Just a sitting around day...

I just can't seem to find even an ounce of energy today to do anything. Not sure if we are coming down with something or we're just being lazy. Both Scott and I have done not one thing today except prepare breakfast and clean up the kitchen. It's just so cold we don't want to be outdoors and things inside are not exciting us to move. Just a "veggie" day I guess.

I did copy out some crafting ideas from the magazines that I had checked out of the library and I'm putting them in a "gift giving crafts" binder. Lots of fun ideas.

I've been reading blogs and checking some of the News sites... just burning up time.

Went to bed at about 4:30 and just got back up at 6-ish. I just couldn't keep my eyes open which has me believing that my body is fighting something off. I'll probably be up all night now.

Villa Antonio - Charlotte, NC

This is where we went to lunch in Charlotte day before yesterday and we were given this flier for their Valentines Dinner and I thought that I would share it here as we were VERY pleased with our entire experience there. The staff was wonderful and the food superb. If we lived in Charlotte we would be calling for reservations - it WAS THAT GOOD!

Wintery Storm means cold rain and possible ice..

The upper part of the state is getting snow but as usual we are getting only rain that with tonights drop in temps will bring ice, NO FUN. The squirrels that visit our feeders are really packing it in this morning.





Yesterday we went up to our land to see how everything was doing up there. There was a tree FULL of buzzards that flew off before I could get the camera out - down right creepy. But as with all living creatures they have their purpose in keeping life balanced on this Earth so it was still a joy to see them all together like that. These are the pictures that I did take up there.







I need to look up thistles as we have so many different types up there. And we discovered in front of the old cabin thats falling apart there are a bunch of daffodils coming up; we spotted about 6 buds. I'm so anxious to get up there to see what else is growing around that old place.
I will be leaving the old gateway section as I just find it so appealing to walk through. Perhaps creating a flower garden around it.

And because I love my Buick I took a couple pictures of it as well...
This has been THE BEST car for traveling as we aren't totally wore out when we get to our destination.

Rebuilding America

As I listened to our Presidents address last night all I could do was shake my head in agreement. We as American's have to work together to rebuild this Country. We've got to produce more here and export more than we are importing in from other Countries. Small Business owners need to be supported as they grow their business to rebuild the local economy. We've got to hold each other up and work together to get things back on track. As President Obama said last night - HE alone can not make the changes that need to happen to get us to a state of Recovery. We as Americans have got to start working together again to make things happen on a local level. Everyone that is afraid of change will keep us right where we are now and I for one am not living a safe and secure life as I feel that I should at 45 years of age; we have GOT to be willing to let changes happen. Growth is change... lets bring on the changes!

Our Furry Boys

Scott claims there are more pictures of the cats in this house than of our own son. HEY - Greg had his cute period and I have albums and boxes of pictures to prove it. Now the cats are just "cuter". I mean seriously - look at these faces.....

Nickie - Little Nicky" - Nicholas and his rear "rabbit" paw.



















Mr. Tesla

Gingersnaps - YUMMY!

I went looking and found a really good Gingersnaps recipe in one of the old cookbooks that we picked up at the Old Mill Antique Mall earlier this month. The cookbook is called , "Enjoy Good Eating Every Day The Easy Spry Way" with "Aunt Jenny" copyright 1949 - Lever Brothers Company - Cambridge Mass.

GINGERSNAPS

1/2 cup Spry (Crisco is what I use - shortening)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg, unbeaten
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon soda

Combine Spry, salt. ginger, sugar. molasses, and egg and beat well. Sift flour and soda together and add to Spry mixture and mix well.... Drop from tablespoon on Sprycoated baking sheets. Flatten cookies by stamping with a flat-bottomed glass covered with a damp cloth ( I use a flat bottomed glass smeared with some shortening and dipped in sugar to flatten cookies)..... Bake in a moderate oven (350*F) 12-15 minutes.... Makes 3 dozen.

Back to Rain

It's another rainy morning here in South Carolina. We need the rain but it can be quite depressing. I should be thankful it's not mountains of snow but I need the sun light.

Yesterday I got the laundry done so today I will work on a bit of housework and sew since I will be stuck indoors today.

We have about a 5 foot hole in our front yard where the old settling barrel used to be for the washer; it collapsed so now we have to fill it. Scott spied some broken tile and bathroom remodeling debris at a neighbors and perhaps we will go get it to start filling the hole. The bonus is they have the debris in black Nursery pots that I can reuse to transplant some plants from the yard. We will eventually relocate the transplants to the property.

