I just love it when I wake up in the morning and I don't have something stressful to do or people to meet that I don't really like.
Today, all I have to do is get along with Phylly at lunch. And we all know that involves hugs, laughing and eating! No stress there.
Well, really there is a LITTLE stress because it may be the last time I get to be with her for a long time. I don't like that part.
I am finally wearing the SFD blouse I finished a week ago. I am wearing it in today's video, but I warn you!!!
You better wear protective eye covering of some kind. The pattern on this blouse is ALIVE and moves all over the place. I could be in one of those brain books about still things not standing still.
Here is my VLOG today. It's a short one because my phone rang. It was my sweet hubby telling me he is rushing back to me TODAY instead of tomorrow. That makes me even happier than I already am today.
And for those that don't care to watch me in video, here is a picture of my hypnotic blouse, and also my matching pin cushion, Dotty. It would be SO FUN to make a blouse like Phylly's with Dotty's fabric and my fabric.
Did you SEE Phylly's blog with her new blouse????? Check it out here:
Hey everyone. Does it seem like everyone's blogs are on hold this week, or what. I am not a TV watcher, so I look forward to seeing new blog posts on the various sewing blogs that I check out daily. I keep checking -- and there keeps being no new news. Is everyone in a sewing slump -- except for Sarah, of course. If I had her figure, I could probably finish two blouses a day instead of one. Sarah is from Goodbye Valentino which is listed in my margin -- over there -- somewhere.
I spent most of today in Kingfisher going through Mom's clothes.
Some of the people there are permanently stuck in "lazy" gear. I could go on for days about what they SHOULD do, but DON'T. I won't though.
I will tell you instead about the very NICEST lady of all I ever met there. Her name, if I remember right, is Latisha. She was passing drugs out tonight, so she must be a nurse. It was dinner time rush and she was super-busy but she was very aware of my plight and very concerned about Mom (Jerry's Mom).
I had asked this morning that James -- the maintenance man -- please move Mom's armoire into her temporary room which had plenty of room for it, even though I was told by the Administrator it didn't have room. I took a huge trash bag full of her clothes -- yep, that's what they had the in -- and I went to her not-sold-yet house to sort through them. The garbage bag held mostly sweaters and jackets and odd shoes including two pair of torn, worn out shoes. WHY would they save those????
I called over to Countrywood and inquired again -- after about 10 times already -- about the location of her blouses and her pants. They did not know. Maybe Norma knows. Maybe Melinda knows. Maybe James knows. Maybe they are in the laundry. Maybe they are in the POD outside in the parking lot. I'm not kidding. It's a wonder I didn't blow my top. I don't do that though for one very good reason. I don't want Mom mistreated because the help there is mad at me.
I finally talked to Melinda on the phone. She didn't know FOR SURE where Mom's clothes all were at, but she was going to find out. FINALLY! Someone who didn't mine putting some effort into it. I told her I was coming back during dinner tonight -- the ONLY time I can get in Mom's room without her seeing me -- and I was going to put all of Mom's clothes in her armoire.
I arrived. For the second time today, I went to find the Administrator/Manager or whatever she is. She was mysteriously missing again. I don't think I'm ever going to meet her because she has no intention of allowing it to happen. Why don't people realize that a customer can BRAG about them to the boss just the same as they can complain?
I then went into Mom's room and opened her armoire to put the clothes inside. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED???
Packages of adult diapers started falling out of it. There were boxes of gloves and wipes and other things packed in every square inch of the armoire. I could NOT believe my eyes. I squealed and Latisha came running in. She apologized profusely. THAT was refreshing! She hollered at someone to get a cart. The cart came. She unloaded every single item herself onto the cart, and out the door it went. I sure hope that whoever those adult diapers belong to finds them again.
I then brought in all the special little coat hangers that Mom spent years crocheting covers for so they would hold her slacks with non-slip grip, and she had hundreds of pairs of them. The pants were all on them to start with, but the laundry sends them back on wire hangers, and the nice little hangers disappear. I put Mom's initials on a whole bunch of them today, and I put all her slacks back on them as well as a note on the door as to the proper use of them.
For those of you who haven't followed me through Mom's dementia years, she was a major pack rat. A very neat pack rat, but still a pack rat. She built extra closets in her bedrooms for all her shoes and all her clothes. She literally had hundreds of slacks, blouses and shoes. The slacks were all hung next to each other so matching colors were side by side. Same with the blouses all hung up above the slacks. I was sure they would last her forever, but alas, she has gained weight around the middle and cannot wear Size 8 blouses or Size 10 pants. And it's a sure thing I can't wear them even with my DESM diet! They have all been donated now, and I have bought her new clothes. That is one reason I've been concerned about her clothes disappearing faster than a rabbit in a hat!.
I also brought some more shoes that I saved out of the hundreds of pairs she had. She will be so pleased to find those in her armoire. Actually, she will be so pleased to see she has any furniture at all in that room!
