A delightful Christmas addition and on sale too!

Today we had to go for a doctor's appt. at the VA clinic which is 75 miles away.  To make the journey worthwhile we nipped into Menard's (big DIY store) to have a look around and to see their Christmas display. It wasn't as good as prior years but maybe they haven't finished it yet.

We found this Barn snow globe reduced from $24.99 to $9.99.

It is very well made and has the bonus feature of an LED light and a motor to move the liquid around so the glittery snow flakes are always moving.  I made a little video but it didn't upload so here is a photo instead but it doesn't do it justice. 

Even without the light and the moving liquid the snowflakes stay suspended for a long time.

It is absolutely delightful, a treasure to be brought out at Christmas for years to come.

The fallen tree

 In May when we were having such a lot of rain we had a huge oak tree uproot and fall.  It is at the back of our property so there was no rush to do anything with it.  As usual, I never thought to take a photo at the time.  From June onwards we have had very little rain so the top of the tree dried out nicely and it was time to cut it up.  It must have been at least 75 feet high before it fell.  Such a shame to lose it.  

We started to cut it up this past week.

At this point there is about 15 more feet to cut up.  The branches have all been cut into usable size logs and stacked already.

The larger logs at the back of the woodshed are from a previous year and still have to be split.  We plan to rent a wood splitter when we have it all cut up and probably fell another tree to make the cost of renting it viable. (We only take down dead trees or old leaning trees that could uproot, we would never have cut down the tree that fell). For a splitter that can be towed home and can handle those big logs it costs $80 plus for a day to rent. But the guy at the rental place told us if we pick it up early Saturday morning we don't have to return it until Monday morning for the cost of just 1 day so that's what we will do. Below is what we need to split so far from this tree.

The tops of the branches are always a nuisance to deal with, it is horrible to pick up and load into the small trailer to take to the brush pile.  It takes up a lot of room and pokes you all over when picking it up. Unfortunately, right now I am not much help at all as my back is still very sore and standing and walking is a problem.  But, when my husband is cutting wood I have to be there incase of any problems.  So I was sitting and and watching him work which I find very frustrating.  I was looking at the branch tops and thought that some enterprising teenager could break that all up and sell it as fire starter.  Well, no teenagers anywhere around so I thought I can do that whilst sitting down.  Not to sell but to make fire starter kindling for ourselves.  So now that is what I do and I feel so much better for being productive.  

I reduced 2 piles like this:-

To this:-

Much easier to load up and haul and can be cut up too for small fires.

I broke up the small brittle top branches and bagged them in old Walmart plastic bags ready to just throw into the fire and they will easily light with just a few pieces of scrunched up old flyers.

Today I added to this pile of kindling bags and still have more to do.

So, that and finally finishing replacing the studs and siding on the back of the sunroom is what we have been up to these past weeks.  We still have to finish out the inside but no rush on that, we can do that over the winter months.

         

Move put on hold due to a fall and a bad back and a beautiful wedding

Well, the move is on hold again.  We were looking for an alternative house to buy after the other one fell through due to too many structural problems but 2 weeks ago I took a tumble outside whilst walking on uneven ground and have a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae.  Now, I didn't think I had done any real damage as I could still get up and walk etc. but after 10 days and it was still extremely painful, I thought I had better get it checked out.  A couple of xrays bought forth the diagnosis.  My doctor said that I had to rest and take painkillers and it would take several weeks to get better.

So right now I spend a lot of time sitting.  Boring!!!

I have read several books, watched a lot of TV and finished making the set of Christmas tree ornaments to send off for my great grandson who is nearly 1 1/2 now.  How quickly the time is passing!

My eldest granddaughter got married in July after having to cancel 3 times prior due to the Covid regulations.  She finally got her big day. And stunning she was as was my great grandson too and of course her husband and the rest of my family.

My granddaughter, great grandson and daughter

with her sweet flower girl

My grandson, her brother, walked her down the aisle

The happy family

My other granddaughter (centre) was a bridesmaid.  The other girls are her half sisters.

Sadly, I couldn't be there but I have looked at all the photographs over and over again that it feels like I was.

