MOST TREES LOSE LEAVES IN THE FALL

Most trees lose their leaves in the fall. You can see that my tree has very few leaves for this time of year.
However, after a bit of fertilizer and water trial and error a few more leaves grew.














Some more sunshine and a little rain hard work and lots of do-overs and more leaves grew. Believe it or not I've thrown away almost as many leaves as I've pinned on the tree. Mostly due to careless mistakes which I think have come from being in too big a hurry and too tired.











And another day of watching grass grow poltics on tv and even more leaves have sprouted.



Believe it or not, this is about 21 out of thirty something leaves that will have names on them. Then I'll add enough blank leaves to make it look "complete" for lack of a better term. Then two borders around the edges -- probably pulled from the leaf colors and the quilt top will be finished.




A lot has gone on besides working on the tree. Actually, I've done these leaves since Saturday.

First, I visited Billy for his birthday -- it was a surprise visit and in true Billy fashion he was very very surprised -- jumping up and down standing there with a quizzical look and hollering Wow! -- What a surprise Mom : saying "Hey Mom" That's my laid back boy :) He was definitely surprised -- Thanks Stacey for keeping the secret. The kids were excited too. We went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant where they cook at the table -- I've forgotten the name. It was delicious. I had scallops and shrimp. We had a fun weekend together and I definitely enjoyed the trip.

Then this past weekend my sister came to see me. I got lots of sister love that included a really neat Vera Bradley purse for my birthday, some good cooking and lots of visiting. We took my sewing machine to the Dr. for the third time and finally they fixed the embroidery problem I was having. They kept saying it was a thread or fuzz but they had blown it out twice and I just didn't think that was it. This time though she figured out a wire had somehow jumped over to the other side of a metal bar and so she moved it back and it has purred like a kitten and embroidered like a dream at full speed all weekend and this week. (The wire problem was on the inside somewhere - discovered after they took the outside cover off. )

For those who don't know it and are interested, I'm going to be a grams -- again. # 7 will be arriving right around the time I get out of school. Guess I'm retiring just in the nick of time :) Well, I'm beat and promised myself I'd go to bed tonight so bye for now.

A FABRIC GIVEAWAY ALWAYS MAKES ME FEEL BETTER!!

If you would like to add to your fabric stash, visit Serena here at Embroidery Treasures and leave a comment to be entered in her giveaway. She always has good tips and ideas and lovely fabrics when she has a fabric giveaway. Have a great rest of the day.

WE NEED TO PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY

This is how I feel right now.

FIRSTS!

My first grandchild lost her first tooth. I stole this picture off her mom's blog to share even though anybody who looks at my blog problably looks at their blog too.  Brings back all those memories of those days when my four were little and going through all their firsts.  Suzy-Q is just as cute without her tooth -- don't ya think :)

 

FOR SALE

These are things I'm going to be taking to the consignment shop next week - tomorrow and Monday I'm going to have to figure out what price them at and then pin the tags on so I can take them on Tuesday. I've got 4 knit nightgowns with blankets made out of some of those "sea island cotton knits" -- very very soft-- I found those in a storage bin yesterday.  I had to finish the edges of the blankets.  I also have quite a few burp cloths, some receiving blankets and some laundry bags I had made about 3 years ago.  My daughter took one of them to use in her nursery and I think is still using it for the girls.  She really liked it.  There is also a diaper cover (reversible) that I made.  It was to be for Avery but by the time I got around to finishing it she was to big for it.   knit blanket  with the A monogramed on it -- the A is just basted on there.  The price  is going to  include an  initial, so I put an example on it.  Some of the burp cloths will be priced to include a monogram or name also.     There is also a waffle weave kitchen towel.  Anyway, here's the loot.

SHHH! DON'T TELL

Brian Neal is awesome!!! I'm updating my blog from ............. drumroll please .......... my desk in room 31 at HCC. Whoo Hooo!! Thanks to Brian I can visit his and any other blog from school. I promise to use discretion (but I do have time on my hands sometimes and it is ridiculous to have this stuff blocked if I am getting my work done and then some). I'm doing this on my personal laptop so I'm not corrupting any school computers in the process. I'm just excited that I can see what's happening in blogland again without having to wait til night all the time. I'm keeping it to myself so don't tell anyone.

