Grandmuddah, Let's Do More Needle-ing, Please?

Oh, be still my heart!   I introduced little Chelsea, four years old, to the art of quilting!  (or "needle-ing" as she calls it).   After such a great time, I can not wait to show little Allegra in a couple weeks when it's her turn!  She is also four years old.

Here we are in my loom room, bellied up to my 101 year old Singer Treadle Machine...

Her legs are now long enough to reach down and help me treadle the machine.  

Steve ran around with the camera snapping pics for me, so we could concentrate on what we were doing. I think he captured the moment quite well for us!

We started with choosing the fabric colors and cutting out the shapes.  We were doing an easy quilt block in paper piecing mode, which doesn't need exact cutting or seam matching.  She figured that part out pretty quick.  Then it lead to her handing me the stick pins one at a time.  She would decide which head color of which pin went in next.  Soon we were ready to sew, and she was careful to not get her fingers near the pressure foot.

Steve went outside and took a pic of us from outside

 through the big picture window that we were sitting in front of.

She was sooo careful and had such a long attention span! We were doing this for about an hour. As each pin came into close proximity, we would stop treadling and she would pull the pin out and place it carefully back on the magnet.

 

Once each seam was done being sewn, she used her blunt safety scissors to cut the threads on both the top and bottom surfaces of the square.  Very detailed and she didn't make a single mistake.

We finished a complete 10" quilt block and I suggested we take a break.   

Within 2 minutes, she was asking to go back and start another block!  

"Let's do more Needle-ing, Grandma!"  

While we girls were needle-ing, Granfaddah was keeping little Clayton occupied.  They played with puzzles and books and trucks... plus Clayton helped load the dishwasher.  He is a little worker and follows his Granfaddah around like a little puppy!  We had a nice visit with both them as they came to stay for the whole weekend.  We were lucky to have lots of fresh air and sunshine as the weather cooperated for some playtime in the park nearby.

This park won some kind of award for having the nicest maintained vintage playground equipment for the kids.  No plastic and elaborate modern climbing structures of treated wood.  This is just good old fashioned fun stuff!

Remember these horsie swings? 

This slide was really fun, 

and Granfaddah was right there in case someone took a tumble

It was up and down and round and round on this one...

But we didn't let them on the arched climbing bars in front because I have a real fear of them ...

our daughter Heather once shattered her elbow falling from one of those in 1st grade.

We took the time for a little snack on the picnic tables in the park.  

Some raisins, packs of fruit snacks and strawberries! 

The highlight for Clayton was our walk to and from the park.  We took the stroller but only had him ride in it while on the busy street.  Once we got to the side streets, he was able to walk on the sidewalk while holding our hands.  Being only 2, he is close to the ground and notices things on HIS level.  He was fascinated by the water curb-stop valves along the sidewalks. the storm sewer grates in the gutters, and a huge manhole cover on one sidewalk near the park.  We stopped again and again so he could explore them and see his interest in something that was not "dirt" on the ground.

The dogs both enjoy having any and all of our grandtots visit.  They even take naps with the kids on the air mattress in the bedroom set aside specially for our grandtots.  Here is Clayton having a "Three Dog Night" naptime ...  well, it's really two dogs and one stuffed toy sheltie! Can you tell which one is which? LOL

I love having some cuddle time with each of the grandtots. 

Here Clayton and I are reading his favorite story: "The Monster at the End of This Book"

Look at his little toes sticking out from under his stuffed turtle.....

While the kids were here, we got in a lot of front porch setting time... 

It's easier to clean up the spills out there, and the dogs do a good job of helping!

The dogs were soooo sad to see the kids leave.  They moped around most of the evening and kept looking for "those childrens" to play with.  Wandering around the house, looking and whining and wanting to find out where they were hiding?

