Homemade Gifts Finished!

Here are the first table runners & hot mats that I made for my friend, sister & Dad's wife.

Front

Back

And more table runners & pot holders for the people that work for me.

The table runners are all reversible with fall fabric on the back. I made 23 various 'cookies in a jar mixes' & attached the potholders to them. Didn't get a pic though.

I've also continued to find fabric at bargain prices from estate sales. Here's a pic of my latest purchase:

This was about 1/2 of the entire box ($25 for all). I plan on making a wedding quilt for a cousin that is getting married next June out of some of this. A simple 5 or 6 inch square pattern. I'm still a novice.

For now, I've put it all away just to get my dining room back. It's very addictive but taking a break is essential to hopefully keep me from burning out. Would love to have a room to keep it up all the time but that isn't possible right now.

Oh well, gotta get back to wrapping presents.

Christmas in February

Got a call from my sister last week, asking if we were going to the Country over the weekend. If so, they (her, my BIL & 16 year old niece) would like to come up and celebrate Christmas. They haven't done anything much for the past 6 weeks & thought the change of scenery would be nice. Our Dad & his wife would be at the Country as well. Their place is across the pond from ours.

Pole Tree w/moon Circa 2007 at the Country House

Greg had already committed to moving the 2nd 1/2 of his parent's porch to the Country. So, the in-laws would be in 'town' as well. He left with them to their 'other' property on Saturday morning.

I finished wrapping presents, loaded my vehicle & drove up on Friday afternoon. I had to get there ahead of time, as I haven't dusted in forever. Which actually was a blessing in disguise as there had been a terrible wind storm during the week. No matter how sealed your house is, when the wind is blowing & the farmers are harrowing & people are driving up & down the dirt road, dust & grit gets in and settles. It only took me about an hour to do a somewhat thorough job (it's a small house <1300 sq. ft.). I took a suggestion I had read about recently & used damp micro fiber towels (we have a boatload of them) on the swiffer for the floors. It did a great job. I also got the sheets washed & the beds made up & then ate a salad.

They arrived around 7:00p, after stopping at my Dad's, they got to our house around 8:30a. We just sat & talked a bit before retiring early.

I got up Saturday morning & made Pecan Pie Muffins. Everyone else got up & we just sat around and drank coffee, checked email, facebook, etc. We talked while the television made noise in the background. They are very melancholy & stoic & as we talked Brooke's stories intermingled with ours. One item we were discussing is coffee. Everyone that comes & stays at our Country House just raves about the coffee & my BIL is no exception. They all say, what kind is it? & where can I find it?! I always answer .... Maxwell House Lite / the grocery store. I don't know why it tastes so good there, but it does.

Everyone went to town except me. I stayed home & made soup & a couple of loaves of bread & puppy sat with my Sister's cutest toy poodle, Lexie. She is a very sweet dog & we had a wonderful afternoon waiting.

Once everyone got home we put on a low country boil & had a fine time over dinner. We then opened presents & sat around & talked some more.

Talking about Brooke throughout the morning, afternoon & evening came so natural to us all. I am especially proud that her Mom, Dad & Sister feel so comfortable talking about her. All the Pandora charms that I had bought Brooke are now displayed on my Sister's bracelet, as they should be. It was all so comfortable & natural. We ALL miss her but know that nothing we do can bring her back so we must just celebrate her life & memories that each of us had with her & just keep remembering our moments with her.

Since Greg & I had driven separately, I took the long way home Sunday & stopped at Brooke's resting place. Yes, I cried, just as I do every night & most times when I am driving alone (very dangerous as my eyes get very blurry), but it's what I am now conditioned to do & I feel better each time I do it.

Her gravesite had been cleaned of all the flower arrangements & only held a couple of mementos, until her headstone is ordered. I wanted it to all be a bit neater, but will wait until my sister moves forward to keep it as I know Brooke would want it.

It's quiet, out of the way & peaceful there. Like I said before, her resting place is not where she is, but where I can go to reflect on her life & my short time with her. I will never stop missing her but she would want us all to move on & just keep thinking about her.

I doubt Christmas will ever be the same again but that's okay. Presents are not what it's about, it's just nice to spend time & just be, with those I love.

Hard Work & Christmas

Since we have been so sad & preoccupied with memories the past couple of weeks, Greg thought it would do us good to do some hard physical labor & just plain hard work. Okay?

Greg closes his business the week between Christmas & New Years Day. Normally, he would leave for the Country after celebrating Christmas at my sister's & I would head back to the City to work a few more days then head up to the Country to ring in the New Year. We've been doing that for 30+ years. This year my sister asked that we not celebrate, just yet & they wanted to be alone. Understandable.

