Today in My Life ... Sunday, June 24, 2012

Today is:  Sunday, June 24, 2012

I got up this morning:  at 5:45.  Awake as if the sleep had been really good.  Pushed the button on the coffee pot, opened the blinds, turned on the computers, run my hand across the counters thinking how fortunate I am...

I look out my window:  and realize that I really need to dead head my roses and get my mint and lemon verbena planted!  As in .. TODAY!  

I am thinking:  that the bandages in my groin from the cardiac cath and the tape burns will have to come off today or they'll drive me nuts... ;o)  I'm allergic to the tape they used and it left a huge seeping burn area.. ;o(   However... it's dry now and time for the bandage to come off.....!!  ;o)

I am thankful for:  the fact that the cardiac cath shows only a 30% blockage of the stent.  Very happy result!  ;o)

Plans for the rest of the week:  include finishing several of the project I've started and put aside.  I am determined to NOT start anything new until these are finished... (hmmm... wonder if that will hold true..lol)  But I will try...

The third CESI injection will be Friday.  That will be the last for this series.  I just wish I had known about these earlier in my life....

Creatively:  there hasn't been much happening.  I have been doing some mindless knitting in the evening and come up with some cute hand towels for my bathroom.  I love them.  They feel much better on my face than the terry cloth towels. 

And a "Thanks, Pat!" goes out to my buddy for bringing me a huge plastic bag of this wonderful cotton yarn.  Plans are to use it on my rigid heddle loom and make some small blankets.. but if I don't hurry up and finish some things I have started, it will end up being knit up into small things I can make in the evenings... lol

Happy thought:  that will continue to make my happy all week.  Two of my sons called this weekend and I think I have not laughed so hard in months!  What a joy! 

My online friend Judy of Apron Strings and Other Ties That Bind   has been doing some really pretty embroidery for her crazy quilt squares.  Among other things.. ;o)  Take a look and say hello.  ;o)



 

Frustration... so let's sew!

We thought we would have to call a repair man to check out the washer and dryer when we began to find dark spots that look like oil on our clothes.  But we turned to the trusty personal computer and internet and guess what we found?...  Gunky build up on the dispensers and in the tub are supposed to be what causes it.  We spent all day yesterday working on this...took all the dispenser apart and cleaned them in the kitchen sink, washed the entire dispenser area until it squeaked.. ran a full load of whites with the recommended 1/4 cup of powdered Cascade w/Dawn degreaser and 1 cup Clorox.  Whites came out pretty white, but the next load of his shirts and my pants showed no appreciable difference in the spots... ughhh  Still working on this today... ;o((

By the time our tempers had vented from the frustration we decided it was time for a hug, supper and a little quiet.  We had supper, watched "Frost" solve another case,  and I decided to do a little hand sewing. 

I have had that terrible urge to do something...anything... with a hand needle for the last couple of weeks.  Why is that do ya think? Anyway, I have this pile of wonderful flour sack tea towels that I've had hidden away in my work room (there's a story...more on that later) so I decided to dig them out.  Over on Fabric Follies Two , I will be blogging about some embroidery that I used on one of them.  I digress...again.. sigh 

After cutting them in half, the hemming went like a charm.  This stuff sews like butter.  I'm thinking of buying another dozen and sewing me up a blouse or something to wear with it... you think I'm kidding.. not!  ;o)



It's going to be a busy week.  Company flying in from Idaho that DH hasn't seen in many years.  I'm really looking forward to this.  They get on the phone and do nothing but laugh...  It does a heart good..  ;o)

Hope your day is good... Hugs..

Three Year Anniversary

As I began to think about this post and pulled up the Blogger dashboard, right there in front of me it said blogging since "August 2005". I realized I had missed my blogging anniversary by 9 days... It somehow doesn't seem possible that I have been blogging here for 3 years...lol

"Sharon B's Bags of Fun" was my first post. Sharon Boggon of in a minute ago is possibly the most wonderful embroider-ist (if that is a word! ;o) ) I have ever seen and is a true inspiration to many, many embroidery hopefuls on the web. Her "Bags of Fun" was a group effort where everyone embroidered their cutoff blue jeans into a purse...lol It was a really fun effort and taught me a LOT about embroidery and ribbon embroidery.

I have since branched off into many different things, but this continues to be the most beautiful area of handwork for me. I will forever be grateful that Sharon decided to become a part of the world of web information.

SRF Quilt, Rocking Chair Pincushion & Whine

I have been working most evenings and some during the day on the Split Rail Fence quilt. I began putting the binding on...wow... but there was a snag... update on the Fabric Follies Two site....

While we were in Stonewall at Wildflowers & Rosie, I found this wonderful little Rocking Chair Pincushion. It stands 7 1/4 inches high and I first thought what a wonderful little artifact this would make for me to paint.. something like this egg... I like the drawer... And the color of the rose on the needle book Tomomi made for me just matches the color of the pincushion fabric. So, I haven't decided whether to paint it or not... Any suggestions?

Our trip back to Stonewall may have to be postponed. Monday I had to cancel my physical therapy appt. because of "an event" with heart or whatever... (they keep telling me it's not my heart)... so I went to physical therapy yesterday morning.. bright and early at 9am... and 1 minute into therapy the same thing happened again... the physical therapist immediately called the doctor and an appointment has been made to see him this afternoon. I can have no more physical therapy for my shoulder until whatever this is has been resolved... sigh

Lovely Mother's Day

We didn't do much on Mother's Day. Babysitting with the grand dog, Brigit. Worked on my Split Rail Fence (coming along nicely) and spent a long while searching the net for woodworking plans to build a spinning wheel.. (have a little great wheel spindle type plan, but was looking for a plan for one that is pedal driven)... Each of the children called to say Happy Mother's Day and that in itself is a gift.

