Marie's Home and Hobbies

Christmas Memories 2011...

2012-01-09T14:29:00.024-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas with our son, his wife, and our newest grandson, Noah. It would have been even more special if our daughter and her family could have been with us too. They came last year from Oklahoma and were not able to come this year. We don't do Christmas with lots of shopping and gifts. Our Christmas is based around family and fun and the real meaning of Christmas.
This is meeting our grandson for the first time at the airport. His PawPaw had been talking to and seeing him via I-Pad2 and saying "buden, buden"?. As soon as they saw each other, PawPaw said "buden, buden" to Noah and he came right to him. PawPaw put him on his lap and they rolled around the airport having fun while our son got luggage ready to go. This child had come on the re-eye flight from San Francisco.

This is our son getting a head of cabbage from his dad's cabbage patch. We were having some North Carolina barbecue. I had made homemade buns and baked French fries and my sister made slaw out of part of this beautiful head of cabbage. You just cannot beat North Carolina barbecue!

This is Noah sitting in the big cabbage leaves. We had planned to just have him in his diaper sitting in the middle of it but the leaves flopped before we had a chance to take the pictures. Well, we can call him a cabbage patch kid anyway!

Our son has a friend whose dad collects and restores peddle cars, trikes, tractors, etc. This is a 1948 Pontiac that he would let Noah touch. Ha!

On Thursday, before they left on Friday, we went to the mall.

This is a tradition in our family--we go to see the sights and sounds and eat at Chick-Fil-A. These are pictures taken with Noah and his dad riding the Christmas train in the mall. I think dad and son enjoyed it!

Our son and his wife did surprise us with a special gift. After Noah was born, I asked if they had a Sears near by that they could take him to and have a picture made like the one I had made of his dad. I had not thought any more about it. Noah was born on June 16 and his dad was born on June 28 and the pictures are at the same age.

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse of our time together. I hope yours was as wonderful as ours. I wish you the best for the New Year.
Love,
Marie

In Memory of my internet friend............

2011-12-15T21:16:00.015-05:00

Kathi, Christmas 2010

I wanted to share my memories of my great internet
friend, Kathi. We met via the computer in 1998.
Our son had talked us into buying his computer so that
he could upgrade his. I was still in a great
deal of pain from major back surgeries, but my son fixed
my chair with pillows so that I would be comfortable.
It was not long after getting on the internet that I made some
great friends, Kathi, Carol, Pat, etc. There was
Geocities and they offered free websites with a person
to guide you on making your pages. Kathi was also
creating her pages and she was neat with hers--
she had a great gift of words. No matter if you were
emailing, doing Aim, etc., she ran circles around me.
We became close friends, but never met in
person. We shared our life experiences together.

I wanted to do this memorial to her at Christmas because
this was her favorite time of the year. Kathi decorated her
house inside and out and it was beautiful. She loved
shopping, buying, wrapping gifts for the two important
men in her life, her husband Jerry and her son Steve.
We miss you Kathi, but you fought a rough battle
always with a smile and that wonderful laugh of yours.
Thanks for the memories!
Love always,
Marie

Some Finishes...........

2011-12-09T23:30:00.010-05:00

I saw the pattern for the hat and really liked it. It is a free pattern and you can find it here. The hat is knitted in the round and once you get the pattern in your mind, it is easy. I then made a scarf to go with it and it is not knit in the round so I had to turn the rows and at first I found it easier to write down what I needed to do. After doing a few patterns, I was able to move on fast. I did knit two sections of 30 inches and then used the Kitchener or grafting stitch to join the two pieces.

I found the pattern for this crochet snowman here.

It is a gift card cozy, but I made it as a fridge magnet. I did candlewick knots for the nose, mouth, and buttons. I had some some pom poms in different colors. Thank goodness there was orange in the group. I pull it apart and took a little white glue and rolled it in my fingers to form it into a nose. After it dried, I hot glued it on the face. I had some flat magnet sheets and I cut a piece to glue on the head and body.

Love,
Marie

Merry little snowmen...........

2011-11-30T23:58:00.008-05:00

My husband tried to grow gourds this summer
but it was too hot and dry. I was able to get these
and decided to turn them into snowmen. I cleaned
them with bleach and sanded and dried them. I then
dabbed two goats of paint on and then drew the
features with a black marker. We sprayed a sealer to
protect them. I then knitted the hats and scarves. I made
the grapevine wreaths for them to stand in for balance.
A right cute mom and three children--I think!

Scenes from around our home this Fall...

2011-10-24T14:56:00.021-04:00

End of the summer flowers. The cool nights and warm days have kept them blooming.

You can't see the wreath on the front door because of the glare. I took a 12-inch foam wreath and cut 3-inch squares of fabric and punched them into the foam until it was covered and then I made a bow out of one of the fabrics. I used three different fabrics with yellow and orange in them. I made it the same way that I made the one I used for the 4th of July.

We took a ride out into the country and there is a farmer
who makes designs out of rolled bales of hay. I think they
are neat.

♥Love,♥
Marie

More knitting and crocheting....

2011-09-24T15:00:00.010-04:00

Three different knit dishcloth patterns. I find most of my patterns free online by using Google. There are tons of great patterns to be found. I don't use anything but a knitted cloth.

This is another prayer shawl I am knitting for the ministry. I decided to do two rows at the beginning and end with some fun fur added. I did this to get away from using fringe.

These are a couple of vintage potholders I made. I had seen these on another blog and loved them. I looked and looked and finally found the pattern at Annie's Attic. They are made using number 10 crochet cotton and size 7 crochet hook. There are other patterns that come with this, but this is my favorite.

♥Love,♥
Marie

Knitting with a prayer...

2011-08-20T13:10:00.006-04:00

I have been busy this summer freezing corn, okra, and peaches. Being disabled, I have to do what I call "piddle" and then rest. I am proud of what I was able to get put away for the winter. Now, I have time to get to other things. Above is a prayer shawl for the ministry at our church. The thread is purchased and prayed over before it is delivered to me to knit or crochet into a shawl. I like this pattern because it is neat but easy to do.
You cast on 63 stitches and knit 10 rows. Then you do a row 1: knit3, purl 3, 2: knit the next row. Repeat these two rows until you have 10 rows. Then knit 10 rows again and them repeat the two rows of pattern. You end with knit 10 rows and add fringe. You will be able to see how the pattern forms.
I pray the shawl will bring comfort to whoever receives it. We are not told who gets it and they do not know who the knitter was.

♥Love,♥
Marie

Peach Season....

2011-07-16T20:44:00.008-04:00

We placed the bushel of Windblow variety peaches on our kitchen table to ripen. I froze 7 quarts of them this morning and am going to finish them as they are ready. I like getting them like this and that way I don't have to process them all at the same time. I plan to use some of them to make the peach trifle shown below

Peach Trifle
1 (3 1/2-ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups milk
6 large fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 (20-ounce) package pound cake
1/3 cup bourbon
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Preparation
Prepare pudding mix according to package directions, using 2 cups milk. Cover and chill 5 minutes. Toss sliced peaches with granulated sugar. Cut pound cake into 1/2-inch slices. Place half of cake slices on bottom of a trifle dish or deep bowl, drizzle evenly with half of bourbon. Spoon half of peach mixture evenly over cake slices. Spread half of pudding over peaches. Repeat with remaining cake slices, bourbon, peach mixture, and pudding. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.
Enjoy!

♥Love,♥
Marie

My New Book................

2011-07-09T14:27:00.005-04:00

I had my second book printed from my blog. I have had both of my books printed by
Blog2Print . I am very satisfied with their quality and service. I ordered it and received it in less than a week's time. My book is half the size of last year due to the fact of my husband's relapse of MS, my fall, and getting ready for the birth of our latest grandchild. Above is the cover of the book and below are the first and last pages.

If you try them, I hope you will be as happy with the results as I am.
Love,
Marie

Quilt made with love...

2011-06-28T10:11:00.013-04:00

When our son was born, a fellow co-worker made a Sunbonnet Andy Quilt as a gift for him. This quilt became Jonathan's favorite thing and we didn't go anywhere without it. He dragged it around until there was nothing left but scraps. I decided that I wanted to make Jonathan's new baby a replica of that quilt and hope that he enjoys it as much as his dad did his. I found the pattern by a Google search. I appliqued the blocks and then it came to cutting the sashing and borders. I am not able to stand for very long at a time and cutting the sashing and borders became a problem for me. A wonderful lady, Lillian, who lives in a retirement village and teaches quilting, offered to do that part for me. Her husband also has MS so we had a lot in common. After she did that cutting for me, I put the blocks together and sandwiched the top, batting, and bottom together. I then quilted by stitch in the ditch and quilting around the little boy. For the border, I decided to download coloring book shapes of farm animals and quilted these shapes. I had chosen a striped material for the back of the quilt. To make the quilt look nice, I needed to cut the binding on the bias. My husband and I watched a You Tube over and over again to figure out how to cut the binding. We decided to try cutting it knowing that I could buy more material if needed. WOW! We did it in one try! I sewed the strips together and because I ha made the quilt all by hand, I thought the binding needed to be sewn on by machine. I called my new friend, Lillian, and she was more than happy to sew it on for me. She said it would take me a while to do it by hand. After she sewed the binding on, I whip stitched it to the back. I then designed a quilt label on the computer and ironed it onto fabric and slip stitched it to the back. When baby, Noah was born on June 16, I got the quilt into the mail to CA. When our son and daughter-in-law received the quilt, they called and were pleased by the surprise. Our son did not remember what his original quilt looked like because all he remembered was the scrap that was left.
Below are some pictures of Noah and his quilt.

Love,
Marie (Mawre)

Mother's Day....

2011-05-07T15:55:00.018-04:00

Thank goodness for today's new gadgets. When our first grandchild was born 15 years ago, I didn't have the wonderful I-Pad 2. There were videos made but we waited until there was enough footage on it and then it was mailed to us in North Carolina from Oklahoma. It was wonderful to get these tapes and enjoy seeing each baby grow(all three). Now, here in 2011, we can see everything as it is happening.

