Sewing and waiting

I've been sewing today while waiting for Don. Looks like Don is a big tease for us though. We could still get a little rain (like 1/2") but the chances of getting a good rain are looking less and less likely. It is good for the people south of Houston but not so much for those of us north of Houston.
Oh well.
These pictures are totally unrelated to the title of this post but it's all I have!
Remember back when I was spying the neighbor?
Well, she gave the neighbor on the other side of us some seeds or pods or whatever you call those things and he gave me one. (it was in a cup full of dirt so I didn't see it - just planted the whole thing)


I pulled out the trellis from the old house (I had morning glories on it there) and an odd plastic planter and planted my little vine.


Not much on it. This was about two weeks ago.


Now look!


It is growing!
The vine on the left doesn't look like it has anything on it until you get up close,


but it does have some small leaves at the base.
Since it seems to be 'taking' I may do something to the plastic pot - paint maybe? Since it is such an aggressive plant I may keep it in a pot even after I get flower beds built back here.
BTW - this is in the corner opposite my bottle tree.

Hope you all have a fun weekend!

What to do?

What do you do when you have nothing to post? I dug out a pic from last week - or was it the week before? Anyway - I finished the month 6 blocks for the Thimbleberries quilt (from 2009 - I'm a little slow) but once again Blogger is messing with my photo!


Whatever.

I can't seem to get my rear in gear this week. I know there are lists of stuff that need to be done, not to mention the lists of things I want to get done. Problem is, I'm not doing anything off of either list. I seem to dabble a bit here and there and not really accomplish anything. I'm feeling kinda useless I guess.

I guess there is always tomorrow - doesn't mean it will be any more productive than today but it will be here sooner or later anyway.

We actually have a chance of rain for Friday. We are getting so desperate for rain that we are watching the tropics hoping something develops instead of the other way around! (no hurricanes, thank-you-very-much, but a depression that pushes some rain inland would be nice)

Well - back to doing whatever it is that I'm not doing.

Still hot in Texas

Since it is so hot these days, we took in some indoor entertainment this weekend! We went back to Kilgore to the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Saturday we saw the children's show - Aesop's Fables and Sunday we saw The Taming of the Shrew.

Of course you can't take pics during the shows, but after the children's show the actors came out and signed autographs for the kids. (the kids were lovin that!)

Here is baby boy signing autographs after the show.


I seriously don't know what is wrong with blogger and pictures. I cropped this pic to just show baby boy's head shot but it loaded the un-edited picture. Since it is showing all the interns - the guy right under Jason was playing his twin brother which is why Jason is sporting that fine black wig.


This is something you won't see much - I got a wild hair and decided I wanted to take my pic with baby boy. I usually stay as far away from the front of the camera as I possibly can. Anyway - it was kinda rushed because they had to change the set for the next show but hubby snapped this one. Again - I cropped this pic but it loaded the unedited version and I don't think it is worth the headache to try and figure it out at the moment.

This is the last week for TSF so if you haven't been there is still time!

After the festival closes the kids are going to spend a few days visiting friends and family before making their way here then we will have all four of them here for a couple of days before J&A head back for NY. It has been a year since they were all here at the same time so I'm really looking forward to it!

Guess I should get back to catching up on those things that don't get done when you spend the weekend out and about!

Happy Friday!

'Whipped up' a little doggie placemat this week. I was tired of looking at the one that we have been using!

I have no idea why blogger is doing this to my pictures. I swear I had rotated it and when I pull the picture up it is correct, but when it loads here it is wrong. Anyone else having this problem?

I think we have managed to work out a time when all the kiddos can be here at the same time for a few days in August! Wasn't sure it was going to happen this year (and still waiting on one to get time off approved but it shouldn't be a problem) Wish it could happen more than just once a year, but I'll take what I can get!

Have a great weekend!

Name Change

My great-grandmother.

As soon as I hit publish on my last post I realized I had made a mistake. Sally is not the right name for my Singer sewing machine. Her name is Sister Singer! Why? Well, because my great-grandmother always called my grandmother 'sister' and her brother (my Uncle JB) 'brother' and that is what they always called each other too. It was just the two of them and my great-grandfather was JB too so I guess instead of calling him 'junior' they called him brother. Need to ask my mother if she knows for sure. BTW - she always called my mother 'Angel'.