So that was my day. I am back home now wondering what I shall do tomorrow. Sew, I guess. Maybe have lunch with Phylly again. For now, I better close all the blinds and get in my jammies. It has suddenly gotten very dark outside.
I missed Sunday's sermon, and Phylly said it was really good. Jerry has left to go back home to Kingston, so I'm going to watch it tonight. Jerry is going to come back for the long weekend to help me get his Mom moved back into her proper room and make sure all of her things are there and all is in order.
I've had emails from the owner and a phone call from the Vice-President of the company that owns all the Senior Centers, and the girls at Countrywood are all but saluting me.
I'm sure they'd like to hog tie me and drag me in the alley.
I feel sorry for the Administrator because she really has her hands full with the whole flood/remodel situation to begin with, and to have an unhappy family member just adds to her woes. I'm really nice to her, honest, I am.
Still, she has to see that Mom is properly cared for. That could be ME in that position someday, and I sure hope someone cares enough about me to fight for me when I can't fight for myself.
Mom got her hair dyed and permed today, so it will look so much better.
Jerry's Mom ("Mom") has Alzheimer's or Dementia. I think they are one and the same. When the beautician fixes her hair every Tuesday, Mom goes back to her room -- gets wet wash cloths and puts them on her head -- then brushes her hair over and over! I am PAYING for those hairdos, and they last only a few minutes. Anyway, I called the beautician yesterday and told her what to do. Mom always had a perm in her hair, and she can brush the heck out of it now.
I'm making a brand new blouse out of
SHOCK-of-SHOCKS
HORROR-of-HORRORS
my most UNfavorite fabric.
It is as slippery as **** -- hard to handle -- hard to cut -- hard to sew. I don't even know what it is called. Challis maybe -- or Polyester -- or Rayon. Whatever it is, it is like sewing on water!
BUT, it feels soooooooooooo good against my skin, and I will definitely be buying more of it. I will just MAKE MYSELF BEHAVE. Time to learn to have a bit more patience and spend more than one day putting a garment together.
Funny thing is, the pattern says "Fast and Easy". Whoever put that label on it sure never made it. It is far from "fast and easy" no matter WHAT you make it out of.
Stay tuned in and I will show it to you when I get it all done.
Meanwhile, mosey on over to Phylly's blog and check out the darling blouse she spent just short of forever on. It looks amazing in person. I'm going to have to take a picture of it myself next time she wears it so I can show you close up how cute it is. Phylly's blog: www.justalittlebitofsewing.blogspot.com
I better get back to church. It has been on "Pause" in the den since I started this blog post.
I feel so sad that I can't be three places at once, especially, in Kingfisher at the Memory Unit where Jerry's Mom lives. Because of construction and surgeries, I have been away for over 4 months. It is shocking how things can digress in a place like that when the family suddenly stops appearing.
Yesterday was Mom's 93rd birthday, and Jerry and I and Jerry's brother, Don -- remember him -- the one who came to visit us for 3 days to get free of a terrible addiction to pain pills? -- went to Countrywood to have a birthday party for Mom. The other brother -- still an addict, sadly -- did not even want to come. That is a whole other story though.
The VERY, VERY HAPPY, WONDERFUL part was that Don is DRUG FREE and CIGARETTE FREE. He was in an amazing mood, and for the first time, he came to Mom's house with us after the birthday party to work in the yard. Weeds had to be pulled, bugs had to be killed, hedges had to be trimmed, tree limbs broken in a storm had to be picked up, etc. It was such a great feeling to see him there -- totally sober -- laughing and working and talking about the new job he starts on Tuesday.
The sad part was the "room" -- if you could call it that -- that Mom's bed -- and ONLY her bed -- was in was just awful! It was like they opened a storage closet and shoved her into it. The room they put her in was being remodeled. There was no cover on the AC vent leaving just a large hole in the wall. The plug Mom's bed is next to doesn't even have a plate over it. There are construction materials completely covering the cabinets. There was not a single space for me to put her gifts and her flowers on. I had to leave them on the floor. The bedroom of the unit had a double bed belonging to another resident.
I guess I should say there was a heavy rain storm about six weeks ago that totally flooded the Memory Unit where she DID have -- and still pays for -- a very lovely room with her own furniture in it. All the residents had to be moved out. The thing is they moved only her bed. Her recliner -- her 2 dressers -- her TV -- her table -- are all outside in a POD storage unit. How INSANE!
Not only that, she looked AWFUL. She was half-dressed in a way-too-small blouse. Her hair was frightful. She has a standing appointment at the in-house beauty salon every Tuesday. Evidently, she hasn't been there for quite some time. If she was in her right mind, she would be hysterical if she saw what her hair looked like yesterday -- and her clothes. She was a VERY stylish dresser, and looked perfect at all times -- everything coordinating and matching.
ANYWAY, I have been in contact with the owner of this facility who also owns dozens of others all over the US from what I hear. He has apologized profusely, and that was BEFORE he saw all the pictures I took and emailed to him last night. I had emailed him weeks ago about her having to pay full rent when she was sharing a room with 2 other women. At that time, that was all I knew.
