Not the best month!

Well November has not been the best of months.  My husband's health has taken a down turn.  He has several heart problems.  Two of which are atrial fib and atrial flutter. In January 2021 he underwent ablation on both of his upper chambers in an attempt to remedy these problems and indeed it did until recently.  They have now reared their ugly heads again and the only thing they can do now is keep it under control the best they can.  He has been on blood thinners since 2021 and will remain on them the rest of his life.  He takes medication to slow his heart rate and it is helping but he is just weak and tired all the time.  We ended up in the ER last week as he was so weak. 

Then this past week our furnace started making a lot of noise.  One visit from the repair folks to diagnose and now another visit to fit the replacement part, an inducer motor.  The engineer is here as I type this.

We didn't have much wood in the wood shed but had enough to be able to keep the woodstove going for a few days until they could fix it, thankfully.

We like to have wood on hand in case the power goes out.  It is a propane furnace but needs electricity to run the fan to circulate the  warm air.

Another minor annoying problem (but certainly not serious) is the labels for my Christmas cards.  The blank labels I had, had lost their stickiness but I had some other clear labels which were good.  I printed up my labels but it took forever for them to dry out and some got a bit smudged.  Like I said, a minor niggle compared to the other things.

The whole month has been like that so I am looking forward to December.

There were some good things though.

I did knit a toy for Santa's sack as I needed something easy to do at night whilst watching TV.

Thanksgiving was quiet, just the two of us but we had a lovely dinner with roast beef for a change but of course the usual pumpkin pie and whipped cream.  Small portions as we are both diabetic and the pie lasted several more days.

My husband had a hot beef sandwich the next day which is somewhat different here in the US.  It is a slice of bread topped with hot beef slices then mashed potatoes then gravy.  He really enjoys those, I prefer mine laid out like a dinner lol.

The high spot of the month was finding out that I can buy ready made flaky pastry here now.  I love flaky pastry and back in England you could always buy it frozen in any supermarket.  I discovered that our local Walmart now stocks frozen Pepperidge Farm puff pastry and it is quite delicious.  I made us a couple of meat and potato pasties one day and they were very good. 

Now I will make sausage rolls and mince pies for Christmas.  Back in England everyone one loved my flaky pastry mince pies at Christmas.  My dad especially, which miffed my mum a bit lol as she made them too but used regular pastry.

So only two more days and we can start in earnest on Christmas.  I did the get the outside lights and decorations up and decided not to wait until December 1st to plug the lights in.  At our age we don't know how many more Christmases we will have so I plan on making the most of it every year.

Onwards and upwards.........

Furnace fixed and running great!

No more procrastinating.....decision made!

I made the decision after yesterday's post that I am not going to make my cards this year so I have ordered some Hallmark Thomas Kinkade cards.  I like that range of cards and there is lots of sparkly on them and I do so love sparkly!

I was beginning to stress over making the cards because I never had any ideas for them simmering in my head like I usually have.  I went up into my craft room and sat and sat, and nothing came to mind.  I realised the solution was easy.......don't make them, buy some.  I don't need any more stress in my life.  I make cards because I enjoy doing so but if it was not going to be a happy experience there was no point to it.  Christmas cards are a dying tradition anyway but I have been determined to maintain it; but each year I send lots out and get very few back so maybe it's time to bow to the times and wean off them.....slowly.

I talked about neighbours yesterday but where we live it is different.  Every one owns land so you can't actually see your neighbour's houses.  Our plot is one of the smaller ones, only 20 acres and the place behind us which is the closest is the same.  But we can't see their house from ours.  In winter when all the leaves have all fallen from the trees we can see lights but it is too far away to distinguish anything.

View from back of house looking towards the closest neighbour. Their property starts beyond the far tree line

From the front of the house

To the right of the house

To the left of the house

For us, this is perfect.  I have lived in big cities and small cities but this is the first time I have lived in a rural community.  Suffice to say, as this is the longest either of us have lived in one place, (we are coming up on 19 years here) we really love the life.

