11-11-11 Most of all "Thank You"

First I want to Thank all the Veterans for their service.  I have lots of Vets in my life, Grandpa G, my Dad, my Hubby, my 2 Sons and my Son In Law! Thank you all for my Freedom and my Country, and Thank you for all that you sacrificed to defend us and keep us safe. We do appreciate you all!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  It has been a mad house here.  I have kitchen stuff everywhere in the house, and strange men in and out. My kitchen is in a total state of mess! And since lots of the kitchen stuff is in other rooms, the rest of the house it totally messy, too, even more than usual.  Here are some of the before and current pictures.

Just before the "destructo" crew arrived.... Don't look too close cause the dirt around the cupboard door knobs is paint coming off from due to too much cleaning!

After they arrived all the doors into the kitchen were plastic sheeted, and this sign put on the garage door to warn people who might come in unaware. For 3 days we had the plastic covers, a loud fan sucking in air from the garage into the kitchen and the fan with filters pushed the air out an open window in the kitchen... Yes, an open window all night and day!  I was quite scared, even though we live in "Mayberry, U.S.A" sez our son. There have been break ins in our sweet little neighborhood recently.  I wasn't so much scared that they would take anything, but that they might hurt us... and if they had broken the seal on the plastic sheeting it would have let mold spores and asbestos into our sanctuary.

So now we're eating breakfast and sometimes lunch on the table/desk in the computer room. Dinner is being eaten out compliments of the insurance company. (We could have stayed at a motel during the destruction, but we wanted the most money we could for the work, so we don't have to pay any out of pocket, which we don't have.

Hubby hands about to make a sandwich, amidst unrelated kitchen stuff.

Our kitchen in the hallway.

More kitchen stored on the floor in front of the TV! I'm not showing you everywhere there are kitchen parts stored around the house.  Just some of the mess, so you get the idea.

Here is the same spot in the kitchen that I showed above.  Now that the plastic is removed we can see where the water damage was.  The reconstruction guy was here yesterday.  I don't know how long all that will take, but I should have a kitchen by Christmas!

This is the long view from the entry door to the garage door.

They took out all the tiles because they can't match them (they are from the 50s). I'll just have to suffer with some new counter top of my own choosing!!!!!  Oh darn.

Here's where the refrig used to go.  All the flooring had to go, too.  There were several layers, because taking out the original linoleum would have introduced asbestos.  Luckily, they know how to do that now.  So you are seeing the original wooden 2x6es (when they were 2x6 - lumber is called 2x6 now, but doesn't actually measure that large.  They will have to make some arrangement for the shorting.).  And I have real nails!! New houses in the U.S. are mostly stapled together.  How can they, in good conscience, build with junk?

Here in the livingroom, next to my book shelf and ahead of the plastic still hanging, to prevent sawdust and mess coming into the rest of the house when the start the reconstruction.   I really wasn't that attached to my kitchen, but it is still quite upsetting to see it all ripped apart, and in pieces all over the rest of the house.  I hope you never have to experience this.

So I started this.... It's a paper pieced cardinal for a charity doll quilt. (Check out Stitchin' Therapy for details.). Still some pieces in the lower left to finish, and the red & black piece there to rip... wrong color placement.  I've just made one mistake after another on this piece.  I guess my mind is going the way of the kitchen.

Anywho, I hope you are all well, and enjoying the day.

 Thank you again, to all my Veterans, and to all of Yours.

Hugs,

Terri

OMG!

I know some of the bloggers I read have endured this problem, but this is the first time my computer has crashed. I have to buy new word processing software in order to maybe access the files I had before. I'm sure I'm going to back up every computer file with a paper equivalent from now on. I can't even get to my addresses.  Shame on me for trusting a machine.
Halloween was terrific!  The kids were all excited. They enjoy our little diorama.  He is Harry P. and I am Professor Sprout. We gave away hundreds of little plants and seeds and candy (from the magical tree I built from gift wrap tubes, bark, branches and all in a flower pot).  Harry did his magic with the new addition - the sorting hat.  He held it and said "lets see where you belong". Then the kids would hang around and find out which house they would be sorted to.  It was lots of fun... the ones sorted to Slytherin would get great big laughs and the Gryffindor assignment got cheers. The hat was a big hit!

Lots of the kids told how well their plants from last year were doing, and lots of parents complimented us on doing this for their kids.  Very few came only for candy, and we had a few who didn't want any candy - they'd come before the school party to get a plant before anyone else did.  I guess I'm stuck with tradition now.  I have had thoughts of doing the Divination classroom, showing  some homemade charts for reading tea leaves and palms... but what could they take home?  A tea bag?  No American kid is going to be excited about a tea bag.  Then I thought the Potions Dungeon... lots of "ingredients" sitting around, maybe a cauldron with dry ice in it, maybe some bottles with creepy things in them, but I can't have the kids using knives or anything like that... and then only candy to go home?  So I am saving and recycling plastic containers for plants again next year. I do enjoy collecting the seeds and experimenting to see if they will grow.  Guess it'll be the greenhouse again next year.

