Half-gallon jars

I unpacked another box last night and found half-gallon jars. I love jars and the endless possibilities for uses.

I decided to use these five for storage. Buttons, lace, yo-yos, wooden spools, and knitting needles all have a new home in jars. Now I just need to find the lids. LOL.

Garden therapy

Today is a gorgeous day!

The wind isn't blowing and it's so warm compared to the temperatures we've been having.

I decided to clean out the rose bed this afternoon. What a job. I pulled up the little fence, raked all of the junk out, laid down weed barrier paper, and started putting down mulch. Unfortunately, I ran out and need to get a couple more bags.

In the past I've tried growing things like four-o-clocks, snapdragons, etc., in this bed. They do fine, but it ends up being taken over by weeds, grass, and yellow-blooming clover. I decided this year I'm going for the mulched look. I'm tired of fighting it.

I'm really afraid I may have to move my roses eventually. This area doesn't seem to ever dry out which in some ways is good, but I'm not sure the roses really appreciate it.

The happy news is that the center rose is a Blaze climbing rose and it's going to have to have a new trellis this year. It's outgrown the old iron baby bed trellis since I planted it last spring. When I first planted it, the rose didn't even come to the bottom rung on the bed.

Of all the flower beds around this house, this one makes me the grumpiest. I have to stop and remember though, it was just a patch of grass and weeds when we bought the house. So really, I suppose it's come a long way in three years.

One of these years I'll have it the way I want it.

My brush with academic dishonesty

Oh boy!

Tonight while taking a chemistry exam, I found my paper being jerked away and me being told to get into the hall. "NOW!" Actually, it wasn't me being yelled at, it was the girl behind me, but he meant me as well.

Oh my goodness. My heart was pounding and I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. What did I do? Did I look like I was cheating? How was that possible? My head was down the whole time, looking neither right nor left. My bottom lip started to tremble and I just knew I'd be blubbering in a matter of seconds.

Of course the murmur that ran across the room in a wave didn't help my flushed face or make me feel the least bit better. Humiliation with a generous sprinkle of fear best describes how I felt.

Evidently the girl sitting behind me was copying my paper over my shoulder. Where I had mechanisms and showed my work, she just had my answers.

According to Dr. T., there was some real neck-craning going on. I felt stupid. I was so intent on my test I didn't notice that some little dim-wit was cheating off my paper.

He laid down the law, gave me back my test to finish, and escorted her out of the building. I sure would hate to be wearing her shoes right about now.

I went back in and finished my test. My writing was so small by the time I was done any cheating would have to be done with binoculars.

I have always been too scared to cheat on an exam, not to mention it's just wrong.

I feel about cheating the same way I feel about eavesdropping. You may not necessarily get the right answer just like you might not like what you hear.

I never did cry, but I sure did feel like it.

Tea towels to treasure

Lookie what I got in the mail.














Bev made me these wonderful tea towels in the swap from MJF. I love them.

I have Bev's all planned out. I just need to sew them up and send them on their way.

Buttons, a boat, and birds

Thank you so much for the well-wishes and kind thoughts. I believe we are finally well at our house.

Yesterday was a glorious day. We awoke to light rain and the world looked spectacular after its bath.

DH and I took advantage of the decent weather and finished clearing out the storage unit. I've unpacked a few boxes and found some real treasures that I had really missed in 3 years.

Like this Presto canning jar filled with my granny's button collection.














Some of these buttons are older than I am. I remember as a kid playing with these on rainy afternoons. I'd sit and sort them by color or maybe by size, depending on my mood, and then get the crochet thread and a blunt needle and make necklaces or bracelets. When finished playing with them, I'd unstring them and put them all back in the jar making sure to get every last one.

I've rediscovered many more treasures, but I'll save those for another day.

DH helped me move the Pfaff downstairs and get it in place. I can't wait until things settle down and I can spend some quality time with a sewing machine. DH suggested moving the treadle down, but it's much too heavy and I don't want to risk life and limb or possibly the machine. It's just fine in the living room.

After a quick lunch DH asked me if I'd help him with is boat trailer. How could I not after all of the help he's given me over the last couple of weeks? We loaded up the boat and drove to Foss so he could replace a couple of boards.














In this picture the boat is actually running. When the boards were replaced and it was time to load the boat back on the trailer, it wouldn't start and we ended up towing it by hand. Fun stuff. DH believes he's probably out of gas and that he'll get it running again in no time.