He is going to call me himself today.
That will be my focus this week. I will keep you posted. Jerry's brother said he wished he had my backbone. He said, "I have always let people walk all over me." I told him that it was HIS fault if he allowed it. That is one valuable skill I learned from my Mom.
Can you believe I am blogging in the morning? I have already been up and around -- had my coffee, my breakfast and my vitamins. I came in here to CHANGE THE SHEETS and get in the shower, but this laptop was sitting on top of the bed.
I couldn't very well change the sheets with a computer on top of the bed, could I?
So I picked up the laptop to put it aside, and somehow, unbeknownst to me, I am now sitting up in bed with 2 fat pillows behind my back -- my feet under the covers -- and the laptop on my lap -- "talking" to you.
And look at this:
I was looking for clipart for a picture of a woman using her laptop in bed, and I found this advertisement for a really fabulous invention. I will HAVE to order one today, if I can find someone who sells them. When I am in my bed at night watching sewing videos or jewelry videos, I keep slipping down -- down -- down in the bed. If I had one of these, it wouldn't matter!
Here is another picture of the contraption:
So, whaddayathink about that?
Would you use one of these?
I suppose it would be an awkward thing to store, but maybe not. I wonder how much it is. I will have to research that later because I really do have to get these sheets off the bed and into the washer. Jerry is arriving at noon today with our two cats, so I have lots to do to have everything perfect when he arrives.
Nida's 93rd birthday is on Sunday, so I must prepare a little birthday party for her. (Nida is Jerry's Mom. She has Alzheimer's/Dementia and lives in an Alzheimer's Unit of an Assisted Living Center about 50 miles away from our home here.)
Have a GREAT, MARVELOUS, FANTASTIC weekend.
Ah, yes! The carefree life of little children. How nice it would be for our biggest challenge to be how to get those bubbles to come out of that little hole.
What a lovely day this has been. I picked Margaret up at 11:40 and then we went to TGIF to meet Phylly for lunch. As usual, all the people at the restaurant had changed. The new people were VERY GOOD though, and we had excellent service. They even allowed us to have our FREE chips and salsa, although we forgot to have them give us our Friday points. OH, NO! That means we won't get any free food offers now. The waiters used to always ask us about that.
Margaret doesn't realize that I am constantly on my DESM diet -- or she just doesn't care -- and she ordered some kind of AMAZING cheesecake entre'. Not only that, she ordered THREE spoons with it. If I am fatter tomorrow than I am today, I am totally blaming it on Margaret. After all, I couldn't very well hurt her feelings after she ordered me my own spoon. I suppose I should point out that Margaret ordered 1/2 a salad with no chicken on it. I ordered the biggest salad on the menu with Balsamic chicken on top.
After lunch, Margaret and I went to Bernina to pick up my properly-serviced Ebay sewing machine. I am so glad to have that done. Didn't have to have a new needle threader, so it cost me only $70. Since the seller refunded me $128, I felt real good about that. I have been very fortunate with Ebay purchases of sewing machines. Some are not so fortunate from what I've heard.
After Bernina, we went to a gift shop in the old downtown part of Edmond, OK. There is a gift shop called Scruples there. I never go there because it is one of those streets where the traffic is always heavy, and you have to park on one side or the other of it in front of the little shops. Then you have to walk ACROSS the street if you aren't on the right side. Today, we parked across the street from Scruples.
I asked Margaret if we shouldn't go to the crosswalk. She said, "Oh, you can just cross anywhere." So we stepped into the street and started to cross and just then I noticed a car coming our way.
Now WHAT are the chances that the one and only car coming down the street was a policeman??? Margaret almost got us put in jail for jay-walking! I grabbed Margaret's arm and we backed up. The car slowed way down and came to a stop in front of us by which time we noticed it was a policeman. He looked at ME, of course, and informed me that he would have to ticket us for Jay-Walking if we didn't cross at the crosswalk.
Good Heavens!!! I thought that only happened on the Andy Griffith show if Barney Fife caught you crossing in the wrong place. We decided we didn't have time to go to jail, so we wandered down the sidewalk until we came to a crosswalk.
When we got to Scruples, I wasn't even off the welcome mat inside the door before I found my first treasure.
I like to have crackers with cheese -- crackers with soup -- crackers with wine -- crackers with crackers, and this darling little cracker dish jumped right into my hands. Check it out:
I put a salt and pepper next to it so you could judge the size of it. I can't wait to put some Ritz crackers in it. It's like a little cradle, isn't it? Margaret made some wisecrack about me not even being off the welcome mat yet, but I didn't let that discourage me in the least. Margaret announced that they had a "Sale Room". I wanted to know where that was, and I followed her back to it. We spent quite awhile in there. These are the half-price goodies I found in there:
This pretty tote. I love totes with pockets. You can't have too many of them, especially, when they are 1/2 off!
