A scarf I made some time ago....

A while back I posted this same photo and I said that you needed to get ahold of me for directions. This summer my friend told me that I never gave directions. So here they are:
You will need about 22 inches of knit fabric that is about 60 inches side. You can use old
t-shirts and piece them together or buy a piece of fabric, which I did for this scarf. You can use various colors if you like. Cut a 9", 7", and a 5" strip of fabric. Lay all three on top of each other and sew down the middle. Cut about 1/2 to 3/4 inch strips, cutting through all three layers and stopping about 1/2 inch from the sewing line. Do this on both sides. Throw it in the rinse cycle and then the dryer. There ya got it--a new scarf!!

Where Have I Been?

Hello Everyone! Wow! Has it ever been a long time since I updated my blog! Actually, I thought it had been a year but it was not that long! Lyle and I had a wonderful summer! We went to Iowa in mid-June. We stayed with Scott, Elise, and the boys for about a week and a half. Then we went to Minneapolis to visit Lyle's brothers. On route to Edgerton, we stopped to see his brother Rog in Willmar, MN. Then we had two fantastic weeks with friends in Edgerton. Back to Pella and a stay with the Spronks. We did not find an apartment--mainly because no one looked very hard. The boys went to Oma, who is more than just a day care provider, two days a week and we kept them home two days. Elise had off on most of the Fridays or I could also say that she had most of the Friday off. We went to lots of garage sales, went to the pool alot, watched the kids play or played with the kids.....We were busy and enjoyed it! On September 3, we went to Kansas City to Jerry and Jean. The Spronks went also for the weekend. We were in KC a few days and then flew to Chris, Lori, Gabe, and Ellie for two weeks. That was also a busy time with kids activities, a Vikings game, and house stuff. As I write now, the project is very near completion. On September 20, we flew back to KC. KC has the Royals but we were treated royally in the home of Jerry and Jean. The guys golfed and the gals shopped. We enjoyed wonderful lunches and dinners!  We planned to leave for home on September 28 but when Jerry and Jean decided to go to Pella to watch Ashlei play tennis, we rode along.  It was great to see the Spronks again!  It was just overnight but we loved it.  Even got to watch Bennett play soccer one more time.  Well, we finally left for home on the weekend and stopped again at towns along the way.  We arrived home on October 5!  We unpacked the car and I could not believe that we had so much stuff in the car!  It really looked like a lot when it was all setting on the floor!  I have found a home for most of the things!  I made up a Smilebox of some of the highlights.  It is quite long so do not feel you need to watch all of it!!

A Great Philosophy

I love cartoons and I am always cutting them out. I don't know what I plan to do with them but I am still young so I will make a decision some time. Maybe I will just scotch tape them in a lined spiral notebook. As for now, I will just share them with all of you. I used to pound nails everywhere and women would ask me how I got Lyle's permission to do that. Hmmmmm....Never did fully understand that "permission" thing. Actually, I don't think he ever minded it. In fact, at one point, in our Edgerton home, I was so tired of plain doors that when I found an old white door on the curb in Pipestone during the days Pipestonians could put junk on the curb, folks like me could go through it before the garbage trucks took it to the final resting place. (Now that could be a story itself! I smile as I recall it!) Lyle drilled four holes in the closet door of the den and mounted my old door onto the existing door. I loved it. When we put the house up for sale, Lyle simply filled the bolt size holes and we painted the door. That's why we keep left-over paint. So gals, pound away until the wall decor makes you happy!

I have searched for a photo of my door and could only find the above two. These date back to the early 2000s. Why didn't I take photos of the house before we sold it? What I really loved about the old door is that it had an old window (old being a given since you can see it is an old door) in which I put either a photo or a piece of an old quilt. I loved it! So right now, go get your camera and photograph your house, PLEASE! Trust me, someday you will be glad you did!!

Gotta love seeing this spring cleaner!

Perhaps you remember that at the beginning of 2010, I told how Davonne, Anita, and I were making an Advice Book. We have completed it and I want to share it with you. It has been both fun and challenging. Anita and Davonne have busier lives that I do and it requires time. I did learn that a page seldom turned out as I had thought it would. While working on the page, ideas lead from one direction to another and sometimes even the advice I was planning on using is not the one I end up using. When we exchange our pages, it is always an exciting time for me. I love getting a package with the new page. It is not as fun as it would be to do a project together, but it is a great way to stay connected and creative. This year we are doing quotes. Again, we share laughter and ideas. I will always love these two special friends and I love having a book that contains their creativity and their advice. The Slideshow of GOOD ADVICE is below.