Here are some updated pics of the burp cloths I made --- the mini-monster embroidery went the way of the fishes.





I don't know what is wrong with my embroidery module. It keeps birdnesting. And even I shouldn't be such a bad threader that I never get it right. It starts off great and after it's half way or further through a color that's when it starts with the thread balling up underneath. I'm taking it back to the Bernina place this afternoon so they can take a look and see what's up. Hopefully it will be bobbin tension or something easy to fix. Well, off to the trenches. Have a great Friday.

ACTION PACKED WEEKEND

Well, it's been a great weekend but I'm tired:) Jen, Matty and the girls came for the weekend. Everyone was invited but some had other things planned. We had a lot of fun. They arrived around 10:30 Friday night. The girls unwound a little and then it was off to bed for them and we followed shortly thereafter. I spent my waiting time sewing. I'll tell about that later. Saturday morning, the girls were up by 7 or a little after(not quite the 9:30-10 I'm used to). Vail helped me make biscuits and scrambled eggs. She did a great job using the mixer as you can see.

After breakfast we went to feed the ducks and turtles at Bearpen Park.  Of course I forgot my camera.  But I did get these photos

These were taken before breakfast.  Katy looks really sleeepy!  Vail wanted to take some pictures so here are a couple.  You can see what's happening from her perspective.

Sad to say that is the extent of the pictures.  But on with the story of our day.  After we fed the ducks, we went to Fireman's Park and the girls played on the swings and the slides.  They had lots of fun.  Then we came home and played in the backyard, ate lunch, took naps, watched AR get whooped by AL, played some more, fixed food for the potluck we had after church today, ate with G'ma at the Mexican restaurant, came home, went back outside, came in and took baths, went to bed.  None of us stayed up too late.  We had about 114 at church this morning which is 20-25 more than normal.  So, I guess quite a few families brought friends for friend's day:)  After lunch we came home and the kids packed up and left. All of a sudden it was very quiet.   I straightened up and then did some more sewing.

And that brings me to the sewing part of my blog  entry -- I visited the local consignment shop one day last week and talked with the owner.  She is going to let me put some "stuff" in her shop to sell and won't be charging me anything at least to start with.  I have some laundry bags, burp cloths, flannel receiving blankets  and one fancier blanket that has a satin binding and some embroidery on it. I also have three little knit nightgowns and matching blankets to go with them -- made out of a really soft knit.  I forget what it's called Something island I think but it is soooo soft.   I decided to try to use up the diapers that I have to add to the burp cloths so I'm doing a Christmas one and two Halloween ones and will see how they sell.  Octoberfest is in a couple of weeks so I'm aiming to have everything priced and in her shop by then for sure.  I'm kind of excited -- guess I'll find out  if my stuff will sell.  If it sells here, I don't think I'll have a problem selling when I move up around Nashville because there will be a bigger market.  But we shall see.  Here are some pictures of what I worked on this weekend.  They aren't finished yet.  I've got some yellow and orange striped material (thin stripes) that I'll be adding across the bottom and top to the Boo cloth.

I've got some cute white background with little pink, red, and lavender hearts that will go on the Kisses cloth.

This Minimonster will undergo the biggest change.  Hopefully it will turn out as I visualize and I'll take a picture and post it.

This knit blanket came in a set of 3 or four that I got on sale at Old Navy about a year or more ago.  I made an applique initial with brown minkee and hot pink thread and just pinned it on.  I plan to include an initial with that so I'm not permanently attaching it.  I have one more blanket that is khaki color and I'll do the same with it.

I found this --it came with my sewing machine.  I really liked it.  Jennifer voted to leave off the words -- Hip Hippo Hurrah!  So I did. It is going to have a material border added at the top and bottoom too.  I might add Merry Christmas Baby!  to this on one of the borders.  We'll see.  Anyway, I totally messed up two diapers --actually my sewing machine did.  I don't know what the problem was.  If it was the needle or because I used diapers that are really thick in the middle section.  I was ready to tear my hair out yesterday --I sewed and cooked while the girls were sleeping.  I cleaned the machine really well and it did fine today but I didn't use any of those diapers.  I'm going to try to call the bernina shop tomorrow and see if they can advise me.   I'll take some group pics of everything when I get everything priced and put together.