And I found this on the floor over in a corner. I decided I needed this to deliver drinks and CRACKERS to my patio.
Let me see. What did Margaret buy? Oh yes, a very pretty gift for a friend.
Then, I took Margaret back home and myself back home. I did make a brand new blouse yesterday using my SFD blueprint, but I haven't photographed it yet.
I better go do something resembling exercise before that cheesecake goes to my thighs and my waist!
I made you a video this morning to show you all my birthday surprises from Margaret and Phylly, so you might as well watch it first. PLEASE FORGIVE the "rocks" in my dryer. The camera was hearing it, but I wasn't. So sorry!
And now that I've told you the WRONG restaurant to go to for the spinach salad, I will correct that. It is Applebee's that has it, not TGIFriday's.
This video WOULD have had Phylly in it too, BUT she had to leave right after I woke up this morning. I was not happy about it, let me tell you, but my crying and carrying on did not change her mind. For some reason, she thinks her husband, Roger, is more important than I am. Go figure. (-; I even told her I was sick, but she wasn't buying it. She reminded me that we will be having lunch together several times a week, and she promised to come another Saturday, so I guess I will get over it.
Besides, she did give me such darling gifts for my birthday.
My husband and I aren't speaking at the moment. I'm not real sure why. I'm assuming he is just too busy to remember I am gone, and I won't call him because he forgot to do something for me he promised he would do, so I have to stay mad about that a little bit longer. He NEVER remembers stuff I ask him to do unless I nail a post-it note to his briefcase. And then he is more likely to lose the post-it note than do what it says on it. Then, when I get upset with him for NOT doing what he promised -- he gets mad at me for getting mad at him. A vicious circle that goes NOwhere.
OH! Speaking of "vicious circles", I have to tell you my vicious circle story from High School.
When I was 16, my parents decided I was too wild because I had a way-too-serious boyfriend, and my sister overheard a phone conversation where I was talking about running away with him to California. He didn't go to High School (I forget why), but he did have a car.
And you all thought I had good sense, didn't you! NOPE! I was just as crazy as a teen as the rest of them.
ANYWAY.
My sister told on me. It was Christmastime, and we lived in Phoenix, AZ where we had lived since I was 3 years old. I was born in Ohio where my grandparents and thousands of cousins still lived. My grandparents were visiting us in Phoenix for Christmas. To me, as a 16-year old, my grandparents seemed ancient and about to drop over into the grave any moment, although I loved them very much. When you are 16, 30 seems ancient.
When Daddy and Mom heard the news about me wanting to run away with this boy, they decided they had to get me AWAY from him, AND FAST. Christmas was over, and the day came for Grandpa and Grandma to fly back to Ohio. Daddy came into my bedroom early that morning and said he had to tell me something. This is pretty close to what he said to me:
"Your Mother and I are sending you to live with your grandparents in Ohio. You need to pack your things because you are getting on the airplane and going home with them today."
I was in MAJOR SHOCK! I cried and cried and cried, and I begged Daddy not to make me go. I was IN LOVE, after all, and I couldn't move away to some foreign land where I didn't have any friends. And what about my High School?
That was all to no avail, and I was on the plane that very day. We landed at a mini-airport in Ohio and drove home from there to the very, very, very old home my grandfather had built when he and Grandma were young. It was a simple two-story house with a lot of rooms in it including a big open kitchen. NO central heat and air. There was a gigantic furnace in the cellar. Next to the furnace was a fenced area that had a pile of nasty, dirty black coal in it and a big shovel. Every so often, you had to go down the rickety stairs into the cellar and shovel that coal into the furnace. I was HORRIFIED that I was expected to do such a scary task. I was afraid of the cellar with or without the coal and the furnace. It was dark and cold and gloomy down there, and I had visions of somehow getting locked down there so Daddy wouldn't worry about me running home to Ronny -- my true love. After all, they had forced me to get on an airplane and fly off to nowheresville leaving all my friends and my school. Why not just lock me in a cellar!
And the WATER! The water came from outside in a well, and it stunk to high heaven! It smelled of rotten eggs. It was the hardest thing of all, I think, for me to get used to. I had a hair piece in those days that I wore to get my very thin, scrawny hair high enough up on my head. That was the style back then. I washed it in that Sulpher water, and it shriveled up and matted and never came out of it!!! No more high hair styles for me. And not only that horror, there was NO SHOWER -- only an ancient bathtub with that nasty water coming out of the faucet!
After the Christmas break, you have to go BACK to school. I, of course, had to go to a different High School in a different City in a different State. How bad could it be? Let me just say -- for me -- it was like going from the White House to the Outhouse! In Phoenix, AZ I went to a brand new High School with long, wide hallways -- lovely air conditioned classrooms -- a huge gym and a huge cafeteria and new everything.
