tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44509550041492869412024-03-13T23:03:43.649-07:00Blair Blog ProjectI am a Christian wife, mother (and grandmother) and daughter. I am blessed to be a stay at home mom that will be sharing my daily life as I work to keep our home on budget and organized, attempt to make my own life pleasing to God, myself stronger for my family while sharing the talents God has given me to witness to others through the things I make and pray over that are given to charitable causes.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-12297184502645915112014-10-18T13:44:00.001-07:002014-10-18T13:44:41.111-07:00MY WORD!My word it has been forever since I posted to my blogs. Why, you ask? Simple...life. It just gets in the way some times. So, not going to bog you down with huge amounts of details but will give a brief run down on what has been happening.<br />
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Youngest son, Mr. G, graduated from college and moved back home. That was in March. That meant I had to once again pack up my sewing room/sanctuary so that he could have the room. I am glad that he is able to come home, am glad he has already found a job, but am really missing my little place to go to get away from everyone. <br />
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Youngest daughter, Mz Zebra, has graduated from high school, showed her lamb in the fair, started college and working part time. WOW, did all that blow our schedule apart.<br />
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I am still keeping the two grand babies, ages 3 and 1, although my oldest son, their dad, recently was fired and so he is keeping them a bit more. Am hoping to use this time to purge some things from the house and storage units, while I can go through things with them under foot. I have been ill for several weeks, but am on the mend now and am enjoying this cooler weather so hoping next week will be very productive. I also need to clean out my freezers again and am going to do some freezer sessions. It is extremely hard for me to switch from cooking for a family to cooking just for two, so am going to do some freezer meals and also send some over to son's house to help a bit while he is out of work. More details on the stove front, so to speak, on the cooking page.<br />
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I noticed that I was in such a depressed funk that I have become determined to change things up around here. I miss my sewing terribly, so I ended up pulling out some crocheting and one thing just led to another so my hook is going big time these days. With in the next few weeks, hoping to clean out my bedroom enough to make a little craft/computer corner like I had when all the kids were living at home. It mainly just means a little manual labor on my part, some lifestyle changes on everyone's part, and it will all settle down once again. Here are my immediate goals, in no particular order.<br />
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Clean out and purge bedroom...establish craft/computer corner.<br />
Clean out and purge freezers.<br />
Clean out and purge storage closet, laundry room.<br />
Clean out and purge storage unit.<br />
Create control journal for running the house. (cleaning list, inventory, menu plans and such.<br />
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We are headed up the mountain to visit friends this evening, should be great fun. Will work on updating blogs and adding some photos this week as well.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-14294646190790117132014-01-08T18:27:00.000-08:002014-01-08T18:27:32.547-08:00Finish Off 2013 - Bring It On 2014Well, obviously I have not done well at blog updates or keeping it current. So...let me attempt to lead you out of 2013 quickly and on point.<br />
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I left off in October with the completion of the cake course. We decided to not take any more classes through the holiday season. Was planning on starting back up in January, however with still no working kitchen that just isn't going to happen. If you head over to my cooking blog, Dice, Slice, Spice...Nice! you can see the details of the l o n g time consuming remodel of the kitchen. It will be worth it, but am really sick and tired of now counters to work on or sink to work with. Hopefully, about two more weeks.<br />
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As I posted previously, daughter approached her school club sponsor about a bake sale. DO NOT...I REPEAT...DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN TO YOU. Just a big friendly warning. The teacher gave the approval to the girls on a Wednesday afternoon. I bought supplies that evening and we made LOTS of cupcakes. Not as many as planned, but they did end up only having about 6 cupcakes left over after the sale. No went with out, not a huge amount to get rid of. That part was a success. However...we were up until about 1 a.m. and barely moving by the time we were done.<br />
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Read about the <a href="http://blairblogcooking.blogspot.com/2013/11/oh-my-its-november.html" target="_blank">cupcake explosion</a> to see how it all came out. Add to that, I had made about two dozen cupcakes the week before to take up to church for the fall carnival. At any rate, it will probably be March or so until I do another class. Miss Zebra won't be doing one until much later in the year either. Between finishing up her senior year, track, play rehearsal and now dance review, she barely has time to turn around as it is.<br />
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The last part of November, like the day after Thanksgiving, the actual demolish of the old kitchen started. Everything removed down to the studs, major appliances moved around and new design started. New cabinets, new paint, all new appliances, even a new window have all been installed. Now waiting on the new counter tops, sink and faucet to be installed, then the backsplash added, a little trim work and I will be back in business. I never dreamed that I would miss anything as much as I have missed having a kitchen sink. If you are interested in the progress, you can follow <a href="http://blairblogcooking.blogspot.com/2013/12/cabinets-all-empty.html" target="_blank">this link</a> to the start of the postings.<br />
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We had a WONDERFUL Christmas in Texas with our oldest daughter. I was able to have all of my children and grand children under the same roof at the same time for the first time in years. Since 2012 actually, when my mom passed away. Wow, in print that doesn't seem so long ago, but sure feels like many years ago. We did go see hubby's family as well, first time some of them have seen all the kids since 2008 and first time to see the youngest two grand babies since they were born.<br />
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Now we are home. Trying to do some purging and deep cleaning, but not too easy with the two little ones under foot. We have all been sick with the crud, gotten over it and given it back to each other. Hubby is working hard to get some vehicles running enough to pass state regulations as well. I am having a secret pity party for myself, which is making me procrastinate mightily at cleaning up this sewing/craft/office room. Other wise known as mom's room or the Diva Den. I really am trying to get organized, just feeling a little frustrated over it all. Maybe overwhelmed would be a better description. I want to cut the spending, trim our budget and plan menus. I am having a little bit of a problem with figuring out where exactly to begin. <br />
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I really do have the best of intentions, honest real goals. I get started surfing around the internet for information on how to start. Did you know there is a HUGE cottage industry out there of people that smart enough to understand how to do all this and know how to get others to pay them for this information or service. I can buy menu plans that are budget minded. Problem is, my family doesn't eat like that. I am not making my family live on oats and barley to save money, or have several meals a week that are meatless. I would be in huge trouble if I even tried. Also, I have an extremely pick assed hubby when it comes what he eats. Oh he says he isn't, and he will try most anything, as long as it isn't pasta or chicken. In other words, meat and potatoes only. Have you seen the price of potatoes lately, at least here in my part of California? I admit, I also hate to peel potatoes. But, he only wants fries, mashed, baked, but nothing else. No scalloped, Au gratin, no adventure. Cheap buys are pasta, rice and cheap cuts of meat. Rice is tolerated on occasion, pasta almost never. In fact, I used to get to go out by announcing that I was making spaghetti. It doesn't much work any more. However, have you seen the price of meat lately. I used to get ground meat for $1.99 a pound, now am lucky to find it for less $4 a pound. I am tired of the same old dishes, but we are not a sun dried tomato and exotic spice type of family, nor am a trained chef. I read a lot about menu planning on the web, follow some really great sites to see what others are doing as well. I just get bogged down with the extremes to either direction. I mean really, scallops with sun dried tomatoes, arugula salads and saffron infused rice is not the most thrifty of meals. On the opposite end of that, a half of mayonnaise and onion sandwich with a salad of greens I found while out walking the dog is not for me either. I just won't even get started on the "Extreme Cheapskate" aspect of what is being done out there. I mean I want to save money, but refuse to make my own washable butt wipes and crocheted sanitary hygiene products. So where does that leave me?<br />
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I know I am not the only one out there that feels this way. I just have to sort through all the info I find and try to make it work for us. Thankfully, we have no allergy issues food wise to deal with. Unless you count the fact that my tongue is set on fire by pineapple and any type of salad (spinach especially but lettuce too) pops out of me with in 10 -15 minutes of consuming it. However, we are truly in a rut and I fully intend to pop us out of it. <br />
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So, these are my goals for the year:<br />
1. Reduce spending - will keep better track of what is spent where, buy loss leaders and sale items, create menu plans using what is on sale and in season, introduce different types of protein (beef, poultry, seafood, pork) to the family according to what is available fresh and on sale.<br />
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2. Less processed foods. Healthier foods.<br />
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3. Create and use a cleaning schedule. Purge the clutter and extras from this house. Try to sell some of what I don't want any more to get a little money back in my pocket.<br />
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4. Work out at the gym more. Loose weight.<br />
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5. Take care of myself more, go to bed a little earlier.<br />
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Well, that is about it for now. Hope you come back again soon.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-27127610914996823022013-10-05T13:32:00.001-07:002013-10-05T13:32:22.460-07:00October - Must be fall.Temperatures here have finally dropped...a little. We are only in the 80's these days. The mornings and evening feel really wonderful though and it is so nice to be able to just open the windows for a while. Where we live, there is not really much change from season to season. Most of the town stays green year round and only a few of the trees will start to loose their leaves, but not until we have our first really cool spell. Up on the mountain however, it is apple season and if one drives up there (about 35 minutes or so) then the trees are turning all their glorious colors signaling fall is upon us and winter is soon to follow.<br />
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Miss Zebra and I finished our first course of cake decorating, the basics.<br />
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This one was mine. I did yellow roses for Texas. I had a different blue, more of a denim blue, icing that I had intended for the border, but time ran out to make Miss Zebra's purple for her border so she used mine in the class and the teacher made me use another student's left over to get us caught up from being late. I had an awful time with crumbs on these two cakes.<br />
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This is my daughter's cake. Miss Zebra was very proud of herself and has now approached her school club leader to have a bake sale for their fundraising, she has offered to make cupcakes...10 dozen...lots of cupcakes. Pretty sure I will end up helping to finish them up. At least cupcakes ice our quickly.<br />
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Hubby heard from insurance yesterday, we are coming out quite well on the settlement. He is worked yesterday to get our old little Toyota truck running so he can drive it to work and back, that way Miss Zebra will be able to drive herself again. She has our old suburban as her car...like 97 model. In fact, it was my dad's, we bought it from my mom when dad passed away in 2003, and am pretty sure he bought it about the same time she was born. Miss Zebra kind of digs on the fact that she has something that was her Papaw's. She kind of got cheated out of getting to know him as well as the other kids did. But hey...it still runs so why not.<br />
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Things are finally starting to progress, well getting started anyway, with the kitchen remodel. I am going to a second design session with the Lowe's guy and am hoping that by the end of the week will have an official start on this thing. He estimates 6-8 weeks for completion. Much better than the 16 weeks from Home Depot. A little cheaper as well, not by much, but their installation cost is cheaper, so much so that I am more than likely going to let them do it all. Well, cabinets and counter tops anyway, we will do the lighting, hooking up appliances, floor repairs and backsplash. Our neighbor is a contractor and he is supposed to be working on an estimate as well, but he hasn't got a lot of time as he is full of jobs and I don't know if he would even be able to do it any time soon.<br />
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Okay, so off I go. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Please come back soon and visit.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-21916439380089857772013-09-24T10:28:00.001-07:002013-09-24T10:28:16.884-07:00September...really!Here it is, September, and the month is practically gone. Time is flying by suddenly. Of course it doesn't help to realize there are only 91 days left before Christmas. Big plans around here for the holiday, but I won't go in to details until I have firmed up the plans a bit.<br />
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So, recap of the month since last posting.<br />
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Hubby and kids went camping, I stayed home to clean and organize, got nothing done. Youngest grand son, Mr. M., went and had a blast. However, since coming back, his terrible twos have seemed to kick in from time to time. Oh not really so bad, better than most, just think it is funny.<br />
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We have also been the victims of auto theft. My husband's pick up was stolen from in front of our house. Makes me so mad to think that who ever did this is probably on welfare. I just get really angry when things like this happen. We work very hard to have the things we do. Then, the low life criminal thugs come prowling around and think they are entitled to just take what ever they want to gain a buck with out any thought of what they do to the family they steal from. In our case, they took a man's transportation to work, a family's means to go out and have fun, a teen's security (she is afraid they will come back) and a man's small dream that brought him happiness. My husband look through ads and Craig's list for three years before he found that truck. I must say, he is taking it all so much better than I thought he would. Like he said, it is just a thing.<br />