Those Old Rotary Phones

Remember those old rotary dial phones? We had the pleasure of renting two of them years ago in Edgerton. When the NEW push-button type came out, we replaced them, never thinking about the fact that we were renting those rotary phones. Garage sales came and went and I never was able to sell those phones. Nobody wanted them! Years later, and I mean YEARS, Lyle asked me about an expense listed on our phone bill. It was for around $4.00 each month. Neither of us knew so I called the phone company. The conversation went something like this:
Me: What does the line blah blah blah mean?
She: That is for the two rotary phones you are renting.
Me: WHAT? I am renting those? You are kidding!! Nobody uses those anymore! Why didn't someone contact me about it?
She: (Thinking: Why would we do that? It's money for us!) Says: It is not a policy.
Me: I have tried to sell them on garage sales but no one wants them. I don't even know if I have them anymore!
She: You can purchase them for $16 each.
Me: WWWWHHHAT? After all the rent I have paid. (By this time I am calculating into hundreds of dollars, maybe even a thousand! Seriously!)
She: If you find them, you can return them to DeBoer Cheverolet. (For those of you outside of Edgerton, you will not understand this but we could pay our bill there etc. Never know--your husband could go in to pay the phone bill and walk out with a car!)
Me: Sigh! (and hang up, very frustrated!)
You better believe I drove my chevy home and looked for the phones. Fortunately, those were in my save everything daze so I still had them in the storage room! I marched them straight over to DeBoer Chevrolet and started saving $4 a month!
Moral of Story: Check your bills and call if you have any doubts or you may end up with a couple of sheep to decorate your yard or home.

HI! As you will see below, I have been busy! When I showed off my wares to a friend, she said, "Well, haven't you been just Miss Martha Stewart?" I will admit she has been an inspiration to me. :-) I have also completed my January/February Quote pages. I will wait to show you those until I have sent them to Anita and Davonne. I'll bet you can't wait, right? I also want to make more bracelets. I went to a garage sale and got some short jean overalls that were the rage awhile back. I can see bracelets in it just waiting to be born! Gotta go!

One Way an Old T-shirt Can Look Good on an Old, Well, Somewhat Old Lady.

Don't throw away old T-Shirts! Make a scarf! Fun and super easy but you will need to contact me for the directions. Sneaky way to get a conversation, right?

Easy Bookmarks

Now these are really easy!

This only took a little time and used stuff I already have. I looked through my stash of old jewelry and added a few pieces to my antique bottles. I cut a few pages of old music and put it in the bottles. I used newspapers for the flowers. I cut a strip, folded it, and snipped. Then I rolled it and glued as I went. Got a stick off a tree and wala-wala!

New decor!

I think I should try it with the comic section next since that is my favorite section of the newspaper. Well, right after the sale inserts.

One of my dad's ties.....

Some more bracelets....

Creative with my sewing machine.

I probably told you last year that I bought a new sewing machine. I got such a deal on it but found I did not like the challenge of learning new things, like threading, winding bobbins, using a portable machine, and all that stuff. I tried to sew paper for one of the Advice assignments and it did not work. I kept thinking of my good old Singer that Mom and Dad bought for me in 1965, which is in the closet at Scott and Elise. I just could not bear to sell it for a mere $35. In October I decided to give it a try since Lyle had pants that I needed to shorten. (That's a topic I will try to remember to write about later.) I absolutely could not steer that needle at all, and needed to pull and push the fabric to get it moving. Really missed that old Singer now! Later I was looking it over for another projuct and realized that the machine was missing the foot!! I went back to JoAnn's and they were dumbfounded--that I did not have one and that I actually hemmed a pants without one!! So now I am celebrating this Singer of mine!! I have made window treatments (what a nice way to say it) for the windows. The last few days I really had fun making bracelets!! Tell me what you think! Well, actually remember the quote: If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.

I'm Back!!

Hi! It has been ages since I have written or added to my blog! While we travelled this summer, it was a pain to get to my blog since some of the time we were internet challenged. And it seems that since we got back home, it has been busy. Often I would think of things I should write but the day went past and I did not do it. So you can imagine I have a lot bottled up inside me just waiting to get out. I need to update you on the "Advice Book" that Davonne, Anita, and I did last year. It ended up taking two volumes, mostly because of all the stuff on the pages. Now we have begun our book for 2011. We are using quotes that we love for this year. So keep an eye on my blog for new entries!