Finney was missing in action from about 9 p.m. and I thought he went up with Steve to our bedroom.  When I got up there, after finishing a short blog. about 10 p.m. I could not find little Finney.  He wasn't in our bedroom in his usual spot.  Hmmmmmm

I went to the grandtot bedroom.  THERE was Finney, laying on the little air mattress bed and wagging his tail hopefully.. .wondering if "those childrens" were coming back.  Awwwwwwww-------

Our Old House - the rest of the window air conditioner installation

Well, it's Sunday night and we are both totally worn out after grandtots all weekend and then some gardening work this evening after supper.  Whew... but I am still going to do part of the blog.  I will do one tomorrow on the grandtots --- forewarned is forarmed?

As for the air conditioner, Steveio unpacked it and carried it upstairs.  We just started the installation when the grandtots arrived... so they got to "HELP" us!  LOL

Were they ever tickled pink to see their Grandfaddah crawl OUT of the upstairs bedroom window and out onto the roof!!!   Of course they watched from the safety of the middle of our bed, and were not allowed near the open window.

Grandfaddah had to get out there on the roof over the front porch to unstick the outside storm window so we could install the air conditioner from the inside.  It's not too steep of a roof, and he can easily walk upright on it.  I leaned out the window to snap this pic.

 (what a hard working guy... and cute butt too if I say so myself!) 

Once he was able to cut around the whole storm window through some silicone sealant.... Then he removed that outer storm window.  We have the inside panes of glass "frosted" for our privacy when changing clothes in the walk-in closet.

Now the outside surface of the inner window was painted tight to the sill... so he had to score around that with a utility knife to cut that open... and finally we could slide the window upwards.... ewwww look at all those years of old stuff between the two windows to clean out!

While he was out there, I had him clean a layer of mossy spots of some kind of mold off the rain gutter too.  It came right off and looked soooo much better once he did it.

Now it was time for him to come back inside and get some expert direction from his two supervisors and one top boss dog.  They told him how to put the unit in place, and they marveled at how strong their Granfaddah is! He is their Hero, to be sure. Mine too!

Later we took a walk with the grandtots to the park, and on the way back I snapped a few shots of the outside of the house.  Putting the air conditioner over in the left top window sure looks a lot better than on one of the bedroom windows on the right... in my opinion.  I like it ---

 (Steve was putting out our flag---- 

and that is my weeping cherry in the front yard that is getting ready to bloom soon!) 

Hmmmm now that he cleaned that rain gutter along the top of that little section, 

next he needs to do the one further down along the front porch, dontcha think? 

Here is the view from the inside of our closet... the air will come out of the unit and hit the open door directly across from it.  It can be set on an angle to direct the air.  This will help drive the cooling flow into our bedroom to cool down on those horrible hot humid nights we seem to get for a week or two in Wisconsin.  

Now we won't have to overwork the main central air unit all night long just to keep one room comfortable.  When there are only two of us, why cool the entire house all night?  I am sure it will help on the electric bill too.

Well, it's almost 10 pm.  Steve has already headed to bed, and I am soon to follow in his footsteps.  The house seems strangely quiet without two little grandtots here filling it up with shouts and laughter.  The dogs keep looking for the kids... and I can hear their doggie minds wondering:

"WHERE ARE THOSE CHILDRENS TO PLAY WITH???"

They look pretty sad, don't they?

Gearing up for a Grandtot Weekend

Only have a little bit of time this morning to type a blog post... we have two grandtots due here in an hour or so.  I already ran to the store and got watermelon, strawberries, and all of the good munchies they love when they are here.

Little Chelsea and Clayton are spending the night.  The dogs get all wound up as soon as they see me inflate the air mattress in the Grandtot Bedroom.  It is much easier than having a regular bed that they could fall out of in the middle of the night, especially the wee ones.   From time to time, Finney stops in the hallway to go into that bedroom and lay down, wondering "Where are those kids???"  The dogs like that the grandtot bed is at "their level". They can get on and give licks and cuddles and even sleep there with the kids.

Here is a shot from a couple weeks ago when grandtot Jameson was here with his dog, Radar.   Finney looks surprised that Radar gets to hop on HIS bed!  LOL

Speaking of beds... I snapped this shot the other night.  What is the sense of buying TWO doggie beds when they only sleep in one?  LOL....   The dogs sleep at the base of our bed on their two little pads.  Most often, they are curled up together on either one or the other.  When the morning comes, they were both on the bed on the right side!

