Thursday, December 30, 2010

Almost over ...

Well, this year is almost done.  It just flew by!  Again I didn't loose weight, send everyone birthday and anniversary cards, or demonstrate for world peace.  What I did do was lots of things around here!  I froze several containers of corn, berries, and pesto (from my own basil), in spite of the terribly dry summer and pitiful vegetable garden.  Graduated from the Master Gardener program.  Became the news reporter for my homemakers club.  Guided the local hooking group, the Holy Hookers, for another year (like herding cats ... LOL!).   Organized a hooked rug display at the Carnegie Center in Linton in the spring.   Painted my laundry room and kitchen (red!).  Attended a quilt retreat in KY and a rug hooking retreat in Ferdinand. Actually finished several quilts that were in various stages of completion for several years.  (And only started two new quilts.)  On the negative side, I now have at least five hooked pieces in various stages of progress .... Ahhhh ... balance is difficult to achieve.

Today there was an earthquake in Indiana.  Right up near where our eldest son lives!  That doesn't happen often in Indiana.  We celebrated this event by cleaning house!  What fun ...  But tonight will be fun ... having dinner with some good friends at The Old Bank in Linton.  That will probably be the limit of our New Year celebration, albeit a day early.  God bless each of you and may you have a wonder start to the new year.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Twists and turns on Christmas Eve ...

What a day.  It started out so good.  I'm making up the bed in my studio for son Jeff who will be here in the afternoon to spend Christmas with us.  I'm doing last-minute grocery shopping and cooking special food.   Jeff's been on a break from work and class, and drove to FL.  Been away for a few days.  We're expecting him about mid-afternoon.  Then at 1:00 he called.  I could tell right away something was wrong.  He totaled his Mustang on highway 231 in southern Indiana!  Thank God he was not injured!  No one was.  So what started out as a good day has turned into something else.  Life has a way of doing that sometimes but I'll tell you, mine has been so smooth that little wrinkles like this really throw me.  And this didn't even happen to me.  But it might as well have.  When things like this happen to someone you love it is just the same as if it happens to you.  I am just so thankful that God was watching out for Jeff today.

Wendell left immediately for the 2-hour drive to pick him up.  He is worried, too.  Jeff loved his red Mustang convertible and I know he is sick about having this auto accident.  I am sick to the stomach, just sitting here at home, wondering where are they right now, will they remember to get everything out of his car, would four times be too many times to call?  It 'is' Christmas Eve and I know the poor police officer and tow driver just want to get this over with and go home.  Things will not be the same until they are home, safe and sound ...

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A visit to Rader's (in Danville, IN)

Well, today was fun!  Wendell and I took a day trip up to Danville, especially to visit Rader's Fabric.  They are about half a block north off the court house square.  They carry upholstery fabric and what a store!  If you're looking for upholstery or drapery fabric and love a treasure hunt, this is the store for you!  Bolt upon bolt ... everywhere ... stacked on top of each other and against the wall and higher than you can reach!  Sensory overload for someone like me who enjoys any kind of fabric/fiber.  We went to get new foam for our sofa cushions and we went away with literally new cushions for our sofa, adding probably another 5 years to the life of the piece.  (Good for me!)  As soon as I got home I plopped myself down and it's like having a new sofa!  Yeah!

On the way home we stopped in Coatsville at the Bread Basket Cafe for lunch.  Wonderful!  Another place where you must save room for dessert.  It was a gloomy day and I fretted about the snow blowing over the roads on the east/west highways, but all went well.  After all, it is winter in Indiana.  My little PT putted right through it!

Simple things ... life is good. 

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wonderful week with friends!

What a great week (so far)!  Spent Tuesday with a wonderful friend on her birthday.  We went to Vincennes to Peafections for a great lunch followed by a decadent dessert.  Then on to Cheryl Atkinson's yarn shop, Atkinson's Farm Yarns, on the east side of Vincennes.  What a great place!  Sensory overload to a fiberholic!  If you are a knitter, or just love fiber, it is a great place to visit.  There are four rooms of yarn and one of them is a great meeting space, too.  And she has coffee!  And candy!  What more could a fat girl ask for!?  She has a good website, too; check her out!  This was a great day with a wonderful friend!  Happy Birthday Margo! 

