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Category: Thrift Store Finds | Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:54 pm

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I really like this particular thrift store. It is run by a group of churches and what they get they sell. Goodwill and Salvation Army decide what goes to each store by the demographics of the area it is in, so we don't always get the good stuff.

This toadstool was painted in a ceramics class by someone named Susan.



I had to lay the table down to get the right background contrast for a decent picture. And there is more green in than the picture shows.



This is the top of the table, it is a half round and will be going out in the secret garden I have planned for next year.







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Fred is looking a little frayed around the edges

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 6:39 pm

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And across the middle, up one side and down the other and generally all over. Last week I was hoping to fight this "crud" successfully so I stayed inside instead of getting out in the cool weather. Failing to successfully fight it means that since Saturday I have barely been able to go out to fill the birdbaths and feeders.

The yard and beds are pretty much covered with Pecan leaves. Did you know that pecan leaves do not fall individually, the short stems each holding 10-12 leaves fall off in one piece. That makes for a much messier look. And the Hackberry tree has not even started dropping it's leaves.

I need at least another 10 bags of mulch out there. There is one good sized section that I totally forgot to put extra mulch on back in Sept, therefore the weeds have gained confidence enough in their strength that they have begun to advance over the entire area. My Friday project will be to set upon them like ducks on June bugs and show them who is really in charge out there.

The Cannas have to be thinned out and replanted. Some are going to Lisa and some to a friend of Randy's. I really need to do the new extension of the main bed so I can get the lavender plants in the ground.

And for readers unaware of the identity of Fred
http://www.gardenstew.com/blog/e285-1-why-the-name-fred.html



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Can you spell......?

Category: Grandson Stories | Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:49 pm

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My two grandsons came over yesterday to spend a couple of days with us during their Thanksgiving week off from school.

Austin is almost 11 and is content to have either his Game Boy or the Nintendo controller in his hand for however long he can get away with it.
But Nicky who is 7 isn't as enamored of video games as his brother so he will come into the livingroom off and on during the day to watch a movie or draw pictures. Sometimes his wandering around the kitchen includes him telling me that "Sometimes my Mom will let me have candy". When asked "Is that right?" he will usually admit that it isn't really as often as sometimes. But since this is Gramma's house, the rules are more lax than at home.

Yesterday he was drawing us a really pretty picture and started spelling random words. I started giving him words to spell and he did without missing a one.
Then I said spell "Encyclopedia" (any of you other old people remember learning to spell that from the original Mickey Mouse Club?) He gave me a funny look and asked what a cyclopedia was. I explained it was a bunch of books where you could find out just about everything about everything. You could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he absorbed this information....then he spelled "B O O K S"



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He started to say the "S" word

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 3:18 pm

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I was watching the morning news and weather report on my favorite TV station this morning. Actually not really watching it, using it for background noise while I was reading the newest posts on the Stew.

The weekend weatherman was giving the standard one week forecast when my ears pricked up at what he had begun talking about. He said that it looked like our weather pattern would be changing drastically around the end of November. That could mean either we were going back to summer weather or heading into something called winter weather which we have not seen much of in the last few years.
I left the computer and gave him my full attention....with apprehension tho, because I was so afraid he would use the term "warm up" or worse yet "heating up" somewhere in the comments.

So I am standing in the doorway between my room and the livingroom listening intently. He says that around the end of November the atmosphere would do a complete flip.....that usually means either a High pressure system will move in or leave and since we have been having much cooler temps, there has not been a High pressure system over us. This left me with a feeling of dread, remembering the extremely high temps we have when the High pressure system is there. So there I stand chanting "cold and rain, cold and rain, cold and rain" My heart is saying PLEASE and my head is saying don't get your hopes up.

I must have some power that has been previously unknow to me, because he started saying that this "atmospheric flip" would bring us some temperatures colder than we have had in a long time. WooooHoooo, sounds good. Then I notice he has a big smile on his face and is saying that it could even bring us some ........but he doesn't say the "S" word. He hesitates (I'm holding my breath), his smile gets bigger (I'm about to pass out standing there) and says "lets call it really cold rain for now".
I don't think we have had ice or snow this time of year since the freak ice storm on Thanksgiving day 1993.

All too well, I know that those forecasts can and more often than not, do change as the date of the predicted event gets closer. I have had the "weather rug" pulled out from under me hundreds of times. But that doesn't mean I can stop myself from getting a little excited about the prospect. After all, so far this fall we have had more cool weather than we have in a few years....and.....there was that ice storm in 1993....and....in early December 1983 we had 10 days with temps never going above freezing and snow on the ground for all of those days....and....in the early 1980's we had snow flurries on Christmas Day. So see there is proof that hell has frozen over in the past, so there is a chance it will again.

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The wind is my music today

Category: Puttering Around The House | Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:32 pm

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We are having winter weather today, the likes of which we haven't had in what seems to be many years. I can not make myself settle in one place for very long, I want to watch this beautiful weather from as many windows as I can.

