Feb1

One World, One Heart Blog event

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One world-one heart
Let’s start off February with a fun event thanks to Lisa/Oceandreamer’s 2nd time around hosting it! It’s for bloggers around the world with active blogs. It’s Lisa’s way to introduce us to each other and help to build new friendships. Below are my groupings of 3 giveaways! Yes, that’s right! I decided the more the merrier and I have fun making some of the goodies. I’ll be picking winners on the 13th and announce them on the 14th.
The grand prize:
Grand prize

Here is an Art trading card I made, a little book with blank pages that I decorated the front of, A little ‘cake’ with a few Dove chocolate hearts inside and a little box of Russell Stover chocolates!

Prize 2:

Prize two
A Valentine I made, Conversation hearts and very fragrant rose potpourri.

Prize 3:

Prize Three

Some pretty heart stickers, a bracelet that you can add a photo to and a box of Conversation hearts!

All you have to do is leave me a comment about your favorite Valentine’s Day treat-chocolate, dinner or anything yummy you enjoy on this day. Visit the other participates by clicking on the link under the event sign above.

Remember-winners will be announced on Valentine’s Day! Good luck!

Jan30

Sunny roses

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On Tuesday I mentioned how nice it would have been to receive flowers from Bri the day before as I had been to the eye doctor and was a little bummed. Last night I got these (my favorite color too!)

Yellow roses

And since I was on the floor next to this pile photographing the flowers, thought I’d share:

Garden Books

I better get busy going through these! I signed up for some garden catalogs and got all three yesterday. Honey Girl Studio used hers for Art Trading Cards and I may copy her idea, though there are a few things I want to make a note of.

Then for those of you who didn’t know, we have a mascot for the PA lottery-Gus the Groundhog. Some west coast friends sent for this calendar and never received it. So here he is:

January Gus

The wind woke me up today-it’s wicked. Soon Mr. Cosmo the kitty came in and snuggled next to me. He’s my alarm clock too. Unfortunately my sinuses feel like they are full of cement-heavy though very dry. A friend suggested a vaporizer. I use to have one for Sean who suffered until he was 10 with winter respiratory illnesses (knock wood). So I may have to locate the old one or buy a new one. My above friend uses a warm mist one every night and it helps her and she has gorgeous skin!

Jan30

Telly stuff

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I’m glad to see at least some of my old shows are coming back on like ‘Lost’ and ‘Survivor-fans vs faves’. Last night I flipped on TLC and watched ‘Jon and Kate plus 8’, the couple from the Hershey, PA area with a set of twins and sextuplets! Every time they show Kate in the video with her large watermelon size tummy, I cringe. Lucky for her she got a major tummy tuck-because of this show! A plastic surgeon’s wife saw her show her post belly and she wanted to help. I really like Kate a lot-she has a ton of personality and I like how she teases Jon and of course he teases her back. BUT, how cute are their 8 kids! Too cute!

The Gosselins at nearby Dutch Wonderland
The Gosselins at nearby Dutch Wonderland
I just read ‘their story’ and they are religious like the following family.

After that show, the Duggar family special came on. It highlighted the birth of child number 17! Oh my! They live in a huge fairly new home (it better be huge!) and they are debt free. Now how do they do that? I don’t think the oldest boy is going to college, though I’m not sure. But they are super religious, super musical (they play piano and violin!) and super organized. I was checking out the recipe page of their online site-not healthy eating there folks-i.e.-tater tot casserole! Their other specials were highlighted and their RV trip to California was cool except when all of them except 3 had to use a barf bag while flying over the Grand Canyon in a small plane. I guess they don’t believe in Dramamine.

Tonight I watched a tattoo show after I was on the computer. That’s it.

I did get to Trader Joe’s (a grocery store with more healthful and organic foods) and wasn’t as impressed as I am by the one in my hometown. Bri just told me the Acme down the road is closing-hello-empty space-for a Trader Joe’s! (or Whole Foods).

I’m laying low today (written actually yesterday) as it’s going to be cold and windy. I have enough to do around here. Too much tidying at mom’s so put me not in the mood to clean. I am wanting to stitch the freebie from a few years back for Groundhog’s Day since I love that Bill Murray movie and it’s a big deal around PA. Now where is the chart? It looks like this:

Groundhog day

Jan28

Don’t pressure me!