I was feeling a bit better yesterday morning and got the car over to Manitowoc (25 miles away) to get the checkup done on the transmission repair we had done last month.  All is hunky dory and it passed with flying colors!  I know it's an older car, but I really enjoy driving it and it was worth adding the transmission repair because we bought it for such a good price to begin with.

When I got home, I decided to toss a beef roast in the oven.  I toss in a bunch of taters, onions, carrots and mushrooms.  The sauce starts with onion soup mix, water, and a good dollop of Andria's steak sauce on the top of the meat.  A liberal sprinkling of Lawry's seasoning, some pepper and a good smattering of dried parsley.   Stuffed it in the oven on low, and soon the house was smelling GREAT!

This is my favorite cooking pan, a huge cast aluminum roasting pan with a domed lid.  I got it from my friend Lisa before she moved to Montana.  I use it all of the time, and works so nice to cook in the big oven at home.   It doesn't fit in the smaller convection oven in the motorhome, so I found another just like it, only smaller to be able to use it in there.


In the afternoon, I was feeling much better.  I had a "DATE" with the neighbor lady Rosie to go to the movies!  Every other month, the local movie theater plays an old movie, sponsored by the local retirement home, home health care and assisted living centers.  This month it was On Golden Pond!  They have free popcorn and soda too.  Rosie and I did a "selfie" -----  The Chilton Theater is only a block away, so we walked over on such a nice sunny afternoon.

I just LOVE that movie, and when it first came out over 30 years ago, I went to see it I think four times! I don't often like seeing a movie more than once.  But this one is different... the music, the lighting, the scenery, the emotion.  Ahhhhhhh I now have the movie on DVD and it's possibly the only movie that I like to watch over and over again.  (My favorite musical of all time is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and I play that one over and over again too)    It was so nice to see On Golden Pond on the big screen again, and we really enjoyed our afternoon.


Something Steve has been ruminating in his brain is the topic of our air conditioning at the house.  We are fortunate to have central air conditioning in our home.  It keeps us very comfortable on the main floor on those hot ugly humid days in summer.

The only problem is to keep the upstairs bedrooms comfortable, we have to crank the temps wayyyy down on the main floor to keep it cooling the upstairs all night long.  As things cool off outdoors at night, the thermostat on the main floor doesn't call for any more cooling.   Thus the bedrooms get hot and stuffy.   I get up and go down and turn it even colder... so the AC runs again during the night...  that cold air reaches the bedrooms for a while, but eventually goes down the open staircase and foyer to the main level. Ya know, cold sinks.

But by the time we get up in the morning, the downstairs is freezing cold, and the upstairs is barely cool.   Usually hot and stuffy.  We even tried closing all the vents on the main floor to help shove the air up to the bedrooms, but it still is much colder downstairs, which makes the thermostat not call for any more cooling.

Soooo Steve has been thinking.  He wants to get a window sized air conditioner for just the bedroom.  Then we can keep the central air set for a comfortable level on the main floor and just cool our bedroom at night for sleeping.

Only problem, I am not nuts about having a window air conditioner hanging off the front of the house where our bedroom is! Personally I think they are ugly.  Also the windows are situated right next to our bed, so the air would be blowing directly on us if there was a window unit set in either of our two bedroom windows.   AND that is MY side of the bed.   Long ago in our Green Bay house, we had a window air conditioner next to my bed and I felt achy and sore each morning waking up from having that blow on me all night long.  No thanks.

But---- I came up with another idea!   What about putting the unit in our large walk-in closet window??  Yes, our closet has a window.  This is last year's pic of what the front of the house looks like:

We can let the air blast from the window unit in the closet and against the open closet door and direct the flow into our bedroom.  Then it won't be blasting on our bed, but still can cool our room (and our clothes?).   Hmmmmmmm  plus it won't be noisy right in our ears either?

