Winding down 2008!!

This is where I can be found for the last 2 days. Walking at the park. I need to get out and do this more - might have to make a New Years resolution on this one. Since Annie isn't able to go anymore I just don't seem to get out there walking anymore but I have to!! I sit all day at my job, I sit and knit, I sit and watch TV. Too much sitting!! We have had beautiful weather for the past several days, record high on Saturday and sunny, sunny skies - which is an oddity in northern Ohio in the winter. Amazing what that sun does for your disposition this time of year. The pictures below are from my walk yesterday.

I am hoping you all have a happy and safe New Year's. Tom and I will be having a quiet celebration, probably falling asleep before 9:00 p.m. I have to work on New Year's day - so no staying up late for me.

Wishing you health, happiness, prosperity in 2009!! See you next year!!!

Apron Christmas??

Seems like there were lots of aprons given as gifts in our family... This is one that Kris made for Matt's girlfriend Bethany - she really liked it. She is a great cook so I'm sure this one will be getting lots of use. This one Sara made for me - plus she made me a full apron with a chicken on it. So cute. You will have to look on her blog to see a picture of that one.

All in all we had a great Christmas - lots of food, laughter and family time but not forgetting the true meaning of our celebration.

The last 2 days we have been enjoying the weather here. Yesterday it was in the upper 60s and sunny and today even though it was cooler that sun was just shinning away. I hope it sticks around for a couple of more days.

I joined a Pay It Forward back in I can't remember when, probably early summer and my gift arrived on Christmas Eve. It is a gorgeous counted cross stitch of what else but chickens. She did such a great job - I was speechless on opening it. So sometime shortly after the New Year I will be looking for 3 people who want to play. I'm not going to post the picture of my gift until after that as I see many people are away or just taking blogging breaks during the holidays. Keep it in mind and check back if you are interested.

I'm off to do some knitting - Sara's cropped cardi needs to be finished and her son Tom asked for a hat.

Hope you are all stilling enjoying these days....

Happy Birthday Tom!!

Yep - we are also celebrating a BD today. Tom, Sara and Rich's oldest is 14!! We had a great time at Kris and Todd's last night. Jessica and Tyler got a Wii so we were all trying it out. Everyone was having fun with the boxing and bowling games. We are even thinking we have to have a Wii party with all the families.

Matt's girlfriend Bethany came last night - so we had a fun time opening up presents, trying things out and now eating chicken wings that Matt made. They were really, really good.

This afternoon we are going to Sara and Rich's after they get off work and celebrate Christmas and the birthday with them. First we do Christmas and then we do birthday with ice cream cake.

What can I saw about Tom?? He is a good hearted grandson - funny, talkative, video loving teenager. He is a sport lover and I think if it were possible he would play every single sport. Basketball and baseball are usually the teams you will find him on. He's a good team player. He is always ready to help his Grandma and Grandpa and actually this past summer did a lot of the little extra chores around our place for us. He drove the tractor, helped stack hay, would run the weed wacker, helped stack wood and generally did whatever was asked. (Wait until he sees what I have planned for this Spring and Summer.) One other thing about him is his ability to eat. When he would come over to help out I knew I had better be stocking up on Powerade and goodies. That kid can polish off a 9x13 pan of brownies in one sitting - which always makes a Grandma happy that one of you grandkids like what you bake so much they just sit down and eat it all!!

I'm hoping you and yours are enjoying your day as much as we are... I had better get going - I still have presents to wrap...

Holy Night..

Just wanted to take a few moments to wish you all a very, very Merry Christmas. Hope you enjoy time with family and friends and just enjoy the day....

I justed wanted to show you a picture of our manager that was made by Tom's grandmother in 1956. We have heard that she made 3 of them, one for herself, one for his aunt and one for his mother. She did all the ceramic figures and his grandfather made the stable. It is one of our most cherished Christmas pieces and I hope someday our children's. How did we get this piece you ask??? We found in the garage sale pile when Tom's mother was moving...

