Warm yesterday, with cold moving in today...

Yes, Lorelei was able to play outside yesterday with no jacket.  And I am here to tell you, we both enjoyed it.

I think this is her first time of 'climbing' in a tree...I could not tell her no.  I enjoyed it too much as a kid, so figured she might as well start in an easy one.

These are not the best...shot with a point and shoot.  But still, they are a record of her accomplishments.

And this is her idea of fun at night.  I put my feet up in the recliner, and she makes a nest...lots of times, she is on her belly, with her feet almost in my face while she watches a cartoon. 
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Today started out warm enough till she put on a jacket and we blew bubbles for a while.  But later in the evening, I could just feel the house getting colder.  I had turned the heat way down, so I had to turn it back up.  It is 29ºF as I type, but the wind makes it feel 10 degrees colder...and it just keeps dropping a little at a time. 

Not sure what tomorrow will bring...Lorelei may go home but not sure. 

All right in my world....

I don't know why, but it always amazes me how much Lorelei being here changes me.  It is definitely a feeling of all is right with the world.  Whether she is right with me, or whether she is playing with Papaw or by herself, just hearing her footsteps and hearing her chatter is wonderful.

I remember enjoying my kids when they were little, and they gave us a lot of joy, but back then, I guess with Roger working, I always felt the pressure to get things done.  Now things can just wait or not--whatever is handiest to do.

She was playing with the point & shoot camera above...actually took some decent pictures till the idea to be funny struck...then she took several like this.
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Raining lightly off and on here today.  Supposed to have thunderstorms tonight.  And maybe up to 1.5 inches of rain.  That will be wonderful as we are still short from the drought last year.  As warm as it is, I can see having thunderstorms, but sure don't remember having many this time of year.

Another thing I am anxious for spring for is to be able to hang clothes outside.  If it wasn't misting rain off and on today, it was warm enough to hang outside.  but it mists a little bit every so often.

Well, I best get off...I do have laundry going and I might sneak in a line or two of sewing.

Come sit on my porch....

Not really my porch, but if it were, I would sure invite you to come sit and visit.

I often make the comment that no one sits on their porches any more.  We are the only people in the neighborhood that sits on our porch.  Now, some of the neighbors do come and sit with us.  I think porch sitting is a lost art.  It is a time to form friendships, to catch up on what is going on in the neighborhood, and a good place to discuss how to do/make things.

When I go home and go visit my brother and his wife, we always sit on her front porch.  And if we can't for some reason, we are wishing we could. 

Right now I am so anxious to have weather warm enough to sit out on our porch and have breakfast.  Yeah, I guess I am complaining of the weather....I guess it is just human  nature.

Speaking of weather, we had rain this morn, and it rained harder than I think I have ever heard it rain for just a little while.  Bit puddles are standing every where.  It has warmed up quite a bit...and supposed to be warm for at least a day or two.

Back early in December we took a drive down to the Goose Pond area by Linton, Indiana.  We found THIS fence...with all kinds of birdhouses.  I had meant to show a few along and have just not gotten around to it.  First of all, here is the sign that was on one of the posts:

Following are a couple of the unique, maybe even somewhat strange birdhouses:

 Not quite sure who he is supposed to be....

and if you look close you will see 'she' has three holes.

To me, the holes look on the small side, but when I looked closely at some of them, they had been used.  I just think some of these are so odd....I cannot help but wonder what people were thinking when they made them.  At least people have a fun sense of imagination.
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Even though we went for a drive yesterday, I did do a little bit of sewing when we got home.  I finished seven more of the 6½ inch crumb blocks, keep in mind they were already started.   I got others  very close to being finished...so will keep working on them.