Here are some pictures of our set up.  We were just too busy during trick or treating to take any pictures.

Here is my Mother-in-law's Tongue or Snake Plant (in case you're Slytherin) as an example so the kids can see the potential of their little plant... all 6 of those are gone to new homes.  (Do you notice that Trevor had an accident?  All dressed up in his costume, too!)

This is the candy tree I magicked. Kids were impressed.  Candy was installed (in the flower pot) just before the second batch of kids arrived. The first ones came for the plants only. (They were on the way to the grade school party.)

Young Aragon hung around for the evening. Ron wasn't here so no drama.

Zombie hubby hands did all the webbing.

                              and there was plenty of it, too!

This sign explains the whole thing to those that know the books or movie.

Had to show you the run away Morning Glory.  It is just spreading everywhere.  This is a bit on our driveway. It's growing out into the street, and along the whole garden and fence on both sides!  We left it go for Halloween... We gave away all 6 of those, too.  Now we've gotta get a machete.

This is like a bulletin board showing student homework... only it's all mine.  I say some people should be paid to stay in school and continue to learn and do homework... I was good at that.

Amongst the plants a whole box of seeds, pits and acorns.  I pick Cosmos off my plants, collected acorns all over and had tangerine seeds from our fruit last season.  Kids and parents all enjoyed this giveaway.

I t

This pic shows our shower curtain and cardboard wall that's supposed to look like a greenhouse. It was back lit - like the sun was shining.

Close up of the wainscoting.

We even had a little door in the wall. 

Door from the house side.

This is from the house side, the back of the production.  We got the lovely cardboard from Costco - the pieces that are between levels of toilet tissue.  We get it free! So the decorations cost $6.00 and alot of sweat! (Didn't include the duct tape, paper and ink for the seed packets, or the dirt for the little plants.)
Sorry there aren't pictures of the little characters, Hedwig, Scabbers, the Sorting Hat... we didn't put them out until we would be there the whole time.  We had a madhouse for a while... some groups were as large as 15. While the kids are here we explain and answer questions and Harry shared the Hat.
Hope you all had fun with your Halloween. (I like it better than Christmas. That sounds bad, I know... but whatever we give out, the recipients are happy with it.  How many Christmas presents turn out like that?  I'm just better at Halloween.)
So back to quilting next time?  I'm working on getting my computer to give up my word files, and have to get the printer back on line, as well. I can't print off any paper pieced patterns until I do. I also have to remove stuff from my kitchen - the mold guys come on Thursday to rip it all up... so no sewing until Thursday, I guess.
Hugs!
Terri

picking a name out of my hat

Technically, it is still Halloween here in CA for another 45 minutes... I did want to do this post earlier, but Halloween is our busiest day.  I'll tell you about it tomorrow. I just want you to know we did pick a winner of a bunch of fabric in honor of my 100th post a while ago.

Okay, I don't want to get to long winded here, but there were lots of troubles at my house this week.  The worst was the computer crashed, so I'm coming to you from a brand new Samsung... I had to relearn how to download pictures.  Very frustrating.  And I picked the worst time to try it out... right before our grand performance of the year.  Let's see how I did.

Here's the Zombie Hubby hand picking a winner out of my hat.

The name he picked is Sheila from Sew Cook Travel.  You are the winner of all this fabric! 

I hope you like it... I'll send it out tomorrow. Right now I'm exhausted.

Hugs!

Terri

You"ve gotta see this!

You want to perk up your day?  You've gotta go see this

video at Adventures of the Empress of the Universe .

Love you all,

Terri

Giveaway....

Sorry I forgot to announce when the Zombie hands would pull a name for the giveaway... I'm thinking Halloween would be a good day for that.  "See" you on the 31st.

Hugs,
Terri

I made it to 100 - posts, that is!

Here it is, my 100th post.  I must admit that I've been putting it off.  I haven't pulled all the fabric I wanted to. I'm such a lazy!  I haven't been that particularly busy this week either.  I just didn't feel like it, I guess.  Anyway, I will give away a nice batch of fabric, but I'm not going to show it all ahead of time... all my followers, at this precise moment, will be entered... if you leave a comment. No new followers will be in involved.  So if you'd like some fabric - some new, some already cut into, but bigger scraps, leave a comment that says you want more stash, and you will be in the running.