The other Sunday night, our son called and wanted me to call them on the I-Pad. A friend of theirs had given them three boxes of baby boy clothes. They wanted me to watch them open up the boxes and see each thing as they took it out. Wow! That was wonderful. They were blessed with the nicest clothes that looked like new and some had not been worn. They also gave me a tour of the nursery.

Last week they went for a 3D/4D ultrasound and were given an invitation to come back today for a free session. They took Linh's mom with them and called us on the I-Pad so that we could see it as it was being done. This was a Mother's Day gift for me and Elaine. Of course we thought the baby was beautiful. He didn't want to wake up but we got to see his face and his hands crossed on his tummy. We thought he looked like his dad. Well, June 26 will be here soon and then we can see him in person again via I-Pad. Because of our physical problems, we will not be able to go to California to see him in person but the I-Pad is the next best thing.

I want to wish all of you a wonderful Mother's Day.

♥Love,♥

Marie

April Showers bring May flowers....

2011-05-02T20:36:00.015-04:00

Hope you enjoyed your visit.
Love, Marie

Happy Easter...........

2011-04-19T12:44:00.004-04:00

Spring and Easter at Melville Hill

2011-04-08T16:03:00.016-04:00

I hope you enjoyed your visit outside and inside our home. It is a beautiful season with everything coming to life. I wish I could add the sounds of the many birds in our yard.
♥Love ♥
Marie

Crochet blanket edges....

2011-03-30T20:20:00.015-04:00

Some have asked for the patterns for the edges that I use. I am going to share some below. First, I usually buy my receiving blankets at Target--they have a good selection and they usually come four or more to a package. Before you begin, you have to remove the tag. Sometimes I am able to completely remove it and this takes time and patience. You can also cut it very close to the hem stitching on the blanket and crochet over it. I use size 10 crochet thread and size 7 steel needle. I make the holes in the blanket as I crochet. Tie the thread on the needle and then punch the needle through the blanket at the edge of the hem stitching and pull the thread through the blanket and finish as a single crochet stitch. Then you chain 2 and single crochet around the blanket and join with a slip stitch at the end. Row 2: 5 double crochets in the following ch2 space by slip stitching in the ch2 space and ch2(this counts as first double crochet) then finish that space with four more double crochets. Single crochet in next space, five double crochets in next space, and continue this pattern around the blanket and join with a slip stitch. Finish off. Do the same single crochet, chain two around as in first edge and join with a slip stitch in the beginning.

Row 2: chain 2 (counts as dc), 2 dc in next ch2 space, dc in next sc, ch2(dc in next sc, 2 dc in ch2 space, dc in next sc, ch2) repeat around and join with sl st in first dc.

Row 3: sl st in next dc, sc in next dc, chain 3, sl st in the same space as sc just made, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, sc in top of 3rd dc of next dc group, ch3 and sl st in the same space as sc just made, 3 dc in next ch2 space, continue around and end with sl st in first sc. Finish off.

Same round 1, then start pattern below.

I hope this helps. Enjoy!

♥Love,♥

Marie

A beautiful day in the neighborhood.....

2011-03-08T22:21:00.023-05:00

A few weeks ago, the weather had been so bad. It had been cloudy all day and as the sun was setting it came out. I went out on the deck to take a picture because I was so excited that it was red and that meant we would have a rain-free day for the next day.

Today was a gorgeous day, but cool. My husband's brother took my husband to Durham today for a treatment for his MS. While they were gone, I decided to try to get out and get some pictures. This yellowbell bush is right outside the bedroom window and I see it every morning when I raise the shade. This bush was planted back in the 1930's when this house was built.

A dear friend of mine moved back to NY when her husband died and she gave me these buttercups. They surround a trailing rose bush. I love crocus! They will pop up through snow and when you see them, you know Spring is not far away. We have two boxes of pansies planted on the deck where we can enjoy them by looking out our bay window in the kitchen. These are one of my favorite flowers. My grandmother loved flowers and had a beautiful rose garden and always planted pansies across the front of her house. I like to pick these and put in a small vase on the kitchen cabinet. These smell so good.

Hope you enjoyed my flowers.

♥Love ♥,

Marie

Decorating for St. Patrick"s Day

2011-03-04T11:13:00.008-05:00

I now have my light box ready for March. I did the same thing to make this one as I did for Valentine's Day (directions are in a former post). I saw on another blog that instead of printing a picture
she bought cling-ons at the Dollar Store. She did her bow like mine and then just changed the cling-ons for each season or holiday. Have fun and use your imagination.

Love, Marie

Knitting with a Purpose.....

2011-02-27T11:57:00.005-05:00

I participated in the 2011 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project for the Winter Games. These scarves are a symbol of unity, compassion and support, and help create a powerful sense of community across the Special Olympics Movement. The patterns and colors of thread were provided by Red Heart yarn. You could choose to crochet or knit. I also decided to do them for my home state of North Carolina. I have a long-time friend who has a special needs daughter so I did mine in honor of her.

I have also continued to knit prayer shawls for our FUMC prayer shawl ministry. Below is the latest one I have finished. You cast on a number that can be divided by 3 and then you knit 3, purl 3 every row until you have around 60 inches. Bind off and add fringe that is also divisible by 3

Love,
Marie

Pretty in Pink.....

2011-02-17T01:15:00.008-05:00

Our son and his wife came home from CA for Christmas. As I had announced in an earlier post, they surprised us by letting us know they are expecting their first baby in June. When we were taking them to the airport to go back home, we stopped to eat and also went in a Michaels. I needed some thread and as we were looking we all saw this pattern book. They loved it and our daughter-in-law picked out the thread. As you will see below, I made the set and it is finished except the buttons. The day I finished it, they called to tell us that at their doctor's appointment they found out there baby is a boy. Oh, Well! I will put this pink set in my Grandmother's box for the next baby. We are very excited that the baby is a boy--he can carry on the family name.

This pattern is from Cuddle-me Layettes by Leisure Arts

Love is in the air.....

2011-02-01T23:02:00.008-05:00

I printed this picture on regular printing paper and
then my husband sprayed it with a couple of
coats of clear sealer. I glued it to the glass
light box with a glue stick. Then I made a bow
to go on top and wrapped some of the
same ribbon around the edges. For Easter,
I will take this picture off and do something different.
Love, Marie

Frosty the snowman

2011-01-21T18:50:00.005-05:00

After Christmas, when I was putting away my decorations, I decided that I would use snowmen on the table for a while. We have had snow off and on for a while and are probably having more next week, so I thought the snowmen would work out well. The centerpiece was a gift from a friend and the plates were gifts years ago from my daughter's grandmother-in-law. The colors of the centerpiece and plates work well together. I am going to enjoy them a little longer and then pack them away and put out valentines.

Naydine's Winter Wonderland

2011-01-13T17:27:00.006-05:00

My friend Naydine and her husband took a drive in their neck of the woods on the morning after Christmas. They took over 100 pictures and it was hard to decide which ones to share. Hope you enjoy!
Love, Marie

Over the River and through the woods...

2011-01-03T15:37:00.033-05:00

To Grandmother's house we go. Our daughter, her husband, and three children drove 2200 miles round trip from Oklahoma. Our son, his wife, and our granddaughter dog flew in from CA. A friend picked our son, wife, and dog up at the airport and brought them home. They arrived around 8:30 PM on Christmas Eve. Our daughter called and they were about 40 miles away. They had planned to go straight to the motel and come to our house the next day. We told them to come on and stop because we had plenty to eat. They came and there was a lot of chatter. Then, things got quiet. Our son handed me a gift to open and I said I was not to have a gift because we don't exchange gifts any more. He said it was something they all wanted me to have. I opened it up and it was a picture frame. I asked "What is it?". They all yelled "you are going to be a grandmother, again". The picture was the first ultrasound of the new baby. I started screaming and could hardly get my breath. I had prayed that I would live to see our son's first child. The baby is due in June. They had kept it a secret from us because they all wanted to see my reaction. I could not have been given a better gift than another grandchild to go with the three wonderful ones I already have. Our son and his wife had just adopted a dog from the shelter and I thought the dog was to be my grandchild at least from a while. Oh, by the way, my husband is thrilled about the news too.

To top everything off, we had our first white Christmas since 1947. It was absolutely beautiful! I am going to share some snow pictures with you. We also celebrated our 5oth wedding anniversary while they were here because they will all be in CA after the birth of the baby. My husband and I will not be able to travel to CA because of our health problems. Our kids and grand kids took us to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day to celebrate.

View out the den window

View from the front porch

front of house

Our granddaughter built a little snowman. It was too cold to be outside very long.
Below is Kona from CA in her first snow. She has on her new coat bought just for the trip.

A Few of My Favorite Things.............

2010-12-05T20:27:00.056-05:00

I have a new favorite thing this year. My sister is
a talented pianist and has played around the world accompanying the local high school choral groups. She has played several times at the White House during the Clinton and Bush years. She has made many trips to Vienna and has just returned home after being snowed in for a day. She said it was absolutely beautiful. They all went shopping down in the Village Christkindlmarkt and she bought me my new favorite thing--it is a wooden Christmas tree that is also a music box. My Christmas china is the

Christmas tree pattern by Cuthbertson
so I thought the perfect spot for the
tree was on the kitchen table. Below is
a story book from the Bush years . This
was also a gift from my sister when she
performed at the White House.

The little Noel train was at home when
I was growing up. The Mr. and Mrs. Claus
kissing and the little girl bell are gifts given
to us by our next door neighbor who has
since passed away.

The Mr. and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers are from Hallmark and are probably at least 30 years old.

The cup with the note and tea bag were given to me by
a special friend the year before she died. I place it on the
table each year with the book - A Cup of Christmas Tea.

The table set with the Christmas china and
a pineapple pattern table cloth that I crocheted.

I placed some of my Santa ornaments and tatted snow flakes
on this tree in the bay window in the kitchen.

