Finished Product

Greetings!

I finished my "mat" for the loveseat the other day.  It seems to serve the purpose as I know Ms Salli has been up on it!

This is how it was before:  A piece of paper to keep the cat off, which got all ripped and crumpled from Salli jumping up during the night for a snooze!

 

 

This is how it looks now with the rag rug mat I made from T-shirts!  A big improvement I think, even though the colors could have been better.

 

 

 

 

I think it will be especially nice when people come to visit, as they don't have to worry about sitting on a piece of newspaper!  :)  I don't have many visitors up here on the hill, but I know it will be better!  I'm all out of T-shirts now and really need to get some more.  I'm going to a clothes closet Saturday and see what I can find.  I hear the clothes are free to those who want them, so I'm hoping they will have an abundance of T-shirts.

 

I've been busy today doing laundry, vacuuming and baking a birthday cake for my husband.  He will turn 63 tomorrow.  We are going out to a new place for dinner in Muskogee.  I have no idea where or what this place is, but time will tell.  Something he found on line...........  Yesterday was a busy day going grocery shopping and doing laundry.  Seems like our weekly trips to WalMart wear me out anymore.  A sign of getting older I guess..............

 

Tomorrow will be very busy, as I have a perm at 11:30 a.m, bible study at 1:30 p.m. and then hurry home to get the birthday boy and head for Muskogee!  I should sleep good tomorrow night!

 

Until next time, take care.

My New Hobby

Greetings!

I've been meaning to share my new hobby with you all for quite some time now.  I've been doing this "hobby" since sometime last winter, and I am really "hooked" on it!   I crochet rag rugs out of old T-shirts!  I've lost count of how many rugs I've made and how many T-shirts I've cut up, but it's a lot!!  I sent one Granddaughter 2 rugs, two grandsons each one, 2 daughters each one, my best friend one, my husband has one by the bed, and on and on.

I kept wishing that there was something I could do with all my old T-shirts that had grease stains, etc. on them, and were otherwise still good!  Being miserly I guess.  Anyway, I searched on line and got some inspiration and instructions and away I went!  It' had been quite sometime since I crocheted so I needed my friend Kathy to refresh my memory ~ she did a great job by the way!

 

This is my supply basket!  Each ball of color represents a T-shirt that has been cut in to strips of fabric about 1/2 inch wide.  The amount of "yarn" you get depends on the size of the T-shirt!  I've cut some 4 X sizes and it takes forever and you get a huge ball!  As you can see, my supply is kind of low at present, and not a whole lot of variation in colors.  I need to get with it and visit some more 2nd hand clothing stores and missions, etc and get more shirts.  I've gotten a little picky since starting:  No side seams or pockets, little or no logos, not too stretchy material, etc.  In the beginning I got a bunch for 25 cents a shirt at a place, but haven't been that lucky since.  But still, the cost is minimal, and especially when friends clean out their closets and dressers!

 

 

 

 

This is a mat I'm working on to put on the loveseat to keep the animal hair off of it!  My dog Salli likes to sneak a few winks on it during the night, and the cat likes to lay there also.  A piece of newspaper keeps the cat off, but not the dog, and it looks funky. So I thought a "mat" would do the trick.  It's folded in half, so is actual longer; and I've got about 6 more rows (or 5 inches) of black to do and it should be done.  Will post when done.

This is my very first attempt.  It was not very big and I sent it to my granddaughter as it was the colors of her new bedroom.  Since this one, I've gone to oblong or rectangle rugs as it is way too hard to keep the round ones round!  lol  I haven't found a pattern to follow, it just says to increase as you see fit; and I guess I don't see too well!!

So, I've been doing this most all Winter, Spring and Summer.  I think I'm hooked!  I taught my good friend Judy how to do it and we have great times going T-shirt hunting!

Until next time, take care.  I hope you have a hobby you adore and can share with others.

A Rough Few Days

Greetings!

A lot has been happening around the old homestead the last few days, and not all of it good!  A week ago I woke up with a terrible case of the hives!  I have no idea what caused them, but I was surely miserable.  Finally on day 4 of the pain and itching I went to the doctor and got some relief in the way of a steroid shot, some steroid pills to take and some kind of ointment to apply.  They are about cleared up now, and I hope they don't come again for quite some time!  If I hadn't had the Shingles vaccination I would have thought that's what I had; but the doctor assured me they weren't Shingles.

 

 

The good thing was the peach cobbler I made from the $12 bunch of peaches we got last week!  It was really tasty, and even more so when I put a few fresh, sliced, peaches on top of each serving!  And some cool whip of course!!  I think there are just enough peaches left to slice and have a few in a bowl.............. I hate to say it, but I think it's cheaper to buy them in a can!  Not as good, but cheaper!

