Marvelous Monday Update 6/27/2011

WEATHER
Rain, hot temps, and humidity makes a great stew for stormy weather. Let's not forget the fires, tsunamis, tornadoes, and drought in other areas. I'd say Mother Nature is PMS'ing... but it seems more like Menopause to me. Hard to believe it's the end of June already. It was *just* the beginning of June. *sigh* It's officially summer... and what weird summer weather we're having. The weather this past weekend was really nice, though. Upper 70's/Lower 80's and no humidity. I could live with that kind of weather all year long!

SCHOOL
The instructor wasn't kidding when he informed us the midterm exam would be harder than the quizzes, or that we'd be utilizing the full 2.5 hour time allotment to take the exam! My heart sank as I took the exam -- I mean, seriously? I read all the chapters, studied all the power point presentations (twice!), and read all the "extra" (i.e. not required, but recommended) reading materials. And I still feel I didn't do so well. It sucks! Bummer!


DIY
In my last post, I hinted at a new project I started. My inspiration came from the awesome craft room Taffy's son built for her. No, I didn't build a new craft room. I did build a quilt hanger, though!

1 + 1 + 1
equals.....

And here's a close up:

I am really happy with how it turned out!
I couldn't have done it without my newest "toy". (OK, I could have but it wouldn't have been as easy.) It's not really all that new... I bought it back in December, but haven't used it until now.


It's a clamping work table that folds flat for easy storage. Pretty handy, eh?


FAMOUS LAST WORDS
Over a month ago, the BF noticed the knob for the light on the range hood twisted around "too far". He was afraid concerned that it might catch fire. I've been looking at new hoods, but wasn't quite ready to buy yet because the one I really liked was going to cost around $200.

"I just want to look behind here... oh yeah, the ground is broken... crap, I can't get the knob back on." Those are the last words I heard before having to make a trip to Menards to buy a new range hood/exhaust.

Oh, he tried to get the switch box out of the exhaust hood to fix it, but the thing just would not cooperate. I wish I could say this "incident" was unexpected, but it was. I had a feeling the hood was on borrowed time -- the thing was probably installed during the 1960's or 70's! See what I mean....


And so, I went from this:

To this:
The best part? It is the one I wanted
and it was ON SALE!!
The BF was kind enough to install it... and it only cost me 1/2 gallon of ice cream, LOL. Actually, he said he'd do it for free but I know how much he likes the IC!


STITCHY STUFF
I've been a lucky girl recently. I received two fantastic stitchy packages in the mail! The first one was from Christine. She RAK'd me with the August issue of Cross Stitch Gold, a Qsnap Huggie, and the neatest undersea life card.


As my fans, faithful readers, and curious bystanders may recall, I recently participated in a HOE snowman-themed exchange. Melissa from My Life in Stitches sent me the c-u-t-e-s-t snowman ornament.


As you can see... In keeping with the theme, she sent me a snowman notecard. She says the snowman ornie she made for me is a portion of the Winter Wonderland chart by Country Cottage Needleworks. I LOVE that chart!

I am still plugging away at the mailart piece. I'm almost done with the front motif. I am really liking how it's turning out. It's going to be another project that I'm going want to keep.

I signed up for another ornament round on HOE. This one is Lizzie Kate themed. It's not due to mailed out until August, but I wanted to get a head start. Sorry, no pics on this one either.

Blossom Splendor received a bit of attention as well. I've started the left side of the parasol. A little progress is better than none, right?

Other WIP pics can be seen HERE.

Until next time,

Marvelous Monday Update 6/20/11

I hope everyone honored the Dad's in their life yesterday. I went to see my Dad and take him a little gift. I got him a gift card to Menards and this...


Much to my surprise, he liked the book and duct tape more than the GC. He told my Mom to leave his duct tape alone. My Mom sheepishly smiled and admitted she "stole" his duct tape for something and then hid the roll of tape! lol


IN THE NEWS
My city had quite the commotion going on last week, starting at 6am Monday morning. A building built in the 1800's collapsed out onto one of the main throughfares. It was also located right across from the courthouse.


The streets surrounding that block were closed off all last week. The fire dept said there was danger of the north wall collapsing from the adjacent building (the building on the left side). If you look at the top of the photos, you can see where the wall was separating from the building.

Luckily no one was in the building and no one got hurt. There were people coming to downtown just to "site see", lol.


SCHOOL
Hard to believe it's midterm week already! So far grades are only in through Week 2... I'm holding onto 97%. I'm happy with that. :) The instructor did say that the midterm and final were going to be harder than the quizzes. Geesh, I thought the quizzes were challenging.


