Thursday, December 31, 2015

Almost gone ... almost here ...

So, in about 12 hours this year will be gone and a new one begun.  Seems like it just flew by and I didn't get nearly enough accomplished!  One of the things I do before I go to sleep almost every night is think about what I want (or sometimes need) to do the next day.  I believe I need to make some changes and additions to my 'to do' lists in 2016!  I do believe I need more time for contemplation and doing for others each day next year.  Get more outside myself.  I'll see how I do on that ...  

When I looked out the dining room window just now I saw this pileated woodpecker at the suet feeder and remembered that I wanted to share a picture with you.  This year is the first time we've had them at our feeder!  I'm so glad they decided they could visit!  Just read about how to tell a male from a female and I 'think' this is a male.  As you can see from this picture, the suet is dwindling -- they really take a hunk out of it each time they're here.  When they peck away the suet chips fall and so that helps the ground feeding birds.  So they're on the job.  (Sorry about the quality of this picture; it's taken through the window/screen.)


Couple weeks ago we drove to Newburgh on a Sunday and visited Woolen Heirlooms for their Christmas open house.  Think I might have mentioned that before.  Teresa's been in business for a year now and her shop is something special.  Took a some pictures and wanted to share just a couple with you.  The wreath on her door was one of the door prizes.  If you're into anything having to do with wool, go see her in Newburgh, IN!  And check out her Facebook page.  Teresa took me on a tour of her home, decorated for Christmas.  All I can say is "Wow!"  It was looking good!

Teresa is not only good at her work, she's fast!  I really like the poinsettia pillow!

Here's the wreath ... and it was so warm that day that this door was often left open!
Of course about the first of December I discovered we needed a new Christmas tree when I remembered that we took our old one to Goodwill last winter.  Yikes!  Took a vote from among some of my friends at a couple places and asked -- pre-lit or not?  Pre-lit won so I took their advise and ordered a "slim" tree from Wayfair and I really love it.  (Wayfair is the best!  Love their service, and quick free shipping.)  Here's a picture, decorated.  For our little house this slim tree is just the right size.  Only negative was that the angel I bought for the top was too heavy for this tree, so I just put her in the Goodwill bag, too.  I guess I need to shop for a "slim" angel, too .....


Here's some other pictures of our Christmas décor ... way lot less than I used to do but just right for us now.
Santa collection on the kitchen windowsill.

Made this ceramic tree in Ridgeville, many many years ago.

Found this Charlie Brown nativity in the SonShine (thrift) Shop in Worthington for a dollar.

My bottle brush tree collection is all corralled in the hay wagon.
We've had a set of four musical instrument ornaments since the boys were babies.  My very favorites.  Our tree is not themed ... it's eclectic and I guess that's us. 
Lately I've been trying to not only eat more healthy (for both of us) but try to keep it interesting.  Made a pumpkin pie last week and cut the "sweet" in it by half; it was really just as good as it could be!  (Of course the Cool Whip helped ... LOL!!!!!!!!!!)  Wendell found this hexagon shaped pie pan somewhere and asked me to make him a pie.  With the help of a Pillsbury pie crust, here it is.  (Wish I could have shared a piece with you all!  And a cup of coffee!)
So this is my (semi) sweet ending of 2015.  Here's wishing you a great new year.
Prayers and blessings to you all.  To my friends -- thank you for "being there" for me these last few months.  It means the world to me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Longing for snow (never thought I'd say that!) ...

Well, I am so over autumn and ready for winter!  If I have to stay here I want it to be cold and snow!  Especially for Christmas!  (Hope that doesn't backfire on me.)  Really, this warm weather is just freaky.  We did have some chilly weather couple weeks ago and I took this weird picture.  It frosted the screen on the EAST side of the porch, but not the other two sides!  What?

But since I took this picture it's gotten warm and I've painted the deck handrails, cut back some daylillies and raked leaves!  And had the windows open!

