Fancy square box pin cushion

I finished this by hand today while the guys were putting my new ac in. I usually do beading and sewing buttons on the dinning room table but I did not want to make them move for me every time I needed to go to the restroom..so I just stayed in my studio..and made this..it is really pretty colors on this one..these colors are in the same fabric from my first pin cushion I made...I just fussy cut these out.
The ac is fixed and now I am freezing..dh is keeping it at 74 told him it is suppose to be at 78..tomorrow when he is gone it will be..lol have a great weekend every one..hugs, Lorraine

Contracting our AC unit

This is Derrik Campbell, he is the one that is finalizing our ac unit here..like I said before I forget how to load the photos this should have last..Thank you, Derrick, you did a great job and never had a sales rep..know his job like you do...Very knowledgeable person..He is taller than my dh and Oh Thank you for your comment on my age..people he is the 6Th person in the last 6 months to compliment me on my age...It feels wonderful...thank you again..I do need to get out more for sure..lol

Derrick and dh, Terry, doing up the contract for my ac. Sounds great too what a deal we are getting. Thank you again..will call you when I am ready for a remodeling of my kitchen..lol Wish you luck in all you endeavors and you new home...

Flowers and Weeds together but still pretty to look at

My dh friends from work. they came to get the old ac in back..He wanted me to tell you all he is single now...lol He is a riot too, so funny...his name is Charles Taylor..My dh has some wonderful people he works with..

This is sad when you prune around your flowering plants..but at least the red flowers came back this year. I am pretty sure the Angel Wing Begonias won't and the purple flowers that were in the pot when I bought them last year. I will try and do some this weekend..or get sons or dh to help me..

My Pink Peonies in blooming stages. My whites one on the side of the house are still buds..but soon I will be bringing them in to smell the wonderful fragrance in my home.

My dutch irises in my yard with the weeds overpowering them. You can see a red snap dragon popping out of the pot..the only perennial I had planted the rest were annuals..so they won't come back..oh that is my walker in front..lol

My Pink Roses next the gate way to our yard..these are huge roses and the fragrance are just awesome too.l

Photos of my nephews children and himself

Sis sent me these two photos, she said she got this off the face book site my nephew has.

This is Steven, Ethan, front, and Hailey on the right. Sis said they went to the zoo for Hailey's birthday in March, Happy late birthday Hailey...I hope you had a great time. I believe you all are going down to Florida, they live in Ga., to see grandma..hope you love your vacation with daddy..love you all of you, Aunt Lorraine

Hand sewn square pin cushion

I just finished this had sewn pin cushion...I am not sure if I like hand sewing, (haven't started that Watercolor quilt yet)..this gave me a bit of practice..I did not what needles to use or thread so did what I knew about what I sew..lol You whipped stitch the pieces together inside out and did my best to not have the threads to show..but with the paper in it it was not that easy for me..but I did get it down and not bad..Hardest thing was sewing the buttons on there as I could not find my doll needle so I uses a basting needle, I am also making coasters..I must have made over 90 in a months time besides cleaning out every drawer and closet I can do myself..it feels good to. I have read 7 books too only at bed time, a chapter at a time, hard but made myself do it. Now all of Jennifer's books are read..
Chat:
Air condition unit. We have a young man coming over tonight to finalized our contract to have a new unit put in. I just love the offer that have that we can do. We are closing the one year no payments, no interest add nor taxes...so when we pay it off next year, we just the price they quote for the ac..This helps us out as we can just take out what dh needs for teeth and wait till next year for the ac..this save us a lot on penalties..but also we lost a lot per stock so we will get that back in taxes for this year and next year...Yeah Yeah..and also you won't see no ac in my windows anymore either..love this part.
Oh, yesterday was so far the first day I did not wake up with pain where the incision was cut..it was nice..today no pain there but behind the knee..more recovery time..it will be so nice to be without a cane or walker and hope so. I am exercising and I know this is helping a lot.
Have a great evening and thank you for visiting my blog..will put photos of contract signing later this evening..gotta blog it all..lol Lots of hugs to all, Lorraine

Dutch Irises blooming

these dutch irises are right next to my steps and wanted to get some photos before they get trampled on by Suzie..lol I get more and more very year. I am going to transplant them to wear the tree use to be with my other bulb plants among them too..if I can by autumn anyway.