I am sitting here watching the birds at my feeders.  The goldfinches are out here thicker than normal, but probably not near as many as some of you have.  And the house sparrows,  and the house finches....along with a couple of  huthatches and a cardnal or two.  And a squirrel has been underneath the feeders.  I always throw some sunflower seed on the ground especially for them, though unless it gets really bad it is normally just this one little squirrel that has lost most of its tail.
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Last night on the news, we saw this video.  Shortened story is that an Indiana cop found a fawn on someone's porch during a call...he and his wife who is a nurse saved it.  Now they are facing criminal charges.  Can they not spend their time and money on something serious?  It is just nuts in my opinion to prosecute people over something like this.  They seem like your average, hardworking couple...

13 WTHR Indianapolis

Another visitor....

This fellow was at the feeders when we got our one and only big snow.  I decided he was a yellow bellied sap-sucker....not positive but he did have a belly tinged with yellow. It was taken through my window...and the photo is cropped. 

It is supposed to warm up next week...if it does, I plan on at least washing these two windows here in the dining room.  Maybe I can get better  photos then.
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I did not touch my sewing machine yesterday.  We ran to Terre Haute...I did birthday shopping for Lorelei and Roger did a little bit of shopping at Gander Mountain.  That is a sporting goods store in case you didn't know.

We may get out and go for a much needed drive later on...it has been ages since we have been on one.  Just need to decide where to go.

An old favorite....

I have been sitting looking through photos...this is an old favorite.  A little farmhouse over in Illinois.  It is small...and sits in all this big open farmland.  I always call it the Little House on the Prairie.  And it is one I take pictures of fairly often.  I always wonder how old it is...and I wonder if it belongs to some of the original owner's family, or did they sell it.  I wonder if someone rents it.  I wish I had the nerve to go up and knock on the door and ask.
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It is cold...supposed to have a chance of snow flurries, but no accumulation.  I sort of hope they are wrong and that we do get a few inches.  Seems like no matter what snow, photos look good.  I even always seem to love paintings of snow scenes. 
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I keep sewing along on the crumb blocks.  I have to make a few more to have enough for the size I want to make the quilt. 

Almost every time I go down to my sewing machine, Puss Puss has chewed my thread.  She chews it till she breaks it and there it just hangs...sometimes it gets hung on her as she walks away and she pulls out a yard or two.  I don't know what her thing is with thread...I have a couch throw/blanket that has a fringe and she pulls it out.  I will come in and find a little pile of it where she has pulled it out.

At least she doesn't attack me.  Bubbie was in high form tonight...he wanted to play hide and go seek and did not want to take no for an answer.  He was grabbing me every chance he got.  I was never one to jump and squeal or be surprised easily, but he can sure make me jump.  Sometimes he just reaches out and tags me with he paw as I pass, other times he will run and jump on my leg as I pass through.

Always something to do...

Part of the time I like to stay busy sewing.  Usually something to do with quilting.  There are times when I don't really want to have to think about measurements, seam allowances, and things fitting together.  I just want to mess with fabric and sew a few lines.  That is when I go to this plastic tote...actually I have two of them but just took a photo of this one.  It contains scraps from other quilting/sewing projects.

I chose bits and pieces and sew them together, pressing after each line of sewing...and then I use ruler and rotary cutter and trim the edges straight.

Above shows the ruler being placed and cut to size the final time.

There is no set size to make the blocks.  Some people just set the finished crumb blocks next to each other with no sashing between.  But me, I want some control, so these I am sitting together like the photo below to begin with...

As you can see...no two blocks are exactly alike...and they are using up all kinds of bits and pieces.  The only thing, the plastic tote seems as full as ever.

This is what I am currently working on...it is fun to go down and create a little something each day. I look at them--some fabrics I remember what they were used in right away.  Others I have to think a bit to recall where they came from.  There are even a few that I actually paid for just to have some new variety to my scraps.  But those are very few.

I see fabrics from baby quilts, and from an apron I made for a friend.  I see fabric from a little dress I made Lorelei.  I see Snoopy fabric and remember how thrilled I was to find it.  I wish now I had bought more of it.  I used it in a small baby quilt for my nephew.  Quilts are full of memories...