Clare Becky, always gets dressed in her Christmas dress and gets her special place at the
table. Our children say that I love her more
than I love them. Ha!

I keep my Santa cabinet out all year long because I like the spirit of Christmas all year long. To the right of the cabinet on the wall you can see my Christmas wall-hanging quilt. To the left of the cabinet, in the hall, you can see some of my L&L angels that I have cross stitched.

The snowman, three Santa's, and the winter scene carved in a nut shell were done by Jerry, the husband on my long-time internet friend, Kathi. They will always be some of my favorite things--they are special!

I cross stitched the Nativity on the candle stand.
The stand was made by an elderly man and I
was lucky to be able to get one before he
passed away. I love my candle--a gift from a
long-time internet friend, Kathi.

Another Nativity that I cross stitched and it is over the mantle and I have part of my angel collection sitting below it.

Now, it Christmas can come! This little paper mobile was bought in the 1960's before our son
was born. It always hangs here between the kitchen and den. One year we had trouble finding it. You know how you put things away where you will know where to find them. Well, we looked and looked and our son said Christmas could not come until we found. Thank goodness it was found just where we had put it. Ha!

Knitted Shawl

2010-12-04T10:55:00.009-05:00

I had been looking at this pattern on line for a while and could not decide if I wanted to try it or not. I had some left over yarn and finally made the decision to plunge into it. You can find the pattern by going to Google and searching for Traveling Woman Shawl. There is also a free spread sheet to download and print. Boy! That spread sheet is wonderful--you check off the rows as you finish and you know if you have the correct number of stitches. This is not a difficult pattern, you just have to be sure to keep the correct number of stitch. This thread was too soft and did not hold the points when I blocked it. You will see this pattern done in some wonderful yarn. Good luck if you decide to try it. I had my friend, Naydine, to model it a couple of different ways. The view below can be moved off the shoulders and be more of a cowl.

Bye, Baby Bunting........

2010-11-16T19:16:00.018-05:00

The popular thing today is..swaddling the baby. I went on the internet searching for buntings or cocoons. There are all kinds of patterns...knit and crochet free that you can download. The pattern I chose is from Bernat. The pattern is shown in stripes but when I went to Michael's, I saw this variegated yarn that I like. The girl that helped me is expecting her first baby in January and she really liked this yarn. I thought it turned out pretty.

I like to give receiving blankets
as a gift and the mother's have said
they have been perfect for swaddling.
I usually buy the blankets at
Target--I found they have a great
selection. I add a crochet edge to
the blanket to fancy them up a bit.
I try to keep some for girls
and some for boys on hand because they make
an inexpensive and useful gift.

My Try at Making Window Stars

2010-11-01T20:12:00.009-04:00

I saw the beautiful, colorful stars that my internet friend made. Before I ordered the colored kite paper, I wanted to try my hand with some copy paper. I thought it came out pretty good and I placed it in the bedroom window. If you are interested in making some, go to The County Blossom blog--her link is on the left side of my blog under Favorite Places to Visit. She has really good instructions and where to order the papers. Have fun!

Knitting

2010-10-11T10:31:00.008-04:00

I have been busy knitting prayers shawls for our church ministry. Before I started knitting them, I did not realize all the prayers and love that go into each shawl. Prayers are begun when the yarn is purchased and then as you start to knit and as you knit. We make the shawls and they are given to the person without them knowing who made it and the person making them does not know who receives them. An internet friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery. Before she started chemo, the prayer ministry mailed her one. She said she cried when she got it in the mail and took it to her chemo treatment. They nurses remarked about it and she told about it being mailed from a prayer ministry in North Carolina.
I am not showing pictures of the shawls but the above picture is a pair of wrist warmers or fingerless gloves that I knitted for our daughter-in-law. I did not do a thumb and have done these for her to see if they fit. She is tiny and I tried to make the pattern smaller. You can find the pattern on line here.
Love,
Marie

Decorating for Fall

2010-09-14T08:41:00.016-04:00

This is a cross stitch pillow that I made. I have patterns for one for each month.
Out kitchen table decorated with a Hallmark pumpkin that I had bought when the kids were little. It is still holding together enough to still use it. The other little pumkins and decorations were gifts from friend.

These jack-o-laterns are made from some gourds that we grew a few years ago. I placed them in my grandmother's dough board.
This is one of the boxes that I am fixing to go on the front porch rails. I still have some more arranging to do when I get them placed out front. I love the pumkins and they were a find at Dollar General last year. We have a new Dollar General near by and I hope to get there to see what they have neat for this year.

A fellow blogger, Faye, Behind My Picket Fence, had some of the wooden box Jack-o-lanterns
for sale last year. I loved them and asked her if she would mind if I made some and she gave me permission because she said the postage would have been expensive. We went to a friend's house that has a work shop and they had the wood stacked up. We had a great morning of cutting, painting, eating, and fellowship. We didn't make them to sale but just for us to enjoy. Thank you, Faye!
I wish everyone a great Fall!
Love,
Marie

Where did the summer go?????????

2010-08-24T11:27:00.019-04:00

It was so hot here in the South so we spent most of the time indoors working on projects, reading, or watching movies. Below are some of the dishcloths, dishtowel, and pot holders I made. I found my patterns by going to Google and putting in "free dishcloth patterns".

Below is a pillow that I say was done by a "village". My husband and I need help when we go out because of our wheelchairs. So our friends were involved in getting this pillow together. One of friends had a yard sale at their church and there were crochet pieces and doilies there. Celeste knew that I loved things like that so she got them for me. I thought this collar was so pretty and decided to make it into a pillow for one of my friends birthday. Last week we got together with two other couples and went out to celebrate a birthday and our 49th wedding anniversary. After we finished eating, we all went to Hancock's Fabrics to look for material to make the pillow. Here are all six of us in Hancock's looking all over for what was needed. My friend, Naydine, always has a sewing machine up and she was going to sew it together for me. My husband kept telling me that he had found just the pillow form that we needed and I told him that was not what we were going to use--we planned just to stuff it. Well, after Celeste found the material, my husband continued to mumble that he knew the pillow form was just the thing. To please him, we went to look and guess what--it was the perfect thing!!!!!!!!!!! My friend, Naydine sewed the pillow together except for one side and then we put the pillow form in and I whipped stitched it together. I had a jar of old buttons that I bought at a yard sale years and years ago. I placed them down on the lower corners and then tacked the collar in place. My friend, Nova, that received the pillow for her birthday was thrilled by the pillow and the story behind it.

Below is a twelve week project. I have made several of these tablecloths and the pattern is easy. The only problem is that when you get way out on the rounds, it takes a long time to do just one round. If you make a mistake and have to unravel it, there is probably 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours of work lost. I got this finished on Saturday and I think this will be the last one. I don't know what my next project is going to be except to do some prayer shawls for the ministry at our church.

Love,

Marie

Backyard Scene

2010-08-01T22:55:00.022-04:00

We had been having temperatures in the 90's with heat index up to 110 here in the South. Last week we finally had a few days of more comfortable days heat wize and with less humidity. I took advantage of this by having my lunch on our screen porch. I love it out there where I can enjoy our flowers and listen to the birds sing. As I was eating my lunch, I noticed the butterflies on our butteryfly bushes. They were really enjoying their lunch too. After lunch I went out to try to capture the beauty. Of course, as I was trying to take pictures, they would fly from flower to flower and be upside down or their beautiful wings turned away from me. I wish I had gotten a wing spread of the black butterfly--it was beautiful!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures that I was able to get.

Love,

Marie

Peach Tart

2010-07-28T10:26:00.023-04:00

My cousin went to the Sand Hills of NC last week and brought back some peaches. I froze some and then we have had them cut up on cereal each morning. I decided to make this tart. Believe me, it is easy or I could not have done it. It worked out good for me because it was done in layers. I cooked the crust and rested while it cooled. Then I made the cream cheese mixture and put it on the crust. I placed it in the refrigerator to set up while I rested some more. Then I did the glaze. I sliced just enough peaches to make a layer and then poured the glaze on top. I did not cut it for about 3 to 4 hours. I think it is right pretty, if I must say so myself! Ha! It sure was good.

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup cold butter, cut up
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1 pkg (3oz.) Jello-O Peach Flavor Gelatin
1/2 cup water
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1 Tbsp. peach marmalade
1 cup thawed Cool Whip topping
peaches, peeled and thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS

HEAT oven to 350 degrees F.

MIX flour and brown sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, knead mixture well to form dough. Press onto bottom and up sides of 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown; cool completely.

MEANWHILE, bring 1/2 cup granulated sugar, conrstarch, gelatin mix and water to boil in saucepan, stirring occasionally, cook and stir 2 minutes. Cool 20 minutes.

BEAT cream cheese, remaining granulated sugar and marmalade in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Whisk in Cool Whip; spread onto crust. Top with peaches and gelatin glaze. Refrigerate 3 hours or until chilled. Remove tart from pan before serving.

I hope you enjoy it!
Love,
Marie

For My Love of Quilts....

2010-07-22T13:06:00.044-04:00

I love quilts and collect them. I wish I was physically able to make quilts, but I am not. These quilts were placed on the rungs of a ladder that a friend made just for me to display quilts. Would you believe, my neighbor did not want these quilts and thought they were dirty and she was going to throw them away. Her aunt had died and she was cleaning out her house. I told her not to dare throw them away--to me they are beautiful! There is a lot of time and love worked into these quilts. I also have a collection of quilt tops my grandmother made and never got them quilted. I have these packed away. I guess I should have them finished.

This is the first quilt I made and this was done in

the 1960's. I did the stamped on cross stitch and

then a group of ladies guilted it one summer for

me at The Sword of Peace, a local out-door drama.

They had it set up as a demonstation as the people came for the drama each night.

Then I did this candlewick spread in the 1970's. I bleached muslin, cut it into large squares, and then copied my pattern onto each square. When I had finished the squares, I had them sewn together. I had planned to do a crochet edge around it and never did. I went to the International Quilt Show in Greensboro in the mid 1990's and met a lady that did long-arm quilting and she took it to Virginia and quilted it for me. I love the way it turned out.

