Monday is Wash Day

That would be the only day I follow that old rhyme but I always do laundry on Monday. 

I will go to bed with clean sheets and lots of options for tomorrows clothing!

While the washer was chugging along and the dryer was tumbling along with it I wrapped packages.  I'd like to say I finished but that would be a lie!  I sometimes wonder if I will ever finish!  It's worth it for Christmas Day fun!

I must say staying in the studio right next to the laundry room got the wash done quite speedily!

Of course, I only ever have three loads of laundry to do!

Otherwise, I have been wiggling my refrigerator out for cleaning but that's a story for tomorrow!

See you then.

The Sunday Report!

My tea is almost gone!

Years ago my friend Ann sent me tea grown and processed in Australia.  

I loved it! 

When I was in Australia I bought LOTS of it to bring home.

 Some for me and some for my tea loving sons. 

 This is the last of the Nerada tea I brought home, sigh.

 Fortunately, I can (and have) order it from Amazon!  (Also, Violet Crumbles by the way.)  

When I drink it I think of all the lovely ladies I met "Down Under."

If you are a tea drinker and have never tried it, do so.  It's almost sweet enough to drink without sugar and does not have the bitter edge to it that Lipton has.

 I have always drunk Lipton.

 It was packaged in my home town-we could often smell the tea on the breeze!

After I wrote yesterday's epistle of a blog post I went down and did this

This one isn't under the tree!  It's so big and so heavy and wrapping paper is rather fragile so I left it against the wall where I wrapped it!  Someone strong will have to deal with the toting of it!

For the third year we are celebrating the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokflod.  (The Christmas Book Flood.) The gifting of books on Christmas Eve.  Some of us without other places to be will sit and read that night.  Anyway, I wrapped all the books last night as well!  Don't worry I still have many, many gifts to wrap!

Next up on my list for today is to write the Christmas letter. and prepare my computer "To Do" lists.  After dinner, which I think will be roasted Acorn squash--Not sure what I will have with it--I will once again retreat to the Studio to wrap gifts.  Maybe it will be the rest of the Grandchildren's gifts?  Anything that gets wrapped takes some of the mess out of the studio.  A few more wrapping sessions and I will be finished and can stitch until it's time to bake.

So, I'll see you tomorrow!

PS.  If anyone remembers that one of my sons lives in Nashville and heard about the tornados in Tennessee last night--They are just fine.  All the nasty storms went North of them so all they had was rain!

 

Another Catch up-Fall

I spent a LOT of time out of doors in October!

Everything got weeded.  Hostas got cut back, everything else got dead-headed/or cut back.

 All the flower pots were washed, the house as well (okay, it got hosed off!) Spider webs everywhere were defeated-although it seems that a few have returned.

I spent 5 days cleaning and organizing the garage,  that has managed to stay clean - I stand amazed!

All the outdoor furniture except the table and the frame for the swing got moved into that clean garage for the winter, the hoses where drained and put away and all of this years fallen branches burned.  

Then I went away to retreat and return to find this!

Leaves, leaves and more heaves!  4 maple trees-many, many leaves!

My method for dealing with them is to mow them into the middle and haul out wagonloads  to various garden beds for the winter.  Next summer they will get turned into the veggie garden.

That took two days - one for the front, one for the back- and then the wagon and mower were cleaned up, the mower gas run out etc and those where stored.

During all of this I have been receiving quite a lot of dental work.  Since I am very nervous about dental work I have to take Zanax before an appointment to keep my blood pressure down.  So on appointment days I come home and sleep.

After leaves, there was Thanksgiving.  I am always responsible for dessert:  Pumpkin pie and Apple Crisp especially.  Then we all drove to Scott's for dinner.  He loves this holiday and loves making all the food for it.  I sometimes miss it myself-then I stop and think about how tired one gets with all of that and decide it's fine that he likes it!  Normally, both our family (at least part of it) and Bri's family are both in attendance but this year part of Bri's family had Covid and the rest stayed home as they had been exposed!  So it was a nice quiet dinner, very enjoyable.

I try to have my outdoor lights up before Thanksgiving and plug them in for the first time on Thanksgiving, following the Kansas City tradition of lighting the Plaza lights that day.  This year I had quite the struggle with the lights, it took me three attempts over three days to get it done, then I couldn't find the timer so they were on 24 hours a day for a couple of days.