We have talked about moving to be closer to health facilities but whenever we try, something thwarts us so I guess here we are and here we will stay.

2 posts in two days, that must be a record for me!

PS. Can't seem to get the font size the same throughout!  Blogger is not co-operating today.

Where does the time go?

Where does the time go these days?  It has been almost a month since my last post.  Not much in the 'making things' has happened.  A couple of cards, one for my husband and one for my son.

I used some foil on my husband's one and sparkly white card.  I liked it a lot.

 

For my son I used a stencil which I particularly like and the sticky squares to give it a 3D effect.

Now I must start on Christmas cards,  I am procrastinating. I don't know why.  I bought the new Jacquie Lawson advent calendar to try and get some enthusiasm going.

On the home front, not sure if I mentioned our nearest neighbour died at the end of July.  He was a grouchy old man and didn't like us because our political leanings were not the same as his so we lived in a peaceful existence of just ignoring each other.  We would nod if we passed each other but that is all.  Anyway, his daughters put the place up for sale and it is currently pending.  An older couple like us put in an offer.  They came to see us after they viewed it so I expect they were sussing out who their new neighbours would be.  They were nice folks so I hope it all goes smoothly for them.

That's about it, just plodding on here. My husband is still in full author mode, currently working on making video's to promote his books. He writes under the pen name of SA Andrews.

This is his first one.  Any thoughts would be appreciated as it's all a learning curve for us.  Might not be to everyone's taste, his stories can be a bit raunchy!

Weather is typical for Autumn. Today the windows are all wide open, Thursday the heating will be back on.

Hope all is good in your worlds.

Ho Ho Ho! Santa is done.

Last night I got Santa finished.  It was quite the project but he is now made.  Now he isn't perfect by any means but we like him.  For now I just put a small stuffed toy in his sack as I have a couple of knitted ornament characters in my Christmas stuff which I will put in the sack when I decorate.

As you can see he is quite big, about 18". I wasn't expecting him to be so big but am happy he is.

My goodness, it's taking a long time to get Santa knitted

 I started knitting Santa on August 26th and have worked on it most evenings and weekends.  I thought I was nearing the end but discovered I had one more quite large piece to knit which is his jacket.  Somehow I envisioned his body which is red would just have a belt and white trim added to it but the jacket piece is a whole separate piece starting at the white trim at the bottom and up to and including his black belt.  I had to find some more white wool (yarn) which was a close match to what I had already used.  Thankfully I had some and I am hoping and praying I have enough red left.

This has not been a simple task and I will not be rushing to make another one.  I am making this one for us (well me really as I am the one who really loves Christmas, my husband just goes along it as it makes me happy lol).  Usually I give away the things I make.  Someone will claim him once we're no longer around but for now he will reside with us.

Everything else is plodding on here.  We might finally get some cooler weather this coming mid week, I am ready for it.  We have to get out and cut up some fallen limbs.  And we will also rent a log splitter and see if we are capable of splitting the logs from the trees we felled last year.  We will need the wood.  We got the propane tank filled ready but it is always nice to light the wood burning stove.

Hoping all is good in your worlds.

XXXXX

Have you ever heard of.......?

Have you ever heard of five bladed scissors!  Well for sure I hadn't until earlier this week when I was watching a recipe video where someone was using them.  They were cutting up herbs and green onions and I thought wow! I bet those cost a lot.

I looked them up on, yep, Amazon and found they were quite reasonably priced.  A pair, (should they be called a pair if they have five blades?) cost $6.95.  So I ordered some to check them out and they arrived the next day.  They must now have a distribution center reasonably close as we have had a couple of next day deliveries lately, which is a bonus for sure.