Our closet has a newly wired in electrical outlet that Steve put there for my curling iron or blow dryer. So even that isn't a problem.  The outlet is right near the closet window. Installation should be Easy Peasy!

Steve agreed to the compromise and it won't look quite as bad in the little window the left on the front of the house.  We picked up a window unit on sale, and it's actually larger than we need in BTU's but it's thermostatically controlled.  It even has a remote control we can aim from the bedroom to operate it from the bed.   Little Finney had to supervise while Steve took it out of the box and examined the new unit. 

After eating our delicious supper last night (didn't have time to take a pic of the finished roast, sorry)  we sat out in the front porch for a while.  The dogs brought us a toy to play fetch with.  It's called Blue Man.  This is our Evening Entertainment! haha

Back and forth they went, fetching and running, just the length of the porch makes them happy to have us play with them.  What nuts..... 

They are waiting for some grandtots to come and play fetch today

These will be two VERY tired out doggers by tomorrow when the kids leave.....

Dreary Do-Nothing-Much Thursday

Not feeling up to snuff.. and this weather combined with the high pollen or mold or whatever is taking it's toll on me.  I tried to get a bunch of things accomplished today, but it seems that every thing I started to do, didn't get done and I would just quit.  Retreating to the couch to rest a bit and then try something else.   Didn't really finish much of anything I guess.

I took the dogs out for some fetch for a bit in the backyard, and that wore me out.  It's damp, cold, windy and plain old YUCKY!

I am wanting to pull weeds, spread mulch, plant bulbs and maybe some shrubs.... but for now, I am just going to be content pulling my coleus sleds in and out of the garage.

Tonight will be down to 33 ... and they are already getting snow up in Michigan tonight. ACK snow delays for schools in the middle of May?

We are sitting around tonight with our fireplace going.  Watching Grey's Anatomy which I only watched the first year.. and then once in a while.  Thought I would tune in for Yang's swan song.  Kinda so so.   Supposed to end with a twist.  We will see.

Tomorrow I have to get up early and run the Lincoln Continental to Manitowoc to the tranny place.  We had it repaired a few weeks ago, and the guy wants it back for a checkup at 1,500 miles.  Then later on the afternoon I have a date with elderly widow next door... we are going to the FREE movie at the Chilton Theater.  This month they are showing On Golden Pond... my all time absolute favorite movie~!!    (and all time favorite musical is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers)

I will finish up with a couple of doggies pics....

Our Dukie Palooki on guard in his favorite spot at the door to make sure we are all safe... 

 Our Finney Binney hanging out on the quilt on the front porch

Bits of This and That

It's not really spring in Wisconsin yet... we woke up to temps in the low 40's.  We are due to get down to the low 30's at night the rest of the week, and they are even mentioning *SN*O*W* up in the U.P. of Michigan on Friday! ACK!

To take the chill out of the house this morning, instead of kicking on the furnace, we turned the dial and pushed the button on the newly installed gas log fireplace!  Had us cozy and warm in minutes in the livingroom while we enjoyed our morning coffee.  The flickering flames behind the glass screen are hard to catch as a picture.

(I still have to finish fixing the damaged holes in the tiles along each side) 

I posted these two photos the other day on Facebook, but thought they would look cute on the blog.  I am trying to make my blog into a diary of sorts, and little memories like these are priceless.  A pesty little pup wanted "UP" on a lap, and was doing his very best to beg his way into that position.  He won.

Both doggers were busy helping me in the Loom Room yesterday... they have to come in and monitor what I am doing.  From time to time I lean over with a long stick shuttle and scratch their backs or their bellies.  They are my "Loom Room Doggies" ....

I had chained up a bunch of loopers (leftover rings of knitted fabric factory waste from making socks) in whites, grays and blacks to make another of my thick Birch Tree Rugs.  I think they look like the bark of a tree when done.  I wove for about 2 feet of rug before my stomach muscles were bothering me.  That happens with heavy beating on the loom, and why each rugs takes a lot out of me. Time for a break.

