Don't it warm your heart

No matter how many times I come in and see one of the cats under the Christmas tree, it is an ahhhh moment for me. I took the one above and Roger took the one below.
They all lay under it a little bit here and there, but Bubbie does probably spend the most time.

Bright-eyes

Just a photo or two to brighten your day.....can you look at that smiling face above without getting a smile on your face?
She is to the point that she will let me take a photo or two, then she wants to come see what I have taken. And the day I took these, she wanted to take some of her own. I did not let her, but it won't be long until I start letting her with some supervision.

She is makes life so much more interesting...she just called me a few minutes ago just chatting away. She wanted us to come over or her to come here.

Then her mom got on the phone talking to me...and she had to think. She knew there was something else she wanted to tell me. Something that Lorelei had done. Finally she thought of it:

They have a friend visiting them...he had been gone. Well, Sarah was doing laundry--she was sitting in the living room folding a basket when he came in. Well, there is this step down into that room, so he just sat down there talking to her and Jeremy.

Well, Sarah had a sports bra laying in the bottom of the basket...Lorelei ran and grabbed it and put it on, then turned around to their friend and called him by name, and said "don't touch my boobies!" Told him that a couple times...which of course it set Sarah off to laughing and she just totally stunned her dad. They have no idea where she got that...

Just thinking

This song fits into my thinking right now...holiday are always a time for remembering for me.  And this song always goes through my head at these times.

Not mine!

We decided to clean our living room carpet today, and when we got done we ran up to Rockville to get a bit of dinner. After eating, we took a little rambling drive through some of the Amish farms. I saw several homes with the laundry flapping in the weather...and it made me glad to have my basement and my dryer. It was misting most of the time we were out, and I wonder how these will ever get dry.

Speaking of laundry, I probably need to go do a load or two of my own. And I have not touched my sewing today, so will either sew or cut some squares. It is amazing how much can be done with just a few minutes here and there. While talking to my brother last night, I cut quite a few squares...I cannot hear to talk on the phone while sewing, so cutting is all I can do.

I may not be blogging much the next few days...have seriously been considering taking a long blog break just to try to concentrate on other things. So, if I don't, don't worry, there is nothing wrong...just wanting to do other things.

Etc.

Tip:  The other day a friend wrote me that she was having trouble viewing the image of the scanned plover story.   So I told her to right click on the image, and then click to view in a new tab or view in a new window. She then made the comment in my comments about it working, and from the result I saw that that was a new tip for some.

But, this not only works with pictures in blogger, if you are shopping on line, reading an article with a link somewhere else, and get tired of going back and forth between windows and having to wait for one to reload, you can always right click on any link, and click to view in another tab or another window.  If you have a slower internet connection, or a page has a lot of images to reload when you go back to it, this can really save time.
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Since I keep talking about the 4-patches I have been making, I went down and took a few pictures..and yes you can right click and chose to view in a new window or tab if you want to see the full sized image.

I think I have made 112 of them so far....they are 4 inch unfinished.  I was making them to be 4½ inches, but was trying out a new pressure foot on my machine.

And though it is really operator error, enough of them were just a couple or three threads under the 4½ inches till I cut them all down to just 4 inches square..

I have been playing and playing with my computer program, called Electric Quilt 6, or commonly called EQ.  It allows me to play with quilts before I ever even touch fabric.  But I am more apt to go down and start making a bunch of quilt blocks, then come up to play with the quilt program to decide how I want to arrange them.

I started out using scraps of fabric left over from other projects, but have also been adding a few others.  I started out cutting 2½ inch squares from the scraps...I cut and cut and cut.  For each 4-patch it takes four of the little squares, and that makes over 400 I have cut just for the finished 4-patches.

This is some that I still have to sew together.  And who knows, I may end up cutting out more s2½ in. squares...
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It is rainy and dark and dreary here....just the perfect day to go down and sew.  The cats are all quiet, but you can bet money that Bubbie had me up before daylight.  I wish you could feel just how heavy he feels when he walks on me in the wee hours of the morn...it actually hurts enough till I am sort of amazed that I am not bruised.

