This and that



Our house after they tore off the stoop and before adding the front porch.



Midway into the job.

The porch is finished - now to paint the house.

The house painted and shutters on.

So the reason I'm showing this is because now that spring is right around the corner we need to decide on some type of landscaping.  I read in my country gardens magazine that there is a lilac bush that gets only 4-5 feet tall and blooms all summer.  So I'm thinking of adding that to the left corner, then some type of shrubs.  We have rose bushes in front of the picket fence.  Then we'd need to add some types of shrubs under the picture window.  I'm not a good gardener so I'm going to need something that requires little care.  So much work to do!  So little time!  :)  We also need to get some nice rockers or gliders to put on the porch so we can sit out and enjoy the evenings or mornings on the weekends.  We have a nice back porch as well.  I'll get pictures of that later.  We like sitting out back - less traffic, lots of birds, quieter.

Almost finished with my cardinal mat.  I was running out of my background wool so I decided to add an extra row to the border, then do little half circles in the corners with the same color wool as the border.  I think I'm going to be okay now with the background wool.  I'll post as soon as I'm done.  I need to get some wool yarn to do my edging with - I thought I had bought some but can't find it.  I have the binding tape to do that part of the mat.  Yay!

Have a great day!  And thank you for stopping by!



It's a beautiful day!

The sun is shining, it's about 55 degrees.  Sigh... wish two things - 1) that I had the day off and 2) that this would mean the end of the cold and snow, but sadly they're predicting another snow event next Thursday evening into Friday.  At this point they're not sure how little or how much snow we might get but it SNOW!  Yuck!

I had the first of a three part quilting class this past Sunday.  They got all their fabric cut out so on April 3 we'll beging the sewing.  I totally, totally forgot to take pictures while they were working away, pics of their fabric choices etc.  I even had the camera sitting on a side table! 

I am really in a dither about what to do about the fact that I'm running out of wool for the background on my cardinal mat.  :(  I tried addinng a goldish beige color but it looks too gold.  So I'm thinking I just need to put it on hold until I can go to Ault's and see if I can find some wool close to that color.  Meanwhile I can start on a new project.  Sigh...  I can see that I really need to learn how to dye my own wool so that hopefully this won't happen to me again.  I just need to get all the supplies, read the book and start one color at a time...

Winter wonderland!

The snow on the trees was so pretty this morning driving in to work.  Roads weren't great but they weren't horrible either.  I wished that I had my camera with me because it looked like a scene out of a painting.  Just beautiful!

Looking forward to this weekend.  I'm going to attempt to "teach" two of my friends how to quilt.  We'll meet three times from 1:30 - 4:30.  They will be doing the "Turning Twenty" pattern.  This Sunday I will show them how to cut their fabric per the instructions.  Then I'll have them spend the rest of their time at my house cutting so I'm there to answer questions.  I will be cutting fabric for my grandsons' quilts.  I'm making them rag quilts.  I hope to get all the fabric cut and pinned together over the spring and summer, then they'll be ready to quilt in the fall.  I'll try to remember to take pictures as I have my quilting classes.  This will be my first time teaching something so extensive.  I taught needle punch to some of the workers here.  We had a "crafting" lunch group where someone would teach a new craft.  I had just learned needle punch from my friend Stacy (who also works with me).  She encouraged me to teach it to the group.  That Stacy - she's always talking me into something crafty!  LOL! 

Hope you all have a great day!

Thanks for stopping in!

Rug hooking, rain, SNOW!?!?

Met with Stacy and Lauren last night to rug hook.  I'm worried that I'm going to run out of background wool so I asked Stacy and Lauren for their suggestions.  They both suggested leaving spaces to incorporate a fabric either lighter or a little darker than my background just in case I did run out.   So that is what I've started to do (leave spaces).  I must me hooking tighter than I should because when I bought the wool I asked the person I bought it from how much I'd need for the background.  She held the wool up to my pattern and gave me what she felt I'd need.  Stacy had some wool that looked like it would blend well with my current background wool so if I need it I will buy it from her. 

It has been raining it seems forever!  Now they're predicting 2-3 inches of snow tonight and 6-10 inches tomorrow!  Aaaacccckkkk!!!!! 

Not as much tension this week as what I had last week.  But like I was telling Stacy and Lauren last night - I'm so stressed that I'm feeling it in the muscles of my back!  I'm hoping this passes soon!  And I'm feeling so tired and drained - hoping it's the weather!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Whew! What a week this has been!

The week started out fun - met with Stacy and Lauren Monday night and we all busily hooked on our rugs and enjoyed conversation about rug hooking, craft shows, hook-ins etc.  Then on Tuesday all he*l broke loose!  I'm exhausted after the week I've had.  A lot of tension here at work. 

Then yesterday my daughter called me here at work bright and early crying and saying I have bad news and more bad news.  Her husband was sent home from work Tuesday for insubordination.  His supervisor is accusing him of yelling and cussing at him when he gave him some work orders.  Son-in-law's version is that he told the supervisor those were day shift work orders.  So his employer was to call him yesterday to tell him if he had a job or not.  When he didn't hear from him by mid-afternoon he called.  They told him they didn't know if he still had a job because his story is different from the supervisor's so they'd need to talk with the supervisor again and they'd let him know.   Did I mention they have six children!?!?  Then the other bad news is that their 16 year old daughter is pregnant.  Sigh...  The guy is a loser, has been in treatment for drugs hits on her girlfriends, has sent them nude pictures of himself, etc.  And on top of all of that my daughter's health insurance will not cover their daughter's pregnancy because the company that he works for opted to not have that as coverage.   It's just a nightmare.

So I've been rug hooking in a daze!  But I did look at my cardinal mat this morning and it doesn't look like I made any mistakes!  LOL! 

At Monday night's get together and sitting and watching how great Stacy and Lauren hook I realized that I need to practice getting my loops lower and more even.  But not to beat up on myself, this is only the second thing I've hooked!

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.  Thank you all for letting me vent!