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School is back in full swing for youngest daughter, Miss Zebra. Her senior year. I am struggling a bit with this, only because she is a really young senior. Her birthday is late in the year, so even though this is her last year of school she won't be 17 until November. In fact, she won't turn 18 until well in to her first semester of college. So, that makes for busy days between school, year book editor, drama (she just landed her first role) and the non-school related activities of ice skating lessons and church youth events.<br />
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Oh, and Miss Zebra and I are taking cake decorating classes together too.<br />
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<span id="goog_1329828838"></span><span id="goog_1329828839">Six on left are mine, six (well five, her dad ate one) on right are her's. I doubt this will lead to any cottage industry type income, but we are having fun. I hear the instructors and some other bakers talk about how many days it takes them to do a cake...well, I just don't have that kind of interest in the hobby. I want to be able to make some nice cupcakes to take to the church or for one of the grand kids party or for a bake sale. I also want to be able to make a nice looking cake for a pot luck, bible group, family birthdays and such. Actually, I want to take the gum paste course, but have to take the first two courses first. Years ago I would make roses from clay for ceramic projects and they are very similar to the gum paste. Honestly, from what I have seen, it is a lot like working with play dough and that is always fun.</span><br />
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Kitchen remodel has had several design changes, but still on hold. Now, hubby has to finish up a couple of other projects and then we can start. I have the final lay out decided, there are only two design points left to finalize. The cabinets, as to whether to buy new ones or re-finish the existing ones. I am also trying to choose whether I will be purchasing a cook top and built in oven or new stove or just keeping the one I have. It works fine, it is just a matter of my wanting a 5 burner stove. Will post when the actual project gets going.<br />
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Man, I am battling the sleepiness. Keep dozing off while I type. I can't sleep because I have a two year old running around, and may be getting his little sister this afternoon. Think I need to get up and walk around a bit. <br />
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Thanks for stopping in and check back often.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-71921495593034413172013-08-18T16:51:00.000-07:002013-08-18T16:59:53.334-07:00School Time Again.OMG! Where the heck did the summer go. We still have the heat, so know it was here...still here for many weeks to come actually. School starts tomorrow for my youngest daughter Miss Zebra.<br />
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She starts the first day of her last year in school. Well, public school anyway. She is now officially a senior high student. She plans to attend a local college and become a neonatal nurse.<br />
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I have been cleaning like crazy and not feeling like I am getting anywhere. But, I have swept the living room, dining room and kitchen, along with hall. I will mop it all later this evening when there is less traffic running through. I also cleaned up my kitchen. <br />
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This past week, I once again was keeping my grand son. Man did I miss that little guy while his mom was on maternity leave, and while we were on vacation, and while they were on vacation. I know, terrible run on sentence. I was also lucky enough to keep the baby girl two days this last week as well. WOW! what a learning experience. I never had two little ones together, spaced my bunch out a bit more. Any way was glad that Miss Zebra was home to help out. I am doing a little shuffling with the furniture in the rooms so am hoping that will help make things a little easier for me on the days I have both the little ones. Part of the...awkwardness...of the flow of the house now is that youngest son, Mr. College, and his cat are staying with us until his school starts back up. He will be here until later part of September.<br />
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Now that baby is here, vacation is done, I hope that hubby comes through and we actually get to start on the kitchen remodel.<br />
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This is the before photo. I know it looks fine, but it really does not flow well. And...while it looks like it has a lot of storage, the majority of the cabinets are too small to hold much. <br />
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I have got to work hard on my sewing room this week, am putting a twin bed in it for Mr. College to sleep on while he is here. I first thought that I would just put it in storage when he went back to school but after thinking about it, have decided that I will leave it for the grandbabies to nap on. And...if hubby's snoring keeps up, may just sleep there myself. LOL<br />
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Oh you know I couldn't resist recent photos of my grands.<br />
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These two are my oldest daughter's two sons, they live in West Texas.<br />
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This is oldest grand son, Mr. T. He is ten, likes baseball and ice cream. He came to visit for a few weeks, went on vacation with us as well.<br />
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This is Mr. T's little brother, Mr. W. He is three and likes dinosaurs, cheeseburgers, queso and baseball.<br />
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These two are my oldest son's two children. They live here in the same town as we do and I am fortunate enough to be able to care for them during the week day while their parents work.<br />
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This is Mr. M. He is two and loves little animals, big animals, any stuffed animal. Can't find anything that he really likes to eat though, very hard to feed him. He loves his new sister though, very gentle and loving with her.<br />
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And, last but by no means least, this is Miss C. One month old in this photo. Not sure what she will like, but so far she loves to eat and be held. A little spoiled to being held actually, but I will work around it. How can you not hold a new baby? LOL<br />
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Well, I am off to do a little more cleaning and then try to sit down and work on the menu plans. Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment, I like knowing if any one actually pops in.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-83203070157341080352013-07-16T13:07:00.002-07:002013-07-16T13:07:43.752-07:00The New ArrivalThe last few months have been totally crazy. First of all, let me show off.<br />
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My newest grand baby arrived. Pink this time. She was just hours old in this photo.<br />
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I am so happy, so thankful to God that everything turned out so well. She was full term, healthy, and her mom is doing great as well.<br />
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Miss C arrived July 14, 2013 weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 21 inches long. She has lovely long fingers and long toes and a long little foot as well. Not sure if the hair will be blonde or brown yet, but she has quite a bit. After three grandsons, am so happy to have a grand daughter to dress up.<br />
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Life is still really busy around here with all the cleaning, remodeling and catching up I have to do from being sick and some dental work that went a little wrong. We are soon to be heading out on our big vacation adventure as well.<br />
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Got to go for now, so will be back in August and hopefully in full swing with all my cooking, sewing and crafting. I have a list of projects to get cracking on before my daughter in law finishes her maternity leave and I will be back in day care mode. Plus school starting back for daughter, Miss Zebra's senior year. Wish me luck and check back in August.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-15486878412484925892013-05-28T11:19:00.000-07:002013-05-28T11:19:01.099-07:00Updating.I wrote this post, then forgot to publish it, so here it is.<br />
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Since Mr. M is finally taking a nap, I decided to take advantage and catch my blogs up. Here is the whole thing in a short nutshell.<br />
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I finally got the pantry cleaned up, still need to clean out the main freezer and inventory it. I am even more determined to get organized and back in to menu planning. Will probably have to make more effort to post to my <a href="http://blairblogcooking.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">HOUSE</a> blog dedicated to cooking, meal planning and such. In all honesty, I had totally forgotten I already had the blog established until I was looking at the main one to see how I linked the others up. I am so totally full of good intentions and so totally end up in total failure. I just can't stand a scattered blog so have to compartmentalize it all. Yeah, I know, I am nuts. It runs in the family though. I have however been doing more cooking from the pantry, simple cooking but from scratch. Hubby is sure happy with it. I have been doing really well on staying on budget for the most part. That is about to be tweaked up even more. More about that when I post to my food blog. I am pleased that I have hit some rather good sales lately at a local market, their mark downs due to date to expire soon, and have filled my freezer. If I have planned correctly, I have all the meat I need to make menu plans and meals until about the middle of July. We will be getting ready for vacation about then, so I will be buying as we need. I will do a major buy when we get back from vacation and settled in. More about those plans when I post to the food blog as well. Needless to say, there will be a lot of menu planning, a lot of cooking ahead or freezer cooking to try and get myself a little more organized for after Miss C arrives. Once she is born and daughter-in-law is done with her maternity leave, I will be daycare for a toddler and a newborn. I am not going back to eating out so often (mainly I grab drive thru for lunch), buying processed dishes at the store, so I plan to stock the freezer with ready made meals or the components to throw together quick meals after the kids are picked up.<br />
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On the home business front, I didn't plan it well as far as timing, but am now a Pampered Chef consultant. I don't have any friends that want to host a party, don't have room in my home to host any shows, so am not really sure how this will work out, but am giving it at least until the end of the year.<br />
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Sunday I am taking my first class to learn how to operate my new sewing machine. It has been in layaway, the plan was to leave it there until about September. I have determined however, it is really rather stupid not to have it home where I can use it. After all, the reason I invested in the machine in the first place was to make my life, at least the sewing aspect of it, easier and faster. With every thing going on all summer, I really do need it here where I can actually use it. Still on the to do list for fall though is learning how to use my software programs, EQ7 and EQ Stitch, to get the most out of that investment as well.<br />
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Thanks for stopping by and come visit often.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-2916945155659613502013-04-22T11:39:00.001-07:002013-04-22T11:39:23.510-07:00So Much Going On!Taking a break from the kitchen pantry clean up. Saturday I cleaned out the fridge, purging spoiled left overs...why we bring home food from eating out that will never get eaten is beyond me. Neither can I believe how much produce I end up loosing...such a waste of money. Although, this time, the fault was with a fridge that had been turned up to high...or down to low rather...and it froze my produce. See, I have two fridges and I keep the extra milk, eggs, produce, wine and hubby's beer all in the spare fridge. We even froze the milk. Trust me, frozen 2% milk is not a pretty or tasty site. Of all the things that I ended up having to throw away, from the spare fridge, the 18 count carton of eggs really hurt. They did not freeze, but I had my daughter put the eggs in a bowl of water...every one of them floated to the top. They had been in there a tad to long I think. After cleaning out the main fridge, the poor thing looks so bare. I have two chicken breast that are thawed out, will be throwing them out today. They have been thawed out way to long, at least four days, and I just don't trust chicken. <br />
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Sunday, I started on the pantry. OH WHAT A JOB! Everything had just been shoved in here and there and it had gotten to the point where I just couldn't find a thing I needed to cook up a meal. Was buying things I already had and had no room for stocking up. Not that I really need to stock up, I truly believe that I could feed this family for at least 6 weeks with out buying a thing, but the family would not like what I would be fixing. On the other hand, they are about to not have a choice anymore. I am sick and tired of cooking on the spur of the moment and I am not a short order diner. I have really had enough of the chaos that has taken over my life and am putting an end to it. Life changes, different chapters and all, so I have to change with it. One thing I have realized...our family dynamic has changed, my daily routine has changed, I have not.<br />
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<strong>Here are the goals.</strong><br />
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<strong>I am getting back to menu planning</strong>. I just needed to know what I have on hand to work with...in order to know that I had to clean it all up and inventory it. As I said, I am taking a break, my back just can't handle it like it used too. May even have to admit that I am getting older. But that is thought for another time.<br />
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<strong>Changing buying habits</strong>. As I said, the family dynamic has changed. I no longer have two teenage boys at home, my youngest daughter is in a healthy-diet-making different food choices stage and I now have an added driver at home (now that Miss Zebra has her license) so there is no reason to buy three loaves of bread and 6 gallons of milk each week. Plus, with the opening of more grocery chain stores (Walmart, Winco) the stupid California way of forcing the customer to buy gallons of milk in twos to get the price discount. Now that I don't have to buy so much of everything, and I can send Miss Zebra to the store, I don't have to stock pile so much. Besides, it is not a savings if you stock pile so much the products expire before you can use it. OH...flashes of Extreme Couponers just went through my head. The stupidity of that show, not to mention the blatant illegal practices involved is a story for another time.<br />