My yo-yo quilt is done in shades of pink and greens. I designed it to resemble Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt.

The Catheral Window Quilt. It is done with un-bleached muslin from JoAnn's. My daughter went with me to a local quilt shop and we picked out this fabric of flowers. I did the whole quilt with just this one fabric and I think it came out beautiful, if I must say. Ha! This will be my daughter's quilt when I am through enjoying it.

This a a baby quilt

that I did to go in my

Grandmother's Box. I

bought the panel at Hobby Lobby. I sewed a border on it and did a binding. I quilted each block and then on the border, I drew letters of the alphabet and quilted them. I scanned some of the fabric and then designed this label in my PSP and placed it on the

back of the quilt.

I started paper piece quilting. This is my first attempt. I made these crazy patch squares and then I embroidered stitches on the seams. I made these into pillowcases to use on the backs of the rockers on our front porch.

Below is a Hunter's Star square that I did by paper piecing. I did some others and made them into throw pillows.

This is a paper piece log cabin block that I made into a Christmas wall hanging. Below is the label I created for it.

I hope you have enjoyed viewing my quilts.

Love,

Marie

I am now a published author!

2010-07-15T12:35:00.023-04:00

I had been looking for a while about getting my blog published into a book. I would look and then not be sure if it was worth the money or not. Well a fellow blogger, Katy at County Blossom, shared her book published from her blog. If you have never visited her blog, you should! So, I made the decision to order one done of mine and I placed the order on July 5, 2010. My husband announced this morning that I had a book in the mail and I thought it was a Miss Julia book that I had ordered. He opened it up and yelled that it was my blog book--boy was that fast! If you are interested in publishing your creativity, go to Blog2Print and check it out!

The cover of the book is basically what you see first as you visit my blog.

Our son is the person that encouraged me to start a blog. He had helped me around 1997 to get started with the computer and I develped a website on Geocities with the same title, Marie's Home and Hobbies. Geocities was ending their free websites last year, so with the help of my son, while he was home from CA on vacation, I began this blog. Below is the dedication to him in the book.

Below are a couple of pages from the book to give you an idea of what to expect. I had mine done to inclue all comments because they meant so much to me.

Above, show some of my husband's wonderful flowers. Below is a trip we took to Mt Airy and Mayberry during the Fall when the leaves were at their peak.

Good Luck with your book if you decide to do it. It was a bit pricy doing it hardback, but I think it is worth it.

Love,

Marie

Tea Cup Bird Feeder

2010-07-06T13:07:00.006-04:00

Below are two tea cup bird feeders my husband helped me make. I bought a box of old dishes at a sale and found these cups and saucers. I thought they were so pretty but they were really stained. I had an old glass bed vase and a friend gave me one of hers that she had stuck back. My husband sanded the bottom of the cup and then glued it to the saucer. He also sanded the bottom and the saucer and the vase and glued them together. He cut a dowel into and drove it into the ground and put the vase on it. Now the vase can just be lifted off the dowel to clean it. I am wanted to get some song bird seeds to go it.

God Bless American

2010-06-27T11:40:00.007-04:00

Peach Dessert

2010-06-26T11:00:00.013-04:00

North Carolina peaches are in! My sister took us to the Farmer's Market last weekend and we bought our first peaches of the year. Below is a
recipe that a friend shared with me.

3 cups sliced peaches

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup sifted plain flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg

6 tablespoons of melted butter

Place sliced peaches in a deep-dish pie plate and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Mix dry ingredients and then stir in beaten egg until crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture

over the peaches and then top with melted butter. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Love,

Marie

Hooray for the Red, White, and Blue!

2010-06-20T09:03:00.008-04:00

I made this to hang on the wall on our front porch. The base is a 14-inch diameter green Styrofoam wreath. I purchased 1/2 yard of red, white, and blue $2 per yard fabric from Wal-Mart. I used my rotary cutter and cut the fabric into 3-inch squares. I gathered up each square around a size 7 steel crochet hook using the blunt end and pushed it into the wreath. You can use a small screwdriver. The directions said to use glue, but I did not find it necessary. I made the bow using left-over fabric.

Flowers from the Past

2010-06-12T09:58:00.045-04:00

Before my husband's MS became as bad as it is today, his joy was working in his garden and flowers. I wanted to share some novel ways he grew his flowers.

We were riding along a county road and I spied this bed. There was a sign that said to take it if you wanted it. I had my husband turn around and get it. He put it in the garden and each year I had my "flower bed". I used different flowers trying to make it look like a quilt. The picture to the left was planted with two different shades of pink petunias.

The bed to the right was done with yellow marigolds and purple ageratum.

The bed to the left was planted with red and white salvia, yellow marigolds, and purple ageratum.

Below are two different years of the rocker being decorated. I found this rocker in my grandaddy's garage

The chair to the right was also found in my granddaddy's garage. The woven bottom was already gone which left the hole for the planter.

I collect birdhouses. My husband painted an old ladder and placed some of my collection on the ladder along with some potted plants

Dresses for girls in Haiti Orphanage...

2010-06-01T12:27:00.006-04:00

I was surfing blogs shortly after the earthquake in Haiti and came across a blog that was requesting pillowcases or women to make pillowcase dresses. These dresses were to be made and would be taken to Haiti by people going there on mission trips. I mentioned it to my friend, Naydine, and before I knew it, her line dance group took up the cause. The dancers collected pillow cases and all the notions that it would take to make them. These ladies met at the local art center on Fridays and worked from early morning until around four in the afternoon. There was a community spirit from people offering them food on the days they sewed, money for notions they needed, and postage to mail the boxes of finished dresses. Between the Princess Project and New Directions International, they funished over three hundred dresses. Another church requested some for their mission work in Guatamala and they were given 122. The group is continuing to make dresses. There were cotton panties also donated to go with the dresses.

Above are pictures of some of the little girls as they received their dresses that a group from New Directions International took over a few weeks ago. Most of the little girls are holding their dresses up in front of them. Aren't they so cute with their dresses and snazzy glasses!!!!!!!!! There is also a picture of Naydine with some of the dresses.

Love,

Marie

Prayers, please!

2010-05-07T19:48:00.002-04:00

For those who have missed my posts, I just want to say "thank you". My husband and I both are having difficult physical problems right now. I am struggling just to take care of what I need to. I keep saying "this too shall pass". I will be back up and running soon, I pray.
Thanks!
Marie

Spring view at Melville Hill

2010-04-17T19:03:00.016-04:00

Hope you enjoyed a look at some of our Spring views. I wish the beds were cleaned out but it is difficult for my husband with his MS to stay on top of every thing. In the bottom picture, he did get out on his scooter this morning and pulled up some weeds but as you can see, he gave out before he could get them up.

Love,

Marie

I WON!!!!!!!

2010-04-03T10:54:00.006-04:00

The past two weeks have been a nightmare with my computer. This wonderful machine was bought the day after Christmas and has been giving problems off and on ever since. The other day, my DH finally had it up and running and I went to visit my blog. Much to my surprise, there was a comment from Faye at Behind My Picket Fence. Mr. Picket Fence had chosen #9 to win a pretty spring pillow. Wow! I was the lucky one. I love pillows on the bed so I placed my new pillow there--it is the one with tulips with the word tulips on it. If you have not visited Faye's blog, you have missed a treat. Go to my sidebar on the left and click on her blog. She is one talented lady with lots of talented friends. She has the most wonderful way with words. I can imagine it would be a hoot to meet her in person. Tell her that I sent you.

Thanks again for my wonderful gift!

Love you,

Marie

PS: Since I had found out that I won the pillow, we have made a complete restore on my computer twice. I just hope it will work this time!

More Knitting by my Great-Great Grandmother, Angeline

2010-03-22T11:28:00.014-04:00

Angeline knitted six of these bedspreads, one for each of her children. This was done sometime between 1855 when she was married and 1908 at her death. She knitted it in squares and joined them. The yarn was spun by her, most likely. This was probably done by lamp or candle light.

This view of the spread shows the crochet border that was added to the knitted spread. We do not know who did that but it is beautiful.

This is my sister, the great-great granddaughter of Angeline, holding the bedspread.

Easter through the house...

2010-03-14T11:01:00.015-04:00

This is my kitchen table finished. My mother walked .7 of a mile every morning. The year before she died, as she took her daily walk, she left one of the five bunnies in the yard by a bunny that I had on display. She did this as a surprise for me. The eggs on the tree are crochet and also the eggs in the grass.

These decorations are on a bookcase that I inherited at my mother's death.

This is the decoration in the center of the den bay window.

This is not a clear picture but it is done in pastel color with rabbits on every tier. I don't have candles, but then I never would light them.

Cross stitch eggs are hanging in the side window of our bay in the den.

This is a combination of cross stitch and hardanger and I have it on the fridge door.

I am sorry that the above picture it out of focus. I have these cross stitch pieces done for each month.

Cross stitch piece that I placed in a wooden hoop, added lace and ribbon. This is hanging on our back door.

Thought Spring...but snow came!

2010-03-05T21:24:00.008-05:00

We had a beautiful day on Monday and the weatherman was predicting no more than a dusting of snow for us on Tuesday. The snow was to fall much further south. It started a light snow around lunch time and it kept coming into the night. This was such a beautiful snow and the roads did not get that bad right around us. The schools were closed on Wednesday but I really thought they could have just started classes a couple of hours late. While the snow was falling, I was working on some Easter crafts. I made the little rabbit from a wash cloth and a bar of soap. I printed out a couple vintage cards and crocheted an edge around them. I enjoy making and sharing crafts with my friends.
Love,
Marie

I am thinking Spring!!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-27T08:44:00.016-05:00

We have had the worst winter in a long time. We had snow flurries a couple of days this past week. They are talking about the Snow word for us again this coming week. I decided to start decorating for Easter to bring some Spring into the house.
Love, Marie

Enough Mush.........