Tonight we are celebrating with Kris and her family. Tomorow night with Sara and her family - not only Christmas but her older son Tom's BD. I will be back with a BD post for him tomorow.

Merry Christmas to you all!!!!!

Friday - ice, rain, wind, fog, snow....

These are a few pictures from this morning. It seemed like we were going to have a really good ice storm but then it started raining and getting warmer. By late afternoon it was wind and fog - by this evening we were having a light snow. That sure is a lot for one day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better - we have to go get another load of wood.

Disregard this next picture, seems I uploaded the same picture again and can't seem to get rid of it.

I actually finished up most of my Christmas shopping today. Of course I did cheat a little bit. The fingerless mitts for Kris are not done yet, but then again she is making me a sheet quilt that is not done - so as we were talking about another project that we saw on a blog we decided those 2 projects are not getting done until the first of the year and we might make some of those cute little birds on Philgry's blog. We want to try them in wool though. About 7 miles from us is a little one stop light town that has a really nice primitive shop. Its called the Chairmaker and Friends. (The chair maker was actually featured in some primitive magazine that I see in the side bars of some of the primitive blogs and they have that magazine in the shop). The last time I was in there they had all this wool for rug hooking and making penny rugs, etc. I don't have any red so as long as I was going that way I thought I would stop in. Most wool pieces that I have seen have been somewhat expensive but they sell some nice big pieces for $5.00 to 10.00. Today when I was in the store the wool has taken over one small corner of the shop. There were large old baskets just stuffed with all types, colors and sizes of wool for 25 cents?? As I was sorting through the baskets I came up with several pieces that are probably 12 inches by 6 feet for the quarter. It was kind of hard to believe. I see table runners in their future. That was my deal of the day - what about you??

Take time to enjoy the season this weekend - by next week we will be talking about the end of another year!!

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

I meant to post this yesterday but things just kept happening so no post for Wednesday. This is the top part of my little tree in the living room with some of my favorite ornaments (especially the border collie one). Annie is still hanging in there. Some days she does great, others not so great, but none of the bad days are like the bad days of 2 months ago. She is still really, really thin and so I go to great lengths to get her to eat. Her new favorite is eggs and french toast. Eggs we have plenty of so she gets an egg on a regular basis. She's eating the dog food better so that is a plus. I don't think she will ever get back to the walking in the park but she still is a good companion and most days you will find her in front of the fire or under my desk while I'm working.

Hopefully I will be back soon with another picture or 2. Right now I'm off to do some quick errands. We have winter storm warnings out, the freezing rain and ice variety which will be nasty. Enjoy these days before Christmas...

Christmas choir concert

Tonight Sara's boys had a choir concert. The pictures below are of Joe, the youngest. Tom ended up having the flu, as well as Rich so they missed it. It was a great concert, 7th and 8th grade with lots of serious and funny songs. Joe is the fifth from the right in this picture. They separate the 7th graders into a boys and girls choir and the 8th grade is mixed.

It was a fun evening.

Its getting late so I'm off to do some knitting before bed. Still have a pair of fingerless mitts and a hat to get done. Lots of other things I would like to be making but as usual Christmas seems to sneak up on you.

Random things and a busy weekend..

I'm still knitting away. I had not planned on making a lot of gifts this year but I am making my fair share. It was all that sweater knitting that slowed me down. I just wanted you to notice the needles that are in the picture. I ordered them from Knit Picks about 2 weeks ago and love them. They are called Harmony and if you haven't tried a pair you should. They have a more pointed end - making life much easier when picking up stitches. I'm going to try socks again after the holidays and want to get another pair for that. I made more candy today. The container is full of chocolate covered raisins, peanuts and pretzels. I will be hiding this container. I made about the same amount last weekend and it was all gone by Monday.

