Christmas gifts ...

I have been knitting! ... and knitting ... and knitting ...


These are 2 sets of fingerless gloves, easy. If you'd like my pattern let me know. The pink ones go to my niece that received the pink/green snake scarf last year. I'm trying to finish the green ones to send to my Mom, who is 82, in Denmark. She's not into the hot, screaming colors, but I thought she needed something bright ... and if she only wears them indoors - who cares! I thought they would be fun.



This cowl is for my friend who spends a lot of time on the quad. He plays in the snow and plows out driveways - the wind in your face gets very, very cold. I found this pattern on Ravelry, it's by Michael who also has a blog, This Boy Knits I think I searched for "cowls", but I'm not sure, on second thought, try searching for "Man Cowl" - the name of the pattern. Michael's pattern calls for 60 rounds for the main section, but I only did 40 rounds and it made it long enough to pull up and cover the lower face. It's a bit hard to see the design because I used "camo" yarn, but I think it's very nice and manly!



This is the beginning of a Double Layer Hat, where you start the hat at the top, knit down to the ribbing, then knit another hat to the top. Stuff one hat part into the other and you have a double layered hat. Extra warm. This is for another friend that likes to take walks in cold weather and I thought he needed something extra warm for his head.

Hopefully I will get all these done so I can move on to all (4) the beaded ornaments I need to make! I'll get it done, I just need to sit my fanny down and do it. Sounds familiar, huh?

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
Hugs

I have crafty stuff to show ... !

I realize it's been 2 weeks since I promised some "crafty pics"... I got some for you!

I tried some chicken pin cushions -


The large girl is made with two 5 inch squares and is lightly stuffed, she's just an ornament for now. I sewed the back end closed with the machine, I will NOT do that again - I will do it by hand from now on, much easier! The two smaller girls are two 4 inch squares and was getting real fidgety to work on. This pattern also had two prairie points as tail feathers. WOW! that was tough even by hand and there was no way I was trying the machine. So the conclusion is: NO tail feathers and close the back opening by hand! But ... I love the chickens anyway!

I now move on to show you more of the studio with more of the stuff:


This is the top of the two plastic 7-drawer units that I have my driftwood, sand dollars, shells and some beads in. The stuff on top needs to be put away after I straighten and organize the drawers. There are several (3-4) containers of beads, findings, stringing materials, etc. that are not shown ... LOL ... they are in the studio, but not very organized, so not for viewing at the moment.

And here is my closet. Getting fuller by the day!


All this stuff is sitting on top of a legless chest of (4)drawers. There is NO room in the drawers for this stuff, so I just need to organize it as is. There are more containers filled with crochet cotton that are sort of just in the closet ... there is no organizing them, so they just sit there. One of the drawers is full of skein ends, leftover yarns and odd ball stuff. You can see all the knitting needles just sitting there ... and I find I need more needles. I am now into knitting in the round so sets of 4 or 5 dpn's (double pointed needles) are needed as well as circulars - can we say "Lots of money" for this? I can! and no, not yet. Someday when I'm rich, bwa ha ha ha ha!!!

And this will be my biggest challenge - the slow process of sorting fabric!


The six containers on the bottom two shelves are my very feeble attempt to sort fabric by colors. I say feeble as I have sooo many cartons of fabric that will NEVER, EVER fit into those teeny, tiny containers. There is a container for Christmas fabric which might fit everything, but well see as I continue to dig ... The little drawer unit, bottom left, will go somewhere else, I just don't know where yet ... and that space will be filled with more fabric containers!

The cutting table is covered with fabric pieces from remnant bins that I don't know what to do with yet, so you don't get a picture. I'm trying, I'm trying!!! At least I can scrape out a little clear space for small projects, but some of the bigger ones I want to do will just have to wait.

One last picture from my craft studio:


This is my darling Maggie. She is under the desk that has the serger on it, sharing space with another tote - lying on top of the heater vent! Sometimes I think she is really ditzy, but if I could, I would curl up and join her today - it is COLD.

Have a great (short) week, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Hugs

Simplifying my life ... LOL

In the previous post I'm showing all the stuff that's being 'stuffed' into my craft room ... and I just added a button for the Down-to-Earth Forum ... under Simplify you life. Now does that make sense? Yup, it does. I'm simplifying my craft life by having everything in the same room, no matter what it looks like. I have zones in there; the bead area, general crafts, quilting, painting, etc.

I just went looking for crafty type pictures, and I realized that I don't have too many. 99% of the ones I have, I've already posted here - - well stay tuned, in a day or two, I will have plenty to show you.

The blog for Down--to--Earth is listed in my side bar. Rhonda Jean lives in Queensland Australia, and is living a simple life. There are just tons of recipes, tips, gardening and much more that she writes about. I love her blog. The forum is a place for getting together with all the people who post on her blog. Check it out, you will love it.

