Marvelous Monday Update 9/2/2024

 I just came off of a four day weekend. Gotta love those!  For my U.S. readers, did you do anything special over Labor Day weekend?

PLANNER UPDATE

Back in May I mentioned I'm trying my hand at using a crafty planner to keep track of what I'm working on, (loosely) manage goals, and track my finishes.  This POST talks about how I'm going about doing this.

Well... I fell off the wagon... BUT, I got back on and am trucking along to get caught up.  I've filled a couple more Finishes pages.

I created a new section for when I visited Liberty Hill Needleworks in Williamsburg, VA back in July.  If you're ever in the area, you HAVE to visit.  It's a beautiful shop with lots of models and charts nicely displayed.  They have a website and a FB page.  

I also updated the month-at-view pages in my planner.  More on those another time.

WEATHER

My area had excessive heat warnings Monday and Tuesday of last week.  

Both days registered 106-107F heat index temps.  Actual temps were 99-101F.

It was HOT-HOT-HOT!  On the hottest days of the year, my 3-year old central air until became my nemesis. 

Despite the thermostat being set on 60F for over 24 hours, the temperature in the house didn't drop below 78F.

Thanks to a suggestion of a friend, I slept in the Casita with the AC on.  I actually got cold!

A heating and air company came to look at the unit and said the compressor is going bad.  They are checking into whether it's covered under warranty.

A cold front came through Wednesday and the skies were filled with huge clouds.

WATERCOLOR FUN

I had a four day weekend so I spent one day working on some Halloween postcards I created with watercolor.

 Aren't they cute?

 

Speaking of Halloween, there are some new neighbors up the street from me who are in the process of decorating for the holiday.

 

Mr. B. wasn't a fan when I took him for a walk by there.  With his "ferocious" growl, all 4 lbs. of him let them know to stay away. LOL

 

CASITA NEWS

Since I had four days off work in a row, I spent three of them working on more oxidation removal.  I am SO close to being done.

When I took the spare tire off to do the lower half of the back, there was a stain where the tire cover ground the dirt into the fiberglass.

Some elbow grease took most of it off.  With oxidation cleaner, polish, and wax the stain can hardly be seen.

My coworker said she drove by house and said that the Casita looks so shiny from the street.

The tire cover was quite grimy and needed sewing repairs.

 

I cleaned it up best I could and did the repairs.  

 

 

I decided not to get a new cover because when I get a new spare tire, the cover size will change.

The final project I did over the weekend was paint the bumper.  When I took the tire off, I saw there was some rust forming on the bumper beneath the tire.

I covered and taped off the backside. Can't take a chance of over spray landing on the white fiberglass!

 

 

A bit of wire brushing to get the loose rust off before Mr. Rustoleum and I went to town.

Looks much better, doesn't it?

GARDENING

I received a box of flowery goodness in the mail.  After cleaning out part of the bed where the sedum have taken over, I planted 6 different colors of irises my FB friend in VA sent me.  I'm looking forward to seeing them bloom next year.

Wow, this is a long post.  If you're still with me this far, I'd like to end off with sharing the last page in my gratitude journal.  I started writing it a year and a half ago and have made a conscious effort to write something positive every day.

Until Next Time,

Mother Nature Has Been Very Angry

I think someone took Mother Nature's PMS meds.  This has been one LONG winter.  Spring cannot come soon enough!

January 12:  Snowed most of the day. Roads were terrible.

January 19:  More snow.  Three hours of shoveling and snowblowing.  Even Tyra wasn't happy.









January 21:  Actual temperature -15F.  Windchill temp -20F  Brrr!

January 22:  25F warmer. Winter storm warning from 9am until 4am on January 23rd.  4-8" snow accumulation.

January 23:  Fog and -20 to -30F windchill temperatures.  We ended up with 5" of snow.  Two hours of shoveling and snowblowing before work and two hours after work.  The upside?  I racked up over 20K steps according to Fitbit.  Another 4-6" forecasted.

