My car is out of commission.

My car has been giving us the red flag for a week or two. It was not getting warmed inside very well. Then Monday it never did warm up at all. Now in some places it might not be such a big deal, but here it was in the negative numbers all the way to work. There was ice on the inside of my windshield as well as the outside. Have you ever tried to scrape the inside? It is shaped wrong to accommodate the scraper and do any good. Luckily there were spots of no ice enough to dodge my vision through to get to where I had to be. On Tuesday my car decided I was not getting the message and just overheated so I had to pull over. Then the Trak phone I keep only for such emergencies had no battery (probably because I keep it in the car and it is too cold for the battery) so I had to get out the charger to try to call my husband. It took three tries but I finally got him and he came to my rescue. Man, I was cold while I waited the 10 minutes it took him to get there. 10 feels like 50 when you are helpless! Well he put some antifreeze in it and it worked till the next morning when I warmed it up for work. It was losing water. So I drove the beater pick-up the remainder of the week. I dislike immensely driving that pick-up. But I'm very glad we have it for a back-up, so I did not have to miss work or make Bob drive me each way, for days.
Let me tell you the background of this beater pick-up. Bob had to have a pick-up for his new job back in 2001. So he went hunting and found a white 1984 Ford cab (pick-up without a bed) in a junkyard for $700 which we felt we could afford. He and his brother got in and started it up and it ran pretty good. We took it home and put a free blue bed on it that did not have a tailgate, shortly we found a brown tailgate to put on it. Pretty, right? Well after a little tuning up he drove it miles and miles without any problems till they had him drive a pick-up they gave him. Then we moved over here and left it parked at the old house as a gate to the garage (where we are storing some of our goods). We started it up 1-2 times a year and then decided to bring it over the mountain to here. I think they did a little work on the brakes but other than that it has not had to have much work at all. So it is a blessing, an ugly beast, but a blessing. Maybe I will have my car back by Wed.-Thurs. It has a gasket leak that takes three days to fix because they have to take it all apart to get to it. Longer because they have to order parts and get them.

I'm attempting a quilt.

I have thought about starting a quilt for a long time, but had not found one I thought I could do. I'm a little chicken and I did not want any triangles, bias pieces, or curves for my first attempt. Now this is besides the one baby quilt I tried to do for my first baby, 21+ years ago. That I never finished--I ran into troubles, ie: fabrics that were too thin, I think some were not 100 percent cotton, it was not perfect, and when I got into it I did not like the fabrics together, I also did not know how to bind it. All those excuses mounted up to a really good reason not to continue with the effort. I think I still have the bundle of materials somewhere in my tubs of projects. Anyway... my sister sent me this picture from a quilt show she went to and we decided to make one each. I realize it is soo busy, that is one of it's charms. It also has all straight edges. I am not sure it is 'fabulous', but each block is fun to make and not hard, also on my requirement list. I have made 27 blocks. I have purchased several 1/8 yard pieces of fabric to help with this effort. Unlike my sister I have not got a mega stash of fabrics and need to build up a stock to make it possible to reach the goal of completion. I figure I will need 120 blocks, (each block requiring 1- 2 1/2" x 8 1/2" black and white stripe piece and 12 to 14 - 3 1/2" x 1"to 2 1/2" pieces) soo I am a long way from that point. I did raid my mother stash and found 61 pieces. It would have been a lot higher number except they all have to be stripes. She has flowers in the hundreds, but only 61 stripes. I have been surprised to find how time consuming the cutting process is, how long it takes me to decide on the combinations and what a big difference spray starch makes in the pressing step. I will keep you posted on my progress.

New Year

(I have yet to figure out the picture process. How do you get them where you want them?)

I wanted to show the birds I found for my mother. Her Christmas tree has birds, small red apples, ice cicles, and snowflakes.

There is this cool gift shop called Treasure Alley, that I like to go into at Christmas time(since that is the only time I really shop). They have some unusual items that are not terribly expensive. I always find some great stocking stuffers ie; geods to break open yourself, dinosaur bones you have to dig out yourself from a small block, and a square 9 pieced puzzle that has four halves of critters that you rotate to create whole animals. So when I went in to find S.S. I found this green cloisinae parrot bell. My mom loves cloisinae and she has birds all over her tree. I just could not resist this. And then as I was returning
to my car I saw another shop that I had never entered before and hanging in the windows were birds. Birds on a string, 17 to be exact with beads between them, the beaks and tails are beads and tassels. I loved them instantly and hoped mom would love them as well.
I think she did. We hung it on
her white wall and they showed
up very nicely. (the picture is at my house in front of my fridge-it does not do them justice)

This final picture is Christmas Day. We took the boys sledding. They had a great time.

