Chasing away the "winter blues"!!!

To help chase the "winter blues away", my blogging friend Pat (you'll find her here ) suggested we add some variety to our posts by going back 5 years in our files, click on the 5th photo and post it on our blog. I don't have digital photos that go back that far so I decided I would dig into some really old photos.
This one is a favorite family photo that only "surfaced" a few years ago when my cousin, Charlotte, brought it to a family reunion. I love the photo as it is so "us, our family" in the 1950's.

In the last years of my dad's life he talked often of how nothing made him more pleased "than to walk down the street with ma and you girls in new dresses that she had made." I love this picture as it is so full of memories. :-)
I decided to make the photo into a new blog header that I will use more permanently. I began my blog "A Legacy of Stitches" shortly after my dad passed away in April of 2008 and this photo just seemed to gather all the good thoughts into one photo that makes me smile every time I see it. I am so glad that Charlotte brought it to our reunion!
Busy day coming and busy weekend ahead. I'm going to a retreat but won't even be leaving the house. :-) More to share later..........
Sandi

Oops! I need to make a little correction.....I got the date wrong on the photo above. The year is 1957, not 1956. I corrected it in my header. :-)

Enjoying the weekend!

I hope you are enjoying this weekend. Here in Minnesota the day was especially fine......rain came last night and so the grass and the flowers received a much needed watering. And the weather was warm and sunny by early afternoon.
Our grandson Jacob is here visiting and we made the most of the day. We decorated the front porch! My mother had these bears and last year she gave them to me. The fabrics in their clothing are patriotic prints and I thought that one day, I'd set them on the front porch just for fun. So, Jacob helped me put their heads on - they are just wire armatures with foam padding - and he chose where to put the flags. I am sure these bears are getting ready to walk off to the Memorial Day parade on Monday morning. :-)

Then Jacob helped me hang this wreath. It's one that good friends sent for my dad's funeral last spring and my mother was going to keep it, then changed her mind and gave it to me. First we hung it on the front of the porch railing and it wasn't working for Jacob or me. He's only ten but he has a "good eye" for color and balance! Jacob thought it needed a flag so we added a little one and then I moved it next to the front door and it looked just right!

I call this my "healing chair". It was my birthday present from my husband in 2004. All I asked for was a simple chair and little table for the deck at our previous home. I thought he had forgotten my birthday until I looked out on the deck and saw the chair sitting there. I still don't know how he got it there without me seeing him. Anyway, it's just a simple chair and it's a great place to relax and read or stitch when the weather is nice. So, I cleaned the chair and Jacob cleaned the table and we added another flag. :-)

You might think some of these things would blow away after all the wind that I've described lately but I do a couple of things.......I use large safety pins combined with chenille stems to secure items in place and so far it works. Well, almost, as somewhere in the woods there is a good-size styrofoam pumpkin that blew off the porch last fall and I haven't seen it since!!

After all that work it was time for lunch and then some computer game time. Then we went downstairs and Jacob helped me put all the Christmas boxes in my freshly painted closet in the basement. I have never had a closet just for Christmas stuff but there was a spot under the steps that was perfect. When we were done, it was time for an ice cream treat so we headed down to Toody's. I'll share photos of that little jaunt later.

We ended the day by roasting brats and hotdogs over the fire and also a whole lot of marshmallows!! It was a good day. Hope your day was, too. :-)

Sandi

Oops!

When I do a blogpost, I load all the photos and then add the text. As some of you know, it is very easy to accidently delete a photo. I did just that when I did my Happy Joe's post. I deleted this photo of my daughter Collette and her husband, Daryl. Collette is smiling because she had doilies to show me. Last weekend when I had my quilt gathering, she got inspired by some of the gals who were knitting and crocheting. She found a book at the Library with over 300 crocheted block patterns and she said she can't stop making blocks. They are just "practice blocks" but I think they are really cool. I especially think that since I cannot crochet!!

I also thought I'd show you half my sewing room. Devlin took a picture of it when we were working on his project Friday night and I'm like ..."oh, no, you can't take a picture of this mess". He thought it was just fine and the friend that he's doing this project for thought it looked like "Santa's workshop"........so, that's almost what this is............. it's "Sandi's workshop". :-) As you can see there are piles of projects everywhere. I clean it up and then I mess it up all over again. There's another half to the room to the left as this is the "Bonus room" over the garage. My grandson Jacob, loves the room. He says it's cozy. I agree. It is such a treat after the small basement room with no window that I had in our previous house.

