Easter wishes...

An Easter postcard dated 1909...

love that rooster!

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spring wardrobe

I've been working on a spring wardrobe for

Edith and Ella.

No, not their real names...

 but you know it's not safe to put your 

children's names out there for for the whole world to see.

So I call them Edith and Ella until the granddaughters

can pick their own names for their dolls.

As you can see Edith is a bit of a princess
and Ella is a tomboy.
I try to keep this in mind as I sew for them.

Silly grandmother huh?

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sugar mama

Mr. b's blood sugar test came back a little elevated...

His good little German hausfrau will need to hide

the brotkorb, kartoffeln and kuchen.

Ach ya, we liebe our carbohydrates.

But that's okay...

her waistline is getting ein bisschen auch!

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reflections

I had to chuckle at these

Reflections from Midwesterners

that I read in a magazine.

You know you're a Midwesterner if...

People wearing shorts to the grocery store in 10-degree weather don't surprise you.

You can tell a storm is coming because you have a sudden urge to make soup.

You have four seasons of clothes in your closet: early summer; hot, hot summer; fall into winter; and I-am-freezing-long-johns!

You measure traveling distance in time, not mileage.

You have a long conversation with a wrong number.

(this actually happened to me and we talked about the weather, ha.)

And my favorite...

You use the furnace in the morning. Open windows midmorning to let in fresh air. Close windows and turn on the air-conditioner to get rid of hot, humid afternoon air. Throw a log on the outside fire pit at night and enjoy the cool air again.

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spring things

I am definitely in a spring mood here...

I don't really have a project in mind at the moment

for this cute birdie fabric I found at Walmart...

but give me an hour or so and I will.

I don't know why I am so in love with sheep?

Maybe it's all the yarn that runs through my fingers

and knowing a lot of it comes from their wool...

But isn't he sweet?

Found him on etsy made from a recycled

wool sweater that had been felted.

I wonder if it was purposely felted or if

some poor unsuspecting person threw it in the wash machine

and shrunk it down to this sheep size?

Oh ya, been there, done that.

But you know the saying

"If life hands you lemons...

make it into a cute little stuffed sheep!"

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Happy Spring!

Lets hope Mother Nature

looks at her calendar

and gives us her blessing.

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tear down

They are tearing down our small town cafe today...

our only main street cafe.

When we owned the small dime store,

 just a few doors down from The Ponderosa,

we grabbed a lot of our noon meals here.

Some of our favorites were the

cream of vegetable soup

or if you were lucky it would be clam chowder,

crisscut fries with a ton of ranch for dipping

Indian Tacos on Tuesday

Fish Friday

a Denver sandwich
and their potato salad.

 I even got them to start calling me

 whenever they made carrot cake.

There was our kids induction into Honor Society 

and Mr. b's company Christmas parties in their banquet room.
They made our salads for both high school graduations.

So down it comes to make way for something new.

I guess you could say...

"For the times they are a-changin"

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top secret

The granddaughters and I

mixed up some top secret cookies this weekend

in our secret laboratory.

This grandma has only one secret,

and that's her chocolate chip cookies...

so it was a total lock down once 'the' recipe
 came out of the vault.

Chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips?

We had to substitute peanut butter chips for chocolate...

where did this "I don't like chocolate" girl come from?

And this same girl doesn't eat cookie dough!

Ya, I know, strange.

And look...

I even dug out my favorite "Grandma Bertha" bowl to use.

There really is no sacrifice too big when these girls visit.

After our cookies were baked we got into our rocket ship
and headed for Mars where we encountered space rocks and aliens.
Very scarey!
 

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a very busy day

Just a quick peek at our day so far...

Blueberry muffins with scrambled eggs and fresh strawberries for breakfast.

Arts and crafts...

With lots of play time.

I think nap time may be very soon.

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35 candles

Happy Birthday to our son today...

35! My gosh...

Where has the years gone?

I have been making angel food cakes 

with lots and lots of fluffy frosting

for 35 years now.

You could say I'm a pro.

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dignitaries

It's a busy day here for grandma...

soups in the crock pot

cakes in the oven

softscrubs in the tub

sheets are soaking in the wash machine...

have to iron the Mickey Mouse pillowcases yet.

We have two dignitaries arriving tomorrow night!

As always...

I will be in charge of entertainment and

grandpa will be doing KP.

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spicey

I'm trying to learn how to spice my life up a bit...

at least in the kitchen.

Our son and son-in-law are great spice shakers.

They are NOT afraid to use a little bit of this

and a little bit of that on everything they cook.

Our son makes the best stuffed onions

and son-in-law is famous with me for his shrimp Alfredo.

But if you're like me you have a cupboard full of spices...

just sitting there getting old...

also like me :)

So take a hint from me and get out there

and spice up your life!

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lions

March is still acting like a lion here on our block...

All I had to do was stand at the window
 to see what was going on out there.

Six more inches of blowing snow and ice.
Glad I wasn't out on those roads,
they were still icy this morning.

It was good weather to stay indoors
and keep my knitting needles busy.

Life must be very boring for people that
have sunshine every day?

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gardening

Anyone else dreaming about

  flowers and gardening yet?

I have lavender and kale on my list so far...

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reflecting

I love this quote by Steve Maraboli...

"Your life is a reflection...
you don't get what you WANT,
you get what you ARE.
You gotta BE it to SEE it."

It goes along with my firm belief that...

you are responsible for your own happiness in this world.

If you don't like what you are or what you have...

well then...stop complaining and

get off your duff and do something about it.

Just saying...

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wash soap

It's time for a new batch of laundry soap at our house...

and I really really like this homemade soap.

It's really good at doing it's job,

cheap to make and

so easy to mix together.

In case you haven't seen the recipe or lost it

here it is again.

Laundry Soap

3 bars Fels Naptha bar soap, grated

(you can also use Ivory, Castile, Zote or another bar)

4 lbs. Borax

4 lbs. Arm & Hammer washing soda

4 lbs. Arm & Hammer baking soda

Mix and store in airtight container

1-2 tablespoons per load

Makes 16 lbs. of detergent or 150 loads using 2 tbs. per load.

It makes NO suds but cleans supper well.

Cost to make - $12.63 or 8 1/2 cents per load

I don't think you can use it in front loading washers.

But there is recipes for liquid laundry soap on the internet also.

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magnificent

I have to love a book with this title right?

A friend thought of me, of course,

and gave it to me.

This knitted scarf may be my all time favorite to knit.

450 tight little stitches on every row.

Each one a different color.

This scarf uses the eponymous fabric stitch, or linen stitch,

 so named because it looks similar to a woven linen fabric.

knit slip knit slip knit slip...

repetitive enough to make me sleepy, yawn.

I think it's magnificent!

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insane

Blame it on the winter being to long...

I have multiple knitting and crocheting projects 

going at all times.

Lately I've noticed all my projects are on small needles.

I feel like I'm am never going to see the end of them with

their hundred of stitches per row.

So what do I do yesterday?

I get the urge to begin yet another new project...

Crochet thread and tiny crochet hook.

I blew this picture up so you could see how little

the crochet hook actually is.

But yes, I love crocheting with thread.

It's a small project so I'll be showing it to you soon.

Think vintage...

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March

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