We went down to little Nashville today...just to be out and about.....we saw lots of pretty things, but I only bought a few little items...nothing to show on here.

I really wanted to look at some things in this shop, and we did go inside, but she had Elvis singing Christmas music and it was just blaring.  I just was not in the mood for that so we turned around and left.  If it was a big place, I could have understood it, but it wasn't.
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The other night I was actually talking to Sarah on the phone...and some to Lorelei, too.  Mostly though, I could here her in the background.  She was just busy...and having a good time.  Sarah told her. 'You're full of bologna!'  Lorelei said, 'No, I not!'  Keep in mind I am hearing all this...

Sarah asked, 'well, what are you full of?'  She says, 'Macaroni!'  Of course, Sarah and I lost it then...it is good thing neither of us were drinking any sort of liquid.

For your reading pleasure.....

I have always wondered how legal it is to publish this...but it is old, and it still has the guy's name that wrote it...it is hilarious.  You will have to enlarge it all the way to be able to read it.  I think it is well worth it.  It was in our little paper years ago and I cut it out.

My Life As A Turkey....

I saw the preview for My Life as a Turkey just the other night....so made sure to record it....I did not want to miss it.  I suggest you click on that link, in addition to watching the video below.



If you will click on the link in the first sentence, you will see and maybe feel what drew me in.  It made me want to laugh out loud, but also I had to see it.  I didn't know if it would be as good as it sounded, or be something that I would feel a waste of time.

Well, I am here to say that it was not a waste of time...it was very well done, fun to watch as well as interesting.  I would not have minded if it were longer, but I suppose there is only so much to show.  If you get the chance, I would encourage you to watch it.

Originally posted

I feel like I am breaking some unwritten rule if I don't post a photo each post...it is totally unrelated to the real post.

I was trying to visit a few blogs this morn, and ran into A Funny Deer Tale...I thought it was hilarious.  It remind me of the following post that I did in August of 2008.  Everyone that hears this story and knows Roger, gets a good laugh from it.  We even bring it up when it is just the two of us, and still laugh about it.  so surely between the link above and this one of mine, you will have a smile on your face.
So here goes...and keep in mind that it is my husband that it happens to...it was originally called

A Hunting Story...

Abraham Lincoln of the Brookville Daily Photo wrote a story about one of his hunting excursions. Being the wife of a hunter and sister to hunters before that, I could identify with a lot he said. About 5:00 being the witching hour for hunters, or for my husband when he is meeting fellow hunters it is sometimes even earlier. Also, unlike rotten apples to disguise the human smell, hunters now have doe urine. I wouldn't want to mistake that for my perfume, now would I, but that is beside the point.

This is a story of one of my husband's hunting trips. A few years ago he decided to hunt out on property near the orchard where I worked. It actually belonged to the brother of my boss. A day or two before the planned hunting trip, he and his buddy went out to decide where they were going to put their tree stands, and in so doing had to hack out a path through some of the undergrowth.

On the morning of the hunt, they met here before going out there...it is at the most 10 minutes from here. They get out of the truck out there and the farm cat greets them. It is young, not even a year old. Roger pets it just a second and he and his buddy proceed down the path...they get to the 'y' in the path and his buddy goes one way while he goes they other. The cat follows my husband.

He is hunting with bow and arrows, and hunting from a climbing tree stand. So he gets to the tree he has chosen to use, and gets his tree stand situated on it and climbs up the tree. I am not familiar enough with the process to paint a good picture, but it is a tree stand that he does the physical climbing with. It has two parts....one part is the actual seat and the other is the part he stands on....THIS is a video from you tube and does show how his works.

When climbing up to a tree stand, he always ties his bow to a long rope and once he gets up as high as he is going to go, he pulls the bow up with the rope. He gets up and gets situated...he hears this meow. It is still practically dark, so he kind of looks but doesn't see anything. He sits back, and he hears it again! And he can hear it so plain...he does not have the best of hearing. So he gets his flashlight out and bends way over the tree stand while shining it all around and still doesn't see anything.