The high wind, 25-30 mph with gusts of up to 40 mph, means there will be a lot of nekked trees by the time it dies down. It is making the window in my room rattle but since the room was rebuilt last summer at least the interior walls don't rattle any longer...in a weird way I sort of miss that.
I don't miss the fact that this room used to feel like ice in the winter. After the construction, Randy added ductwork to bring the heat and AC into here from the central unit.

We were getting a heavy drizzle which brought the temp down from 50 to 45 in just under an hour with a wind chill of 38.

Course today is trash day which means some of the plastic bottles from the recycle bin are rolling down the street and I will have to go collect them later.

I also get to wear my special dress. It is black knit, almost floor length, long sleeves and has white snowflakes on it. I wear it on really cold days because it keeps me warm and only on really cold days because I don't want to wear it out too quickly since I can not find another one.

This type of day is my 3rd favorite kind.









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My downfall are Thrift stores and 1/2price Book stores

Category: Thrift Store Finds | Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 3:48 pm

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Thrift Stores and several Half Price Books stores really like to see me come thru their door...and I am more than willing to make them happy by doing just that.

I have yet another gardening related book to add to the stack of unread books.....Why We Garden - Cultivating a Sense of Place by Jim Nollman. Plus a couple of books on weaving and another knitting book.

I have a really good excuse for making so many trips to thrift stores, several months ago I quit using the dishwasher and will be getting rid of it as soon as we find an interesting and useful cabinet to replace it in the kitchen. Over the last few years one store in particular has had several really cool pieces that were removed from older homes but of course at that time we had no place to put any of them. Now that we have the space, there aren't any available. We try to make a trip to the largest of those shops at least once a week since their stock comes and goes so quickly. At the same time, since we are there I may as well look around for any fun things they might have gotten in since our last visit.

I found this green wicker plant stand and small purple wishing well shaped planter yesterday....


Last Saturday when my daughters and I were spending the day together we stopped at a large Salvation Army shop, I found a small spinning wheel but they wanted $50 for it. Last night Randy and I went there again looking for an old radio cabinet to convert to hold our stereo...the spinning wheel was still there waiting for me I think and this time it had a $30 price sticker next to the original one. When the clerk rang it up, she took 50% off, so we got it for $15. Even if it is never usable for spinning, at that price it makes a really cool decorative piece in our country cabin looking livingroom.




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When will I stop buying plants....this year?

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:11 pm

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The problem is all Amanda's fault. She is attending the local community college and since she still doesn't drive I have to take her and pick her up. No biggie except that between our house and the college is a really nice garden center. Or maybe it is my car's fault....it seems that all I have to do after dropping her off is to think of a plant or comment (to no one but myself) on a plant I see along the street and the car turns into the parking lot of the garden center. Or it could be the fault of the garden center... if they opened up an hour later each morning I would already be home at that time, if they didn't have a 50% off sale on this summers plants going on.
But then it could just be that I am weak and even after whining this summer about the death of my garden in the drought, I find that I can not resist more plants.

This morning, as a case in point, I found myself sitting in front of said garden center looking at the big yellow 50% OFF signs. After wandering thru the center and passing right by table after table of Pansy...I really do not like Pansies. I found the Herbs....4 small pots of Rue and 2 pots of Fennel jumped onto the cart that I was pushing. I really don't know how I came to be pushing that cart, I was just going to enjoy a few minutes wandering and looking at the plants, but there it was, with 6 small pots of herbs sitting on it and my hands on the handle. Wandering some more I suddenly found the cart now also held an end of season Turk's Cap, two Fall Aster's in lavender and deep purple, a Carolina Jessimine and a miniature Caladium for that little cart I pictured with the birdhouse on a stick in another blog entry. Okay, this is enough I thought and headed for the check out counter....passing some Toadstool statuary on the way. One of the salesmen asked if I could read the price....not referring to my age but the fact that it had been sitting out in the rain and sun for several weeks. I couldn't, he could (okay maybe it was my old eyes) but the price was 10 times what I was willing to pay. He wandered up to the front of the inside store area and found a smaller one for $30....no thank you, I said, if it was under $20 I would.....he said you can have it for $15.....I guess I reminded him of his grandmother which sometimes is a good thing and sometimes just ruins the way I imagine myself looking. So the toadstool piece joined the plants on the cart.
At the checkout counter there was a display of mini plants....ornamental peppers and Kalanchoe. I have a really cool green cone shaped planter on a cool stand and this bright red Kalanchoe was just perfect for it.

So the newest plants are out back waiting to be planted. But since by buying so many plants over the last two months I have probably assured that we will indeed have a cold winter, I needed pots to put them in so they can be brought into the back room on those freezing nights. Not liking the plain, ordinary clay pots very much I headed off to the thrift stores in search of something completely different. I already had two old stockpots for two of the Rue, these will hold the others.