Just before Thanksgiving Worthington businesses had their holiday open house.  Santa came to town, the garden club had their soup lunch, Tri Kappa had their bake sale, and it was just an all around good place to be.  AND it snowed some while we were in town.  Made you start feeling like Christmas!  We visited Worthington Antiques, the SonShine Shop (thrift), Dyer's, Dusty Collectibles, Nicole's cute little shop on the corner, and ate lunch at the Route 67 Diner.  Here's some pictures I took that day.  (Of course, my fav is Denise's antique shop ...)  Bought some stuff from Denise and some fabric at the thrift shop, and Wendell bought a cake at the bake sale.
At Worthington Antiques ...

Also at W.A. ...

When we got home from town, here's what our north yard looked like.  It was magical!
After that the weather just got warmer and warmer!  And I think there's no end of this wonderful weather in sight!  ARGH!  But I'm thinking, maybe 2016 will bring us a surprise ...

Wendell's on the Worship Committee at church and they decorated couple weeks ago.  Here's two pictures of the interior of our little church when they finished decorating for the holidays.


The Freedom United Methodist Church (in Freedom, Indiana) really is a cozy, welcoming church.  It's just about the size of a side chapel in a big-city church, but so much more open and hospitable.  Everyone knows you; they need you and you need them.  I don't know what we'd do without our church family.  Wendell had a good time that day and the ladies put him to work doing the tall-guy stuff.  He slept well that night.  Most of the decorations are stored in the parsonage, upstairs, in a closet in a sort of difficult-to-get-to place that only one person at a time can access, so it was a teamwork sort of day.  But they persevered and all enjoyed chili soup together when they finished.  He had a good time!

Found these at the Gasthoff, in their gift shop annex.  I think I got a good buy for $3.00!
Our Washington hooking guild had their Christmas party at the Gasthoff in Montgomery last Saturday and it sure was fun!  There were about 18 of us there I think.  We had a great lunch.  Lots of talking and laughing.  Following lunch we had an ornament exchange and I got the cutest needle felted penguin (from Jan Cabel).  She told me she had made 17 of these guys!  She is fantastic.  They were for a party she was going to the following day.  What do you think?  Isn't he cute ...


I've put him in the basket with my Christmas cards and he's a good guard.  In a few days I'll blog again and show you some pictures of my new Christmas tree (yeah!) and from our trip to Newburgh for Woolen Heirlooms open house.

Have a blessed week!  And remember, God is good.  All the time.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

All mowed-up for the year! Yeah!

Yesterday we mowed for the last time this year.  It's been such a nice autumn that we've both been outside working a lot and have the place looking about as good as it can.  This would be the ideal time to put the place up for sale ......

I've been spending a lot of time here lately, too, hooking in the guest room.  Finished one rug and started another.  Here's the one I most recently finished:
The designer is Maggie Bonanomi and I really love her work and her books.  She's a lot into wool applique and always has at least one or more hooked rugs in each book (I have them all on my book shelf!).  I don't know what she called this design but I'm calling it my 'neutrals' rug.  First time I've made something with all of the elements being so monochromatic.  This is one of my favorites now.

Busy weekend!  Went to the Colts game Sunday night.  We have season tix but I don't go very often anymore; Wendell goes some and we sell some.  But I didn't want to miss this game.  Probably the last time Peyton Manning will be in Indy as a player I'm thinking.  And it was such a good game!  We had just a super time.  Only drawback was, the roof was open and it got pretty cold; at end of halftime we went out into the concourse and walked around the entire stadium just to get warm.  Also, I think it's probably the last time I'll be there for a game and wanted to do that walk just one more time.  If you watched you know that there was an exciting ending and the Colts won!  What more could we ask?  Also, had a delicious dinner later with my sweetie at O'Charley's.  Wrapped up a busy (and a little stressful) weekend.  Saturday we had our annual homeowners association meeting and one of the owners acted like an ass.  Yes, I said an ass.  I had to take notes and I could hardly write, that's how on edge I was.  Then Sunday after church was the annual harvest dinner.  I'm the chair of that committee so there's always more work than fun for me I'm afraid in those dinners.  We're trying something new in going foam- and paper-free as much as we can, so we used real napkins (made 4 doz.), china plates, and real silverware.  We have some bugs to work out but I'm thinking it will all work out over time.  The meal was excellent with ham and cheesy potatoes as the two main courses.  Then as soon as we got home from that we left for the game.  WHEW!  I went to bed pretty early that night -- 10:30 -- and slept late next a.m.!