In limbo

The house buying saga continues.  We thought we had found the ideal house for us.  It was an older home in a town within reasonable driving distance of  the VA hospital where my husband gets his healthcare.  As it was an older home we got a structural engineer to do the inspection and it came back with some major problems.  We got quotes to fix the bigger problems and they came to over $21,000 with the possibility of  even more costs once they started to do the work.  With the other problems the cost would have been almost $30,000.  This was without the problems with the existing garage which had no doors, no concrete floor and  was not in good condition and would need tearing down and rebuilding.  We knew that when we made our offer of the asking price and were prepared to pay the cost of that ourselves. We asked for a reduction in the price of $25,000 though to cover some of the costs of the major repairs to the house.  They would not agree to that.  They did say they would get the repairs done themselves but when they told us they had payed someone to fix one of the bigger problems and it cost only $256,  (our contractor had quoted $4,000) we knew that we would still have a huge expense if we carried on the the purchase, so we got out of the contract.

He had another couple of days in the hospital the week before last so we really need to get moved soon but we do not need a house with a lot of problems to deal with.  

On our house front, we are still trying to find someone to do some work for us on the attached sunroom.  We can't get any one so we are trying to do it ourselves.  Now bearing in mind, I am 74 years old, my husband is 77 and quite disabled and has been in the hospital 3 times since April and the temperature has been in the high 90's for two months now, we are not getting very much done.

So, in limbo we are!

Life in limbo is not great.  We are carrying on doing things towards moving.  I have cleaned out most of our cupboards and scrubbed them.  We are throwing out things we think we won't need but the comforting feel of our home has gone for me.  

After a lot of thinking and searching for homes we have decided to try and get our house ready to sell before we seriously look for another house.  We have both spent way too much time looking at houses for sale, we need a break but we know we have to move.

Like I said above, life in limbo is not great.

Watch this space, it could all change at any given time lol!

The moving saga

We made the decision very reluctantly after my husband's last stay in the hospital that we really need to move closer to his VA facilities.  Tomorrow is one of the reason's why.  He has a VA appt with his heart specialist which is 150 miles away plus another to have his port flushed.  We have to leave very early to get there.  I can't find anywhere to board our dog and leaving her for 10 or so hours isn't fair to her.  It is going to be 98F tomorrow so we can't take her and leave her in the car when we go inside to see the doctor.  Waiting on a reply from a neighbour to see if she can come and let her out mid day but she goes out every other Tuesday and I am not sure if this is the week she goes or not.  We will probably end up taking her and I will have to stay with her while my husband goes in alone. It will still be uncomfortable for both the dog and I because it is impractical to leave the car running for the air conditioning on such a hot day so we will be sitting outside somewhere hopefully in the shade for a couple of hours. 

Added to that we are too far away from any hospital should another emergency come up, hence the need to move.

BUT!!!!! and as I have said before 😔 there is always a 'BUT'

We need to do some work on our house, we were in the middle of taking off some siding and re-studding the back wall of our sun room when he get sick and we can't find anyone to come out and do the work to finish it.  It is in the 90's all day and every day and my husband is too weak still to work. 

So we can't list our house yet.  We could get a mortgage to buy another house but we couldn't manage to maintain two homes especially with a distance of 150 miles in between.

We have looked at maybe moving half way between there and here but have not found anything suitable to buy at a decent price.  We did put a bid in on one we both liked but they chose different buyers.  There are always multiple offers on anything worthwhile.

So we are stuck!

The past few weeks

 It will be 3 weeks tomorrow since my husband came home from the hospital.  He is still very weak and tired but we have physical therapy coming in twice a week to help build up the strength in his legs so in a bid to encourage him I do the exercises along side him, it helps us both.

He is still sleeping a lot so it has given me chance to get up into my sewing room and work on my card making.  For Mother's Day I got a couple of cutting dies from my husband and I got an Amazon gift voucher from our son and his family and I used it to buy a couple more and some card stock.  I think I have enough now to make a variety of cards.

After our anniversary came our youngest grand daughter's birthday and this was before Mother's day so I was limited with supplies.  Here is the card I made for her:-

Next will be one of the grandson's birthday and for his card I used one of the new dies which I really, really like:-

And for the inside I used new dies too

Now I liked these dies a lot so I made another similar card in readiness for another grand daughter's birthday later in the year.

