Oh my goodness ...

... another year shot to Hell!!! ...LOL!! No it was not that bad at all! Another year gone by with what seems like few changes, but there was stuff happening. I hit the magic age to collect Social Security. My room mate of 15 years moved out - boy, I miss him, but getting a craft studio in exchange. Many camping trips took place close to home to save money but still get out in the woods.

Maggie, my p-i-t-a kitty love, decided that the bathroom sink was nice and comfortable since the heater vent is under the vanity. If it's not the bathroom sink, it's right on top of the heater vent in the craft room. She likes her heat!


And wonders of wonders for our 2009 winter - we finally got some decent measurable snow! In normal years we have 6-10 inches before Thanksgiving, this year we have had a couple of 2 inch snow storms (storms ??). By Christmas and New Years we have had as much as 4 feet. This year is very different.


I've done a lot of crafting, including putting a craft room into usable space. I'm still not completely done, but there is enough usable space for me to do some smaller crafts.




The cowl for my friend Dale - and he has used it when plowing snow, now that we have some, around the neighborhood! I lined it with a forest green flannel and he says that it really keeps the wind out when zooming around on the quad!


Making fun stuff, and I have plans for more chickens and other stuff!


... and REAL chickens! They seem to have settled in no matter how cold the weather is, and I get an egg a day from each chicken = 5 eggs. I'm selling some to pay for the feed, but I still have plenty left over for myself, eggs that is, not feed! Yes, that is a very real baby gate - they would all move into the house if I let them ... that is a definite "I don't think so!"


I could put a lot more pictures up, but I would bore you to death, and that is definitely not my intention! I want you to come back and visit ...

I hope your 2009 was good and not too affected by the whole financial thingy! I hope you all will have a much better 2010. I wish you peace and prosperity, love, happiness, and health.

Hugs

I am done ... ... ... ... almost

Well, I finally finished all the presents. There are only three left to wrap and that's it for this year! And all the beaded ornaments are wrapped and NO pictures taken. I was in such a hurry to get this done and over with that I totally forgot.

I took the hat to my friend Don, and he absolutely loved it. Double warmth for the head and quadruple warmth for the ears with the brim folded up! Can't get better than that if you HAVE to go out in the cold. I told Don that if he goes out in a snow storm that he'd better wear the red side out so we can find him in a snow bank - - - LOL

We had a bit of snow the other night, so we will have a white Christmas. Five inches is really not a white Christmas considering that we should have 2-3 feet! But white Christmas none-the-less!!

I have to make a batch of red cabbage for dinner; I will do that tomorrow so it has a chance to sort of 'steep'. It always tastes better the second day, so I now make it a day ahead.

All the best to all of you this Christmas!

Hugs

busy ... busy ... busy ...

I have been busy, very busy! There always has to be the last minute stuff no matter how well thought out Christmas gifts are. Time just seems to get away from me, all of us I suppose, and then there is one week left, and now only four days!!!!!

Making my beaded ornament covers is a lot of fun, and since I'm in a time crunch now, things seem to go faster. There isn't the time to agonize over what colors, which beads and what size ornament. This picture shows how I figure out what will go into an ornament, try this, try that and make sure I have enough of the 'fancy' beads to finish an ornament. If not, then change a row, change a dangle, or save the idea for another time. I seem to work better when I can see the supplies laid out whether I use that particular item or not. And that piece of blue in the bottom right of the picture is my ratty old flannel shirt ... LOL



This shows the lineup of some of my ornaments, some simple, some very simple and some take a bit of thought. None of them are hard to make - you just need to count beads, and count beads, and count beads. Then where to stick the needle is the next quest ... I love doing this king of work and time seems to fly when I do.



Here is the hat that I showed in an earlier post. Very warm, very thick and two layered so you can have whatever side and color you want shown to the world. I took the hat to my friend and he couldn't believe how thick and snug it was. He will be taking it with him up north for Christmas since it is a lot colder there.
Blue side --



Red side --


I will show some more gifts as I complete them.

Have the best Christmas ever, love and be loved.
Hugs

c.c.c cold!!!

Why is the word 'cold' so non-descriptive? You have to use so many adjectives to really describe a day like the one below. This was last Monday (12/7) about 10 a.m. I've been looking at this kind of temperature for a few days, and thought that I'd better catch it on camera, just for fun and maybe for posterity.



The temp has been below zero too, but there was no way I was bundling up like Nanook of the North just to go take a picture! Mmmm - NO!!! When I took this I was out getting wood for the stove so it wasn't hard to grab the camera on one of the trips into the house.



These two just did not care that the other was there. The four-legged creature is very cute and there are two more out of range of the camera, but they come to visit the chicken food. I have to charge out the back door banging away on a pot with a spoon to get them out of the yard! I don't like for any animal to go hungry, but I can't feed the wild ones or they will really become pests. This was the same day that the temp was really low - it was too cold to snow.

We have snow and warmer temps - all the way to 31 today! Our lows are now higher than our highs were at the beginning of the week! We were suppose to have snow all weekend, but I saw the sun today - briefly, but I saw it!! Hopefully we will get a lot more snow, there isn't enough yet for this time of year. As far as I'm concerned it can snow until we have 5-6 feet on the ground, because the weather will be warmer.

You all stay warm out there!
Hugs

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