CNN Heroes

Did you watch the special called CNN Heroes this week?

If you havent seen it, check your local CNN listing to see when you can catch it next.  It is a worthwhile 2 hours of uplifting, informative tv.  We are watching it again tonite at 8pm.  I know it is on Sunday nite at 8pm Eastern too.

And if you miss it….. you can read more about it here:

CNN HEROES

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Woodsy Wallhanging

I dont remember the correct name for this pattern…. I was told and promptly forgot.  Its just a small wallhanging, but darn cute.

So, did you all go shopping today?  We did.  Can you believe it?

We had to get up early (6am) to get to my 8am mammogram appointment.  Steve decided to tag along so he could go with me to WalMart.  oh boy.  He was interested in buying his favorite jeans half off, price good till 10am.  They even had his size, which is not always the case.  When the gal rang them up, they showed as regular price.  She said that was because they were out of them.  All the sale jeans were gone.  Now the ad didnt say a particular size or style of Wranglers, just men’s Wrangler.  And we were checking out at 9:15 am.  So Steve said he didnt want them.  He was SO dang mad.  He fumed and fussed and carried on the entire way home.

Honestly….. I hate black Friday.  I have shopped on that day once ever…. about 5 years ago.  I hated every second of it and swore I would never do it again.  The rest of the store experience was fine.  I wasnt there for any deals… I was there for 2 or 3 specific small things that would finish my Christmas shopping.  And never would have gone at all except that WalMart is on the way home from the hospital.

I still have to wrap and ship everything.  And still have 3 hand made presents to finish.  Overall, I’m in good shape.  Steve hasnt started of course.  He usually goes shopping twice…. the week before Christmas.

So if you shopped, I hope it was fun for you.  Yeah Phylis, YOU.  Getting up to leave at 3:30 to hit Penney’s by 4:00am.  Uh huh.  That is so NOT my thing!

And for those of you who stayed in and sewed, read a book, quilted, did something fun…. good for YOU.  Beats having your boobs in a vice!

Kitchen Bitch and WIP Wed

My pre-thanksgiving chores started last nite.  I made potato soup using Terri’s delicious recipe.  Since I had to chop onions and celery for that, I chopped the rest for the turkey stuffing.  It is in the fridge, ready for tomorrow.

So, the day before Thanksgiving is the day I am the chief kitchen bitch! Steve takes over tomorrow and does everything else.  I am so darn thankful he loves doing it.  I would just as soon eat a burger…. but that would be breaking tradition.  Steve cant have that!

Before noon, I had done this:

I also opened the cans of olives and cranberry sauce and put those in fancy containers….. called glad containers.  And popped them in the fridge.  Did the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen.

Worked on some quilting while this was baking:

So tomorrow, Steve gets his turn at kitchen bitch.  I get to eat, quilt, and do the dishes.

Here are some things I have been doing in the quilt studio:

Ive been making some small gifts that I cant really show here, because the recipient might see them…..

and I have been trimming quilts to be ready to bind:

and making the bindings…. (7 quilts total to do)

Steve got all the curtain rods up in the studio.  And I got all the curtains up.  But then they needed tie backs, so I made them.  For 10 windows and 3 doors.

And its been a snowy week.  We have mostly stayed in, but yesterday we had to trek thru the crappy weather to get my feet casted for my shoe inserts.  I was so happy to come home and put my jammies on after a stressful drive.  I hope it will be good weather Friday for the annual boob smashing.  November seems to be medical month!

Steve and I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for….. each other, relative good health, a warm home, food on the table, a new studio, Steve’s quilting business is fairly steady, friends and some family that we remain close to….. all good.   We wish the same for all of you.

Peter Rabbit Quilt

I dont know for sure if this Peter Rabbit, but I think it is.

Whatever it is, it is one of my favorite quilts ever.  I have such a hard time picking pastels that I appreciate it when someone else can do it so well.  This was a fun one to have in our studio.

Little Goldie Goldfish

I have a fish that hangs in our studio above my Gammill longarm quilt machine.   As soon as I saw them in the store, I bought one to send my sister.  A week later, I went back to get one for myself.  Her name is Goldie.

As a little girl, one of my first memories, is of my sisters singing Little Goldie Goldfish.  It is one of the first songs I ever learned and have sung it with my sister(s) my entire life.