Weekend before we went to Michigan to Adrian & Gloria's.  Jeff & Jane came up for Sunday afternoon.  Such a good time!  It's always good to see all of my little family together in one place.  We arrived in time Saturday to see Veronica trick or treat, as well as give out treats at home.  So fun to see all the little ghosts and goblins at the door.  Considering it was drizzling, they had quite a few visitors.  Veronica dressed up like Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies.  She looked so authentic!  Very good job!

Next day we visited and late in the p.m. went to a soccer game, which was just a few blocks from their house.  Breezy but sunny and it was nice to be outdoors.  The Kats won, 2-0 I think, and later we all went into Hastings for dinner before Jeff & Jane left for Winchester and we went back to the motel.  Left early the next a.m. and just a few miles away, in Hickory Corners, is the Gilmore Car Museum.  We spent half a day there before driving back home.  Here's some pictures from the museum ... enjoy and have a good week.
Here's the first room see when you enter the museum ... these are the cars from my teenage era.

I loved the hot rod room! Hard to choose a picture to show you I took so many in this room!

Early Fords had their very own room in the main building.

This room held 50s & 60s specialty cars. 

They had this Shell gas station on the grounds and it was fitted out with everything you would have seen at an old gas station.  Including loafing benches, a peanut machine, fly paper, tires, all sorts of parts, and a service truck!

In one of the barns was this Tucker.  Have you seen the movie about the maker of this car?

This was my very favorite automobile of the day -- a Stout Scarab.  They say that there's only five know in existence today and they have two of them!  Just an unbelievable car; look it up on Wikipedia if you want to know more.

One building was all Pierce Arrows!  Besides automobiles they made trucks, travel trailers, bicycles and motorcycles.

We finished our half-day at the Blue Moon Diner for lunch.  Actually it was very tasty.  We'll definitely go back to the Gilmore on our next visit to see the kids! 

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Autunm in Greene County ...

So beautiful.  This is my favorite time of year.  We took a drive this week.  Hadn't done that, just driving for the sake of driving, in some time.  Wendell had an area in mind and it was really beautiful to be out this time of year on the back roads.  We visited a couple little towns I didn't know about.  One was Quincy in Owen County.  There's an old gym there and a historical marker about the school. When the school burned to the ground, they partitioned the gym and met there for several years (grades 1-8) before they moved to a newer, modern school. There was a railroad through there at one time and the remains of a couple old businesses ... Sort of sad but beautiful in its way.


After we found some lunch in Greencastle, we headed back through the country and wandered through Little Point and Eminence. Lots of farmers in the fields that day, and I took some foliage pictures. But you just can't capture the beauty of the autumn leaves on film like seeing it with your own eyes.

Today was daytime hooking in Worthington. Since Jane had to work and couldn't come to the library we took the hooking to her! Me, Margo, Laurie, and Nancy kept her company at Select Insurance in their board room! Great time -- non-stop talk, lots of hooking, what more could you ask? I got lots more done on my latest Maggie rug and I'm close to being done. Last time we met at the library I took a couple pictures and want to share them here ...
Jan finished this rug recently. It's pretty big! Jan's finishing it to be hung on the wall. When this was taken she hadn't done the binding yet but it's finished now ...  Great job Jan!

Laurie brought these to show us the results of some of her recent dyeing experiments.  She has some great looking pieces of wool here! Today she brought another couple pieces she'd recently dyed to show us.
Sunday we went into Worthington for a quick bite to eat after church. When we finished lunch we each got a dish of ice cream and took it outside to eat and enjoy the sun. As we were sitting there a slew of old cars drove in and the drivers went to the diner. They parked all around the triangle! What a treat. Like our own private car show. Here's a couple pictures ...
North side of the triangle, parked in front of Worthington Antiques & Select Insurance.