In Ohio, the High School was an antiquated building with no air conditioning. A lot of Mennonites went to school there. The Mennonite girls did not wear deodorant, and they did not believe in zippers and buttons. They wore those funny little hats, and had very few dresses, and did I say they did NOT wear deodorant -- and did I say there was NO air conditioning??? I don't remember anything about the boys. Maybe they got to be normal. The classes were small and had very few students in each compared to the High School in Phoenix. I was totally distressed and depressed over the whole situation. I was sure my true love, Ronny, would be driving his car up to Ohio any day to rescue me.
For SOME reason, the teenage boys at this school were attracted to the "new girl" who happened to be me. I was from Phoenix, and I had a very dark tan all the time because I walked to school every day, and when I wasn't at school or at home, I was outside in the sun. They thought I was Mexican or Italian or something. Of course, I was IN LOVE, so I didn't care if any of them was dead or alive. The problem was, the OTHER girls in the school DID care, and they were very upset that the boys liked the new Mexican/Italian girl. All of what I suppose was the "popular click" of girls were very mean to me.
There was one very nice girl there though. Her name was Diane. She approached me, and she said we could be friends. She invited me over to her house and over to her boyfriend's "house" which was actually a bar. Daddy would have croaked on the spot if he had any idea where I was hanging out after school in Ohio. I had Diane over to "my" house in Ohio, and we were together all the time.
One day at school, the mean girls had done or said something to me to upset me. Diane came over to me and asked me if I was alright. I told her what the mean girls had done. I think they had put something nasty in my locker. Diane felt bad for me. Later that day, Diane wrote me a note and passed it to me in class. It said,
"Don't let them bother you. They are just a vicious circle."
SOMEHOW, those girls got hold of that note. I may have tossed it in the trash -- or maybe they stole it out of my locker. I can't remember if it was the same day or later, but Diane and I were walking to our locker during a lunch break or after school. As we started down the hall to our lockers, all of the mean girls were holding hands and walking around in a circle repeating out loud, "We're a vicious circle -- we're a vicious circle." When Diane and I got close to them, they broke arms and circled around us -- still repeating "We're a vicious circle -- we're a vicious circle." Then they started throwing something on top of our heads. We put our hands up on our heads to try to figure out what they were throwing on us. It was POWDER. They had taken out those little hard powder compacts -- broken up the powder -- and they were throwing chunks into our hair!!!
Needless to say, I was miserable! WHEN, OH WHEN, was my true love coming to rescue me!!!
It did turn out, however, after I was there several months, that the mean girls decided maybe I wasn't such a threat after all since I was in love with Ronny in AZ, and he was coming in his car to get me any moment, and I wouldn't be taking any of their boyfriends away from them. They tolerated me after that, and I actually ended up loving that school and didn't want to leave when the time came. Time is a great healer.
I even got used to that nasty water to the point I didn't smell it anymore. I loved my bedroom in the rickety old house, I ADORED my Aunt Barb who also lived in it and, of course, my grandparents. I was allowed to go back home with my parents when Daddy got transferred to Oklahoma. I was a Senior then. I had such a glowing report of my time in Ohio, that my sister decided to spend a Summer there.
And let me also add that I THANK GOD STILL TODAY that my parents had the wisdom to separate me from that boy and send me to a "safe place". I love my Daddy so very much for being able to do it. My Mother never liked me much anyway, but I know it was probably the hardest thing Daddy ever had to do.
And now that I am way down here at the bottom of this post, I will show you the picture I took of one of my gifts from Phylly described in my video.
I better get up from this chair and do something that gets my heart pumping. I'm feeling like taking a nap, and that is HIGHLY unusual for this girl.
Almost 9 PM already. Phylly got here at 6 PM tonight, and it seems like she has been here only five minutes. WHERE does the time go?
We jumped around and hugged for a few minutes after her arrival. She gave me a milk crate full of gifts for my birthday. I'll take pics when I get a chance.
Then we decided to have steak for dinner. We went to Outback although I wasn't sure we should. I had a terrible waiter last time I went. BUT,
tonight was a DREAM! Evidently, Margaret, Isaiah is no longer there and all the staff is different. Different in a GOOD way. Jesse waited on us. VERY handsome, well-dressed, well-spoken and dreamy green (I think) eyes. I was staring him down trying to see what color they were, but you can only do that so long before the guy turns and runs away. He had black hair and a well-groomed black beard and those eyes! I gave Jesse my complicated steak order which goes like this: "I want my steak TENDER, and I want it to be PINK all the way through -- not red and not gray -- PINK! I don't want "Medium" because it is too well done, and I don't want "Medium Rare" because it is too rare. I want it in between -- PINK all the way through."
Jesse's response was this: " How about I order it "Medium Rare Plus, and if it isn't JUST the way you like it, we will start all over?"
I ordered the small filet and crab leg special and coconut shrimp appetizer. Both of those items were AWESOME, and they were served with the proper utensils. Some of you may remember Margaret and I going there a couple years ago. I ordered crab legs. They came with NO cracker, and NO little fork and only enough melted butter to grease a gnat's tail. I wrote a letter to Management about it, and I was sent a $50 gift card -- an apology -- and a promise that forks and crackers would be purchased at once.
