Monday, September 18

[Bubby]

Good Morning..I’ve been awake for an hour or so and thought I would start us off into the new week before I try to sleep again.

We have an early appointment to get the Girls groomed this morning. Sugar is looking like a baby lamb and Maggie like a miniature polar bear. Their hair grows so fast in warm weather. Come to think of it, so does mine.

While the Girls are being pampered Jeff will take me to the license bureau to renew my license. I wish our state would allow seniors to renew their licenses online like most other states. I read yesterday that Colorado just started doing that.

I had two nice accomplishments last week, getting my hair cut after four months and turning a case of HoneyCrisp apples into applesauce. Of course Jeff helped immensely on both counts. I think we ended up with 17 pints for the freezer plus a dozen or so apples for snacking.

Today is the last day if you want to squeeze in a project or two into the Fall Flourish project. We have a gathering of talented ladies and gents here.

Wishing everyone a stellar Monday. 🌻🐝

[SallyO'Sews]

Good morning, Quilty friends! I make it a practice never to be up this early (lying in bed trying to go back to sleep is more my style, LOL) but here we are. Hope you all have a wonderful day and start to this new week. Barb, I'm so glad you are up and about, but PLEASE be good and don't overdo it! Love, hugs, and blessings to all.

[Bubby]

I will be wearing the boot and using my walker. The only place I will enter is the license bureau and they have good chairs near the door Jeff will deposit the Girls with their groomer and he will make a short WalMart run for water and bananas while I wait in the truck.

[Jean Sewing Machine]

Good morning, Early Birds! I’ve been awake for a while, hope to go back to sleep soon. Yesterday was spent clearing the decks for my sister and hubby staying for a few days. The place had really deteriorated over the past few weeks of frantic costume sewing. Pigs must be living here in this pig stye! Oh, there’s only one pig here, ME! No one else to blame!

one unplanned cleaning job. I had a big soda fountain drink from Panera that I brought home to finish. The cup collapsed in my hand and 12 oz. Of dark beverage hit the dining room carpeted floor! That was an unexpected and definitely unwanted cleaning job I had to do! Sopped up most of with paper towels, then laid a paper towel layer, topped with a bath towel, weighted down with books. Voila! 3 hours later, took it up, no sign of the spill! Yay!

We went out looking for dinner last night. Sunday and Monday many of our restaurants are closed. Finally found a Mexican restaurant nearby that was open! The food was ok, washed down by some tasty margaritas! Yay, Jimmy Buffet, for immortalizing this fabulous beverage! We will be looking for activities to do today and tomorrow when they leave for home.

No sewing got done. Boo! I still have much to do to get ready for the forum retreat.

Hope you all have a nice day!

[TMP]

My house is a mess because for over a week I have been cutting out and sewing and just being a bum. I would be embarrassed if someone saw the mess I am living in right now. Sandy is shedding like crazy and I have dishes in the sink and haven't made the bed in days.

[grammaterry]

Heere I am giving unwanted advice. I would not order or drink a fountain beverage after being in the restaurant business. We had fountain for about 3 months when we opened. One day a kitchen worker came in with a mountain dew to show me something floating in it. The pepsi man was in the store that day and I asked him about it. He said, we call it pepsi "snot". I cleaned our machine nightly so I couldn't figure it out. He said, it burps up from the outgoing lines. So I flushed them. Lo and behold I got a piece about 1 inch in diameter and 6 inches long of this gel like substance. I went out and told hm to come pick up the machine and from then on we served in cans.

[SuzanneOrleansOntario]

Oh that's quite the mess to clean up -- but I guess the servants are off today.

Terry - I was turned off Coke for years in the 70s. One hot day after being home after being on public transit for a long time, went to fridge, opened bottle or can (can't remember) and gulped it down. WELL there was something that went down my throat. It was slimmy -- thought it was animal decomposing part. We called Coke representative as there was a bottling facility in town. They came over and took bottle away, no explanation, gave us free bottles or cans. I couldn't drink it.
Now back to drinking Coke, as I really hate Pepsi.