GARDENING
The plants and flowers are love-love-loving the rain and temps. The cucumbers, watermelon, and sunflowers are now about 4" above the ground. The herbs and spinach haven't come up yet so I'm thinking maybe the rain washed the seeds away? They were pretty tiny.

Here's a few more pics of my pretties:

Sun Drops
Hens & Chicks
Double-Knockout Roses
Coral Bells
Sedum

With these, you just stick the leaves in dirt and they'll grow. The wind blows them all over my yard. I even pick them out of the cracks in my driveway!


A VISITOR
If you haven't noticed, I love wildlife and nature. I looked out the back window of my four-season room and look who came to visit! I watched him hop all over the yard eating bugs before hopping up on my swing and then fly away.

Sorry the photos are hazy. I took them through the screened window.


STITCHY STUFF
Last week, I focused on the mailart piece. I've got one of the motifs done on the front... can't show pics, though. (I know, I know... you're sick tired of hearing that)

I was invited to join another mailart group, and in looking at their albums I've gotten a few ideas on how I want to finish my latest mailart piece. I am so excited to see how it turns out!

For anyone interested in some history of mailart, go HERE.

I did a tiny bit of stitching on Blossom (couldn't resist it). Here's what she looks like after a couple hours of stitching.


DIY
I started a new "project" over the weekend. I should have it finished by the end of this week. Are you curious? Do inquiring minds want to know? Want to see a preview? Of course you do!



Until next time,

Tuesday Tidbits 6/14/11

WEATHER
The beginning of last week was unbearably HOT and HUMID. My car thermometer said:


A few days later...


The past couple days the temps have been in the lower 70's with no humidity. My kind of weather!


BIKING
Finally, the weather has been *just right* for a bike ride. I mean the pedal kind, not the motorized kind. lol

I feel lucky that I have a beautiful bike trail nearby. It's surrounded by trees, creeks, pasture, and fields. You can't go far without seeing the local wildlife: chimpmunks, squirrels, cardinals, red-wing blackbirds, and more. For the first time since I've been riding the trail, I saw a mama deer and her fawn. It was very cool! The Jane Addams Trail is rich with history, too.

On Saturday, I rode 17.5 miles. What a stupid crazy thing to do my first time out this season! My legs felt like jello by the time I got back to the parking area. As the evening wore on, my legs thighs ached more and more. Around 8:30pm, I had to take three ibuprofen. I took three more when I went to bed. In addition to the aching, my legs felt like they weighed 50lbs each. I was still recovering yesterday when I went to work. I was glad I have a job where I sit! Today, I'd say I'm 98% recovered.


HOMESTEAD CHRONICLES
When I blogged about my shelf project a couple weeks ago, there were a few people who asked what was going on them and/or *expected* to see stuff on them, lol. For inquiring minds, behold...

These are things I gathered up from various other places in the house. Places where it didn't make sense to store them. You can't see it, but my iron is next to the spray starch and wrinkle releaser.


GARDENING
I'm happy to report that the seeds I planted are starting to come up! Yay. In addition to the veggies I planted, I also planted the sunflower seeds Betty in NV sent me in the mailart exchange. Those, plus the watermelon and cucumbers are up.

Here are more photos of the flowers I have planted at The Homestead:

These are Double Knockout Roses. They bloom all summer long. They are doing very well this year!

A couple years ago, I was driving down a country road one day and another homestead had some roots in a plastic bag with a "Free" sign on them. I took them home not knowing what they were. These are sundrops, I think. They open up when the sun is out and close up at night. Toward the back of the photo are Coneflowers, which aren't blooming yet. Both perrenials are spreaders.


STITCHY STUFF
Thanks to a couple of my blog readers, I've found out the kitty I rescued last week is part of a series called "Cats, Baskets, and Quilts". Originally, it was a series in a stitchy magazine. Now, it's sold as a kit.


Edgar from Blacksheep's Bit of the Web received the HOE snowman-themed ornament I stitched for him. I had a hard time sending it off cuz it's so darn cute!

Design: January Stamp Flip-It
Designer: Lizzie Kate
Fabric: 32ct Silkweaver Solo Evenweave (Turquoise)
Fibers: GAST and DMC
Embellishments: Tiny Snowflakes
and Runched Ribbon
OK, I lied last week when I said I was going to put Blossom on the back burner while I stitched on the mailart. She now has a hand!




I stitched on the mailart, too. No pics, though cuz it's surprise! Whoever sent the frogs my way... Thanks. Thanks a lot! I stitched an entire leaf in three colors and ended up frogging it all. Good news is... I've restitched the entire thing and then some.


