A Very Sweet Kind of Valentines Day

I'm just wondering how many people buy Valentine's Day presents that say THIS on the bottom of the box??

Lol lol lol

I thought that was so absolutely funny!!! Steve and I decided to buy each other a Valentine's Day present. We needed a new mattress for our bed. Vodeeohdodo! (In honor of Shirley Williams who passed away last week).

We decided that our memory foam mattress was going on 8 years and could probably stand an upgrade. It was getting a little too soft and too saggy.  So we decided to pick up another 12 inch thick memory foam mattress, this time made by Nectar. The reviews were good and we decided this would be our gift to each other. This sucker is really heavy!!!  A king size in the box weighs 90 lb. We had to use the dolly cart to get it into the house and up the steps to the bedroom.

Once we got the old mattress lifted up and off the bed and hauled out into the dining room, then we were able to open up this one. The very explicit instructions also came with a little cutting device, similar to a letter opener. It's to make sure you don't cut into the mattress when cutting off the plastic. This thing is shrink wrapped and compressed into a wrapped up tube. I made a video of us unboxing it:

It worked out wonderfully and our other mattress got a new home with someone who really needed one. It is better than filling up a landfill. A single mom who works hard at two jobs needed an upgrade. She lives nearby and we even hauled it over to her house for her on our flat trailer. She was quite grateful, and we were happy to pass it on.

Also on Valentine's Day, my darling Steveio surprised me with some beautiful flowers and a heartfelt message in a thoughtful card. I love the pussywillows in the top as accents.

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What would be a more fitting thing to do on Valentine's Day then attend an event called "Stitches of Love"??

I belong to the Oconto County HCE Homemakers, HCE stands for Home and Community Education. It is a division of the UW Extension Office from the University of Wisconsin. It's origins were a rural gathering of farmer's wives who meet regularly. They share educational skills, tidbits of hints and helpful information, homemaking and gardening skills, recipes and usually a nice lunch. I have belonged to them since 1997 when we lived out in the country on the river.  We get together on a monthly basis, but also we gather with a larger group from other areas as well. 

Two or three times a year we have a gathering called "Stitches of Love". We create fleece tied charity blankets that are given to hospice and cancer patients. We also sew book bags for a program called BooksR4U. This program supplies small rural schools that maybe don't have a lot of funding with extra educational materials for the children. They are given these book bags that are chock full of things like their own very own set of 2 hardcovered reading books, coloring books, notebooks, crayons, rulers, pencils etc. The little schools that are short on funding really appreciate when we bring these in to their students. It's a lot of fun making these and all of the materials are donated.

I bring a sewing machine and work on the book bags. Usually there are three or four other ladies that sew with me, but their main driver lady from their district had a medical emergency and couldn't come. So I was the only one with a sewing machine this time, kept busy working on the book bags.

The ladies spread out, putting groups of two tables together and work on double layers of fleece fabric. They cut slits into the edges all of the way around into tabs that are then slowly and carefully tied into knots.

There's a lot of chitter chatter and laughter going on, while we work on the fleece blankets or cut out fabric for more of the book bags. We take a break for lunch... someone makes a pot of soup, and everyone brings a sandwich cut in half.  We put all the sandwiches on a platter and we all take different ones than what we brought.  Someone also brings desserts and we have coffee and tea. 

There is always something to keep everyone busy.

I managed to get eight fabric book bags completed before lunch time. I hope the children that get these enjoy the treats inside and read their books over and over again.  Some of the rural schools up on the reservation land say some of these kids never owned a book of their very own until they get these from our program. They get to take the books home and they are able to get 2 new books for each child every year.  This is in addition to all of the other supplies that are included too. 

Most of the blankets have one side that is brightly colored printed fleece and the other side is usually a coordinating solid color. This one is so cute with the kitty cats scattered all over the front of it.

On my way home, I dropped off some little Valentine's treats to our kids and grandkids. Who wouldn't love a chocolate brownie adorned with a great big Reese's peanut butter heart and little jelly beans? 

With the leftover frosting I made a special treat for my darling Steve. He likes the leftover frosting spread between graham crackers. It was a fond memory of a childhood treat when he was little. His mom would make them for him and his siblings as a snack. On top of each graham cracker sandwich I stuck in extra jelly bean with a dab of frosting!

So that was how we spent our wonderful Valentine's Day together. And the big bed with it's new mattress in place is going to be a wonderful treat to sleep on each night.