Another view Click on the photo to see them larger I think..

I am making a pin cushion by hand..started about an hour ago..sewing by hand..looks like an Etui box..

Flex knitting needles

Have you seen or used Flex knitting needles? This is what they look like if you haven't. They are just wonderful. I will never go back to the aluminum needles again..even if I have all of the sizes in 2 lengths.. I now am collecting all the sizes. They so far come in the lengths of 20 inches. they are made with Bamboo and are made by Clover..well, that is what we are collecting. This is a close up.

This photo shows you me knitting 4 at time..with the circular size 8 bamboo at 16 inches, I was doing 2 at a time. I use two totes to hold two balls of yarn

This photo shows 4 of the knitting part done. I now have to crochet a row of sc and then the next row will be crocheting the beads on.
Chat:

I am going to be sewing a quilt of the class I took with Carol Miller at QU a few years ago. I have them stacked in rows on how they are to sewn..I put it down because it was very boring sewing in strips..or whatever you call it..but I am now going to sew them by hand..so I have other revenues of art that I can create...It it my Watercolor Wizardly quilt. It is from a photo that Fr. Rick took on his sabbatical in Israel. I am looking for the photo and the class so I put a photo here on the blog, so look forward to it..this out to be interesting sewing squares that are one and half inch square..lol I had with these pieces the ideas of what I was going to do in adding the flowers..ribbon embroidery..I can not wait to get started..was tomorrow buy dh did not help me get my second studio set up for me..I have about 3 tables that I can lay my pieces in different stages at I sew...it is also a lot cooler in there..as I am not putting the room ac up and going to be calling Sears to fix our ac/heat unit..going to cost some money..

Dh dentures..

It is going to cost us $5000 for him to have dentures put it..can you believe it..we are going to have to take some stocks to pay for this and the heat and air unit..money we were saving for retirement but we will double on the stocks..where he works..

Sissies and me age going to be doing post cards for the 4th of July..is there anyone out there that would like to join me..not my sisters, just me..let me know and we can exchange addys..

I have put on 5 lbs..and not doing good on this with me cutting down on the cig..I feel better with the weight off so I this is my first priority for me..but at the same time cut down on the cig..I worked to hard to get it off and I feel great wearing clothes I haven't worn so long..Till next time, have a good day and thank you for visiting my blog and will keep up with what I am doing now. lots of hugs to all, Lorraine

My Early Mother's Day gift from dh

My dh bought this wonderful crock pot. It is awesome. It has 3 sizes of bowl that comes with it. 2, 4 and 6. I used it yesterday to make my spaghetti sauce and cooked it all day long. I have or had two others, a huge one and a small one. Gave the larger one to my oldest son..and I am not sure if I will give the smaller one away, as I might need to make two different meals at one time..for a gathering. It cost $39.99 at Walmart in Millington. The reason dh bought it earlier is that when we went to the Watmart in Raleigh it was $49.99..so Sunday night he went back to save $10 and it is worth every penny. Those 3 little dots you see is for the size that you use. I now have it on the counter as I always had to wait for dh to get the larger one down. Now it is at my reach at all times...I use a crock pot like I do my oven. I have always cooked my roast frozen in the oven and now can do them in the crock pot..Want do you all think..now we do not have to have different sizes of them around where they take up any more space..lol

Knitted and Crocheted bead edges Coasters

These are the latest ones I just finished last night. I do forget how to put the photos in the blog..lol so we will go from present to pass..lol I love the orange and green and yellow ones.
I am not a orange or yellow person but these are very pretty. This is an easy project that one can take every where where as a sweater or shawl is to large for me to carry around. I have made a total of 74..I have taken out some of the very first ones as I got this pattern from a beading magazine. When you crochet the beads on the outside, it turned them into a circle, the very last photos, you can see this. They are also 5 inches large, to large for me. So I have almost redone the whole design myself so they can lay flat and the coaster is smaller.

I just loved knitting these the colors were so subdue and these are their way to my mother in law and hope she likes them.

These are some of my mixed coasters, larger ones and my smaller ones. I gave most of these away already. I will make another purple for me. My youngest son wanted the red and my oldest one wanted the black. My youngest son wanted another set of black so just did them yesterday too.