January 25: Actual temperature -18F with windchill temps of -20F to -35F.  28F below normal.  We had a windchill advisory/warning until Noon.  High temperature on this day:  2F.

January 26:  Actual temperature -9F.  Freakin' cold!!

January 28:  More snow.  My area received 6-8".  Took me three hours to clear my driveway before going to work.  The upside?  17F temperature. 

 After clearing the driveway and sidewalk, I came home to this thanks to the street department.  Grrrr!

There's a yard light in there somewhere!

In case you're not familiar with Illinois winter weather, here's some humor for you:

January 29:  Windchill temps of -26F.  The governor issued a State of Emergency.  Lots of businesses and of course schools closed.

January 30:  Windchill temperatures of -45F to -55F.  I stayed home from work.  I did not want to risk being at work and then not have my car start.  Instant brain freeze when I went outside.  I had everything covered except for my eyes and forehead.

January 31:  -35F actual temperature. These negative temperatures were getting SO old!

 

February 1:  Three more inches of snow overnight.  Actual temperature -1F.  I could only shovel snow for an hour at a time before having to go back in the house to warm up.  Two hours after getting to work, it snowed again.  Thankfully, the latest snowfalls have been light and fluffy.

February 5:  Freezing rain and sleet.  Another winter advisory until Feb 6th.  6/10th of an inch of ice.

February 6:  "Walk Like A Penguin" day!  I put down over 100lbs of salt in an attempt to get rid of the ice.  I wore my strap-on spikes.  They are worth their weight in gold to be able to walk over ice.  More freezing rain overnight!

February 7:  Power went out at work due to ice.  My backyard looked like an ice rink.  Another 100lbs of salt used up trying to keep the ice at bay on my driveway.

 

 

February 8:  40mph howling winds overnight.  Windchill temps of -30F.

Incidentally, one year ago today I cleared 9" of snow off my driveway.

February 10:  That ice rink I previously mentioned?  I fell and hurt my back and neck.  My clothesline was put up between the garage and tree in the backyard so that I can more safely walk across the ice when I take the dog out.

February 11:  Emergency visit to the chiropractor.  My neck and back hurt so bad.  It brought tears to my eyes when the doc adjusted my neck.

February 13:  More snow!  3-4" of the white fluffy stuff.  After I cleared the driveway, it sleeted, and then snowed some more.  Sigh.  I woke to 1/4" of ice topped with snow.  Had to chip away the ice in order to clear the driveway after getting off work.  Snowblower broke down.  Ugh.

February 15:  60F temperature change in the past 24 hours.  Valentine's Day brought a beautiful 40F weather.  Today it was -27F windchill temperatures.

February 17:  Two inches of snow cleared before work.  Three more inches when I got off work.

February 20:  We didn't get the snow forecasters called for which gave me time to scrape the rest of the ice off my driveway.  Once done, I created a message on my snow bank for passersby:

February 27:  More freezing rain!

March 4:  -25F windchill temperatures and gusty 25mph winds.

ONLY 16 DAYS 5 HOURS AND 4 MINUTES 
UNTIL SPRING!!

Until next time...

Marvelous Monday Update 7/2/2018

WEATHER

Whew, this past weekend was a scorcher!  Heat index temperatures were 110-115F.  The air conditioner in the house and vehicles could hardly keep up.  Thankfully, on Sunday a cold front came through and the temperatures dropped considerably.  At least for a few days...  Dog days of summer!

THEATRE
I almost had a fiasco on my hands.  Last month, I bought tickets to Of Mice and Men at a local community theatre for June 30th.  The local college was putting on Wizard of Oz so I bought tickets on June 22nd for the production on the 23rd... or, so I thought.

