Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Just A Little Batty

Me being a little batty is probably no surprise to those who know me,
but this time it has nothing to do with my crazy behavior.

It's a real bat!
He/she is hiding in a corner by my front door.
Not a good thing, is it?

How can something so soft-looking be so creepy!

My hubby thought it would be funny if it flew off (or at me)
while I was hurrying to take a photo of it.
Not a funny thing at all!
Hopefully, it will be gone by the morning or I'm not sure what I'll do.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Maybe NOT SO Cherished Belongings

Researching my family history has been a love of mine since I was a young girl. I always want to know more about my ancestors, not just when they were born or died, so I'm constantly looking in books and on the internet to find information or things about my family. I found this little treasure a few years ago on Ebay that was written by my gr-gr-aunt Josephine Hancock Logan.

Though most of the poems are very dark and depressing in this book, I found one that has stuck with me and reminds me to do a little housekeeping of my "stuff" once in a while....which is what my hubby and I have been busy doing all month. We've been emptying a storage unit we filled to the brim when we moved and now that we've lived six months without it we realize that most of it must go.

We've had a few set backs and slowdowns (injured back and a nasty case of the flu) plus I HAD to sew of course, but it's emptied and now we're ready for a garage sales, donations boxes, and even some bits and pieces to the garbage can. Whew! So much work!

Anyway, I'm sharing the poem I keep tucked in the back of mind, though long and rather dated it is a wake-up call to what we think we must keep stored FOREVER.


CHERISHED BELONGINGS
by Josephine Hancock Logan, 1932

Taken from boxes that held belongings long-cherished
I fondled today some sweetly smelling webs,
Exquisite fashionings by deft fingers
That handling fairy threads
Wove pictures in mesh.
There were nestling fur coats--
Cuddly muffs--
Embroideried elegance in chiffon and spangled net;
Great hats plumed as knights were panoplied;
Dainty painted fans and feathered ones;
Hair ornaments, beaded bands,
Imposing combs, shaped for tresses not bobbed.
Tulle of all colors
For framing faces
That needed no framing for enhancing beauty.
All these treasures tissued and fragrant,
Meticulously kept for the young king to gaze upon spellbound--
These with some rare old furniture I thought to distribute--
Supposedly longing eagerly for their inheritance.

Alas! for my footless cherishing--
For, today, a newly-wed in my family
When offered a choice bedroom set--
That had held an honored place in our home--
Calmly, but firmly, said:
"So dear of you mother, but you and I have different ideas, you know, 
and though that set was marvelous for you and Dad you won't mind if we let you keep it."

It was a revelation--
At that instant I caught demarking line
'Twixt old and young,
The passing of an age with its furbishings
Recognizing the privilege of
The modern one desiring self-expression in its tastes and acquisitions--
And the significance I sensed that my boxes did not hold
Precious, enviable goods,
Just stuff that had outlived its appeal.
So I mounted a ladder--
Asking no aid--
And one by one
I pulled down the rest of the hoarded treasures--
My archaic trappings,
Tumbling them to the floor--
Then I called
The rummage number.

Thanks for stopping by to visit today and get a little dose of vintage poetic reading. 

Enjoy your day and maybe you can find some time to search through some 
of those "cherished belongings" you've been holding on to!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A Little Pressure Making Easter Eggs

I've gone a little nuts over my new Fagor pressure cooker and I'm constantly on the look out for
new recipes to cook things in it. Honestly, I wake up in the morning and think
"What can I cook in my pressure cooker?"
Really, I do!

I saw that Food Storage Moms made hard boiled eggs in her pressure cooker. Seriously?
I had to try it of course. No need to watch the eggs? That's my kind of cooking!

Add eggs and one cup water (a must to create the needed steam.)

Set the timer for 18 minutes on high and turn the knob to Pressure.

Release the pressure and...you have hard boiled eggs! Dip them in some icy water to
stop the cooking and then lift them out with a slotted spoon.

Ahhh, but were they actually cooked inside my hubby asked.
Yep! The big plus was how easy it was to peel them.

A little Easter egg dye and now I have some pretty eggs just for us.
*Note to self. DO NOT use balsamic vinegar with the dye tablets just because that is the only vinegar you have. 
It makes orange eggs kind of brown. Luckily, the pink ones didn't require vinegar.

When telling my mother-in-law about my little egg cooking adventure, she said she thought it was just as easy to boil them on the stove. She is right, of course, just as it is easy to bake them in the oven. But, I HAD to try this and I didn't have to wait for water to boil. It was kind of fun to make these.

Sorry to those of you still covered in snow, but our weather is warm enough to start tomato plants...yay!

Don't forget about my giveaway
HERE

and the Superpower blog hop!

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Super Dooper Superpowers

Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt asked us
"What is your Superpower?"
Soooo....what is YOUR Superpower?

