Summer….then Spring….then Summer…

Our weather has been very strange once again. We had temps that were so hot you would think it was the middle of August!! Everyone was in shorts and tank tops and on motorcycles and bikes for a couple of days….then reality hit….summer was gone and spring was back…thank God!!! I hate the hot heat of summer weather and especially cannot handle going from winter right into that. Spring gives us a chance to get used to the warmer weather gradually….ahhhhhhh that’s the calmer, gentler way to do it…but that’s just me!! I am a fall girl but for you summer people, I am sure you are loving it!!

I’ve been staying quite busy, other than a brief stint with an abdominal virus that visited itself upon me for a week. A nasty little devil that really wanted to move in but I sent it packing….and I think it just may have taken half of my intestines with it! ~..~

I am still practicing embroidery stitches and have mastered a couple more. My latest venture though is doing genealogy. I am searching for my great great grandfather, who would be my dad’s great grandfather he never met. I don’t know his name yet, but I have someone else helping me in my search. Meanwhile, I have the task of taking all of our family photos and scanning them into the computer. When I get ready to make booklets with the family history in it,  I will need copies of those photos. It’s a daunting task but I have to do it. One of my favorite photos I have of my dad is one from a WW2.  He was stationed in Italy during the war and he was also a musician as many of you know. He played his guitar in a little USO band and this was a shot taken from then…

     

Everyone says my brothers son, my nephew Adam, looks a lot like him. Adam has in his possession, that very guitar and still plays it. It’s a 1937 Epiphone. He also has my dad’s candy apple red Les Paul Electric guitar from the sixties. Here’s a photo of him with another electric guitar……

Soon I am hoping to create a flower garden in my yard. I used to have lots of raised beds full of beautiful perennials, annuals, and herbs. I got rid of them for some reason years ago and focused on my big vegetable garden. This year I hope to do a smaller vegetable and add a flower and herb garden. Here’s a cute one I found on the web!….What a nice idea that is not the norm!… Just recently, I had to have an x-ray taken on my lower back. The results were severe degenerative changes, multi-level, in my L3, L4, and L5 section of my Lumbar. Also one area of my Sacral….S1.  I am positive my neck is involved but I have not had the x-ray yet. What does this mean? Here is what I found out…..  Degenerative Changes   So….I am going to get worse with this. If the pain increases,  I can eventually have some disc fusion. We’ll see how it goes. I was having chronic pain, but now have it a bit more under control. I take Tylenol a few times a day. The 500 mg ones…a couple at a time.  At the same time, I was diagnosed with a very strange thing…..I had a small bump growing on the side of my right thumb. I just happened to be at the doctor for my back. He looked at it and said “Oh…you have Tophi.” “What-E??….I said.” It is actually a form of Gout and they call it Thumb Gout!! What the? Here’s a little blip I found on the net about it….Thumb Gout  ……….. As my mother used to say….Jesus, Mary and Joseph….what next!!?? The bump is about half the size of a dime right now. I pray it doesn’t get any bigger. My hand does swell and get kind of numb at night….but so far I have no pain in the thumb….just numbness when I press on the bump. Gout is a buildup of uric acid in your blood. Uric acid is caused from certain types of food. Of course it would never be caused by lettuce or celery!!….it is caused by shellfish, and ice cream, and pork and beef and all things good that you love to eat!! But a particular link I found really scared me……Gout especially since I have heart disease. I must show this to my doctor. It’s time to watch what I eat and get some weight off and get healthier. Warm weather is here and I guess I should start to walk some.

And maybe I will find some friends to walk with me? We’ll see…….Here’s hoping I can get off my duff and actually do it!! Hope you all are well and are gently flowing into our new season with a new enthusiasm for life!! I’ll be back soon and hopefully off to visit you all and see what you’re up to!??

                   

Not A Finisher…..

I have discovered recently, that I am not much of a finisher.

What I mean by that is, I have so many projects I have started and I

don’t seem to finish them! I start something, I seem to be going along

pretty well, and then it bores me and I begin another project. My

newest endeavor is teaching myself to embroider. I must say that

I have done some embroidering in the past without any real

knowledge of what I was trying to accomplish. I also have

some minimal knowledge, that I vaguely remember, from

my childhood. My mothers sister Olive taught me how to cross stitch.

Aunt Olive was so patient, kind and loving. 

I can still smell her perfume and see her crooked arthritic fingers.

That didn’t stop her one bit. When looking back

on it now, I can actually put a name to quite a few of the stitches

I was creating with her guidance.   So…just recently,

I decided to get serious about embroidery….well for as long as I can

stand it….I plan to walk right through that boredom …well at least until spring!  

Studying the videos at Needle N Thread has helped immensely. I also write

the directions out. I practice on a vintage white damask cloth napkin. It has stains and

a couple of holes in it. The first 2 stitches I taught myself were the stem stitch

and the French Knot. This is the result on the napkin………

 The French knots are pretty good but I have more

work to do on the stem stitch! Then, I wanted to get one of my absolute

favorite stitches down and I think I accomplished that….the Feather stitch….