2010-02-12T15:40:00.015-05:00

Back in 1969, we had been married 7 1/2 years on Valentine's Day. My husband gave me this large envelope with my name on the front and signed from him.
Well, I opened up this beautiful card and there was two pages of all these sweet words. I remarked that there was enough mush to last for years. His reply to me was that if that was true, then he would never buy me another Valentine. Well, here it is 2010 and he has held true to his statement. Each year, I bring out this same beautiful Valentine with all that mush. Now, come this August 18, we will be married 49 years.

You open up the card and here is the first page.
Below are the two inside pages. Notice that he
never signed the inside of the card. I am so glad
that I saved this card because you cannot find
them this beautiful now. We have had great fun
every year as the card comes out again.

Valentines from the Past

2010-02-09T22:08:00.014-05:00

The valentines spread out of the table belong to our daughter. She received them from her kindergarten mates in 1967. In the middle of them, you can see the little holder with a handle that she made to place them in. Our daughter was born in 1963. I had saved our son's also but have not been able to find them.

This is a collection of valentines from the mid 1920's. They are valentine's that my mother received when she was going to school. Mother was born in 1912 and these were cards from her classmates.

My after Christmas gift to me

2010-02-01T21:19:00.009-05:00

My mother, who passed away two years ago this month, loved to grow amaryllis. Our son and daughter-in-law took me to Trader Joe's after Christmas and I saw they had their bulbs on sale. I just had to have me one. It has been a joy to watch it flower and there is another stalk that will probably have a couple more blooms.

Above is a picture of what our bulbs look like after being planted in the yard. After the flower has bloomed, we cut the foliage back. Then, when the temperatures are about 35 degrees, we plant them in the garden. They need to be fertilized every two weeks after flowering with a 5-10-5 fertilizer. In August stop watering and fertilizing and allow the bulb to dry out. We cover ours with mulch before the first frost and leave them that way until the next spring.
Love, Marie

Wedding Socks made by Great-Great Grandmother Angeline

2010-01-14T12:58:00.012-05:00

These socks were knitted by my Great-Great Grandmother Angeline Snipes and were worn in her wedding August 7, 1855. These socks amaze me. I am going to post below a sock that I just finished this morning and it was knitted on a size 3 needle. The wedding socks above must have been done on a size one. My cousin said that she probably raised the cotton and she spun the cotton to make the thread. She did the heel flap, gusset, and the Kitchener stitch just like I do mine today. She even knitted her initials AS into the sock.
My sock is done with four size 3 needles. I used Red Heart - Heart & Sole with Aloe. I worked from the basic sock pattern in Learn To Knit Socks by Edie Eckman.
Love,
Marie

Our Vegetable Garden in December 2009

2010-01-10T11:27:00.006-05:00

We are so proud of this garden. They were the most perfect small heads of cabbage. I steamed some to eat with fried cornbread and made slaw with others. The brocolli was so good and tender. We ate some of the brocolli and I froze the rest. We had never had these vegetables from our back yard before and I hope that it will not be the last.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-12-31T10:13:00.003-05:00

I want to wish you and yours a great New Year!
Love,
Marie

Myspace Graphics, New Year Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Done except the Angel....

2009-12-24T09:12:00.004-05:00

This is an Advent cross stitch that I did years ago. Each day you take one of the ornaments from the outside and place it on the tree. Even though it is just my husband and I here for Christmas, we still place this on the refrigerator each year and count down the days until Christmas day. It is all done now except for the angel that will go at the top of the tree tomorrow. I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year.
Love,
Marie

Gifts from other talented friends

2009-12-21T16:16:00.008-05:00

I got this wonderful surprise from my friend, Celeste--we do watch bands together. She made this adorable snowman in a jar and placed white lights in it. It looks so sweet sitting on my kitchen counter with my other snowmen that can be seen in the post below. Thanks Celeste!
I love it.
These pretty little gift boxes were made by my friend, Naydine, my other watch band maker. Naydine used last years Christmas cards to make these neat little boxes and put a couple of pieces of candy inside. I think they are so neat. Thanks Naydine! My husband and I love them.

My Christmas Surprise....

2009-12-19T07:47:00.008-05:00

We have these wonderful friends that we met through church. They have been such a blessing to us. All through the year, Pat has been bringing us meals to put in the freezer. These meals have been such a blessing. There are days that I am not able to prepare food for us and it is wonderful to go to the freezer and take out one of these meals and pop it into the oven or microwave. Gary, the husband, has helped with mowing the yard and other things that my husband needed. Yesterday, they came in the snow and brought us more meals for the freezer and one of Pat's works of art. She painted the snowman on the bottle and place a string of colored lights inside. I placed it on the kitchen counter beside my snowwoman cookie jar. Thank you Pat and Gary for your thoughtfulness!
Love,
Marie

Crochet Hats

2009-12-04T10:31:00.021-05:00

It is our granddaughter, Allison's, 11th birthday and I crocheted her some hats plus the other things I mailed. I called to wish her happy birthday before school and she was already wearing one of her hats and a pair of leggings I sent. We were out eating with friends and I saw a girl about Allison's age wearing a hat like the purple one but it just had buttons on it instead of the flower. My friend went over to see if someone in the family made it but they had just bought it. Before we left, another lady stopped to admire her hat. I found a pattern on line for the rose one and the white one.

Give Away for Christmas- and the winner is...

2009-11-20T09:44:00.009-05:00

I would love to give away six of my tatted snowflakes for you to use in your Christmas decorating. My tatting is not perfect but I enjoy doing it. If you love handmade items, just leave me a comment and I will draw a winner on November 21. I will notify you and you can then give me a mailing address. Tell your friends.

AAmber from Making a Home is the winner. If you have not visited her, I know you would enjoy her blog. Congratulations Amber and I hope that you will enjoy using them. My friend's granddaughter, Ryan, drew the number for me. Ryan is a first grader and she was delighted to choose who won.

Us "Girls" like to play.....

2009-11-12T21:10:00.020-05:00

There are three of us "Girls" that went all the way through school together and then two of us went on to college together. We are not actually "girls", we are "Old Ladies". The younger of us three refers to us as "Old Ladies". Ha! Well, we started getting together to celebrate birthdays and have included our husbands. We decided the other week that we would play with beads and let the men have fun talking football, racing, guns, etc. We had lunch and then the men went into the living room and we gathered around the kitchen table and started playing. Below, I will show our creations.

Naydine did these. She is using the Snowmen watch faces with her snowmen.

These are creations by Celeste. She has done some more since this picture.

These are creations by Marie. We have purchased Christmas watch faces with snowmen, Christmas trees, and Santa's to make watches for Christmas.

Trip to Blue Ridge

2009-10-28T09:18:00.027-04:00

My husband and I decided on the spur of the moment Monday morning to try to get the mountains all by ourselves. We knew that we would probably find wonderful people along the way to help us. Monday was such a beautiful, crisp Fall day here in NC. Our first sighting of the mountains was Pilot Mountain.

Then we arrived in Mt Airy the home of Andy Griffith. This is Barney's police car. They use this to take people on tours. We met a couple just coming back from a tour and they came over to the car to talk to us. They were from Canada and were on their honeymoon.

These are some more of the pictures that I took of Mayberry. Floyd's Barber Shop and Snappy Lunch are downtown on Main Street. I could not get any pictures as we rode down Main Street because their were so many tourist. When we were able to walk, we would always stop at Snappy Lunch for their famous pork chop sandwich. That sandwich is worth waiting in line for.

We stopped at a fast food place and got lunch
and had a picnic in the parking lot. We then started our drive up to the parkway. We stopped at our favorite food stand and bought mountain-grown cabbage, new pinto beans, and apples. Then onto the parkway.

These pictures do not really show what our eyes saw. The scenes were gorgeous!!!!!!! We had the most wonderful day, just the two of us. As we knew, we came across the most wonderful people that were willing to help us get out and into the car and places we wanted to go. We dared to undertake this trip and we are so glad we did. We are two blessed people even in our circumstances!

Tea Wrap

2009-10-14T15:13:00.005-04:00

I did this crochet wrap using Vanna's Choice yarn by Lion Brand. I found the free pattern on the Lion Brand site. It is Pattern Number: 81085AD. The pattern called for a N crochet hook but it took a P hook for me to make the gauge.
We cooked on our grill last night with friends and while the men were cooking, I used Naydine for my model. Naydine and I were in school together from beginning to end. It was a beautiful day and evening here but this morning is a different story--cold and raining. We may have had our last meal on the screen porch this year.

More Knitting

2009-10-06T17:52:00.005-04:00

Above are two different hats I knitted with the remaining thread from the baby blanket. I also did a 5-hour boy's sweater. I really like the way this thread works up.

Boy's Blanket

2009-10-02T11:05:00.009-04:00

I made this crochet baby blanket using Bernat Baby Jacquards . The yarn color is Macaroon. I love this because it gets away from the usual pastels that you think about. I think it will be very practical. The pattern is the same as one in an earlier post.

Yo-Yo Pumpkins

2009-09-23T08:04:00.006-04:00

I made these by making yo yo's. I cut cardstock into 7 1/2", 7", 6", and 5" circles. You will need 1 of the 7 1/2", 2 of the 7", 2 of the 6", and 1 of the 5". I made the yo yo's and then stacked them in this order: 6". 7". 7 1/2", 7", 6", and 5" on top. My husband cut a piece of plywood into squares and countersunk a 3" screw into it. I then threaded the yo yo's onto the screw by pushing scissors into the center of the yo yo to make it go over the screw. He cut a twig into to make the stems and made a hole in it so that it would screw down onto the top of the pumpkin. I got the leaves from fall foliage I had.

I placed mine with some Fall leaves on the ledge of an antique bookcase.

Sweet Potato Cobbler

2009-09-17T08:47:00.004-04:00

This smelled so good when it came out of the oven and as you can see we could not keep from trying it before I could take a picture. This is very rich! You may want to use less sugar.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk

Preparation:

Melt butter in 12 X 2 -inch baking dish. Mix together the flour, sugar, and milk; pour into the center of the melted butter. Do not stir.