I loved the white one painted with flames!  Drivers are drifting over to the Rte. 67 Diner.

This was my fav !!! (Don't even know what make it is!)
I got to spend a day with an old friend last week. Teresa B., who used to live in Worthington but now in B-town, called and asked if I'd like to go to the Stitching Post in Washington with her. Well, yes! It was just a super day and yes, I did buy more fabric for another quilt! (ARGH! Someone stop me! I have three quilts in the works! Yikes!) We had a yummy lunch at Reid's and the weather was super, but the best part was catching up on what's going on in her very busy life. Such a dear, good, sweet person. It was the day after my birthday so it was like an extended celebration.

Speaking of that birthday, I had to get my drivers license renewed last week and I passed the eye exam with flying colors!!! YEAH!!! That cataract surgery was well worth it! Four years ago I think they just took pity on me and passed me. This time I have no driving restrictions! Double YEAH!!! While in the BMV I ran into Linda who used to hook with us and it was so fun to find out we share a birthday! And we're both procrastinators!

Our yard looks pretty good now, even though we need rain badly. We have slowed down on the mowing, thank goodness. I have all of the flower beds trimmed back and cleaned up as much as I'm going to. I've put on the fall application of Preen. Wendell cut down the dying asparagus and I still need to pull some weeds there. He's power washing the house and the decks and I've been trying to help some with that. We got a new roof on the house.  Things are looking good around here. 

Life is good. Here's a picture of my pineapple sage and roses. They look so vivid just now. Too bad the hummingbirds are gone for the winter ...

 

Have a blessed week!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Where have I been all this time? ...

I've been tardy in writing something here.  It's one way to let some of my friends and family what I/we've been doing so here goes ...



Well, one thing for sure -- I've been sewing again.  And hooking but that's another story.  I finally got this scrap quilt done and had it machine quilted.  I got the antique green from a friend.  Would you believe this was made when yardage came in 36" widths???!!!  That's a long time ago.  Had the other 30's fabrics from a quilt I did a few years ago; I think the fabric line was called Aunt Grace ...  Anyway, here it is.

After I finished that lion rug (can't remember if I put it on here but I'll check and if I didn't I'll add it too).  But started this new one.  It's all neutrals and I've never done one in all neutrals before.  It's a Maggie Bonanomi design from one of her books.  Here's what it looks like so far (a work in progress) ...



The Elnora antique steam and tractor show was last weekend and we enjoyed it.  Wendell took his tractor for display, we worked a ticket booth one afternoon, then we went back on Sunday right after church to really look around before everyone took their toys and went home.  I enjoyed the homemade ice cream booth two times!  There were lots of "fleas" there, too.  More tractors than I can remember.  If you ever have a chance to go, and you like old things, you'll enjoy it.  Here's some pictures from that show ...

This Massey-Harris was called the 'first aid' tractor; a dealer painted it like this and it was a loaner when farmers had their tractors in for repair at the dealership.

This guy was making a rolling pin in the wood shop!  I loved seeing all the belt driven tools being used.

The new location for the filling station.  They did a good job.

We went to the Masonic Home Festival and open house in Franklin recently, too.  (Besides that we checked out the downtown Franklin area -- great!  Go to the Salvage Sisters!)  Another beautiful day.  Hasn't the weather been marvelous this summer?  We toured their new building with it's meeting rooms, swimming pool, food court and offices.  Enjoyed the Shriner's band and a very filling lunch.  Toured the vendor tent.  There was a car show and we had a very interesting chat with a WWII vet who had just came back from an honor flight to D.C. the weekend before.  He told us all about it.  Also urged us to tell everyone that if they have the opportunity to go, if they're a WWII vet, to do so.  His day started at 4 a.m. and ended at midnight with a welcome back rally at the Plainfield H.S.  I'm sure it was a long day for all of those fellows!  Here he is with his Model A Ford ...


