Homeless Daughter, More Snow, New Design!

She’s a young, energetic 20 year old. Life has been good to her for all of her 20 years until now. Suddenly and without warning, Mother Nature left her homeless. Without her vehicle and a useless , lifeless cellphone, she huddled under blankets to keep herself warm in the freezing temperatures. Thankfully, she has food, …her pet fish passed away from the cold so she savored his life by …..

Ok, NO, Rachel didn’t eat her pet fish that died. Sorry. Rachel is homeless and without her car right now though. Verizon’s cellphone tower went down which rendered her phone useless.

She’s ok though. Rachel shares an off-campus apartment with a friend of hers down in California, Pa. Their area was hard hit by last Friday’s snowstorm and their power is still out. Her car is buried under 2 feet of snow and even if it were dug out, she wouldn’t drive it because little mustangs just don’t like snow especially on snow-covered and icy roads.

She does have her cell phone service back now, thankfully, and she’s staying with friends in the area until her power is restored.

I did laugh with her last night though because she certainly could easily be a homeless girl living on the streets. All she needs is a shopping cart to hold her earthly possessions.

Needless to say, I’ve been extremely concerned and worried but she’s one tough cookie. It has been tough for her but she’s managing without complaining or whining … Although I think she might yell at me for hinting that she ate her pet fish, Pete. :)

Here in Western Pa, it’s snowing now with weather predictions of another 6-10 inches on top of our 22 inches that we already have. The roads are still in terrible condition around here from the last snow hit. I just can’t imagine what it’s going to be like after we get even more.

All you folks up there in the northern states that are used to getting massive amounts of snow, should send all your snow crews down here to teach these municipals how to clear snow. I’ve been in Worcester, Mass after a big snowstorm and it’s just like another day for them. We need their snow-clearing experts down here.

Ok here’s what I’ve been doing over the weekend …

This one doesn’t have a name yet. I do have a name idea, but suggestions are always welcome. :)

I still have to stitch the backing on yet but this will be my next pattern release. Hopefully I can have it sent out to the printers by the end of the week.

Once it’s completed with the backing, I’ll show better pictures.

I have a penny rug in mind to make with a similar baby chick theme.

Brenda, over at Pumpkin Patch Primitives, has a few wool kits left for my “Let It Snow” pattern and “Scarecrow Jack in the Pumpkin Patch” Pattern.

Go visit her site and buy something. She’s super wonderful!

Happy Day everyone!

Pete, The Pesky Fish

I'm sure everyone has seen plenty of pictures with SNOW. Here in Western Pa, we certainly got our share.

Almost 2 feet of it!

We have a really looooong driveway, and this snowblower deserves a medal for clearing it all out for us. Hubby spent the better part of yesterday with his snowblower. He managed to clear enough so that we could get out if we absolutely had to. As of right now, after 3 more hours out there, hubby finished and we can now drive down our driveway to get out.


Pete, the fish is no longer with us. He passed away early this morning. Poor Rachel is upset. It was weather related.

Pete, the pesky beta fish, lived with Rachel in her apartment at college. Rachel lost power during the snowstorm and as of this morning, she is still without power.
She camped out in the cold last night with lots of blankets. Since she has a gas hot water tank, she could keep Pete warm with warm water. However, early this morning, the landlord came in and shut off their water and filled the pipes with antifreeze. No way to keep Pete warm. Rachel said her apartment was 38 degrees inside.
Pete froze. What a way to go. Poor little guy. It was a love/hate relationship between the two of them ... But she has enough heart to not want a living thing to suffer.

So Rachel is without a place to live right now and she's upset about her fish. Most students go home for the weekends there at Cal but they'll be coming back today so she'll temp move in with a friend, once they come back to school today.
For now, she's safe and warming up at her boyfriend's apartment. His power came back on this morning.

Poor Rachel. I wish she weren't so far away. She was laughing and making fun of me for worrying about her last night. "I'll be fine, mom. I have lots of blankets, mom" This morning, after waking up cold, she wasn't laughing.