I won't forget the pictures either.

Hugs

Craft room and some flowers ...

I tried to post this on Friday, but blogger just did not want to cooperate!

Believe it or not, but I'm still working on 'stuffing' the craft room with stuff! I finally got the other bookcase in there, but haven't put anything on the shelves yet - it won't be hard to do, but everything has to be dusted, including the books. The little that is sitting on the shelves will be moved - they are just in a holding pattern for now.



As you can see, I've also hung the bulletin board and put things up. The baskets hanging above the bulletin board have smaller baskets in them for now. I don't like to put loose things anywhere because they get so dusty - living on a dirt road does that!! LOL



My Christmas Cactus has finally flowered! This one has never flowered before, but when I put up the shelf under the kitchen window and moved it over there, plus remembering not to water until it is bone dry, it has beautiful flowers on it and lots of new buds.



This picture came out a little dark, but that is what my house is like - dark. The flash went off on the first one and I don't know why it didn't with this one. All my plants, all eight of them, are clustered around windows, but north and northeast windows don't bring in a lot of bright light. There is just enough light to keep the plants alive, but even that is touch and go sometimes. The kitchen window faces mostly west, but it is the only one, besides the bathroom window, that does.



I hope everyone survived Halloween. Where I live the properties are far enough apart and the area dark enough that we don't get any trick or treaters. The kids would have to be driven from driveway to driveway and with the cost of gas, not many parents are willing to do that.

Just think, only 25 days until Thanksgiving!

Hugs

Warmth in the evening

We all (almost) get along well enough to cozy up to the wood stove. They were both lying down in similar poses, but when SueAnn heard the camera open, she lifted her head. She's so nosy!! The heat can get really intense right in front of the stove, but SueAnn will lay there panting away - will she move? Not for a long time!!



You can't really see it, but the stove is in the upper left hand corner. The blue bucket is kindling, and the red container is fire starter.

The days aren't that bad temperature wise, I can deal with 64 in the house, but when evening rolls around I like a roaring fire too. I just need to learn to regulate the damper better - sometimes I need to open a window to cool it down a bit ... I'll get it sooner or later.

I wish you all nice days and warm evenings.

Hugs

The girls get names!

Well the Three Chickenteers now have individual girl names.



In the back on the left is Chocolate - dark brown, on the right is Penny - copper colored, and in the front is Lacey - white and light copper. I had figured out Chocolate and Penny a while back, but just could not come up with a name for Lacey. I tried looking at her in different ways and when I asked myself what did she look like the answer came - kind of lacy. AHA!! There is was.


You can see them better in this picture even though they refused to look at the camera.

They look a whole lot better in these pictures taken on Oct 8, than they do now - all 5 of the girls are molting!!! I have feathers EVERYWHERE! I find them indoors as well since they stick to my shoes, the dog and the cats.

Hugs

Returning home

I got home yesterday around 1:30 in the afternoon and enjoyed the warmth outside. It probably wasn't more than 60, but after waking in the morning to 23, it felt like a heat wave! Saturday night we got some rain showers and a tiny itty bitty bit of snow - you had to look hard to see it falling, but it WAS snow!! And WIND - we had so much wind that you never got completely warm except when you were practically sitting in the fire!

I did not take any pictures since this camp looked like all the other camps we have had in that spot except for the warming tent. Unfortunately no deer when I left, but being opening weekend, the mountains were crawling with camps and hunters. Hopefully the ones left in camp will get something during the week. I will have to go back up on Saturday to tow home the trailer with all the quads.

The house felt warm even though I left the thermostat at 58-59. Unloaded the food, dirty clothes (and there were plenty!), dog bed and dog food. I still need to remove all the non-perishable food, left over clean clothing and "dump" the camper. I will do that today when it warms up a bit. It is barely past 30 outside.

After I cleaned the cat box (Pheweeeee!) Fed and watered the chickens, cleaned out ashes from the wood stove, I lit a fire - oh heavenly warm fire! I didn't get to bed until 10::30, but I slept sooo good.

I need to go to town this week, but I'm waiting a day or two so I can just rest up in the warmth of my house.

Hugs

Baby gate needed

I would have all four of them roaming around the house if I didn't have this baby gate. Thank goodness for good neighbors - they have a six yr. old and I called them to see if by chance they might have an old baby gate they didn't use any more, and bingo, there it was on my front step.

I need to take it apart and make a real hinged gate, but it works 98% of the time. Sometimes the trio will fly up on top of the gate - wing clipping time! - and sit between the gate and the hanging screen I have there. I've tried to get a real screen door, but the opening is very short of regular door height, and if it opens out, it would hit the eave rafters. I just tacked a fiberglass screen to the top of the opening - it helps with the bugs just fine, but is no match against chickens! LOL

More craft room stuff

I have been slaving away (ha, ha, ha) at moving stuff into the craft room again. My next 'thing' that comes into the room is another bookcase. It will go to the right of the small shelves and bulletin board in the picture below.