It was finally nice enough in our area that I could get out and decorate the front of the house. I did get caught in the rain, but it only lasted for about 10 minutes and then stopped. Its just been to cold and snowy to be outside playing with lights and bows and it was today or forget it as it turns much colder again and more snow is coming. I'm hoping not the blizzards they are getting to the west!!

Going to be a busy week with lots going on.

Happy Birthday Jessica!!

Today Jessica is 9 years old. You have to ask yourself where did the days go?? We have had lots of fun over the last 9 years and I'm sure there is more to come. She always has a smile and there is never a dull moment when she is with us. If you go over to Kris blog (quiltedsimple) you can see the beautiful dress she made her. She looked really cute when we arrived, gorgeous dress, black tights, little fancy shoes. As the party went on the dress was getting in the way of all the playing with the cousins that was going on, the tights were starting to itch, the shoes were off. Before we ate cake she went into her bedroom and came out dressed in her PJ's, her new robe and slippers. If its your BD I suppose you can do what you want - but next time I'm taking my PJ's.

Happy Birthday Jessica!! Please don't grow up any faster!!

What is your decorating style??

I love all the primitive blogs that they have out there. I think it used to be called country. I spend a lot of time reading them and trying to figure out how to incorporate some of the things I have seen with what I have.

Have you seen the dining room chairs that have the cut little wreaths tied to the back of them? I love that look and I though I might give it a try. But.. the other day I was cleaning up and realized Tom has 2 of his bridles for the horse over one of the chairs. (He keeps them in the house so the bits are not cold in the horses mouth should he get the chance to ride.)

What do you think - bridles or wreaths?? Somehow I think we will go with bridles for this year.

Off to do some knitting tonight. I finally figured out my mistake on Sara's cropped cardi. Hopefully I will get this sweater done by the end of the week.

Enjoy your week...

Christmas trees and table decorations

Just had to show you my cute dining room table decorations. I picked up the Cowboy Santa today when I was out. I have several others and he reminded me of Tom. That's a coffee cup he holding in his hand. The tree below is the one we have in our family room. I usually have a smaller one but with the wood stove in the living room I squeezed this one in.

Last but not least is the quilted Christmas tree skirt that Sara made for me for Christmas. Lucky me she let me have it early! I'm trying to think of a way I can keep it out all year. I love it.

I had a couple of other pictures but can't seem to upload them so I hope to be back later. I want to show you my primitive decorating for the back of my dining room chairs.

I was out shopping today and needed gas. One of the stations had it for $1.44 a gallon. I pulled right in.

Until later.....

Saturday

It was cold here today, 16 degrees when we got up this morning. I had lots of Christmas things to be doing but Tom really wanted to go to this horse and tack auction. We have always talked about going but never seem to find the time. We dressed really warm and off we went.

It was not bad in the main arena but out where they were keeping the auction horses was another story. The tack was first and went from 10:30 to 1:30.

We were there about 2 hours, bought some vet wrap (an elastic cling bandage for animals), ate lunch and then came home. There was a horse there that Tom was interested in but we really are not buying right now and besides that was why I was there - so he didn't come home with another horse. When we came out the snow was flying and the roads were covered with ice. We made it home and we have been busy with chores and Christmas projects for the rest of the day. I hope tomorrow is warmer!!

Grandparents Day

Today I went to Tyler's preschool for grandparents day. We had a good time playing games, singing songs, eating cookies. When it was over I said I would take him to lunch and he picked Burger King - so off we went.

He is a really kind hearted little boy. When we got back to his house he gave me a present. The bag had some candy mints, a letter, a map, ornaments that he made and a necklace that Kris had made. It was a good morning...

When I got home the temps were in the 40s so I was outside most of the afternoon cleaning up flower beds that never got cleaned out before the snow came and putting up some outside Christmas decorations. I got about half up and it started to rain. I will just work at it little by little for the rest of the week and what's not up by Saturday will stay in the box for this year.

Until next time......

Let the decorating begin!!

