Red, White and Blue

I'm a fan of using peanut M&M's as part of my seasonal decorating and love that they make appropriately colored bagsful throughout the year.  Last summer a Facebook friend posted a picture of a bowl of red, white and blue ones and I wanted some. I searched all over town to no avail and was totally bummed.  This year I decided to start my looking early, but still no luck.  I even looked on line and did find some--for some pretty amazing prices,  Apparently the M&M people don't make many bags and some people are price gouging.  I didn't purchase.

Fortunately back in March when I had some Valentine's M&M's left over as I changed over to Easter hued ones, I noticed I had a few white ones left.  In a light-bulb moment, I scooped out the whites and put them in a ziplock baggie...just in case.  I bought a huge Costco bag of the usual multi-colored ones last trip and picked out some red and blue ones.  And so it is that I have a bowl of red, white and blue peanut M&M's to add to my summertime Americana decorating.

And I tell everyone to only eat the red and blue ones.  ♥

Post 417: Wherein I Discover Dusting Can Be Fun

Yes, I realize it's been three months since I've written. And one would think that I would have something more earth-shaking to write about than dusting, but trust me when I say that this is earthshaking.

NOTE: For those of you who have already discovered this amazing item, my apologies and you have my permission to stop reading at any time.  

While at my parents' house weeks ago, I spotted a strange looking thing in the laundry room and my brother told me it was a Swiffer duster and that it was, well, I can't remember his actual words, but something to the effect that it was amazing.  Fast forward to a week or so ago when I was surveying the dusty living and dining rooms and our bedroom, mentally gearing myself up for a marathon of dusting when I remembered The Swiffer.  

A trip to the grocery store was on the agenda so I added "Swiffer duster" to the list and away we went. (I need to have a list because, well, I'm getting old-er and the memory...).  We finally found the Swiffer and threw the box into the cart, mentally noting to transfer Swiffer to the Costco list (in other words, The Swiffer is not cheap).

At home, I opened the box, pulled out the handle and noted it came in two pieces.  I managed to ram the pieces together and then pondered how to put the actual duster thing-y on.  I read the instructions and still no wiser, consulted Dan, who pointed to the picture. Ah. The picture. Worth a thousand words any day!  After realizing we'd put the dust thing-y on upside down, I was in business.  

I thought I'd give it a little spin so I tried it out on the dining room table and before I knew it, I was done with the dining room itself.  I even dusted the chair legs!! This little gizmo ↓

is truly amazing.  There must be some dust attractor on those fluffy strips because even corners and crevices become dust-free in a flash.  I attacked our bedroom and then the living room.  I was still smiling when I was done, and let me say I was done in record time.  (Please note that there is no picture of the duster thing-y when I was done because I was truly embarrassed at the amount of dirt on it.)  Who knew dusting could actually be easy and fun?  ♥

It's Spring Break and . . .

for the second time this week, we woke up to snow!!  So typical!  

Or course it's gone now and sun is out, but it's definitely March-like weather.  Dan and I have laughed today over memories of the year we got up to several inches on June 10, the first official day of summer vacation when I was still teaching.  Ah, life in the mountains. 

Meanwhile we've been enjoying going to Keaton's basketball games (his school is competing in a spring league for middle schoolers).  Here he is going for the score!

And here's a photo of Cameron all dressed up for his school's spring formal.  I'd show one with his date, but I'm not certain if it would be okay with her parents.  

And finally, here's one of the Daniel, adding his bag of corn to his pre-school's pot of "stone soup." It's been a busy month for the boys.  

Ann and I had a fun morning on Tuesday when she showed up with her niece Elizabeth (Eric's brother's daughter) and we taught her to use my quilting machine.  For her last birthday Elizabeth had asked for quilting lessons from Auntie Ann and they spent the summer piecing a top.  Of course, then school got in the way, but with this being spring break, it offered the perfect opportunity to quilt it. Elizabeth, who will turn just ten next month, did a fabulous job with the machine and got the whole top quilted.  Just the binding left to be fitted into the schedule, hopefully soon.  A whole new generation quilter!  

Oh, and happy St. Paddy's day!  ♥

Stitch, Stitch

I've decided counted cross stitch is the perfect antidote to soggy late winter days.  The steady in and out of the needle is soothing and the whole process is somewhat like painting a picture.  A boon for those of us with absolutely no talent in the painting department.  The fabric is blank, like a canvas, and as the thread colors fill in the squares, the picture emerges.  The picture just keeps growing, and in the end, I'll have a new piece of art to display.

Happy soggy day!  ♥

Another Tiny Book Review

I just finished a book that I couldn't put down.  It's by an author I've enjoyed before and came recommended by Ann so I knew I would probably enjoy it, but it truly was a page turner. And more than that, it was the first book in a long time that I didn't peek at the end somewhere along the line to see if I liked the ending and if it was worth my time to finish.  (Yes, I'm a peeker...)

The book?  Secrets of a Charmed Life  by Susan Meissner.  It's a story set in England during the Second World War and features two sisters caught in the blitz, Hitler's Luftwaffe's devastating bombing of London in 1940.  I love history and I love novels set in England so I was pulled in immediately.   The story is presented in an unusual way, and I'm really not saying anything more.  

I know all readers don't always like the same type of book, but I think most people will be drawn into this book and, like me, be pulled in all the way to the end. Enjoy!  ♥

Christmas...in February

I used to do a lot of counted cross stitching.  Then as time went on and I started having less energy when I got home from teaching, things began to fall by the wayside, and cross stitching was one.  A few weeks before last Christmas, something spurred me to dig into a basket and pull out a tin I knew contained little cards for St. Nicholas type Santas.  And there I found one in process, started I don't know when.  I decided it would be a good TV project and began to stitch again.  

Counted cross stitch is another area where I prefer primitive type projects, and a company called The Prairie Schooler was the source of my favorite St. Nicholas designs.  They published a card every year with a new design and somewhere back in the '90's, I chanced upon them and began collecting. I don't have them all, but I have quite a few!

I have several framed that I have used for probably at least twenty Christmases, but in the tin I also found two completed St. Nick's in addition to the one I began working on.  They are the two on the bottom and I finished the top one today.

I've discovered two things.  My eyes are older!!  I need to use reading glasses and take out my contacts.  If I do that, the stitching is easy; if I don't, not so much.  And the fabric I use, 18 count Davos in khaki, is proving very hard to  find.  I have enough for one more, but there are all those others!  I've found one source on line, but I've not taken the plunge yet.  Scratch that.  With Dan's blessing, I just ordered a yard.  A very expensive yard.  

Merry Christmas!  ♥

A Short Ponder

Every year as part of my Christmas presents, Dan buys me a Mary Engelbreit page-a-day calendar.  I enjoy looking at each day's art and often there is a quote of some kind.  Yesterday's art (which I just read due to yesterday's busy schedule) showed a woman with huge, startled eyes reading a newspaper and the quote was: "If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."  It was attributed to Mark Twain.  When I read it, I laughed out loud.  It's so true!  Anytime I know anything about an article in the paper, I can usually find at least one major error, and often more.  

So my question (ponder) is, why do we ever believe what we read in the paper??  ♥