[sewverybusy]

Big unplanned job & advice needed please
Garage freezer needed defrosting. DH let it get so bad that it took 4 hours instead of just one to get it defrosted, cleaned & reloaded. Made a point to also remove things left in too long.
Now the big question-- have any of you owned/used a vacuum food sealer? I usually freeze liquids & sauces as flat as possible but am less than happy with the available 'freezer bags'. No matter what type of seal they have, I do get a stray leaker. I'm wondering if a food sealer might be the answer. I have read the pros & cons of some units but hope someone here has firsthand knowledge before I make a decision about buying or not. Please- what do I look for, are they reasonable to use & are you glad/sad to have one? Any thoughts welcome.
Thank You for reading & responding.
sewverybusy

[Granny Fran]

We got ours this spring and we love it. We did not get the attachment for use on containers other than bags but we could order it if we want. What I love about it is that you can also seal other types of bags, ie potato chip bags after you take out what you want. It also stands up on its side and does not take up lots of counter space. Ordered it from Amazon(Nesco starter kit) and it uses any type of bags not just the brand of the machine.

[CarlieBlilie]

I do not have a vacuum sealer. I used the ziplock bags. Thunking back I don’t recall having any leakers. I use for soups, spaghetti sauce, fruits and veggies as well as hamburger, etc. I buy hamburger in 3 pound packages and then divide it between 3 bags. I lay it out flat. Easier to store and thaw. I do that with the liquids too but usually put them on a cookie sheet until they are frozen to avoid the bag freezing into the grates. I also store in the fridge u til they are cold before I freeze them.

[Bubby]

I use heavy freezer bags for freezing and I do it the same way as Carlie and Suzanne. I have never had a problem. One thing that can cause leaks is filling the bag too full. Everything expands when it freezes.

[TMP]

Good morning!

I am up too early and will probably go back to bed this morning. Yesterday I had left over pizza and a salad. I just didn't feel like cooking. I finished the quilting an oversized queen quilt and I am working on hand sewing on the binding. It's nothing special just some fabric I wanted to use up and I will put it on one of the guest beds. To me there is nothing that makes you sleep better than a quilt.

Do any of you use cash back credit cards? I have had them for several years and I thought I am going to keep track of how much cash I am getting back. I pay everything I can with them. I am surprised at how a little can add up over a period of time, but this only will work if you don't keep a balance.

I need to get outside and pull weeds now that the weather is cooler and clean up in the garage.

Ben's first Auburn game
Auburn game.jpg
Jeff's entire family
jeff.jpg





Have a wonderful Monday!

[Granny Fran]

Beautiful family!! Thanks for sharing with us.
We have a Capital One from Walmart and we also pay it off each month. Makes it easy to keep track of our spending and the cash back rewards really do add up quickly. I pay our utilities, insurance and all other big ticket items. We remodeled the bath vanity + mirror and kitchen countertops with the rewards and this year got a new laptop with them.

[MSN]

I also use cash-back credit cards, and use them to my advantage. I refuse to pay fees, so no annual fee for me. As Terry said, shop around to find one that maximizes the amount you get back. I have mine set up to automatically pay the balance in full on the due date, so I don't have to worry about missing a deadline and getting hit with interest and fees. Once a year or so, I apply my accumulated rewards towards my bill.

A word of caution -- every time you open a new credit account, your credit score takes a hit. So I would advise doing your research and choosing the best card for you, then stick with it. Don't be constantly chasing the best new deal. Also, your credit score is affected by the longevity of your accounts. A few years ago, I opened a new account because the rewards were better than what I had been getting. The new card is the primary account that I use, but I did not cancel the old account. I purposefully keep it open and have one small monthly recurring charge on the old account so that it isn't closed due to inactivity. Because this is my oldest account, the credit bureaus have a lengthy credit history on me, and my credit score is higher as a result.

[TMP]

I started using one regular during Covid when no one wanted cash and most everything I bought was ordered online. Then I found out I could pay my utilities, doctor bills etc. I would just apply it each month to my bill. This past year I have just left it alone in the account and I was surprised how it is adding up.