Because I am naturally frugal I try to do my hobbies on a shoestring.  I use Christmas and birthday's, Mother's day's etc. to obtain the things I want rather than just purchase willy nilly.  Many Christmases ago I got a Big Shot machine.  I had never heard of them until I read about them on a friend's blog.  I used it originally to cut out felt and fabric to make Christmas tree ornaments and in the past few years of Christmas card making I used it too.  I am amazed at just how much I use this machine.  For the Christmas cards I recycle prior years cards but this new venture of birthday and anniversary cards etc. calls for new card stock although I do still try and recycle card.  For practicing I use those really annoying advertisements that come in the mail so I don't have to use good card stock and when I do use the new card I try to get as many things cut out of it as possible.  Any shape I don't use at the time I pop into a ziplock baggie for later use.  

I am also in the process of making some more Christmas ornaments to send off for my great grandson.  I cut out 5 and have made three so far. He turned one at the end of March.  My goodness, how the time flies these days! 

The weather has been a bit erratic.  We had lots of storms and rain which made the grass (and weeds) grow like crazy.  When it stopped it was too wet to mow, then it warmed up and was too hot!  We had a few nice days and we managed to make a start and this morning, early, I whipped out again to mow a little more before the thunderstorms started.  As we mow about 5 acres it is hard to get it all mowed in between storms, rain and extreme heat.  My husband is hoping he will regain more strength and will be able to get out and mow a little more.  He is desperate to get his strength back but they have told him not to overdo things as his health is not great at the best of times. We have 2 riding mowers and he usually does all the more difficult places, for now I am just doing what I can.  His well being is the most important thing.

The iris have been particularly beautiful this year.  I think all the rain has helped.  These are just a couple of many different colours of them we have.

Oh, and we are thinking of selling up and moving again!!!!!

More to come on that.....

He is home!

 My husband was finally allowed home.  The sepsis has gone but he is still quite weak and tired and he has to be on antibiotics for another two weeks.

My dear husband is in the hospital

What a week it has been!  We had been trying to work on the back wall of our sunroom for weeks to replace the siding and stud wall but the weather had not been co-operating.  So we were just getting a little bit done now and then.  We cover it in house wrap in between sessions of being able to work.

I caught a cold too which didn't help.  It wasn't covid, I tested.  Then Tuesday my husband started to feel really poorly, he has been having bladder issues for awhile and it accelerated.  He had mentioned this to his doctor's appointment at the end of March and they did bloodwork and urine tests but nothing was out of wack, they said. By Tuesday afternoon my husband was in bed and very weak, then his temperature soared to nearly 104 and he couldn't sit up or stand.  I called an ambulance and they took him to the hospital where he has been ever since and no sign of getting discharged.  He has sepsis, they are treating him with antibiotics and his temperature has gone down but he is still very weak.  He does not have covid. They said the bladder infection was not the cause of it either. They can't find what the source of the infection is.

It has been very windy here and yesterday some of the house wrap blew off and a ton of wasps got into the sunroom.  I did manage to get it pinned and taped back up but the darn wasps are still in there!  A job for another day to deal with them.  I am just keeping the door into there closed for now.

My neighbour has been letting our dog Maggie out during the day while I am the hospital but this weekend I will only go for a couple of hours a day and give my neighbour a break.

So that is what is happening in my life, hopefully my next post will be better news .

Card making on a budget and useful tips

Any one who reads my blog will know I have been making my Christmas cards for a while. Recently I decided to start making other cards too.

We gave an anniversary coming up so that was a good time to start.

Nice cards cost a lot these days so it is sensible to make them. The problem is I do not have many dies for birthdays and the like.

It is easy to fall into the trap of buying lots of card making supplies but that negates the money saving aspect.  For Christmas cards I recycle Christmas cards received in other years. I cut out pictures and greetings and I also use the thinlets dies to cut out the Greetings cut-outs from old cards as you can see below.

