Some Serious Sewing...

I am getting ready to do some serious sewing, so I have put away my girlie computerized sewing machine with all of the bells and whistles and I have set up my old, reliable, heavy duty basic stitch Singer. There are several things on my list including a raggie quilt challenge for my Prim, Folk and Vintage Studio group.

Rainy Days...

We love rainy days.  They are great days to be creative.

Pickled Veggies

Fill quart jar with washed bite size pieces of
Cauliflower

Carrots

Celery
Sprigs of Dill or Dill Weed

Mix together and heat until salt is disolved
1 Cup Water

1 Cup White Vinegar

2 teaspoons Salt

Pour over veggies and seal.

Refrigerate after jar has cooled.

Let sit 24 hours to marinate if you can wait that long!

 

 

A Rose by any other name...

For years I have had white Iceberg roses on each side of the trellis at the entrance of our walkway.

Today when I walked outside, I was surprised to see blooms, not only blooms but one of my white Iceberg roses are no longer white, but a beautiful shade of red.  This bush is full of buds and the ones that are beginning to open, all appear to be red...Mother Nature is full of surprises!

 

Clutter Bug!

I have started *Spring Cleaning* early.  My resolution for 2013 is to simplify...ok, ok, it's been an ongoing resolution for several years.  Any way, as I was removing the *dust catcher* mesquito netting above our bed and rearranging the furniture, it dawned on me what one of my many problems is.  You have heard the old saying, Out of sight, Out of mind?  Well, I leave stuff sitting out to remind me to *do something with this or that*!  The day I started cleaning in the bedroom, I left the vacuum cleaner sitting out, to be handy for the next day's work.  Here it is a week later and I have not been back in there to clean.  All I do is get tangled up in the cord in the wee hours of the morning when I get up with our Toby.  I need to put every thing back in place as I go or at least by the end of the day. I need to make a list of things to do instead of leaving things out. 

Another point, we have very little storage space.  The lady that designed this house was not a crafty person and we all know it takes tons of supplies to do one little project :)  She also did not like overnight company so we have a tiny one bedroom, one bath house.  It works great for Poppa and me and our furbabies.  However since we both are pack rats and have 150 combined years of *stuff*, some of it has to go!  Maybe 2013 is the year...

Merry Christmas...

Things are moving at a snail's pace at our house but improving daily. We are planning on enjoying a nice, quiet, healing, peaceful Christmas and New Year's with our furbabies. From all of us, to all of you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013!

~Poppa, Edna, Toby, Sassy Alice, Baxter & Dinky Sugar~

 

In my spare time...

It's been a while since I knitted any thing other than socks and dish cloths.  I am working on a shrug made using Vana White's Sequins yarn.  I am loving this yarn and the way this piece is coming together.  Simple and elegant!

Zinnia's and Butterflies...

In the past I enjoyed making home movies and documenting family events, renovations and progress.  I have not made a home movie in about six years.  I lost interest when one of our family members complained every time I got out the camcorder.  Since we no longer have family get togethers, I ordered new batteries and it felt good to get out the old camera.  I love easy to grow Zinnia's and the butterflies love them too!



Before and After

Before

After

A little paint does wonders!

Now, on to the next phase of this makeover after the
Labor Day holiday.  Have fun everyone!

Sassy Alice

Our Sassy Alice has been with us two years yesterday.  She has grown into a big girl, 85-90 pounds.  She was only three months old when we adopted her from TAILS in Grand Saline.  She was our *Chewing Monster from Hell* until about four months ago.  She chewed up my comfy recliner, throw pillows, our towels, got things off of the cabinet in the kitchen and bathroom, pulled up my rose bushes and small trees by the roots.  Nothing was safe from her constantly roving eyes.  She has turned into a marvelous watch dog.  Any thing that moves catches her attention which is good when you live in the country.  From humans, to snakes, to scorpions, she is constantly on guard protecting us.  She is a delighteful addition to our family.

We love you Sassy Alice!



Slow going

I love my Fire Storm drill and my trusty old hammer.  I couldn't put down quarter round without them.