Mix:

2 cups cooked but firm, peeled and sliced sweet potatoes (I added these last)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or other preferred spice)

Pour this into center of melted butter and batter. DO NOT stir. Bake at 350 degrees
for 45 minutes or until light brown.

Color-Coded Therapy

2009-09-02T18:42:00.008-04:00

I wanted to share my husband's joy of working with his flowers. At the time of this newspaper article, we were married 33 years and this August made 48 years for us. I was in bed with my back for a year before I had my surgery. I was in so much pain and really did not want to live. One Saturday morning my husband went shopping and came back with flower boxes, dirt, and flowers and began to fix boxes around the deck. I thought to myself, why are you doing this because I probably will not be alive. As the flowers grew and he got me up into a chair in the den, the beauty that I was seeing through the kitchen bay window was unbelievable. His joy of growing the flowers for me made me want to make it. He has continued this ritual every year. Of course when he became unable to walk last year, he has not been able to do as many boxes and have as many flowers in the yard. He still gets on his scooter and goes out and waters and takes care of all he planted.

Fig Cookies

2009-09-01T17:51:00.004-04:00

The squirrels got most of our tomatoes and usually the birds peck our figs, but this year the birds are leaving the figs to us. There will not be enough to do a lot with but when my husband brought in enough the other day that I thought I could do something with, I went to Google. I found this recipe for fig cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped figs
1/2 cup walnuts - I used toasted pecans

Cream sugar and shortening and add beaten egg.
Sift dry ingredients and blend with creamed mixture
Fold in figs and nuts.

Drop by spoonfuls on greased sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes
Mine were done in 15 minutes.

Book Review

2009-08-26T16:10:00.013-04:00

I have never recommended a book before but I had seen this book on another blog and it caught my interest. I immediately went on line to our local library and put a hold on the book. I am fortunate that they have a girl that brings books to me. I got the book Monday afternoon and finished it yesterday. I have now started reading it again. Below, I am going to give you a summary that I found on line.

A new story of common wisdom from the best selling author of "The Traveler's Gift".

Orange Beach, Alabama is a simple town filled with simple people. But like all humans on the planet, the good folks of Orange Beach have their share of problems--marriages teetering on the brink of divorce, young adults giving up on life, business people on the verge of bankruptcy, as well as the many other obstacles that life seems to dish out to the masses.

Fortunately, when things look the darkest--a mysterious man named Jones has a miraculous way of showing up. An elderly man with white hair, of indiscriminate age and race, wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt and leather flip flops carrying a battered old suitcase, Jones is a unique soul. Communicating what he calls "a little perspective," Jones explains that he has been given a gift of noticing things that others miss. "Your time on this earth is a gift to be used wisely," he says. "Don't squander your words or your thoughts. Consider even the simplest action you take, for your lives matter beyond measure X 2026; and they matter forever."

Jones speaks to that part in everyone that is yearning to understand why things happen and what we can do about it.

Like "The Traveler's Gift," "The Noticer" is a unique narrative is a blend of fiction, allegory, and inspiration. Gifted storyteller Andy Andres helps us see how becoming a "noticer" just might change a person's life forever.

If you decide to try this one, I hope it will be as meaningful for you and it was for me.

Computer Nook

2009-08-18T14:43:00.013-04:00

This is where I do my blogging, making cards, emailing, etc. We took a closet and removed the doors and took the clothes rod down and wooden shelves. We then added the wire shelves for me to place my baskets on. I have paper, stickers, label, etc. in them. I have two computer towers. When I bought my newest computer, a lot of my programs were not compatible. I keep the old tower mainly to make greeting cards. I am not able to get out very often to buy cards so I create them and my friends seem to like them better because I can make them personal. I have also done some digital scrap booking on the old one too. The picture on the right shows my wallpaper on my modem at this time. I like to give equal time to the grandchildren. I had the granddaughter so now it is mostly the boys.

Fresh Peach Delight

2009-08-16T08:08:00.008-04:00

This is such a good recipe. I wish I knew who to give credit to.

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 cup nuts, finely chopped (I like pecans)

Layer 1:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 8 oz Cool Whip

Layer 2:
4 cups fresh peaches

Layer 3:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 Tbls. corn starch
1 small box peach jello

Mix flour, butter, and nuts. Pat in bottom of 9 X 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown and let cool.
Cream the cream cheese, powdered sugar and cool whip, and spread over the first layer in pan.
Layer sliced peaches over cream cheese mixture. (I just used one layer of peaches)
Cook sugar, water, cornstarch and Jello until thick and clear. Remove from heat and cool completely. When cool, pour over peaches and refrigerate. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

ENJOY!

Lace & Amethyst Wrap

2009-08-14T10:26:00.007-04:00

My daughter-in-law saw this in the July/August 2009 issue of Crochet today! and liked it. It is crocheted with RED HEART Eco Ways Bamboo Wool. I had never used this yarn before. It felt really good but I had to be careful because the yarn wanted to split. It is an easy pattern and I hope Linh will enjoy using it.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-08-12T12:52:00.004-04:00

Congratulations Jon and Linh

Quotes to Live By

2009-08-09T13:40:00.025-04:00

The following quotes are some that mean something to me and I want to share them with you.

Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart,
"It will not benefit me." Even by the falling of water drops,
a water pot is filled; the wise man becomes full of good,
even if he gathers it little by little.
German Proverb

Hardening of the heart ages people more quickly
than hardening of the arteries.
___
We really begin to amount to something to men and to
God when we are careful to do a kindness and care
less about who gets the credit for it.
___
There are many moments in friendship, as in love,
when silence is beyond words.
___
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
___
We will not make the daisies of our own lives
any prettier by being jealous of the roses in
our neighbors' lives.
___
If you want a better life, the place to change is
inside yourself.
___
Whatever you dislike in another person, take care
to correct it in yourself.
___
What life means to us is determined not so much by
what life brings to us as by the attitude we bring to
life; not as much by what happens to us, as by our
reaction to what happens.
___
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater
is their power to harm us.
___
It takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow.
___
Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and
the blind can see.
___
The world is a looking glass, and gives back to
every man the reflection of his own face.
Thackeray

The Internet CAN by a good thing!

2009-08-03T12:58:00.008-04:00

Our grandchildren live 1100 miles away. Due to our physical conditions, we are no longer able to go visit them. They try to come visit us once a year if their schedules allow. Thank goodness for our computers and the Internet. On their end, they have a cam--not me! Ha. We are able to see them but they can not see us. One afternoon, I went on AIM with our granddaughter. We both have microphones and can talk to each other as I watch them. These pictures were snapped by our granddaughter as she was talking to me. She was doing all kinds of expressions and added the parrot and rabbit into the picture. We had a fun visit. As she dragged and dropped the pictures for me to see, I saved them. I went to hp.com to their creative section and picked out this frame. I uploaded the pictures and dropped them into the frame. I printed it and then put it in the scanner and saved it. I then went to my computer and chose it as my wallpaper. I get to relive that fun visit with my granddaughter each time I cut my computer on. I did this screen capture so that you could see what I see on my 24-inch monitor. I don't understand how computers and Internet work, but what a blessing it is to the "old lady". To me, it is a "Good Thing" as Martha Stewart would say.
Love, Marie

Laying in Store for the Winter

2009-07-29T16:23:00.010-04:00

I have been busy trying to save everything I can and not let anything go to waste. We bought 1/2 bushel of peaches last week at the Farmer's Market. I froze most of them except I made an easy peach cobbler with part.As you can see, my husband got into it.
Easy Peach Cobbler
1 cup Bisquick
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 stick butter
2 to 3 cups sliced peaches
I melt the butter in the microwave in the glass dish. In separate bowl, I mix Bisquick, sugar, and milk until smooth. I pour that over the butter in the dish. I top that with the peaches. Sprinkle a little sugar, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of allspice on top. I bake it at 350 degrees for one hour. We like to stir ours every 15 minutes, twice, and then don't stir the remainder of the time. Boy, is this good topped with vanilla ice cream. We only get ice cream when it is buy one, get one free.

Besides freezing peaches, I put up some corn, squash, and okra that a friend brought.

I made spaghetti sauce for Saturday night. I browned a pound of hamburger and a chopped onion and cubed some squash and zucchini into that and poured a jar of spaghetti sauce over it. I added some garlic powder and oregano and let this simmer. We had a meal Saturday and Sunday night out of this spaghetti sauce with sugar snap peas one night and a salad the next. Monday, I took what sauce was left over and made lasagna. What we had left from that meal, I divided into meals and put into the freezer.
We had one zucchini left yesterday from our garden and I grated it and made the chocolate chip zucchini muffins that I have posted the recipe for before. I would love to get some more corn and some field peas. We are hoping that we are going to have some late tomatoes.
Love,
Marie

Five Months from today..........

2009-07-24T09:02:00.010-04:00

Will be Christmas Eve!
We have this tree up all year round in our living room. The truth of the matter is that my DH was still able to walk when this tree was put up. He spent so many hours putting the lights on it that he said if it ever came down it would never be put back up. This tree is decorated with angels, so he calls it our Angel Tree. I light it up a dreary days or to celebrate birthdays. Where has this year gone???

Muffins

2009-07-22T08:01:00.011-04:00

I made muffins yesterday using a recipe from Brenda at Coffee Tea Books and Me. Go over and give her a visit--she is full of very helpful and inspirational information. Take a look around and then go to her recipe blog for the muffin recipe. I used chocolate chips and pecans in mine.

Christmas in July

2009-07-20T21:16:00.020-04:00

I am in between projects and had not tatted in a while so I picked up some number 10 crochet cotton and my shuttles and started making some snowflakes. I will tell you about my grandmother below. I watched her tat as I was growing up but never tried to do it. In later years, my mother gave me my grandmother's shuttles and I ordered a book to teach myself. I bought Tatting by Cathy Bryant. This is a great book with good illustrations. The snowflakes above are from the book, Tatted Snowflakes by Vida Sunderman.