Anyway, I was really surprised with how good quality they are and they cut up green onions perfectly.  I can never get them so thin with a knife.  I tried them on the lettuce and they did a great job of that too.  They come with a cover which doubles as a thing to clean out  between the blades which was essential for the green onions and lettuce because of the moisture.  I imagine that cutting up dry herb leaves etc. would be even better.

So I am very happy with my impulse purchase and my husband loves the lettuce cut up like that.

I also made a card for our son whose birthday is coming up.  I am not so good with cards for men as I like 'pretty and sparkly' but I think I did OK and I used one of my new stencils and dobbers on it too and also my little sticky foam blocks to give it a 3D effect.  I made the envelope to match the card too.

I printed up the main greeting and personalised it and my husband did a greeting too from him and I printed it up to match the other.  It was made from the heart and I hope he likes it.

We have been working in the sunroom doing the trim around the windows and the top and bottom of the boards, it is finally coming together.  Still lots to do but we can see and end to it now.  It has been a long drawn out job because of our health limitations but it is very rewarding to see how it went from this:-

To this:-

To this:-

and this:-

That is just part of it, we had to basically rebuild two walls from the outside to the inside.

The American football season starts today and our team, the KC Chiefs play tonight so looking forward to watching that. Go Chiefs!

Summer heat doldrums

Doing this on my phone so apologies in advance for any errors or differences in appearance.  Just watching my Football team from England on the TV playing against their bogey team. Haven't beaten them since 2005. So far so good, they are in the lead and the other team are down to 10 men.

We are having very hot weather which has not given up yet. They forecast rain and storms but we have not had any and it is still hot, albeit a few degrees cooler than yesterday.  Basically we just gut it out indoors with the Air conditioning on.  

I did knit a skirt for one of the dolls and now they are both respectable. I swapped the dress from this one to the other as the skirt looked better with this cardigan.

I have started on a new project for ourselves. A knitted Santa Clause from the Jean Greenhowe's Christmas Special pattern book.  This is the one that has the pattern for the Nativity characters I made a few years ago and also the Snowman. So far I have one leg complete with boot. It is going to be quite big judging from the size of the leg.

Darn, my team let down at the end and we got beat!

Time to get back to knitting. Hope all is going well in your worlds.

Progess reports

Firstly and most importantly my granddaughters husband is home.  He is having home health come in 4-5 times a week but he was well enough to go home with the additional help.  Praying for continuing improvement and some return to normalcy for them all.  

Secondly, I have had time to try my new stamping gismo and I think it will help a lot with the stamping.  You can only use the silicone flat type of stamps with it but you can keep re-stamping until you get a good print so that is a bonus.  I think you can take the rubber stamps off the blocks and use them the same way but I haven't tried that yet as I didn't want to render the wooden block stamps unusable.

It also came with a stencil so I tried that and decided I wanted to do more stenciling.  It is fun.  Of course, I was way too heavy handed with the ink at first but after watching many YouTube videos I realised I needed dobbers and sponges etc.  My daughter sent some money for my birthday so I got a lot of supplies from Amazon including more stencils and blending brushes, foil paper, sticky squares for 3D effect, finger dobber sponges and blending tools which come with disposable sponges.  I was in card making heaven and I didn't feel guilty because the money was a gift.

The gismo also has a type setting board and letters and numbers etc.  I have yet to give that a go.

I finished the second replacement cardigan for the dolls. (the one on the left).  Now I just have to get a skirt made. The one on the right is sitting around with just her underwear and cardigan on!

The weather has cooled slightly so we have been able to get out and do some mowing and outside stuff.  My husband is now able to do more post surgery and he had 4 infusions over the course of 4 weeks and that seems to have helped him regain some strength. We had more large limbs down with the storms which we will cut up for firewood at some point too.

We have been working on editing one of his stories ready for publication also so things are simmering along nicely.

Hope all is good in your worlds!

And the conversation went like this.......

Waiting at traffic lights yesterday I looked into my rear view mirror:-

Me: "You gotta see this, there is a dog riding in the pillion seat on the back of a motorbike behind us."

