putting up my quilt rack will not be on the top of his list of things to do when he gets home, but soon....

Progress, sort of...

Here is a photo of a block I just finished. It seems that the way most of the crazy quilters operate is by making a series of blocks and then either sewing them together or using them in some other way. I decided that it would be cute to make an 8" block and add a flap to one end and fold it into a little clutch bag....So, I embellished the seams....well most of them. This is my first block and I was anxious to complete it so I really didn't do as much stitching as I should have. This is the end result and I have already got another project in the works. More about that later.

Shabby Swap

One of the gals on my shabby cottage list knew I was interested in learning silk ribbon embroidery and suggested that we do a swap. It turns out that we are both crazy quilters and she wanted some fibers for her stash of stuff so we sent each other an envelope of goodies and I am so excited to have gotten lots of ribbons to play with and cute little buttons and yo yo's that she had made and well just a crazy quilter's delight. Here is a photo of the stuff she sent me. Thanks so much Melissa of the Cottage Rose.

Now I have to get busy and use some of the goodies she sent. I just ordered a beginners guide to silk ribbon embroidery from Amazon along with a book on left handed embroidery. I am getting a lot of money invested in this lastest hobby of mine but I don't really have a lot to show for my investment yet! Oh did I mention that I spent another $50 at joggles this week on silk threads and stuff I'm sure I'll need and I plan to enroll in the encrusted embroidery class that starts in October. I have a birthday coming up in September so I'll use some birthday money for that indulgence.

Favorite Things

Well Molly has been gone for a week, last year at this time she was checking in daily with a report. This year she has a boyfriend with whom she checks in with daily, I get no report. So, I have eaten everything in site during the past week as I adjust again to the empty nest. I really need to get a new plan for next week! I have been keeping myself busy up until tonight and now I am just really restless and bored. So I am entertaining myself reading blogs and thinking about stuff….

So how about a list of some of my favorite stuff: I love quilts, here is a stack of some of my favorite vintage quilts. Dishes…..I like to eat off pretty dishes and I have a few sets of them as well as some odd ones that make me feel good. I like my front porch. I like to sit on my front porch and enjoy watching people go by, I enjoy watching the kids practice soccer or baseball on the athletic fields across the street and I enjoy my gardens in the summer although as I am getting older they are becoming harder to take care of. My gardens may not make my “favorites” list in a few more years.

What are your favorite “things” that bring you enjoyment?

Back to College

Why does one kid need so much “stuff”? We moved Molly back to college on Sunday. Two vehicles were not enough to get all her “stuff” transported. Lucky for me, her boyfriend volunteered to bring a truck and help us out. He was a big help and did all the heavy lifting!

We had about 2 hours to start unpacking before Amy, her roommate got there with all her stuff….I think she brought as much as Molly did so between the two of them, they should have everything they will possibly need. We did need another $50 trip to Walmart and then I called it a day.

Meg wanted to come home and get ready for her move to her college tomorrow. Her dad will be here in the morning to help her. So, after she leaves I’ll be cleaning and then doing whatever I want for the next month until Al comes back from Alaska. I am looking forward to the time for just me!

I’ll post my projects and progress…

Needle Book

Last weekend I made this needle book out of a cutter quilt I had in the basement. I like the way it turned out and it sure is convenient to have my needles handy when I want to stitch.

Today I discovered that the out of the way somewhat local fabric store has a very good supply of pretty cotten fabrics and I even noticed some satins and a few other interesting fabrics in there as well.

I purchased a few more fabrics that I think will work with the new project I am working on.

Crazy Quilting

I needed a new hobby so that I can play with my crafty friends twice a month. We take the crafts we are working on and have an evening of fun working on our projects and enjoying each others artistic endeavors. I decided on crazy quilting. I got the idea when I accidently stumbled on a beautiful crazy quilt square on the internet and then I joined a yahoo group for newbie crazy quilters and the rest is history!

My first project was a cell phone case. I am attaching photos of the front and back of it.

Estate Sale

Today I decided to do something for me and I sat at an estate sale all day. I had a great time watching the wordly goods of one of the town's citizens being auctioned off and dispersed throughout the community.

I purchased a few things that completely delighted me....the first thing I purchased was a funeral basket and if I haddn't bought another thing the rest of the day I would have gone home happy. But I can't just sit there all day and not bid on a few things to keep me awake. So I came home with a lovely chenille bedspread, an ironstone pitcher, a shabby chic creamy colored tray and a pretty oval dish with roses on it. I got a few more things that came with the stuff I really wanted and then called it a day at about 3 p.m. I managed to only spend $32 and had at least that much fun. I thought I'd come home and be productive but I washed everything and then lost all ambition.