Phylly and I left Outback and went to Hancock's to buy some covered button blanks and some Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite. The SAS2 was nowhere to be found. We happened upon the new Manager who appeared to be no more than 19 or 20, and seemed to have ZERO knowledge about what Hancock's does and doesn't carry. The store was a mess, and it was very obvious that Kelly -- an excellent Manager -- was no longer there. The new girl checked her computer finally and reported back to us that They had NO SAS2; they could not get any, and they were not going to carry it anymore because "they" quit making it.
HUH???????????????
Phylly and I knew that could NOT possibly be true. Just what the two of us use could keep the company in business, for heaven's sake. Phylly just went to The Warm Company on her Ipad to inquire. Turns out there are lots of back orders because they decided to upgrade the product by putting a different paper backing on it. It WILL still be made, however, and it will soon be available again.
Phylly and I are in our jammies. She is in the dark blue recliner, and I am in the mauve glider with gliding footstool. She is on her Ipad -- no my Ipad because mine connects to the internet here -- and I am on my laptop.
Time for some lemon streusel cake and a hot beverage.
Yep! I am finally at my Edmond home awaiting dates with my good friends. I have already visited Helen Enox (a very fine fabric store), the Bernina store where I dropped off the machine I recently purchased from a lady on Ebay, and then to Oklahoma Quiltworks to use my 20% off my entire purchase with my birthday coupon.
I have been here only 3 hours, and I have already purchased 13 1/2 yards of fabric.
That is BOUND to happen when one lives so far away from fabric stores. When you finally get to a town that has them, you just cannot wait!
PLUS, my doctor said I was supposed to stop occasionally when driving long distances and walk around for five minutes. I figured a fabric store was as good a place as any to do some walking
How gorgeous is the fabric that girl is holding around her body!? I would, for sure, have to buy that one if I ever found it.
I'm having dinner tonight with my good friend, Margaret, who lives close to me in Edmond.
Phylly is going to beg Roger to let her come over for dinner out tomorrow night and then a slumber party after. I can't get too excited because he will probably threaten to run away from home if she leaves.
Cross your fingers for us!!!
I hope to go visit my Mother-in-Law next week. Jerry wants me to wait until he comes up, but I don't know if I will. One can never count on Jerry's EXACT moment, hour or even day of arrival anywhere.
My daughter said she would take me out to dinner for my birthday -- now past -- when I got up here. I am looking forward to seeing her and catching up on grandchild news.
Hey Robert and Deanna! We must get together at least one night while we are in town. Call me.
I better get. I need to put things away that my husband doesn't notice are "out" when he comes here without me. He has been here twice since I was here last.
Has anyone missed me? I doubt it, lol. Honestly, how many new SFD blouses does a reader REALLY care to see? I may stop photographing them. No, I won't do that, but I may quit showing them to you unless I do something really different.
For the last several days, I've been in kind of a fog. We are STILL waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the construction crew of Father-Son-Grandson to finish UNdoing and REdoing the siding job on our house. I haven't shown you the completed back patio.
Do you know WHY I haven't shown you the completed patio?
Because it ISN'T COMPLETE!!!
Father-Son (no Grandson, and we are THRILLED about that) showed up today to finish the posts on the patio. AGAIN, the caps didn't fit; and AGAIN, they had to go somewhere to remake them.
Just in case someone may care, I will show you pics of the completed and UNcompleted pink flower-black dot blouse. (Sounds like Father-Son-Grandson crew!) I explain what happened in the video. Here it is as it was BEFORE I cut all the buttons off. I changed the buttons from PINK to BLACK because of the Godet Sleeve I chose to put on this blouse.
I LOVE that fabric. Since I screwed this blouse up with the "too big" buttons -- which I think are 7/8", not 3/4" -- I ordered more of this fabric. I will make another blouse when it arrives. Since I can wear this one after I fix it, I will find a different pattern for the next one.
Yesterday, I went out into my upstairs office area closet to find a coat hanger. There was no hanger there, so I had to go into the upstairs guest room to look in that closet. When I looked inside that closet, I saw the prettiest roses pop out of the folds between the garments in the closet. I pulled the rose-attired garment out completely to see what it was, and low and behold, it was the cutest revamped sweatshirt that I did many years ago. When I put the bias tape on the neckline, the neckline bulged out like a turtle shell. I hated it, and I was frustrated, so the sweatshirt went into hiding. I decided to take it OUT of hiding to see if I could fix it with all of my new wonder-skills.
Check it out. Isn't it cute? Remember those days when everyone was turning sweatshirts into jackets? Well, this was my failed attempt at it. It took me 4 to 6 hours to fix it sufficiently. I even added a bust dart that goes down into the sleeve. The shoulder slope is WAY off, but it is a sweatshirt, after all.