That's it for now.  Hope everyone has a good week.

HP ROCKS

Sometimes I get so aggravated at Microsoft for even inventing VISTA. Though there are lots of things I like about it, it is so frustrating to find out that every peripheral and every piece of software that works with XP does not work with VISTA. I've had to upgrade just about every program I had with XP including my embroidery software. I also found out my all in one would no longer scan documents as documents -- only pictures. Well, I finally found a replacement at a reasonable price and after getting it home and setting it up I scanned a page and clicked add pages. Got an error message. Same error I was getting with my old reliable scanjet I used to use. I finally gave up trying to get it to work right and so after calling Dell and not getting any help, I called HP. I spent over an hour on the phone with this guy -- mainly because he had me downloading a newer version of the software that runs the scanner. It took forever to download because it was 150+ MBs. We had an interesting conversation as we uninstalled the old printer software while waiting for the new to download. Then he had me install the new version and -- works like a charm. No more error message. WooHoo!! I finished scanning the 150 page notebook I was doing for my boss. It scans fast and lets me save as a PDF file. Exactly what I wanted. No having to change something. Anyway, that's why HP rocks. Microsoft - not so much.

MISTREATMENT COMPLETION

I finished my foyer makeover and I really like the results. It looks fresher and lighter and -- there's no grapes falling on my head :) In case you didn't see them this is what it looked like before.

You can see the paint is dreary looking and the dark woodwork is just plain dark -- and the only stained woodwork in the house. Even the paneling has been painted -- before I bought the place.

These pictures I took during the process. First removing the border. I used warm soapy water and it worked quite well.


In fact, it worked so well that some of that old bordeaux came right off with it. I figured someone didn't prep the paneling too well so after cleaning the wall and before priming, I used some liquid sander on those bare paneling spots and the other wood trim and doors as well.

Here are the other during pictures of the taping and priming process.

















And here is the final product. I think it looks much lighter and fresher. Now I just need to get the other trim in the dining room done between now and Thanksgiving and finish some quilts and teach school and visit my kids and .....

THEFT ALERT

This is a must read for all women over 40 - won't hurt you young folks to read it either. I checked snopes and this is true!

http://darlenesdays-darlene.blogspot.com/2008/09/theft-warning.html

(Thank you Darlene for this article)

Have a great Saturday.

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION SUNDAY EVENING

Here's what I chose to do instead of watching reruns on tv tonight. To borrow and perhaps misuse a term I've seen on several blogs I enjoy perusing, I've started a "mistreatment" of my itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polkadot foyer.


I took a before picture, two as I worked and one when I was finished. Apparently at one time this small area was that dark red color with the border at the top. I guess they eventually got tired of using a flashlight to find the lightswitch all the time and painted the wall that off white color. There is only one window in this whole room and it's under a porch facing north. That tells you how much light the room doesn't get. The rest of the room was the off white color with the same color woodwork -- until you reach the kitchen and then the walls were a pinky beige and the cabinet and trim white. I've already painted the walls in the kitchen a kahki color and the dining room one shade lighter. This area will be the one shade lighter and then this trim and the doors along with the trim and doors in the dining room will all be painted white. I was hoping to let someone else do the job but yesterday I got an estimate -- 300 dollars and that didn't include taking down the border or the paint. Seemed like a lot to me so I've decided to revert back to plan A and do it myself. Anyway. I guess these pictures mean I've officially started the final stage of this project. You can see that some of the red latex paint peeled off. I'm planning on cleaning the walls to get the glue residue totally removed and then use some liquid sander on the stained trim, doors and the paneling that shows. Then I'll prime those parts and then paint the walls. After that I'll tackle the trim, the one window and other doors in the dining room. If anyone has any suggestions for easy ways to do trim, I'm all ears.

School tomorrow so I'm off to bed and it's not ten thirty yet.