Our house is on the market

 Our house is officially listed for sale.  Not much interest yet.  There was one debacle yesterday.  Our agent said another agent wanted to bring someone to view the house yesterday between 3pm to 4pm.  We have been running around like headless chickens to get it looking as best we can so we left it looking the best it has in years.

We went grocery shopping.  The phone went while we were in the store 40 miles away.  It was our agent.  The other agent couldn't get into the lock box, did we have any keys hidden outside?  Uh no! we gave her the keys we had hidden outside to put in the lock box! She didn't offer to go to the house herself to let them in and I was disappointed with that.  The people were disappointed they couldn't get in and went away. I would have too.  I dislike incompetency especially in professionals.  We did our part, our agent didn't do hers.

Onwards and upwards!

Home and house hunting

We are home finally.  12 unexpected days away from home was a tad stressful.

We realise that we really do not have any option other than to move closer to VA healthcare facilities so are looking in earnest at selling our place and finding something a lot closer.

My husband will be getting 5 sessions of plasmatheresis every couple of months henceforth and that is just too much travelling for us now. Not to mention the many other appointments he has to attend for.

So the whole house selling/buying thing has begun in earnest.

Not that excited about it all to be honest but trying to be positive.

Hope all is well in your worlds.

Husband is in hospital

 We have been at VA hospital for a week and a bit. Had to take my husband to the local ER then they transferred him to MU hospital then to VA hospital. He is midway through a course of 5 plasmatheresis treatments which will be finished on Friday so then we shall be able to go home. I have been trying to keep up with blog reading. He is out of danger now but his disease is robbing him of the use of his legs.  While we are stuck here I have been looking at properties around this area. Will blog more next week.

Nicer weather so far this week

 So far this week the weather has been very pleasant.  I think though we may be in for some storms overnight.  We are off to the VA hospital tomorrow for an appointment for my husband so I hope it eases up for the journey.

I was pondering on buying some more die cut salutations for my cards eg. Happy Mother's day, Thank you, With Sympathy, and so on.  I searched online but couldn't find exactly what I wanted without spending more money than I wanted so I decided on just buying a set of the alphabet in both upper and lower case.  They arrive today and I might have, sort of, perhaps, possibly, added a set of rectangular nesting frames to the order. 😊 Looking forward to getting them later on in the mail.

I had forgotten that I had made a 'Thank You' card too but I had also forgotten to take photos of it before we sent it off.  So, nothing to see here, moving on, as they say.

Spring bulbs are beginning to sprout up, we are always a lot later here than back in the UK.  It will be nice to see them.  It will soon be time to get the mowers running again ready for when the grass takes off.

Having some problems with my knee lately.  Saw the doctor and got it x-rayed and everything looks OK so I am thinking it must be the tendons.  It is OK right now so I am happy.

We are still on the shelf about moving.  We know we should but it is hard to make the decision plus there are not any houses that we really like on the market right now.

Time for morning coffee, hope you are having a good day.

 

Made a few cards

The weather has been a tad weird this year so far.  Right now it is very cold but by midweek we are having at least one day in the low 70'sF.  We had some snow earlier this week which is still hanging around a bit as it hasn't warmed up enough to melt it all.

The beginning of the year is a busy one for cards.  I have only made 4 so far.  Two Valentines cards and two birthday ones.  I make our valentines card and we each write our verses in them for the other.  It's a win, win.  I enjoy making them and it saves us money.

Just realised I didn't take photos, will be right back!

This one is both new and recycled materials.  I used the front of a notelet card which must be at least 20 years old and glued it to the blank card and added the bow and the 'LOVE'

This one was all my doing

I also stenciled the envelopes

The birthday cards are for my daughter and our daughter in law.  They do not read my blog so I can post them on here.  They are currently in the mail on their way to them.

On these cards I tried a new technique of shading using the brushes I bought last year.  The pictures make the colors look darker than they actually are, they are nice subtle pastel colours. I wish I was a better photographer.

I have quite a few more to make but at least I have made a start on 2024 cards.

These are the brushes, they are lovely and soft with very fine bristles and not at all expensive.  I paid less that $6 for 5 of them.  They wash very well and dry just like new.

I hope things are going well in your lives and Spring will soon be here.

For Cherie of North Yorkshire Craft Guru

I couldn't comment on your blog for some weird reason Cherie.  We use Bickmore Bick 4 Leather conditioner on our leatherwork.  It doesn't change the colour but it does condition the leather really well.

 

The sun is shining! Yay!

 It's been a cold gloomy few weeks here.  We travelled to the VA hospital the night before my husband's surgery and were able to stay in The Fisher House on the VA grounds.  What a lovely facility for families of veterans in the hospital. I was built last year and only opened late in the year.

There was an ice storm and so the hospital had very few employees able to get into work so his surgery was postponed to the next day.  Met some lovely folks, both guests and staff whilst we were staying there.  Surgery went well but stayed one more night as he had several appointments the following day there.

Lot's more appointments scheduled for the future.

I saw my doctor for the follow up after my trip to the ER and am awaiting a call to go get a heart monitor patch fitted which I have to wear for a week or more.

We found a new place to board our dog.  A lady in a town on the way to the hospital boards in her house and is extremely flexible with her hours so Maggie stayed there while we were away and seemed to be very settled there.  Much better for her than the vets boarding kennels where she is in a kennel all the time.