Here is a photo of todays treasures!

Memorial Day

Hi,
It's Memorial Day 2007 and the weather is perfect! Warm and breezy. Yesterday I spent the day hosing off the porch and getting it ready to enjoy on lazy afternoons while reading a book, etc.

Speaking of books, my book club is reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice this month and I have barely begun to read! I need to take my book out on the porch and get reading!

This morning I went to the Memorial Day service at the MACC. It is nice that they have it there because they finally have a decent sound system and are able to have a better program because of it. This afternoon I caught up on my sleep! I'm feeling a bit guilty about that, but I have been up late the last two nights....till 3 a.m. with Molly Friday night and till 1 a.m. talking with Megan last night. So now I think I am rested and am ready to tackle the rest of the week!

Happy Easter

Today was Easter. Molly and I went to church and Sunday School. Megan came for lunch and since Al is in Alaska there were just three of us. We had ham and all of Molly’s favorites. One of my Easter favorites is pickeled eggs. After lunch today the girls turned a movie on and I watched with them and we all fell asleep….even the dogs. I guess that doesn’t say much for the movie we watched. So anyhow, we had a relaxing day!

The Easter bunny brought me a basket when she hopped home from school. This morning the Easter bunny had a basket for Molly. Tomorrow we are shopping since I suggested to Al that since he will be missing Easter and our anniversary he might want to just send cash! So we will spend the day playing!

Hyacinths

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I had a dentist appointment so instead of playing in the gardens I did some shopping after my appointment. One of the things I bought was a beautiful hyacinth. I love the fragrance of hyacinths. It reminds me of Easter since those are the Easter flowers I grew up with…and of course Easter reminds me of chocolate and that is a good thing too.

My plant is sitting on the table next to my chair and the fragrance fills the room. I love the promise of spring as everything becomes new again.

So for this week my favorite flower is a hyacinth. I am looking forward to going to church on Easter because the church will smell like hyacinths, tulips and lilies.

Here is a photo of my hyacinth. I will plant it outside after it dies and next year it will be part of the garden.

Dining Room Project

I have been working on upgrading my dining room for the last couple weeks. The photos are the "before" and "after" shots. I am having problems photographing the dark walls in natural sunlight and it isn't working with a flash either....so it actually looks better than the photograph. Anyhow, I painted the walls… it took about 4 coats of paint to go from white walls to dark rose. I also changed the curtains and had Al build me a couple cornices and then I took down the country look and put up sheers. I need a new tablecloth yet and a few more things to hang on the wall and perhaps some plates or some tall vases on top of the hutch. I’ll be looking for accessories come yard sale season!

I really like the new look and have learned from the project. The next time I paint a room I will take the following into consideration:

1. When painting a very dark color over a very light color…prime the walls first!

2. Don’t be afraid to try something daring…it’s only paint!!

3. Do not let a husband with no sense of design try to talk you out of what you are feeling!

4. Don’t panic or second guess yourself after only one wall is painted.

5. Nothing is ever inexpensive!... A painting project is never JUST a painting project. Remember you will need new curtains, prints for the walls, and other accessories. Ok, I think I knew that.

Rose Gardening

A couple weeks ago the groundhog predicted an early spring and I have been thinking about gardening ever since. This year I would like to put in some more roses. I have a few David Austin roses that I love for fragrance but the stems have so many thorns on them that they really aren’t practical for a cut flower and I would like to have bouquets of roses in my living room so I am researching roses and have decided to devote one of my raised beds to hybrid tea roses.

I also have a couple climbing roses; one of them is planted at the end of the porch that doesn’t get any sun and I’d like to move it in the early spring to the other side of the porch. I will need Al to build me a trellis for it to climb on.

If anyone has any suggestions as to “must have” roses please email me or let me know in my comment section.

Snow Day

We had snow all day today so I stayed home and was feeling kind of creative so I made a couple bandanas for the dogs and then cut out a cover for one of my wicker chairs. I have a wicker chair out in Megan's room that doesn't exactly match the rest of the furniture so with all the talk everyone on the shabby cottage list is doing about making slip covers, etc. I got motivated to figure out how to make a cover for my chair. If it works and I ever finish it I might just get motivated to cover the chairs of my porch furniture.

The photo is Stewie modeling one of his bandanas, I made some for Rusty too.