Vodeeohdodo!

~~~~~~~~~~~

We finished painting the living room and the dining room as I mentioned in my last blog. I still had some trim paint left over so I decided to give a fresh coat to all of our kitchen cabinet doors.  

The first step is that Steve needs to remove every single door handle and drawer pull so I can neatly roll a new layer of fresh paint over the top surface of the doors.

 

I was not about to paint inside and around every cabinet. Just painting the front surface of the doors where the grimy little handprints land. That's what happens when grandchildren and a certain husband who don't use the handles and drawer pulls. They shut cabinets and drawers with the flat palm of the hand, usually wet or full of food!   LOL  When you have white cabinets, this is kind of a yearly event!

After they dry,

then Steve puts all of the

handles and pulls back on.

I did manage to pick up two little sample jars of two different colors of a soft sage or mossy green color. I chose a lighter tone and a darker tone. I want to get rid of the same beige mauve color that was in the dining room and living room. It's also in our kitchen and the upper portion in our master bathroom.  

So I painted both samples onto this extra hunk of wood and set it up above the beadboard in the kitchen. I think the darker looks better. I was worried the lighter might be too light.

I also set it over on top of the wine cabinet by the coffee bar. I think the darker color harmonizes quite well with the counter-tops. So the winner is the darker color called Mossy Meadow.

During the next few days I will work on one little portion of a wall at a time. Everything will require two coats and some taping off around the cabinetry. But it will be nice to brighten it up and get a fresh color there. Kind of like we're doing spring cleaning before spring has sprung?

But amazingly, all of our snow is melted with this warm weather the last few days. There were a few flakes floating down today but everything on the ground has now melted away. This is so absolutely unusual for February in Wisconsin!

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On the quilting side, I have been working on this really bright fun multi-colored quilt. I think I'm going to call it something like Summertime Picnic in America or something like that or Picnic in July? It has such fun colors. These are fabrics from The Pioneer Woman series.

I put together 20 large blocks and actually I did 21 by accident. So there's one left over. Then I flip-flopped and switched around and arranged the blocks on my bed until I made sure there were absolutely no two pieces touching that were of the same fabric.

I think it's going to be a really cute quilt, and it will go up for sale later in my Etsy store. So keep tuned in to my blog to see when it is completed if you are interested.

Once I got the quilt all laid out, then I had to mark each 16" section with a number and a letter so I knew the order in which they needed to be joined together. 1a, 1b, 1c, and then 2a, 2b, 2c etc.

Then I take them back down to my sewing desk in the She Shed and work on my cute little antique Singer Featherweight machine. I put together all of the blocks into rows. Then I join the rows into one large quilt top. I will go around with a couple border pieces to set it off with an accent color and make it into a queen size quilt.

See my helper???

Well, that's about it now on my blog today. Just as I was finishing this up the mailman came with a big box for me????

One of my wonderful blog readers by the name of Linda, (you know who you are!) sent this beautiful box full of very interesting historic quilting and needlework books. What a delightful thing to read by the fireplace in the evenings as we finish out the rest of winter and wait for spring.

On a health update,

our family member is doing as well as can be expected, 

and we are doing what we can to help. 

MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - *F* - Flame Genie, Valentines and Coffee Quilt

I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER F

Flame Genie Pellet Campfire:

This is Steve's favorite toy that he got for Christmas a few years ago. Steve saw this product and wanted to try to make his own.  He kept figuring and planning, but never got one made. Sooooo  I made sure Santa brought him one!   LOL ..... It's called the Flame Genie and burns compressed wood pellets. Great for a portable campfire to take along camping!

We have an emerald ash borer infestation in Wisconsin and cannot transport firewood for camping. But transporting compressed pellet bags is totally legal and safe.  It is also good to use while camping in the desert where firewood is scarce.

It lights up in just a few minutes. Full flames in 20 minutes.  It is safe to cook on and smells like a real campfire but no smoke!  Nice....   we got it via Amazon from http://www.pelletfirepit.com/  It is made in the USA.  Ours is the original 14 inch version, but now they came out with a larger 19" model with an ash catcher on the bottom.

Here are some little video clips of ours:

Here is how it works video from the factory:

Steve takes out his Flame Genie pellet campfire unit when we go camping and within just a few minutes we have a nice campfire going.  No smoke (unless you put in too many pellets)  and easy to start and keeps burning nicely.

No digging for newspaper, buying firewood or chopping kindling.   On our trip to the desert, we hauled along three 40 lb bags of pellets because we were not sure of the availability in the southwest. But we did find it at hardware stores in the bigger cities. Our friend Seann hauled us 6 bags from a store in Deming when we were down in Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, MN.

 Just a few scoops at a time, about every half hour.

What a way to spend great evening to sit out and unwind

It produces a nice fire for the evenings.  When you are ready to head to bed, it cools off fast, then it can be put away into storage.  No more leaving smouldering embers overnight or dangerous winds that could whip up a fire again. 

