Gifts from Brazil

My bestie sent me presents she moved to the states from Brazil (via her limited luggage) and then an extra one she bought on her last trip there.

These are tall & fragile but so, so pretty!  And in pink… of course.  I have them on my nightstand but here in the living room for the natural light for photos.

She has a large collection of these handmade flowers and got to know the artist at a local fair they’d visit often.  I already had a small pot with a purple single flower that lives by my kitchen sink.

Have you ever had real leather from South America?  It is nothing like real leather from the US… it is soft and beautiful and smells divine!!  (And my sandals from Brazil a few years ago fit so perfectly and cup/mold to my feet…. real leather!)

A new wallet!  In pink… of course.  🙂

My cards fit in the pockets so they are just the right size!!

And when I opened the wallet, every pocket, holder, pouch had a note.  A huge treasure and will be kept!  She is a lovely writer.

So thankful for the friendship and the beautiful reminders of her throughout my home & day!

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Sunday Sunshine & Pets

Sunday was a quiet day for us (after 15 days of busy somewhere), it was sunny 🙂 , and 40’F!!  P had a bit to do outside (20 mins worth) so I walked around with him.

Point of reference… sunny & 40′ is good for January but with the wind, I still had on 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, a hooded sweatshirt, winter jacket, gloves, and my Muck boots.

Three of the 4 kitties just born the beginning of July… very good cats – they are big! … except they haven’t learned yet to not come to the house yard, don’t climb someone’s legs (without coveralls this hurts he says!), but they are good hunters!

 

This happens to salesmen too…..

 

And Miss Pyrenees chose the last snow drift for a rest period.  She loves the cold & snow!

 

(She doesn’t like her photo taken… seriously, DOG!)

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January Air

This morning out our west window— frozen fog for the air.

8:30 a.m.

About an hour later, a bit of sunshine is breaking through.

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Kitchen Chairs A

The long story may be written another time but this is the current status.

Kitchen chairs that go with our antique table needed reglued and recovered among other help.  Slow process that I happily delayed (honestly for 25 yrs and then currently) with my Christmas quilt rush but I can, in reality, quilt and have a chair clamped and drying every day so here we are.

 

I started with what I now know were the 2 easiest to repair.    Oh, yes indeed, my father was right… “they need totally reglued!”

“Please don’t take them apart now, Dad,” said the mom of kids at home, in school, married to a farmer, busy to say the least.

And really those 2 needed to be the least of my worries.

I have 4 at this point now.

Number 5 has had a new piece of wood cut for a rung and that needs stained and holes drilled in the ends for dowel connectors before assembly.

Number 5 is in at least 7 pieces.  Flat chair.

Yet to come…  I will use Old English on the scrapes.   Then P will help me recover all the seats and reattach them.  Air nailer, heavy-duty screws, don’t want to break a nail… sort of husband work.

I have 4 clamps and the wood glue sets in 24 hrs so that also slows my progress.  No more than 4 joins per day.  Had been able to fix 1 chair a day but this #5 will take more than 4 joins.

My heatgun softens old glue and I have a 1″ scraper to get it off.  Sandpaper.  Clean out joins for new fit with new glue.  Ad infinitum!

The hunting in our storage room for any missing pieces (found all but 1 when I started the hunt for 6 “sticks” so that was good) resulted in a lot of decluttering out of there as well.  I would guess 8 loads via Mr. Strong Arms out the door to trash, dumpster, or scrap metal pile.  *cue angels singing*

The 6th chair, captain’s chair, must be AWOL or we never had it but both of us thought there were 6 chairs.   It is not here.

in progress…. will be off for the weekend  of keeping up with glue & clamps.

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Test Quilting continued…

I finally got a chance to get back to quilting on my test pieces, aka doll quilts.

They aren’t perfect or what I would do for something “real” (not tests) but this is for testing and learning and both are going on.

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Home Project

With January & February I have a few more bits of time I can get P to help me with projects so I have a list!  I went over it with him the end of December and he added in a new one.  Yeah!!

He volunteered without me asking to replace the toilet in the laundry room.  I had wanted it replaced many, many years ago and it had started running extra so in lieu of replacing all the guts in the tank, he offered a new one.  I was glad!!

The old one is out on the deck to be hauled to a holding place until someone “breaks it up” in a warmer month.  (outhouse?  NO!!)

We had taken measurements before shopping and where we measured 11 3/4″, the standard and all the new toilets had that at 12″.  Maybe we were just off or close enough to standard. When Phil got to the wall and floor and attaching it all, had some struggles and found out there was poor planning in the building of the house.  They had to notch out the floor joists to get the in-the-wall pieces for the toilet to fit so yes, we did need 11 3/4″ but that isn’t possible.  It is a tight fit.  Sometimes 1/4″ matters.

However, it is in and working and will be easier to clean and just all around better.  No leaks.  No dripping to the room below (my sewing room!). Usable.

Not sure you want photos here…..????

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Weekend Quilting

This is a little bit of play and creativity as well as making test quilts.  I had the thought of small doll-sized quilts to test battings.  One has Hobbs 80/20 plus a layer of wool batting and the other is just the wool batting.  I’m also going to try out some new rulers I have.  I’m using a piece of my hand-dyed fabric for the top… as mostly it is just admired and needs to be used.

Saturday I did some drawings and worked through some ideas.

 

 

 

Sunday I loaded everything and did a bit of quilting.

 

…. to be continued

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New Year’s Day 2015 dinner

For several reasons, I actually cooked a real meal (vs wraps or leftovers) for lunch and on a holiday, no less!   I’ve realized that often my in-law’s Christmas “day” is on Jan 1 but it wasn’t this year.

Meanwhile, the men were watching a movie, I was moving from this to that, left a burner on, checked the oven, put the hotpads on the stovetop, went to another room….

A bit later, P asked if lunch was ready.  It did smell a bit burnt…

I went to the kitchen and the hot pads were laid onto the just turned off burner and were smoking!  I threw them in the sink with water and then they were sent to the deck so they wouldn’t keep smelling.

No volunteer firemen were invited for dinner.  Whew!

Lunch was fine – Cheesy Chili Chicken.

They were my favorite hot pads so if you recognize them and know where I can buy them… let me know.

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