Grandmother Thompson
1887-1962

The above picture was taken when my grandmother was a student at "Normal College". She met my grandfather when he went to the college to visit his sister. Grandmother was always doing some needlework. This is the grandmother who gave me the desire to learn to tat. She helped me make a quilt when I was 12 years old. It was simple--just small squares sewn together, but I have the memories of the time we spent together.
Below I want you to see the book and shuttles that belonged to my grandmother. I watched her make the most beautiful lace to be placed on handkerchiefs. She used very small thread and sometimes sewing thread. Wow! I do good to get it done with size 10.

This book is STAR BOOK No. 41 - cost-10 CENTS
AMERICAN THREAD COMPANY - Copyright-1946
This book has crochet and tatting edgings. The tatting edgings
were suggested to be used on slips.

This is the caption above the tatting patterns. It amazes me that
my grandmother went to all this trouble for something that would
not be seen. My Grandmother Thompson did handkerchief edgings
and a lot of crochet.

One of the first attempts I made at tatting was
the snowflakes I used on the tree in our bedroom.
The tree has dolls, snowflakes, antique balls, and
white lights. These are the same snowflakes
that I am doing now.

Living with Scoliosis

2009-07-16T15:38:00.020-04:00

I had shared with you my DH living with MS so I thought I would tell you about my life. I was born in 1941 with congenital scoliosis. My parents did not know there was a problem until I started to walk and one shoulder was higher than the other. They took me to Duke Hospital and they recommended I be taken to the Shriner Children's Hospital near Charlotte, NC. When I was around age six, I was put in a body cast from under my arms to my bottom. I wore a cast like this for seven years. Of course, every so often, it had to be sawed off and another put on. That was always a scary experience even though they promised me that the saw would not cut me. I wore this during the years before air conditioning--you can imagine how that felt! Being in the cast did not slow me down except that I could not go swimming like the other kids. All my life, I have been determined to try to do what everyone else could do. After those seven years of wearing the body cast, I was entered into the hospital and put in a cast from my chin to my knees and was there for almost a year. They decided after that there was no surgery they would be able to do. I finished high school and went on to Elon College for a one-year commercial course and was hired immediately when I finished.
A year later a man came into my life. We had know each other as kids growing up in the same neighborhood for a few years and then his family had moved away. Three months later, we were married! They said it would not last but if we make it to August 18, it will be 48 years. I never dreamed I would be married and then God blessed us with a daughter 18 months later. The doctors were concerned about me but I had no problems and a normal delivery. The doctor called me his "star patient". Then in 1971, we were blessed again with a son. Now, our family was complete.
I was doing fairly well until 1991 and I developed a terrible pain in my back and was in bed for a year. We found a doctor in Chapel Hill, NC that dealt with adult scoliosis. He felt sure he could help me. I was taking a risk with this surgery because it was to be three-stage operations. There was a chance that I would die but I had been in such pain and in bed and crying out to the Lord to take me home. I decided that I would do the surgery. On Feb. 23, 1992, I went into the hospital and had my first 10-hour surgery. Two weeks later, they turned me over and did a 10-hour surgery through the front to my spine. I was in intensive care for several days after that. Then two weeks later, they went back into my back and put in rods and screws--this was another 10 hours. When I woke up from this surgery, I was in intensive care on a ventilator. I was on that four days and then moved out to my room. They had to give me shots of morphine to be able to get me out of bed. I developed a kink in my intestines from the second surgery so they had to go into my stomach and fix it but could not put me to sleep. Any way, I finally came home on May 6, 1992. I was barely able to walk and had home PT for at least a month. I continue to have discomfort most of the time. I have had pain so much of my life that I have a high tolerance. I am able to be on my feet to do what I call "piddle". I do a little and then rest and do a little more. I am doing more right now since my DH can not walk.
We are trying our best, with the help of a lot of wonderful people, to stay in our home. Before my DH became unable to walk, he would push me in the wheelchair and we could get out and go to the Mall. Now, we have to have someone to come help us go where ever we need to go. Thank goodness, we both can find satisfaction where we are. I have a pity party once in a while but no one comes. Ha!
I have told you all this not for sympathy but to let you know the person behind the blog. Each day, I get up and try to make the most of the day and some days are not very easy. I am so thankful that our son set me up with a computer and taught me how to use it. It is wonderful all the people that I have met. I have two internet friends that I met in 1998 and have never met them in person but feel like they are almost family. Now, I am making new friends through having a blog.
Thanks for reading this.
Love,
Marie

The picture on the left is me in 1944 and
the one on the right is today.

More Knitting

2009-07-15T09:38:00.004-04:00

I had some yarn left from the crochet baby blanket that I showed in an earlier post. I used the free patterns for the hat and booties from the 5-hour knit sweater. Just Google for the 5-hour knit baby sweater and you will find the patterns. It is a really fast and simple pattern but I think it takes me more than 5 hours!

Zucchini, Let me count the ways!

2009-07-13T16:15:00.012-04:00

We have had a bounty of zucchini this summer and I will cook the last of it tonight unless we have more rain. Below are a couple of recipes I have used.

Zucchini-Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla, mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

Oven Fried Zucchini Sticks
Two 8 ounce zucchinis
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of water
1 cup of coarse cracker crumbs (saltine) I used stuffing and ground it up fine
2 tablespoons of margarine, melted
Salt and Pepper

Trim unpeeled zucchini and cut into sticks about the size of French fries. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Beat egg with water; roll each zucchini stick in egg mixture and then in crumbs. Place on wire rack while oven heats to 400 degrees F. Place coated zucchini on a baking sheet and spoon butter over. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until tender and lightly browned.
I served these with ranch dressing.

Me and the Squirrels

2009-07-09T21:21:00.003-04:00

Well, the pinwheels I bought did not do the trick of keeping the squirrels from eating our tomatoes. My DH had said they were probably laughing at what that "crazy old lady" was doing. We had been watching our tomatoes grow and they were beautiful but evidently the squirrels were also keeping their eyes on them too. I went onto the screen porch and there sat a squirrel on top of the fence enjoying a meal of one of our prize tomatoes. Day before yesterday, a neighbor brought his trap over. He had caught 33 squirrels in his yard and took them on a trip out into the countryside. The squirrels continued to eat the tomatoes and not go into the trap. I took one of the tomatoes they had half eaten and placed it in the trap along with the bait of pecans. Would you believe, they went inside and got the tomato and took it back to the fence. The neighbor came and got the trap and worked on it and put more bait. I ate lunch today on the screen porch and watched a squirrel come running across the top of the fence and sit there and look down at the trap. It came down and smelled all around then climbed on top of the trap and tried to get the pecans. It was not able to get to them, so it came down and went around and around the outside for a good thirty minutes but would not go inside. It finally gave up and left. Well, I went into the kitchen to cook supper and thought I would check the trap and............there it was!!!!!!!!!!!! We finally had our tomato theif. The neighbor took that one on a trip and brought the trap back. Maybe now we will be able to get a few more tomatoes. What is the purpose of a squirrel anyway?????????????????

Prayers for this beautiful litte girl

2009-07-06T09:18:00.009-04:00

Kate

Please go to her Caringbridge page and read about this adorable little girl and keep the family in your thoughts and prayers. Click on her name.
Thanks,

Supper for Two

2009-07-05T11:07:00.009-04:00

My DH and I spent the 4th just the two of us. He doesn't like to cut his flowers for me to make a flower pot--he likes for them to be in the yard. He broke down yesterday and got on his scooter and rode around a gathered me a "few" flowers. I didn't really have any 4th of July decorations so I went to Martha Stewart and printed off a few things. My plates are our outdoor plates and have birdhouses around the rim. As you have probably noticed from other pictures, I love birdhouses. We barbecued chicken on the grill. I cut the chicken in half and double wrapped them in tinfoil. DH cooked them 25 minutes on one side and turned them over for 25 more minutes. He then removed them from the tinfoil and brushed the sauce on. I usually make my NC barbecue sauce but didn't feel up to it yesterday, so I used bottled sauce. I marinated the zucchini slices in Zesty Italian dressing and then he cooked them on the grill. We had mashed potatoes and marinated steamed broccoli. The recipe for the broccoli is below.
STEAMED BROCCOLI FLORETS
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
Dash each of salt, pepper, and ground mustard
1 pound fresh broccoli florets.

In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the sugar, vinegar, oil, water, prepared mustard, salt, pepper, and ground mustard; shake well. Set aside. Place broccoli in a steamer basket. Place in a saucepan over 1 in of water; bring to a boil.
Cover and steam for 5-8 minutes or until crisp tender. Place in a serving bowl. Shake dressing and drizzle over broccoli and toss to coat.

Fourth of July at Melville Hill

2009-07-01T14:41:00.007-04:00

Through the Garden Gate

2009-06-29T13:13:00.013-04:00

Beginning with Spring

SUMMER

Happy Birthday, Son!

2009-06-25T15:25:00.002-04:00

We love you!

Grandmother's Box

2009-06-24T22:17:00.007-04:00

Years ago, I started a box known as "Grandmother's Box". I have knitted blankets, sweaters, hats, and booties. I made the quilt on the left and bought the one on the right at a church auction. I have included receiving blankets that I have crocheted an edge around. It is all ready for the next baby.

When our son and daughter-in-law were home the first week in June, they took me to AC Moore and I bought this thread for a blanket. Thread is Bernat, Softee Baby Yarn, and the color is Baby, Baby. Below is the pattern I used.
I used size G Needle. The pattern called to Ch 106 loosely, but I chained to get the width I wanted.
ROW 1 (right side): Dc in fourth ch from hook (counts as first dc) *skip next 2 chs, dc in next ch, 3 dc in next ch, dc in next ch, skip next 2 chs, dc in next 2 chs: repeat from * across to last 3 chs, skip next 2 chs, 3 dc in last ch.

ROW 2: Ch3 (counts as first dc, now and throughout), turn; dc in sp before next dc, *skip next 3 dc, 5 dc in sp before next dc; skip next 3 dc, dc in sp before next dc,
skip next dc, dc in sp before next dc; repeat from * across to last 4 dc, skip next 3 dc, 3 dc in sp before last dc, leave last dc unworked.