He sits back again and hears it again! And he felt something on his legs...he looks down at his feet and there sits the kitty! It had sat by his feet as he climbed up the tree. It proceeded to climb up into his arms, purring all the while, and doing the rubbing thing that cats do when they are happy to see you. He held it out at arm's length and dropped it!

Did it run for home you might ask. The answer would be no. It played around the bottom of the tree my husband was in, chasing leaves or anything else that caught it's imagination. After a while of playing, it climbed out onto a dead log and went to sleep!

This is an honest tale; I don't have the imagination to make something like this up. And this is only the tip of the iceberg--things like this continually happen to my husband, my older daughter, and my husband's cousin.

Ready to walk down the runway...

I got this in my email yesterday...she is so much like me in that she loves purses and shoes.  Or I used to...yet I was never one to have a lot of either.  However...I think Lorelei will want them all...I have never seen a kid her age love shoes as much as she does.

And Lorelei kept wanting Sarah to put up the Christmas tree and the 'decowations'...
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I am continuing to make 4-patches a few at a time.  I still am undecided about what I am going to make with them.  I am thinking I will play with ELectric Quilt and experiment with different layouts, etc.

It has been windy but warm here today...we did have a crash or two of thunder...but other than that all we got was some rain.

Our handsome Bubbie....

First let me say that all photos were taken by Roger....

Every night, at some point in time, here comes Bubbie to get in my lap.  Roger got tickled the other day cause I was in the recliner asleep, and Bubbie was stretched out on me asleep.

He can get in some awful uncomfortable looking positions and just snooze away.  This evening, however, he just looked relaxed...

don't you just think he looks almost like he is smiling?  He for sure rules the roost around here....if we don't pay enough attention to him, he doesn't hesitate to let us know.

I will tell you this...I think the money we spent for fixing his broken leg was money well spent...but then, kindness never hurts whether to a human being or to an animal.

And I do know that my care for him during that time made a bond between us that will last a lifetime....we have so many names for him.  We call him  the court jester, I call him Khan, also think Harley would have been a name for him....as well as Bocephus...so at one time or another he does get called all of those and more, too, just can't recall off the top of my head...but mostly we just call him 'Our Bubbie.'

For Jackson

I have been waiting to show you the project I just finished a few days ago...I was sending it to my little nephew Jackson and wanted to wait till he got it before I posted it.

I did not have plans to make this...in fact I had plans for something entirely different. But in going through my fabric shelves, I ran across the animal flannels. I had made Roger a rag quilt with them...which is another story entirely.

The minute I saw the fabric, I knew I had to do something with it for Jackson. He will be two years old next month, and gets so excited by anything to do with hunting, going 4-wheeling, and Santa Claus. I just had to throw the part in about Santa Claus. But it is the truth....he L-O-V-E-S Santa.

I knew it would be the frayed edge style, or rag quilt. I first cut bunches of squares, paired them together with no batting between, and sewed them together. A BIG bunch of them together. I did not like that...thus I ended up sitting ripping out a LOT of stitching.

I also decided sometime during all of it, that I didn't have near enough fabric...even for a toddler's quilt. So, I ended up buying about three more yards of fabric. I proceeded to cut it all up in 6½ inch squares. As I cut I made the decisions of which fabrics I wanted to go to the back and which to the front. after cutting the fabric, I cut batting in a smaller size...then paired a fabric for the front with a fabric for the back, sandwiched the batting in between, and sewed an 'x' across it. I did them all at once.

I sat and counted how many squares of each fabric I had...then set with graph paper and decided how to arrange the blocks. Then the stitching the blocks together began....contrary to most sewing, the seams are supposed to be on the front with the rag quilts. The first row of blocks I sew.ed, I sewed just the opposite of that...actually I sewed it twice. Cause each of the seams from this point on are sewn double...for strength.