We have an old desk that has been in our storage building for 30 years.  I had Poppa bring it in last year and I'm just now getting around to painting it.  Here it is before I started painting on it last week...



and here it is after a coat of WalMart's Latex Semi Gloss Country White paint.

It's amazing the difference a coat of paint makes.

This file cabinet was in my closet and hard to get to in order to file any thing.

Here it is after a coat of Country White paint.  Now I am going
to put it next to my desk so it is easier to get to.

And here is my constant helper...Miss Dinky Sugar

Studio-Nest Makeover Project

I am tired of spending most of my time looking for stuff.  Enough is enough!  So, even with an injured leg, I am starting on my Studio-Nest makeover.  I am going to start in this corner.  I've got to start somewhere and this is as good a place as any.

Here's my check list.  This should take me about six months!!

√  Move every thing out of this corner

√  Clean the windows and blinds

√  Cut quarter round for baseboards.

√  Caulk around door and molding in corner

√  Paint quarter round molding and nail in place

√ Take every thing off of desk

√  Move the desk

√  Paint desk

√  Bring in a filing cabinet from closet

√  Paint filing cabinet

√  Move everything off of tredle sewing machine table

√  Move tredle sewing machine table

Set up video equipment for recording doll tutorials

Set up TV, DVD, VCR, VHS

I love my Stanley Miter Saw!



Pond Project Delay

The Pond Project had to be put on hold.  Sonny is having trouble finding parts for his equipment to completely drain the pond and we have run out of dirt to fill it in.  At least most of it is fenced off for now.  To be continued...

Pond Project - Part 1

There is a little dry creek that runs down by the side of our house. When we get heavy rains, this little creek will have white water run off coming from higher up the hill on adjoining property and running into the sweet pond that is in front of our house.

The pond and dam in front of our house was dug by the oil company probably in the early 1940's as a slush pit. Over the years after the oil well moved, it became a source of water for cattle and maybe even bathing/swimming in the early years for the family that owned the property before us.

We enjoy watching the rain drops on the pond. We enjoy the birds, cranes, ducks, hawks and wildlife that our pond attracts. But, along with this sweetness comes snakes, erosion, mowing, brush removal and lots of weed duty. Did I mention snakes??

As hubs and I get older we find it harder and harder to keep up. We have decided for safety and other reasons, that we want this pond filled in and the dry creek run off diverted to the creek just down below our pond. Dynamite to blow the dam like they did in the old western movies? No, our son owns equipment that can do the job. Thank you Lord and Sonny! 

Let the fun begin!  First, fences had to be moved to keep our son's cattle at bay.  Poppa and his trusty helper Buffy were doing some fencing.

Then some fun work on the traxcavator.



Holidays, three weekends of moving hay, work obligations and repair on the Big Molly tractor with backhoe; all of life's adventures keep things interesting...plus, we have run out of dirt for the moment. To be continued.....

How does your garden grown?

I read where you could grow plants from the stalks of produce items we get at the grocery.  On March 21, 2012, I took the picture of a turnip green stalk that I stuck in a cup of water and placed it on our kitchen windowsill just for curiousity.  By the next day, it had started to grow!  It is now the *bigger* plant in the second photo.  Three days ago I stuck a celery stalk bulb in water and as you can see, (smaller plant in picture #2) it is growing already.  Amazing!



I will be experimenting with other plants.....



Our Dinky Sugar...what a curious little soul.

My Little Old House

I have a sweet little old house that Poppa built me several years ago from lumber that was salvaged from and old house and barn (circa 1900) that was on this property when we purchased it.  I love my little old house!  He used old windows, an old door and screen, a mantel and a couple of old cabinets and built me a sweet place to store my handmade dolls, fabric, supplies, stuff, junk and a few antiques.  It looks like a doll shop inside and is complete with an antique cash register from England.  I basically use this sweet building for storage but Pinterest has inspired me to reorganize, redo, and redecorate this space for my enjoyment as a more usable space for creating.