Repeat Row 2 until length you want.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!!!!!

2009-06-21T16:19:00.006-04:00

It has turned pretty hot this afternoon in our neck of the woods, but this morning was so pleasant. I took my cup of coffee and a book out on to the screen porch. There was a wonderful, slightly cool, breeze blowing. I wish I had a recorder to save the songs of the birds and the beautiful sounds from the wind chime.

The book that I am reading is one of many that a friend has loaned me. The books are published by Guideposts and the series is Mystery and the Minister's Wife. The books have different authors but the same characters. The setting is in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. I live in North Carolina and our part of the Great Smoky Mountains is also beautiful. These books are a light read and I have really enjoyed them.

"This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Frugal Way of Life

2009-06-20T06:34:00.005-04:00

It is surprising how frugal one can be if you set your mind to it. We had a very bad drought in our part of the country a couple of years ago. We had to conserve on the use of water and it was amazing how much water we saved by quick showers--cutting the water on to get wet, soaping up, and turning the water back on to rinse. This routine has stuck with us and now we just continue this and don't even think about it.
As soon as my husband retired, I set up bookkeeping in Excel and I watch every penny we spend. We have been able to save some and I just think if we had done this all our married life, 48 years, we would be rich. Ha!
I watch the weekly specials at the three major grocery stores near by and we buy only what we usually would buy--no extras. We stopped our local paper but I can access it on line. We do buy the Sunday paper and that way, I can clip the coupons for grocery items we use. We also buy in bulk at Sam's or Costco. When we first started buying from Sam's our son came home from college and said he thought he had come to the "land of the giants". Ha!
There is one thing that my DH and I need to really work on and that is our over use of paper towels. When you have made it a habit of grabbing a paper towel, it is so hard to change. I'm getting old!!!!!
We are content to stay at home and enjoy our screen porch, read books, and I do needlework, and weather permitting, my DH loves to work in his flowers and of course we enjoy the computer. I use our local library instead of buying books. During this past winter, friends and I swapped jig saw puzzles and put them together. This was something my family did as I was growing up. There was NO TV so we always had a puzzle on the card table and would work them as we listened to the radio.
Now, before I buy anything, I ask myself if it is a WANT or a NEED. There are lots of things I want but don't need them. When you get down to it, I need to get rid of some things I already have. I can just see our kids trying to deal with all this stuff when we are gone.
We will definitely have to watch our pennies next year because we are not going to get a cost of living raise in our social security checks. There was re-evaluation of real estate property in our county this year and that mean our taxes are going up. Our water and sewer fees for the city have also increased. I am going to put every thing in God's hands. We are truly blessed and much better off than lots of people in our country and the world.

Enjoying the Bounty

2009-06-16T06:58:00.007-04:00

This is all that was left from the Zucchini Sausage Boats that I fixed for supper last night. Go over to Kelli's blog and get the recipe. Enjoy her blog and then scroll down on the right hand side and you will see the recipe. I halved the recipe for us and instead of bread crumbs, I used some barbeque potato chip crumbs.
A friend called and shared a recipe for me to make pickles with the cucumbers.
Refrigerator Pickles
8 cups sliced cucumbers
2 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon celery seed.
I sliced the cucumbers with my processor and placed them in a large jar that I gotten bread and butter pickles in. I boiled the syrup and and poured over the cukes and they are supposed to be okay like this for a while in the refrigerator. We will probably have them eaten pretty quick.

One For Us!

2009-06-15T08:43:00.006-04:00

We got our first tomato yesterday. We debated on letting it stay on the vine one more day, but did not want to risk the squirrels getting it. The green Roma's were on the ground and my DH thought they fell off. Before coming into the house, he went by the birdbath and there was a green Roma that the squirrels had carried and eaten part of. They leave nuts in the birdbath all the time.
A friend of ours shared their bounty. This is just a sampling of what they brought. I have lots of cucumbers and don't know what I am going to do with all of them. I would love to be able to make pickles, but because of health problems, I am limited. Any suggestions for some easy pickles?
Love,
Marie

Flag Day

2009-06-14T08:47:00.006-04:00

In August 1949, President Harry S. Truman proclaimed June 14 as Flag Day. Since then the President proclaims the commemoration yearly, and encourages all Americans in the country to display the Stars and Stripes outside their homes and businesses. Individual states determine how they will observe the day.

Garden View

2009-06-12T19:36:00.014-04:00

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Luke 12:27

First Vegetables

2009-06-10T22:31:00.006-04:00

Well, we are so excited about our first vegetables from our garden. We also had our first meal from part of the squash and zucchini. I cubed one zucchini, several squash. an onion and sauteed them in olive oil. I cooked some "curly pasta" and mixed that with the cooked vegetables. After placing it on our plates, we added Parmesan cheese and Ranch dressing. Boy! That was so good.
Marie

Living with MS

2009-06-09T10:36:00.008-04:00

My DH is LIVING with MS. He had been on injections every other day and they stopped working. A year ago this March he became unable to walk. They tried steroids to build up his strength but that did not work like it had in the past. The doctor finally decided to place him on infusions, Tysabri. These infusions had been taken off the market several years ago because people were dieing with a brain disease. They have now put it back on the market and they are monitoring them closely. He has to go once a month for this two hour infusion.
From March 2008 until August 2008, DH could not get out of the house without being carried out to go to the doctor. A friend called a local church about building us a ramp and one Saturday the team came and built us this wonderful ramp along the edge of our deck out onto the patio. DH was also given a scooter and a whole new world opened for both of us.
The pictures of the garden are a labor of love for him. He went out and got down off the scooter on his hands and knees and pulled weeds from the raised bed where the squash and zucchini are. I did not know until after the fact that he had rode his scooter out to the shed and got out the big tiller. He was dragging it behind his scooter when a neighbor saw him. The neighbor came and offered to help and DH let him plow that bed. I called the garden center to see if they had the plants he wanted and they did. I told them that DH could not get out of the car when he got there and could someone help him. They said sure and he got the plants and came back home and got down on his hands and knees and planted them. I am so proud of him!

Knitted Dishcloths

2009-06-08T08:21:00.009-04:00

My favorite dishcloth to use is the one that I knit using cotton yarn. I buy the yarn in a large cone or ball. I like to buy white because I can throw them in with my white towels and use Clorox. When I went to buy yarn, they did not have white so I chose this verigated yarn.
Pattern:
Cotton yarn and knitting needle of your choice.
Cast on 4, k 1 row.
Next row, k2, inc in next st., k1
Next row, k2, yo, k to end of row
Repeat the k2, yo, k until you have 45 sts on the needle.
Next row, k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k to end of row
Continue to do this, decreasing each row until 5 stitches are left. Then, k2,
k2tog, k1.
Bind off the 4 sts.

Waffle Weave Knit dishcloth

Cotton yarn, size 6 needles
Directions:
Cast on 38 stitches.
Knit 3 rows for border.
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: K3, purl to last 3 stitches, k3.
Row3: K3, (P2, k1) 10 times, p2, k3.
Row 4: K3, (K2, p1) 10 times, k3.
Repeat these 4 rows for pattern.
Knit last 4 rows.
Bind off and weave in the ends.

You can repeat these 4 rows, 6 times and then
change colors and repeat pattern 2 times, then change
back to original color and repeat the pattern 6 times.

Just the Two of Us Again

2009-06-07T19:58:00.012-04:00

Well, my day started yesterday, Saturday, at 6am. We had a busy last day with the son and daughter-in-law. Jon's boyhood friend came back home with him from their meeting to plan their 20th class reunion. We had so much fun talking about how it was when the boys were growing up and our house was the place to be. It was so much fun being with the boys then and now as men, married. We had our cookout with a friend and neighbor as planned and then my DH went with the kids to see a movie while I stayed at home to rest. I didn't have time to sleep because the phone kept ringing. We all planned to go to bed early because we had to be up at 4am to get the kids to the airport 60 miles away because their plane was leaving at 7am. Well, I could not sleep and was awake at 3:27am, I know because I looked at the clock. Ha! Then, I went to sleep and my DH had to wake me up. It was so cool and pleasant when we left at 5am. We saw beautiful deer by the side of the road going and coming from the airport--thank goodness they did not cross the highway in front of us. Now, you have to leave your loved ones at the curb and can't go in to see them leave. We were back home before their plane left Raleigh. I love the computer! I came home and followed them back home by checking the flight status. This airlines even had a map that showed where the plane was at all times on it's path home. I looked at one point, it was flying over Tulsa, OK where our daughter and her family lives. They are back home safe in CA and we are alone again. Now, we look forward to a visit from our daughter and family in November.

Beautiful Day in NC

2009-06-06T08:50:00.003-04:00

This is the last day our son and daughter-in-law will be here. They fly out at 7AM tomorrow morning. This will be a busy day. Our son has gone with one of his childhood friends and classmate to help plan their 20Th class reunion. Oh, wow, my baby has been out of school 20 years!!!!!!!!!!!! My class celebrated it's 50Th reunion last weekend. Can I really be that old?????? This afternoon we are cooking steak, ribs, and shrimp on the grill with a neighbor. Then a quick trip to AC Moore to get more thread for the baby blanket--I will share pictures later of my "Grandmother's Box". Early to bed because we will have to get up before 4AM to get them to the airport which is 60 miles away.

Dear Heart's Garden

2009-06-04T13:34:00.009-04:00

I am so proud of my husband. He has MS but he gets out on his scooter and gets down and crawls to pull up weeds. A friend plowed up the areas for him and then he planted the tomatoes, squash, and zucchini. I thought I would share some pictures with you. The pinwheels are placed by the tomato plants hoping to scare away the squirrels. They will probably just laugh at me and eat our tomatoes like they did last year. The tomato plant next to the purple pinwheel is a sucker my DH broke off the original plant and stuck in a pot and has now planted it in the ground. We are so proud of this plant and it should help us to have tomatoes for a longer season.