~~~~~~~~

My quilt is finally done on the frame with all of the free motion stitching. All I have to do now is trim the edges even and attach the binding.  It sure came out cute, if I say so myself.  I am going to list it for sale in my Etsy shop in the next week or so. I think I am going to call it "Coffee Break".  I think I have enough fabric left to make one more very similar, but perhaps a bit smaller, a queen maybe.

I really like the hooks and swirls of the stitching,

reminds me of steaming hot cups of coffee. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Valentine's Day is special for us....  

In 1996, after a year of dating, 

Mr. Steveio PROPOSED  to me! 

this is how we looked back then! 

Yes, back in 1996, after I treated him to a romantic home cooked lobster meal in my diningroom, he came around to my side of the table to lean over and give me a kiss.  RRIIIPPPP!  He pulled a velvet ring box from underneath the table that he had secretly taped under there with DUCT TAPE!  (I am NOT kidding!)  

He bent down on one knee and asked me to marry him!  I was flabbergasted and speechless... yes... me... speechless....  as we had not even discussed marriage.  Yes, I fell for him and we have had 21 years of wedded bliss coming up this June.

From there, we combined our families, 

we built our home together, 

we bought various RV's through the years to travel 

and enjoy life! 

For our gifts to each other this year, we bought all new pillows and two new sets of soft cotton flannel bedsheets!  How romantic is that? We are marinating some tenderloin steaks for on the grill tonight, plus Steve cooked us a great breakfast this morning. We brought our coffee cups out in the front porch.  It's going to get over 40 degrees today, but right now it's only 26.  In the sunshine out there, it's almost 60 and quite comfortable!

Happy Valentine's Day 

for each and every one of you! 

MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - *F* - Electrical Modifications and Painting, Grandkids & Valentines Day

I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER F

Fans:

We try to conserve on our power consumption, even though we do have solar panels and four big 6 volt storage batteries. Sometimes we like air circulation in the motorhome, whether it's to move the heat around during cold temps, or to blow at the front windshield to remove foggy moisture in humid conditions.

We found some of these wonderful fans called O2 Cool, available at Walmart, Amazon, or many home improvement stores. The fan can be operated three ways. It can be powered by a normal 120v AC household current hook up, or it can run off 12 volt plug-in via a cigarette lighter, and the third way is to run on D cell batteries. We have the 10 inch ones, but they also make a smaller 5 inch size.

What is nice is there is a handle on top with a hook and we hang it from a looped piece of rawhide shoestring from a cabinet handle overhead and it can blow warm air towards the back of the rig.

They are so handy that we have two of them and they are reliable and have lasted a long time. They are pretty quiet to operate and have two fan speeds.


Fantastik Cleaner for Ceilings:
This next modification really is just something we found that works out really well for cleaning the ceiling in our motorhome. Whoever thought that putting white carpet on a ceiling is a good idea?? The designer of this is absolutely nuts!???

If we keep our windows open, which we often do, campfire smoke can cause grey sooty streaks across our ceiling. Anytime you see a bug and want to squish it you cannot, because you will get bug marks on your carpeting! You have to be very careful while squishing a spider or a bug and Steve has to do it in a tissue in a downward motion.  Slapping flies with a swatter against the ceiling is another no-no.  It leaves marks showing the exact location where the murder took place....

If you do not seal around your roof vents, air conditioner access holes, antenna openings, or just re-sealing the entire roof, you can get water intrusion and leaks. These leaks show up as brown splotches on that beautiful white carpeting.

This is the only product I have found that takes off any water stains on the carpeting. It works like magic. This bottle in the pic is their older version offered by Fantastik.... they have reformulated it some and the label is now different, but similar I think in composition. Be sure you get the one with Oxy Power. Spray it on and saturate the area good. Wait 10 minutes. Then scrub with warm water and a brush or a clean white rag. As soon as the warm water hits the oxygen based solution along with the other chemicals, the stains just disappear. You look up 20 minutes later, while drying, and the stains are all gone! Seriously!

Here is a blog post about using it on a friend's ceiling:

https://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2015/11/motorhome-maintenance-getting-rid-of.html

Fender Riveting Repair:
This next modification is due to a design flaw. Many people with Safari motorhomes in our vintage age range have noticed the fenders will rattle loose from their brackets.  It starts making a horrendous vibration noise while going down on the highway. It sounds like something is seriously wrong! Not only does it make an irritating sound but it could very well damage the look of the beautiful stainless steel fenders if they ever get bent from the wind. We were camping one weekend and Steve decided it was a good time to reattach them. He used a rivet gun with stainless steel rivets. That is important so they do not rust. He riveted the fenders back and reinforced the material with more tin.... securing to the bracket so they no longer rattle when we drive.

