My Bio Grandma had a cookbook, and Step Grandma had it for years, then gave it to me. I was looking through it, and it has some neat stuff for making dyed Easter eggs. Now, this was before store bought stuff. So it was "natural".
I was amused with the first one, coffee. I would save a step, just get brown eggs! :)
But it mentioned things like walnut husks, (wear gloves!!), grape juice, yellow and red onion skins, berry juice (mentioned strawberries, but I know blackberries would work, too).
I had some hens that would lay green, and blue colored eggs, no longer have them. I now have some that lay pink and brown eggs. So, I guess, Grandma and Grandma and I would have quite the color spectrum for Easter eggs!
(I think there were several more, but I don't have the book with me, it was a page or so of colors, what item made what color, how to decorate, etc... But it was fun to look at, even if I am not inclined to dye eggs right now.)
Showing posts with label grandma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandma. Show all posts
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Thursday, April 18, 2019
New old sewing machine.
When my Grandma passed away, I was given a sewing machine of hers. It is a lovely little thing, it was a source of pride for her.
Grandma was notorious for keeping information on things. I had asked Husband to give it a once over, so I could try using it. It's a very basic Singer machine. He asked if I had some items, the book that goes with it, and some sewing machine oil.
Uh, gimme a minute. Couldn't find the oil right off, had some oil for my spinning wheel, but Husband didn't want to use that. (I forget how many different kinds of oils you use for lubrication on machines, but I should have realized sewing machines would have their own oil...)
Finally remembered I had put all of the sewing items into a wooden container to keep them from wandering away. AH! And I had the oil. And here's some books, gave them to Husband, and wandered back to what I was doing.
When I came back in the room, he piped up, did you know your Grandma had this book? Little white pamphlet, with stars and a sewing machine, just about like the one in the other room.
Nooo...
Is it important? He hands it to me, pointing at the date. 1946, and I realize, it's a USDA book on sewing machine maintenance. It was basically the way to do all the set up and running of a sewing machine, with the very very basic how to's. (Think Sewing Machine for Dummies.) I read through it, and now think I will be able to maybe sew something. I will have to practice with it a bit first, you know, make a line, sew fabric shut, see what it does... But maybe I will be able to sew something real basic, like a bag, then go from there...
Today, sewn stitches, tomorrow... A vest! A fancy knitting bag! A Cat toy!! Who knows? Will update when I actually make something...
Thursday, December 01, 2016
Germs and Cleaning.
I think it’s safe to come out… I hope. After being off and on for nearly a month, I thought I’d whipped the problem. Grandma passed away, and I went to the funeral.
Aaaand, promptly got sick again.
Yay…
Finally crawling out of the whole sneeze, blow nose, cough violently, repeat nonsense… For now. I am, in fact, spraying hands, and anything that doesn’t move, with a little anti-germy spray I carry in my purse. At the rate I’d been going, I was tempted to put an extra-large can of Lysol, but it wouldn’t fit…
AT THE MOMENT, the creeping crud seems to be away. I am now in the “okay, healthy, now I need to get a flu shot, hopefully preventing further interruptions to my doings.”
I will be getting this maybe the end of the week, or the start of next, depending on when Husband and I get our respective derrieres in to get them, (or arms. Whatever.). He and I like to go together, moral support, I guess.
It’s really odd, the place we get them is a store, but the room is kinda creepy, it’s a little closed off space, no windows, painted totally white, with this odd little yellow-orange floral chair. A small desk by it, with the shots, and a wheeled stool for the pharmacist. (I say pharmacist, as we go to a local store to get them. I’ve no idea if the gal has any other letters after her name...) Anyway, it is a room that really could almost double for some of those interrogation rooms in spy movies. But, it works, so I try not to think about it… Too much.
And as you’ve no doubt noticed, I haven’t blogged. I needed to make a place for my computer. And now, I have! I have a nice desk now, in my now somewhat-in-progress-but-it-is-finally-usable-and-I-can-see-the-floor-again craft room. When Grandma died, she had a desk in her room. I remember it from when she lived in her old house. I’d thought it was nice, but that was about it. Well, no one in the family wanted it. I had a desk in my craft room, but it was sort of rough, and it was… Um. I’d had it since college, and it was starting to come apart in spots, and it was just not working well for me. So I asked for the desk, and the family was more or less like, Oh, THANK G*D, TAKE IT!!!