So, we decided to go to the Country & spend Christmas there. We left a couple of days after the funeral, stopping by my sister's for a few minutes, on the way. They are better but still very reserved. Time will heal, it's just having to live through the time itself.

Greg usually has projects lined up for the last week of the year but didn't really have anything specific planned this year, except .... the garden. This thing is going to kill me one way or the other.

The first day, we got the rest of the large bed covered in the requisite, newspaper, leaves, poo & straw, yeah! We don't normally exchange Christmas gifts as we save & buy what we need during the year. But not this year ... after we finished the bed, Greg decided to go buy me a present, he went to Lowe's ....

Yep, I got blocks for a Christmas present, 256 of them! No surprise. One year we were clearing our property for our City House & since I had a hard time swinging a full size axe, I got a boy's axe for a Christmas present. Practical people are we.

The blocks were less than we had originally priced because they were "light block". My foot. I would have hated to see what 'heavy block' did to my back.

The next day we got the block unloaded & 'placed' around the existing beds. In order for everything to be somewhat uniform we needed a starting spot. I wanted the first 2 long beds to be our asparagus beds & want to plant those next spring (in order to have asparagus in 3 years). So, the next day we decided to go ahead & place those beds, as a starting point.  One bed went down fine, the 2nd one is on the curve of the terraced land we own & didn't level out as well. We had to dig out in order to get them somewhat level, remember this is clay soil. I was sitting down, in the wet ground, scooting along as I was digging and the seat & legs of my sweat pants were absolutely filthy. Sorry, no picture, didn't want to put you through that. But they came out fine in the wash.

After about an hour on the 2nd bed it started to mist. We worked feverishly & finally got the 2nd bed down. It's a bit lopsided but we will be able to make minor adjustments in the future. It then started to pour so we stopped for the day.

After the rain, the temperature dropped & the wind started to blow (I swear that is the windiest place on earth). The wind & rain continued the next day & we lounged around, actually had a lazy day, very unusual for us.

I had started The Hunger Games series a week or so ago & was able finish the 2nd book & started on the 3rd. I plan on finishing it before the New Year is out, if Greg will let me be still another day. Since the weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate we decided to head back to the city.

B-T-W ... By the time we were packed & ready to go, the wind died down, it was 65 degrees & a beautiful day to garden!. We left anyway.

In the meantime I got another Christmas present!

Broad Fork... blurry pic.

It's a broad fork from one of my cousins who has a connection to the maker of these fine American Made products - Hosstools.com. They mainly sell manual push plows & seeders but have dabbled in other tools. The owner of the company had sent me one of these earlier this year.

It's a small shovel & it works great here at the City House with our plethora of trees & tree roots. These are great products & very well made! If you are in need of any manual tools for the garden, this is the company to go to!

More manual labor for me ... yeah!

The first day back in the City, we decided to do nothing except go see a movie & go out to eat (I think we are changing our lifestyles). Going to see a movie is a stretch for us. We've been married over 30 years & have only been to the movies a few times (Hunt for Red October, Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park are 3 that come to mind). 2-3 hours of just sitting & watching a movie always seems like a waste when we could be doing something else. Besides, we could wait until they come on HBO or on video & watch in segments.

Anyway, we went to the matinee to see 'Lincoln'. It was just what we needed, not too much drama, good acting & an excellent story. I even learned a couple of things.We then went to what we were told was a good Mexican restaurant. It was ok, we've had better, much better. We don't like Americanized(sp?) Mexican. Give us the real thing or nothing. If they put orange cheese or lettuce on it, it ain't true Mexican, got to have Queso & cabbage. But, it was palatable.

Anyway, on to hard work (no pics) ....

With 2 houses to keep up & so many projects, our homes get wiped but not really bathed. We decided the City House could use a good cleaning. So we cleaned room by room. I mean really cleaned, moved furniture away from walls, scrubbed baseboards, swept, vacuumed, mopped, dusted. We got the foyer (our take to Country staging area), den, dining room, & living room done yesterday. And, today we got the master bedroom, guest bedroom, master bath, hallways, 1/2 bath & finally the kitchen.

I knew it was serious because Greg got out the Murphy's Oil Soap to wash the cabinets. Everything was cleared off the counters, upper cabinets washed, lower cabinets washed, appliances shined, etc.

It feels so good to walk through a mostly thoroughly clean house! I swear our bedroom is bigger!

Still have my office (where many things got stowed), the garage, spare room (aka canning staging area) & back porches, but we don't live in those so we will tackle as we go. Plus, we still have 2 more days of vacation! Whoopee more work!

Seriously though, I don't mind hard work. It is kind of mindless & let's me reflect my inner thoughts without drowning myself in sorrow. So good for  my soul. And it feels good to get so much accomplished.

I'll write about my niece another time. Just to know that she is in my heart & thoughts daily gives me comfort.