I LOVE that stitch. Here it is… and again…

Once more, it is not perfect, but I can do the stitch without looking at the directions and

that was my goal. I started working on another stem stitch from one of the videos. It mentioned

working in a small rectangle. Once done, I was left with a not very good stem stitch in a

small rectangle!! So I decided to try another stem stitch and some French knots and

stenciling! This is what I did….. I can’t recall what my husband said it looked like

but he definitely saw my name and 2012 which was a big bonus because none of it was done that well.

Of course my motives in doing all this have to do with the bottle cap pincushions I am working on.

Like the embroidery, most I have made are practice pieces. I am getting a little bit better each

time I make them….here are some I’ve made that are rough…. The two

to the left and right of the Singer cover are not finished. It’s one thing to

put a French Knot on a flat cloth and a totally different thing to put one on a pincushion. It just does

not look the same because of the way you have to do it.

  

 I have a long ways to go and as long as I strive to be a finisher and not a

procrastinator,  I may just improve on my stitches. They may not be as messy and crooked as these are

in the future!! Oh well…I am having fun trying. Oh I got a nice card from Dawn from C and G Design the

other day. She is doing so much better!! When I first starting blogging, she was one of the regulars

I would go to and we ended up meeting. She’s a great girl who has been through some tough times and

is now turning the corner….thank God! I am hoping she comes back to blogging soon. And her mom

Jean comments from time to time on my blog. We met last year and she is awesome too!!  Well….any tips

would be much appreciated….thanks!  I’ll be back soon…..when I am done

with my Practice….Practice….Practicing!! Ha ha

THE DIY TWINS

Have any of you seen the DIY girls? I don’t know much about them

but what I can tell you is they are very clever when it comes to sewing.

I am always looking for pincushions that might inspire me. Of course

that does not mean I will be able to make them! I like looking at them

for some reason. Call me obsessive….I guess I probably am when it

comes to looking at Etsy stores and Googling pincushions. They are

just so darned cute. Another place I search and seek is a place

called Pinterest . I am sure you all know about that. What an addiction

that can become! Here is the latest pincushion I would love to try

that the DIY twins do a tutorial of……………………………………………………

Yesterday Bobbie and I went to Portland to see my daughter Carissa’s

new apartment down on the waterfront. While waiting outside for us

to arrive, she accidentally locked herself out! The beauty of that is

that she lives with two other room mates and they both work at the

same place as she does….a five minute drive from her home in the

wonderful Old Port section of Portland. We took her down to get a

set of keys from one of them! Whew! I forgot my camera but next time

I will bring it and show you pictures. What a cute place. I felt like I

had stepped back into the 70’s. She collects old albums….well….they

are not called albums anymore….they are “vinyl” now. What’s up with that?

Anyway….I will be on the lookout at yard sales now for them for her.

What’s old is new again. There were albums like

Taj Mahal……and my husband sat on a blanket on a chair with the head of

 

 on it. There were quite a few guitars, drums, tambourines,

and a music stand with some old Bob Dylan sheet music on it.

To say that my daughter is a bit of a hippie like her mother was is an understatement. And

of all of the characters and chotskies  (from my past and hers) on the furniture, the walls, the refrigerator and the

music stands, the one things that drew my attention the most was an antique Hoosier cabinet.

I used to have one years ago and sold it for little or nothing at a yard sale. Here’s a photo of

a nice one…. They are nice pieces. Apparently her room mate’s

mother lent it to them to use….neat. Well…we brought her out here for the afternoon/evening

with my grand dog Piper! I made little haddock casseroles and cheesy penne Rigato.  She and I

played  a game called Scattergories and had a lot of fun!! It was a good day. Any cute pincushions

you see with patterns, send them my way via a link would you? Hope you are all well…..see you

soon………….. 

 

 

THE SMELL OF SPRING….

These gorgeous flowers my husband gave me for Valentines Day have me thinking

of Spring every day!! And he made sure he got two of my

favorite colors….purple and pink. How about that Pink & White Hydrangea?? Isn’t it a

beauty? They smell awesome!! Now I am ferociously visiting

websites and looking at flowers I want to grow this summer! The

deep pink in the center next to the soft pink of the carnations draws me in…….Oh and by the

way….there were so many flowers crowded together (maybe because of the size of the Hydrangea),

that I was able to make two bouquets!! And that was my largest vase too! Here is the second

vase with flowers that were also in the bouquet…..  There are my

colors! Can anyone tell me what these tall purple flowers are? Is

it stock? And what about the pink ones above? I also cannot find the lavender one in the third photo

down? So….I am enjoying Spring right here in my house ya’ll……..ain’t that grand!! Ha ha ……….