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We were absolutely delighted this weekend to have the opportunity to babysit our youngest granddaughter, Claire. She is only a few months old, so this is really special bonding time for us. 

Her mommy and daddy came to have lunch with us, and then they entrusted her to our care while they went out antique shopping. We got her for four or five hours all to ourselves! 

We snuggled we cuddled we played. She became fully educated about a lot of things, including:

Mathematics with the1 2 3 4 5 fishy song

Meteorology with the sun rising in the East setting in the West when making rainbow sparkles on our floor--- which is also Science and Physics.

Reading comprehension with our favorite Brown Bear Brown Bear book, which also satisfied our Biology course about animals.

we did a stint of Gymnastics and Physical Education with the little game I play making the little legs do walking, marching, running.

Dietary Education while she had a nutritious lunch of her baby bottle,

Mediation with a rest period of a wonderful nap,

Socialization was a joyous reunion with her mommy and daddy when they came back to get her.

I think we wore her out!

On Friday, we finished up the painting and the back stairwell, and the servants stairs that lead from our hallway down to the laundry room. Steve took care of most of it as I was feeling a bit under the weather that afternoon.  Here it is from the top of the steps facing downwards to the landing.

We have no idea why the house was built with this shelf type ledge along the staircase, but we put a bookcase there to store all of my weaving and quilting books. 

Here are shots from standing on the landing, 

aiming both up the stairs and down to the door 

to what was originally the pantry,

 but we made it into a laundry room.

When I woke up it was wonderfully completed. He did a great job. The ceilings are so high from the lower landing but with his extension pole he was able to paint the entire thing. 

So all-in-all, using four and a half gallons of paint ---  for the entire foyer, the front staircase and ceilings, the hallway that runs the entire length of the upstairs, and the back stairwell plus all of the ceilings. Not too bad of an investment for a great improvement in the decor of Our Old House. It really freshened it up and brighten the hallway, especially during these dreary winter months.

Sunday morning we decided to finish up our painting stint with redoing one full wall in our guest room. During our electrical rewiring we had to knock out a hunk of plaster and we just spackled that area. It had never been painted since then and it kinda of bugged me.  I did the lower portions and my tall guy did the upper sections.

So we hauled the rest of a gallon of blue paint from our own bedroom and painted that single wall. The color is slightly off from the original blue that the previous owners had, but since it met at the corners, it is not noticeable to the eye --- unless you really look to see that they are two different blues.

Monday we packed up and ran out to Waupaca to help Dad P with some doc appts. and also Steve replaced an entry door on his house for him. He also installed lever type knobs to make it easier to get in and out to the breezeway. We will head back out later this week to finish the trim and I will paint it for him. 

Our two dogs came along and got to visit with Millie (who was wriggling with joy to see us again!)   They all shared treats after our lunch---  had to make it fair and give all three the same! 

Millie shared her spot on the couch with Finney and Binney,
who kept Pops and I company while Steve worked on the door.
They are like two bookends and do not stray too far from each other.

Dad P is getting around pretty well since knee replacement surgery.  The doc appointments are filling up his days. With all of the therapy and chasing around Millie, we hope he will be back up to snuff in time for a Canadian Fishing Trip with all three sons and some do camping this summer! 

Today, being Valentine's Day, is pretty special to us. 

21 years ago today 

Steve asked me to marry him! 

Yes, after I treated him to a romantic home cooked lobster meal in my diningroom, he came around to my side of the table to lean over and give me a kiss.  RRIIIPPPP!  He pulled a velvet ring box from underneath the table that he had secretly taped under there with DUCT TAPE!  (I am NOT kidding!)  He bent down on one knee and asked me to marry him!  I was flabbergasted and speechless... yes me... speechless....  as we had not even discussed marriage.  Yes, I fell for him and we have had 20 years of wedded bliss coming up this June. 

Steve and I bought some very UNromantic gifts for each other this year. 

 LOL .... 

TWO FRY PANS!!!!  

See, for Xmas we had bought a nice set of Cuisinart ceramic pots and pans for a combined gift for each other.  It was a standard set, but Steve missed the large flat griddle of our old Tfal set.  I missed the large "Chicken Fryer" pan with lid of our old Tfal set.   We found the matching pieces to our new set on sale --- one at Kohls and one at Wayfair.  We decided in lieu of short-lived flowers, disappearing candy or occasional use of silk boxer shorts---- we would get these fry pans and enjoy them for many years to come!  I guess we are comfortable in our love after all these years. 

And as a last note:
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!