New Year projects

Oops! Should have flipped this picture...So I took a little break from this blog over the Christmas holiday, but not from the many projects in our list.  This entryway runs from the kitchen to the hallway toward the bedrooms and you enter from the front double doors.  It drops down a step to the carpeted room where the pool table resides although I think it was considered a sunken living room at the time the home was built.  We have worked on a myriad of small projects but this entryway was so dark that I didn't realize that the grout wasn't actually dark.  The bricks are of varied colors so being in a high traffic area, and since it was all dark..it wasn't a priority.  With a bucket of water and a scrub brush and some heavy duty cleaner, I have been on my hands and knees scrubbing a little bit every morning.  I am nearly finished and you can see how dirty it was and still is in this area. YUK!  

 The Mr. has been busy with small projects also.  He needed a cue holder and opted for a small one rather than a larger one as he has had in the past. A few years ago, a friend gifted me an old table and 4 chairs as I reuse and repurpose things.  The table was in really bad shape so it couldn't be used so the chairs without seats were reused as stools at the foot of the bed for the dogs to use.  We cut off the backs which I painted as garden angels and returned them to the gifter for her daughters.  The legs were shortened and new cushions fashioned for stools for the dogs.  We used them in 2 homes and when we moved in here, they were not needed.  The wood was old, but nice hardwood so the Mr. took them apart and the pieces were sanded, routed, and cut to size, then glued and painted. He installed them yesterday. This was just a small part of the chair wood.

So as promised, I am slowly finishing some UFO's. This is the quilt that I am assembling with the Farmer's Wife 6" squares.  These are the ones that I had finished, and I have begun to stitch some more. If I make 18 more, I can have a square quilt and I have completed a few this week. I call it "pink caramel" and we'll see how many I can finish.

One of the projects we completed this morning was the light over the dining table.  I don't have a picture, but it has 3 lights and was designed to hang from a chain.  However this kitchen/dining area has really low ceilings, so the chain was just looped up and tied with a wrap.  Removing some chain links seemed like a small project since we have done so much of this kind of remodeling but we neglected to take pictures and struggled to figure out how to reassemble it when it was shortened.  It literally took us all morning to finish this project, but it got cleaned and we finally figured it out, even though there were a few extra pieces left over?  It looks great and the main thing is that it works.

One of our neighbors stopped yesterday as we were taking down our lights and after she left, I thought about our conversation.  She is a master gardener and has been very helpful in informing us of the native plants and offered me some of hers earlier this year.  But reflecting on what I have tried..some successful and some not.  I can do many things...a jack of all trades and a master of none.

"When I was growing up I always wanted to be SOMEONE.  Now I realize I should have been more SPECIFIC."  ~ Lily Tomlin

Cookies and quilts

 I posted earlier that I would be working on some unfinished (UFO's) projects.  Above I have completed 33 6" finished squares from "The Farmer's Daughter 1920's" book.  Not having touched these in several years, I am choosing to finish them before the fabric rots.  After some thought, I realized that I am never going to get all of the squares finished as I am only a few pages into the many patterns.  So I decided to make a center panel from fabrics that I think would have been used during that time period.  The exception may be the first border, but this green was one I purchased when I went to Ohio several years ago with two of my quilt buddies on a trip.  Among other things, we stopped at quite a few quilt shops and I knew I wanted to use a green in a future quilt that was similar to one used by quilters in the first part of the 20th century. I think I must have been born a few years too late as I am constantly finding myself attracted too older things, especially old wooden utensils and furniture. Oh, well.

I remember that my grandmother had several pieces of linens that had similar flowers embroidered with black floss using the buttonhole stitch and my mother inherited them. Mostly I remember that they were dresser scarves and table cloths.   I do it a lot on appliqué.  This tree of life was one I saw in a magazine and I adapted the size to suit me so it is not proportioned as I saw it in the book.  But it will suffice.

With Christmas coming this week, I have been baking cookies and made some peanut brittle.  It was a little difficult to find raw peanuts, but I did. It has been interesting dealing with the humidity.  In Wyoming, dry weather rarely affected my baking.  I like crisp, crunchy cookies, but here everything absorbs a little moisture.  So my friend, Barb, who always loved a soft cookie, would be happy.  I miss all of the Christmas bazaars with her....she always wanted to see if a cookie was soft, so I would see her pressing on the wrapped treats to see if they were soft or hard.  (She is still alive and well and probably pressing on cookies I imagine.)

"A balanced diet is a Christmas cookie in each hand."

Christmas Rose

A few posts ago, I said that my intention was to finish some projects.  This quilt top is DONE! It will not have borders and measures 80X96.  I have the backing and the batting and most likely won't glue baste it until after Christmas, but will do that and start quilting soon after.  Rummaging through my UFO's I found the Pink Caramel 6 1/2" squares from the Farmer's Wife 1920's book.  I have 33 of them completed and worked on it last in 2016.  So that will be my next big project to work on.  It will get finished I hope.  My neighbor behind me with the chickens and new beautiful baby named Charlotte brought me more eggs last weekend.  I made a quilt for Charlotte and when I called to tell her it was done, she walked over in the rain, with Charlotte snuggled at her chest. She also wants to learn to quilt so I hope I can help her with that endeavor.