This is what has been occupying my time lately. Usually I have everything done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend - really that turkey is on the way out the door on Thursday and by Friday we are set for Christmas. I'm just about done with the inside decorating. I don't know what is going to happen on the outside though. Its either cold, snowing or raining. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 41 - and yes to some of you that might sound cold but to people in Northern Ohio it will feel like we should get out the capri pants and flip flops.

I'm off all day tomorrow. I am going to Tyler's preschool for grandparents day and then we are going out for lunch. Hopefully when I get home I will be able to get outside and put up some of those decorations.

Not much on the knitting front. Still working on fingerless gloves, hats and a cropped cardigan. Hope I can stay awake tonight and knit for awhile.... Yawn!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just a quick post to say I hope each and everyone of you has a great holiday. Enjoy the day, the food, family and most of all remember all the things we have to be thankful for.

Tom and Jackie

How do you display your quilts??

It is still snowing here!! We had a break yesterday but it has started again today with promises of inches more by tomorrow.

Below is a picture that I thought you might enjoy of a little doll quilt that my grandmother made for my daughters Kris and Sara when there were around 6 and 4. They also had little sheets and pillows to go with them. My grandmother was a good quilter, sewer of clothes. Maybe that is where Kris and Sara get this sewing thing from - I don't think they inherited from me. Although I am going to give the sewing machine a try again after Christmas. Last week I was reading blogs (FYI - I read a lot of blogs. If I need a break from all the typing I read a blog, if I have a spare minute to take a break I read a blog, you get the picture). Sara's blog links you to http://cornbreadandbeansquilting.wordpress.com. Really cool blog, Melissa works in a quilt store, has 2 little girls and is always on the go it seems. I asked her about how she had displayed a quilt. The next thing I know she has 2 posts on how to display quilts. If you are looking for a quilt display idea go see her blog. Its back a few posts, somewhere about December 14-15. There were some really cool ideas.

I have lots and lots of quilts and I'm not even a quilter. I do have 2 very generous daughters who keep me in beautiful quilts. I seem to have a lot of small doll size quilts. I use them on tables and just about anywhere. I was looking for a place to keep them when they are not in use.

Thus - I came up with this. This is the wall right before you go down the hall. Today I was walking past there and thought okay I can put all those little quilts in this empty basket that is hanging on the wall. It has been there awhile but I just never got around to putting something in it. I thought it looked good empty to - but even better with the little quilts rolled up and put inside.

Thanks to Melissa for the inspiration. Thanks to my daughters (quilted simple and quilting bookworm) for all the quilts you have gifted me, made for me when I asked and for keeping that sewing craft going in our family.

By the way girls -- I seem to be short on Christmas quilts - little tiny ones that I like so much for on my tables... Keep that in mind for next year, please!!

Is this November or January??

This does not feel like November. Its snowy, blustery and darn right cold out. Even though I usually go out on Friday afternoon and do errands I thought it was a good day just to stay in. I decided to start doing some cleaning that needs to be done before I put up the Christmas decorations. I don't usually put out Christmas things until after Thanksgiving but then I realized - after Thanksgiving there will only be a few weeks till Christmas. I think I have to get going on a few things -- especially the knitting!!

I still have punkins out in the flower beds and on the porches. I hope this snow melts next week so I can find them. Have a good weekend....

Brrrr.....

This is what's going on in our neck of the woods today!! We are supposed to get 2 inches by tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. I hope they are wrong.

Stay warm everybody!!

Where did that week go??

Here we are and its Sunday again. These days seem to be just flying by. We had some really nice days at the beginning of the week so I was outside or working most days. Since yesterday that has al changed - its snowing!! We don't have much on the ground but you see it on the roofs and cars. I think the ground is to warm still. Its supposed to put us in the holiday mood - right??

You can see from the picture above I have been working on fingerless mitts. On the red one I actually made a thumb - which was a first for me. I do have to rip it out as I pulled so hard the yarn broke. I was using Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed and that has happened to me more than once, especially after ripping out a section. I think I was getting a little stressed trying to figure that out. The self-stripping pair is made out of a hand dyed yarn that I made a shawl out. It was really nice to knit with but won't be able to get my hands on anymore of that as the shop has closed.