About those gorgeous roses. I made a quilt with those roses years ago. I called it "Roses in My Window" or something like that. I gave it to Jerry's Mom who, of course, doesn't have the slightest idea it even exists now. I need to bring it back home. I may -- just maybe -- have a picture of that quilt. Hold on.....
This is a HORRID picture! I just now took a picture of a tiny picture in an album I have because a lot of my photos have disappeared from my computer. Jerry backed them up on a "Book", and I think new backups erased old backups.
The border of this quilt is all black with black thread. The roses are bright red, like on my sweatshirt. I WISH I had made the window panes WHITE instead of green, but I was trying to be all matchy. I need to make another one of these because it is really pretty in real life. Next time, the window will be WHITE -- like a real window. Duh! Who ever saw a GREEN window? I made some of the roses come OUT OF THE WINDOW. I guess this window is not only green, it doesn't have any glass in it either.
I thought, at first, that I was going to have to throw away the pink flower/black dot blouse because of my button screw-up, so I made ANOTHER blouse with the same pattern. I used a large print for this one, and I'm afraid it looks like I was attacked by giant moths that had flown out of a blender! I almost threw this one out, but then decided not to because I had really cute buttons for it.
The reason I bought this giant moth/butterfly fabric was for the colors. I have a lot of tan/beige/brown slacks, and I don't have any prints that match them. I am always looking for prints with browns in them, and this print had them all.
So here it is, ready or not:
Do you like the way I whited out my innumerable chins in the pic on the right???
These sleeves are the SAME. Glenda's "Godet" inset. I love it, and it made my blouse have something the others don't. You can leave it open or close it.
And I told you I made a video today. I am going to put the link here, but I warn you: It is all the same info as above, and I doubt it is very ear-worthy.
And I just remembered, I made THREE videos the other day for Martha showing how to change your SFD pattern to make it have princess seams. So these are for Martha:
I am all caught up. I have to go exercise on the Eliptical before my veins stop pumping blood to my ankles. As of this Friday, my surgery recovery weeks are over, and I am heading NORTH to see my friends, my house and my dear Mother-in-Law.
I made some new videos because Martha asked me to. She wanted me to show how I turned my Sure-fit Designs™ blouse into a princess seam design.
The videos are being uploaded at a snail's pace to You Tube. It will be either Midnight tonight, or tomorrow before I can show them to you -- and I'm betting on tomorrow.
My friend, Deanna, sent me an email today with a picture in it that I HAVE to show you. This is the kind of extreme braininess that has made America what it is today -- in MY opinion -- and please always remember, EVERYTHING in this blog is MY opinion.
And as the email pointed out, this sad breed of American tends to be VERY fertile -- always on Federal assistance of every kind -- and I can promise you that IF they could shuffle their uncovered butts to a voting booth, they voted for Obama.
Does this mean I'm a racist? NO!
Does this mean I don't care for this young man? NO!
Does this mean I would NOT help this guy LEARN how to work and dress and become prosperous without the Government if I had the opportunity? NO!
All it means is this is what so many young people have become. They don't have the slightest clue who God is or why they were born or why they are alive.
I WOULD DEARLY LOVE to tell them! I'm sure that would be against SOME law, however.
I know God had a beautiful plan for this person's life, and having his pants dragging the ground was NOT it!
Jerry went down to the back porch. I have to hurry down to swing with him. He has figured out how to get the TV on without running upstairs every five minutes to use the controls.
TOMORROW, I will show you what I did to make my new blouse even MORE DARLINGER than it already was, and I'll post my videos.
Here I am, 63 plus 3 days old, and I am at a loss for words for my blog today.
I am NEVER at a loss for words -- EVER! Is this something that happens when you cross over the threshold of 63? Or did I just eat too much for supper?
I KNOW what it is!
I worked my tail feathers off all day long at the store! Up and down, and up and down from my desk -- a thousand times -- and walking into the room where I build packets and then down the hall to the copier -- and then rushing back to the room where I build packets and then down the hall to the copier -- and all of it over and over and over..... Maybe that's why I'm not so "talkative" tonight. I've got to go back tomorrow and Friday and do it some more. I feel like Phylly, except I don't have 3 little kids waiting for me when I get home at night.
I am making a princess style blouse from my SFD blueprint. I haven't done that before, so I hope it looks nice. I want to do something splashy and fun with this top, but I am so tired, those words make me want to get in the Jacuzzi and work a puzzle on my Iphone.
All is well with my legs. They sure do feel a WHOLE LOT BETTER when someone isn't poking needles in them and cutting little slices here and there into them. Tomorrow is Thursday and that means I can quit wearing the strangle-stocking on my right leg. Next Thursday, the left one comes off. YAY!
Time to watch some episodes of Downton Abby. Love to see the clothes on the ladies in those old timey programs. And the hats! I can't imagine having to wear a hat and gloves as everyday casual wear. They dress up in evening gowns and pearls for dinner at night!