Well, today will be the first trip for actual physical therapy on my right shoulder. This will a 3 times a week deal for at least a month. I'm not looking forward to it at all. Realizing PT is a good thing is not the same as actually doing it..lol Without Ibuprofen to keep the inflammation down, it is really much more sore and tender than it has ever been. Oh well... will be better soon...

Happy Mother's Day to All

"Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together." ~Pearl S. Buck

"The moment a child is born, a mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." ~Rajneesh

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." ~Tenneva Jordan

"The phrase 'working mother' is redundant." ~Jane Sellman

Happy Mother's Day!


And speaking of... I must brag a bit and show off. Since my birthday and Mother's Day are so close, my birthday/Mother's Day card came a few days ago from son John and DDIL Tomomi. Tucked inside the card was this lovely, perfect needle book. The stitching of the rose is so tiny it seems to be woven into the fabric. Click on the picture for a close up view...it's lovely.

Firsts

Jo of Daily Stitches has posted a list of her "Firsts" and I thought I would follow along..grin

What was your first knitting project?

I first learned to knit when I was 17 and can remember something about (perhaps) a garter stitch dishcloth, but I don't remember ever using it. As I was married at 16, my mother-in-law taught me all of what I know about knitting, but since she was more of crocheter she didn't hand knit very much. I didn't pick up knitting needles again until a couple of years ago when I decided to try it again and made several simple garter stitch scarves for the grandsons for Christmas.

What was your first sewing project?

In Home Economics of my freshman year of high school, one of our projects was to re-decorate our room. Since our school colors were red and white, I decided to do those colors in my room. The curtains for my room were done in red and white and were my first sewing project. Mom showed me how to put them together and left me to it.. They turned out great. (Very simple curtains..lol)

What was your first quilting project?

I am working on my first quilt right now. It is coming together much better than I had hoped. If a person really wanted to get technical then I suppose the large motif piece of fabric that I bought about 8 years ago and finally tried my hand at quilting around the big fish and pieces of things in that picture (a real disaster!) and finished about 3 years ago would be my first quilting project. But this current one actually had to be pieced, embroidered and quilted...so I am counting this one as it...lol

What was your first crochet project?

I also learned to crochet at the same time I learned to knit, around the age of 17....again taught my mother-in-law. I was totally in love and crocheted constantly...but didn't actually finish a project until I was about 19. Figuring out why my piece was not square or my circles were ruffling (or bowling) was really frustrating and I had no one to ask.. But I just could not stop. It seems that I was truly "hooked". The first thing I finished was a pineapple doily and from then on have not stopped.

Cloudy Week..

It's been cloudy all week... I've been waiting for a sunny day to get a pic of the Redbud tree and the greening meadow... Finally sunshine and a lift in my mood..grin

We got a large box full of "dues paid" that DH had to update the data base with, so I went through and pulled off the unusual stamps. Some I recognized, but some I had never seen before. I think the colors of these could be worked into a quilt or needlework project. The blues, reds, oranges, taupe and even the brown of the cardboard box would work well together. I was even thinking of copying them and then printing them onto fabric to be used in something that might involve travel or communication...fabric postcards, ATC's, crazy quilting.

It's been a bit of an unfocused week with many things to do, so PLOS was a bit on the back burner. This was done last night with the muslin backed with an acrylic painted fabric sheet, then the buttons attached and the embroidery around them. The idea was for the thread to show a bit of raveling loose as the square around the buttons grew.. then loose completely with the idea of the buttons sliding out... Did not work that way. I think the hole in the bottom needed to be bigger with perhaps a broken button sliding down the open area... hmmm

PLOS Sampler and Fruit Trees

I started this sampler to incorporate the stitches as the weeks go by with the Personal Library of Stitches. It is actually 28 inches long. This part is approximately 16 inches and stitches are added each week. Since DH's favorite color is blue, this is done in ... you guessed it... shades of blue.

I haven't started the usual small picture using the stitches and design elements yet... It seems that every time we think the LRRP Ranger Newsletter will be a snap.. it's almost done... someone comes up with a wait a minute..we need to get this in..grin So, the rearranging of pages and columns begin. But, I will have it done by Tuesday.

The trees in the meadow continue to green up and it's beginning to look very inviting out there. Across the bridge, the nectarine tree and pear tree are both loaded with blossoms. The pear tree and apricot tree on the south side of the house are also covered. Now if we can just NOT have hail and DO have rain, there will be a good crop of them all.

PLOS..Week 3

Well, it's been quite a couple of days. The Highway Dept. is working on the road about 1/2 mile from us and as a result, the utilities all had to moved...that means water too. So we spent yesterday and part of today using water that we had drawn up in every pot and pan around..grin. The water came back on some time during the night, but then it was off again by about 6am.

I finished the small piece I was doing for PLOS Week 3. It started as a random line drawing in my journal, then was drawn off using a chalk pencil.

PLOS .. Too Conservative I Think!

I have been working on my Personal Library of Stitches class for a couple of days. I have no problem with the stitches, but cannot seem to find the right balance of colors..ughh

Personal Library of Stitches

I have received the list of supplies needed for Sharon B's online class "Personal Library of Stitches"! The class is offered through Joggles.com. I can't say how much I have looked forward to this class.

In looking back to see when I first came across Sharon's blog and decided to take part in the "Bags of Fun" challenge, I have to laugh... that challenge was the beginning of this blog...lol That was in August of 2005. I've learned a lot since that first blog entry...but must say that I am still a lurker...grin