These are the older ones and gone already..these are the 5 inches.

these are for sure the first ones..lol

Miscellaneous Photos

Suzie on her 15th Birthday in March. She has more gray then I do.. Poor thing, when she gets up she is so slow and has to stretch her body before she can walk. She is very deaf. We have to raise ours voices quiet loud when we let her out and/or call her around the house. But yet when she is out side she hops around like a young puppy dog and has a lot of spirit. We heard of the oldest dog at age of 21 dying in March..

On Easter I finally got a great shot of the clock, 4 feet round on his wall above the living room. It looks great there.

I cut the lower branches of the dogwood below so I could bring them in and put in a vase for me and Mom on Easter Sunday. I am trimming the lower branches so we can avoid cutting down the tree. It is right before the entrance of my shed. Here you see a side view on the bottom. Also two Easter cards from my sisters, Mary and Patti, we did a swap for Easter...I ended up making a Trading Post Card..smaller one.

Next set of photos will be a lot of photos of my coasters..I have made over 70 of them in the last 3 weeks.

Allergic reaction to the patches

Hi all,
Well, after 3 days of using the patches even though it was itching and rash appearing, I continued to used them for a total of 5 days..but then I had a hard breathing at time, got the cold sweats and knew I could not use that at all. On Easter day, I had to go cold turkey..I did fine till that evening. I am smoking but I have really cut down. I cried because it really was working and I knew I needed help. I had gain 2 lbs which is not to bad..right now I have decided as long as I do smoke as much as I did and keep on trying to quit I will eventually get there. It might take awhile but I am not going to quit trying. I had the depression really bad for a few days going cold turkey, I have been there and did not like going that way at all...I thank all of you that gave me praises that I needed, I gave it my best shot...They have the gum and also I was told about acupuncture..not sure about any of them. but to me my best bet is to cut down slowly till I have hardly any nicotine in my system. I also found out that I burnt my cig away a lot. I tried to do as my sis did, smoke the whole cig at one sitting and I have lit one and took a few puffs and left it to do other stuff and came back and took a couple more puffs..so I know now that that few puffs was good enough for me..I still need your support..and hope I still have it. I thank you again.
I have read all but two books from Jennifer Chiaverini..got the last one in the mail yesterday... I decided not to go to Eureka Springs Arkansas to see her as I do not think my knee will take such a long drive. so that will have to be another time. I guess when I run out of her books, there is all of the Nora Roberts books that I have been buying over the years..so I think I have about 7 or 8 to read and than I think I am going to library and check books out as I am running out of shelves to put them in..lol
To make myself feel good about myself I have been putting on my jewelry which I usually only wear when I go out the door..it makes me feel good and also some days I will put on my nicer clothes instead of my every day clothes..now that I am a few sizes smaller it just makes me great..now all I have to do is be able to bend over my tub to get rid of the gray, haven't dyed it since Nov..but I do not feel bad about the gray, especially when one gets about 5 compliments about ones age..so far the last one thought I had started knitting when I was 2 years old when I told him I had been knitting for 41 years..lol. boy did I thank him, told him I was 60 years old..so it makes one feel even better.
I am still using olive oil on my skin and it does wonderful and will not stop using it.. My mom gave some olive oil which is called sweet olive oil..it had the scent of the oil and old wise Hawaiian woman used on me in Hawaii. I had really bad spasms in my stomach for months when I was first there, so my girlfriend, Chermain took me to see this woman. she rubbed hot oil on my stomach for an hour or so. It did help for a few days but since I did not know what was causing the spasms it came back..I found out I was allergic to the Hawaiian beef there so I did eat beef anymore while I was there, almost 6 years..when we came back here to mainland I did not eat beef for the longest time. I eat very little beef now..it has never been my favorite meat. I love my pork and than chicken...always have. My dh will buy a couple of good steaks and he always ends up eating both, I might have a few bites and that is it.. Anyway I am now taking cinnamon pills in the morning it is suppose to help your sugar and also something else and I forgot..lol
Now I am going to get some fish oil which is great for a lot of stuff.
I have finally for a bit finished all the knitted and crochet coasters..my sons wanted some, Mike with black and black varigated and my son Terrance red and red vargiated and also wants another set in black and finished those today. I want a red set as I gave away both..but will pick these up again later on..I will put the photos of these I promise on the blog tomorrow, photos are taken but need to be downloaded and sized..I can do this tomorrow. thank you for reading my blog and been a faithful friend..lots of hugs, Lorraine