Auntie Love

This is me holding my nephew, Phoenix. He is my brother Jack's youngest child. He is such a loving baby... always ready for hugs and kisses. He wasn't feeling well on this visit poor little man; so he needed EXTRA loving from anyone with open arms - it was my turn here.

Reminiscing

Over on Facebook a friend was hinting about how neat it would be to see some "old" photos so I went digging and created a couple albums over there on my page for before 1982 (my high school graduation) and AFTER 1982. It's been fun and I'm almost certain a contract or two for payback has been taken but what the Hey.
Here are a few of the pictures...

The Sun is Shining

It's going to be a beautiful day outside so I can see a walk in our future. Amelia will love that. The birds and squirrels sure are busy with romancing each other this morning; perhaps that means we can look forward to an early Spring - I'm not holding my breathe on that though as we still have February to get through and that is when we usually get hit with an ice storm.

I awoke with a horrid headache - same spot as last time - left side of my head right above my eye. Feels like someone hammered something into my skull. OUCH! Hopefully it will go away soon so that I can thoroughly enjoy today's beauty.

The bearded iris are up in the front yard and I am thinking about transplanting them to pots or straight on up to our property. I so want to get us up there.

The banks and Post Office are closed today in observants of Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday. I'm sure the Retail folks are also taking advantage of people having a long weekend to offer up "stuff" at a discount. I'm sick of "stuff". I need to go through all our "stuff" and de-clutter - keep only the things we actually USE and/or enjoy and let go the rest thats just in the way. We definitely don't want to move all this "stuff" and "things".

Why YES I LOVE CATS!

Can't you tell by my shirt?



I just completed the hemming on this top and LOVE IT! It's soft and comfortable and I'm sure my little niece, Abby will LOVE it! Perhaps I will wear it the next time I go up for a visit. Scott is waiting to see if our 2 cats freak out when they see it.

I do believe she liked it...

My package arrived in Maine here is her joyful acceptance...

OMG OMG, Becky's pkg arrived this morning and I am jumping for joy.... happier than a dog with two tails ! ( I borrowed that saying from Irene heheh)
The bag is fabulous,,,, , just fabulous!!!! and when I looked inside, there is a matching wallet and change purse too! I am speechless.. ......... .. Becky thank you sooooooooooooo much, this really is a 'silk purse ' made from a sows ear!!!! WOW!!
Where did you find this pattern?? or did you make this up yourself? It is WONDERFUL!!! !!!

Diane
p.s. Did I mention that I love this bag????

I do believe she was thrilled!

The bag pattern was featured on the cover of the Fall 2009 issue of Quilts and More. I LOVE THAT MAGAZINE!

What DELIGHTS!!!!

Proving once more I come from a very creative family my sister, Robin gifted me with these lovelies yesterday. They are done in such striking colors and the pictures don't do them justice really. The little pitcher is for me to mix up pancakes and it's a deep blue with streaks of green and I LOVE it! The berry bowl is a beautiful berry red. I can hardly wait to put some strawberries in it. The picture of them together is the truest in color. Robin is such a talented potter.

Me in my Crafting room...

Scott decided to catch me on camera while I was sewing day before yesterday.
Looking through boxes of notions...


Sewing....



Sewing...


And SEWING some more...


Basically I was having a BLAST! Today - I have to return to my housework and laundry.

UGLY FABRIC= LOVELY OUTCOMES

I was sent some of this "ugly" fabric to make something out of it and then send it back as something lovely.

I really had to dig through my bins to find fabric that would go with it as I am NOT buying any fabric in 2010 - I have to use up this stash. Once I found 3 other fabrics to match I got started and then decided that I was going to use up every bit of her ugly fabric to send back as I didn't want any left to be added to my stash that I am trying to work my way out of.... so... I started sewing and sewing and sewing.... here are the results:



A HUGE tote bag with pockets on both interior sides and a magnetic snap closure.




A make-up bag (it's lined with the ugly fabric)



And a wallet that snaps closed and has places for pictures at the top; a zipped compartment for money and slots for credit cards at the bottom.



I may have a few bits of her fabric left but not enough to make my stash look larger so I'm done. I'll be mailing these items back to her now and I hope that she enjoys them. Now to find a box.. hmmmmm...

Nick's Turn

This morning Nick decided that it was his turn in front of the space heater that we use to take the chill off in whatever room we are in at any given moment. There is no point heating up the entire house - couldn't afford that anyway. You will also notice that it is an excellent foot warmer as well (don't worry no one see's my legs in winter outside the house; I promise they will be more presentable in the Spring).


Once you are warmed up you just move further away - at least that is what the cats do.