The Tree is up and the house is decorated, whew! 

I've ordered and received holiday cards-although I haven't addressed them yet.

All along I've been shopping for Christmas gifts but that is finished!  Now, I have to wrap! (Which is next up for today!)

Then there is a small amount of baking to be done.  

Truthfully, I LOVE all this stuff!

You will notice that there is no mention of stitching.  That's because there hasn't been any!

I've resolved to blog each day so I'll see you tomorrow!

 

Shipshewana--Part 3--Driving home

It had been fairly warm all week but the night before I left the temperature took a dive!  I loaded up  everything I could on Saturday night  but it was too cold for the sewing machines so they had to wait until Sunday morning.  Also due to the cold I decided to drive all the way home on Sunday and that I would go through Des Moines, Iowa instead of Saint Louis.  It's a bit closer and I could get dinner at one of my favorite places in Des Moines.    It had been a busy week, with lots of chatting and I was a bit tired but I had breakfast with a table full of ladies I didn't know and left a bit after 8am.  Lots of Amish out on the roads --off to services I expect.  Anyway, I got sleepy.  A latte helped but I needed to get out and walk--lo and behold there was a SIGN for Indiana Dunes National Park!  It took a bit of  driving around before I found the visitors center where they recommended the West Beach.  A bit more driving about and then a walk among the dunes and a short visit with Lake Michigan!  Dang it, it was cold and windy!

If you look VERY closely in the far distance you can see Chicago.

Soon I was refreshed and back on the road.  Left Indiana, then skirted the south edge of Chicago ( If I ever go back I'm going to chart a trip around that place!) Drove for what seemed like FOREVER in Illinois until I crossed the Mississippi and into Iowa.

It seemed like Des Moines arrived just after dark and after following GPS I was a bit lost;.  (Funny thing about GPS you have to put in the correct information before you get good results!)  Looked up Machine Shed Restaurant and quickly found my way there.  After a lovely dinner I headed on the last leg towards home.  It was full dark (winter) and I don't really need the GPS to guide me home but I like seeing the number of miles left going down!  That was great until I realized that in order to keep me on Interstate highways as long as possible I would be going considerably out of the way so I turned it off, got on to the highway that was a straight shot home.  With the exception of a stag deer standing on the side of the road and scaring me (thankfully, he decided to stand still!)  It was uneventful and I pulled into my driveway about 10pm.  Unloaded everything into the living room and got ready for bed.  I have trouble settling down after driving alone for so far so sleep came only after a nice whiskey and Midnight. 

Then I slept almost ALL day the next day.  

My last chore was to go pick up the dog!  Quinn loves it at my daughter's place but is always happy to come home.

So ends my Shipshewana adventure. 

What will I do next?

Shipshewana: Stitching, Shopping, and Eating!

The doors to our sewing room-there are three- didn't open until 10am on Tuesday so the four of us went "Window Shopping."  Chris said we couldn't buy anything so of course a couple of fabrics just REALLY wanted to come home with me!  I didn't buy anything that day.  Once we got in and the machines etc set up we headed out for dinner at the 5 & 20.  It's at the intersection of highways 5 and 20-I think its a clever name.  The food was good and the pie was really good.

Wednesday after breakfast we went shopping for real-we could buy things and I did!

Well, I bought the four pieces on the left that day-the precuts were once a jelly roll I just didn't get a picture of it all rolled up and I bought it on Friday.

After shopping we went back to stitching.  I was working on this

A little bargello Christmas tree.  It's not finished yet as I have add some beads for sparkle and that requires a trip to Joann's (oh darn !)  This was more labor intensive than I expected and created a lot of waste.

Wasted time, wasted effort, wasted fabric!

I'm going to try to figure out a way to use that wasted fabric!

I wanted to work on turtles and had brought my gummed up iron but I couldn't plug it into the surge protector as they caused the power to go out and hadn't brought a cover  for the ironing board so -o-o I worked on this cross stitch piece.

Until, I found I had at least one mistake and my eyes were too tired to go on.

Then I made hexies.

Friday, Chris and I went shopping but not for fabric.  She was buying gifts and some things for the new sunroom addition.  I bought a little chicken teapot!

We also met up with Hanne from the Chookshed Stitchers and Norway !

How cool is that?!