Once the boat was loaded, DH took me for a drive around the lake and I found a whole flock of Cedar waxwings. These are quite possibly one of my favorite birds.














Be sure to click the picture for a good look at those gorgeous birds.

I hope this coming week finds everyone in good health, high spirits, and full of love.

Update of sorts

This stomach bug is still making the rounds. My sister has it now and Caitlyn has it again. Mom hasn't fully recovered from her bout. So far DH and I are untouched. This is a nasty one.

The sewing room isn't being worked on very fast. Between illness and school I haven't had time to play.

Here's my old drying rack. I usually have my old linens and pillowcases displayed here.


















I wrestled the tall shelf down the stairs without killing myself and put it in place. What you see here is all I've managed to get done.

Stomach bug and other delightful things

We've been struck down by a stomach bug. Caitlyn had it first, then my mom, and now Sam. I'm praying it stops there. My hands are red and raw from all of the hand washing going on. I don't want this junk. No sir.

In other news, I take a handful of stuff downstairs every time I go. At this rate I'll be moved into the sewing room in no time. I unearthed a shelf unit, got it cleaned up, and downstairs.

I'm still trying to do this without spending any money other than for necessities like paint. Heaven knows I've got enough furniture and stuff to outfit another house.

I believe the first load from storage is coming home tonight. It's going to be like Christmas all over again. I've lived without most of my stuff for 3 years now. I'm a sad person. I miss my stuff.

Growing up, my grandmother never had nick-nacks sitting around. She didn't like them and had no use for them. I take that back, she had two things and they sat on the dresser in the bedroom. Other than that, nothing. She also didn't hang pictures on the walls. Maybe this was a result of being a young adult during the Depression. If it wasn't vital for life, she didn't want it around.

Sadly, I'm not like my grandmother in this respect. I enjoy my stuff. I like dusting it, thinking about its past, and using it if possible.

The day my blog was famous

Okay, so maybe that's a stretch.

Yesterday I had an amazing number of people stop by and visit. I normally have 11-15 people in a 24 hour period. That's just an average over the two weeks I've had a counter up.

Yesterday there were an astounding 124 visitors. Why? Who? From where?

I'm sure it's not because anything I've ever written was worthy of that much attention. I'm relatively sure it's not because we're painting in the basement.

Normally, visitors come by way of Pioneer Woman and some snarky comment I've left there, or by googling dress forms, Greist attachments, or enchilada sauce.

I checked the referers and it looks like Blogger sent all of those folks my way for some reason. Random clicking of the next blog button perhaps? I'll never know.

So, hello to all of my click-by visitors. Thanks for stopping and do come again soon. You brightened my day.

Ahh, that's better

The future home of all things crafty was a nauseating shade of pink when I first introduced it. Today, a nice neutral antique white.














It also helps that the plaid curtains aren't covering the windows any longer. Just look at the sun puddle in the floor. Who can be unhappy in a sunny room while crafting.













The woodwork still needs to be painted and I think I'll also do the backside of the door. I suppose I should finish the closet while I'm at it. I just noticed the pink shelf. LOL.













I found my screen door and I need to measure and see if it will work for the closet. I may have to cut it down to make it fit height-wise. I think the width will be okay.

Once I get all of the painting and door hanging done, I can start decorating and moving in.

Painting in the basement - before and after

We've been working on the basement. Yesterday we got the storage room painted and today I'm shampooing carpet. Fun stuff.

Before: Notice the lovely half-finished paint job.













After: It's the same wall, just a different angle. I'm not sure why DH painted the door frame the same color as the walls. I'll have to ask him. LOL.













Before: Another half-finished paint job.













After: Again, the same wall as above, just a different angle.













We're sitting under a blanket of ice and rain today. Shampooing carpets is the perfect activity for a gloomy day.

You know it's love when...

You come home and find dinner has been prepared.

My dear husband grilled steaks, fixed au gratin potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and fixed a salad.

Not only did he fix dinner, he also thought to include my mother who otherwise would have been alone today. He even went and picked her up to surprise her.

My husband is a lot of things, but thoughtless isn't one of them.

I love that man.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my bloggy friends. I hope your day was special in some little way.

Bloggy dreams

When I start dreaming about my blogging buddies that tells me I need to get away from the computer. Last night I had the most bizarre dream.