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I have to refer to my peepers here. They were buggers again today, though one was much lower that the other-22 and 26 when they should be 21 or lower. So now I have a medical issue and can go to the ophthalmologist that I have been going to for years. They didn’t take the insurance we have for general eye exams. I’ll make an appointment Thursday after the dentist appointment as it’s near in the same medical complex. The doctor today said not to worry as she thinks it’s a condition called ocular hypertension when they can’t find any other reason why the pressure is up (yep probably age, I hear ya)-everything else is fine. I did treat myself to some new frames-after 2 yrs the old ones get beat up a bit. I was looking for something in the same dark look, put on the pale pink metal ones and really liked them. They are more squarish with no tint. Since Brian didn’t need glasses and mine only changed a little, I thought I’d take advantage of the insurance (that we pay into every month) and get new glasses. Not much else is new except for tossing some food items in the cart at Wally World and really wanting to go to Trader Joe’s, but far too achy to attempt that drive. I hope to hit the road there tomorrow…and drop off stuff at the Goodwill…from me and moms.

Jan28

A few shares

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First, I would like to thank Jennifer for her thoughtful comment. I do wish there were more things like the meat grinder, but mostly what she has are just ‘things’. A while ago, I brought home my grandparent’s marriage license to copy and still have it. When mom’s place gets cleaned up more, I’ll put it in a nice frame for her. : )

Here’s part of one of the two Mountain Zebras I am stitching for a quilt. I have to mark it off as I go or I’ll get the stripes mixed up! I like to backstitch as I go.

zebra

Brian brought home this photo of his parents (probably in the late 40s as he has his military shirt and tie on). The were engaged before the war and got married in 1950. Brian didn’t come along until 7 years later and was the only child. Don’t you love my late mom-in-law’s hair! She had pretty green eyes too. Brian’s dad will be 85 in June, but he won’t admit it!

m/mc
Tomorrow is my eye pressure recheck. I’ll do some deep breathing exercises!

Jan27

The old meat grinder

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I just got back from my mom’s a little bit ago. It is starting to look a lot different in there. My brother was working in my mom’s room (along with his son), Colleen in the kitchen (God bless her for doing that room) and I took down the Christmas tree (with the help of my sweet niece) and was going through things in the living room. I had to have allergy problems today of all days, but I persevered-look what they all had tackled before I even got there! I went out in the kitchen and saw the old meat grinder that my grandmom used to make those last few pieces of turkey, ham or roast beef stretch into croquettes or ‘deviled’ sandwiches. I asked what was going to happen to it and Colleen said Ken wanted it. Of course he did as he remembers being a little tyke and turning the handle to help our grandmom. He loved her so much.

I told my brother not to throw out books as I would take them to the Goodwill. I have to make a trip there sometime this week. I don’t believe in throwing out literature unless it is musty or soiled.

I’m having some tea and trying to ease my achy back a bit. I had to console my mom a few times, but I think she is now seeing the big picture. It couldn’t stay like that.

Jan26

Photo Hunt Old-fashioned

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My mom is 77 and still loves paperdolls. That certainly is an old-fashioned thing to like, but it stems back to her girlhood in the 1930s during The Great Depression. She said she would sit for hours and hours on the step playing with her movie star paperdolls. Nowadays, she has collected the Tom Tierney paperdolls for years. I was down in a book warehouse and called her to see if she had the Tierney ones I had found there and she actually needed a few!
So this is my homage to the activity that made my mom happy as a child. The image is from a children’s book from the 70s, so they were still being fashioned then. Personally, I loved my Barbies! But as you can see, I love cutting out paper now myself.

PSHunt
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Paper Dolls ATC
Jan25

Computer noises

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Isn’t it always something? I’m a little afraid for our computer as it is making some ‘funny noises’ every once in a while this morning. It kinda sounds like a record turntable (if you younger souls know what they are) that is getting stuck. I told Brian about it, and he said ‘hope it’s not the hard drive!’ Oh wonderful. I think we have a gazillion and one dust bunnies invading the poor tower. So, if I go MIA, that may very well be the case. Drats!