Shall we say, cleaning out my Grandmother’s things was a bit of a challenge? Finding homes for things was even more so! Between being a hoarder, and a child of the Depression, we were findingcrap scraps and bits that we really couldn’t fathom why were kept. Anyone want every rubber band from all the things she ever had a rubber band on? Some were quite brittle, she’d had them so long, some even broken, and tied back again. She had tiny bits of paper with, I am assuming, pictures or notes she wanted. But I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that she had hundreds of them in the desk. We were trying to make sure she hadn’t put unpaid bills, or conversely, money in, as well, so it was a long task. But finally, it was cleaned out, and I brought it home. Or more accurately, Husband brought it home, and we dug out a space for it in the craft room.
That’s when I took a good long look at my craft room.
Oh... Dear...
I wasn’t seeing much difference there, than I was at Grandma’s! Yoiks!! And so, swallowing hard, I decided that was not what I wanted to see when I came into this room. I have pack rat tendencies, but I can dump things when I want to.
And boy, after that, did I want to!
So, after getting healthy enough to do something, I started “digging out”. I separated into basic piles.
1. Want to keep, will use soon, put away.
2. Don’t want, but still usable, donate.
3. What the @#$% is this? Either trash, or recycle for use in some other project.
4. Junk, no value, just dump.
I was surprised that I had a bit more of #4 than I expected, but quite a bit was #2. (About 4 or 5 big bags worth so far.) After one meltdown, Husband realized I was ready to get his backhoe out and start cleaning the room. Basically bashing the wall down and scraping everything out… He decided to get involved.
I had tried desperately to clean as I went, but because of the way I had set up the room, I was just managing to make a batch of x, put it in a pile, which would allow me to get behind and clean out stuff, which would mean I would have to separate, and this made a new pile, or three.
This lead to my having no space, and lots of little bits and pieces. Basically, from a large geologically layered mess, to a series of small explosions. (Or, less charitably, random cow pies. Take your pick.) After Husband strong-armed the table, and helped me move a few boxes, and finally get boxes up on my shelves, I found the floor, and the boxes, (now LABELLED, so I have a clue what I have up there), I have room to separate and put things away. He also recommended putting cones of yarn that I use up on a shelf, rather than on a spinning rack, which did not do much but take lots of space on the floor, as well as blocking my bookshelves.
I am getting the thought that I will clean the closet, and a couple other ‘junk’ spaces this way, as well. After I get this monster down to size. I am still working on it, but now it’s more little stuff that I need to sort out, not this monster pile ‘o stuff.
I was a bit amazed how many projects I had started, then put in my craft room. Not in Area 51, but just on my table. That meant I had a table full of stuff, and didn’t have use of the table. Now I have all the Un Finished Objects in boxes, and in Area 51. If I didn’t want to do them, or in a couple cases, wondered what it was that I was making (only 2, but gah? What IS that thing???) I undid the project, rewound the yarn, and put it away. I now have at least 5 to 8 more points of R factor insulation on one side of my room.
I also made myself a limit. I have only 2 to three projects out at a time, (one for travel, like socks, and one or two for home), so I won’t have all the big mounds of stuff squirreled away here and there. And looking at the 3 shelves of projects, I am to start NO new projects until I finish some of those. (Only exception is for presents, such as baby blankets for family… However, since I have so far found at least 3 unfinished ones, that shouldn’t be a huge problem, either. Sigh…)
I have a bunch of unfinished teddy bears that I have stored for some time. A gal said she would take them on a missions trip, then backed out when I called to confirm how many she wanted. So I ended up with a batch of bears and no takers. I have recently checked with a friend, that knows a motorcycle charity group, and they were thrilled to take them. Sooooo, now I will have a “get the bears finished” session, and I will have yet MORE room, plus, some little kids will have new bears for Christmas. Yaaaay!
Thusly, I think I have mostly caught you up with my last couple weeks. Oh, and I cleaned out the garden, as we are going to have our first frost, so says the weather folks. Most of the garden had been cleaned out, but I had carrots and beets left. The carrots were fine, the beets… Uh, well, it’s a very good thing I was going to use them for natural dyes, let’s just leave it at that. Ew…
Not going to promise anything, at this point, but being on the healthy list again, having a real spot to use the computer again, and having cut down a lot on volunteer ‘stuff’, so I have some “me” time, you might even see blogs again, in less than blue moon increments! (Cross fingers!)