Then on Wednesday I went to Almost Home in Greencastle for ANOTHER wonderful lunch with a new friend, Barbara.  Barbara is a fellow extension homemaker.  We both belong to an extension homemakers club that meets in Freedom.  Almost Home is a great place for lunch OR dinner, and like Peafections in Vincennes, their desserts are to die for!  It was great getting to know Barbara better and we had a fun day.  Stopped in at Wildwood Antiques after lunch.  It's a great small antique shop and well worth a visit.

The weather has been nasty; snow and ice.  All of the worse of Indiana winter has happened in the last two weeks.  I'm hoping it gets it all out of its system in December, then January and February will be more mild.  Took a quick trip into Bloomington this p.m. and I think we're done with Christmas shopping.  Wendell is back to normal (whatever that is anymore!).  Wrapping presents today.  Tomorrow I prepare food for our little family Christmas gathering.  God bless us every one!

Friday, December 10, 2010

A quilting day ...

Today I spent some more time in my work room and sewed the binding on a quilt.  This was a top I bought at a country auction near Carlisle, Ind. last fall.  It is a nice top and I wish I knew something about the talented woman who made it!  I feel I got this way too cheap and makes me wonder ... what will happen to some of the things I have made over the years and put so much time and $$$ into!?  I'll never know ...  But as for this quilt, I hope this woman somehow knows that it is finished and we did a good job! It has a scalloped edge and is a scrap quilt.  Tonight I'll sit and hand sew the binding down and call it done!  What fun!

(Done and posted a picture on the right in the section "what I'm working on now ...".)

Hubby has been feeling better today so when he's happy, I'm happy.  We are trying to figure out how we can get away from this cold Indiana winter and head south ... who knows!?  Maybe we'll figure something out.  But there is always something on our calendars here!  What to do?  (Use the eraser ...)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Another day another ...

Well, what a whirlwind has swept through my life!  As a "retired" woman I never actually get a day off (anyone of a like age can identify).  My husband, Wendell, has been stricken with arthritic gout in his left hand!  Wow!  But what the heck, he has had just about everything imaginable during the past 10 years of his life so he might as well try this too.  He worked HARD when he worked, and in his retired life he goes through every Monday through Friday as if he were still somehow "on the clock".  He never feels satisfied until he has accomplished something, and most days that "something" is a lot of things!  So what I'm trying to say is he is a busy guy who gets a lot done.  That sometimes puts some pressure on the spouse to keep up in some way.  Not what I had imagined as "retirement" for me but it has been working okay so far I guess.  Perhaps this has kept us both young?  This business?  For now, we're waiting for the word on how the NP wants to treat him so late today or tomorrow we'll get the word.  Meanwhile he is existing on pain meds.  (I think I need some sort of "meds" myself !!! LOL !!!)

I have gotten lots of things done in my work room in the past few days, and even started a new project.  I'm using the proddy technique to make some lapel pins out of wool fabric.  When I figure out how to do it, I'll post some pictures of my various projects here.  Several years ago I started a rug hooking group in Worthington and we get together the first Tuesday of each month at the library in the evening.  We met this week and had more than rug hooking going on ... two women were doing needlefelting, two of us were making proddy pins, one was binding a hooked table mat and the rest were hooking.  We also had a little visitor, age 5, and she is determined that she is going to hook!  She is doing great!  I wonder if she will keep hooking and remember meeting with us?  Wouldn't that be great!?

Winter is here for sure and it's cold cold cold!  Maybe I'll get to some sunny place this winter ... that would be wonderful!  I dream of Green Valley AZ .......

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Where do I begin?

Thanksgiving.  Today was family time.  Son Jeff here and just the three of us enjoyed a non-traditional dinner of roast leg of lamb.  I did throw in some bread dressing and cranberries, along with the green bean casserole we "always" have.  Tried a new recipe for dessert ... pumpkin CRUMB pie.  It was the hit of the day!  Delicious and sinfully rich.  We played bid euchre in the afternoon and the TV was on to the football games in the background.  Rained almost all day, but we need it here in southwest Indiana so no one complained.  All-in-all a quiet, enjoyable day with family.

Tomorrow I do some errands and begin to think about the Christmas holidays coming up.  The rest of our family is in Grand Rapids MI and we got to see them last weekend, so I feel pretty blessed.