Sean is having an issue with housing for next year and won’t go to the actual housing building! He just emails them. There may be a board there with others looking for roommates or who want to get rid of their places. I told him I can’t really help him long distance. And I’m pretty darn sure he had to put down a 2nd and 3rd choice.  He’s also still looking into internship as the place near here didn’t need anyone. He’s got a lot of turmoil, but nothing compared to his grandmom. She’s in an upheaval with my brother taking control of getting her house in shape. He got a big dumpster and told them they (she has a boarder and friend who lives there too) can only keep so much. I think the goal is to clean it out, fix it up and sell it. Get mom in an assisted living place. She obviously can’t take care of it anymore. It’s definitely a turning point. Mom is feeling overwhelmed. I am too, but I feel a little weight off my shoulders because my brother is helping her.

It’s still really cold here. I’m also trying to throw stuff out, like all the saved boxes that are down our basement. Talk about overwhelming! I think 30%+ off what’s down in our basement is boxes and stuff that can be tossed. I think you try so hard to keep the upstairs part nice, the ‘storage’ area is ignored.

I had one of my pals call me last night. She also had a major life upheaval-left her partner and moved to a place she loved. She is working and has one of her 3 kids, the oldest with her. She sounds good and is hoping to get her other children with her or at least in a school that she went to. I am happy she did this.

Have a great weekend!

Jan24

How many middle-aged people…

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…does it take to unplug and plug the modem box? Two! Seems yesterday our signal went from good to nothing. I tried what I had in the past, but it didn’t work. We have two boxes here, as we have the phone over the internet and got the box so we could have a wireless connection for Sean. The phone was fine. Brian couldn’t get it to work this morning so I got on the phone with Comcast. All I had to do was unplug the power cord in the ‘newer’ box. Holy Toledo-it started to work and a lot faster too. So now I know. The wires and cords are such a jumble, I thought for sure something came unplugged or was hanging on by a thread.

Yesterday I decided to list a few things on eBay that I had found in my closet cleaning efforts. I also listed some stuff for Sean, one of which was a 6-CD set of classical music that corresponded with a text book. I sold the CDs right away. I was sorry I didn’t ask more for them now! I have my own 15 or higher piece set of classical music so I didn’t need these too.

I also made some ATCs for a new challenge. I got the idea from Honey Girl Studios. Take your catalogs and clip them to make the cards. I found it was easier to look for say, all red items or candles. I had fun making them and will post soon.
Not sure what to do today, but I so need to go out someplace, so I hope the weather stays ok. I’m not one to have to run out everyday (believe me, I know women around here that hate to be home-isn’t that crazy?) Here’s hoping the weather holds out!

Sean is looking into internship. He mentioned that one of his profs will have one out in California in the redwood area. That would be expensive for us. He did find something locally and emailed the person in charge. I think he should keep his options open and if he wanted to go out of state, then he’d have to save up money to do so.

Have a great day!

Jan22

Finally

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I was happy to hear that my friend Carole finally received her birthday gift-almost 2 weeks after I mailed it. Her birthday was in October, but my crazy life (LOL) got in the way (and it was more involved than it looked), so I finished it up this month and off it went. She really liked the flat fold (the first one I ever made). It was made to commemorate her special birthday last year. Thanks to Vonna over at The Twisted Stitcher for the tutorial. : )

Carole’s flat fold
Design-The Prairie Schooler-Seasons-Book #50. Changed the top-it was suppose to say ‘autumn’ but I put the year instead.
Side view:
Side view

This is the 100th project listed in my Cyberstitchers gallery!

I just noticed that when I was adding these photos that WordPress has now given us 3 GBs of photo space! Yeah. : )

Have a pleasant Tuesday. I’ve been dusting and tidying up. Seems the old drywall dust has settled all over the house. I felt like I was getting my cold back last night and it occurred to me I didn’t use any form of nasal spray yesterday. Bad girl! Brian is still coughing a lot, mainly in the morning. I’m calling out ‘Chloreseptic’ (sp) which helped me. Oy!