I also started on a stocking cap for my grandson Tyler and need to get busy on a pair of fingerless mitts for Jessica as she will get her cast off tomorrow. I will be doing a lot of knitting this week.

Hope you have a great week......

Quiet Sunday

This has been a quiet weekend but yet busy, just trying to get some things finished before it gets cold. This afternoon we even had a few minutes of snow/rain mix. It was a good day for making chocolate chip cookies, chichken noodle soup and applesauce. After all that it was time for a nap and now some knitting. I have lots of things that I'm working on - hopefully tomorrow I will have some good pictures. There is some laundry that needs to be folded, but I think that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Have a good week!!

Last rose of the season!

The weather has been gorgeous for about a week now. Sunny days, 60s and 70s. What more can you ask for. I was cleaning out some of the flower bed where I have several rose bushes. This bush I just planted this Fall and actually thought I had lost it already, I was wrong.

Starting tomorrow we are back to normal with rain, snow and cold. Enjoy these last days....

We gave got winners!!

Thought you would like to see some of the gang all ready for trick or treat!!

The witch and scaryguy (I don't reallyknow what he was) are Jessica and Tyler - my grandkids. The pirate and the race car driver are their friends who trick or treat with them every year - I would say for about 5-6 years now. When we started this venture some of them were still in a stroller and not walking. My time does fly by!!

Jessica drew the first name for the give away of the fingerless mitts. The winner is...

Crazy for primitive quilts and gardens.

Jessica and Tyler are very competitive with each other - Tyler just gave me that look like "How come she gets to draw a name and I don't. " So in the spirit of being a good Grandma Tyler got to draw a name. The winner is......

Mary Q

The problem is - I don't have a second pair of mitts knit. So Crazy for prim quilts and gardens get the pair that you saw in my previous post. I have listed my E mail address below. Let me know your address and I will get them out to you this week. I will knit another pair for Mary Q - you will just have to wait a bit, hopefully they will be done by the end of November.

My E mail is jmiller532002@yahoo.com

Sorry I can't knit a pair for all of you who entered. Kris and Sara were both over tonight and we are scheming up a give away put on by the 3 of us. You could get quilty and knitty stuff at one time. Stay tuned for more details.

Have a good weekend - tomorrow is November 1 - Yikes - the year is almost over!!

Picture of the mitts for the give away and another goody

Tomorrow evening I will draw a lucky name for my give away. The blue mitts in the picture below are what you will win. Just leave a comment and you are entered. Jessica and Tyler will be over for Halloween tomorrow night so they will draw the lucky winner. Sorry but you don't get the cute little mini quilt. That Kris made for me and since I am all about things for Fall I can't part with it. Maybe we should talk her into giving away a mini quilt - maybe a Christmas one!!

Happy Halloween everyone! Don't eat all the candy your giving out before tomorrow!! (I actually need to go buy more due to that reason.)

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS LATELY??

This is what kind of weather we are having in our neck of the woods today!! Its not sticking to the ground but the snow has been coming down all day - just that little pellet type stuff. Never fear - by Friday it is supposed to be 60.

Don't forget - Friday in the last day to enter my give away. Leave a comment and I will draw a name. I started this back on October 15 - so all the comments I have received so far are in the drawing. What is the prize?? A pair of knitted fingerless mitts. I'll try to get a picture up later tonight or tomorrow. Just what we all need to keep our hands warm this winter.

Look who likes laying in front of the wood stove...

This is where I have been finding Annie lately. When I am working she is always in my office with me, sitting right behind my chair or next to me. These past couple of days have been colder and I have noticed she is not with me. I have gotten up to look and she is usually stretched out sleeping in front of the stove. (She was stretched out before this picture but she heard me go back for the camera.) Good to know she is enjoying it too. I thought she was feeling better at the end of last week but she seems to be coughing again - maybe its the change in the weather.