Hardly any one sends birthday cards these days so I do not have a stash of old birthday cards to use so I am short of materials for birthday cards. I am trying to be inventive. I have some old  blank white cards so I am cutting them in half and embossing each piece to use as a background to use on the brown blank cards I bought recently. They were 100 for $18 so 18 cents for a 5 x 7 card and self seal envelope. I think that is very reasonable. I did find an old Easter card we received many years ago so I used it to do a thinlets 'with love' die cut to put on one of the anniversary cards I am making. The other card I am using die cuts of various words that I have a die for. This die has many words suitable for birthday or anniversary cards. I used the backs of a couple of old Christmas cards to cut the words out of.

To complete these I will add some bling from the pot of foil shapes I bought years ago and will last for years to come.

I will buy some card stock at some point to use but for now I will try and use what I already have.  I have saved a foil packet that some chocolates came in to use with the dies.

I have ordered a couple of cheapie dies from Amazon that come from China, the delivery date is at least 5 weeks though but the price is right!

Now for the tips:-

Gluing the very flimsy die cuts to the card is very fiddly and messy and you can see glue residue on the card sometimes as you can see below.

This bothers me so I watched a lot of you tube videos for ideas. One suggested double sided adhesive sheets that you adhere to the card before you make the cut then peel off the backing after they are cut and are then self adhesive. This sounds great but the sheets are very expensive.

Another suggested using glue that dries matt.  This made me wonder if glitter glue would work? At the very least if there was residue it would be glittery and look nice. I had some glitter glue I bought years ago and it was still good so I tried it on some scrap card and used a pointy leather tool to apply it and it worked great. Too late for the anniversary cards but good for future endeavors.

Now for tip 2. This one I found on a you tube video and thought I would pass it on.

When you use thinlets dies that are intricate there are a lot of pieces that you have to pop out of the cut. This is messy and fiddly to do. They suggest getting 4 dryer sheets, flatten them out on top of each other then fold in half.  Then roll the die with the cut still in it on top of the folded sheets through the machine and all the bits will stick to the dryer sheets and the cut will come out of the die perfectly. Now I have yet to try this but it worked on the video's.

Well, if you are not interested in card making this is a very boring post so apologies but I wanted to record my progress.

What we have been up to!

 Firstly, I forgot before Christmas to post about the bowl cozies I made for my good friend and neighbour.  Here they are.  Never made any before and although they are pretty simple I do not really like sewing through so many layers but she loved them. 

For our neighbour

I also made a couple for us too recently, I just used scraps for ours so they are not both the same.

We also bought a newer to us vehicle as our trusty and loyal van is showing signs of wear and tear bless her.

This is the newer vehicle.

We have had some harsh cold snowy weather and it has taken a toll on the driveway and we were bringing home 5 gallon buckets of gravel to try and patch the potholes and put gravel out the front where the drive had to be dug up to fix the water pipes.  As you can imagine it was taking a lot of trips back and forth so we decided to put sides and an internal tail gate on the trailer so we can haul gravel.

This is one scoop

Much easier and cheaper by the scoop too!  We have hauled three scoops so far. We have covered a bigger area out front now than is shown in the photo with the car and filled up some pot holes.  Back for more tomorrow, we are having a day off today as it is quite tiring work for a nearly 74 year old me and my nearly 78 year old disabled hubby. But it does feel good to still be productive even if it takes us so much longer to do things these days.

Finally, I finished the hoody sweater for my great grandson.  There is no rush to mail it though as he will probably need to be five before it will fit him!  It said for a 2 year old but whoever wrote the pattern must have big children!  Oh well, one day it will fit.  I really like it just a shame it came out so big.

And as they used to say in the cinema after the Saturday tanner crush matinee, 'That's it folks.'  (Only people my age will understand what the tanner crush was lol).

A little bit of reorganisation in my sewing room

 My problem is I have a lot of crafting stuff.  This is because I have a lot of hobbies.  Hand knitting, machine knitting, sewing, card making, felt and fabric Christmas tree ornaments making, loom weaving and loom knitting. I also fancy doing some cross stitch one day so I have stuff ready for when that day comes too. These are my indoor hobbies, I also have leatherwork but that is done in the workshop so all the tools are out there.  We do bring the leather into the house during the winter but thankfully it doesn't make it's way to my sewing room.

The point is with so many hobbies comes a lot of equipment and materials and keeping that all organised, accessible and tidy is a challenge.