Husband: "No flipping way!"  (actually it was another 'f' word he used!)

Me: "No honestly, there's a guy on a motorbike and he has a dog sitting on the back and the dog is wearing shades!"

Husband: "You must be seeing things!"

Me: "No look for yourself, and the best part is the dog has on sunglasses, oh wait, lights changed I will go slow and get into the right lane and you can see when he passes."

I pulled into the right lane and drove slowly as it was an access lane to get into Walmart.  But, the motor bike guy was also going into Walmart and pulled into the lane still behind us.

Me: " I will park and you can see him go past."

Husband: "Ok."

Me: "See, the dog is riding pillion and wearing shades!"

Husband:  "Well flipping heck (actually the other 'f' word again) that's gotta be illegal."

We watched him ride the motorbike and park it by the front door and go into the store.  The dog remained sitting on the back seat still wearing his shades and waited patiently until his owner came back. The guy had made a platform for the dog to sit on. It was a big old male pitbull, a very nice looking dog and extremely well behaved. My husband talked briefly to the guy who said his other pitbull, a female, didn't like to ride but this one loved it.

We had never seen anything like it before and here's the proof.

I went and ordered one!

After my last post and a comment from a reader with a recommendation, I did some research and went and ordered something which will hopefully help with my stamping.

It is a Memory Keepers Precision Press Plus bundle.

As well as the stamping plate it also comes with a typeset board and letters, numbers and some characters. Plus it has a clip for stenciling and a stencil and a few stamps too.  Amazon US didn't have it but it is coming via Amazon Global from the Netherlands and will hopefully be here in time for my birthday.

I really hope it helps! It has mostly excellent reviews but also has a few negative ones so I guess I will find out this coming week.

I have read a lot of reviews and got some good tips so I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.  It seems I am not the only one having problems with stamping.

Funny thing is the typeset and letters reminded me of a toy that was popular in my childhood.  A John Bull Printing set which had rubber letters and a typeset block.  Some things never change lol. I found an image on the internet, just as I remembered it. 

I just hope my arthritic fingers can deal with the smaller letters in the new set. Thankfully it comes with larger letters too as pictured below!

I got some bad news since my last post, my dear Grand daughter's husband has been very poorly in the hospital.  He had an infection in his brain which swelled and he was really ill.  He is on the road to recovery now but is still in hospital having rehab but this weekend he has been allowed to go home for a few hours each day and they are hoping next weekend he will be allowed to go home full time with home support coming in. He is only in his 30's and their son is only two and a bit.  It has been a frightening time for them all. He has lost a lot of his memory but some of it is coming back little by little and my grand daughter has well documented their life together so he has a lot of things to help him remember.

Will update both on the stamping and my grandson in law's progress soon.  Meanwhile any and all prayers will be appreciated for my grand daughter and her family.

'I hate meeces to pieces" to quote Jinks the Cat and 'what is it with me and stamping'?

Does any one remember Jinks the cat, a cartoon character?  Well, to quote him "I hate meecies to pieces!"

We had to do major construction repairs in our sunroom which dragged out due to our health issues.  Anyway, when the family announced they were coming a major tidy up ensued in there just incase son and grandson could manage some work in there (which they did.)

I had my wanna-be American dolls in there and when we started the work I covered them with a little doll's quilt my MIL had made so they didn't get sawdust etc. on them.  Well, those darned mice eventually must have sussed out that it would be a nice hidey hole to make a nest in!  And they ruined the two little cardigan's I had knitted for the dolls and a skirt I had made for one of them.  

I had to totally strip them, bathe and sanitise them and throw away the cardigans and skirt and wash the rest of the clothes and little quilt in a strong disinfectant and washing soap mixture.

So I have knitted one cardigan so far to replace the mouse eaten ones.

I just love the plastic studs, so easy to attach and so efficient too.