After a couple evenings of concentrated sewing, the above is the result. This is after it is washed and dried. It is all soft and snugly. And below is the back of the quilt...

It finished about 44 x 55 inches....so hoping Jackson will get use from it. I really think he will like all the animals. He has done been 'shooting' deer....when he was in the stores earlier last month I think it was, and he saw Santa's reindeer, he would 'shoot that', this after going through the store yelling HO! ho! ho! and hollering for Santa throughout the store. Then at Cracker Barrel where they have a deer head mounted, he 'shot that,' too.

I finished it Tuesday I think it was, washed it twice with color catchers, and to fray the edges, dried it, and put it in the mail Wednesday....

This is the Princess Pussycat

Roger got out the ladder to do one thing, instead we ended up trimming back my wisteria and cutting some limbs from the crab apple. 

Before I got out there Roger had leaned the step ladder against the house and went to the shop to get something.   When I first got out there, Puss Puss was up on the top of the stepladder.  I ran inside to get my camera.  When I got back out with it, here she came to meet me.  I kept talking to her and she climbed back up, just not all the way to the top.

She is a very petite little kitty...we call her Puss Puss.  She has got to be most curious kitty I have ever seen.  If a door is opened, she can be clear at the other end of the house and she is right there within two seconds to see where the door leads.  If a drawer is open, she is in it and climbing over the back of it the drawer below.

If it is cold, she races us to bed; and she does want under the cover, between us.  She will have none of that laying on the edge of the bed.  She wants her back snuggled against one of us with her feet pushing into the other's side or back.  And she will stay there for hours...oh, and beware of her if she you sit down near her with bacon.  She will snatch it right out of your hand.

Flannel Quilt

Not much new here in my little corner of the world....I sewed more 4-patches and cut more 2½ inch squares.  I have no idea what I am going to do with them, but that is the way a lot of my projects start out.  In fact, I tend to like those the best...that just develop as I go along...I think it might be a little bit of rebellion in me.  Just a little bit of freedom I enjoy.

The quilt above is nothing special...but it has been on our bed ever since I made it.  I went to Good Will and bought all the GOOD flannel shirts they got in...and usually got them for $2 or less.  I went when there was a sale, and I only bought Large and X-large...I love how snuggle it is.  And it is just so simple...

The quilt above I have shown before...but it started out with little 4-patches as I am doing now.  I was working at the time and thought I'd make the 4-patches because at least I would be sewing.  And I didn't have to think. Then I decided to make a 9-patch with a 4-patch as the corner pieces of the 9-patch.  That probably sounds like double talk to those that don't quilt...and maybe even to those that do....but that is how this developed.  I made all the 9-patches and decided to add more....but I won't go into details.  Just saying that sometimes flying by the seat of your pants works out good.

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Sarah said they had big old flakes of snow for a little while.  We had little snow balls...no joke....kind of like tiny hail only it was snow...from about B-B size to not quite pea sized...and though stuff started to get white, it only lasted a few seconds and melted just as quick.  I had the thought to grab my camera but it was gone before I could really act on it.

I would love to go down and sew a bit  more now, but think I will go read for a bit before heading to bed. 

Another day come and gone....

First off just have to share the above photo with you...of Otto with Lorelei and her friend, Emily.  He has to be in the middle of all that they are doing...what more could you ask for in a dog.

I have to tell you that Sarah went to her job today...since it was Jeremy's day off, Lorelei stayed home with him.Lorelei had not gotten up when Sarah left for work, and Jeremy woke up to Lorelei standing in the doorway whimpering "I can find my mommy anywhere."  Gosh, I could have just bawled when Sarah told me.  I know she was fine in probably a minute or less...cause she sure loves her daddy, too.  But oh....it sure made me feel for anyone that has had a child lose their mom....or for a mother that has lost their child.
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Lately I seem to be more interested in reading and quilting than anything else...my mind takes such flights of fancy that I cannot settle down to blogging.  I have trouble coming up with something to blog about....so just going to blog about life.

