Quilt Squares

I have tried something new!  I took a 4 week, 2 1/2 hours each session, quilt class!  Our last class was a week ago.  We made 4 squares in class, enough to make a table runner, but I decided I wanted to make a 9 square sampler.  I just finished my 9th square!!!! 

The squares still need to be "squared", then I'll put in borders.  But here they are "as is."  I'm pretty proud of them, even though they aren't quite perfect. :-)

Hiking the Y

John and I try to hike the Y twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I was a little concerned Monday night, because it was supposed to rain on Tuesday.  It was nice and cloudy when we got up, but it didn't look like it was going to rain anytime soon, so we went.  It was a nice hike!  The weather is cooling down, though, so it's going to be harder to pysch myself up to going!

Wednesday night I told John I wasn't setting my alarm, because I was tired.  I was glad, because I slept an extra hour, and obviously needed it.  (I usually wake up too early.)  I was extra glad when John called me up from work and told me to look outside.  There was a quarter inch of snow on the rooftops and any dirt and the snow was coming down fast!  I was VERY glad I wasn't up walking around in it!

We've been seeing some pretty sites on our early walks, since we get up there about the same time as sunrise.  Last week I took these pictures:

Gorgeous colors, but the picture doesn't do it justice.

The sun is peaking through the canyon.

The sun is just reaching the lake.

The fall colors are now just shades of brown.

Pinterest testing

Another test:  I saw this clever idea and just had to try it.

I didn't happen to have an empty soda bottle, but did have an empty milk jug.  I carefully took that little ring off, and that ended up being very useful, because it needed that to hold down the bag.  Before that it was very loose and the lid didn't want to screw on.

Since this photo, I remembered I had a Snapp Capp, and put that on instead.  It works that same as the milk jug lid.

So, it worked.  Do I like it?  Yes and no.  It is a clever idea, but because the hole is so small, it is actually more difficult to pour out the chocolate chips.  So I think something like a Copco bag cap would be a lot more useful.  But obviously more expensive than free!  For now I'll keep using my chip clips from Ikea.  (I have some from Pampered Chef, too.  Love them both. I have about 3 dozen!)

Pinterest Testing

I saw this pin about re-newing old paintbrushes by soaking them in vinegar.  So I decided to give it a try.

Here's my paint brush before the soaking.

 It's not in terrible shape, but I wondered if the soaking would release the old paint.

 So I boiled up some vinegar.  I would have rather put the paint brush flat, but to cover the whole thing I would have needed to put it in my 9 x 13 pan. I didn't want to use up a huge amount of vinegar, so I stuck it upright in my quart measuring cup.

I let it soak for about 6 hours.  Then I washed it really well in soapy water.  Here's what it looked like after.

I do think it turned out nice, but not as nice as I had hoped.  The oldest paint is still there.  You can't tell from the photo, but the bristles were softer.  What I don't like is that because I didn't want to use up a gallon of vinegar, the bristles are now a little distorted!  I hope they return to normal when we paint again!

But the question is, "Was it worth it?"  No.  I may do this for little paint brushes, when just a small amount of vinegar is used.  But I don't think it affected how the paint brush will work, unless it is adversely affected by the warped bristles!  Plus, my house was stinky for 6 hours! (It was cold, and I didn't want to put the experiment outside.)

Itty Bitty outfits

Here are my finished Itty Bitty Baby outfits!  I made the knitted beach set because it looked the easiest of the patterns in the book!  Thank goodness they are little, because I didn't feel too much pain when I had to take out so much while I was re-learning how to knit!  I'm quite proud of the set!

The reindeer outfit has been something I've wanted to make all year.  I have 3 Itty Bitty babies, and now I have 3 Christmas and winter outfits.  I have an elf, a snowman and now a reindeer.  So cute!

Tidbits

Just a couple of days ago I BEAT my time to turn 10 on the Y trail!  The time was exactly 24 minutes 40 seconds, 40 seconds faster than my old record. Yeah!  My time today was 25:10, so even though it wasn't a record, it was my second best!  It shows I'm getting stronger!

I've made a couple of recipes I found on Pinterest this week: Salsa Chicken, which is going to be served often around here;  Cream of Something Soup Mix, of which I made up some to use in the Salsa Chicken. For that recipe it turned out great.  I still need to try it for a recipe that isn't so spicy and can hide the flavor of the soup. 

I am just a few snaps away from being finished with 2 new outfits for my Itty Bitty Babies.  One is a crocheted Reindeer outfit, and the other is a knitted swim set.  This was my first knitting in over a decade, and it turned out pretty good!

Pictures of my new outfits will be on the next post! (Hopefully!)

Under the sink

Long, long ago I purchased some cute little basket shelves that go under the sink, and the normally stationary part of the cupboard would be made into a tilting drawer.  It gave me just a little more space, and although they had their flaws, I was glad I had them.

A few years ago we remodeled our kitchen, and we had the cupboards made to go all the way up to the counter.  I kept my cute little basket shelves and mounted them inside the cupboard at the top.