The sun is shining today and everything seems so much nicer with the sun on it.

I have been trying to not get stressed over things and taking time to enjoy things.  I watched Bambi 2 at the weekend and it was lovely.  I made a Thank You card and am generally taking things a bit easier.  Only one other episode that I was aware of and that was 8 days ago so fingers crossed.

And finally, our Kansas City Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl. Go Chiefs!!!

Unable to reply or comment on my own blog!

 I have been unable to reply to the folks that kindly left comments on my last post and I was unable to leave a comment on my own blog too.  Sometimes Blogger just goes awry.  I am not able to leave comments on other folk's blogs either.  Hopefully it will get resolved. But please know I appreciate all the kind words posted in the comments.

XXXXX

It has been a rough month or more

 Christmas was very enjoyable with good food and lovely presents.  We were very thankful for that.

But, things have just kept going wrong.  The new streaming TV set up has caused us many problems and just when we thought we fully understood it all Youtube TV decided that the TV was not at it's home location so we couldn't watch some programs that we should have been able to.  Everything is linked to our cell phones and the phone wouldn't update the location even though we were sat right in front of the TV with it.  Very annoying!  But it seems to be OK right now.

Our waste pipes got clogged and we had to call the guys out who clean out pipes and they got their vehicle stuck in our back yard. Just a few weeks ago I blogged about our furnace going out.  That was fixed successfully albeit quite costly.

My UK bank card got flagged and I couldn't use it.  This was particularly troublesome as we pay some of our monthly bills using that card and it took weeks to get it unflagged and lots of costly cell phone calls to the UK.  And that brought up another problem as our new phone system provided through our new internet company does not do international calling but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could use my cell phone to make these calls....but it ain't cheap! 

They told me to put their bank app on my phone and I would have much more access to my bank details than I do on my internet banking. Well, that sounded good so I tried to get that working but at the exact time a call from the bank giving me the access code for the app, another call came in and the bank call went to voicemail and it was a one off deal!  Eventually spoke to someone in the UK who told me how to resolve that issue so that now works OK.

My husband had his surgery postponed and now we have to make the 300 mile round trip in really bad weather conditions in a weeks time.

There were other weird things happening too and it all culminated in me having to call an ambulance yesterday as I was having a rapid pulse and felt feint, nauseous and out of breath.  It seems I went into atrial fib too.  The hospital calmed it down and let me home and now I have to follow up with my doctor and see a cardiologist. The paramedics had problems getting an IV in the back of either of my hands and had to put one in at the crease in my elbow but I have two very black and blue backs of my hands.

Thinking it couldn't get much worse, this morning our current internet security which I thought I had taken off automatic renewal took an largish annual payment out of our account.  We did not intend to continue with this company so I was not happy about that.

I decided not to stress over it though as I did not want a repeat of yesterdays heart thing. 

We are in the midst of a very, very cold spell but are grateful for a warm home and warm meals.

Hope all is well in your worlds......

Merry Christmas and a wonderful and healthy New Year

A Christmas card for all my blogging friends:  Merry Christmas everyone! XXXXX

Just click on the link below.

Merry Christmas

It is all very confusing!

In a bid to be ready for when we get good fast fiber internet on Monday and we can doin streaming TV, I have been trying to familiarise myself with it. There are so many different platforms and apps and none of them work in the same way as our regular TV provider so it is a bit overwhelming.  We are determined though to get to know all the ins and outs as we so want to cut the proverbial cord! 

We have tried streaming and pay for a couple of apps so we can watch our favorite sports teams because not all of their games are on regular TV.  But to be totally dependent on it is going to take a lot of getting used to.

Will keep you posted!

Christmas is about all sorted, just a quick shop to do next Tuesday or Wednesday. I have found it very stressful this year though which is a shame as it is my favourite time of year.

😕 😖😟😒

Hope you are all sorted but stress free.

9 days and counting!

This month is going OK, and the high spot is that in 9 days they will be connecting up our fiber internet and we will at last have unlimited super fast internet and will be able to stream on the TV without using up a whole heap of our bandwidth allowance just to watch our team, The Chiefs, play a game.  The cabling and everything is done and had we just wanted the internet we would have been up and running already but we wanted to get the phone service too and port our number so that process takes more time.

My husband has to have a new loop recorder inserted and the old one taken out as the battery is flat.  It monitors his heart and as the AFib and flutter are back with avengeance they need to keep an eye on it remotely.  This is a same day surgery procedure next week.

Christmas decorating is done, cards all written and mailed and present buying is in progress so all is good. Thank goodness for Amazon. I would much prefer to buy presents, wrap and mail them but that is cost prohibitive nowadays as everyone lives so far away.

Our new neighbours gave been coming back and forth bringing stuff over to their property and hope to be moved in by next weekend.

So life here in the boonies is plodding along nicely.

I bought down our bigger tree but I didn't want to spend hours decorating a tree this year, don't ask me why, I just didn't so we bought as smaller one which came with lights, pretendy snow, berries, icicles and pinecones and I just added some tinsel.  This one is in the living room.  And the larger one I just added lights and tinsel and it is in the sunroom and looks lovely in the evening with the lights on and the sparkly tinsel.

The new tree in the living room. That pesky elf gets everywhere!

Old tree in the sunroom

Santa is happy he is back out!

I hope things are all good in your worlds and please keep on posting. I love to keep up with everyone and their blogs.

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.