And with the computer where I can access it easily again, maybe you will see me stalking visiting your blogs, again, too! And maybe even commenting! Will wonders never cease...
Aaaand, promptly got sick again.
Yay…
Finally crawling out of the whole sneeze, blow nose, cough violently, repeat nonsense… For now. I am, in fact, spraying hands, and anything that doesn’t move, with a little anti-germy spray I carry in my purse. At the rate I’d been going, I was tempted to put an extra-large can of Lysol, but it wouldn’t fit…
AT THE MOMENT, the creeping crud seems to be away. I am now in the “okay, healthy, now I need to get a flu shot, hopefully preventing further interruptions to my doings.”
I will be getting this maybe the end of the week, or the start of next, depending on when Husband and I get our respective derrieres in to get them, (or arms. Whatever.). He and I like to go together, moral support, I guess.
It’s really odd, the place we get them is a store, but the room is kinda creepy, it’s a little closed off space, no windows, painted totally white, with this odd little yellow-orange floral chair. A small desk by it, with the shots, and a wheeled stool for the pharmacist. (I say pharmacist, as we go to a local store to get them. I’ve no idea if the gal has any other letters after her name...) Anyway, it is a room that really could almost double for some of those interrogation rooms in spy movies. But, it works, so I try not to think about it… Too much.
And as you’ve no doubt noticed, I haven’t blogged. I needed to make a place for my computer. And now, I have! I have a nice desk now, in my now somewhat-in-progress-but-it-is-finally-usable-and-I-can-see-the-floor-again craft room. When Grandma died, she had a desk in her room. I remember it from when she lived in her old house. I’d thought it was nice, but that was about it. Well, no one in the family wanted it. I had a desk in my craft room, but it was sort of rough, and it was… Um. I’d had it since college, and it was starting to come apart in spots, and it was just not working well for me. So I asked for the desk, and the family was more or less like, Oh, THANK G*D, TAKE IT!!!
Shall we say, cleaning out my Grandmother’s things was a bit of a challenge? Finding homes for things was even more so! Between being a hoarder, and a child of the Depression, we were finding
That’s when I took a good long look at my craft room.
Oh... Dear...
I wasn’t seeing much difference there, than I was at Grandma’s! Yoiks!! And so, swallowing hard, I decided that was not what I wanted to see when I came into this room. I have pack rat tendencies, but I can dump things when I want to.
And boy, after that, did I want to!
So, after getting healthy enough to do something, I started “digging out”. I separated into basic piles.
1. Want to keep, will use soon, put away.
2. Don’t want, but still usable, donate.
3. What the @#$% is this? Either trash, or recycle for use in some other project.
4. Junk, no value, just dump.
I was surprised that I had a bit more of #4 than I expected, but quite a bit was #2. (About 4 or 5 big bags worth so far.) After one meltdown, Husband realized I was ready to get his backhoe out and start cleaning the room. Basically bashing the wall down and scraping everything out… He decided to get involved.
I had tried desperately to clean as I went, but because of the way I had set up the room, I was just managing to make a batch of x, put it in a pile, which would allow me to get behind and clean out stuff, which would mean I would have to separate, and this made a new pile, or three.
This lead to my having no space, and lots of little bits and pieces. Basically, from a large geologically layered mess, to a series of small explosions. (Or, less charitably, random cow pies. Take your pick.) After Husband strong-armed the table, and helped me move a few boxes, and finally get boxes up on my shelves, I found the floor, and the boxes, (now LABELLED, so I have a clue what I have up there), I have room to separate and put things away. He also recommended putting cones of yarn that I use up on a shelf, rather than on a spinning rack, which did not do much but take lots of space on the floor, as well as blocking my bookshelves.
I am getting the thought that I will clean the closet, and a couple other ‘junk’ spaces this way, as well. After I get this monster down to size. I am still working on it, but now it’s more little stuff that I need to sort out, not this monster pile ‘o stuff.
I was a bit amazed how many projects I had started, then put in my craft room. Not in Area 51, but just on my table. That meant I had a table full of stuff, and didn’t have use of the table. Now I have all the Un Finished Objects in boxes, and in Area 51. If I didn’t want to do them, or in a couple cases, wondered what it was that I was making (only 2, but gah? What IS that thing???) I undid the project, rewound the yarn, and put it away. I now have at least 5 to 8 more points of R factor insulation on one side of my room.