Plus, my husband invades my space!!! I have a table set up to craft on but right now he has some of his manuscripts laid out on it so that means I can't work on it.  But that is OK, I don't craft all the time and right now I have hand knitting on the go which I do downstairs when watching TV so I don't need the space.  But I have an inkling to get my die cutting machine and dies out to cut out some Christmas tree ornaments in felt to make.  I will send them with the hoodie sweater for my great grandson in England.  The sweater is almost done, working on the last sleeve now but it was supposed to be for a two year old but it looks like it will fit him when he is five!  So no rush on getting the Christmas tree ornaments done. 😄

Aside from the fact my table is out of commission right now, my equipment for that was in a closet with a long large heavy tote full of knitting machine accessories sitting on top of it so if I needed to get it out I had to take out said heavy tote which is difficult to do, take out my equipment to use which meant the big heavy tote was sitting on top of my treadle machine waiting to be put back on top of the equipment when I had finished using it. Too much effort and disruption!  But problem solved today, I took it out and found a space for it under the desk on the floor which has a knitting machine set up on.  So, it is accessible quite easily and my other equipment is also easy to get to now.

This is the long tote full of heavy accessories for the knitting machines

And this is what it was sitting on top of

Now I can easily get to my Sizzix machine, my felt and ribbons and the Sizzix dies!  

I also moved some stuff off the top of one of my plastic drawer set which holds hand knitting yarn.  The basket of knitting machine books was too heavy and stopped the top drawer closing properly.  It is now in a place which is better supported. The plastic drawers are not the strongest things in the world but they are so handy and easy for me to move around and as long as they are not loaded with too heavy things they work perfectly for me. 

It doesn't take much to make me happy.

First post of the year

Today we are getting our first real snow. We have had some cold weather but not much precipitation up until now.

We have followed the NFL quite closely this season and are enjoying it immensely. Today the play offs are starting.  Our team is the Kansas City Chiefs, they play tomorrow.

I undid the arran cardigan I was knitting. It was too complicated. I just need something a bit simpler so I am making a hoodie in three colours for my great grandson. He is nearly 10 months old now. How time flies!

I got my newest sewing machine out last week to try the new  variegated thread I got for Christmas. I also got a spool case and sorted out my threads and put them in the case. Sometimes I just enjoy a little play with my machines. 

I bought a refurb robo vac after Christmas with some gift money. My vacuum cleaner is pretty worn out so it was either buy another upright one or try a robo one. We call it 'the cleaning lady'. Our problem is we have a lot of furniture so it doesn't have too many straight runs so it changes direction a lot but it is amusing to watch and it does a good job. It gets under furniture much better than I can with the upright.  I have not connected it to the internet yet so I can't talk to it and tell it to start remotely. I am not confident yet to leave it unsupervised!

So still plodding along here and isolating in the boonies. I do not think life will get back to how it was before covid any time soon.

A little bit of creativity

I have written and mailed off my overseas Christmas cards.  I realised that I didn't have enough for the USA ones.  Hmm!  I haven't been buying them after Christmas when they go down in price for a couple of years, so, my own fault!  Now the big question was, do I drive the 70 mile round trip to buy some or should I make some?  We only shop every 10 - 14 days now and we had not long gotten our last pick up order.  We try to isolate as much as we can as we are both at risk for catching Covid or flu or anything else that is going around, (and yes we have been vaccinated), so it was not a difficult decision.

I dragged all the card making paraphernalia out of the closet and set to work.  It was fun, it was good to get into the swing of making things again.  Here are some I made.  Everyone says Merry Christmas either on the outside or inside.  No Happy Holidays here!

I buy blank cards, then emboss them and glue on pictures I have cut out of cards received in previous years.  Some have fabric Christmas trees cut out of Christmas fabric.  I also make the 'Merry Christmases' using a die and again I use old Christmas cards to cut them out of. I like the idea of the cards getting another go around.

Elfie came back out, he was so happy to be able to get up to mischief again and keep a watchful eye on us.

I only put up the itsy bitsy tree this year so had to hang the family photo decorations elsewhere.

Here is the tiny tree.

The very small Santa's who sit under the tree. 

Of course, the Nativity scene came out.  Thanks to a fellow blogger who had knitted it first, I was able to find the pattern and I knitted it for us.