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ALSO:<br />
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I have recently become a consultant for Pampered Chef. Really looking forward to seeing what I can do with that. I am not a salesman, so this kind of thing is hard for me, but I am hoping to refurnish my kitchen with some quality equipment as opposed to quantity. That is a project for this summer, when I have Miss Zebra home to help watch Mr. M. I will clean out an reorganize all of my kitchen cabinets...dishes, pans, pots, mixing bowls...and such. I was putting it off because in the near future...I hope near future...we are gutting the kitchen, taking a wall out and redoing it all. Was going to wait until then so I only had to empty the cabinets one time. HOWEVER...my contractor (my hubby) has put some other things ahead of the project so I am not waiting any longer. Soon as I get some things out of the way, I am emptying and purging my kitchen cabinets.<br />
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I also, after much thought, made a major investment in to my sewing/quilting hobby. I purchased a new machine. A Pfaff to be exact. It does it all, sewing, quilting (nice large throat space - automatic quilting foot), and embroidery (large area). Now, thanks to a little inheritance money, I have the money in hand to pay for it. I have put it on layaway because I am just not ready to have it in the house yet, just too tempting. I need to finish up a quilt project...which would be nice to try out the new machine on...along with the kitchen cabinets...along with housekeeping...it would be way to easy to get side tracked with playing with the new machine. Along with tutorials for my new software programs.<br />
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So...now that I have had a nice little rest...back to work. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Once I know what I have on hand, I can plan menus tonight. I will be able to then cut down the cost of groceries, hopefully enough to put a little toward the new Pfaff to save on my little egg money account. See...what ever I have left over each pay day from the household budget is mine to keep, to use how I want, on what I want.<br />
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Thanks for dropping in, I am back to work. Besides it is lunch time.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-84418150185277279402013-04-08T16:21:00.001-07:002013-04-08T16:21:15.900-07:00Big News!NO...we aren't adding to the family...at least I am not. We do have a grand daughter due to arrive in July. My oldest son's second child.<br />
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I just signed up to become a Pampered Chef consultant. I love their products, love their recipes, so felt it was a good fit for me. I am not really a salesman type person, nor am I comfortable speaking in front of groups. Will see how this works out. I figure though, if nothing else I will be able to outfit my new kitchen with all the great gadgets I want at a discount, since I will be using the kitchen for demonstrations may even be able to write some of it off the income tax as business deductions. That would be sweet. At least what I buy, my kit and books, gas to demonstrations, can be deducted. AND...I know how to cook, can have some fun learning to cook healthier as a bonus.<br />
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When it is all set up, I will share the link to my Pampered Chef page. You can order items through me.<br />
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Until then, I am off to catch up on some other things. Plan out the week's meals. Make a grocery list. You know, all the normal junk. Also, tonight I will be working on my mom's taxes. They are not really hard, and since she passed away in the middle of the year she didn't have that much income, but due to the cancer, her hospital visits, the donations to Goodwill of her personal belongings, she should have some itemized deductions. I know she will get a little bit of refund, and I am not really in the mood to just let the government just have it, so to get the refund I have to file.<br />
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I hope for my loved ones sake, I die on December 31 of any year.<br />
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Until next time.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-67318237890395238902013-04-03T16:29:00.002-07:002013-04-03T16:29:43.093-07:00Well, well, well!<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It has been exactly a month since I posted. That is truly pitiful. I must work on posting a little bit more often.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">On a good note, everyone is finally well. Hubby surprised me with an impromptu trip to Las Vegas since Miss Zebra was out of school for Easter break...yes they still call it that here. Mr. College wondered home for a visit as well, as his college was having their Winter Break...what they call it...at the same time. We had good Easter, I hope all of you did too. My oldest son, Mr. M's dad, didn't want to come over to eat an Easter dinner because he didn't want "old food". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Guess that one is partly my fault, I made the mistake of saying that I found a ham in the freezer and was going to clean out my pantry before I bought more food. HOWEVER...it is not like I am a food hoarder and the items are really old. The ham has been in the freezer since I bought it on sale. I had picked up one for New's Year Day and just picked up an extra. Three months, exactly, is not that old for a fully cooked ham that has been in the freezer since it came home from the grocery store. The nerve, where does he think all those steaks and burgers come from. Yes I stock up slightly when I catch a good deal, but only what I feel will be used with in a two month time frame. As for the pantry...I clean it out and reorganize it every other month. Purging anything that may have expired, donating what I know won't be eaten to the local food bank. I swear, the oldest thing in my pantry may be a jar of Miracle whip bought 3 -4 months ago or a box of cake mix that may have gotten hidden that may be 4 or 5 months old. For one, I don't stock up on things like that, and two, it just doesn't last that long around here. Good grief, wonder what he would think if I turned in to an extreme coupon/hoarder. They have years worth of supply stocked up in make shift shelves all over the house. Good grief, does this child have no memory of when we were lucky to have wieners and canned tuna for several days until we got paid again? Guess not. On the other hand, maybe that is a sign that I did a great job of getting our family through some rough financial times, which everyone has from time to time. I never had to get assistance of any kind for us. Thankfully I also had the best teacher in the world, my mom. She saved every thing and pinched a penny until it chirped. When we cleaned out her home of 30 years to move to a smaller home, there were bags of glass jars she saved, margarine and whipped topping bowls, pieces of foil, even twist ties from bread bags. She also washed and reused ziplock bags and Solo cups and bowls. Oh well, I guess I should be happy for him that they aren't going through those hard times like we did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So...goals for this month are many. I need to get back to basics. Basic home cooking, basic cleaning, and time for my crafts. In spite of son, I am going to be cooking from the pantry and freezer this month. I have a lot of cleaning to do, now that spring is here and it is warmer I can actually open up the windows and get some fresh air going through here. I also have to get it together and even though I don't want to, have to file my mom's tax return. Even though she passed away last year, she still had income for 6 months of the year. On the good side, she should get a refund and I don't want the IRS to have one cent of what doesn't belong to them. I have about 5 more quilts to make for the church orphanage project. Now that I have received all the software programs I purchased for quilting and embroidery, I need to sit down and work through the tutorials to learn how to make the most of them. Oh, and I also have picked up some wonderful historical non-fiction books. Published collections of various diary entries for civil war era, early 1920's, and World War II (from the perspective of a woman living in England).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Guess I better get some dinner going. Thanks for stopping by.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-89635265255657335422013-03-03T15:26:00.001-08:002013-03-03T15:26:04.905-08:00March - New MonthI am so very glad to have February behind me. Very emotional month as it was the first of some special occasions with out my mom. My birthday, the day they got the call that they were getting me, the day they travelled to San Antonio and picked me up. <br />
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Also, I have been so sick through most of February that I don't even remember most of it. Just when I am finally feeling better, the women's friend from heck has decided to visit with a vengeance. Oh well if it isn't one thing it's another.<br />
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Now hubby has the sinus/head bug going again in full force this morning. It started yesterday, but has really got him knocked down today as well. I am praying that he keeps it to himself this time.<br />
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On a good note, I was actually able to get a little work done this past week. Two quilts for the church quilt ministry project, need to tie knots but will be doing that while I watch new series <a href="http://www.history.com/shows/the-bible" target="_blank">The Bible</a> on the history channel tonight. We have Direct TV and we will get the first showing tonight at 5:00pm pacific time. I think it will be very interesting to watch as it is reported to be made more for scriptural accuracy than for Hollywood ratings. We will see. Roma Downey of Touched By an Angel television series fame and her husband are producing it. Also got a UFO project completely finished. Have three other projects basted, need quilted and bindings. One project finished the quilting just need to find fabric for binding, then bind and finish. <br />
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Some other irons in the fire, bought EQStitch from Electric Quilt today. It is rumored to be able to digitize drawings from EQ 7 for machine embroidery, including applique as well. I can't wait to see what it will do with my embroidery machine. I also bought Block Base, have not played with it much, but have looked through it enough to know it will be great support for my EQ 7 program. Still going through the lessons with EQ 7, but so far have been understanding it so on the positive side with all that. <br />
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Hope to do a little crocheting this week as well. I just never know how I am going to feel, physically, and what I will be able to do while Mr. M is here. He is really starting to show a lot of personality these days.<br />
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Still haven't been able to rearrange my living room furniture, but now have hubby on board with the whole idea. I have to bring him along in stages with the plans to the house. A lot of remodeling to do. Now, this is just our little secret, but am secretly plotting the remodel jobs in such a way that will in the end, free up some space in the sewing room for a quilting frame set up. Found what I want, just have to decide on which brand of machine to go with it, and...have to wait until all the remodel is completed to see just how much space will be available. I have decided against the plan of turning oldest daughter's (Miss Zebra) room into more sewing room when she moves out. For one, it will be at the very least two years before that happens...hoping it will be longer. Also, have decided to keep it as a bedroom, but will be kind of turning it in to a play room for the grand babies. Mr. M will be close to four by that time and the newest arrival (expected to arrive in July) will be two. I can do with out a big long arm quilter a while to make room for them. Also, the room isn't really big enough for a large set up.<br />
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Have a great day and come visit again soon.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-82879788163959575692013-02-08T11:01:00.002-08:002013-02-08T11:01:38.233-08:00Rough Few Weeks.My goodness, has it been a train derailment around here or what? I had all these great plans for things to get done while hubby was gone on his trip. Well, I got sick and the plans all flew out the window for the most part.<br />
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I will post more details on my quilt blog about how all of that is coming, same with the other blogs. But, for here I will just give a brief rundown on how things have gone.<br />
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I have finally gotten my sewing room all set up just the way I wanted.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-20PQ1YWQcIs/URVEvc61UpI/AAAAAAAAA7M/CFZ7pwTKiN4/s1600/newchair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-20PQ1YWQcIs/URVEvc61UpI/AAAAAAAAA7M/CFZ7pwTKiN4/s320/newchair.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my chair. The desk is working out really well too. Since this photo was taken, I have moved the rolling cart to sit out of the way under my sewing table. Then moved the desk over further and placed a new printer/scanner in between the chair and desk.<br />
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So, here is what happened. I clicked on something wrong somewhere and instead of getting rid of all my cookies (the computer was slowing down some) I some how managed to make the computer restore back to the first day I bought it. I lost all the added programs. My files were still there, photos and such, but gone was my EQ 7, printer, Office and such. In fact, ever since I did the restore there is one email account I cannot get in to. I am now locked out of it and hope that I can remember my security questions when I am able to use that option later this evening. I don't understand it, I have three yahoo mail accounts and have no problem getting in to the other two.<br />
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Oh well, that is life. On top of being sick, and this one has really knocked me on my butt, we had two vehicles broken in to. Passenger side windows were busted out on both of them.<br />
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Really pisses me off, they stole the registration slips from both the vehicles. We have full coverage insurance, but $1,000.00 deductible so it wouldn't help any. Cost $245 for van window (not getting the pick up fixed just yet) and almost two hours wait time. Then came home to pick up a jacket and such to find the street filled with police. A little gang of thugs had broken in to some houses a few blocks away and ran in to our neighborhood to hide. They were caught, although there is conflicting reports of whether the three picked up were the only ones or if there were five of them. At any rate, then I had to go sit and wait at the DMV to get a copy of my registration. Took an hour just to get a number, then over an hour for that number to be called. And...of course the state has to get there money, $19 for them to push a button and print off a piece of paper. What really got my goat so to speak, there are 18 windows to service customers at the DMV. There were exactly 5 that actually had people working them. Then, one worker had to come over to another one and help her (talking to the customer quite a bit - very friendly they were) for about ten minutes. Then she headed off to a break for another 10 minutes or so. When she finally came back to her window my number was finally called. Now I know that those DMV clerks get a lot of cranky customers, no one really wants to have to pay all the stupid fees this state charges, but I really think that if they went to some training on how to be at the very least polite, pleasant and respectful, maybe they would get a little bit better attitude back at them. Just saying is all.<br />
