Monday, January 30, 2012

Wonky house #7

 

Seven wonky houses have been completed.  I have 5 more to do and then will send them off and wait for mine to be shipped to me.

These are challenging to make, fun, but not always easy to get the look I'm after.  I wish I hadn't made the overhang on the right side so big, but I wanted the owl to have a place to perch.  BUT, the reason it's a wonky house is because you leave the strange things you would normally leave otherwise!


Sunday, January 29, 2012

Wonky house #6

 

This is the newest block for the Wonky House Block Swap!  I kind of like this one!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Honey, I'm home---

I got home about noon today and it's ever so good to see my hubby!

I went to my daughter's home near Pittsburgh, PA, to stay with the kiddos while she and hubby went to Las Vegas for work/fun.

Here are a few pictures I took while I was there from Wednesday through Saturday of this week.




This is Evie.
She is 8.
She's a terrific girl...love her bunches!









This is Anna.
She is 4.
She's a terrific girl, love her bunches, too!





This is Nathan.
He is 4.
He is a super boy and I love him bunches, too!





 
This is Vivi.
She is 2.  
She's a terrific girl and I love her bunches, too!!




This is Guinness. 
He's 10 and my best brown grand dog ever!

It was fun to be there, to enjoy the kids and to help my daughter and her family.

It's also good to be back home. 

Next week I'll post pictures of the two more grand kids and grand cats!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

A new "wonky" house, plus one more

Rick is feeling better and went to work today.  I love this unseasonably warm and sunny weather we are having, so, because I wanted to check on him at work, I just walked down and spent a little time with him.  

When I got home, I put the new tubes in my golf bag.  Now I have enough tubes to hold all my clubs.  I had two old ones that were broken, so those went into the recycling bin.

I took down the wreaths that were in the front window.  I scrubbed my tennis shoes (they get so grimy) and then got lunch ready for Rick.

After he went back to work, I took all the decorations off the Christmas tree.  I'm not able to schlep the tree upstairs, so we will probably do that tonight.

I wanted to try my hand at another wonky house block for the group I joined.  I like this one, I think it turned out pretty nice .  The one on the right...well, I did this one on Wednesday, 1/11.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Bits and pieces of life

Thought I'd take a few minutes and jot down some thoughts and happenings at our house.

We had snow on Tuesday...a lot of snow!  It was beautiful and I love being out in the snow and shoveling the snow.  However, with this shoulder issue, I'm not supposed to be using it hardly at all, especially no lifting or heavy movement.  SO...I'm not able to use the snow blower or the shovel.  Rick went outside before going to work to use the brand new 2 stage snow blower.  The snow was so wet and heavy that it didn't do a good job.  Then when he was about 1/3 of the way done with the driveway, he got sick.  Nausea and light headed.  He had to stop, immediately.  He got so sick he couldn't even go in the house.  I got a lawn chair and he rested in the garage until he was strong enough to turn off the blower and push it into the garage.  Then rested again to get enough strength to get in the house.  He rested and felt better and went on to work.  (I quizzed him unmercifully as to just how he was feeling because I was concerned it was a heart issue.)

Turns out, that episode was the beginning of a stomach bug.  He has been off work both yesterday and today.  Poor guy.  I gave him Imodium and that has slowed down his trips to the bathroom, but his stomach is still bad.  I hate seeing him ill...makes me feel so bad for him.

One of our neighbors -- young man, newly married and new to the neighborhood surprised us and plowed our driveway Tuesday night.  What a surprise to wake on Wednesday morning and see the driveway clear.  It was like the story of the Shoemaker and the Elves that I loved so much as a child.  Going to have to do something really nice for Caleb.

My physical therapy is moving along.  It's HARD work, to say the least.  I have been having a good bit of pain.  I spoke with my physical therapist and he says that's part of my recovery.  I guess it's to be expected about this point after the injury and surgery.  I do all I can do in my therapy, which is what he tells me I should do.  I'm not to overdo it...follow the signals my body sends to me.  I get reassessed at physical therapy on Monday and on Thursday I go to see the surgeon.

My daughter came on Wednesday and we cleaned out my spare room.  I'm terrible at clutter control and have a hard time getting rid of stuff.  I work well with a partner (and Jennifer was a great partner in this venture).  I took a load of stuff to the Goodwill yesterday after physical therapy (the Goodwill is just down the road from there).  It's easy enough to go there as they unload your car for you...and if you are lucky like me, you have someone at home to load your car!  I put a nice office chair at the end of my driveway with a "free" sign on it and it went quickly.

I've been going through my recipes, typing them all into the computer and getting rid of the 3 x 5, 5 x 7, newspaper clippings and notebook paper recipes.  I've gone through my main dishes and am now working on desserts.  This will be great to have them all organized.  Jennifer told me it's my "project" and when I get that done (and go through a small clothes basket full of "stuff" we would move onto another room!  Woo hoo!

Monday is Rick's birthday!  As I was going through recipes I came across one for one of his favorite cakes.  It's called Refrigerator Sheet Cake.  I'll share the recipe here.


Refrigerator Sheet Cake – Rick’s favorite

9 x 13 pan, greased and floured
350F for about 30 to 35 minutes

Cake:
            1 small (3 oz) pkg. strawberry jello
            ¾ cup boiling water
            ½ cup cold water
Dissolve jello in boiling water, then add cold.  Set aside and allow to become room temperature. 

            1 white cake mix
Mix as directed and bake in 9 x 13 inch pan.  Cool for 20 to 25 minutes.  Poke holes in cake with meat fork, about ½ inches apart.  Pour jello into the holes.  Refrigerate cake and prepare topping.
Topping:
            1 envelope whipped topping mix (2½ cup yield)
            1 package (3¾ oz) instant vanilla pudding
            1½ cup cold milk
            1 tsp. vanilla
In chilled deep bowl, blend whipped topping mix, pudding mix, milk and vanilla until stiff, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Frost cake and refrigerate.


Well, enough of  "this and that" for now.  I need to figure out something for my sick guy to eat for dinner.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Wonky House(s)


I signed up to participate in a Wonky House Block sway over at Jane's Fabric and Quilts and made my first block today.

It's my first attempt and even though I like it well enough, I think I can do more and better.

There's a Flickr group and some of the blocks that have been posted are really cool.  

Here's wonky house #2...