There is quite a bit more but I have bored you enough. I was off the decorating for a bit but last year I decided that at our age any Christmas hereon in could be our last, so I want to make them memorable.

Now off to write the rest of the cards.......

Almost 12 weeks post surgery

Wow, it's been a while since I posted but please know, if you are a blog I follow, I love to read your blogs every day, it is one of life's pleasures for me.

My knee and leg are now doing very well.  I am so much better than I was before I had the surgery and so much more mobile.  Life has gotten back to what a normal woman of my age should be like and for that I am so grateful.

The first six weeks were hard and very painful but the past six weeks have seen so much improvement.

Christmas prep is well underway here.  Outside decorations are up and the lights are on the timer for night time.  We just decorate the front porch.

This weekend I will do Christmas cards and early next week the little tree and inside decorations will go up.  We added a couple of new things this year.  Two of the huge baubles to hang outside (the blue and the red one above) and a light up Santa, intended for outside, but he found a spot indoors he likes so there he stays.  The inside lights are already up and are turned on every evening now along with Santa. He is such a cheery chappy, he makes me smile every time I look at him.

We are heading into some colder weather so we have firewood stacked up on the porch ready for the really cold days.  The wood stove heats the house up so nicely.  On milder days we just put the central air on when we need it.

Hope you are all enjoying your Christmas prep too.  

Off to write cards..........

6 weeks post surgery

Yesterday I went for my 6 week check up and x-rays.  I had to see the doctors last week also though as the incision became infected.  It was one of the stitches inside had become abscessed so a week of anti biotics fixed that.  The knee joint is doing great, it bends better than the first one did at the same time...........

BUT!, (there's aways one of those, isn't there?)

The calf muscles are still extremely painful.

I stopped taking the prescription pain killers as I was not allowed to drive while taking them and Tylenol doesn't help.

They doubled the anti inflammatory pills for a week and prescribed some anti inflammatory cream so I am trying that now.

Physio due in less than an hour so time to get ready for her coming.  After that I will lie down with feet raised and ice it.  It still swells up quite a lot especially after a workout.

I did start an arran cardigan for my new great grandson.  I desperately needed something to think about other than this flipping knee!!!

25 days post surgery

Well, I am still here, which is great.

The surgery went well and the new knee is doing everything it should but it hurts really badly.

I don't remember the other one being this bad but as my doctor said, "No two are the same."

I am persevering and doing all the exercises etc. and I know it will improve over time but it has been pretty rough so far.

So, no posts about making things, just a lot of whining!

I am still taking 2 prescribed pain killers a day, I am trying to come off them but if I leave them off for a day it really, really hurts a lot.

They won't let me drive whilst taking them so I am hoping to get off them in the next few weeks before I see the doc again.

     

10 days and counting

In 10 days I will have my other total knee replacement.  There is a chance it may be postponed though because Covid is quite rampant around this area and is taking up all the hospital beds.  The doctor said they might be doing them as day surgery!!!!!

I don't think that will work for us as my husband is not really able to take care of me so soon after surgery.  He is OK once I am able to get up but he doesn't have the strength to lift me up and help me in and out of bed when I am dopey from the anesthetic.

Hopefully it will go ahead as planned and I get to stay in the hospital for a couple of days afterwards like last time.

The package finally arrived in England and my great grandson loves the bunny I knitted for him.

Not much else going on, we are today getting some much needed rain.

Birthday Pressies!

Thought I would post about my birthday presents this year.  I am quite a simple soul and not the sort who always wants to be buying something, quite the reverse, I tend to always try and make do.  (Except where sewing machines are concerned but then I always just buy one if it is an absolute bargain and/or second hand, plus I am not planning on buying any more. Even I have the sense to know I really do have enough to see out my lifetime!)

So, what did I get for my birthday?  Well a bag for my latest and final sewing machine.

And a snaps kit for fabric.  I had always wondered how these worked and now I know they are a delight to use.

Of course I had to try it.  I knitted these cardigans some time ago for the American Girl type dolls I rescued from the Thrift store but they had no fastenings.  These snap buttons were perfect for them.

I also got some gift vouchers for Amazon so I have ordered a Cuisinart cordless kettle, some more snaps for the kit and a magnifying glass on a stand for my tired old eyes.

I think I did rather well this year!