Well, that pretty much catches us up. Oh...one more thing. Found out that grand baby number four is going to be a girl. Finally a little pink in the sea of blue.<br />
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Thanks for stopping in. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-43432516811562099582013-01-27T13:48:00.001-08:002013-01-27T13:48:39.537-08:00Sunday - RestingWell...kind of resting. I was able to finish the top of my Lone Star quilt.<br />
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Although I got a little frustrated with the off set seams and sewing in an insert, I think overall it was a success. You can click on the Quilt tab and see more details.<br />
Also, my youngest daughter...Miss Zebra...had her first date, it was to Winter Formal, on Saturday.<br />
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Isn't she just too cute? I know, I'm a mom and supposed to feel that way. LOL That was taken at our house before they left. Her dad isn't to happy to have her dating, since she is his little princess, but I told him, "she is a junior in high school, is 16, you have to let her out a little bit." I know it is always a little tough to let the first one and the last one to go, but really hard for him because the oldest and the youngest are both girls. <br />
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Well, just wanted to drop in and update. I am off to get a hair cut and some batting to finish the quilt.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-10167428600116286372013-01-20T20:39:00.000-08:002013-01-20T20:39:20.869-08:00Moving AlongToday has been quite eventful. First of all, I actually got a full nights sleep. That in itself is cause for celebration. The weather finally warmed back up to a normal temp for a change. It was so nice to be able to turn off the heater and open up the windows and doors and get some fresh air in the house. I do need to back up a moment, and tell you a little bit about yesterday.<br />
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A while back, I had made a bargain with my daughter-in-law. She was wanting a sectional, I was wanting just a couch and chair. See, I have a sectional. I took my hubby to the furniture store to buy a chair with an ottoman, we came home with a sectional. One with cup holders for watching movies. He never once sat in the section that had cup holders. The set came with a free recliner, his chair. At any rate, my daughter-in-law had a couch with a big oversized chair and matching ottoman. I have always loved it. Even been a little envious of it. That was always where I managed to sit when we would visit. So, we traded living room furniture. She got her sectional, I got my couch and chair. I am however glad that I did not buy a couch and chair, it does not fit the way I thought it would, but it actually works for me. Now I have to fight my youngest daughter Miss Zebra for it, but I will win out. Oh I know I will win out. Today we made the actual trade. I now have a comfy chair to sit in so maybe I will just spend a little more time in the living room with the rest of the family. At least now I have a chair I can do hand work in.<br />
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Naturally, while the furniture was gone, they took ours to the kids house first, I took advantage of the empty floor and cleaned the fool out of it. Cleaned the walls down, window sill out, mopped the floor and polished and oiled the wooden end tables and book shelf. Even cleaned a couple of windows inside and out. I will be heading out to the store tomorrow for sure to replenish some cleaning supplies and do a little more cleaning tomorrow. Miss Zebra has a school holiday for King's birthday so she is going to watch Mr. M while I get a few things done. Oh, and I get to pick up my new sewing machine. It arrived yesterday.<br />
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Speaking of yesterday, I took a quilt class for a Lone Star quilt yesterday as well. I posted some photos and all about the class by clicking on <a href="http://blairblogscraps.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">quilt</a> to see the new blog. I have been doing a little tweaking to the blog, was going pretty good until suddenly parts of the blog is not working. However, you can click on the tabs at the top of the page and go to the new parts. It is crazy, you have no idea what I am having to go through to add a new post now. I just don't understand it. I just wanted to kind of separate the main interest a bit. A tab for quilting, embroidery and housekeeping. Will see how it works out, guess I can always delete them and go back to the old set up. <br />
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Thanks for stopping by for a visit, please come back often. I am off to do a little sewing and go get a snack.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-56384202574825478542013-01-15T23:43:00.001-08:002013-01-15T23:43:07.764-08:00Work, Work, Work...So I Can Sew, Embroidery, CrochetI has been a few days since I posted, but I have been really busy. Honestly, I have.<br />
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Working in the quilt/craft room. I really need a new name...Diva Den...no, I am not a diva. Maybe Needle Nook...not to sure about that. Must think about that a bit more. At any way, here are some before photos.<br />
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So much stuff. Not sure what do with all of it. But I figured it all out. I even have the room divided. Cross stitch in one corner, sewing in another corner. Supplies stored close to each. Just wish I could have gotten my stash closer to the sewing table, but that just couldn't work out. For a number of reasons, the way the furniture functions (direction doors open and size) mainly, but the biggest reason is I had to put things in a certain location to make it all opposite of the way it was. I couldn't stand to have the rocking chair in the same corner as it was when Mom was staying here.<br />
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And...drum roll please... really, it needs a drum roll in my opinion. Here are the after photos.<br />
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This is a stained glass sign that my dad made. It hung in there travel trailer for many years and traveled to many places with them. My mom loved this sign, because dad made it for her. The red horse is because Dad worked for Mobil their entire marriage.</div>
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Okay, here is the first wall. TV entertainment center has a cabinet on the end that opens out. It is full of my Cricut cartridges and Sizzix dies. The other end has a glass door. All my embroidery supplies are in there. Floss, embellishments, machine embroidery thread, laces and trims. The shelves have all sewing supplies, current quilt projects and such.</div>
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Computer desk, cross stitch corner. Mom's little rocker, which does not fit me well at all. It is very small, but of course it is about 60 years old and she was much smaller than me. I will eventually get rid of it, but at the moment it is a sentimental thing. It was always in her home, she loved it because she rocked both her babies in it. Lamps for better hand stitching of course, then little drawer sets have all the office stuff. You know, markers, pens, pencils, tablets, mailing supplies, label maker and such. The very top shelf has little bins of various specialty yarns and my Cricut cutter.</div>
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My new sewing table. The metal file cabinet sits in the corner, out of the way but easy to get to. It has one drawer full of recipe and menu plan files, the other drawer if full of various files that have to do with quilting, crochet, embroidery, swaps and challenges. I also store my cutting squares and rulers in that drawer. Now, the long curtains are to replace the closet doors. This makes it so much easier to get in the closet. This is where all the good stuff and bulky stuff is now housed. Shelves that hold bins of crochet projects, fabric for garment construction, UFO quilt projects, a cool round spinning shoe and purse carrier that is perfect for holding yarn. Small skeins fit in the shoe pockets and the one pounders fit perfectly in the center opening that is actually for the purses. Drawers of sewing patterns, sewing supplies, another set of drawers has quilt projects, mostly block sets or flimsy type (which I believe is the term given to a top that has been completed. My AccuQuilt Go cutter and the plastic container I bought that holds all the dies and cutting mats perfectly are also in there. On, and my box with the dressmaker's form is in it's own spot as well. I made the curtains yesterday, but had the wrong rod to hang them on. The cat gets a kick out of playing with the bottoms of the curtains. I am not sure I like the fabric though. It looked good on the bolt, cost $2 a yard, but it reads very busy in appearance. But they are made and hanging.</div>
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Finally, my stash. All folded and sorted by color. Except the top two shelves, sorted more by novelty print. Stack for juvenile boy and for girl, older themed too. The new Brother 770 embroidery machine sits on the little chest or cabinet. Another piece that was my mom's. The cabinets hold cross stitch charts and clip boards and all the college team fabric I bought while in Texas. Both are Texas teams.</div>
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Now that everything is in it's own special place and cleaned up, and the curtains are made, I can get started on my most immediate quilt projects. I need to finish some crazy quilt blocks for a challenge and a swap, then a couple of throw size quilts for my church quilt ministry's project of quilts for the orphanage we kind of sponsor. Also am making a quilt for my youngest son's girl friend. I will post the computer generated rendering of what that should look like. I am starting to understand my EQ 7 software a little bit more each time I use it, so figure these charity quilts are a great learning lesson for finding and using old quilt patterns and techniques.<br />
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I did manage to get the window topper completed this evening. Let me tell you about my other little event of the day.<br />
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Went out early, in the freezing cold weather, to Walmart to pick up the correct rod to hang the closet curtains on, a rod for the window topper, fabric for a quilt class I am taking this Saturday to match the living room/dining area/kitchen window treatments that I made several years ago. Well I added some longer panels to the dining area windows this past summer, they are west facing so I wanted to block a little more light. Decided to make the quilt class project match the living room and will put it on the couch. It is a Lonestar variation. Okay, back to the point. At any rate, I was in Walmart and had a PSVT attack. Really bad one, lasted longer and more painful than I had ever had. I was too embarrassed to let them call me an ambulance, so I suffered and prayed that I would not pass out in the store. When I realized that I would have to end up going to the ER, I had to go buy a package of pads so I could have some with me. Another stupid moment, shopping with out being prepared. At any rate, I finished my purchase, sat down for a few minutes and then managed to get to the car.<br />
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I had to call an ambulance to pick me up from the parking lot. SOOOOO totally embarrassing, but by that point the pain was so intense, dizziness and nausea so strong that I just didn't care any more. Well, I had been battling the episode already for about 20 - 30 minutes before giving in and admitting I had to have some help just to get some relief. When the EMT checked me, my heart rate was only 214. They immediately gave me medicine to bring it down, which didn't work so followed that up with a double dose. Understand, that this medicine, when administered, tightens the chest as if in a huge vice grip. Off to the ER we went to make sure I wasn't having a stroke or anything else. I have to call in the morning to have a follow up visit with my primary doctor. I swear I think it caused a mini stroke because I am having trouble remembering some things one side of my mouth now has a bit of droop to it.<br />
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Needless to say, I didn't get anything much accomplished today. Wasn't even able to keep the grand baby and I really feel bad about that.<br />
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Well, I am off to take a warm bath and then to bed. Tomorrow is another day and now that I am a day behind, I really need to hit two fabric shops and a local quilt shop tomorrow to pick up some fabric that son's girlfriend picked out so that I can have it on hand to work on her quilt. Also need a coordinating fabric for the Lonestar project to use on the insets. The quilt is shaped kind of like a stop sign.<br />
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Thank you for stopping in for a visit, please come again soon.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-29943135270538853142013-01-04T02:01:00.002-08:002013-01-04T02:03:48.578-08:00New Year - New Start<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, it is the start of a new year. They seem to actually be showing up a lot sooner than they used to. Remember being young and thinking on New Year's Day as you eat you black eyed peas that it going to take forever for it to get to Christmas again. So many things can change in that year. Loved ones lost, loved ones just beginning. Now, as this year starts, I cherish the memories of my parents that are no longer living. I miss them something terrible. I look forward to a new grand baby coming. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Along with that comes all the plans for the year. Do any of you make resolutions? I used to, but just don't any more. I just don't get them resolved. Don't get me wrong, I still make out goals and plans for the future, both immediate and longer, but I just don't label them. Keeps the pressure of so I don't feel disappointed or a failure because I didn't loose that weight, clean the house, eat more healthy or what ever a resolution would involve.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Are there areas I want to work on? Yes there are, many of them, too many too list. Okay, so I do have a list, just not going to share it. I will say that I want to work on me this year. I have been so busy giving me away to so many other people that I have disappeared a bit. I think I need to find me, such a cliché saying, and then work on making me better. I need to define my relationship with my Savior, only by getting that in order can there be any type of order to myself. I am no good to anyone if I am can't even pull myself together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I want to be better at being a wife, which means better at taking care of the house. Better cleaning, better meal preparation, working on getting the house fixed up the way I...repeat "I"...want it. I have been in this house for going on 13 years and it still doesn't feel like mine. I want it to feel like mine. You know, like I belong instead of visiting. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I want to be better at being a mother, which means paying more attention to my kids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I want to have time to do all the craft things that are stuck in my head. The counted cross stitch projects (my new obsession) that I have started. The quilts I have planned. All the quilts in various stages that were put away when life got in the way. In other words, I am determined to finish all that I have started. For a change.