I have good news on the Emma quilt. I had been waiting on just one package that had been mailed from Julia in England over two weeks ago. It was sent Airmail and when it didn't arrive by Friday, I feared it was lost in the mail. I gave up hope and so when I went to the mailbox today and there was a package with a Royal Mail post on it, I knew exactly what it was. And inside were two perfect blocks that fill the last two spots on the quilt layouts. How perfect is that? I had no idea whether the blocks Julia was sending were the 6 1/2" ones or the 12 1/2" ones so I was thrilled that these blocks were just what I needed!!

She also tucked in a lovely card and note and two of her handmade soaps for me. Oh, how lovely they smell. What a treat! I came to know Julia when she was my swap partner in a recent mug swap. I loved overfilling that mug with things for her because in reading her blog, I knew I had some vintage things that she would love and I picked up a few things for her, too. I have worried about getting it right on some swaps because I couldn't get a good enough "picture" of my partner from their blog. Not so with Julia. Her blog is MarmaladeKiss so take a peek and see all the creative things she does and beautiful photos, too!

I am heading to Iowa tomorrow and leaving the dog and hubby at home. More on that later on tonight as I have a little surprise to leave you while I am gone............

Sandi

A visit to Happy Joe's!

The past few days were really, really busy! Our son, Devlin and girlfriend, Stacia, came out for a visit and arrived Friday night. Devlin had a project he wanted help with and needed his "crafty momma" to help him. We got started on it that night and made our prototype. We were very pleased but I can't show you what we did until sometime in June and then I will post it as a tutorial. :-)
Stacia had the idea to go to Happy Joe's for lunch on Saturday and we would meet up with Collette (daughter), Daryl and Jacob. Great idea because it is really hard for all of us to get together now. Plus, I love pizza and especially a place where there is a pizza buffet!!! After our lunch, Jacob went in to play Skeet ball (or something like that) and then Grandpa gave him a lesson on how to get the ball in the holes for more points.










Jacob paid careful attention and you can see he's got just the hook needed to get that ball in there...........and yes, it was working! He got more points!!











Devlin and Stacia were playing some kind of pinball game and earning tickets that they gave to Jacob. I was new to this system but some of you probably know that you get tickets that you can redeem for prizes. Jacob is watching carefully as Stacia feeds the tickets into the ticket-eating machine. Jacob didn't spend his tickets that day but instead got a card that indicated how many were turned in and he can add more to it next time he visits. We all had a fun time and enjoyed the food and just getting caught up with each other!!!

We made a quick stop for some supplies for Devlin's project and Stacia picked up supplies for a class project she is working on. She is working on her Ph. D. at the Univ. of Minnesota and yes, the paper and chenille stems and colored foam pieces are all part of the project. I can't tell you what it is until after she takes it to her class.

This is Devlin working on the project we did together. Stacia is watching carefully as he drew up the final pattern template. We only had to tweek the prototype item just a bit. He has need for 15 of the items and he got them all cut out and I got started on my part which involved fabric and Heat 'n Bond lite fusible web. That's all I can tell you now as this has to be a surprise for the recipients and they will not get the items until early June.

One other thing kept me busy these past few days..........it was Kaiser. I'm not going to go into all the details but about three weeks ago he picked up some little bottle cap thing and started chewing on it and I couldn't get his mouth open to take it out. He kept chewing on it and eventually swallowed it. I told Steve what he did and he's eaten so many things that this was small in comparison. We forgot all about it. He started acting funny Thursday night, constantly wanting to go outside and eat grass which makes him throw up. And lo and behold, up came the bottle cap the next morning. He was acting pretty sick so we called the vet and he checked him out and gave him some Pepto Bismal and found no ill effects from the experience. He told Kaiser he probably should not eat "foreign objects"!! Kaiser was very subdued all weekend and slept most of the time. He was his old self by late this afternoon with nose in search of something to sniff or chew on!!

My last post was about CSN Rugs and their promotional offer. I think I have decided on the rug I'll choose. I'll e-mail the rep and will let you know after it's approved.

One last thing, my post the other day about frustration with blocks was because I simply do not do well when blocks involve triangles. And I seem to have an awful time with keeping my seams 1/4". I should probably buy a quarter inch foot for my sewing machine and I wouldn't have that problem anymore!!

That's all for now. We received much needed rain here and everything is turning green, green, green!!

Sandi