The Mr. and I have been busy, me at baking goodies and helping him when I can.  We mounted 3 of our tv's on walls, replaced all of the recessed lightbulbs (and adjusted some of the fixtures) as the bulbs were too small in the can lights. He is making shelves for an old sled that I have placed on end to be repurposed as a night stand next to a twin bed, put shelving in his workroom closet and lots of small projects with many more on the list.

My daughter gave me a couple of rose bushes this summer and I planted them in the beds out front, not expecting them to do well...I have never been  very successful with roses, but look!  It had one rose on the spindly bush this summer and when we had a freeze last week, I noticed that a partially open rose had frozen.  I didn't even know it had bloomed.  So look.....I have several buds about to open.  Please, don't freeze again!

I have spoken with some of my friends back in Wyoming this past few days.  I miss them but I very much intend to stay in touch.  I do not miss the snow.  I also received a wonderful card from my neighbor in Cheyenne and she informed me that they had lost their dog.  He was having health issues when we left and that another neighbor, a wonderful neighbor in his 80's had lost his dog.  So all three of us had to say goodbye to our furry friends this fall.

We took a drive yesterday to Littlerock WA as the Mr. is scheduled to play pool there next week.  Not being familiar at all with much here, we knew he would be traveling in the dark so thought it would be a good idea to find it.  Rather than take the interstate, we opted to take the back streets and roads.  Littlerock is just a wide spot with a post office in a trailer, a bar and a grocery store, but the drive was beautiful!  It was drizzling a bit, but a good deal of the drive was rural and with so many green acreages and trees, it was pleasant.  It took us about 50 minutes to reach this little burg, but it was a pretty drive.

"You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." ~ Ziggy

Candy Kiss Gnomes

With Christmas on the horizon I have been as busy as I can while still battling with this Sciatica.  Not a very patient person, I am not accustomed to slowing down so it has taken me more time to accomplish my tasks.  It used to take me one evening to decorate my tree and this year I spent 3 days between ice and Ibuprofen.  I have made a couple of batches of cookies and have more to make and I did get my cards out...who sends cards?  ME, but this will most likely be the last.  For one thing, I needed to let some people know our change of address and that brings another story.  We have had this address for 4 months and I had a dear friend tell me that I put the wrong return address on the card she received....How many others?  Yep, time to quit!

Yesterday my favorite daughter came and we decorated cookies together---mostly she did the decorating.  I found a Candy Kiss set of cookie cutters at Hobby Lobby. (she had shown me photos of triangular shaped cookies earlier and these reminded me of that similar shape.)

 As I got these out of order, bear with me. We made a royal icing with Wilton's meringue powder and water, whipped in the mixer and then added powdered sugar.  That's not necessarily an easy task as you can see that it snowed sugar all over me, the counter and even the stove.  I had a cake decorating teacher once say that if I couldn't write my name in my range hood with powder sugar that I wasn't doing it right.  I did it right yesterday.

 So as much as I tried, I still got these out of order.  See the kisses shape?  Erica colored the icing and she added a caramel flavor. She drew on these with an edible marker and in the bottom photo she was beginning to outline and continued to flow the icing on the hats. She thinned the icing and actually painted the face color on. When it was dry, the hats, beard, and blue coats were added as each color dried a bit.

 She added the nose, eyes and mouth and they are adorable.  We also decorated mushrooms that she made with a mold that she had ordered and I will post those pictures next.

I also received a package from a dear friend in Saratoga.  She had asked for pictures of the house and knows how I like to decorate.  When our son came to pick up some things in Cheyenne before we moved, he took all of our antlers, our elk antler mount and some other Wyoming rustic things that we didn't think we would have room for.  One thing this friend noticed was that I didn't have any antlers lying around.  We spent so many years hunting and they always reminded us of good times.  She reminded us that we needed a few and she insisted that she would send some.  I will post those pictures later also...Thank you Ginger!

"In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips." ~ Salman Rushide

Happy Thanksgiving

I have been watching the weather from Wyoming and goodness people....I do not miss the snow, ice, cold and wind.  Today I went for a walk with only a vest on and the sun was shining and there was no WIND, although the temperature was only in the high 40's.  I do miss my friends, but I am trying to stay in touch. 

Today is my sister, Joan's birthday. I won't say how old she is but she is only a couple of years younger than I am.  I called her today as she is living in another state and sharing a residence with our other sister.  Because all 3 of my siblings are living and doing as well as most our age, I am lucky and blessed.  We are not without our aches and pains, but we are good.  Part of that I contribute to our parents. I worked with a gal who once told me that she and I were mutts...in other words, we have no fancy pedigree and it has made us strong and and able to overcome adversities. Our father's mother came from strong pioneer stock and and lost her mother as a small child  and although our mother's father was murdered when she was a child, she survived what must have been a difficult childhood.  We grew up without much money, but had two loving parents.  We raised our own beef, grew our own vegetables and were surrounded with family.  Thanksgiving at our house was bustling with people and always lots of food.  We never went hungry.  I am thankful for all of the wonderful memories of Thanksgiving as a child.  I am cooking the bird Thursday and our daughter and her husband will be sharing the meal with us.  It has been a long time since we had family for this holiday and I am so looking forward to it. 