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Oh I am great, stupendous in fact, at making list and organizing. Problem is, the organizing just doesn't quite get there. I start, like sorting out a closet, then way to easily get side tracked by some sort of thought that blows through my head. I buy all the needed supplies for doing the organizing, then just don't use them. Maybe it is time to re-visit Fly Lady or the SHE school of thought.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I had planned to play along with a challenge or two, but am also thinking all that over as well. I did give up and quit the Crazy January challenge. You can read more about it on that page. Needless to say I am way too slow at stitching so it is already driving me crazy to have the two projects I started just sitting around. I will continue to work on them, that gives me a total of three WIP in the cross stitch department. I have no UFO's any more as far as cross stitch is concerned. The one UFO I had, was the Nativity, but since I am actively working on it again I have updated its status to a Work In Progress (WIP) now. I use to have an intense passion for quilting. I am good at it. My dad would call and ask me what I was working on, I would email him photos, he was my biggest fan. What ever I made - quilt, ceramic, garment construction, crochet - he was interested and loved it all. When he died, it hit me so hard I don't think I really let myself go through a proper or rather healthy grieving process. At any rate, I kind of stopped quilting for a while. Now, that little bug is back and wanting to do a lot of stitching. Besides, I think it would kind of be like disrespecting of me to not pick it back up. I even learned in a bible study class that craftsmanship is my gift from God and I feel that by not using it I am not honoring that gift. On one of my groups, there is a WIP/WHIMM challenge that I am the coordinator for. The WHIMM (Works Hidden In My Mind) category in my case is about to explode. I even bought a little bit of fabric this evening to put me in the mood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have to make some diamond blocks for a Crazy Quilt challenge, so will be starting on them no later than this week end. They are small blocks, but have a lot of embellishment that will go along with them. Thankfully, with quilting I was blessed with speed. Guess so much of the speed gene was used for quilting that none of it is left over for cross stitching. Sounds good anyway. My biggest obstacle with sewing has been being able to get to my machine. It seems that just when I get my sewing room cleaned up, something happens and stuff gets dumped in it. Mainly, that is where boxes of Mom's things get set for me to go through. So very hard to do. I still need to finish up her bills, she passed in July. At any rate, today I worked around Mr. M as best I could (along with the diversion of catching up on emails after being gone for a week) and was actually able to get quite a bit accomplished. I bought the stuff for shelving, just need to get it attached to the wall now. I also bought some cheap but pretty fabric to make the curtain to hang over the closet doors (now removed) and purchased a little extra to make a window topper to match.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, it took forever for me to get out of Walmart tonight. Have to go back tomorrow because the idiot man checking was too busy talking and charged me twice for an item. I also have to go to the bank in the morning, it would seem that someone has once again gotten our bank account info and made debit purchases. Metro PCS...again...$118 dollars worth this time. Last time it was our daughter's account and she didn't have any money in it so it only debited $1.51 but it is the hassle of it all. Now, I have to find out whose card is being used, mine or hubby's, and they will block that card. That sets off a whole new set of irritation as we both have so many things that are automatically debited each month. I kind of hope it mine, hubby and the two of our kids are on a trip at the moment, won't be back until Sunday, so can't block his card. I hate people who think they have the right to just take what they want. Any way, I am headed to the bath and then to bed. I would go straight to bed, seeing as how it is almost two in the morning, but I am freezing and a bath helps warm me. Crazy thing is in another few hours I will have a big old hot flash and sure won't be cold any more. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That's life I guess. Speaking of which.</span><br />
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Meet my helper. She has made her mission in life to eat all my threads and to see just how much skin she can take off my legs by crawling up them. Yesterday she has started climbing up the back of my computer chair and then sitting on my shoulder. Her very loud purrs in my ear tell me she is content there. Just makes it a bit difficult to do anything.<br />
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Thanks for stopping by the zoo, come back soon.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-87117837416101839872012-12-31T23:13:00.003-08:002012-12-31T23:13:45.127-08:00Last Post 2012Well, this is the last post of 2012. It is not quite midnight here in the Pacific Time Zone. We just rolled in from our trip to Texas to visit family. It was a nice trip but too short. So, just playing a little catch up since I am seeing the year in by myself. Hubby has been driving since about 1 AM this morning, we got in about 8:30 PM or so. Unloaded the car. Haven't put it all up yet. Hubby took a shower and hit the bed. Son, Mr. College, that is spending the Christmas break with us, slept all the way home, brought his stuff in, showered and headed over to his girlfriend's house. She had some minor surgery done today. Daughter, Miss Zebra, has gone to a friend's house for the night.<br />
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On the trip...I did a little shopping. Here goes.<br />
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I cleaned out the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby, plus a couple that weren't on clearance, but had coupons for them. I am planning on using these counted cross stitch kits for the Crazy January challenge. Will be posting a lot more about that in January.<br />
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I bought some more purples for the "heart" quilt. Plus one pasta novelty for me.<br />
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Also, some Texas fabric. The UT fabric will be a quilt for my brother. I plan to try out my AccuQuilt Go cutter with the tumbler die for this quilt. Not sure what I will do with the Tech fabric yet. Also got extra UT fabric to make some pillow cases for grandson, Mr. T, or maybe some pajama pants. More about the quilt projects will be coming in January as well. I am challenging myself to make a couple of finished quilts each month. Am also doing a crazy quilt journal challenge as well, which is only one block a month. That will be easy. In fact, for January, I need to make some "naked" blocks to embellish for a swap I am doing.<br />
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I also got this stocking kit, it was on clearance. Not as discounted as I would like, but it is cute so got it to make for next year. This is part of another challenge I joined, Christmas one, the goal of the group is to make one ornament a month instead of waiting until the end of the year to make them all. I figure I can complete one ornament a month, but will adding in my stocking projects as well, I consider the stocking and ornament. I plan on eventually making each grand son one. Maybe will be able to make one for a grand daughter, we don't know what is on the way yet. Just praying that this pregnancy goes well and both mother and child is healthy.<br />
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We went to a really neat antique store, more like a mall, each booth is a different seller. This little glass tooth pick holder I bought for my oldest daughter. She collects blue glass.<br />
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Bought this limited edition signed print portraying Texas. It listed in the booth for $35, I looked up the artist and while she still has prints for sale, they are selling for $69 unframed. The photo doesn't do it justice. The glare plays with the colors, the frame is wood, not painted green as it looks and the mat is dark blue. The print has a lot of blues in it which is my favorite color, and since we are from Texas, well just couldn't pass it up.<br />
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This unusually shaped shadow box was a real find as well. I have needed to find a new one to replace the one ruined in the washing machine flood incident. I can't wait to get it hung on the wall and load it up. Just don't know where I will hang it. <br />
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Last but not least, is this beautiful native American squash blossom sterling silver and turquoise necklace. I have no idea how to determine it's value, but after looking at several over the last few years I felt like I got a real bargain. It needs a little polish, but is just the right length, is not so heavy or chunky as most I see. I just love it.<br />
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I also bought a new purse, but didn't get a photo of it yet. It's awesome.<br />
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Well, time for me to go enjoy my bath tub for a much needed soak. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. We have to unpack, then hubby and kids will repack for colder weather and load up and go to Mammoth to snow ski for a few days. I intend to get a lot of work done while they are gone around here. Will post my progress, hopefully. I need to do some deep cleaning, put up all the Christmas, start up my menu planning once again as well as get some organizing of my life and home done. Wish me luck.<br />
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Out with 2012, thankfully I survived it. In with 2013, prayerfully awaiting a better year.<br />
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Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-39161511843112526772012-12-28T20:50:00.000-08:002012-12-28T20:50:16.197-08:00Year is Almost Over.Well, the year is almost behind us. I am sure looking forward to the new one.<br />
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This is my new profile photo. <br />
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I have joined lots of online challenges with the intention of kick starting my crafting gear in to drive once again. Gives me a reason to work on something, accountability in a way as well. I am however determined to get some projects finished, some new ones started and finished. <br />
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Not that I have come up with a plan...for lack of better wording...I am on fire to get going. I now know that while I can do a wide variety of crafts, and do them fairly well, I am going to concentrate on just the few that I really love. I found that I was so busy deciding what to make, and time spent buying all the supplies and such that I would need to work those crafts, that I wasn't getting anything done. Of course, my mom's illness, taking care of her, dealing with her death and trying to get my house back in order while going through her personal belongings all while carrying for my grand baby while they work, could also be the reason as well. At any rate, I am going to attempt to sell off a lot of things after the first of the year, both unused and unneeded supplies as well as Mom's things that are left.<br />
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I have learned that my crafting is a gift from God, so I want to honor that gift by giving back. I do a lot of charity giving in the way of my quilting and crocheting. I want to expand that this year. I have set personal challenges in these areas.<br />
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Quilting - finish projects that are in various stages of completion, X amount of quilts to be donated to charity causes, a few new projects that will be gifts.<br />
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Crocheting - finish projects that are in various stages of completion, X amount of crocheted items to be donated, some new items that will be gifts.<br />
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Embroidery - this is a broad category as it includes machine embroidery, hand embroidery and counted cross stitch. The embroidery is not project specific, but used in the quilting projects. Either as the center of blocks or embellishment for blocks. The counted cross stitch is something that I enjoy, but do only for myself. I am sure however that it will some how be used or incorporated in to the charity items in some form or fashion though, but most of my kits are all planned to be framed and hung in my home as wall art.<br />
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That being said, I went on a huge spending spree. I went a little crazy when my oldest daughter that I am currently visiting took me to Hobby Lobby. OH HOW I MISS that store, we don't have one where I live. I also went a little nuts at the local Walmart, buying mostly fabric that has University of Texas theme to it. I can't get that at home either unless I mail order (or online order I guess it should be called now days). We also went to a wonderful antique mall and I was just lost in all the booths. I came out of there with really more than I should have, but some wonderful bargains. Once decanter that my son had me buy we paid $40 for and was listed on eBay for $169. I found a wonderful signed limited print for $35 and that booth was 20% off, framed and all. Online, the artist is selling her limited prints of that particular picture for $68 with no frame. I found some other great treasures as well, but will post more about them with photos when I get home.<br />
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That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-54260297498937454082012-12-25T16:33:00.002-08:002012-12-25T16:33:37.888-08:00MERRY CHRISTMASMerry Christmas to everyone. May you have a blessed day.<br />
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Today has been hard for me. Missing my parents some thing awful. However I know that they are in a much better place and back together.<br />
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Aren't they cute?<br />
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Now, just to bring you up to date on the Nativity project.<br />
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This is how far it has gotten for 2012. We are leaving today to go visit the other grand sons and my oldest daughter, their mom. I finally decided that I would not be taking the project with me. So...this is the progress for the year. At this rate, I may not finish it in 2013, but I will have a lot of fun trying. Not to mention, am excited to get to go to a Hobby Lobby while visiting, will be adding a few things to the stash. Will post what I get. Hopefully, they will be having a great sale on their Christmas counted cross stitch kits or clearance on some charts and supplies.<br />
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See you next year.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-54595419012844348242012-12-22T09:21:00.001-08:002012-12-22T09:34:34.578-08:00Addition of ChallengesI have decided to join in some challenges this year as an attempt to keep me motivated and on track. I am not the most computer literate person there is, but I am working on it.<br />
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Trying this out by adding a page element. Need to figure out a way to list my projects and photos for the January Crazy challenge I am participating in for 2013. All my challenges actually. Will see how this works.<br />