[Monique]

Good morning friends. I had a great weekend visiting with our oldest. Saturday, I helped him move a wood pile to the wood shed. I filled the wheelbarrow and he stacked. Surprisingly, I wasn't sore Sunday. Yesterday was the opening of the apple orchard next door. Greg was helping out. He and I went to town and picked up 24 apple pies that they had made for them. Went back later and picked a 1/2 bushel of Cortland apples to share with my sister-in-law. I was also given an apple pie as a thank you. I left Greg a big slice. I had taken a beef/vegetable stew with me on Friday and he has enough left overs for a few lunches. Les cut ALL his grass yesterday. That took a while but that was another job he doesn't have to do. Every bit helps. He has another showing this Friday. Hopes that the place sells. BUT I will miss it with all the space. My friend Lynda and I are going to plan a small retreat there before he sells.

Not sure what today will bring. Hubby developed a sore tooth yesterday. He may become a bear. We will see what he wants to do. He hasn't been to a dentist in forever. Lord help me.

Have a great day everyone.

[JCY]

Monique ~ I must have missed some info. along the way. What property is being sold? Have Les suck on a whole clove until he can get into see the dentist. I understand it helps with the pain.

[Monique]

Joy, my son has his little farm up for sale.

[JulieC]

Good morning!

Oh happy day, "all-in" days are over and remote days are back!! 🎉 I really enjoy my remote Mondays. I like being able to ease into the week. Such a relief not to have to watch the clock or worry about traffic.

We had some rain overnight. Temps will be cool today, in the upper 60's. I thought for sure with the cooler weather I would have turned on the furnace. Hasn't happened yet. The lowest temp in the house was 65. Looks like we're going to have a warm weekend. I'm taking Friday off. It will be nice to be able to enjoy the weather.

I talked to my Ohio sister yesterday. She has been watching videos about tiny houses and thinks they are cute. She is looking into them as an alternative to her trailer. I thought tiny houses were small trailers? 🤔 She said she will stay one more winter in the trailer. Her pipes froze when we had that bomb cyclone around Christmas. She would rather have an apartment. Which she can't afford because her social security is at the poverty level. She will need to figure this out. I bought the trailer; if she wants something else, that's up to her.

I haven't figured out what my next sewing project will be. I'm still in the mood to sew. But first, I need to clear off my cutting table!

Have a wonderful day!

[201 Treadler]

it may be cheaper for her to increase the lagging on the pipes, another tiny home would have same issues would think, unless thinks current one is too small, your right though needs money to make any change. hope this does not spiral into more stress for you.

[Monique]

Julie there are ways to keep pipes from freezing.

[JCY]

I have enjoyed watching YT videos on tiny houses. Some of them are really cute & very practical. The are only so many places for them around the country., and you still have to pay lot rent. Personally, I don't think I could live in one. I need my space & having a sewing room!
Many of the tiny houses are built to order, so your sister would need to know exactly what she wants. Make sure she does her research.

Frozen pipes: The answer to that is heat tapes to keep the pipes warm so they won't freeze. Installing the heat tape would certainly be a cheaper option than buying a tiny home, even if she has to hire someone to do it for her.

[KPH]

Good Morning All,

It looks like its going to be a beautiful day, not going up to the 90s is a plus in my book!

I need to strip my bed this morning and get the sheets done. I think it's time to switch quilts and repack the cedar chest. I have 2 quilts sitting on the corner that need to go in there. Not sure what I want to get out. It's too early to put the Christmas quilt out. lol Oh well, that's a job to be done today.

I have a list of things to get done before Mike gets home and 1 to get done after he gets home. I need to call Mel and decide if I'm going up for her trip to the beach or not. If I'm going, I need to get plane tickets to Charlotte. There's an instacart order to make, a phone call to see if I can take Husky Boy in, a trip to the bank. It's going to be a busy day. Mike will be home by 3! Inventory is over for another year. Justification of results is still going on, but for the most part it's done.