I also had to get a card finished and mailed and decided to try my hand at stamping once again.  I had previously successfully stamped the verse inside and the homemade stamp on the back of the card and added the bow, it was ready to go.

But! (that word again), I got a bit ambitious and wanted to do some stamping on the envelope then do another stamp inside the card to match the envelope.  Bad idea!  I ruined one envelope and binned it then on the second one I got some of the edge of the stamp on it too.  I wasn't going to throw away another though so it stayed as is! 

Then I tried to stamp the same flowers in the card and didn't press hard enough so some of the imprint was missing!  I knew I couldn't get the stamp back in the exact same place but I did come up with a plan to save the day.  I got one of my pens which was almost the same colour as the ink I used and I drew in the missing parts. Phew! So today the card is winging it's way across country.

But, what is it with me and stamping? Why can't I get it right?????

On the plus side, my husband has now sold a total of 10 books that we have been self publishing.  Never going to make a fortune but it is exciting that he is selling some.

Fallen limb from storm

We had a storm, it must have been Saturday or Sunday night.  There was quite a large limb fallen up by the mailbox on the gravel road  which we didn't see until I went to fetch the mail last night, Monday.

I tried to move some of the broken branches off the road.  Cars were able to get by and it was very hot last night so we left it until this morning to deal with it.

Poor husband isn't supposed to be doing anything heavy for another three weeks but he was able to use the pole saw too and between us we cut it up.  We rested whenever we had to, which was often, but we did it.  I was able to load the logs into the little trailer and tomorrow I will unload them in the woodshed in the cooler hours. This is me wielding the pole saw, in hot weather I cover up to keep both the sun and bugs off of me!

 

And here is a photo of my dear husband and I taken by DIL. It was taken in the evening to get good light but we were both pretty tired by then so not looking our best but a well composed photograph.

Happy 4th of July to any USA readers and hope the day is a great one for everyone!

Been and gone!

My goodness the family visit went by so quickly.  Unfortunately, as I expected it was extremely hot while they were here which limited outside time.  But they did get outside to shoot the pellet gun and rifle at the targets and they were all great shots!  DIL also took the children to a couple of outdoor swimming pools 2 afternoons for some outside time where they could keep cool. One of them had a Lazy River and diving boards so that was fun for them.

DIL is a professional photographer and all the following photos are hers, so much better than anything I would take.

I showed the oldest grand daughter how to knit when she was about 8 or so and she now makes some lovely things and does crochet too.  I showed her the basics and she has learned much more from watching Youtube tutorials and from a friend of her Mums who knits.  The youngest wanted to learn too this visit so I also showed her the basics of knitting and crocheting and she picked it up very quickly.  She will learn more from her sister too and no doubt Youtube. 

We went out for a couple of meals which was very nice, one was the locally owned burger shack where they cook everything to order and there is only outside seating and the other was also a family owned restaurant about 40 miles away and the food is always good.

The guys (son and grandson) did so many jobs while they were here with husband looking on really wishing he was still able to do it. They even got all the hard work in the sunroom done which leaves us with trimming it up which we will be able to do once my husband has fully recovered from his surgery.  They worked so hard and I felt so bad that they did while on their vacation but we are so grateful for their help.

The wasps were very active around the front door and I offered grandson the use of my wasp hat as he was in and out all the time fetching tools from the workshop, but he declined incase anyone took a photo of him wearing it lol.  After all he is a teenager now and couldn't risk his street cred.

I on the other hand have absolutely no street cred so here I am in my full glory wearing it!

Finally DIL was captured on camera by youngest grand daughter in the corn field. It is very rare to see photos of her, always the photographer, rarely the subject!

It was a wonderful 6 day visit  but in the blink of an eye it was over and they were on their way to visit son's Mum and her family and our other two grandson's and their mother for 6 days and then onto DIL's Mum and their family. What a trip, thousands of miles will be covered by the time they get home.

And I will leave you with a sweet photo of youngest grand daughter with our dog.  They have such a bond.