On to the show...
I made and sent these out on Thurs. for my grands.  Only 2 showing, because as always, I had the other 5 already packed up and ready to send.  At the last second I remembered that I'd promised to show my Bertie Botts candy bags.  These are modeled by the resident Zombie Husband Hands.... we're showing that there is a tab type strap, in case you want to reuse your bag as a purse.

I made them by using the Bertie Botts pattern from Fandom in Stitches. Then I sewed on a facing by sewing right sides together and  sewed into the front the strap leaving a turning spot. I made a plain one for the back, too, both are faced pieces. When they were all turned and ironed I top stitched the two pieces together on 3 sides and had a lined bag for the grandkids candy.

Up next, some of the Halloween plants, ready to give out next Monday.  We worked long and hard to cut the plastic cups for some of them, and fill with dirt, water and take cuttings of things in our yard. Next  I dunked the cut end in rooting compound - that's the magic part, and the secret to cutting success, then right into the dirt. Keep them out of the sunshine for a week or so, and they are looking so good.

First up are the English Ivy on the left, and dark purple Butterfly Bush on the right.

Next is some sort of Morning Glory (that will take over the planet someday) and Lavender cuttings.

The next batch is all Rosemary - my trick or treaters like the herbs best.

Here's  the scary Spearmint group.  Spearmint will run all over, so you have to plant it in a confined spot, a pot or some small garden surrounded by cement.  Even at that you have to watch so the seeds don't migrate and plant themselves.

I only made 4 of these - whatever they are.  We call them Pig Ears. I showed them blooming in a much earlier post.  An easy plant to grow, and quite forgiving of the dry weather.  Anybody know what it is?

Here are some of the trees... already dropping leaves. (Some were planted from seeds and some were dug out of our yard where the squirrel had planted them.) There are oak, maple, catalpa and a few silk oak to give away this year.  I'm quite proud of the tree distribution.  My uncle would be proud of me, I think. He had a nursery in Tess Corners Wisconsin (southwest of Milwaukee) for many years.  I think my cousin runs Lambs Nursery now. So you see it runs in my genes.

Here is my proudest accomplishment in the plant world... this year 3 new Silk Oaks... planted from seed that I still can't identify - looks like a little bit of dirt, but they are definitely S.O's cause they have the beautifully split leaf.  It's a wrench for me to give them away - I really love them.

More Halloween plants - a Mother In Law's Tongue with new babies!!! and two Crown of Thorns started last year... took a while for them to get leaves.

This one is from a clipping last year, too. It's a Hoya. This one is really wanting to be chosen this year, cause it has just started to get some beautiful new growth.  Another wrench to give away.  (Like marrying off your daughter... you want her to be happy, but you never want her to leave home.

A real dilemma.)

These are what I have been working on lately. More blocks from Fandom in Stitches .They are The Pensieve, Bertie Botts, Mimbilis Mimbilitonia, and Butter Beer  all from Harry Potter, but you knew that!  Go to her site, she has some new "Angry Bird" patterns on the blog - they are really cute.  She also has fandom patterns for the Vampire people and other genre... Go take a look.

Well, that's all the pictures for today. If you want to win a mystery batch of my stash, let me know.  I'll put your names in my witch hat, and ask the Zombie Husband Hands to pick a winner.

Love all you followers!!!

Hugs,

Terri

Gandalf - by me

Hi Friends,

I am elated to see another friend is following me, Welcome!  Since this it my 99th post I'll let you know that next post, whenever that may be, will be a giveaway of fabric proportions.  I have pulled some reds and yellows from my stash and I'm thinking there should be some green, blue, purple and brown as well.  We will see what I can find.

I spent 3 hours making a Gandalf block today.  Here he is, and I'm going to attempt to load him onto the Flicker Group at Sewhooked for part of her There and Back - a block of the month that is based on the book The Hobbit. (Use the link and see what others have made - or copy off one of her patterns... perfectly okay to use for personal, gift or charity quilts. You just can't sell the quilt or any other product you make with the patterns.) I was lazy and didn't get in on the fun with her previous BOM the Project of Doom - based on Harry Potter and I regret that!  So here is the first block of There and Back, as I interpret it.  (I went to the book and read the description of Gandalf as he was first arriving at Bilbo's house. I like to make my depictions as close to the "real" thing as possible.)  I did make a couple of "mistooks". I cut into the sewing line instead of the cutting line on the bottom left, so I covered that over with a yellow bunch of dandelions... and I forgot #7 at the bottom of his cloak which was supposed to be more grass.  Oh well, next time I make him, I'll have to be more careful.

So that's all for today.

Hugs to you all,

Terri