We seem to have to go somewhere every day...I think I could go for days and not leave the house and be happy.  I had to go to the post office today...I had been getting one package ready to mail last night when I ran across a book that belongs to one of my sisters...I thought I had mailed them all back to her but apparently one of the cats had knocked it down.  (They were on a desk by a window...as anyone with cats knows...they will get to that window no matter what!)  So that made two packages to mail....and I picked up a couple books of stamps.  We stopped at Walmart to pick up a couple things, and then by the grocery....and finally home at last.

I don't even remember what we done when we first got home, just know that we both ended up down in the basement...he at one end and me with my sewing machine.  I cannot settle on my next project, so I sat and made some 4-patches from some scraps I had cut a while back.  I am not sure what I am going to do with them...but just feels good to sew a few lines.

Somewhere during the time of it all, we had a grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Does anyone else have certain foods they associate with certain people,  or places and time?  I associate tomato soup and grilled cheese with working at the orchard...and winter.  It just felt so good to come in to a hot bowl of tomato soup with grilled cheese on cold days.  I like it any day, but especially on cold days.

It is getting late...I want to see the local news....

Home again.....

 

We got home from Indy yesterday afternoon.

I started laundry almost immediately.  I don't know about most people, but I almost always can find a load of laundry.  My neighbor used to say we were either awfully dirty or awfully clean, but I really think we are just average.

I stayed in the basement and worked on my sewing project for at least two or three hours while doing laundry, then brought it up here and finished it later last night.  It is in the washer as I type and probably ready to be thrown into the dryer.  It is nothing fancy...just something fun.  I am glad that it is done...just hope it doesn't bleed in the wash.

It was rainy and misty all the way home...all our leaves are about gone.  Just a few spots of color here and there.

There is just something about fall...it is always a time of thinking and remembering for me.  I long to reach back across time and connect with childhood friends...to be with my brothers and sisters.  I want to sit by the fire and  maybe roast a potato in the coals...or to gather around the table and work a jigsaw puzzle together.

I think about standing in the barn and grading tobacco all day long...and though it can be downright cold, sometimes it can be fun depending on the mood of everyone grading.  One of my earliest memories is grading tobacco, and we had taken our dinner with us.  What that was  I  am not sure, but probably bologna sandwiches.  We had milk, and to keep it cold, it was set in the spring house.

I also want to read and read and read...and to sew and sew.  And there is never enough time to do all I want. It makes me wish I had a maid to do the everyday household chores...but since I don't, a lot of it goes undone and I chose to do some of the fun things.

Typical fall day....

We are at Sarah's house....as you can see I am at blogger!  They got a router, and I brought my net book so here I am.  For how long I don't know.  The toot is napping...it is late...we don't know if she will just sleep through the night or if she will wake up and then want to stay up all night.

It has been a typical fall day--beautiful weather to be outside in.  We sat for an hour or two out back...laughing at Lorelei and Otto...

Roger and I went for a drive yesterday...didn't really see much...except a lot of buzzards.  We went over into Illinois and then back north of Danville to that Eagle and Heron viewing station, that we went to a while back.  And it just this second dawned on me that I forgot to take a picture of the viewing platform...again.  For someone who likes to take photos as a way to document things now, I can sure ignore the obvious sometimes.
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I wonder...what are your reasons for taking photographs?  It is hard to explain how I feel about photography.  I like to take pictures to show the beauty of things as I see them...to capture a moment in time.

But more than that, I feel this need to document things as they are now.  Yet I don't do enough of the actual documenting.  The little town I live in has changed so much in the past 35 years....you just would not believe the changes.  It is hardly recognizable in some ways.  The main business area is only  about three blocks long....one side of the street hardly has any buildings left that was there when I moved here.  The other side has several buildings missing...and I don't have a single photograph from back then.

Then there is photographing people.  I just don't take people's photographs.   Or very, very seldom.  Oh, I don't mind Lorelei and Sarah and Roger...cause I know they don't mind.  Nor would Jeremy if he were there when I had the camera...but other than them...I don't have the nerve.  I think because I always hated my own being taken.  Though I did not mind so much if someone snapped a photo while I was doing something and did not ask me to pose.