 

Another bad thing is we got up Monday morning to no water!  So this is the 2nd day without water.  Thank goodness we had about 9 or 12 gallons of Culligan water from when we used to have to buy our drinking water, and have been surviving on that.  However, it's getting low and the animals and roosters are taking their share.  Not to mention a shower would be nice, and it's messing with my Monday laundry day!   My husband just came in and told me the water is fixed and back on.  Oh JOY!   We are at the end of the water line and have trouble quite often.  I guess this time a pipe collapsed or got crushed or something and they had to replace it.

 

So with that good news, I think I'll quit for today and get busy!  What to do first???????????  Shower, brush my teeth, wash my hair, wash some clothes, do some dishes............................................the possibilities are endless!!  LOL

 

Until next time, take care and have a good week.



PRESERVING

Greetings!

I made it in again!  After spending over an hour on the phone with a very nice young man on the help desk in North Carolina!  He took me step by step, and actually did all the work from there on my computer! and now all I have to do is click on the icon and here I am! I am so grateful and happy!  :)
I guess you might say the nice young man preserved me too (from getting mad and frustrated, etc.)

These tomatoes are about the end of our crop.  They are way more than we can eat befor they spoil so I need to do something with them!~  I already have about 8 or 10 bags in the freezer to use in sauces and chili and such, so I thought I would try something different with these.

 



 

I washed and peeled them and put them in the blender and chopped them up.  They are more liquid than chopped, but I'm hoping I can use them in sauces and such too.  Only got 3 of the containers full (like the ones in the picture) so we'll see...........................  I know it seems early to be at the end of the season, but we planted early, and the heat here on top of the "mountain" really gets them growing!  My favorites again this year were the heirloom Cherokee Purples.  I could do fine without the yellow and various reds, but to keep peace I allow them!  lol

 

Tomorrow will be time to hunt for a good peach cobbler recipe and make that up.  These peaches are from Porter, OK, supposedly the peach capital of Oklahoma.  In my opinion, they are nothing to brag about!  I'm still spoiled from getting huge, lovely peaches from Calhoun County in Illinois!  It was so nice to hop the ferry from Winfield, Missouri and cross the Mississippi river, landing in Calhoun County Illinois, and spend the day buying peaches and eating.  A lovely day trip!

 

 





This pan of peaches, add in  3 more that got eaten, cost $12.00!  And they are small.  I will say they are sweet and juicy, but definitely not Calhoun County quality!  But we'll just have to make do!

A week or so ago I found a recipe for blackberry dumplings and just happened to have a couple of quarts of frozen blackberries from last year in the freezer.  So I made them and I have to say, they were quite good.  Hubby said I could have had more juice, but othere than that they were good.  I thought with a dollop of cool whip they were great!  I would recommend them if  you have the fixin's!

That's all the cooking chatter for now.  We just got back from supper at the Catfish Shack and I'm very full and content.  They make the best catfish fillets and serve them to you right from the fryer........as much as you want, when you want it! 

Oh, I want to thank Grammy of 13 (more now I think) for reading my last blog and commenting on it.  It was so nice to be welcomed back!!  Wish me luck with my cobbler tomorrow!  Until next time, take care.

Greetings!

I have not posted since this past February.  Only excuse is that I couldn't figure out how to get in to the blog site after all kinds of changes with my server and Google Apps and stuff I don't understand!
So I can't really tell you how I stumbled in to the site, or if I will be able to do it again!  In the meantime, here are a few pictures.

Hey!  I got lucky and somehow got in to Picasa and got to load pictures!  This lovely one is from our trip to Branson last August!

 

This one is in Branson also.  A restaurant whose specialty is chicken I think!  Which reminds me of a chicken story of my own! 

 

I've been trying for about 4 years to have chickens of some sort.  I started out with 8 baby Guineas, got them full grown, and one by one at first, they started disappearing; then finally there were 3 and they were all taken at the same time, leaving me none!  So some time later I got some little chickens (4) from a neighbor;  waited patiently for them to grow and start laying eggs;  2 of them were killed by neighbor dogs; got 2 more and began the waiting game again!  They finally started laying and one day I left them outside the pen while I went to town and when I came back they were all dead!  My dog Salli decided to teach them a lesson for wandering I guess. End of eggs!!

 

Anyway, I then purchased 3 big white rock chickens and have been waiting for them to start laying.  Went out one morning and one was stretched out on the floor of the coop, deader than a door nail!  So that left me 2 to care for and wait on.  Went out one morning to feed and water them and they started crowing at me!  Yep, the chickens are ROOSTERS!  I could wait forever to get eggs from them!  :)   So what do you think?  Should I stop trying???  I'm ready to throw in the towel and put the 2 roosters in the pot!!

 

I think that's all for today.  I'm so glad I was able to get in here and post something!  I'll try it again in a day or two.  Until next time, take care.............