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Well, it would seem that I have got this figured out, some what, so will try to get this a little better organized later today. If you look at the top of the screen you will see little tabs, or boxes. Home and Challenge. You can click on them to see what is going on there. <br />
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Have some last minute shopping to take care of, a return to make, and a trip to farmer's market so don't have time to play with the blog at the moment. I will later this evening though with some new photos.<br />
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I am wondering if I can do tabs on each page or have to make a page for each challenge. Will find out. At any rate, this new design element, will new to me anyway, is quite exciting.<br />
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Until next time. Have a great day.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-24344524689655651352012-12-20T19:24:00.001-08:002012-12-20T19:24:05.231-08:00Driving Myself CrazySo, thought I would just pop in and do a little updating.<br />
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I am driving myself crazy with this Nativity cross stitch project. I am just way to obsessed with it. I worked on it for a while last night, went to work on it more today only to find that I had done a whole section with the wrong color. I just left it. I know that in the end, it will change the design's look a little bit, but I really didn't care. I mean come on, the dark peach looks like light rust, the light peach looks more like a medium peach, the pale peach looks tan. So shoot me, I mixed up the peaches. It is the small amount of skin on one hand. Granted it is Mary, we are talking about, it just isn't going to matter.<br />
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Also, yesterday I answered an ad on Craig's list for a Christmas stocking cross stitch kit. She had started it, but not stitched very much yet. I was happy to get it. Now, my only dilemma is trying to figure out how to classify the project. Is it a new start for me? I didn't really start it, although there is a very small portion of Santa's hat that she has worked on.<br />
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This what it will look like finished. Why do they always have to have the stocking with the toes facing that way. All other stockings the toes face the other direction. At any rate, here is what the project looks like at the moment.<br />
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It is the garland he is carrying. So, let me know what you think.<br />
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I have to decide whether to classify this item as a UFO to count when I finish it. Or count it as a current item then just count the finish, or count it as a WIP, or since I haven't done anything with it yet, will I count it as a new start.<br />
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Promised you it would be short. Just leave me a comment If you like. Thank you for the visit and come back soon.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-44943205232001638382012-12-19T20:22:00.000-08:002012-12-19T20:22:45.425-08:00Wacky Wednesday!Just no other way to describe today, just wacky.<br />
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First of all, I met a very nice young lady today. She lives in the next town over, up on the mountain. She has her hands full, one boy is two years old, the other is 6 months old. She listed an item on Craig's list that I bought. It is a counted cross stitch kit for a Christmas stocking. She had started it, but only got a little bit of the design stitched. She did a good job, just didn't have time with the two kids to work on anything. I told her I can totally relate. The kit came with 28 count cloth, which I really don't like working with, so am thinking that I may just start over and use 14 count cloth. It shouldn't change the size of the stocking since I would only be crossing on square instead of two like the higher count cloth. Although the directions don't say anything about going over two threads or what ever you call it. It may just end up being a miniature, but I am taking the chance.<br />
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I have been working like crazy getting my sewing room all organized back up from being packed up for a while. I have the last of the furniture I am keeping from my mom in place now. Just need to have hubby hang the mirror that goes with the little chest. Have quite a few things to get hung on the walls as a matter of fact. He did finally get my shelf attached to the wall in the living room.<br />
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Now I will just have to get a new curtain rod that is a little longer to go through the shelf. You can't really tell from the photo, but my dad cut circles in the end pieces and a support in the middle so I could hang a curtain rod through it. My previous house had a huge double window in the dining area. Dad had made similar smaller shelves for me to use to hang quilts so I asked him to make a larger one that I could hang a curtain on. He added a groove the whole length of the shelf as well so I could stand up plates to display them. We brought the shelf with us to this house. My dad worked hard to hang it in my daughter's room for an extra shelf to put toys on. I had a large Sunbonnet Sue quilt hanging from it that my aunt had made for my oldest daughter. Then we took the shelf down to repaint and moved daughter to another room. I gave the quilt to my oldest daughter since it was hers. Now the shelf is hanging in the living room. The figures sitting on the shelf are all figures I had painted and given to my dad on different birthday's, father's day and such. When mom moved out here, they came back to me. My dad loved them.<br />
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This is a close up of the mountain man and his pack horse. I added real feathers to his hat and horse's bridle and pack. Dad found that dog somewhere and put him with it so I left him there too. Dad also had some little stones around them but I didn't keep them. My dad was very good with his hands and he built a wooden shelf each time he received one and they all hung in a cluster in my parent's living room.<br />
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Now, you all read about Miss Zebra, my youngest daughter. Thought I would let you see what she looks like.<br />
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This was taken right before her ice skate performance this past week end. She looked so festive, but unfortunately she fell during her routine and hit her hip hard. It wasn't a competition thankfully, but she was still rather embarrassed and still sore.<br />
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This is her and Mr. M (my youngest grand son that I am day care for)<br />
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Can you tell she has a thing for zebra design. Anything zebra. I have loaded her up with zebra designed things for Christmas. Zebra designed head band, hat, tank top, shoes, make up bags, coffee mug (hot cocoa in her case) even found a pair of footed pajamas that are zebra print with zebra heads on the feet. Yes, footed, as in baby footed jammies. Seems to be all the rage in the younger set. She is in the car and tells me, "by the way...hint, hint, wink, wink, Target has footed zebra pajamas. I will acted surprised if you get them for me." Isn't she so sweet? Yeah right. I had not been in a Target store in so long, I had no idea what all they have started carrying. I saw a lovely little dress for Miss Zebra, wasn't zebra print but it was a purple that she would like. I was in utter shock when I looked at it closer. It was made from all cotton fabric, not the best quality in my opinion either. They wanted $99.99 for it. All cotton, would have to iron it every time she turned around, and a hundred dollars? Well, it did have the Neiman Marcus name on it. Didn't even know they had their own brand of things much less that Target would be carrying it. I did find a nice little corduroy jacket for her, purple with faux fur trim around the hood.<br />
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It just kind of worked out so that I haven't had Mr. M this week until today. I was able to get quite a bit done around here. Finished up my Christmas shopping, more about that in a bit. I finally got the last few pieces of furniture in my sewing room that I want to keep that was mom's. That includes her rocker, entertainment center (that has glass door and end cabinet) little chest and a matching wall mirror that will hang over it. AND...everything is now where I can find it so I am ready to start sewing, embroidering and crocheting up a storm in 2013. I AM READY FOR THIS YEAR TO BE OVER. I have inventoried my thread, have it all sorted and ready to go. I will have to buy some more as I get started using it, but thankfully most of my projects are kits which come with the thread...and cloth and needles. I have also, after hearing that some others on my groups do it, made a list of all my kits and charts. To make myself seem totally organized, I also made a list of UFO's, which is only down to one for cross stitching, since the other two cross stitch projects got tossed. They will become a new start in 2013. Made a list of projects to start as well. You see, crazy me joined this crazy insane challenge that challenges each person to start a new project each day from Jan. 1 until Jan. 15. That will be 15 UFO's to work on through the year. If that isn't insane enough, a group of us are doing a dual challenge. Not only are doing a new start for each day through the 15th, we are doing it through Jan. 31. If that hasn't hit you, that will be 31 new UFO projects. Which technically will not be a UFO unless I quit working on it. So that will actually be 31 new WIP projects. Works In Progress. That is a big challenge for me as it drives me crazy to not finish up a project right away.<br />
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Speaking of work in progress, the nativity is actually starting to show a little structure. Slowly, very slowly. Now this is my only actual UFO as I started this back in like 1998 or so. I really did not stitch this very logically, as at the moment I am stitching 3 in light peach, 5 in dark peach, 6 in pale brown, 9 in grey, 5 in light taupe...well you get the idea. About ten different colors that are too far apart from the next place to use that color to park the thread. This is the center of the design, big mistake on this project. I will be able to roll it either way on the scrolls to a whole new set of the design. You see, I had put the center of the cloth in a hoop, you can still see a little of the coloration from it to your left. I started out with the brilliant idea to just do all stitches of one color all over the design area in the frame. OH THAT WAS A MISTAKE. I started squaring off, for lack of a better word, along the right side. Line by line, filling in what I had already done. I should have done that to start with. I am right on track with the line at a time, but am finding that the little stray areas I had already completed are not always in their correct spot. Frustrating, time wise, but easy to fix so have been correcting as I go. I am learning a lot with this piece so that is the good thing. It is the starting and ending of threads for each of the like thirty million shades for the shadowing effect that is driving me crazy. I mean really, there is literally grey, then very dark taupe, dark taupe, medium taupe, light taupe, very light taupe and of course pale taupe. All just a few stitches of each on either side of the that part of the design, then not used until another section of the design. Then you have the same with the yellow, brown, blue, teal. Well, you get the picture.<br />
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Yes, I am going to be thinking over the stitching process a bit more with the next projects I undertake. Also, I have learned about gridding. Will be doing this with all the larger projects for sure. Also, some one suggested making copies of the chart before I start, enlarging them. Now, I am not savvy enough in computer to understand the first thing about enlarging as described to me by one sweet group member, she explained how to do it in Adobe. But as the saying goes, there are more ways than one to skin a cat. I scanned a chart, cropped the scan to just a few lines over half the chart, then printed it out as a full sheet. Then, cropped the other half picking up few extra lines and did the same way. It turned out well. I have the same few lines of the chart on both charts to line up so I am on the correct row when I change pages. OH MY has this been a saving of time and eye strain with this nativity project. In fact, I have already done this with my next project I plan to start.<br />
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I am trying out the notebook plastic floss holder system. I like the ease of having it all together. I made the copies of the chart and they are in a pocket in the back of the notebook. The front of the notebook has a clear pocket for the cover and I placed the book in there. What I didn't like was how easy the bobbin's fall out of their assigned spot. I know it seems I am all over the board with my organization of things, but am really looking at what will work for me. Also looking at what is readily available for me as well.<br />
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I am in the process of listing my quilt projects in the same way. While I was going through the boxes of everything I had stored while the sewing room was down, I have found quite a stack of UFO projects that will be top on my list of finishing. They are all sizes and in different states of completion. About 98% of my quilts are for charity so to have so many unfinished is just totally unacceptable to my heart. Our church has a quilt ministry that I am a part of. Not as active as I should be, but no one's fault but my own. Long story...for another time. At any rate, one of the projects is to make some quilts for an orphanage in Kharakastan. Some men from our congregation went there last summer to build a play ground for them. Those men felt bad for the children's lack of bedding and ask if our group would make some simple quilts but colorful. We are doing simple, 6 1/2 inch squares, 7 squares across and 10 squares down. Tied for quilting. Scrap squares for the tops. The brighter the fabric the better. I am really looking forward to starting on this project. <br />
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In fact I even bought a die for my AccuQuilt Go that cuts 6 1/2 inch squares. Shhh....we won't talk about all the other dies I bought though. I just ordered a new one today, of a little car. Can't wait to use them though, tumbler's block and apple core as well as Sunbonnet Sue. So looking forward to actually cutting and sewing once again. The group also makes baptism quilts, which I hope to work on. I plan to push myself really hard to complete the UFO's in my closet and then I will start and complete at least 4 quilts a month. These will be crib size. I love to quilt and I think that getting back to it will be just the shot in the arm I need. Of course I will make a few quilts for family. Not many as they all have one already. <br />
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Also on my list to do is to learn to use my EQ 7 and PC Stitch 10 software. After the first, I am also opening an Etsy store to sell of some things. Mostly a lot of paper craft products and supplies. I don't like it, have way too much of those things. That being said, there are some of things I just can't give up. Like my Cricut and Sizzix. I have figured out that I will use them from time to time, cannot get near what I spent on all of it, don't want to chance finding that I need to replace it at some point.<br />