When the weaving gets to be too much, I just get up from the loom and head over to the treadle sewing machine.  It's much easier on my body to operate and I love how it's set right up to the south facing window in my loom room.   I look out from time to time and get lost in daydreaming.  Also Finney comes up and begs for me to lift him up on my lap.  He wants to see what I am doing up here and also to look out the window if there are any birds or squirrels outside!

See my bird feeder stand outside of the window there?  On the right is a multi-tiered feeder that I can put in various types of seeds. Sometimes I add sunflower seeds and thistle seed. On the left is a lovely glass hanging bird bath I got for Mother's Day. At first, I put water in it, but then the Baltimore Oriels are out in full force in our neighborhood. I dumped out the water and put in half an orange, and a dollop of grape jelly.  Hope they find it----   Here is when it still had water in it, and a bird left some pieces of birdseed floating in the water! LOL

Oh, what was I sewing, you ask?  Working on some blocks for a new quilt.  These are in tones of lilac, purple, black and grey. I will sew a border them around with black I think for contrast and "pop" of the fabric details. 

Keeping all of my fiber stuff in order is a tough job.  Between weaving, spinning wool, knitting socks and sewing quilts I have a LOT of fiber supplies!   Upstairs in our home is a small room at the end of the hall.  I have stacks of totes all labelled, a disassembled loom, some warping tools, racks and reels.  And of course a LOT of yarn!  Since I got the batch of cones from Milwaukee last week, I knew I needed more shelf space.   I had five plastic totes full of cones of yarn too that could come out and see the light of day. 

I bought a metal shelving unit capable of holding 500 pounds.  It was easy to assemble... and now that one is in place with most of the coned yarn stacked up on it.  I condensed the yarn from five more totes onto those shelves.  Made more room on the floor with those totes out of there. I think I could use one more rack on the other side to the left side. There are three huge trash cans full of loopers behind that door to the left. 

 (Dontcha just LOVE that funky old linoleum flooring in there?  I do!)

I don't know why, but we have not yet taken out a frizbee for the new pup to play with.  Steve finally suggested it and went out to the motorhome to get a couple.  These are soft flexible rubbery ones, and pretty safe for in the house.  Well, Duke ADORES HIS FRIZZ ... we knew that he would share with Finney if we brought in two of the frizbee toys to play with.  After a rousing cycle of frizz-tossing, or better yet, rolling them like a wheel across the floor...  this little pup dropped from shear exhaustion!

 Even if you whispered "TREAT" --- he didn't flinch. 

Although the weather is up and down here in Wisconsin, I am trying to harden off my coleus plants to get them used to outdoor weather.  Taking them in and out of the front porch to set them on the front steps is getting pretty tedious. That is what I did last year, doing one pot at a time. I would set them out each morning and back in the front porch each evening. 12 big flowerpots worth. I came up with another idea: 

 A couple plastic kiddie snow toboggans! I can slide out four pots at a time out of the garage and push them back in at night.  Plus I can water the plants and not have to worry about muddy drips from the bottoms of the pots.  The four largest pots I put in the wheelbarrow for extra heft.   There is one small pot of a confederate rose from my Auntie Lois in Florida to grow and see if it will take here in Wisconsin.



Oh, I was watching a cooking show on channel 11 the other day... a segment called Cooking With Amy.  She was browning hamburger and used this cool tool to chop it up into smaller pieces!  Sooo much easier than using the edge of a spatula or a ridge of a spoon.  How cool is that?  I HATE chopping up hamburger during the browning process, but this tool makes it so easy. It's rigid plastic but doesn't harm the finish on my Tfal kettles.

Now I have to go back and buy another for the motorhome!  

 (I got mine at Cook's Corner but I googled 

and you can get them anywhere like on Ebay, Pampered Chef, Amazon etc) 

Time to gulp down my second mug of coffee here and get on with my day.  Steveio left for work a bit ago, and I am going to get some more weaving done today.  Perhaps later a walk to the post office while it's still sunny out.  Guess we are heading into more rain and cold weather for the next few days.  I will enjoy the bit of sunshine this morning, even though it's still pretty cool out, still in the 40's.  Brrrrr.