If you are dining alone, or sharing this day with family or friends, be thankful and remember those less fortunate. 

'Shrooms anyone?

 When we looked for homes here, and read the information on this home, it noted that it was near a "soon to be removed mushroom farm".  The "soon to be removed" was a plus as apparently the odor was not very pleasant.  Since fall is officially here and the weather is cooler and more humid, our yard has become a forest of these toadstools.  That is what I remember calling them when I was a child.  My family did not have access to mushrooms I guess as I don't recall ever having a mushroom until I was in high school and the first Pizza Parlor opened in Greeley.  Anchovy and mushroom were the toppings I remember first and pepperoni came later.  I also remember the first McDonald's there and it was a walk-up only fast food place. Yep....I am ancient I suppose.

 I can't even begin to count the number of these and the middle one above is larger than my outstretched hand. Some are small and button-shaped and some are white and round, but these are abundant in my back yard. They are fascinating actually.  I wonder if some of the spores from the farm blew over and deposited themselves here?  Probably not. (I don't know if they are edible but am not going to test them.)

On Sunday afternoon, the doorbell rang and standing on the step was a young mother with a baby peacefully sleeping in a pack snuggled on her chest.  She carried a carton with a dozen eggs.  We invited her in and she is the gal who lives behind our next door neighbor.  Our street backs up to a greenway of trees and some of the houses are tucked back against each other while others have the green area behind them. From the day we moved in, we could hear chickens behind the fence next door.  It was funny to hear them clucking away on occasion and there were no roosters.  She offered the eggs to us and introduced us to her 2 month little girl, Charlotte, still sleeping.  We had a great visit and I have actually begun a quilt for Charlotte with sunflowers on it.  I offered to pay for the eggs, but she told me she just gives the extras away to neighbors.  We have the best neighbors and they have all been so welcoming.  There is a master gardener who has offered me plants, the neighbor next door loaned us chairs for weeks as we waited for the mover and he brought us a wonderful bottle of wine. The neighbor on the other side gave us a lot of wood and the grand daughter, Lisa has walked the dogs and she and her friend have made cookies and delivered them. 

"Life is too short to stuff a mushroom." ~ Shirley Conran

No rain

According to the experts, this has been the driest stretch here without rain since 1957.  I am still waiting for the moss to start growing on my back.  At least that is what my quilting buddy said would happen if I moved here.  Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region has always been high and dry.  Perhaps we brought it with us.  At any rate I am not complaining about that!  What I have been complaining about and it may explain the lapse in my posts is my age and what comes with it.  Sure, you can get lots of discounts for being a senior citizen, but as your age increases so do the aches and pains.  I can remember my dad saying "just wait until YOU get old", when he would complain with joint issues.  Well, Dad, it is happenin!  I have one leg shorter than the other as a result of an old injury when I was a teenager and I am having sciatica issues.  This past weekend when we were shopping for groceries, I was ready to climb into the grocery cart and ride.  REALLY!  So ice, and meds were relied upon and with very little relief.  Yesterday was our first visit with our new Dr. at Kaiser and I was holding out so that I could visit with him.  We had started to look when we first arrived here, but after checking with 3 different clinics, we were told that either did not accept Medicare or else that weren't accepting new patients.  So we put that on hold until September.  So far our experience has been great with Kaiser and the Dr. we saw yesterday was terrific.  He spent a lot of time with us and scheduled some follow-up appointments that we needed.  There was NO wait time for our appt either.  And in addition to the check-up and prescribed treatment for my sciatica, I have already seen improvement. Enough about that.

Above is a Wedding Ring quilt that was started last year using the "Go" machine and I actually began to quilt it this spring, but of course, it got packed so finally I have finished the quilting and am stitching on the binding.  I also only have 4 more 17" blocks of the blue and white squares to complete.  So, I am sticking to my goals to finish some of the UFO's before beginning another project although I see new projects that are tugging at me. 

We removed our dishwasher as it is an old one, maybe original to the house and are expecting a new one to be delivered in a couple of days.  We couldn't figure out how to make it work anyway, and in addition, our master bathroom floor is in a state of demolition.  The Mr. is actually starting to replace the backer board with new and then we will replace the ceramic with vinyl.  The floor is a wooden floor and was not constructed for ceramic so it had a new floor, but the tiles were not sticking and the floor allowed a little enough movement for them to loosen.  Removing them was a mess, and the toilet is sitting in the garage.  That's right, we were NOT going to get a fixer-upper, but I have eaten my hat before.......