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But here's the thing. Crocheting is a nice look, and while most find it relaxing it makes me a nervous wreck. But, it is portable so that it can be carried most anywhere I go, and it is quiet so I can work on it when everyone else is trying to sleep. Same with counted cross stitch or hand embroidery. While a little more difficult to take camping or such, can take it with me and it is quiet. Unless I am cursing the chart or myself for loosing stitches, adding stitches or just plain putting them in the wrong spot. Like I said, I love to make quilts, but with the early to bed hubby I have, I try to not run the machine once he has gone to sleep. That being said, I have purposely laid out my new sewing room with that in mind by putting the sewing machine and the sewing cabinet it sits on completely across the room on the total opposite corner so that it won't bump on the walls. I can close the door some, but it is easier to close the bedroom door. Plus, the later solves the problem of the cat showing up in our bed. The hardest thing I am having to figure out is how to do anything with a toddler under foot. I love taking care of him, but by the time he gets picked up, have the evening meal, there is a very thin window of time before some people hit the sack. So, the plan is to get as much done with the machines as possible when I can and then build up a pile of hand work.<br />
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If I can make several tops at a time, then sandwich them, say once a week, then quilt them and sew bindings on over a week end when I have no toddler. I may get something done. I so badly want to just chuck everything around me and just start working on something, anything, everything, but it is just too close to Christmas and our trip to see family in Texas. BUT...when I get back, get all of Christmas put away, I am doing a few things for me. One of those is attempting fitness boot camp. It may end up killing me, but I am up for the challenge. Our church has a private school and one of the students mother is teaching the classes...for free. It sounds ambitious but I have to make some changes in my life or go insane.<br />
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Emotionally, I was doing quite well until yesterday. Hubby caught the delivery truck dropping off, which of course he would being that they can't come during the day. No...they have make their drop, knock, run visits at 8:00 at night? What was worse, was hubby yelling at me for buying him a gift. Yelling at me. Now understand, I have used my little inheritance monies to buy some gifts with some thought to it for him. It's not like I am breaking us for this. HOLY SMOKES, I can just imagine what he is going to do when he sees what else is under the tree for him. It is just really hard with out my mom. I so want to talk to her, show things, I just miss her. I know this will pass, time heals all wounds and such. But it is just still really raw right now.<br />
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Okay, I promise to keep my post shorter from now on. Thanks for hanging in there and come back again.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-4212425147112266562012-12-13T20:00:00.000-08:002012-12-13T20:00:23.970-08:00Thread PurchaseI have been working to get a stash of thread built up. I purchased one of each color, still don't have them all because the stores have been out of a few colors. However, it was a big start. I posted about it <a href="http://blairblogproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/update-trying-it-new-way.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I have also been buying some patterns and kits. They are coming in a little each day, got to love it, looking forward to mail I mean. Between my purchases and Christmas shopping for hubby, the postal person is being kept busy. Fortunately, hubby is used to my craft purchases so doesn't even suspect that some of the deliveries are for under the tree.<br />
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At any rate, I won some auctions on eBay for some large lots of DMC floss. <br />
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All in all it was a good deal. One purchase was for 100 bags, three skeins in each, had .10 printed on the bags. The description told me that, so I knew and expected 100 different colors, three skeins of that color, each sorted in to a small baggy with a sticker that reads .10 on it. It was also in the description that they had purchased these from a craft store that was going out of business and that it was already packaged that way when they got it. Also said that there were no duplicates. Well, to start with, there was only 98 bags. When I sorted through them and inventoried the color numbers, 11 of those little bags were duplicate color numbers, and obvious duplicate numbers at that. That is what the empty baggies to the left are, duplicates. Most of them are DMC brand. A good number of them are American Thread, which I have never used before. I am not sure, haven't done enough research yet, but about four of those colors look like duplicates, but have a different number so not sure. For instance there is a color 1006 and another marked color 1006-A. Most of these do look like they are just a subtle change in hue, but not a lot. I wanted to leave feedback, kind of neutral, but it would seem that now on eBay you cannot leave neutral or negative feedback until 7 days after the purchase. That's a little ridiculous if you ask me, there is nothing that will be "worked out" with either of these purchases. I got my money's worth so have no intention of asking for a refund or such. I did however email the seller through eBay, will see what kind of response if any I get. This type of buy just isn't worth that hassle and I know that on eBay it is sometimes just a crap shoot. About 97% of my purchases have all been very positive with successful out comes. My selling experience has been the same.<br />
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Funny, I was writing this blog and had to stop for a while so saved it as a draft. When I came back to write it, I forgot about the draft and started a new post. That's what happens in my life. LOL<br />
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On to the second purchase. I won 100 threads already in a thread baggy with a hole punched in it so you can put it on a ring. I had not seen these type of bags before, but had heard of them. Anyway, it was described as 100 bags, one skein in each, a few bags had two skeins, marked with the color number, no duplicates. These are all DMC. So, I sat down with my paper and pencil to inventory record the color numbers, sort them in numeric order according to color number and inventory them. Actually this was the first set of the two I worked with last night. I was very disappointed in this buy. The description said nothing about being in a smoker's home. I ended up having to put them aside and find my inhaler because the smell of the stale smoke was so strong it triggered my asthma, which I haven't had an attack in ages. This buy too was short, only 96 bags and four of them were duplicates. I didn't feel like writing to this seller, so I did leave a positive feedback since they shipped quickly and like the other purchase I did get my money's worth. However...I did leave a remark about the smoke odor issue. That is a big point with me, as every one in this household is asthmatic in varying degrees, my grand son that I care for during the day and his mother are too. The grand baby was born early and so breathing issues are big with him. Not so bad as it could be, but still something we have to be mindful of.<br />
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Anyway, at least now I have a stash to start with. I don't have that many charts, but at least I will have thread to work on them. Good thing is that the kits all come with thread for them. My other little habit to feed is crazy quilting, which has a lot of embroidery embellishment to it. My older stash of thread has been reserved for that since the color number is not important. With embellishing, you just use a color of thread that goes with what you need. Specialty threads come in to play with this type of embroidery as well. Fuzzy threads, metallic threads, loopy threads, as well as buttons and charms. I love crazy quilting, it is so expressive and not really any real rules to go by. You know, satin sewed next to velvet sewed next to cotton and so forth. It is Victorian in nature after all and that whole period is wonderfully wicked eccentric. Here is a lovely example of a crazy quilt that Renee found and pinned to her <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/157485318191433743/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> board. You really should go look at it. I have never seen a crazy quilt that was made like this. Most crazy quilts are more random in their block shapes and sizes. The history of the crazy quilt is really quite fascinating. Victorian girls would collect fabric "charms" or pins or cigar wrappers which at that time were made of silk. A charm is a piece of fabric. Young men that would gift these things to earn a girls attention. Traditionally, a girl would collect 999 charms and who ever gave her the 1,000 charm would be her true love. Although, in reality, crazy quilts were traditionally made by upper class women because of the finer and exotic fabrics that were used while the charm quilts evolved in to a whole different type of quilt.<br />
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My new profile photo is a heart block I made in crazy quilt style.<br />
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I used to make them to trade. I just couldn't give this one up for some reason. <br />
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This is a traditional block.<br />
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This was part of a round robin I participated in. <br />
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Then, there is also the world of the ATC.<br />
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These were for trade, but never did. ATC stands for Artist Trading Card and they are the size of a business card. Kind of a good way to practice a new stitch, but a challenge due to the small size.<br />
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Okay, so I have probably bored you beyond tears so will call it a night. I had a small flood in the house yesterday. A hose on the washing machine sprang a hole and I had a rain storm of hot water going. All over the ceiling, the floor (which has a drain but apparently it is clogged) out in to the hall. Water traveled under the walls into not one but three bedrooms. All of the laundry had to be redone because of the water. Lost some thread and lace that I had stored on a top shelf in there, even my little shadow box was ruined. It was a mess. Fortunately, no major damage that would cost to repair, just mainly lots of labor. Hubby had it repaired yesterday right away, and today I have done load after load of laundry until I am tired of it, and still have more to do. I don't mind doing the laundry you see, it is the putting up of the clean items. You know, if I didn't have to do laundry, clean house, cook or such idiotic things I would sure have a lot more time for stitching. <br />
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Thanks for stopping buy and come back again.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-18809110876267476182012-12-11T15:29:00.001-08:002012-12-11T15:29:14.228-08:00Busy Day.So...have laundry going. At least enough to make hubby think I have done house work today. Will be fixing spaghetti and meatballs for supper, unless that makes hubby take us to grab a burger. Miss Zebra has her Christmas band concert tonight that we have to go to. She actually requested that we come to it. Mr. M is in a mood today, so he needs a little extra attention. Fortunately, Miss Zebra is home today to help.<br />
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I stayed up way to late last night crocheting a scarf out of this new Sashay yarn made by Red Heart.<br />
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It comes looking like this. This color is called Mombo. Rich colors that are berry, navy, olive green and magenta, all blending together.<br />
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It opens up to look like this. A mesh, net style. Reminds me of the fish net hose I use to wear in my younger days. The bottom edge of the mesh is wider with a metallic thread that runs through it. I had never seen this yarn before, but found it on some posting somewhere, talking about the great scarves it makes. I posted a photo of the scarf to my FB page and my oldest daughter Mrs. S promptly posted that there was several shades of the yarn with, and I quote, "rich hues that flow together" and she hinted that she would like some.<br />
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Like the loving mom that I am, I went online to search for patterns. Apparently, this yarn is better used for knitting. Which I can't do. However, I did find some crochet ones. I talked to a lady at JoAnn's who had used the yarn, she knits of course, but she was very helpful. She suggested going on YouTube. Which I did. The few videos I watched had a little different crochet technique, but it seemed easy enough. One lady stated that the scarf would only take less than one skein and about 30 minutes to work up. Another lady stated one skein would have yarn left over and only takes about 30 minutes to make if you are used to working with it, about an hour if you haven't. She said the hardest part of making a scarf was pulling the thread out as you crocheted.<br />
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So...here is the finished scarf. Pulling that yarn apart, or stretching it out, as you work it is a bugger. The bottom edge, as I said, is a wider edge with a silver metallic thread running through it. The top edge of this mesh yarn is narrower and that is the edge that you work with. For the first time to work with this yarn it took way more than an hour. Maybe I am slow stitching, but here's the thing, if you loose your stitch, it all comes out. This yarn in my opinion is a real pain in the ass to work with and I would never become one of those people that makes them to sell. I would charge way too much for them because I hate working with it. However, that being said, this scarf will go to Mrs. S and I have another skein in a different color to make for her as well. I will say, that I did have quite a bit of yarn left over and I made it longer than the one shown on YouTube. I also have to admit, that after I dropped the stitch and had to start over...three times...I did hit a groove in working with the stuff. I will say this as a warning. Do not start this project unless you have a couple of hours to work it. It is not like regular crocheting where you can just pick up where you left off. I mean you can, but only if you have a safe place to store it that your hook won't come out. Also, I would suggest using a bamboo handled hook. The handle helped immensely in keeping the thread on.<br />
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I bought a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse to go with my new computer today. LOVING them. I am starting to get the hang of the Windows 8 thing as well and it is growing on me. I was upset that I had some how lost my scanner, on every computer, but this morning I had an update waiting to be installed for my printer series and it seems that it is working now. OH YEAH! This is a big deal to me because I just purchased EQ7 quilting software program (rather pricey but I did get a good deal on it over on the <a href="http://www.quiltinaday.com/" target="_blank">Quilt in a Day</a> site. The main reason I bought this particular version of EQ7 is the capability of scanning my fabric to fill in the block in the quilt design. That way I can see how it looks before I even cut it.<br />