I had a lot of nice phone conversations today, including a call from my Boo Bear in Alaska and a Skype session with Phylly. Thank you, Deanna, for the sweet E-card. John and Hollie were on their way to church. I was so thrilled to hear that. They have been having a hard time finding a married couple to pal around with. I suggested to Hollie that they visit some churches and join in some of the activities.
Jerry gave me the BEST birthday present in the whole world. He gave me HIMSELF all day long.
He started the day by making my breakfast. Then he came upstairs and fixed my broken white board marker holder tray. Then I gave him a haircut which he really needed. Then we went to town for dinner and groceries.
We went to my new favorite place, Wendy's. They have a salad I really like that has blueberries, strawberries, chicken, almonds and other stuff. I also ordered a baked potato and put my own butter on it.
Yep. I actually brought some real butter with me. I won't eat that plastic stuff.
I love it when Jerry goes with me to buy groceries these days. It is a big job, and when it is 100 degrees outside, it is a HUGE job!
After all the groceries were put away, he asked me what else I would like him to do. I told him he could go to work if he wanted to. He said, "No!, I am spending this whole day with you."
So, I decided we could come upstairs and watch an old movie. We started to watch two different ones, and they were both super-boring and horrible. We ended up watching part of the new TV series we are into called Downton Abby.
Last night, I managed to download a horrible bug onto one of my laptops. I was TRYING to download Google Chrome, and I ended up erasing Internet Explorer forever, NOT getting Google Chrome, and the computer has a nasty virus of some kind.
I uninstalled everything with yesterday's date. Then Jerry worked on it for hours last night. He thought he had it all cleared up, but today, it was back to the nasty virus again. He is working on it again now.
WHAT a hassle! I need some R A I D!
Time to watch some more Downton Abby.
Another birthday bites the dust. Hope to be able to visit with friends and Jerry's Mom real soon.
Thank goodness, I have had the last surgical procedure on my legs -- for now, anyway. I have to go back in 6 weeks and 6 months for more prods and pokes, if needed. After my post-op on Monday, I hope the doctor will release me to travel. I noticed in my mountain of paperwork from his office that I'm not supposed to travel for two weeks. And for SIX weeks, I'm not supposed to travel over an hour without stopping to walk around somewhere. That should be real easy on a busy highway with no towns around.
I can hear the people driving by as they see me walking around in circles on the shoulder of I-35.
"Look at that lady, George! Wonder why she has those strange socks on, and why she is walking around in circles?"
"I don't KNOW, and I don't CARE! Mind your own business, Mabel!"
I spent many hours today looking for one certain picture of my grandsons. There were SO MANY pictures in SO MANY boxes. I finally put several boxes up on the bed, got up on the bed with some pillows behind my back, and I went though a zillion pictures. I decided to get rid of a whole bunch of them today.
The ones of people I don't even know didn't seem that important.
The duplicate and triplicate pics of my grandbabies no longer seemed necessary.
The itty bitty black and whites from Jerry's grandmother's stash that I couldn't even make out with contacts AND glasses on.
Pics of people that we used to do things with, but we don't anymore and haven't for 20 or more years, and I am QUITE CERTAIN they don't have any pictures of me.
Pictures of miscellaneous babies of miscellaneous people who we probably never knew.
Here they are -- on the floor where I tossed them -- awaiting their final resting place at the City Dump.
Do you see the little stash on top of the nightstand? Jerry told me once that he never remembers his Dad ever holding him -- hugging him -- or saying anything nice to him. He has also told me several times about how his Dad ran over him with a hay trailer when he was two years old. I guess Jerry was sitting in the trailer. The trailer went over a bump and Jerry went flying out and hit the ground and rolled UNDER the trailer. Then his Dad continued to drive -- not knowing -- and the wheel of the trailer went right over Jerry's head.
Well GUESS what I found????????????????
That is Jerry's Dad. Looks like a pretty normal guy back then. Jerry says he can still remember how bad his head hurt. Poor baby!!!
After I got tired of going through a thousand pictures, I decided to come upstairs and finish hemming some new slacks Jerry bought several weeks ago. I don't know why I hate doing that. It isn't hard. It isn't fun though. I did one pair while Jerry was out of town. I had them BASTED with yellow thread. I wanted him to try them on to be sure they were perfect before I put the actual hem in them.
I asked Jerry to come up before he went to work this morning to try on the basted pair of pants. I TOLD him they were just basted but, OF COURSE, his selective hearing was turned off. He put the pants on and he stood in front of the 3-way mirror. He said they looked great. He took them off and gave them to me.
Then, GUESS WHAT HE SAID? He said it so sweet too. "Joy, is that the best thread match you could find for that hem?"
I took a picture for you. I can't believe he actually thought this was how I was going to leave these pants.
When he got home tonight, I was kidding him about it.
He said, "I thought it was strange that with $20,000.00 worth of sewing equipment and supplies, you couldn't make a hem look better than that."
I laughed and laughed. I do have just a LITTLE BIT of thread to choose from. This is only part of it:
Gotta go. Time to get the achy legs up. Both of them are sore tonight.
