Wednesday, October 3, 2007

This is just a test...



Don't get excited, this is just a test. If this were a real post, you'd get, well, more info and maybe pics! Maybe you will anyway. Lets see. Today I did alot of finishing. I've been on a kick just for today of doing stuff I've been procrastinating about. Taking pictures of the miniature cars to sell on ebay, getting the paint that was too purple reformulated to a more grape color, cleaning bird cages....






First, the chair. I bought it from a restorative hardware shop http://www.blockershardware.com/ for 22.00. Now that might seem alot for a broken down old chair that my dear son said...." if you have a chance to go on antiques roadshow, don't take this chair". He thinks it was a shop project for a middle school kid, that flunked shop. "I" however know its charms. When one is short one has to be careful about their chairs. This one is low and wide and fit's my behind. Here's a before picture..




It is now, purple (not Barney purple, but what's called Raspberry). I might add my dear son again, voiced his opinion. I bought said paint for my front shutters and painted these lovely things. He took one look and said "You're not putting those up. Oh yes, I reply. Oh no, says he, for if you do I will take down my sign in your front yard saying I am building this addition". He's such a bland person. So, I traipse back to Home Depot and throw myself on the mercy of the young man in the paint department. His name coincidentally is Paul, same as my dear son. Long story short, Paul made it more grape like so I think even if he doesn't like it, it will be more acceptable. Chair is not being repainted. I kind of upholstered her today. Tore off all the old fabric and made a template. Bought a very bland pale fabric and made not only the cushion AND the ruffle (MATH was involved), but also made a back cushion. Picture to follow when it gets light out. Let's see... 114" of ruffle fabric, to be shortened to 77" of ruffle leaves how many ruffles at what intervals? How big should they be? How much room in between? I struggled with this for quite awhile till I decided to wing it. I just started making them and seeing how it worked.


Let's see, what else? Trying to finish the Rogue sweater from http://www.girlfromauntie.com/ in time for Rhinebeck sheep and wool fest which is Oct. 20th. Still have to work up the cabled neckline and hood, and then block and assemble. Tomorrow for sure.


Went to a open farm tour Sat. of course to the alpaca farm. Was nice to get to hug a llama and check out the fleeces. Not that great, short and medium fineness and very dusty but hey, I needed a fix ya know? Been working on that and enjoying it.


Hating the socks I've been doing since May. Tofutsies yarn which has so much yarn vomit that even non knitters are noticing. That's bad. Have a sweater in the making which was shamelessly copied from a good friend who is excellent at making things up. I am a by the book pattern person, she wings it. http://www.outofhand.com/ should take you to her blog and maybe the spring she made this sweater. A pictoral of sheep by a fence by a road. Striped on top with angora, yum! Mine will be more greys than browns. Also working on a ball gown shawl (not that I have any gowns or am going to any balls) that's been on the needles for about 5 yrs! That must be some sort of record.


On the animals, all are well except Essie. She passed away one Sunday this summer. I was sad but she did have the best life I could provide. Olivia and Oliver are still well.


They are the origonal snuggle bunnies. Hard to believe when he was a baby she wanted to kill him. Oh, for those who might not know, Olivia is the broken chocolate on the left and Oliver is the black (yeah right Elaine) on the right.
Zoe isn't very photogenic these days. Sorry. We shaved poor Ollie about 2 weeks ago. He was so matted that we had no choice and I couldn't save any of this coat.
Well, for a test this went pretty long. Hopefully I'll be back on a more regular basis? I dunno. I'll try.
Later! Judy

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Monday, April 9, 2007

I'm baaaaaack....

Well, hello again. Has it been over a year already? I guess so. I've been busy but not posting and I'm sorry for the two of you that actually check here for an update. (G)Okay, for some of you others, a brief synopsis of the past year. It's mostly centered around the discovery of breast cancer and subsequent removal of the breast. Took them long enough, all summer taking it piece by piece then finally in mid Nov. it just became silly and they took it all. I'm really pleased with the result, as it's a very nice job and healed really well. The Lord was very good to me and held me up through it all so it never became discouraging. We are tomorrow checking a bone scan for reasons for my new bone pain. I firmly believe it's a side effect of the estrogen blockers I'm taking but they must rule out bone cancer. A new interesting adventure to pursue.On other things of moderate interest, to keep me occupied during all this medical drama Jerry decided this was a good time to put an addition on our house. We've been meaning to for a couple years but now we are. Our son Paul will be doing the work with us helping as much as possible to keep costs down. Is that possible? I'll take a pic and let you see what it's like now. A small deck outside the dining room and that's it. It will be a 20' by 25' family room with a small loft and deck over the back roof. The idea was to look at the woods and animals, but this summer the owner of the land on the other side of the railroad tracks decided to install an asphalt plant. Ahhhh how nice. Now I see some sort of heavy equipment on one side of the bridge and the other is where they mine? dig up, whatever the rocky stuff they use to make asphalt. Of course the stuff has to go from one end to the other and this small squeaky backhoe type thing goes back and forth in my line of vision. Thanks!See the nice woodseyness behind the house? In the distance is a river which is very pretty to see. Not sure how well I'll be able to see it in summer but sure would be nicer than the asphalt workers. Now to see how to get the text below these pics...Okay, this is pretty ugly. I had this lovely post with poics and links and all and when I went to preview it I found a few spelling errors, so I went back. Uhhh I lost everything but what was above. Now the pics won't come in and I'm discouraged. I will try again for the fiber fiends I mean friends to get the pics up and more yarn stuff. Off to dinner....