A Little of This 'n That

The sky is blue today, and big white fluffy clouds are floating around. We had a terrific wind storm yesterday and the temperature has dropped about twenty degrees. Definitely cool. I just made cookies and am taking a well deserved rest for my tootsies. The recliner footrest is up. :-)

This morning Dan and I were up fairly early and decided to take ourselves downtown to the bakery for breakfast. I had a huge and wonderful cinnamon roll, half of which is in a container waiting to be finished at tomorrow's breakfast. I love sitting in the booth, facing the window, and watching the people go by as Dan and I visit. Our town has quite a mix of people and this morning I watched a tall, slender grey-haired lady in shorts and jacket walk her large dog across the street. She looked marvelous. A small girl went by on her daddy's shoulders and her smug smile told us she thought she must be the luckiest girl in the world. An older lady walked slowly by with an obviously handicapped young woman. Our town has a number of "group homes" and we often see small groups of residents being shepherded around streets and stores by caretakers.

Last week I was busy cleaning less than fun places around the house: under the kitchen sink, wiping down the kitchen cupboards with lemon oil, etc. This week I'm cleaning too, but it's computers. Or maybe arranging would be a better word. Or maybe shuffling. I've got stuff on three different ones. Mostly I'm dealing with embroidery designs, but old discs of pictures are being unburied, too, which has been fun and nostalgic.

I'll leave you with one:


April, 2002. Cameron is one, Ryan, two. Where does the time go?

Isn't it Strange...

how one little thing will lead to a progression of things.

I was in the kitchen this morning and took a good look at the rug in front of the door to the garage. Charming. Not. So I picked it up, along with the rug in front of the dining room slider and our bathroom rug, and flung them into my washer. (By the way, I don't think I've mentioned how much I love my new washer and dryer. I do!!!!) Later, I put them in the dryer, and even later, I went back down and took them out. Uh oh. That backing stuff had disintegrated and the inside of my dryer looked like the Sahara Desert.

Ponder, ponder. Stuff must come out. I'm not about to ruin my wonderful new dryer with latex crumbs. How to get it out? Ponder some more. Ah ha! The vacuum. Hauled it downstairs, hooked up the hose and the crevice tool, and it worked. The crevice tool even fit into the space where the lint filter fits, so I was able to get that area clean, too.

Well, since the vacuum was out, why not do the basement. Check. Hauled it back upstairs, and thought, what better time? Check. Ooooo, where did those spots on the carpet come from??? Hmm, damp rag, some elbow grease, and voila--no spots!

What an incredibly good girl I have been today.

Goodbye, June

How amazing that this year is half over. And I still can't decide whether it's "Twenty Ten" or "Two Thousand Ten." :-)

The boxers are all done. Ryan's three were put in the mail on Monday and hopefully he'll have them by tomorrow. I was able to make them longer as requested.



Dan is done with his busiest month and we're officially on vacation now. He got some work done in the yard today, and I spent some time with Cameron and Keaton this afternoon. Tomorrow Ann and I are going out to lunch together and Papa Dan will be in charge of the boys. We'll have to see if yard work or fun is on the agenda for them. :-)

While I was watching the boys this afternoon, the subject of cherries came up, so I drove them over to our house to check out our cherry trees. Looks like we'll have a bumper crop of Bings in a few weeks. The boys love to pit them, so Ann and I have decided to take advantage of their work and dry some this year in addition to freezing. A friend of hers has a dehydrator she's never used, so we're going to appropritate, er um, borrow it from her.

Anyway, after returning the boys to their home and to Ann, I came home and decided that with the new crop just around the corner, I'd better be using up more of the cherries in our freezer, so I made Cherry Crisp using a recipe from Cooking Light from two years ago. I've made it quite a few times now, and it's delicious. I've made it with freshly pitted cherries and frozen ones, and the recipe works fine with both. I have lessened the cornstarch to three tablespoons, and probably use closer to 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. If you use frozen cherries, be sure to thaw them or increase the baking time to about an hour.

I have some projects in mind that I hope to begin soon. I did finally swap out my winter clothes and shoes for summer ones yesterday. As I was shuffling between closets, I realized it's only three months until October, when I'll need to do it all over again! What crazy weather.

We have no big plans for the Fourth of July weekend. Our church is having a picnic Sunday afternoon in the park and that should be fun. Other than that, I think we'll just enjoy some quiet time at home. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

And Suddenly, It's Summer!

Things are still moving along in Jammy Grammy's workshop, with the last boxers almost done. But the big news is, it's warm!!! After weeks and weeks of 40+ degree weather and rain, rain, rain, it's actually warm today. I have the windows open, and when I made a trip to town, I had to turn on the air conditioning in the Explorer. Mighty strange.

So here are a few pictures of our yard. My friend Kathy commented on her blog about wanting to get some old time roses for her farm yard, and mentioned she'd never seen orange ones. Ours are almost done blooming, but you can see a few in amongst the yellow ones.




The pot below is one of two we have on either side of the garage door. Another sits on our deck outside the dining room. It was too cold to have them out until last weekend!


And here's our front porch, ready for the 4th of July. My poor banner is years old and fading fast, but I still love it.


And now I'm heading back to my sewing room to work on Ryan's boxers. I ran out of thread, so I had to go get some more. I wound up spending a fun hour trying on sandals at a local store and stopping by the grocery store to pick up a few things. When I got back home, I read Kathy's blog, and ended up writing this. Boy, talk about distracted!! Oh, and I didn't buy any sandals although I was sorely tempted!!

Greetings from Jammy Grammy's Workshop!

Moby and I are busily making this summer's boxers for my (not so) little men. Ann and I hit the fabric shop a week and a half ago to pick out some fabric. So many choices, but these boys are growing up. We looked longingly at many cute but too childish fabrics and then moved on. We hit upon sports and outdoors fabric, along with a cute monkey print for Cameron and Keaton as she often calls her boys her "little monkeys."

I have three completed with the fourth half done. As I noted in a previous blog, these are so cute: droopy backsides, numerous flat-felled seams, fly fronts, and stitched-in elastic. I'm certain the first pair I made took me six hours. Now, after many years, I can make a pair in about an hour and a half, but the first pair each summer still goes in fits and starts until I get back in the groove. When I have these nine finished, my total will be forty-five since I first started in 2002.

Here are a few pictures from the workshop:


And the second pair of monkey boxers in process:


And fabric and pattern for more:


One of these days they'll be too big for Grammy Jammies, so I'm enjoying every moment of sewing these. Lots of blessings in every seam.

Sweet

I've finished the baby quilt and it's so sweet, I just want to look at it all day long. I had scraps to work with, and used them to make nine-patch blocks measuring six inches, finished. The green dot fabric for sashing was from my stash, and the pink corner stones were every last inch of pink check from the star block-of-the-month quilt. The pink border was fabric I found at the bottom of a pile; apparently I had bought the end of a bolt, probably for some future baby quilt, and amazingly enough it was the same pink as in the quilt.

I have no idea who this quilt is for, but I sure had a good time putting it together. It's hanging over the railing in the entryway and it's making me smile. Pink, green and yellow. It's like a sweet spring day.


And now this Grammy is off to begin the first of nine pairs of boxers for certain little men to wear as summer jammies.

Sixty-two Years and Counting

On June 9, 1948, my mom and dad were married in a small ceremony in the home of friends. Dad was raised in the small town where they still live, and my mom was raised in a large town a state away. They were introduced by a mutual friend who just knew they should meet. They have weathered many years together. They are determined people, and my brother and I have been blessed to have them for parents.


Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. Thank you for your love and commitment to each other and to your family.