Yet I love looking back at old photographs of people....and places and things.  They are a way of connecting with our past.

Yesterday was my birthday, but due to weather and Jeremy working, we met the kids Wednesday to have lunch together.

Yesterday I returned ALL the books to the library...and I did not even go inside.  I figure I will be pretty busy with my kindle for a while to come.  I know the newness will probably wear off, but right now I would just as soon not have to worry about getting books back down there.

Anyway, have been looking and looking at books on Amazon...still haven't spent a dime.  And really, as much as I have on there...I won't actually need to buy anything for a long time to come.  Still, I looked at some of the books I already have in actual book form to see if they were available for the kindle...some were and some weren't.

Anyway, while I was sitting at the computer, I had a notice that Sarah had posted to my face book wall...this is what she had posted.  Be sure and have your volume turned up and listen closely at the end!  I have smiled and laughed at this over and over.

Have you thought about the fact that Christmas is less than two months away?  I used to get an early start sometimes, then the longer I worked at the orchard, the less it happened.  Partly because I aged and was just too tired. Apple picking started at the end of August and ended the last of October, or first week of November, but there was still grading to be done. Part of it was that more trees matured and there was actually more work to do, so I had a reason to be tired.

I have been looking at things for the toot....got one thing picked out but cannot decide about what else.  I have no idea what I am getting for anyone else, either.

I did see something for my older daughter, but on closer inspection it was one of those special care deals....so I didn't get it.  Does anyone else get tired of those items of clothing that say hand wash and lay flat to dry...or even just the lay flat to dry part.  Who has room to lay everything out flat to dry anyway?

So, what is on your Christmas wish list? 

First let me say that the pictures of Lorelei are from Sarah and Jeremy...and sorry about the size of a couple of them....that is how they saved to my computer.  They are from Halloween.

As you can see, she had a good time.

I would love to have seen her....

There were several pics and hard to choose just a couple or three.  The first is probably my favorite...
the one above is a favorite of course...as well as the one below.

This one will at least enlarge if clicked.   She was a monarch butterfly in case you cannot tell.
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We got most of the leaves corralled today...there are a few in front but the worst of them are done.  For now.  We will have to do it again because there are still a few on the trees.  I have 5 big bags of leaves to be picked up, plus we put more on the garden spot.  That is not many compared to when we had two big maples to the side of our house.  I can remember raking 28 bags in one evening, and that probably being only 2/3's of them. 

We came in, tired but feeling good to have accomplished something.  Roger took his shower and came in the living room about the time Bubbie wanted in.  He opened the door for him and Puss Puss rushed out.  Before he could sit down, she was up in the chair on the front porch....the one that sits in front of the window looking in as if she wanted back in. 

Well, Roger can really start on things...I wish you guys could have been here.  He is like 'NO!  I'm going to hurt you!"  He looked at me and said,  "I just let her out....did you see that....I just let her out."  He walks back over to let her in, and she just looked at him.  I told him she wants him to come outside...so he walks out there and she jumps down and starts strolling off.

He came back in, and right up in that chair she jumped, looking in at him.  He turns his head away sort of and puts his hand up beside his eyes to block his vision of her and says I am going to have to start watching TV like this...

I am not remembering all he said, but I laughed so hard...he said he was going to write a book titled something like The Things My Cats Will Let Me Do....
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I have been sewing a bit the past couple of hours...I will soon be done with the sewing part of this one project....feels so good to accomplish something in that department.

Oh, and I will give a little report on my kindle---I LOVE IT!  I have finished one book on it...have another started.  The one I finished is one I had wanted to read for a  long time...it was a freebie.  It was Ox Team Days on the Oregon Trail.   It was a fair read, but not as good as some others I have read.

I think I can read longer on it without tiring ...but maybe that is the newness of it.  So far, haven't been at all disappointed with it at all.