The old under sink basket shelve.

The main flaw in these shelves is the height. When it's mounted in a tilting narrow cupboard it would need to be that short so it doesn't hit the cupboard frame.  But now, it's just a pain.  Sponges and sink stoppers fall out when I shut the door.  Only things like scrub brushes will consistently stay in.  But I stayed with them, because I had nothing better.  Until now.

A while back I purchase some little organizing baskets to put my flatware in.  I bought these at the dollar store, so they were a deal.  The height of the new basket is almost twice the usable height of the old basket.

 I wanted to use the same screws that I already had in my cupboard, so I traced the holes from the old basket unto the new, drilled some holes and cut in between them to make the right shape, sanded the rough edges and installed!

The sponges and sink stoppers are not falling out in these!

I also have been wanting to install a short towel rod under the sink, and also one to put on my laundry cabinet.  So I went to the home improvement store to buy a few towel rods, thinking the cheap chrome ones would be a few dollars each.  I was wrong.  The cheap chrome ones are about $8 each, and the shortest they had in stock were 24", which was twice as long as I needed.

So after I looked at every place in the store where they would have towel rods, I went over to the "organization" isle.  They had some very cute paper towel holders- too expensive and too bulky.  They had nothing what I was looking for.  BUT they had stemware holders, $3 each.  Hmmmmm.  That could work!   I bought a few, then went home and searched online.  I found just the things I was looking for online, but they were all more expensive than my $3 stemware holder. 

 Here's the new inside of my under the sink cupboard door!  One for each door will be perfect for my needs.

Finished!

Pinterest

A couple of weeks ago I decided to join Pinterest.  I was very confused at first, but after a few days I began to understand how it worked.  And I 'unfollowed' about 40 people I had started 'following' on the first day.  I had not realized what it was I was really doing on the first day!

Anyway, Pinterest is an online bulletin board that you share with your followers, and you can follow others' Pinterest boards, too.  I have 8 "boards" at this time:  Fun Stuff for Baby; Stuff I've Made; Clever Ideas; Crochet Stuff; Family History; Household Hints, Recipes to Try; Recipes I've Tried.  The types of boards I tend to follow deal with recipes or household hints. 

I've learned a lot of fun things through Pinterest and made several new recipes.  My favorite new recipe is for "goldfish crackers."   http://pinterest.com/pin/527413806331145268/   Oh my, they were so good!  John said I shouldn't make them again until New Year's Eve, because he's afraid of how bad they are for us and how many we'd eat!  But really, they're not too bad for us, except the amount of fat, because it has so much cheese.  We may gain weight if I made them all the time!

My homemade paper tablets.  Aren't they cute?

I've made little tablets with covers made from fruit snacks, crackers and tissue boxes.  I've "polished" my silverware using a non-toxic recipe.  I love my homemade dryer sheets.  Lots and lots of fun ideas!

Now that I have found Pinterest I have to learn how to control myself wanting to look through what everyone else has pinned all the time.  I'm going to have to put a time limit on myself, because it's just too fun and I have other things that need to be done, too! :-) 

It's now Fall, and I wondered how many times this year I had hiked the Y.  Since I collected a rock every time I went hiking, dated it and put it in a jar, I could tell!

From counting my rocks I knew that I went to the Y 24 times, including today.  Went to other places 4 times.  Those included the "big hikes" we took on a couple of occasions that took many hours.  I collected 3 rocks each time we went on a big hike, taking a rock from each main trail. 

The first time I hiked the Y (not including the times decades ago!), it took me 45 minutes and my legs were shaking when I got back down to the car.  My knees always hurt coming back down, too, for many months.  Now I can make it to Turn 10 in less than 30 minutes (my record is 25 minutes 20 seconds) and my legs don't shake and my knees don't hurt anymore coming down!  Yeah!

My jar of hiking rocks.

All the rocks spread out, according to date.  January's rock is on the far left, September's rocks are on the right.

Riley's Christmas Stocking

I decided it was time to write a new post.  I haven't been very diligent in this matter!  We went on our Australian vacation in July, which was wonderful!  I only posted almost 600 pictures in Facebook!  I now can climb to turn 10 on the Y trail in 25 1/2 minutes!  I finished Riley's Christmas stocking!

The stocking was a true labor of love.  The kit supposedly included everything "needed" except a small amount of batting.  The white felt was unacceptable, and I had to double it to make it acceptable.  The white felt was supposed to be the backing, which would have been unacceptable even if it wasn't see through.  Who gives a child a white stocking?  It would never have looked nice after the first 5 minutes of him using it. Then I ran out of some of the sequins.  The company sent more sequins, I used the backing of the stocking to double up the white pieces, I used a red and green plaid (doubled and interfaced) for the back, used fuzzy felt for the stocking topper, and used a ribbon instead of felt for the hanger.  The back and the front were sewn right sides together, then flipped and machine top-stitched.  This stocking is made to last a long, long time!