I worked on Sister Singer again yesterday and I have decided that the best course of action is to take her to someone who knows what the heck they are doing. I plugged her in and wonder of wonders the light worked - who would've thunk it? The motor - well, that is a different story. I got it to 'move' but it didn't sound like it was too happy about it. (or smell like it either) After giving it several tries yesterday I gave up for the day and after sleeping on it, I'm going take it to a shop before I end up burning up the motor! I'll wait until it cools off a bit - she is pretty dang heavy (as am I) and it is just too hot for heavy lifting! So, instead of taking another picture of non-working sister, I thought I would show you a picture of my great-grandmother (above) since she is the one who sewed so many miles on it! I also thought I would show you a picture of my grandmother (below)


My grandmother.

I was going to show you a picture of my grandmother and her brother (together) but for some reason when I upload it the unedited version (sideways!) shows up! I don't want to publish a side-ways picture! If I go back and open the picture outside of blogger it comes up right. I'm not smart enough to figure that one out so we will just leave that picture off for now and I'll try another time.

We actually got a little rain on Tuesday (inch and a half!) which was nice while it lasted. Making up for it today though - it is just HOT. That is all there is to say about that!

Well, now that I have made the decision to let someone else work on Sister Singer, I guess I should go clean up the mess I've left in my dining room all week.

One fine mess

In between doing other things, I've been cleaning up my great-grandmother's sewing machine.

And making a big mess of my dining room.

I decided I wanted to figure out when the machine was made. (I had no idea - until recently - that you can go to Singer.com and look up when a machine was made, you just need the serial number!) I figured out she was made in 1934. As you can see it is missing the pedal. It was converted to an electric machine way back before my time, but I have no idea when the conversion took place. As far as I know, this was the only machine my great-grandmother ever owned and it has sewn many a mile.

I think she needs a name. How about Sally? Sally Singer - has a rather nice ring to it!

Anyway - I dust the cabinet whenever I clean but I can't remember when the last time the machine was pulled up. Can you say dusty?
So, I've used the vac, q-tips and a small paint brush so far in my efforts to clean her up. I even managed to put a new belt on (by myself, thank-you-very-much) I still haven't plugged her in to see if she will actually work. Since it was moved to storage then moved again to this house, I'm betting I will need to replace the light bulb (which you can't see - it is behind the body of the machine - you can see the cord coming off it along with electric motor that is also attached to the back). This picture was taken before I got the q-tips and brush to it - I'll take another one when I get her working!

I've thought about bringing the machine up here to my sewing room but she is a heavy sucker!

So - what have you been spending your time on?

Hopscotch

The flimsy. Pattern from the Thimbleberries book 'Beginners Luck'


Close up of the fabrics - the one on the bottom will be the backing. Haven't decided how I want to quilt it yet.

I decided I need to take down an old quilt that has been hanging in the guest room for way too long. (it was hanging at the other house too) I've rotated it several times but I think it really just needs to come down. Problem is, I don't have another quilt to hang there - this is the only room with these colors, so I decided I would make one.


This is a (old) picture of the room. (the quilt is hanging on the wall in the left of the picture) Anyway - now I have to decide what color to paint the room. At the old house the walls were pure white, but they were bead-board paneling (which I loved). I'm not sure I would 'love' pure white on sheet rock walls. The room isn't at the top of the list to paint but I am still thinking about what I want to do in here. I would love to put up paneling (painted white, of course) but it isn't in the budget, plus it would be the only room in the house with paneling. (bead-board paneling is just one of the things I miss from my old house!) The trim is the same off-white as the rest of the house and I don't plan to paint the trim.

I'm open to suggestions!

Time flies when you are having fun!

Bertha came home last weekend and we have been spending time together! The past two days I never even got on my computer! (I read email and check blogs on my netbook downstairs while watching tv, but I post from my desktop upstairs since that is where all my pictures are)

Anyway - as I was saying, Bertha and I kept busy! I put a quilt top together and even though I was upstairs time just kept getting away from me and next thing I knew it was time to go down and start dinner! (pictures next week)

I didn't want to let today pass by without making a post because this weekend (Sunday) is my dad's birthday!