I hope to add some other fish some day….. I think she looks lonesome.

And in case you forgot the words, here is the song:

Little Goldie Goldfish

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Little Goldie Goldfish

Come out and play with me

Little Goldie Goldfish

I’m lonesome as can be
Gee I wish I was a fish

and I could swim like you

We’d catch a whale

by the tail

and sail the ocean blue.

Life would be delicious

we’d frolic with our fins
All the other goldfish

would think that we were twins
we’d build a home of seaweed

at the bottom of the sea

Little Goldie Goldfish

Little Goldie Goldfish

Little Goldie Goldfish
Come out and play with me.

I sing with my fish every day.  I try to do it when Steve is outside, because he doesnt appreciate it that my Mom never sent me for singing lessons.

Note to Elizabeth

Yvonne left this comment on the previous post, about Steve getting the snowplow truck out of the ditch:

Elizabeth just looked at your pictures. She thought the snow looked like a lot of fun. She said she wants to come and make snow men and snow angels, and snow balls. She also wanted to know why that truck came to your house. And her last question was “Were the cows cold?”

Elizabeth,

I would love it if you came to visit Grandma Gayle and Steve to play in the snow.  You would need to bring all your winter clothes because it is colder here than at your house.  I hope you bring William too.  Oh!  and Mom and Dad!

The truck was at our house because as he was trying to plow the snow off of our road.  It snowed SO hard, he couldnt see.  That is called a whiteout.  He tried to stop because he couldnt see the road in front of him and didnt know where the road was.  And he drove off the road, into the ditch and field.  That was why Steve had to use the powerful tractor to pull his truck out of the field and ditch to get the truck back on the road.

The truck has a big plow on the front of it, and then it has a salt and cinder mixture in the back to help melt the snow after he plows.  He had already plowed our road earlier in the day, but had come back to do it again.

In this picture, you can see he is raising the dump bed of the truck to put some salt on the road.  And his plow is still up off the ground, but he will lower it when he is ready to drive away.  It works kind of like a giant snow shovel.

And Elizabeth?  No, the cows arent cold.  They have very heavy skin and hair.  It is like a warm winter coat all over their bodies.  When it is super cold, or windy or snowing alot, they go in the shed and lay down.  All of them crowd in and stay warmer by huddling together.  When they stay outside, they sleep in the snow and dont mind it a bit.  They get plenty of water to drink, hay to eat, and get fed grain twice a day.  Do you want to come help feed them?

Just in case anyone else has read this far….. here is a picture of my beautiful granddaughter …. my little princess Elizabeth.

And this is William:

I think I need some new photos of my grandchildren.  HINT HINT

My Good Samaritan Man

Every winter Steve has had to help the school bus or a neighbor or client get their vehicle (bus, car, pick up) out of the ditch along the road when we have heavy snow.  He just starts up a tractor, gets the heavy chains and goes to work.  Today was a new event for him.

This is what we woke up to:

And then, when Steve went out to feed cattle, it became whiteout conditions.  He was outside a long while… I just figured he was waiting to be able to see his way in, and staying in the barn.  But then I heard the tractor start up.  I thought he was going to plow the driveway, or at least “make tracks” in it with the big tractor tires, so someone could see where the driveway is if they came to deliver something.  But then I heard it idling…. and not going up and down the driveway.  When I looked outside, I ran to get my boots, hat, gloves and coat on and grabbed the camera too.

I was too late to catch the “real” action of the towing, but this is what he towed out of the ditch..

He was so grateful for the help, and he took pictures on his own camera.  Said it was the first time he had been stuck in 2 yrs.  He had tried to stop because of the white out, but was already off the road by the time he did.

This is where he had been:

And after more profuse thanks, he was on his merry way.

The cows werent sure what to make of the tractor and truck out in the road…. they surely notice and make a ruckus when things are out of the norm.

It was kind of pretty in a snowy kind of way.  It’s about 12-14″ of that heavy wet snow.  I shoveled a path about 12 ft long.  That was enough for me!  I didnt want to overdo it, as this is heart attack snow.  We are supposed to get another 4-6 inches by noon tomorrow.  Oh joy.

I stayed in the rest the day and enjoyed our beautiful studio.