Yesterday we went to Newburgh, down on the Ohio River.  Beautiful day!  I enjoyed a stop at the Woolen Heirlooms shop.  Teresa and Jay are always so welcoming to us!  Was introduced to two hookers I'd never met before -- Louanne and Gloria.  It was a wonderful stop.  Then we went to lunch at the Tin Fish in downtown Newburgh.  YUM!!!  I had calamari and Wendell a mixed seafood grill.  I recommend it and would definitely go back!  Left there to drive east along the river and right away we came across this S.I.R. Brit car show.  All of the cars were British made, most in the 50's and 60's.  And there were lots of them.  It was a beautiful spot for the show, right on the river bank.  Here's some pictures from that stop ...
MG convertible.

MG hardtop.

Jag!

Triumph

This is a Morgan.  The old gentleman who owned it was sitting on the ground in front, eating his lunch when I took this picture.  You can just barely see his hat ..  He told Wendell that this car has an ash wood frame!  And that they're still raced in Europe!

Well, there's lots more I could add but I'll do that another time.  Just wanted you to know what's been going on in my life. God bless you!

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Summer's slipping away ...

And I know, I haven't written anything here for a while ... Life gets in the way.  But I've been occupied for sure.  Want to begin by asking for positive thoughts and prayers for my mother.  She fell couple weeks ago and broke her left leg, just above the knee. Had surgery and now has a pin and 5 screws in there; I told her she'll never be able to get through airport security now but she didn't even laugh.  That's the problem; she's pretty blue.  Also, she'll be 97 next week and actually just wants to go to heaven to be with Dad.  And I understand that.  Sorry to be such a downer but that's what's been on my mind the past few days now. 

But besides taking the trip to Bluffton to see her, we've been busy:  Had the kids all here one weekend in late July to celebrate Wendell's birthday.  Made meatloaf for 25 for a church lunch and supervised that meal.  Took a day by myself to visit some antique shops in the area (fun).  Finally did some shopping for clothes for myself (not fun).  Hooked with my buds at the library and there were 8 of us!  Tried a new recipe for corn on the cob on the grill -- Yum!  Had lunch at Prairie Acres TWICE and once with friends (a happy accident).  Enjoyed lots of local produce -- it doesn't get much better than Indiana cantaloupe, sweet corn, tomatoes and green beans, with some blueberries, onions, peppers and potatoes thrown in!  We'll all miss this special garden-time in a few weeks. 

When I went antique shopping here's a little painting I found ...
This is what is written on the back: "Kathy McKee, Nashville Ind., 1991". Can't find anything about her on the Internet; do any of you know anything about this artist?

Also found this tiny, lovely sterling silver basket.  It's about 3" long.  I love it!

About a week ago I finally finished a run of rugs on the loom.  I warped the loom with linen warp this time and it was an experience; I had more trouble than previous warps (when I used a cotton/poly combo warp).  But I finally got 9 rugs off of that warp total from 50 cranks.  I had to cut the first three off, one at a time, because of warp tension problems!  ARGH!  Anyway, I finally got the problem ironed out and these last six were knotted and done at the same time ...  Now on to warp the loom for place mats and runners!

We've had this one hummer this year and here's a picture of him on the whirly-gig out front in the flower bed.  He is really the ruler of the hummingbird feeder!  Others try to get some nectar but he runs them all off.  Such a busy little fellow.  I like this picture because it shows you just how small he really is ...

Want to give a plug for my Guild's 2015 raffle rug.  We'll be drawing for it at our October meeting, so if you want to buy any chances and you're nearby, give me a shout & I'll get some tickets to you.  This year it's $5 for 6 chances or one chance for a dollar.  About five of us Guild members hooked this one.  Here's a picture ...

I'll close by showing you how nice the weather is here today ... nice enough to air some quilts; not as humid as it's been lately.  When the kids came I aired out all of the "garage quilts" and today I'm working on the "house quilts" ... LOL!  Hope the air is good wherever you are today, too!  Enjoy this wonderful life ...