Right now there is another tote full of stuff sitting there, but I will just pull it out of the way into the middle of the floor and find a place for it later. I have a lot of those 'later' things to find places for! The tall bookcase you see here has some containers with stuff in them, the rest are empties that will soon be filled with fabric sorted by color. I'm sure I have more fabric than containers, but eventually it will all find a home!

The two light blue totes under the table below are full to overflowing with fleece - I didn't know I had THAT much fleece ... go figure. The purple one has some quilted fabric, like burlap and corduroy and other odds and ends.



This is under the other end of the table! The bottom green tote is filled with batting and by-the-yard felt, the top one is fabric that needs to be sorted and so is the fabric in the three clear containers.



Remember in this room I have a walk in closed too. It is also being filled up! The one bookcase at the end will be ribbons, cords, ruffles, embroidery thread and pattern books. You can see it is filling up fast.



The closet also holds my yarn, knitting and crochet books, needles & hooks. I'll be sure to take lots more pictures when it's done. Will it ever be done ... I think it will just be one project after another until there is more room and then I'll bring more stuff in! Most of the fabrics I have are from remnant racks. I do have yards of fabric that were bought for a specific project - long-forgotten now - but I can always come up with some new projects for it.

Hope you all have happy crafty days ahead.

Hugs

Changes and chickens

The Changes:

I canceled my website registration and hosting company - just too much money a month right now. I've transferred my domain name to a holding site and will transfer it to my final choice in 60 days and begin again.

I am NOT letting it die, there is just a wait for the time being. I should be able to write a whole bunch of content before I launch it again. Like I said, I SHOULD be able to ... and hopefully I will get off my butt and DO IT!!!

I wish there was some way to notify my visitors that I haven't dropped off the earth, but when you didn't own the site, it is still listed in a search, but you don't get the site when it's clicked on. I really wish I could have just changed the first page to read "site under construction", but I can't ... bummer!! If anyone knows how I could do something like that, PLEASE let me know.


The Chickens:

Well, I have three more chickens. These girls are young, not little chicks, but young pre-laying hens. These three girls were raised in a household where they came in the house, sat on laps and watched TV. Ummm, NOT HERE!!

They have made it up the back stairs, but I can hear the clucking and come shoo them back down the steps. None of them have made it inside, but I can't say that for Cinnamon! I don't know how many times I have been out front and here comes that DARN chicken, walked through the house to where she could hear my voice. Thankfully I haven't had any poo to clean up yet, but I know the day is coming ... Uggh!

Update: This evening I had one of the new girls come in. I caught her just inside the door where she left me a present! Thank goodness it was on the back porch linoleum. I think I invited this since I mentioned it in the paragraph above ... LOL


These are the three new girls, aren't they lovely?


And just to be fair here is Cinnamon the "bitchy chicken" that wanders in the house!



She is the only one that laid eggs, but I got one a day, which is enough for me since I'm by myself. I'm waiting for her to stop due to age, and I think Frazzle is past laying, but she is sooo cute!



When I got her she had tons of feathers missing from being picked and pecked on, but she has come a long way. She still looks frazzled because of her Araucana cheek feathers, but that is natural for this breed.


Here are the Three Chickenteers, they are never far from each other. Hopefully that will change as they get use to the yard and the other two. See the dark chicken in the above picture ... if you look real close you can see the second one reaching up to taste the cedar branch. Didn't like it.

I can't keep calling them Chickenteers, but I don't have any names for them yet. I really don't want anything like Tom, Dick and Harry or Larry, Moe or Curly Joe - they are girls and need fine names. I'll come up with something pretty - maybe I'll think of names while we are at deer camp the first week of October.


Here is my big tom cat Joey. He leaves all the girls alone even if he does catch other birds, but he will go into the pen and drink out of their water dish. He was about two feet from Frazzle when I took this picture - neither of them minded.

And my little, itty, bitty tomato garden is coming right along. The plants are still setting a few flowers - the days are nice, but the nights are getting down into the low 40's at night so I don't know how long this will last. The fruits on the plants are still green and it worries me that I might loose them. The hanging plants in the milk jugs, that I showed you in a previous post, just didn't work out. The water sat too close to the stem and they rotted and fell out. Won't do that again!


If you look real close, right in the center, there is a shaded tomato hiding in there! I didn't get very many tomatoes, but I know what I did wrong - planted them too close and not enough water! Now I know!!

Phew, this post ended up covering a lot of ground! I need to pace myself and write less per post but post more often.

Hugs