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Speaking of awesome quilts. Take a look at this <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/157485318191433743/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> site. I love it when I can combine my hobbies into one project. Like using embroidery on a crazy quilt. Well this quilt is a little different in that it is not your traditional crazy quilt that is built from odd shapes of fabric sewn together. This quilt is what is known as an apple core pattern. Very traditional, considered a charm quilt, dates back to the late 1800's I believe (late 19th century). Victorian era ladies would collect charms of fabric, buttons and pins and such. At any rate, this quilt is a great example of a traditional pattern, embroidery embellishment, and...it happens to be a die I just purchased for my AccuQuilt cutter. <br />
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I cannot wait to get through the holidays so I can actually start working on something. I added the last pieces of furniture to my craft room.<br />
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This is my mom's little rocker that she was so attached to. She didn't use much, as she preferred the comfort of her Lazy Boy, but my parents bought this rocker in 1951 when they adopted my older brother. Mom always talked about how she rocked her babies in this chair. My brother and I were adopted, not blood related, but we were related in a loving family. At any rate, while it is not the most comfortable chair to kick back in, it does fit the space perfectly. <br />
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It is harder in some ways, easier in others, than I expected getting through the holidays with out mom. They say the first ones are the hardest. I know I am missing her terribly. Christmas was her favorite time of year. All the church services, celebrating Christ's birth. Family getting together for gifts on Christmas eve and then again on Christmas Day for a huge meal. It was just always on Christmas. Growing up was my brother and I with mom and dad. We never went anywhere for Christmas, never had anyone visit. I think earlier, before I came along, there was Christmas with one uncle and his family and my granny (dad's mom) but I only know of it from home movies. I don't ever remember it that way...and I do have a superb memory for that kind of thing. Now my kids always had several Christmas times. One with just us, then one with my parents, and one with hubby's parents. I know I just want to make it through the holidays with out falling apart and that is getting harder each day. I want to get past the holidays, get all the decorations packed away and get on with life and working on things. <br />
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Speaking of which.<br />
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Update on the Nativity. I have finally made the decision to start another cross stitch project (that is smaller) and quite pushing myself to finish the Nativity. Now that I realize I will never finish it for this year. <br />
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I hope hubby never finds out how much I have spent on quilting/stitching supplies on eBay. LOL I am now feeling better about my stashes though. Plenty of kits, plenty of patterns, plenty of thread (since I won some large lots of embroidery thread on eBay) and enough quilt fabric to at least plan a quilt. I think also, after the first I will start selling off some of my paper craft supplies (rubber stamps, punches, papers) to feed the kitty so to speak.<br />
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Speaking of kitty.<br />
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She likes mom's rocker too. I didn't realize when we took her in how much comfort it would be to have her around.<br />
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Oh...and also speaking of feeding the kitty.<br />
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Here is my change kitty (on the left) that is fed by all the change I find around the house. The other decorative jar is what my mom used to keep cotton balls in. I am going to use it for a TUSAL jar. Found out about this on some blogs I read. It stands for Totally Useless Stitch Along. All the bits and pieces from cross stitch (ends and frogging) goes in the jar and I post a photo of the jar each new moon. I always keep a baggy taped to the sewing table when I do machine embroidery. I have used all those little pieces in other projects. I guess you can see one of my sets of machine embroidery thread in the background. I only have three. LOL<br />
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This is a free standing lace cross that I stitched out on my embroidery machine a while back. All the various colors you see in it was done by using two layers of tulle and placing the cut threads I collected between them then stitching out the design. Oh I hope I can find those files on a computer somewhere in this house when I get ready to start doing some machine embroidery work. I know I have a disk somewhere that has designs to embroider out that are the cutest vintage children. I hope to put them in to some quilt blocks.<br />
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Well, time to move the laundry around. Thanks for stopping by and do come back to visit soon. Feel free to leave me a comment. I love to read them.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4450955004149286941.post-63616376074133563302012-12-09T00:52:00.002-08:002012-12-09T00:52:55.966-08:00Oh What Fun!Okay, so you know how you eat all the cake and cookies the week before you know you are starting a new diet? Because you know that you won't be getting any after that day? And you really want to get them out of the house?<br />
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Well, I am preparing for my diet date. A stash diet that is. Jan. 1 will start a no buy, use the stash, finish the UFO's personal challenge.<br />
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For quilting, this means that I will only purchase what I need to complete a project. I will be making a list of all my UFO's (unfinished forgotten objects) that are <strike>stuffed</strike> folded up neatly on the shelf. I will be feeding the PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) so that they fatten up in to wonderfully completed quilts to go to new homes. I have an obscene amount of PIGS. Good thing I love ham so much. I did find a great deal on EQ7, quilt design software, over at the <a href="http://www.quiltinaday.com/" target="_blank">Quilt in a Day</a> site so purchased it...on Thursday, it arrived Friday. I was in total shock at the speed. I can't wait to load it and start playing with it. Next week though, I am going to play with my AccuQuilt Go cutter and the new tumbler die I bought. I purchased fabric today for a purple and grey quilt to made out of the tumblers for a gift for youngest son's girlfriend. I do suspect however, that in the not to distant future she will become family. Think, hope anyway, they are planning on waiting until they are both out of college. They have been together for like five or six years already. Also, purchased some iron on interfacing to use for the t-shirt quilt I plan to make out of youngest son's t-shirts I have collected. Actually he collected them, kept them stuffed in his closet, I found them when he moved out. So, figured if held on to them, I can make them in to some thing he can really hold on to.<br />
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Now, the "Stash Diet" as it deals with my newest fascination of counted cross stitch. For this re-visited hobby, I call it that because years ago (many, many years ago) I enjoyed this particular craft. But, like so many things in my life it was boxed up, put away, not to be thought of for far too long. Well, in the process of sorting through boxes in the storage to unpack and place in the sewing room that was no longer needed for a bedroom for mom, I found some UFO's that had not been touched in at least 12 years or more. I have developed a new determination to finish all unfinished works in my life. Guess it is a by product of the loss of mom, dealing with all the final disposition of her things and such. At any rate, there has opened up a new window of interest again after being closed up for far too long. Getting rid of the musty part of old I guess.<br />
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So...as with the quilting, I am going on a diet with this area as well. Problem is, I haven't really got the huge amount of stash to supply my addiction with the counted cross stitching as I do with my quilting. But, I am in for the game. I have only one project in the works currently, that will be an ongoing project for some time it would seem. I stitch very slow. Don't know why I can create a quilt in a day, two at the most, completely finished, but it takes forever to make all those little x's of thread everywhere. On the agenda for this new project, it will be a lot of organizing, just like with quilting. I already have planned which project I am starting first. I am so tired of working on my current project, the nativity. Once I tasted reality and swallowed the sad fact that I will not be able to finish it for this Christmas, I immediately placed it at the top of my "ongoing finish for 2013" list. <br />
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To "prepare" for my upcoming stash diet, I have gone on a little spending spree. Not a lot, but I did buy the thread for my next project, but forgot the cloth. I will have to remember to get some. I am thinking that it would be much cheaper to buy some cloth by the yard. I have a serger and can finish off the cut edges. Maybe though, I will just have to buy the cloth as I go. Not sure which would make more sense, money wise, at this point. Any way, at this time, I am really concentrating on building up my thread stash. Last week, I bought a thread of each color, sorted it and have it all inventoried. At the moment however, I think I went a little overboard on bidding on Ebay. I will only have a problem if I actually win them all. However, I have budgeted for just such an occasion. At least I will have on hand all I need to work with, supply wise. As with the quilting, as of Jan. 1 there will be no more purchases of thread, charts, kits to just <strike>stuff</strike> find a place to store away. I will only use what I have on hand. Of course, it doesn't count if you have to buy a few threads to replace what you use up, or run out of before finishing the project. Yep, that's the story...I'm sticking to it.<br />
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Oh this is going to be so much fun. Wonder if I can stitch while on the treadmill, which I will be starting back on Jan. 1 as well. Well, exercise anyway, thinking of getting some hand weights and a ball for scrunches. Will start simple. Also need to get back on track with my food as well.<br />
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I have decided to re-organize my day a bit and starting on the first of the new year I plan to sew during the day. Well...as much as I can around Mr. M and his needs that is. Cross stitch when everyone has gone to bed and it needs to be quieter. By that I mean I won't disturb hubby who goes to bed at 8:30 each night. I have to fit in menu planning in there somewhere as well. It seems to really run a lot smoother at meal time if I have planned it out a bit. We eat out way too much, my fault, and since I am the largest instigator of it, I will be hardest to push for home meals. It is better all around financially to plan out the meals and eat at home, emotionally I don't have to worry what is for dinner, and physically is much healthier for us as well. Hubby eats out a big meal every day for lunch with his job. Miss Zebra eats at school each day, she tries to make healthy choices but sometimes that is really hard with what the school offers up. It makes sense to make the evening meal more nutritious for all of us.<br />
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Pulled some more items from mom's storage out today and brought them to the house to go through. I finally got the furniture I want for the sewing room all in place, just need to clean it back up as every thing was just kind of piled here and there willy nilly to change out the pieces of furniture.<br />
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Cross over between these two crafts will be the crazy quilting projects. They are both quilting and embroidery and they are embellished with all kinds of embroidery stitches and decorative pieces. I have a box of my mom's clothes that I saved, her more favorite pieces and a sack of my dad's neck ties. I will cut them up and make a crazy quilt for myself and my brother, just throw size, and then will make smaller pillow or lap size projects for each of the grand kids to have. This project will take a long time I am sure, but that is okay too. This project will not go on any list, no deadlines, nothing but time to heal and remember.<br />
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The other craft that I enjoy, or hobby, but I just hate the word hobby because to me it conjures up time spent doing some project that is of no use to anyone. When you say you have a craft, it sounds more artsy, more special. Regardless, I also crochet. Love the things I create, but like with cross stitch, am totally at a snail's pace with it. I will never be able to understand how someone can sit there and tell me how relaxing, calming, crochet is. I can only work so long, by that I mean not long at all, for I become a nervous irritable wreck. So, because I have a weird sense of need to punish myself, I bought some this new yarn out to make a scarf for my oldest daughter, Mrs. C, the teacher. You can crochet with it, but it has a net, much like the old fishnet hose, built in to it. Apparently, it makes really great scarves because the yarn design naturally makes a spiral or ruffle. I talked to a woman at the store that has used it quite a bit. She knits though, will never be able to learn that, and she showed me a little of how to do it, but with wanting to crochet it she advised me to check out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank">YouTube</a> for videos on working with the stuff. Mrs. C has already hinted that she would like one. She finds things on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>, then lets me know...in not so subtle hints...that I should make it for her. She has a lot of misplaced confidence in her mother's abilities sometimes. But hey, makes me try new things...once. If you haven't looked around that site, you really should, it is amazing. Make sure you lots of time when you do.<br />
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Well, it is late and I have written a book in this post. Thank you for dropping buy and listening. I have a year's worth of cleaning to get done tomorrow. Hubby loves me so much he had to share his little bug with me. I have been sick for a week or so. So...nothing has really been done around the house because as you all know, only mom can do it. And, even if she can't really hold her head up, is sneezing a storm, coughing up a lung, it will all be alright when ever she does get around to it. Come back and visit soon. Will be updating later in the week the nativity progress. I kind of hit a sweet spot with some large areas of the same color to stitch. Oh my stars, that doing three or nine stitches of a color at a time just kills. I should just nickname the project Small, because, "you're killing me Smalls).<br />
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That being said, I am off to soak and then to bed. Have a really full day waiting for me tomorrow. Will see how much I can get done. Have you finished your Christmas shopping? I am about a fourth of the way done. Need some online orders to arrive, then wrapped, and one more shopping trip with hubby and we will be finished. I am so excited that we are heading to Texas to see family right after Christmas. I will have to pull some photos off Facebook of Buddy, Mrs. C shelf elf. If you haven't heard of this craze you really should look it up. She is so creative in story ideas that I just eagerly anticipate reading each day's post about what he was up to during the night.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13883276453614044524noreply@blogger.com2