Friday afternoon our friends Connie and Glenn came to visit. We always pick right up where we left off, and it feels so comfortable to catch up again with all our projects. Connie always brings a stack of interesting things to share and show, especially her quilting. I showed her my newest stuff I finished up since our last visit as well. She had a stack of quilting patterns for me to sift through and find some fun ones to try in the future.
She brought a baby quilt she has almost to the point of completion, for her son, using clothing and fabrics from his childhood. (he is now grown and older than me) She has been working on special commemorative quilts for each of her grown children, using items and themes from their childhoods.
We shared some apple pie and brownies for an afternoon dessert, and gabbed our heads off, of course. We showed them the newest items we had added to Our Old House. Connie follows the blog posts religiously, and is pretty much up on snuff to what we are doing. But it's nice to show her in person the stuff we had done. We go back a long long way, before I even had my first child. She has been an important figure in our lives. She even rented an apartment from me for a while, and later I helped her find a home to buy when I was a realtor. That is the home from which she shared her coleus plants with me... which I still keep going to this day. I bring cuttings in each fall to root up and winter over indoors. Soon again I better be doing that before we get frost.
Glenn and Steve found lots to yammer about while we women went over quilting and projects and supplies and ideas. It was after 5 pm and they needed to get heading back home.
And we got SOOOO busy I forgot to take any pictures!!!! Can you imagine that???
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Friday was such a windy morning while we installed the corbels (see my last blog post) and later on the winds died down a bit on Saturday morning. Steve was outside picking up a bunch of pine cones while I sat on the front porch in cool crisp morning air for a bit watching him. I snapped a few pics left and right from the front stoop.... and around the front yard.
Boy am I glad we made these window boxes,
they exceeded anything I could have dreamt of
when we built them in the spring.
Steve helped me pick out the flowers to plant in each box,
with cascading abundance. They really filled out!
The two huge cement planter urns we bought last fall
were perfect for the front stoop.
I laugh and smile at the little rummage sale treasure of the
Kissing Dutch Girl and Boy
but next spring I think I am going to put them in the backyard flowerbed.
Things in the front might be getting too "cluttered"
Steve picked up two full buckets of pine cones
using a litter grabber device.
It's better than letting the lawn mower chew them up
and fling them into a passing car...
That took care of Saturday morning. For the afternoon we had a fun thing to do... we got to drive up to Green Bay and snatch the littlest grandkid, Claire, for an overnight visit. Her parents had a wedding to attend. Claire opted to come see her grandparents instead of all that boring ceremony, rice, wedding cake, dancing and drinking ya know!
She entertained us with her antics and silliness. When she got in the back door, she made a beeline on a full speed toddler run to the toy closet! She was here last month to play and knew right where the toys were. The first thing that all of the grandkids want to play with are the two old corded telephones that were left behind in our house from the previous sellers. It's pretty much the number one toy of interest in our house.
Here she is sitting in the toy closet,
under the front stairs in the foyer.
Next she had to line up and categorize
all of the animals from the old Fisher Price Farm....
this time it was horses, cows, one sheep, one chicken and one rooster.
and she found the "Grandma" and the "Claire" little people.
She was very proud of her efforts and kept going back to see if she missed any --- nope.
We had a great time doing all the fun stuff we do when grandkids visit.
I don't get anything else done,
because all of the attention is on them.
As it should be.
After a nice fun long bath in a bubbly tub, with the set of Cup O's to play with (thanks to Connie all those 35 years ago from Discovery Toys) She was finally ready to zonk out after a full day of playing with her Grandparents.
I am happy to say she slept ALL night, right through until 8 am this morning. Ahhhhh I guess that is a little oversleeping time for her, but I think it was because we wore her out the night before? Once she popped her little head up out over the edge of her portacrib, Grandpa plopped her into bed between us for a few morning snuggles..... she read us a book, and we watched a few cartoons on the tv too.
The dogs need to take part in the morning cuddles, so Grandpa plopped them up on the bed too. Claire has two doggies at her house, so she knows how to be good to a dog, not pull their ears or poke their eyes. Finnegan watches her closely for falling food and snacks... while Binney likes to come up cautiously for closeness and cuddles.
We headed down to the family room for some coffee and morning fun time, while Claire played with the toys. When the sun worked it's way from the east around to the south side of the house, the angle now lets the sun's rays through the leaded glass windows. Oh my .... we have Rainbow Doggies!
Little Claire was totally fascinated by the little rainbows all over the carpet, the couch, and most of all the dogs! She kept touching the rainbows and trying to figure out where these great colors were coming from.
Once she realized her fingers could be illuminated by the rainbows, she kept trying to catch them in her little hands. Awwwwww (it looks like Finney has Rainbow Eyebrows.... Eyebows ???)
Steve and I had been asked by the museum for a last minute change to volunteer our time on Sunday afternoon. Oh no! We have a toddler here.... but her parents met us halfway in Green Bay and we handed her off with a bunch of hugs and kisses. Come again little Claire, as well as all your other little cousins. We love having our grandkids come to visit, and enjoy seeing their growth and changes each time they come.
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Steve saw these neato adaptors on Amazon a while back. He ordered three of them for the museum (to get over the $25 limit to get free shipping) and he found LED spotlight bulbs at Dollartree at 2 for a buck! The total lumens from 5 bulbs in one fixture is greater than the old fluorescents the museum currently has now. Plus the wattage is only 9 watts per bulb, which is only 45 watts per fixture!
He screwed in the $2.50 worth of LED bulbs
and went up the ladder to install it into the waiting fixture.
WOW... look at that! It made a big difference in illumination, and is less draw on electricity as well. We will let the others on the museum board take a look and make a decision if we should replace all 18 light fixtures with these. If they decide against it, we can keep them ourselves for our own garage.
There is so much light now from these fixtures that we actually have shadows underneath the things hanging up on the walls, and visitors can see things more clearly.
Soon it was 1 pm and time to open the doors. We also came with a television and antenna. It is, after all, Football Sunday in Wisconsin. We didn't expect too many visitors at the museum this afternoon, being a noon game for the Packers. Taking along a tv is a nice for folks who might stop and want to know the score. And nice for us to keep an eye on as well. Our experience the last two years is that nobody shows up on a football sunday. We tucked the tv in a corner around the entrance and set it on an old church pew.
When we volunteer, we are on hand to answer questions, point out things of interest, and keep an eye on things. Steve usually mans the other building with the farm machinery, mechanical and sports displays. I like helping in the main building with the household, commerce, education and fiber items.
I bring along my antique sock knitting machine to keep myself busy too. I figure if we are sitting there for four hours, I can get some socks done. People do find it interesting if they come to view the other displays, so it fits right in.
Our own chairs are more comfortable to sit in while we wait for visitors, they might not be old or historic, but our butts appreciate them. LOL
Surprisingly, we had seven visitors to the museum today! That is nice that we had some folks to chat with. One gal travelled all the way from Clintonville to do some family research and we were able to help with some sources and some information. Another couple came to find out something about a relative, and found his military record in one of our books! And it turns out he is a shirt tail relative to the people who originally built our home as well in 1913. It was a good day!
Here is a link to our website for the museum:
and it's Facebook page too:
It's late and time to wrap this blog up.... but stay tuned. By next weekend we will be doing some RV blogs because we are camphosting at High Cliff State Park near Appleton for October!
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