Until next time,

To Comment or Not To Comment

Will blogger let you? THAT is the question.


This is a known issue with blogger, and "probably" the development team is working on it. I found the following information to aid us blogheads in leaving comments.

1. Before attempting to log in, uncheck the "Remember Me" checkbox.

2. Make sure you're running the latest version of your browser. If not, upgrade it.

3. Make sure you have cleared both your COOKIES and CACHE. Directions to do this can be found here: Cookies - Clearing cache and cookies. Once you have done this, shut down the browser. Open it again, and check that the cookies and cache are indeed empty. This is important because the problem seems to be corrupt cookies and cache files. (I think Evalina may have done this and it worked for her.)

4. If the cookies and cache are empty, go to www.blogger.com. Press CTRL+F5 before trying to login.

5. If that doesn't work, try logging into Gmail first, then go to www.blogger.com and try again.

6. If that STILL doesn't work (Is anyone finding this rid-ic-u-lous?!?), try going to http://www2.blogger.com/home.

7. If that doesn't work, try going to draft.blogger.com.

8. If you use IE8 or IE9, try pressing the compatibility button (at the end of the address bar) when you're on the blog page.

9. If all of the above fail, try installing another browser (ie. Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc) to see if that works. I've heard through the grapevine this has worked for some. For me, this won't work as I use several computers in different locations. I surely am NOT going to install a new browser on each one.

10. You may also want to change your Comments setting from Embed Comments to Pop-Up or Full-Screen until the issue is fixed. To do this go to: Settings --> Comments --> Comment Form Placement --> Select Pop-Up Window (or Full Screen) --> Save Settings. This worked for Niina.

11. I've found that I can leave "anonymous" comments on blogs even if I can't sign in and leave them the normal way. This only works if the blog owner allows anonymous comments. Just be sure to sign your name in the comment box, lol.

Marvelous Monday Update 6/6/11

HEALTH
When I was in the throws of the shelving project, I noticed a rash on the inside of my forearm. At the time, I thought maybe I had gotten into something while digging for tools and stuff for the building project... or had a reaction to the saw dust. Me with my sensitive skin, and all. Then it spread to my other arm. Then areas on my hip developed the rash. Itched and burned like crazy. I wanted to dig and dig some more gouge out the areas with my nails so bad! It would wake me up in the middle of the night, too. Apparently, I have hives... again. :( I had them last year on my stomach and neck. So, I'm back to taking benedryl at night, and putting hydrocortizone cream during the day along with taking an antihistimine such as claritin.


SCHOOL
The first week of school has kept me on my toes! I had to read 3 chapters, an article, write an essay, write a post and participate in the online discussion, AND take a quiz. I was thrilled to learn, that after taking the quiz, it automatically gets graded and you learn the score right away. How cool is that?! There were a few questions I guessed at -- deductive reasoning, ya know? With that said, I got 100% on my first quiz. Talk about a happy camper!


GARDENING
My hostas and columbine sure have enjoyed the weather we've been having lately. The hostas are huge!


The weather turned HOT and HUMID over the weekend. At least it wasn't raining. I took advantage of my down time (i.e. not doing school work) and got the rest of my garden in. I also was able to get my planters done.


TREASURE HUNTING
I've been remiss on sharing my latest adventures in treasure hunting! I've found some cool-to-me things lately.

First up is this grapevine sugar bowl handcrafted in...

Germany!

I was amazed at the price -- only 29cents!

Next up is another addition to my porcelain doll collection.

Only $1.99! Not sure why she was priced so inexpensively since others were priced from $5.99-$9.99, but I wasn't about to argue. She has a great expression on her face, and a little tuelle underskirt.

I found a tote bag in great condition for the low, low price of $1.99! I figure I can use it to tote around my stitching. Or -- When I go siteseeing, I can put all my "stuff" in there, including my ginormous camera.

It's big enough that I can use it for my school stuff, if I decide to go to the library to study. It even has pockets inside to hold all the little do-dads we think we need, lol.

It's a sad thing when I see stitched projects end up in 2nd hand stores. Don't people realize how much work goes into these things? This little kitty had a price tag of 29cents...

I just *had* to rescue him!


STITCHY STUFF
I worked quite a bit on Blossom last week. She finally has a face! Isn't she pretty?


I've agreed to do a private exchange with a bloggy buddy, so Blossom will be put on the back burner for a while. I've picked out the fabric for the exchange and worked out what design I'm going to use. That's all I'm sayin!


Until next time,