Blogging buddies that visited me, Annie and Ala, Sue and her grandbabies, TJ and her rooster. Non-blogging buddies, Dr. A. that taught human physiology and thinks she's an expert on childen though she has none.

Now for the dream.

Sue and the grandbabies were visiting and we planned to go somewhere, I don't know where, but we had all of the kids in the car. Annie and Ala showed up and got in the car with Sue and crew. Dr. A. arrived and said she would drive so she got in the car. It was getting crowded.

Dr. A. wouldn't put on her seatbelt and one of Sue's grandbabies started screaming "You're gonna die! You're gonna die!". Dr. A. threw up her hands and left. (Hmmm. Maybe she doesn't know anything about kids after all.)

We looked up and TJ was walking her rooster, on a lead, down the street to join us. TJ and rooster got in the car with Sue, Annie, and all of the kids.

After this the dream made no sense. (Like it did before?) Somehow I was left with three cars in the middle of the road and everyone else had left.

I awoke to a cat puking in the hallway.

What does this mean? Am I as crazy as I sound? Probably.

Personally, I think I'm just tired and probably should have had one more chocolate chip/peanut butter cookie before bed. Cookies make everything better.

Old doors

I saw these old doors on my way to school this morning. I didn't have time to stop and I figured the garbage man would snatch them before I could get back. Today must have been my lucky day. After class I dashed back over and they were still propped against the side of the dumpster.

I can only guess they must have gone on a cabinet at one point. The glass supports are still on the back. I love the old latch and porcelein knob.

I have an old picture of a living room similar to mine where there are identical cabinets on either side of the fireplace and both have these type of doors on them.

New camera

I promised I'd let you know what it was when it got here.

I ended up getting another Kodak. This time an Z812IS.

I love it!

For example...I took these this morning, one right after the other. Look at the color difference. Look how far I can zoom. I love zoom! ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM!

Old camera (3.2 MP) with zoom as far as it would go which isn't very far at all.














New camera (8.1 MP) with zoom not as far as it would go and sneezing while taking picture. Image stabilization is a great thing. It's a little distorted, but I was aiming at the gull.













So far I really like it. I've taken enough pictures to finish the rest of the year on my challenge and I'm still snapping stuff.

Headed east

I sent two packages out this morning. Both heading east of me.

I bought a pot of tulips today. Mine are coming up, but I needed a little color today. Let's share.

I wonder what this is?

Could it be something good?

Oh yes, very good.

Run over and look at today's pic of the day. You probably won't be sorry.

A day off

My husband had a rare Saturday off so we enlisted my mom to watch the kids and we ran away to OKC for the day.

DH needed new boats seats so we spent 3 hours in Bass Pro Shop. He picked out the seats he wanted in the first 10 minutes. The next 2 hours and 50 minutes were spent wandering the store just looking. I think my eyes only rolled to the back of my head once.

We drove out to Lake Hefner and I got to see the pelicans, Canadian Geese, Ring-billed Gulls, and Great Blue Heron.

A quick lunch and then a stop at Hancock Fabrics. Out of the entire store the only thing that tempted me was a bundle of fat quarters.









Overall we had a very nice day together. We don't get a lot of time as a couple and we cherish the time we do have.

I don't want to do any crafting right now. I think it's because the guest room is such a mess and I'm anticipating my new sewing/craft room. I guess I'll just have to paint walls and move furniture to fulfil my creative urges for now.

Future home of all things crafty

I finally got the future craft/sewing room cleaned out for the most part. I need to take down the hideous curtains.

As you walk in the door, immediately to your right is this wall. It's 9 feet 9 inches long. Please don't gag on the pink paint.













If you follow the wall into the corner, you come to this wall with a set of double windows so cleverly disguised behind those red plaid monstrosities. That's my elbow in the grey. This wall is 11 feet 10 inches.













Follow the wall to my elbow and you'll come to this wall. Yes, another set of double windows cleverly disguised. This one measures 10 foot 3 inches.













Now follow that wall and you'll come to the closet, sans door. I have to have a door so I need to put my thinking cap on. The closet is 30 inches deep. I forgot to measure the width.

















This last little wall is between the door and the closet and is just about 5 feet.













In case you didn't notice, this room isn't your normal square. I'm not sure what shape it is actually. A heptagon maybe. If you count all of the corners.

Now, did you count the electrical outlets? Five! Yes, this little basement room has more outlets than any other room in the entire house. I'm giddy with excitement.