So what are the odds that quilters from Norway, Canada and the US will be together in one place at the same time!

We also met up with Gretchen whose work I've admired for quite a while now.

I had a blast!  I was a bit unsure about it -this was only my 2nd quilt retreat! It was great fun though.

The only thing is---I brought WAY to much stuff to work on!  I packed several small projects and a couple of bigger ones thinking I'd have most of 5 days for stitching.  I didn't think about the fact that there would be SHOPPING!

Shipshewana Retreat Part One--The drive up

 I started off Sunday morning, November 4, to meet up with Chris and two others for a Quilt retreat in Shipshewana, Indiana.  I stopped off at my youngest son's for lunch and to reimburse him for my new phone.  Then I headed even further east passing through the dreaded St Louis with it's confusing highways-I did not lose my way this time!  On the phone directions do help!  I spent that night in Collinsville, Illinois.  It seems even choosing my hotels by brand-Hilton, Marriot, and Holiday Inn-isn't perfect and I continue to be lousy at finding a good hotel even within the Marriot brand, sigh.  Being awakened at 5am by staff beginning prep for breakfast was only part of it.  After getting my debit card squared away, long story which I won't tell you. I went over to Cahokia State Park to see the mounds.  The park protects 2200 acres and 77 of the known 80 mounds.  I was only there for an hour or so but wished for more time (and that the Visitors Center wasn't undergoing renovation!)

The mounds once covered 7700 acres and had a large population in the area. No one knows why it was deserted or when.  If you are interested here are a couple of YouTube sites that cover 
Cahokia.  (Cahokia:Mississippian Mounds--this one is very good- and Cahokianmounds documentary or just search YouTube there were several others listed.)

Monks mound above

                                

 

The stairs to the top of Monks Mound.  It's a long way up!  

I did climb up to the top and the view was magnificent! That's St Louis in the distance.  Both the Arch (left of downtown)
 and the Stan Musial Bridge (right of downtown)  are visible

Woodhenge is a re-creation of a solar calendar much like Stonehenge in England.

It looks pretty unimpressive but interesting still.

After Woodhenge, being cold and nearly blown away, I headed east for the Second Day.

It's about 600 miles from my home to Shipshewana, north nearly to Michigan as well as east.  I fought with the GPS most of the day--It REALLY wanted me to go via Chicago, I REALLY did not want to do that!  Instead, I drove the outer edge of Indianapolis.  The drive was uneventful and I arrived in Shipshewana about 7pm for a tad of drama.  I had NO IDEA what hotel we were staying and my misguided thought that it was a small place (well, I was right about that) with only one hotel meant I had no idea where to go!  Finally, I found a place to park, dug out the paper work for the retreat (lucky that I printed it out.) and found the name so that I could check in to find Chris and company waiting for me!

It's past time to catch up!

I am currently considered a BAD blogger!  I'm trying to get back at it though.

Most of September was taken up with the massive cleaning of the house and yard.  Most of that is finished, just a few odds and ends mostly outside.

I haven't done much in the way of stitching except when the Chookshed Stitchers convene on ZOOM!  I do have the tiny center circle of Chasing Dreams sewn on.   The instructions said to machine stitch this less than 5" circle into the hole in the middle which just seemed like it was bound to be an exercise in frustration so I carefully appliqued it on.  

However, since there was a bleeding issue from one of the batiks in Chasing Dreams I have been doing this:

Washing all the batiks from Chasing Dreams AND the Turtles!  Every Single batik for Chasing Dreams turned the water a color!  Some took several hours of soaking to come clear (or a faint tint.)  The Batiks for the Turtles have not been as bad thank goodness-that may be because they are smaller pieces. Mind you I wash ALL fabric that comes into my house so all this batik had already been washed once!  Then yesterday I stopped off at Quilters Station and picked up some fat quarters for a project I'm taking on retreat and THAT needs washed before I can cut it. It's a slow process.

It has turned much cooler now, not cold but some days I've needed a jacket and I did finally turn on the heat but it doesn't run much.  I have enjoyed many hours reading on the swing outside and will be truly sorry when I have to take it in for the winter!

I have ordered a new phone and it is on it's way.  It's supposed to do good videos so I'll wait just a few more days until I have it and the sun is also shining before I video the house.

Talk much, Laugh a lot (and outloud), dance and Stitch on!