I finished sewing the snowflake pillow top yesterday. When I take my machine in, I'll pick up a pillow form for it. Another thing to add to the list.

Joe's interfacing for his Tee Shirt quilt is coming in today. I can't do anything with that, since he hasn't sent any tee shirts my way. I can't wait to see how big his XL shirts logos will be. I'll go ahead and start a project box, sooner or later he'll get the tee shirts here, right?

Well, it's time to get started. Prayers for those in need, for healing touches, for comfort and peace, for grace and mercy. Prayers of thanksgiving for all of our many blessings.

[grammaterry]

Finished the FMQ on the log cabin yesterday. Need to bind it but did get it squared up. It seems really huge and heavy. Haven't got a final measurement. I need to clean the sewing room and turn it in to a guest room today. They will be here soon. I barely know these folks but DH likes the husband.
I don't even know how long they are staying. I asked DH and he said, we'll ask when they get here. Now thats a good way to plan menu huh?

Fuji is really enjoying the cooler weather. Me too.

Did not sleep well last night. I work word puzzles on the computer and my brain kept trying to make words out of blossoms 7 letters. Oh dear, I guess I've got to give that up for a while. I hated my sleepless night.

Time to motivate!!

[SuzanneOrleansOntario]

Wow you are far more accommodating than I would be, especially for folks you barely know and no agenda. What is it they say, if you don't like them, you can always suggest to go to restaurant (and wait to see if they offer to pay). DH and I have been in this house 13 years, and only house guests have been those who stayed to take care of cats while we're away.
My ex used to invite his family over a lot -- I really got tired of hosting for days on end, without any assistance, and not so much as a thank you - bottle of wine. This was never reciprocated when we would visit them, had to stay at hotel.

[TMP]

Sometimes I just don't think men think. They think you can just throw together a nice meal out of thin air.
Dub and I would share the cooking and planning when we were having company. He would smoke or grill something and I would take care of the sides and desserts. Now if I have company (which is rare) I have snacks and we just eat out for meals. Oh, and he was an awesome husband when it came to the cleanup. He was always first in the kitchen to load the dishwasher. Gosh I miss him.

[Ginny B]

Good morning. It's a rainy one here. Yesterday was indeed a busy day. We got a batch of Apple pie filling and the strawberry jam done. I think I will have a sewing room day today. I need to pull out my Christmas fabric bin. I have decided to do the first part of blockheads in Christmas fabric. And I finished squaring up all the HST's for my sister's quilt so today will be the start of arranging the blocks.

That's all I've got going on today. I hope you all have a good start to this new week.

[Mom23]

Good Morning,

I left the house this weekend to clean church Saturday and went to Mass yesterday. The rest of the weekend was spent in my sewing room. I'm almost ready for the Fall Forum Retreat, the sewing room is clean and organized, and a list of all projects is recorded. Hubby doesn't get home until Saturday so I have almost all week to do what I want. My daughter and daughter in law left me alone all weekend knowing how much I enjoy my time sewing. I am cooking for them tomorrow night and we are all going to the park for pizza Wednesday. I miss the kiddos but I must say I needed this time to get my sewing mojo back.

Today I will have to get some office work done and while I'm in there I will clean. The office becomes a dumping ground for items that need to be disbursed throughout the house. While doing that I will do a couple loads of laundry. Tonight is quilt guild so it's a busy day when compared to the past few. I am taking advantage of energy that I have right now, I have a treatment Wednesday so that will be diminished.

Have a blessed day.

[chelea]

Good Monday morning everyone. It's a soggy one, supposed to rain all day, temps in the 60's. Every morning at 8am my weather app sends me a little message. Today's said "Good Morning! It's 63 and raining in Attleboro, MA right now. Thundery weather will remain for today." Is thundery a real word? 🤣 Probably a made up one by Jim Cantore.

Yesterday was spent running around after my favorite toddler. We are so blessed to live so close to them; our first DGD has always lived far away in VA so we missed most of her precious moments.