So, here's the plan. I'm going to paint the walls a nice, soothing, neutral color. I can't craft with all that pink around. It makes me nauseous. Naturally the trim and baseboards needs painted as does the door.

I have an idea for the closet door, but I need to do some rummaging in the garage and find the 'thing' before I'll know if it works.

I'm going to hang blinds and then hopefully make some kind of snazzy curtains. I'm thinking something simple with prairie points.

The carpet is in terrific shape and so it's going to stay.

I should have room in here for all of the machines, a shelf, a table, antique drying rack, dress form, ironing board, and that's just the floor space. I'll have plenty of room for my crafting/sewing supplies and whatnots.

I'm so excited.

Did you vote?

I dashed in from my test at 20 minutes to 7:00, grabbed my DH and off we went to exercise our right to vote.

Normally we vote early in the day or during lunch, today it just didn't work that way. The polling place was busy! We only had to wait about 10 minutes though and were relieved to get our votes in before the time was up.

Evidently the voter turn-out today was huge. I feel sure it wasn't because we had school board elections today. I hope that more people will vote and voice their opinion about how our country is run.

In other news, I ordered my new camera today. It should be in my hot little hands next Monday. I can't wait! You'll have to wait until it comes to find out what it is. :)

Thrifty Monday

I dashed into the thrift shop for a quick look and found some cute stuff.

A teeny teacup. It's about the size of a larger walnut. I think I'll make a pinkeep out of this. Otherwise, I have absolutely no use for it.











An Americana angel.


















Raggedy Ann and Andy. I love his little newspaper hat.

The sun is shining

and the birds are singing. It's almost warm outside.

Instead of studying I took a walk around the yard today just to see what was going on with my plants.

Last year I planted a mess of stuff along the new fence. The only thing that didn't make it was the Weigela. I knew it was toast last July when it got sun burned and the leaves shriveled up. DH reached down and pulled the poor thing up today. Finally, we're both out of our misery.

The nandina, snowball, lilac, and hydrangea are all doing well.

We planted a Redbud, Jane Magnolia, and Bradford Pear outside the fence in the side yard. The magnolia and pear trees have little fuzzy buds on them.

I planted spares, those extras that I overbought, along the other side of the fence; a grape, boxwood, and another Weigela.

This year I want Crepe Myrtle. Lots and lots of Crepe Myrtle, in every color I can find. I'd like to plant a couple next to the basement entrance and a couple on the south side of the house. This is how I come up with extras. LOL.

In the front yard, I have tulips, hyacinth, and daffodils coming up in the bulb bed. I need to cut back the holly hocks and remulch the bed. I hope my iris will bloom this year. I took them from the side of the road and planted them here at the house a couple of years ago.

The mums are putting out at the base and are well protected with leaves and old growth. The boxwoods are beginning to look like something now. I think we planted those two years ago.

Soon I need to add compost to the garden and water it good. I've been making a list of what veggies we want this year.

What do groundhogs know anyway?

I hope he's wrong. I hope good old Punxsutawney Phil was just grumpy this morning and he really didn't see his shadow. I'd fib if it meant I could go back to bed so what makes me think Phil would do it any differently? I'm ready for warmer weather, flowers, and the sun.

We made it through another week and I'm eternally grateful. DH has bounced back remarkably well. He's still tired, but I suppose we're all tired these days.

I downloaded a new photo editing program that makes my icky pictures somewhat better. Gimp is a snazzy little thing that works just as well as my Paint Shop Pro. The best part is that it's free. Yes, free!

So far I have 33 pictures on my challenge blog. At some point I either need to get a better camera or get a better camera. Mine is just junk when trying to take pictures outside in the sun. Everything is overexposed and there are no manual adjustments. I'm at the mercy of my camera. Today I lost a perfectly wonderful shot of longhorn cattle because it was just as white as could be. Maybe we'll come across a deal too good to pass up. Otherwise, I know what I want for graduation.

In other news, I'm dreaming about reclaiming the basement. I'm trying to decide what colors to paint the rooms. I really want a nice light color for my sewing room. Something neutral, but not boring. I'm going to try to completely outfit the room without buying anything other than paint and mini-blinds. I think I can do it with what I have in storage, the garage, and the guest room. Yes, we're wall-to-wall around here. I believe we also have enough furniture to make a very cozy den while we're at it.

I hope everyone has a stress-free, much blessed weekend.