Arrived at the theatre on the 23rd all dressed up to find there were people in my seats.  There were 20 people in line at the box office and the lights were flickering to tell people to take their seats.  I figured part of the show would be missed if I had to wait until the line was cleared, so I went home.  On Monday, I called to see if I could exchange the tickets for the last showing of Oz on July 1st.  Instead of sitting front center, the only seats were in the last three rows a little off center.  Better than losing the cost of the tickets, I got those.  The production, like all the college's productions, was fantastic!  I'm always amazed at how talented the actors/actresses are and the special effects are always so good.

Of Mice and Men was also very good.  It's based on a novel by John Steinbeck.  I've never read the book or seen the 1993 movie.  The ending was compassionate and disturbing at the same time.  I was sitting third row center so I experienced the ending up close and personal!

STITCHY STUFF
Happy Dance!  I finished Ode to the Ort Basket.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Ode to the Ort Basket

Designer:  Brenda Gervais/With Thy Needle and Thread

Fabric:  40ct Vintage Pecan by Lakeside Linens

Fibers:  GAST, WDW, DMC, and Classic Colorworks threads

Basket is 2.75"W x 2.5"H x 1.5"D

Linked to: Stitching Lotus Smalls SAL

Soap box time!  The designs calls over-dyed threads so I bought them all.  I was very irritated that one color used only three stitches.  Since the design is stitched one thread over two, that means I used 1/2" of one strand of thread.  With the little amount of thread needed to stitch this project, the designer could've put in the small amount of threads needed and bumped the price up a couple dollars.  Okay, off my soapbox now.

Until next time...

Just Around The Corner...

... old man Winter awaits.  We received our first snowfall on November 11th.  It didn't last long and here in the Midwest, we've had a roller coaster of unseasonably warm weather, rainy weather, and today bitterly cold weather.  Yesterday, it was was 61 degrees with gusting southerly winds.  Today, it's 29 degrees with bitterly cold northerly winds.  Yep, Winter is a-coming!

First Snow of 2017 at The Homestead

I went to a retreat in October where I had two finishes.  One is an FFO (fully finished object) that I can show.  The other isn't finished yet, so no photos (sorry!).  The stitching fits beneath glass.  To finish the fabric, I had to learn the nun stitch.  It wasn't bad once I got the hang of it!  I really like how this turned out.

Design:  Full Moon

Designer:  The Drawn Thread

Fabric:  32ct Linen

Fibers:  DMC, GAST, WDW

The box above is one of the finishing alternatives shown with the chart.  It's by Cottage Garden.  If you are looking to use this box for finishing, SHOP AROUND!  I bought two of these on Amazon for $12 each.  The next day, the vendor increased the price to $20.  Some LNS sell the box for $28.  Prices on Amazon range from $15 to $20 and come in a variety of colors (black, white, brown).

I had another finish besides the two mentioned above.  I had a piece of pretty blue aida that I thought would work perfectly for this design.  Originally, I had intended to make an ornament but it turned out larger than I anticipated.  Hmmm... where have I heard that before?  That brings me to another thought:  Has anyone noticed that a lot of the ornaments in the JCS issues are way larger than one would expect for ornaments?  Anyway...

Design:  Outside My Window

Designer:  Diane Graebner of Lynn's Prints

Magazine:  JCS Ornament Issue 2005

Fabric:  14ct Baby Blue Aida*

Fibers:  DMC

Embellishments:  Handmade Cording, Pearl Rice Beads

Originally, I'd posted a fabric toss on Facebook asking for opinions whether I should use a red fabric or a blue one.  Overwhelmingly, the consensus was red!  However, one person suggested I use blue and put a red cording around the blue stitched fabric.  I took it a step further and chose the red of the birds and the silver gray of the stars to make coordinated cording.  It turned out so nice... I'm very pleased.

*I don't use much aida anymore although I have a boatload of it.  So every now and then, I pull a piece out and stitch something on it.  Stitching goes faster and it's easier on the eyes.  And, look!  I made a cute pillow... with aida!

Until Next Time...