Spring? Winter? Make up your mind!

Spring arrived with more snow than expected. It snowed all day long today, and the wind blew and it was just downright miserable. The Mr. and I were in Casper all weekend at a pool tournament and it snowed up there. Frankly, dear, I am just sick and tired of it. The pool tournament went really well though. And as you can see from the bottom picture, we came home to strange furkids. Both of the little boys got haircuts and my goodness, Roger is a completely different looking little guy. We are still trying to guess what he is. My neighbor thinks that in addition to shih tzu he may be pug. Regardless, I never saw two happier babies. They played and romped until they dropped.

This is a new quilt that I am getting ready to quilt on the machine. The squares are actually quite small...6" finished, and I hand appliqued all of the small dresden plate pieces to the yellow background squares. I sent the baby quilt that I repaired off to Texas and they received it today so hopefully it will be handed down to another generation to treasure.



We finished the bathroom downstairs except for just a couple of things. I need to paint some and the Mr. needs to install a safety bar for the shower, but I will post some pictures when those are finished. He did such a beautiful job. It took quite a while to finish, but he had many other projects going at the same time.

This is little Roger sporting a new haircut just in time for 4-6" of white fluffy stuff. His rescue mother is home from the hospital after serious surgery and with her husband and furkids again. She will be spending some time now with ongoing treatment and we really wish her the best fighting this terrible illness. We are so grateful for all that she has done for four legged creatures, especially those that have been only hours from euthanasia.

I am ready to do some spring planting...I have lots of seedlings just waiting to get their toes in some warm garden soil and sunshine and fresh air. Spring--hurry up please.

"Baby, it's cold outside." ~ Frank Lesser

Important things

Mother sewed most of our clothing until we were actually out of school, and although she never actually "quilted" with needle and thread, she did tie a lot of quilts. When I was pregnant with my first child, the Mr. was in the service and on tour overseas. I stayed with my parents until after our baby was born and the ship came back. I had lots of time on my hands so I made my baby his quilt. However, mom made some quilts for her grandchildren and this square above is from my nephew's quilt. My sister, the "farmer" sent it to my for repair. As you can see, much of the cross stitch embroidery is gone from years of being drug around by him and lots of washing and drying and just loving wear in general. I was originally going to cut the squares and restitch them back as so much of the white fabric is threadbare. However, I decided to take it all apart and try to just repair ripped seams and put a new backing and batting in and retie it. In one or two of the squares, the embroidery is gone completely. This was obviously made with muslin and the yellow is a polyester, popular in the 70's and it wears like iron and is in relatively good condition. It will be handed down to his daughter, so I am trying to keep as much of the top original as possible, even the embroidered squares. Will post a picture when finished. The "farmer" by the way has new baby goats, but one nanny had 3 kids, one of whom was born dead and another died shortly afterward. The remaining little boy is small, but eating she said. She also told me "death sucks". I could not deal with that which is why she is the farmer. The other two mama goats had twins each. And one of her little hens is nesting on eggs!!!
Several years ago, I was given an incomplete set of sterling silverware by a good friend. It has been in a chest ever since. I want to make a wind chime as I posted in an earlier blog and use old silverware. Being the cheapskate that I am, I would not pay $3.00 for a piece of silverware at the flea market last week and thought I might use pieces of this. I decided to see if it was of any value and had tried years ago to get information on it but couldn't. Well, on the first try this time, I found the information I needed. E-bay has a used set for 6 (4-place setting) for $750.00. Another site which sells individual pieces for replacement or completion of a set had 1 (4 piece setting) for $99.00 and another for $105.00. Some pieces aren't even available. If I were to replace just the sugar spoon and could find it, it would be about $40.00. This friend wanted me to have this service for 7 including 6 soup spoons and the butter and sugar above. This is an important thing to me and it will not be going into the making of a wind chime.

"A joy that is shared is a joy made double." ~ Anonymous

Pigs and mud

The little piggies...flute playing pigs (are not wallowing in mud but) are a result of 6 1/2 hrs of flea-marketing with two of my favorite "buddies" on Saturday. We all came home with goodies!!! These guys are for my daughter who for some reason stumbled onto a few pair of these salt & peppers. There were hundreds of these kinds of collectibles at the Brass Armadillo in the Denver area along with hundreds of square feet of antiques, china etc. But flute playing pigs? The only ones I have ever seen are now in my hands and I hope that she wants these to put in her flute playing pig collection. We have to go back to that treasure chest. It was a wonderful weekend...just us girls.
Thanks Pat and Sal!!! Barb, we missed you!

My two little rescue babies are here and their rescue mom who let us adopt them is now struggling with a very serious health issue. She has done so much for so many unwanted furkids and has found homes for so many like these two. We all pray for her and wonder why someone who has done and continues to do so much good has to face such a struggle.

I took these two little boys for a walk today as the snow is melting with the temperature in the mid 40's. It is really muddy on our street (gravel) and in the gutters where all of the neat smells are, not to mention our back yard. They had a ball out in the sun and the mud and the yuk. When I got back to the house, both guys were covered in mud and Roger who is white as snow was brown all over. What a mess! Spencer is curly and had little tiny mud balls caked everywhere. I had to dip their feet in a bowl of water to get the mud off and there is no point in giving them a bath until it drys up a bit. I don't know who had more mud....the dogs or me. By the time I was finished, I was laughing too hard to be concerned about any of it. Spring must be just around the corner.

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." ~ E.E.Cummings