Yesterday (Tuesday) was trash day for our end of the neighborhood and our "patrolman" (Tesla) had such a job - letting us know when each truck went by - Recycling, trash. leaf pick-up and the large item truck all went around and he had to run from window to window and get up on my desk to let us know about them all. Such a busy boy!

River-walk Adventure

We decided that it had warmed up enough to take Amelia down to the River-walk. It was the first time we had walked the section that had been under water from the last heavy rainfall. There was a lot of trees down and a good bit of erosion along the bank.

A bright note was the newly formed easy accessibility of a new "beach" just below the old Locks. I snapped a picture of the locks while standing on the "beach".
This photo of the Sycamore tree simply amazed us at how very white it looked in the sunshine.

And the last highlight of our trip was this group of ducks on this huge rock in the middle of the river just down from the railroad overpass.




Such a lovely outing.

A Sixteen Pound Orange Cat

You know it's cold when you see this...



A double yolk boiled egg from the eggs we got at the flea market the other day. This man sells these HUGE double yolkers for $6 per 30 count. They have the best flavor.

Happy Monday!!!

Here it is Monday again and of course there is a lot to do around here. Scott is going to call about a job that he applied for and I'm going to catch up on the housework and hopefully get some sewing time in.

Yesterday we went to Bi-Lo and got a bunch of groceries that should last us well into February if I am careful and we eat every leftover. Creativity will come into play as well and I'm sure there will be homemade bread in our future - SHUCKS! I am thoroughly enjoying cooking from scratch once more and I truly believe that we are saving more money because of that. I believe that my entire income was being spent on frivolity, eating out and non-essential goods. Just reviewing the check book ledger will verify that with all the purchases at Jo-Ann's, various restaurants, additional "work" clothes and gas we were spending MORE outside the home than I was making. CRAZY!

Garden Planning

OK... according to the websites that I have checked our last frost is supposed to be April 17th so I need to go through our seeds and see when I need to get them started so we can have them ready to set out by April 17th. I am determined to have a nice garden this year. I need to get the one bed ready for the items that will arrive from Gurney's at the beginning of March (horseradish, asparagus and rhubarb) but it's so stinking cold out there that I get to feeling ill every time I'm out in it. Perhaps after the first half of February things will warm up a little and I can get out there.

I'm also thinking about growing winter squash in the front yard and letting it go crazy out there - I wonder what the neighbors will think... I don't really care as we LOVE winter squash - Butternut especially. I wish we had more trees close to the street to shade it to keep the heat down out there. That black-top really puts off the heat when it's 100* and more. I've always thought it crazy not to have shade trees on every street.

It is 23*F here this morning - and they are claiming that by next week we will be back in the 60's... CRAZY WEATHER! Bright note is I will be able to open the house up for a good airing out. I don't understand people letting nasty air stay in their homes when the weather is nice. All those germs that build up... YUCK! I'm going to start my Spring washing down on March 1rst where I will go through the entire house and wipe down walls and baseboards with vinegar water and clean windows. Before then I will be going through our "STUFF" and thinning us WAY down. Not sure if I will have a yard sale or just offer stuff up on Freecycle but I want to get a bunch of crap out of here. I'm not moving all this stuff when the time comes thats for sure! And less stuff means less to clean around too.

Another morning below freezing...

I'm still trying to figure out if I'm still in South Carolina or not; GEEZ! This weather is so much colder this year... bright side is that it's killing off some bugs that would aggravate us later this year and I am getting more inside things done. Yesterday all I managed to get done though was most of the laundry and an hour and a half nap in the afternoon. Got to feeling not so good but am feeling much better this morning.

Greg is getting ready to leave for his drill weekend. He needs to loose some weight and get more exercise so that he can pass his next PT test in June or July. So he has been asking me for smoothy ingredients and other low-cal full of vitamins foods. Perhaps we will all get in shape.

OH WAIT... I did sew up a couple more light and dark quilt blocks.

I'm thinking about creating a border like this using these little blocks to go around the rainbow squares quilt top that I made awhile ago. I think it would look pretty cool like this.
I am SO enjoying sewing in my beautiful crafting space once more. I do want to repaint this room in a more EARTHY color - perhaps a cool mossy green or a light beige - still thinking on that one. I won't be painting in there until we have changed out the windows and fixed the sheet rock where we had a leak and updated the wiring - so basically I have time!

Scott has returned to the ranks of the Unemployed; yesterday was his last day on the Temp job we thought was going to last until March. OH well - we will make it. He has some leads on jobs so with any luck at all he will have something soon.