Using the patch to quit

I have started the patch over 9 hours ago and so far I can not believe it is working for me. I have no cravings. When I got up this morning before putting the patch on, I wanted a cig so bad but I did not since I had hid what I had left. (yesterday I was going to start but forgot to hid them and pick one up and that did that but did cut down a lot). The only I am constantly doing is reaching for a cig but not craving to smoke one. This is of the mind I think. Always having a cig in hand. After a few time I just told myself that there is nothing there and it has worked. I have not broken out in a rash, nor have I turn red, I did get a little nausea for a few minutes. No other side effects so I believe that it will work for me..So all wish me good luck on this. What made me quit..is that my dh came home a week and a half ago telling me it cost him $70 for two cartons of cig at the Navy Exchange. Well, I just refuse to pay that much money for them and have been wanting to quit for awhile. Anyway the cig co are not getting anymore from me. I still have a carton and half left so will give them away or my son can give them away, whatever I am not going to smoke another cig.
Olive Oil on my psoriasis it working like a charm. It turns the areas I put it on a darker shade of color but it does not let it grow and it is getting so smooth and slowly getting smaller, if I happen to itch it bleed now..so I do try and stop from doing that.
I did cut my hair and cut it too short on the top and sides and now my hair is always flopping on my face, It is still long though..but will do something later with it..haven't dyed it since Nov..not sure if I will, we will see.
I went through my closet and packed away the really really loose clothing and you can not believe this, I am not getting into clothes I have not wore in over 10 years and it feels wonderful, just hope I do not gain to much quitting but will get on track if I do.
Since the economy has been so bad I think a lot of people are doing genealogy now as I have received over 22 emails with the postings I put in the genealogies area over 10-12 years ago, so I will going back to being a genealogist. I am going to see if the few states that I helped out still need some help...I have helped out 3 states doing the 1930 census and it was fun to do.
I will go back to taking classes but just not now. The only class I will take in the near future is with Dale Rollerson with Ratty Tatty Papers . I have done all of what she is teaching but want to get back into being with others in doing creative works of art. She will let me know when she has another class,
I bought a book called Knit and Felt, so I will still knit but will wet felt the projects I do and also do some wet felting art scenes that I have been wanting to do.
There is more to chat about but I think I will when I do the photos again wish me luck in quitting. lots of hugs and thank you for visiting my blog, Lorraine

Checking In again

Hi all,
well, who ever is still viewing my blog..told sis I might as well get rid of it and she disagreed.
I am still not doing so well, can make one like who is constantly busy go nuts when one can not do what one wants to...I am slowly accepting this but it has been a fight within me..lol
I am still knitting and that is about all.
I tried to clean out my closet and so on..ended up not being able to do anything because of the pain for a few days, was it worth it, yes..I have a very neat closet, threw away many shoes, and put away my fatter clothes that I no longer can wear..it is so nice to be able to wear something you haven't been able to wear in over 10 years..I am still losing but not as fast as before, but that is OK with me..if I can average a pound a week I am happy. My Dr was thrilled and also I had a great check up and sugar has gone even more..yeah for me..on the right track after all these years..My ortho dr did not give me good news...my knee is damage, when he told me this, I asked if he did it..he said no..it is my arthritis..well, I knew i had it and I still think he left it alone it would have healed a lot better...my son who designs things for your spinal and knee said it might take me another 4 months..I really do not mind if it does, but surely I would love to off the walker and on to my cane..can not yet, the knee cap is still buckling on me and still on at least 3 and sometimes 4 pain pills yet..but that is my life for now..
I have taken a lot of photos but did not get to put them here tonight. I will tomorrow or the next day, I was searching for more books..I have misplaced or lost 4 of my Jennifer quilting books so I ordered them the new ones I have not read..I did enjoy reading a chapter every night before bed..
I hope every one is doing fine and life is good for you all, lots of hugs, Lorraine and again I thank those who view my blog.