Sickness

These were taken out at the strip pits on Wednesday of last week...a juvenile bald eagle.  He was a ways away most of the time, soaring around in circles.  Then he decided to leave and head back the way I had just come.  No more circling...just gone.

I don't know about where you are, but here in west Central Indiana, it is COLD.  The temperature sits at 12ºF right now...and feels like -2º with the windchill.  I want one more good snow...at a time when I can be out in it and take some pictures.  Other than that, I am ready for spring, ready to sit on the porch and read, or have breakfast....ready to be outside in shirtsleeves and be warm.

But for right now, am thankful to be relatively healthy....I am still not going to go into too many details, but will say that Sarah ended up in the hospital....thank God her sister was there with her.  Her hubby was at work...before we got over there, Lorelei started throwing up.  She had the flu.  That was a Friday.  By Saturday evening her dad was not feeling too good...Sunday I was hit with it...oldest daughter had to leave Sunday afternoon.

Roger took her to see Sarah one more time before she left.  They got there and Sarah had been released...so she went with them to the airport.  I had stayed home with Lorelei, and was feeling worse by the minute.  Jeremy was feeling horrible.  So, in comes Sarah and Roger...both feeling okay at that time.

Before Roger went to bed, he was sick and vomiting, and I am still sick...we go to bed and I get up in the night to go to the potty.  I pass out...and before I can get my wits about me enough to get up...I am sick.  But after that, I feel some better...get everything cleaned up.  At this point, Sarah has not had it and I just didn't want her touching anything.

We all get back to bed, and get up Monday and I decide to try to get us home.  Roger still doesn't feel like driving but seems to have stopped vomiting.   So, you are thinking that is the end of the tale...no.  I get home and get a cold on top of the flu.   Roger feels much better the next day, and thinks he is over it.  He has two or three good days, then gets the bad cold.

 And let me add, that Sarah did not escape the flu....and by the time her sister got back to the west coast, she was sick all night, and part of the next day.

I drove us home on January 7th, and did not get out of the house till January 16th, and I still get weary so easy.  So, I am hoping to blog at least weekly...hoping we have seen the worst.

Edits from daughter and a thought...totally unrelated

 First will show you a couple more edits my daughter did...she printed them and put them in white frames, with white mats....they really look good displayed that way. 

 It was certainly time consuming, but really worth the effort.  I wish I had taken a picture of them in the frames

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 I was just thinking...it has been so long since I went to bed listening to the sound of a clock ticking.  I seriously cannot even remember the last time.  At one time it was a soothing sound...I don't know what I would think of it now.

And isn't it amazing just how many things have clocks on them...in my kitchen alone there is the stove, the microwave, the coffee pot, and the radio.   Every direction I look, there is a clock! 
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I would tell you about the past four days, but you don't want to hear!  It was of the nightmare quality almost.  Not sure if I will be blogging regular or not for a little bit.  But hoping to get started again now that the holiday season is over.

Done at last, done at last

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging is I knew I wanted to finish this. It is amazing at the hours I put in this. Even if only paid $1 an hour, it would be a lot more money than most people would want to pay for it.

It was not a good day to take pictures. I may wait and take more late when there is at least some sunlight. I tried to show some of the quilting. It is nothing fancy but it is pretty when you can really see it all and not just a small section like this.  BTW, this quilt....Puss Puss and Bubbie absolutely love it.  They have snuggled in it every chance they have gotten.

You can barely see it if--even if you enlarge it.  It looks better as a whole than it does just to see this small section.

And I even put it up in the house to take photos...

So there you have what has occupied so much of my thinking time as well as working time.

Happy New Year

I will get back to blogging soon...just not quite ready yet...our little sweetie spent a couple nights with us.  She went back home yesterday morn.

I got this photo last night from her mom... Isn't she hilarious!  Sometimes it is hard to get her to give us just a regular face/smile.  I thought a couple or three shots of her were a fitting way to greet the New Year.

And here she was ready to go to a New Year's Eve party!  Notice the gold shoes!