In the meantime, to keep myself from worrying about her, I've been busy with a brand new spring design. Snippets of wool were flying everywhere yesterday while I was working on it. I'll be ready to show it tomorrow or the next day.

Happy day everyone .. stay warm!

Yikes! Jury Duty

 

Oh yes, that’s right.  The notice came in the mail yesterday.  March 8th is the day that I report.  I’ve mixed feelings about this. 

It has nothing to do with the whopping huge $8 a day that they will pay me. 

I’ve served Jury duty before … long ago.   Admittedly, it was done differently back then.  All the potential jurors had to sit in a large, cold waiting room, all day for 5 days, just waiting to be called in as a group to be selected for a jury.  It was so horribly boring.  There was one tv set in the room, which many of the ladies females fought over because they didn’t want to miss their soap operas.  During that week of mindlessly sitting and waiting, I came close to being selected to be on a jury only twice.  Both times, I was quickly dismissed by the defense attorney because my father was a state cop.    I read a lot of books that week.

I was selected another time for jury duty, but I was excused because I was pregnant with my sweet Rachel.   Barf bags aren’t permitted in the courtrooms, I guess , and since I needed one every day, all day, the judge decided that it was best that I stay home with it instead.

So that brings us to March 8th.  I will just have to sit at the courthouse for one day.  If I’m not selected as a juror that day, I’ll be done.  Naturally, if I am selected, I’ll have to stay as long as the trial lasts. 

I have a form to fill out which basically wants to know if I can be impartial and fair.  It also asks if I’m related to someone who is a police officer or in law enforcement.  My dad was a statey,  and my son-in-law previously worked in security and has a master’s in criminal justice, so I’ll have to check the “yes” box.  I’m going to assume that I will be rejected because of that.

So here’s my mixed feelings.  I don’t really want to spend the day at the courthouse waiting to see if attorneys will pick me to be on their jury, but if I am selected to be on a jury, I think it would be interesting and I wouldn’t mind.

But if I get there and they insist that I can’t be impartial simply because I’m related to someone in law enforcement?  That’s going to make me angry.

But, I have no say in any of this.  I’ll do as I’m told.  I’ll report, I’ll sit, I’ll be rejected, I’ll go home with my $8. 

 

So, I’m just about done with my candle mat.  :)  I’m sooooo pleased with how it looks now.  Earlier I had shown it and said that i was having trouble figuring out what to do with the leaves.

I just couldn’t make it look how I wanted it to look.  After it sat on my table for two days …with me looking at it every stinkin time I walked passed it … It finally hit me what was wrong.  The green color that I had dyed the original leaves was just a shade off.  The green was just a smidgen too bright. 

I went back to the dye pot and created a more subtle olive dirty green and that solved it!

I just need to sew the cream colored background on, stitch the backing on that and I’ll be finished.

Soo sooo happy with this one. 

Noooo, it’s not going to be a pattern!  I cut all the flower petals and leaves free hand so it was a spontaneous creation. If you look close enough, you’ll see that the petals aren’t the same sizes and shapes …  neither are the leaves.

BIIIIIIIIIIG snow storm is coming this way today.  The latest weather report I heard was 8-12 inches of the white stuff? 

I’ll be over babysitting the Kaiden guy when it all starts so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get home.

And speaking of the Kaiden guy … at 3 years old, I find myself having adult conversations with the kid. 

First of all, he never shuts up!  He’s always jabbering about something and has this way of making sure that I’m listening to everything he says too.  Yesterday, he came over to me and pointing to some of my penny rugs that I have hanging on the wall he asked, “How you make those, gamma?”  I reminded him that he watches me make those and I do it with a needle and some thread and wool.  He shook his head back and forth and very seriously said “well, they are just beautiful”.  

haha … the kid knows how to butter up the grandma real good to get a special snack, now doesn’t he?

I love my family. :)  

Rachel called last night and made me laugh .. a lot.  It had to do with … if she ever accidently enlists in the army she’ll just cut off her trigger finger so that they will reject her enlistment.  Oh dear, that doesn’t sound funny, does it?  But coming from Rachel, in her goofy way, yes, it was really funny. 