Today is charity sew, woohoo! We're going to work on placemats, a nice break from stitching quilts. After that it's time to scrub the master bath. Then some sewing. I didn't get into the sewing room this weekend, I did cross stitch instead. I put it down in disgust when, after stitching for hours, I found I was off by one stitch and can't locate where it is. Working on linen is so hard on my eyes, even working in sunlight with magnifiers. So I'm going to abandon this piece of (expensive) linen and start over with an even weave. It will still look nice, just not quite as pretty as linen.

So that's my story this Monday. Hope yours is a good one.

[Bubby]

Michele, I used to stitch on only linen and other fine fabrics when I was younger. There are some beautiful colors in evenweave fabric. My eyes have changed, too. My daughter gave me a set of magnifying lenses to snap over my regular glasses but it still bothers my eyes. Your embroidery will be lovely on fabric you can see to stitch on.

[SuzanneOrleansOntario]

Good morning everyone,

I slept pretty good and happy to see its sunny day. I think I heard heavy rain during the night, but could have been dreaming. Yesterday I made a batch of pickled crab apples in syrup. They have been sitting overnight, and I will process them today. I also peeled the remaining mystery apples from our tree. They weren't very big, so a pain to peel, and many of them were not good inside. I added a few Cortlands and made a large jar of applesauce. With what I made so far, we are good for the season. I still have about 1/2 bushel total of apples we bought in the county. I did freeze a large ziploc of apple pie filling, but I think I'm going to try one of the recipes I found online to can them. I looked for one where the apples aren't cooked but the filling is. I figure I might get 2-3 large jars.

I was tired in the kitchen, so I went to sewing room. I picked a small bin of leftover yardage from the 3 Dudes quilt I made for Pat a few years ago. I had 8 blocks and sewed them together. I was going to keep adding to it, but decided it's perfect size for table runner. I had a large piece of batting, double it, cut the backing for yardage. I will quilt it on Sweet 16. It's been too long since we played together. Then I cut all the remaining fabric into 2 1/2" strips. I'm doing a Donna Jordan free pattern -- strips need to be 10" and 20" long, and accent 2.5" square. I've started snowballing the corners, and it should go together pretty fast. I will make the required size for VQC for future quilting. I pulled out a freezer meal for dinner.

Today is free agenda. There's laundry to be done, bed to be changed, errands at grocery store, some canning and some sewing. We have been invited to Michael's oldest place for dinner on Wednesday. We haven't given baby (no more) Michael his birthday gift. He was 5 in August. We heard a funny story, and I'm thinking I may make him a cushion that reads "Boys rule". Apparently his sisters tell him that all the time, and he was a friend's place with several boy friends. They are a bit older and he came back home telling his sisters that "Boys Rule".

Enjoy your day -- stay warm, stay dry, stay cool.

BetterDay.jpg

[TMP]

I have never had a crab apple. Are they sweet or sour?

[SuzanneOrleansOntario]

They are generally more sour. The syrup is made up of vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. I don't have mace, but sure it doesn't change the savory flavor.

[KPH]

Merciful heavens... If anyone hears me say, I'm making a quilt for my bed again... shoot me! I can't even shut my cedar chest and there's 1 more quilt to go back in there! I can see there's going to be some working and refolding going on later today, but I don't think that's going to help much.

[SuzanneOrleansOntario]

Oh -- I hear you. The cedar chest is full. There are 8 fabric storage quilt boxes on top. AND there's a pile of 8 quilts needing labels, that have no place to be stored.

[201 Treadler]

mines in https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0748JHZ...ding=UTF8&th=1 amazing how they reduce.

[TMP]

I feel your pain. I am over run with quilts also.

[201 Treadler]

hi friends
it rained hard last night to mid day,
now blue skies and sunny glass house self opening window is open really wide. it is windy.
am enjoying the sunshine through window,
have noticed some red speckles on topside of hand, not a rash, not itchy will continue to monitor, and rest.
we had small salad for dinner with an egg sandwich
last night was broccoli chicken potatoes. with apple crumble.
have a wonderful day
hugs T