Saturday, June 28, 2014

A few things...

I am going to add some pages....but this is a random post.  These are glass jars with foil taped half way around them, on the outside.  They really do make the light (emergencies? Tornado warnings?) much brighter, like a lantern.  I keep finding my batteries die in my flashlights within a year.  Rats.  Tea candles are so much cheaper....



Shelby gets a bath with a new shower attachment.  Soooo much easier for Dear Daughter to bathe her.  Fun to use to clean the showers walls, too!  (That's a testimonial from a teenager.)



We had visitors last weekend, and this fine young friend of ours was pretty busy having fun.  Shelby enjoyed him, and here she sits in her perch, trying to figure out what those astonishing noises were.  (He was playing with some baby toys for his toddler nephew.)



 They really did like each other.  Will was pretty brave to let Shelby get in his face....which we don't encourage; but who can resist that great face and head of golden locks??  Not Shelby!!


Our laundry hanging....I am a real advocate of no dryer.  I love the money savings as well as how much it helps the clothes last longer.  I guess if I had my own dryer in a reg. sized home then I would enjoy it, too....but in a small apt. the dryers available are TINY and are not very cost effective.  We use every doorway to put up a springrod  showerrod!!


Lately, Shelby has taken to going to her crate and standing half in, half out.  Sometimes she does this when she has barked at a squirrel through the window.  I guess she figures she'll wait it out to see if she is scolded for barking.....
Though it is nonPC to send her to her crate when she is naughty, she has not adversely been effected by it.  She also goes in of her own will often, to take long naps.  What is funny is that she has a few "beds" and other places of luxury she could curl up in, but she often choses her crate, especially when her BFF (Dear Daughter) is away.
  If I"m on the phone and say, "okay, goodbye" she runs to her crate and gets in....she figures I'm leaving the apt. soon and she'll be sent there anyway.  What a goooooooooood doggie.


Lounging with her best forever friend.



 My mother, around a year old.  This photo is almost 90 years old.  That made my mom laugh when she   considered the implications....

ETA (Edited to Add)--Sept. 19, 2014
A few weeks ago my mom called and said she was thinking about this picture----that one of her friends commented on what lovely, dark hair she had----and she realized that she was a blonde as a baby....so she said this has to be a picture of her mother.  It makes sense, as it would seem the picture was taken around 1900.
So all along I thought it was my mom.  Regardless, the baby IS family and IS cute!


I have found a few old wooden hangers.  I cut them down to desired size and cut scrapping paper.  I Mod Podged the wood, then put on the paper, then let it dry.  I cut away excess, then sanded the edges to make it look blended in.  Then I mod podged again.  I like the look!







Monday, June 16, 2014

June 16, 2014

This grape doily is two years overdue, as a birthday gift.  I finished one then blocked it, which caused it to bleed.  Sad, sad, sad.  I started the second one and now it is in the hands of the (belated) birthday gal!!



 This is a watered-glued composition book.  Magazine pages are torn then glued onto the front and back with a brush.  After all is glued down and dried, then a layer of satin water-based polyurethane finishes the job.  Dear Daughter made a few for me for my 50th birthday, _____ years ago. :)



I cut down a wooden hanger with my trusty coping saw.  I then used the same formula for the crocheted potholders and made the top "cover."  I threaded/crocheted the clothespins on.  This is for my kitchen knitted scrubs....I like to dry them before I do the once-a-week kitchen laundry.


 Trying to get a new banner on the blog; the two computers I have available have some issues with blogspot.  Arggggh.  So I just keep dreamin.'


 Working on a kit I'm designing.  A 10-11 inch bear.  Happy so far....here are some of the steps, but not all!




Here are some wool mittens I've just finished for an OTF (old-time friend).  They are a Christmas gift.  She is visiting this weekend, I'm so excited!!!  Shhh, don't tell her about her gift! ha ha ha

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Crazy 'bout rocks

I found some crochet-covered rocks on Pinterest.  After finding a CHEAP resource for river rocks, the sky has been the limit.  The smallest rock is two inches long, and the larger under four inches.  I used a very fine steel hook and fine tatting thread.  No patterns as of yet-----will be working on that.  Sorta hate to repeat any, ya know what I mean?


When I was a young girl, it never occurred to me that watching kitchen towels hang on the line and dance would be one of the little pleasures in life.  (Okay, so there wasn't a line when I was young....my mom is a diehard dryer owner.)  We only have a washer because it just worked out well for us that way.  I don't iron clothes as our dresses are all blends or cottons that dry wrinkle-free.  We line-dry on shower springrods hanging over each doorframe.  Our clothes not only last longer, air drying is blissfully free!


Dear Daughter is crocheting some amigurumi dogs.  A serious knitter and crocheter since first grade, she does enjoy Andy Griffith episodes and a good crochet hook.  A gal after my own heart!
I took this picture to show the artwork over the loveseat.  We are reaping the benefits from the art-loaning department of the local library.  I get this picture for three months, can then phone in a renewal for three more....then can walk it in and return it, and turn around and check it out again.  Voila!  The boy is blowing bubbles.  I love the frame the most.