Until next time.....

Moving right along....

We keep going getting things accomplished. The roof was done on Monday night, thanks to a neighbor who came over to help Matt (my son) and Tom. It needed to be done before the rain came and it was. The wood stove is in and we have been using it nonstop. It is really working out well for us, as a matter of fact 2 of the nights it was really, really hot - no covers type of hot. We are figuring out though how to load it, how long it will burn etc and by the time the real cold comes we should be old pros.

Below is a picture of my office. Much better than last week. Last week you could barely get in the door or even to the desk. I just kept piling up all the things we took out of the living room in there. I am slowly getting the pictures back up and its turning into a really nice room. No new pics or knick-knacks for me. I have plenty and I really like what I have. Almost looks like brand new stuff with the walls painted. Plus think of the money you save by reusing your old things.
This other picture if of my chickens. They have really grown since the summer and we are now getting 5-6 eggs a day. The black and black and white one haven't started laying yet, but the others are doing their job. Good thing we like having breakfast at dinner time.

If you look closely you can see that the grass has a white shading to it. This was taken early this morning and all that stuff is frost. I saw we are in for some really cold weather for the weekend but at least they took that snow stuff out of the forecast. Its too early to have weather like that.

I have been reading several blots lately where you can get some good ideas on how to save some of that hard earned money. I saw a tip on the internet this week about unplugging some different things that are real electricity guzzlers - like that TV you hardly watch, along with the VCR, DVD player, coffeemaker, cordless hand vac - which I was thinking about getting but will have to rethink that. For right now the broom is working for sweeping up all that wood that gets dropped from the wood stove. Gas is down to $2.46 in our area, but I have not noticed any prices going down in the stores -- wonder if that will happen? What are you doing to save money these days - I'd love to hear your ideas!!

Until next time........

Dish rag tag

Look what came in the mail today -- dish rag glory. A cute little bag that has a draw string top, stitch markers - which you can barely see and a certificate. I was a member of the Rag-Taggers and we finished second.

If you knit be sure to join this next year. Great fun, fantastic people on my team, lots of goodies. Emily Ivey runs the group and she is so generous - Thanks Emily!! I'll remind everyone next year when sign ups start. Maybe some of you will learn to knit by then.

Enjoy the rest of the day.....

Only a few more hours of vacation left....

Whew!! What a week. Could definitely use another one. It was a great week to be off - we only had one day of rain. So that day we worked inside and painted the living room. The wood stove is in, we have used it for 2 nights now and we are pleased. The house is warm - so warm that by noon I have been opening windows to cool things off and the stove has been off for a couple of hours. After we got it in we realized how bad the walls needed painting - so that was Wednesday's job. I'll take a picture when I get the curtains back up.

The picture below is birthday presents and my knitting. A gift card to the LYS from Sara and her family, a quilted needle case from Kris and her family. I have 3 different fingerless gloves going. They are easy and you don't have to have a lot of concentration - which was great for this week.
The 2 pictures below are just random shots of Tom and our roofing project. I was sort of surprised when he called me for help in the attic. Kind of a shock when you come around the corner and see sky above your head.

My neighbor made me a birthday cake. I have some really nice neighbors. She put 3 candles on it. In her husband's family its a tradition after you are 21 to get 3 candles standing for past, present and future. I am going to have to remember that - so neat.

Last night we got some pretty heavy frost here and supposed to be as cold tonight. Glad we have that wood stove going. The days have been beautiful - sweatshirt weather and sunny. Hope you have had some good Fall days where you are.

Back to work tomorrow. Don't know if you will hear from me this week. Things are always changing at the company I work for. While I was on vacation I got a new boss and there were some procedure changes - which are supposed to make my life better but that remains to be seen. I have heard this before and sometimes that is just not the case.

Enjoy the days - we are already half way through October........