I better get this day started!

Above Freezing At Last

It is 36*F this morning - ABOVE FREEZING! YEAH! My back was giving me an absolute fit yesterday and I'm certain the cold weather was part of it.

Today is "laundry day" and BOY do I ever have a BUNCH to do too. Oh well such is life.

Today is Scott's last day of work at the temp job. Now we are hoping and praying for a new full-time permanent job to come his way before some hard decisions have to be made. No matter what we will be all right. Life is just taking over again - things that are totally out of our control are making some of our decisions for us.

I better get sewing between loads of laundry!

A Fresh New Start to my Crafting

I'm finally finished in my crafting room; I had been calling it my sewing room but just decided that it needs to be changed to a crafting room as there is so much more in there than sewing. I took a picture from each of the four corners in my sewing room so you can even see the "pile" that I will be starting with this year.




OK... NOW THE UGLY TRUTH....

These are my totes of fabric and yarn in our bonus room off the kitchen...
YES - MY NAME IS BECKY AND I AM A FABRICAHOLIC....




The mannequin is Greg's - he brought her and her wings home from a clean up job - minus her arms. I made him put something over her so thats why she is in the Carolina Tank top and Santa Hat.

OH MY! 18*F this morning!

It is most definitely Winter here in South Carolina! I'm staying in the house today! The birds at the feeder this morning are quite fluffed up and looking miserable. I will let Amelia (dog) into the bonus room to eat her breakfast.

I've nearly completed cleaning up my sewing room. I have one small pile on the floor of items that need to be put away. There is a corner of the room stacked with fabric and yarn and that is where I will start working my way through my stash. I have fabric in there for clothes for myself and family as well as cottons for quilts. And the yarn is mostly my cotton kitchen yarns for baby wash clothes and dish towels. Once I get worked through that I will start on the stacks out in the bonus room - I've lost count on how many containers (LARGE containers) I have of fabric and yarns. I most definitely need to just stay home and sew, knit and crochet! It really is flat out ridiculous! Perhaps I will own up to it with pictures in a future post. It will HAVE to be titled... My name is Becky and I am a Fabric-holic!

Happy New Year - 2010 Begins!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!!!!
It's the first day of a brand new year and we can put 2009 behind us. I'm going to walk our yard today and make notes about what I want to make cuttings from and what can be divided to make new plants that we can move up to our land. I'm thinking about using sections of PVC to identify where we are planting things since we aren't up there to watch things daily. When we planted the little Persimmon trees we just grabbed some pieces of wood we had up there in a stack but they aren't labeled as to what they are in anyway.

Yesterday I bought some zippers to make some make-up bags to have in my future Etsy shop; I plan to open it in February. I want to have about 25 items made and ready to sell before I open it up and I am trying to come up with a good shop name. Something that will cover baby, children and women's accessories. I was thinking about a "shower" theme but then thought of all the things that I'd like to make and sell and they aren't all shower related. The majority will be infant and toddlers though - HMMMmmm... gotta think some more. While I was at Jo-Ann's I also bought some patterns that were on sale and bought 2 of each - one for me and one for Mom. I'm not planning to make doll clothes to sell on Etsy since Mom is but I would love to be able to sew some up for gifts for the little girls that will be in my life's path in the future.


Day before yesterday Scott and I went to the Old Mill Antique mall and I found 6 cookbooks that just had to come home to be part of my collection. One I may give to Robin (sister) as it's basically the same as another and they are big meat eaters so I figured they would enjoy a MEAT cookbook. I LOVE the OLD company backed cookbooks - I got one from Bisquick and 2 from Spry - a shortening company. Lots of wonderful made from scratch recipes. I know Bisquick is a mix but it's been around like forever- at least in my life time.



Yesterday I made Beef Stroganoff from a recipe out of one of the meat cookbooks. It's the same recipe that I used to make up on the farm in NY as a teenager - YUMMY!!!!!! We have plenty of leftovers for tonights supper. Midday dinner we will be going over to Scott's Moms' for the traditional New Years meal - pork, black-eyed peas, collard greens and corn bread. YUM! We will miss Greg's banter but he is having an absolute BLAST in Gulfport, Mississippi with his friends. I'm glad they pitched together and bought him the bus ticket.

Last night we went to Lowes for a new filter for Scott's Shop Vac and we looked at appliances just for pricing purposes. We were shocked to see that they didn't have any slide in ovens. And there was SO MUCH stainless and black appliances - YIK! I don't care if it's whats in - YUCK YUCK YUCK! And so pricey!

Time to get this day started.