I had to think long and hard about what my superpower was because I don't really think of myself as being "super" at anything. Luckily, my family and Monkey Boys helped me out and came up with this idea:

I am Rescue Woman!
Thank you #1 Monkey Boy!
#1 Monkey Boy wanted me to let him know when this posted...here it is sweet boy!

I've been known to rescue animals on a few occasions and most of them end up staying for years.
I'm not sure, but I think a neon sign mysteriously appears on my house that says,
"Lost or Stray Pets Welcome Here!"

Roxy arrived at my door and when I called the owner to say I'd found her, she asked me if I wanted to keep her. I did, of course. She ate a lazy boy chair, broke out of a kennel, chewed up shoes and everything else, opened a bottle of Drano (and survived) and just about drove us over the edge with her craziness. But, she stayed with us for a long, long time and turned out to be the best ever dog!

I don't always keep the dogs I rescue. One time I ran through the streets of a nearby small town while chasing a runaway dog. My sister followed me in the car yelling at me to be careful and was prepared to pick me up if I fell down (she's been my partner in rescues several times.) I caught the dog after quite a few blocks and returned it to its owner with no long-lasting injuries to myself! 

I just learned a few weeks ago that my youngest daughter believed for years that we'd had a cat named "E.T."  According to her big brother we had it turned into a concrete cat when it died. This information was new to me, but apparently my son had her believing this story. Gotta love that older brother! This is the concrete cat, "E. T.", that we've had for about 30 years (and it was NEVER a real cat!) LOL!

Anyway...with Rescue Woman in mind I used 
Amy Bradley's Dogs & Cats pattern to create my Superpower project.
It was quite an undertaking and LOTS of sewing, but Amy's patterns are awesome!

We had more than just cats and dogs, so I had to get a little creative with my pet quilt. With the help of my kids who gave me the names of their snakes, bunnies, hedgehogs and hamsters, and the help of my #2 Monkey Boy showing me how to draw a bunny leg, I was able to create a pretty fun memory quilt of all our animals (minus the gazillion pet rats we had.) Only a few hamsters made the list because there was only so much room on my quilt.

How to draw a rabbit foot..thank you Monkey Boy #2!
Just a side note: He told me I needed to stay home to finish the quilt and not go with them on a hike.
He's pretty proud of his part in this project and wanted to make sure I finished it!

The front of the quilt has 11 dogs, 7 cats, a bunny, and an iguana all made using Dr. Seuss fabrics including the Lorax fabrics. Each name is hand embroidered on the collar of the animal using DMC thread who is the sponsor of this super, dooper blog hop.

A Lifetime of Animals

The back of the quilt has a hedgehog, snake, my superpower label, and a hamster

Amos, a Golden Retriever, showed up at our house with a tennis shoe in his mouth
and a chewed off rope around his neck. My husband told me not to feed him, but of course I did. 
No one ever claimed him so he stayed and was a wonderful addition to our home for years.

Hedgehogs are weird pets, but my son loved them. He also loved snakes.


Hamsters are not the smartest pets, but my kids loved them and we
had LOTS of them as they do tend to multiply!

Bella was an eviction dog and was obviously abused. She's definitely loved in our house!

Phoebe and her sister, Dog, were scrawny little things when we got them.
Phoebe died a couple weeks ago...sad loss for us.

Thanks to all of you who love and care for the critters in our world!

Look who else is hopping with their Superpowers:

TUESDAY APRIL 15

WEDNESDAY APRIL 16
THURSDAY APRIL 17

FRIDAY APRIL 18

MONDAY APRIL 21





Is It A Bird? A Plane? Or What?

It's....

almost time for...

Super Pauline at Quilt n Queen is the very powerful cheerleader for this hop...yay!
You can find the whole schedule over at Pauline's blog right HERE!

Monday, April 7, 2014

I've Been A Super Wife For 42 Years

Okay, so maybe I was not a super wife ALL the time, 
but being married for 42 years 
occasionally required some super powers to keep it all together.

Happy Anniversary to this guy and me!

More super powers are coming this week...watch for it!

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

I Saw A Flower! Really I Did!

I've been staying at my daughter's house this week and I'm having computer withdrawals because her internet is sketchy and is only up for short periods of time. She's promised me it will be fixed tonight...yay! It's up and running right this minute so I thought I'd better take advantage of it and show you the flower I saw in her backyard. It seems like it's been FOREVER since I've seen a flower, so hopefully this is a good sign that Spring is coming.

It's beautiful!

Only a few more days to see new flags waving in this blog hop:


Click HERE for the whole Flags on a Stick blog hop schedule.

Thanks to these sponsors for helping make this a fabulous blog hop:


I'm so glad you stopped by to visit!

Give It A Whirl Blog Hop Starts Today

It is time to whirl, twirl, and spin with the "Give It A Whirl" blog hop! What was the challenge? Somewhere in or on your project ...