Here's my village!  Isn't it adorable!

Boy, I'm a bad blogger!  Since I've written last, I spent 3 weeks in Eugene, hiked to the Y numerous times, crocheted lots of new Itty Bitty Baby clothes, hiked around Y mountain and down Rock Canyon with John on Memorial Day, almost finished my plastic canvas gingerbread village, filled in lots of spaces in my genealogy, and spent LOTS of time preparing for our upcoming vacation (cruise around Australia!!)  Whew!

I will post photos when I finish my little village.  It is adorable.

My best time of hiking to the Y (to turn 10) is now 26 minutes!  And my knees have stopped hurting on the way down.  THAT is quite a blessing!

Hiking the Y

I just made my 4th climb up to the Y.  Only 32 minutes to turn 10, and 25 back to the bottom.  I'm getting better at this!

Almost Spring!

I knew it was going to get stormy over the weekend, so I took advantage of the great weather and hiked up to the Y on Friday.  It was my quickest time yet, 35 minutes to Turn 10.  Then I actually went over the short trail to the bottom of the Y and had someone take my picture to prove I made it. :-)

Eugene

I spent most of last week up in Eugene visiting Thomas and Melissa.  It is VERY humid there!  Lotion?  Who needs that?!  I used very little while there.  Everything is green, including the bark on the trees, rocks and roofs.

I worked on a plastic canvas needlepoint project while there, too, and finished my 2nd dish cloth using the Knook.

Fun, huh?!  I can knit (though it's not great knitting) as long as it's with a crochet hook!

My latest attempt on the Y Trail

I was too busy last week to hike up to the Y, but this week I had some time.  Plus, I could see the Y, and the weather had been warm, so I figured most of the snow that had come down recently would be gone.

Well, yes, the recent snow was gone.  In fact, I had to scrap mud off my shoes before I got back in the car.  BUT, that nice snow pack on the switch backs was now ICE. 

Turn 1, Y trail, looking up.

I tried to squeeze around the corner without stepping on any ice, but it was impossible.  I didn't get 2 steps before I slipped.  Sigh.  Thankfully, I just hurt a knee, and not too bad.  But decided that I didn't want to try to go higher.

Turn 1, Y Trail, looking down.

So instead of going all the way up to Turn 10, I went up to Turn 1 and back down three times!  Kind of got boring, so I figured 3 times, and 35 minutes was good enough. :-)

Here's the prickly bush I stood next to while taking these pictures.

Prickly bush on Y trail.  Yikes!

 

I was hoping to get some of my own photos from "high", but this was as high as I went.  I'll try again in a week, and see if the ice is melted yet!  Too scary this time.

Corrected a name in my Family History

My ggf, Francis Marion Proctor, had a child, Mollie Emma, from his first wife.  I had that Mollie's husband's name was W. Pleasant Robinson, and they had a child, Viril Pleasant Robinson.  Both Mollie and W. Pleasant died within 6 months of their son's birth.

I have looked and looked and looked for Viril Pleasant Robinson.  Today I finally found him.  His first name can be spelled several ways in the records, but in the SSDI, it was VIRREL.  The main problem I had finding him was I had his surname wrong.  It was ROBERTSON.   AAUUGGHH!

How I finally found him was when I was looking for him in Ancestry.com, under just his first name, but an exact birth date (which I had from the family records) in the WWI Draft Registration.  I was excited when I saw he was there, but didn't even realize at first that his last name was different than what I had it as.

Through an afternoon's worth of searching, I found him on 4 censuses, found his wife, 8 children, and several of his children's death records.  His death record from familysearch.org, proves he is the son of Mollie Proctor.  Listed his dad as Virrell Robertson, which is incorrect, but close.    Ancestry.com family trees have his father as William Pleasant Robertson.

Yippee!!

Doubling up a necklace

I have several long necklaces.  I love the beads, but not the length.  I just prefer necklaces closer to my neck. :-)

A while back I realized that the long necklaces were "just right" if I doubled them up.  But how?  I first used a safety pin.  Worked great!  At least at first.  BUT, the edges of the pin started scratching my neck, and the beading wire moved down into the grooves of the safety pin, so it was difficult to take off.

Then I thought about maybe a short ribbon, that snapped together.  That would have worked fine, but I found my beading stuff first, and decided to do it this way instead.  

This is going to work out fine!  If I wanted the necklaces to be a little adjustable, I could have made it instead with chain and a clasp, with each of those attached to a short piece of ribbon that would go around the necklace.
Here's how mine turned out.  Not bad, huh?

Thursday I decided to hike Y Mountain.  I wanted my exercise that day to be fun!  And I totally enjoyed it!  I really like hiking, but just don't do it very much.  I bundled up good, and took half of the layers off by the time I got back down. 

Took me 40 minutes to get up, (to turn #10, level with the bottom of the Y), and 33 minutes to get back down.  If the weather is good, I plan on doing it again on Tuesday.