I know I've shown these two pics of him before but they are some of my favorites


Not sure of the dates on either picture

Nice looking, huh? I really need to see if I can find a newer picture - he isn't much on having his picture made (neither am I, so there ya go)

And now for a little comic relief - here is one of me with my parents.

I can only assume this was taken in the morning since that is my usual morning face. :)

Happy birthday, Daddy!
Love you!

A little paint

A couple of posts back I told you I had been painting some small stuff - this is what I painted.


On top of the cabinet (right, on the front) is an old sewing machine drawer I picked up in a thrift store several years ago. At that time I painted it and lined the inside (this was the best pic I could find - I know there is a better one somewhere)


Anywho - I didn't want to re-do the inside so I taped it off and painted the outside white.


Added this little medallion to cover the hole where the knob was. A little sanding, a little glaze and it was ready to go.


The box on the back left is the next victim


Painted and finished it the same way and changed out the fabric. (maybe I will someday actually stitch something to go there)


Then I had this little bread basket - I'm sure there is a before pic somewhere - but it was all brown. Kinda beat-up looking so once again, I used the same paint/finish.

Side view


And put some stitching smalls in for display.

That is it for today - unless someone wants to come find the snake that I saw slither into my flowerbed yesterday. I have no idea what kind of snake it is - doesn't matter, a snake is a snake, is a snake. Either way I won't be weeding the flower bed anytime soon!

Weekend fun

Did ya miss me? Hubby took a couple of days off and we headed to East Texas on Thursday. We went to Kilgore to see baby boy and his bride. Time is slipping by so quickly - in a month they will be back in New York.

They are in Kilgore working at the Texas Shakespeare Festival. If you are nearby, check it out! With shows daily (except Monday) there are plenty of times and a variety of shows to choose from. We saw The Beaux' Stratagem this time and hope to get back and see a couple more shows before the end of the season. This was the first time in over two years we have been able to see baby boy on stage. I really miss being able to see him perform.

While we were waiting on them to finish the afternoon show we did a little shopping downtown and I picked up a couple of things.


Pink Fiesta dinner plates! I have a few pieces of pink but I didn't have any dinner plates. I only got two - they had more and ya never know, if we go back to see another show I could come home with more. :)


I'm in love with this find! Flower frogs aren't that hard to find but they are usually either chipped and/or over-priced. This is the first one I've found with the vase (or whatever you call that thing) that I was willing to pay for. (there was another one that was priced $10.00 more than this one and I had already passed it up before I found this one - fortunately I liked this vase better anyway!)

So, how did you spend your weekend?

Playing with paint

I've been playing in the paint again. Only small projects at the moment - if you look close you can see one in the background. I have a whole list of big projects to get done but it is so hot! Some of them I can bring in to paint but they will still have to be sanded outside so I'm not rushing to get them done. (I'm one less since one 'disappeared', but we won't go there)


I found this one, lonely bloom the other day. Most everything is crying for rain so I was kinda surprised by this little bloom.

Right now it is dark, windy and I hear thunder, but since I have lost count of how many days in a row that has happened and we didn't get a drop of rain, I'm not counting chickens if you know what I mean. There are even severe thunderstorm warnings. Keep your fingers crossed - not for severe stuff but we could use some wet stuff!

Mystery project

Remember this sneak peek I gave you a couple of months ago?

Well, it was for my parent's anniversary.


Here is the finished piece.


This is a design by JBW Designs called 'With Love & Affection'. I replaced the bottom right heart with their names and the date to personalize it.

I still haven't found that 'sweet spot' for picture taking in this house. I had one spot at the old house I could get pretty decent pics of pieces with glass on them and not get much reflection in the glass.


My sister had a cake made for them. Pretty, isn't it? It actually tasted good too!

Hope you all had a happy and safe holiday weekend.

Happy Independence Day!

Have a Safe and Happy Independence Day!
(it wasn't until after I uploaded the pic that I noticed Uncle Sam has apparently been the victim of a bird attack)