Have a great 2009 New Year!

Icecicles cont.

These are this years batch prior to hanging, or giving any away.











They seem to look more luxurious all skrunched together.


















This is one hanging on the tree.

This is the one my 9son made that I have had hanging on my kitchen window.

(Obviously I have not got this process of pictures figured out yet. If you tilt your head it looks better.)

Merry Christmas!

Icecicles

I used to buy glass icecicles for my Christmas tree. That was before I had kids and worried about them getting broken. They were also very hard to find, and expensive in those days. But, oh, so beautiful! I still love icecicles for my tree, but have moved on to handgathered, handpicked, handmade beaded icecicles.

It started long ago with some my sister Rainy Face made for me. (above)

Then with my kids we made some with pipe cleaners and an assortment of beads (passed down to me from my Mother-in-law), buttons and old jewelry, to come up with these.

Then another sister from Texas came with a kit that we made, with all the kids working alongside us.

They made these ,

while we made these from the kit.

Since then I have made some every year . I spend a little money here and there, at yard sales and thrift stores on white, pearl, clear or crystal beads that I can use in my next batch of icecicles. I have started buying old salt and pepper shakers to put them in, so I can see them and enjoy their shapes and sizes and colors, until it is time to create new ornaments.

Two whole weeks...aah!

I have two whole weeks to spend at home. I know it will go too fast, but I will really enjoy every minute.
Yesterday we made some more candy to put on our 'ding-dong ditching' plates.
Let me explain!
About three years ago at Halloween we discovered the thrill of 'ding-dong ditching' (we went three separate times that season). We always make a plate of goodies (sometimes with an anonymous note) then take it to a friends house, where the boys stealthily go to the door, ring the bell, and run like crazy, leaving the goodies on the step. The goal is to get away without being identified, and make sure the goodies are received. Which means the car cannot be anywhere in sight and the boys have to find a hidden spot to watch what happens. It is amazing how much fun this can be (and how far the boys have to walk in this rural area). We have some friends who have figured it out and have reciprocated, but usually they don't have a clue. The kids are absolutely giddy after a successful delivery. So tomorrow night after our weekly family night, we will ding--dong again, just for the pure fun of it!

Stained Glass Cookies

I have always wanted to make this recipe I've carried around with me for ... oh,...maybe 20 years. I looked at my boys the other day and realized they were growing out of doing these fun, piddly things and if I was ever going to do it with them I had best get on with it. I mixed up the dough and crushed the candies on Sat. The 13 and 9 boys actually sorted the Lifesavers into the bags to be crushed and wielded the hammer some. They deffinately exhibited some enthusiasm for the upcoming project. I'm sure the idea of playing with candy was the lure. Today after church and lunch, we spread the foil in the cookie sheets, the wax paper on the table, selected the desired cookie cutters, found two pencils and the rolling pin, got out the flour, the dough, heated the oven and commenced to play. The basic concept is to roll and cut out cookies then cut out some shapes in the center that you fill with colored candy chips, (after first cooking the cookies almost done), which melt and look like stained glass. It was great fun. I have never made these and we found that the dough swelled up as it cooked, invariably filling in the space we had left for the candy glass. We poked new holes and forced bits of candy in anyway and they did look bright and festive. A few even looked a little like stained glass. They even tasted pretty good. The best part is we had fun together. I would recomend these to anyone who likes to make fun messes in the kitchen.

Stained Glass Cookies

1/2 cup softened margerine
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cup flour
6 Tbsp. water (approx.)
1 lb. assorted colored candies (We used two small packages of Lifesavers and had enough, but like I said the holes closed up on us)

Blend marg., sugar, egg and vanilla. In seperate bowl combine flour, salt, and soda. Add to sugar mixture. Add water till it forms a stiff but workable dough. Cover abd chill one hour. (We did it overnight.) Sort candies by color into strong zip bag and crush (wrap bag in towel and hit with hammer). Put foil in cookie sheets. Use some flour and roll the dough out with the pin resting on two pencils, to keep it from getting too thin. Cut into desired shapes and cut out centers. Be sure to place cookies 2" apart. Remember the dough swells about triple. (Any 1/2" or smaller holes disappeared completely.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and put candy chips into holes. Rebake for 4 minutes, let cool on cookie sheet.