So tonight Randy and his pickup truck will take me to the Home Depot Landscaping center for potting soil. I need about 6 large bags, for these plants and some large Halloween cauldrons I got for transplanting the Lantana this fall. I have three that need to be moved out front but they will spend the winter in the large pots until the front yard is ready for them.
Tomorrow I will be potting the newest plants and moving my precious purple Iris.




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Projects...this year and next

Category: Random bulletins from my brain | Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:06 pm

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Of the five major indoor projects I wanted us to complete this year, only two were done - the wall of shutters and the wall of bookcase in my new room. The others, re-doing our bedroom, re-doing Randy's home office/workroom and replacing the sliding glass patio door with a wall and regular doors have been moved to the list for next year.....again.

Then there are the outdoor projects, replacing some of the eaves where the squirrels chewed thru to get into the attic, paint the house, make paths in the back yard and start re-doing the front yard. None of which were done mainly because neither of us wanted to work in the gosh awful heat we had.

My personal project was knitting ponchos and scarves for the women and girls at the local women's shelter. I have a dozen of each ready to be delivered next week and will make more off and on during the year for new comers they have. I really enjoyed making them, choosing the colors and patterns....it is just terrible that they are needed under those circumstances.

Next years project for me is to concentrate more on painting or pretending I know how anyway. That includes the inside of the kitchen cabinets and the doors to the linen closet/laundry hamper in the hallway and maybe even the bedroom doors. Who knows how obsessed I will become once I get started.

I have always had so many things I wanted to try my hand at that either I never got around to most of them or I dabbled in each one and never got really good at any of them. Quilting and knitting are the only ones I have spent any length of time perfecting in anyway. I really have to rethink things. I have accumulated the supplies for so many ideas that have been sitting in baskets, boxes or jars on my shelves waiting for me to get around to doing them that I am beginning to feel pretty stressed when I go into my craft room, therefore I do not go into my craft room because of the stress, hence nothing gets done.
Between now and the new year I really have to go thru my assorted supplies and fearlessly weed out things.
Just hope I have the courage to actually do that.



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One More Contest Quilt

Category: My Crafty Side | Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:30 pm

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This is the last one, I promise. I have pictures of lots more and they all came out great, but the ones I have entered into my blog are the ones I am most pleased with.

Back in 2002 I entered this one in the Dallas Quilt Show competition. It didn't win anything and this time it really surprised me. I went to the show, saw the winners and know that mine was better made than a couple of them. But then I started reading the makers names and affiliations and realized that, as in a lot of the larger quilt shows, you really should be a member of the sponsoring quilt guild to have a chance.
From 2000-2003 there was a line of fabric put out by designer Micheal Miller called Texas Wildflowers...gorgeous stuff. He had come down here in the spring one year, took hundreds of photos along our roadsides of the wildflowers then used them as his inspiration for the fabric. Thousands of yards were sold in Texas alone, the quilt shops couldn't keep it in stock or order it fast enough. Wellllll, almost every entry that won in that contest had used that fabric in someway. The theme for the contest was "Texas Wildflowers" but there was nothing in the rules stating that you had to use that fabric, so I didn't.
Mine is a play on the theme and titled "Well, you said TEXAS wildflowers"

This one could have had something to do with my needle pushing finger too because every part of the design is hand appliqued, most of the stitches are only 1/8th of an inch apart. The black background is quilted in what is called stippling fashion. The quilting lines meander all over the place and each line is no more than 1/4 inch away from the one next to it and no stitching lines cross anywhere. And all the "flowers" are in colors of the real wildflowers found here.

The photographer friend of ours who took the pictures of all my contest quilts, bought this one from me after the competition.





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Raffle quilt for Ranger, Tx Historical Society

Category: My Crafty Side | Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:32 pm

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In 2001 I was asked to design and make a raffle quilt for the historical society where my Mom lives. Everyone on the board has been to my Mom's house and seen all the quilts she has that I have made her.
I was excited to do it but by early Sept,2002 I was so tired of that quilt. The board gave me various photos to put on fabric and my Mom bought all the fabric for it. I chose several quilt blocks who's names related to Ranger's history in some way....Indian Trails (one went thru the area before the town sprang up), etc.

Piecing the top went pretty easy but the hand quilting took 6 months of working on it about 8 hours a day. This is the quilt project that damaged my needle pushing finger and brought my quilt making to an end.

It is done in different shades of maroon and gray, those are the colors of both the Ranger high school and Ranger Junior College and is a large king size.
In the center next to the last letter R in Ranger is a picture of my Great-Grandfather. He was an oil well shooter back in the first half of the 20th century and made nitro glycerine in the bathtub in his house.

I gave it to the society president in early Sept, they sold $2000 in raffle tickets. The local bank president won it but donated it to the historical society to hang in the museum they recently opened.



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