Have a gloriously happy day everyone.  :)

Giveaway Winners!

My fingers REALLY aren’t working this morning.  Instead of typing “Giveaway Winners” , I typed“Gimpaway Winders”

Good thing I caught that because the Giveaway Winners might feel insulted instead of happy.

The winner of the “Snow” Penny rug is the new blogger Roberta English from Ohio.

The winner of the Lacey Heart Pinkeep is

Barb of A Corgi to Quilt By.

Congratulations ladies!  Send me your address and I’ll pop your things in the mail!

 

In other news…..

for all those who’ve ordered my newest pattern, “CatTails of Love”  I’ll be mailing those out to you today.  Thank you all for such a terrific response.  I really appreciate the kindness and your orders. :)

Brenda, at Pumpkin Patch Primitives, has the “Scarecrow Jack in the Pumpkin Patch” candle mat,  kitted up with all the materials needed to make this candle mat.  Just go to her website and click on the pattern picture to order.

 

Here’s what I’ve been working on the last few days. ….

I don’t intend to make this into a pattern.  It’s just something that’s been in my head to make.  I’m really in this neutral tone on tone mood, again.   I get this urge every year to do taupes. 

I decided to try quilting the wool by adding a layer of soft cotton batting under it.   It needs some leaves, and I dyed some wool a nice taupey greenish color, but I’m just not really liking how it looks. Perhaps the green isn’t the right color or perhaps the leaves are too small … or perhaps I just need to just look at it for a while and hope an idea comes to me.  I’ll keep this sitting on the dining room table for a while and I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

I plan to keep this one for myself, btw.  I’ll be sure to show it once it’s completely finished.

Kaiden is feeling much better now.  He still has coughing fits because it’s really difficult to get a 3 year old to understand that running, jumping and tumbling are not good therapy for lungs that are trying to heal.  But at least he’s breathing better and not feverish.  Thank you all for the well wishes.  

 

Happy Day everyone!

"So Sick Of Snow" Super Giveaway (Part II)

Do you want another entry/chance to win this pinkeep?

If you haven't already, go down to the other post or click this link to comment with your name and the state where you live. That will give you one chance to win either that Lacey Heart Pinkeep or the "Snow" penny rug.

I had said before that today I would offer y'all another chance for an additional entry to win this pinkeep.

Here's how:
I'm going to plan a some vacation time for hubby and me. I need some ideas of where to go.

For an additional chance to win the pinkeep, in this post, tell me WHERE your favorite U.S. vacation spot is and WHY.

For the pinkeep winner, I will randomly draw a state first and then I will draw from the names who are represented in that state.

Your extra chance will be entered in whichever state you recommend for the vacation spot. Get it? :)

It has to be in THIS POSTING! Your other entry with your name and state where you live goes in the other posting.

I hope that's clear enough. :)

Here's my United States map as it looks this morning. ...
Each red dot is a reader comment for the giveaway.

You can see from the map that I still need readers in quite a few states yet. So if you see that your state isn't represented, it's time to COMMENT with your state and who knows, you might win something nice!

For the pinkeep, I plan to draw a state name first and then draw the names of the people represented in that state for the win.

So if you are the only one in your state that commented, then you have a better chance than someone in say ... Ohio.

Drawing will take place at 10pm, eastern standard time, tomorrow night (Feb 1st)

PS ... I love you ladies and the few gents that read! You make my day every day. The comments and especially the emails that I get from some of you are just so much fun. I appreciate the kind words, the words of support, the comical cartoons, and of course the pattern orders. It's because of all the kindness that I feel the urgent need to at least try to give back a little in return. The best way is the giveaways. So don't thank me for this. I'm doing it for payback.

Our grandson, Kaiden is still really ill. He has pneumonia. He's on the road to recovery, but it's so heartwrenching to see him so miserable. If you can, give a child or someone a hug today for Kaiden please.

Happy Day everyone.