April's End

My goodness this year is flying by so quickly!  One third of it gone already.  It's been a dark and stormy day, windy and wet.  We got up this morning (late!), and decided to help our local Arby's celebrate their first day of serving breakfast.  It was good!  I had a sausage and egg wrap and Dan had biscuits and sausage.  I'm sure we ate our weekly quota of salt and fat, but it was a once-in-a-great-while treat.  :-)

I'm on sock number two using the Madelinetosh sock yarn.  It's a super smooth and silky yarn, hard to believe it's all wool.  I'm hoping to get the second sock done and I'm thinking I'll give this pair to Mom for Mother's Day. We're heading down their way on Saturday to celebrate Dad's eighty-ninth birthday (actually on Friday) with Bruder Bear, so I thought we could add in Mother's Day since it will be just a week later. 

And now I think I'll head into the kitchen and mix up a batch of cookies for my sweetie who's out on the lawnmower trying to get some work done in the backyard before the next rain hits.  He's hoping the wind has dried things out enough that he can get some of the long grass (it grows so quickly this time of year!) up before we need to hire a hay baler!  :-)

Done!

Actually, it's been done for a week or two, but then I fell prey to the bug.  I finally got some photos taken and here is the machine embroidered wall hanging entitled, "And to All A Good Night!."  I love it!  

It was hard to get a good picture and still show the detail.  The one above is taken on the dining room table, and the one below was when I managed to hang it on the wall.  I'm not steady on the button, especially when I turn the camera ninety degrees, and I tossed picture after picture (thank goodness for digital!) and still managed to cut the top of this picture.  Oh well!

I took it to the shop on Wednesday and it's on display there.  I'm thinking we'll offer some type of class this summer.  

Catchin' Up

Ooo, first of all, blogger composer has changed since my last post! I feel weird here...

Anyway, I am back among the living after catching a bug that's been going around here.  It's a truly ugly one, but I seem to have beaten it back and am doing well.  I did nothing but sleep and sleep and by yesterday I seemed to be back to "normal" -- or as normal as I get.  :-) Fever, chills, aching joints, no appetite, cough, sore throat, the symptoms are 'flu like.  On the bright side, I may have lost a few ounces or two.

A few pictures: 

Love these striped socks!  I've become a sock knitting fanatic.  I'm working on a new pair with some lovely (can you say $$?) yarn I ordered from a shop in Ft. Collins called the Loopy Ewe.  I doesn't come in a pull skein so Dan I spent some time one evening just before I got sick reliving the "olden days" while he held the yarn and rolled, and rolled, and rolled.  If I keep buying this type of yarn I may have to invest in a ball winder.  

Meanwhile, the sheet rock work has progressed.  Taping and mudding is a long process and Dan has worked on it to the point where he's thinking it's ready for the texturing.  

I need to go on a carpet finding mission.  And a blind finding mission.  And curtain fabric finding mission.  And, hmmm...maybe  a nap to stave off a relapse...

Miller's Tire Shop??

Where we live, snow can (and does!) come any month except July and August.  We have studded tires for all three of our vehicles and they are all mounted on their own rims.  

My Sweetie worked in a tire shop summers and weekends when he was an undergrad, so he is an expert at changing tires.  We have a compressor and an air gun to use on the lug nuts, and we also have a huge heavy-duty jack which raises each end of the vehicle.  But still, there are twelve tires which have to be removed and twelve tires which need to be put back on.  It's a lot of work.

Saturday morning our phone rang about nine and it was Eric, volunteering to come over and help with this spring's Great Miller Tire Swap.  And he would bring reinforcements:  Cameron and Keaton.  A little after ten, our shop was in business.  Rigs were jockeyed into position, the compressor was sizzling, and when I looked out, there was a flurry of activity on all fronts.  

Well, almost all fronts.

Cameron was enjoying a little rest in the sun.  

Following all this work, there had to be some fun.  It was time to pull the blade from the front of the 4-wheeler, which made it eminently suitable for some backyard vrooming.   

Keaton even took Ann for a ride!

Meanwhile, the littlest man was having fun sorting brass Dan had picked up at the shooting range.  

Here's the pile of tires before Dan scrubbed the rims and put them away for the summer:

We sure were grateful for the help!  We fed them chicken nuggets, French fries, and ice cream cones for lunch. And a little chocolate.  :-)  

King Arthur Finds

For years, finding a bag that would fit around loaves of bread machine made bread drove me crazy.  I tried bags I found at the store that tied with a twist tie.  They were invariably too short.  Ditto gallon zip locks.  I would have to slice off several pieces and slide them down the sides or put them another bag.  I really didn't like to do this because it was a hassle and also because I prefer to slice a number of hours after the bread has cooled because it seems to cut more easily.  I like fairly thin slices, about 3/8th of an inch.  

I've mentioned the King Arthur Flour catalog before. They sell several sizes of bread bags and I was never certain which size to order, so I didn't.  Finally, last year, frustrated enough to throw caution to the wind, I decided to just make a decision and order.  Their double bread bags turned out to be perfect!!  Absolutely perfect!  They don't come with twist ties, so I used ones I had and they worked fine, but then I went to a Pampered Chef party and got one of these as a prize.  After a few days, the light bulb went off and I used it on a bread bag and loved it!  I think they work way better than a twist tie.  King Arthur sells a similar product if you don't have access to Pampered Chef.  I'm certain they are made by the same company as both say they are made in Sweden.  I bought a whole Pampered Chef set for myself a few months ago and use them all the time and bought a set from KAF, along with the bags, for Mom and Dad as part of their Christmas.

It's so nice to have just the right "tools" to work with!

Happy Easter

Inspired by my friend Kathy, here is a picture of me from Easter 1951. I would have been about 19 months old. I'm sure Mom must have made my little dress.  

My parents lived in a little cottage, one of a row of seven. When they talk about their neighbors, it was a who's who of their town's young marrieds.  They moved from there about the time of my second birthday, to a duplex with two bedrooms.  Yes, up until then, I shared a bedroom with my parents, typical of many of my small friends of the day.  

May your Easter be blessed as we celebrate Jesus' resurrection!

Projects

The stairway is coming along.  Nothing ever seems to go as planned, but Dan has been able to figure out a plan C, or D, or even an E.  He had hoped to be able to remove the stair treads to make the sheet rocking easier, but in addition to the many nails used to attach them, he was frustrated to find they had also glued them down.  And those treads were not coming up.  It's taken more time and considerable measuring, but he is succeeding!

Meanwhile, on the sock knitting front, I have finished the first sock of my second pair and am started on the second.  As much as I loved the first pair, I think I love these even more!  Or maybe it's one of those things that each new project become the favorite.  

This is the first sock and I'm knitting toward what will be the toe of the sock.  When number two is finished, I'll post a picture--these look good with my favorite shoes, too!  I'm also perfecting my stitch.  I didn't realize that I am apparently a fairly loose knitter, and my first pair is roomier than I'd really like.  When I tried this one on when I finished it, it was perfect.  Oh, and I also did a little pattern modification.  I gots skinny feet.  :-)

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, Dan snapped this photo of Buddy this morning.  He decided to clean out his "whatever" drawer in the dresser (you know, the one with pocket stuff, cards, treasures, etc.).  He took the drawer out and put it on the bed while he cleaned and turned back to the dresser to find this:

How he jumped up in there and turned around...