I also made myself a limit. I have only 2 to three projects out at a time, (one for travel, like socks, and one or two for home), so I won’t have all the big mounds of stuff squirreled away here and there. And looking at the 3 shelves of projects, I am to start NO new projects until I finish some of those. (Only exception is for presents, such as baby blankets for family… However, since I have so far found at least 3 unfinished ones, that shouldn’t be a huge problem, either. Sigh…)
I have a bunch of unfinished teddy bears that I have stored for some time. A gal said she would take them on a missions trip, then backed out when I called to confirm how many she wanted. So I ended up with a batch of bears and no takers. I have recently checked with a friend, that knows a motorcycle charity group, and they were thrilled to take them. Sooooo, now I will have a “get the bears finished” session, and I will have yet MORE room, plus, some little kids will have new bears for Christmas. Yaaaay!
Thusly, I think I have mostly caught you up with my last couple weeks. Oh, and I cleaned out the garden, as we are going to have our first frost, so says the weather folks. Most of the garden had been cleaned out, but I had carrots and beets left. The carrots were fine, the beets… Uh, well, it’s a very good thing I was going to use them for natural dyes, let’s just leave it at that. Ew…
Not going to promise anything, at this point, but being on the healthy list again, having a real spot to use the computer again, and having cut down a lot on volunteer ‘stuff’, so I have some “me” time, you might even see blogs again, in less than blue moon increments! (Cross fingers!)
And with the computer where I can access it easily again, maybe you will see me stalking visiting your blogs, again, too! And maybe even commenting! Will wonders never cease...
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Long journeys, ending, starting, going.
So. I have been away for the whole month of September, and the majority of October.
Whatta flake, right?
Why, yes, er, no. Sort of?
September is my super busy month. This one was no exception... Just looking at my calendar, I had about ten days when I was home, all day, in the month. I will admit some of the items were of my choosing, (looove me some book sales!), but a lot were getting things ready for events, going to events, and then coming home from events. I did cut back on what I did at one event, which I will cover in another blog, but I still had to prep, and clean up when I returned.
Then I got the sniffles after. I didn't think much of it, just broke out the Vitamin C, and tried to wash my hands. Got word that Grandma was fading, and that things were starting to not work right for her. I decided to get over there when I felt better. But, there were two or three more small meetings and such... Then Husband got sick. I had the sniffles, what he got was BAD. Down for three or four days bad. So, I made chicken soup, forced Vitamin C down him, and went on my way. He finally recovered...
And then I was blessed with the crud. I was down for better than a week, and even had to call in sick to my one volunteer day at the sub. Bless her, I said "hello" on the phone, and my 'boss' piped up, "You sound like crap!" (Good call, Mistress Obvious.) I had a continuing cough after that, and didn't know if I was contagious or not, so I didn't go see Grandma.
Well, she died just a day or so ago. I did get to see her before this whole thing started, and chatted with her when she was having a 'fairly good' day. She knew who I was, didn't know what season it was, and was surprised that I had something to do with the Sheriff's Office. Still, I enjoyed the talk, and walked her to the dining room, and left her to her supper.
I guess, if nothing else, at least I have a good memory to think of, at the end.
And, I am going to be giving up one volunteer job, (not the one at the sub), and am getting a handle on what I am doing, and if I want to continue doing... Let's just say, I have had a bit of time to think, and some conversations that lead me to believe I need to make some changes.
But I am still loving to blog. And so, that, my dear blog friends, will continue. (And I will get about to reading your blogs, too. Of late, the phone has been my computer, and for some reason, I haven't figured out how to get it to post on blogs... Odd.)
Whatta flake, right?
Why, yes, er, no. Sort of?
September is my super busy month. This one was no exception... Just looking at my calendar, I had about ten days when I was home, all day, in the month. I will admit some of the items were of my choosing, (looove me some book sales!), but a lot were getting things ready for events, going to events, and then coming home from events. I did cut back on what I did at one event, which I will cover in another blog, but I still had to prep, and clean up when I returned.
Then I got the sniffles after. I didn't think much of it, just broke out the Vitamin C, and tried to wash my hands. Got word that Grandma was fading, and that things were starting to not work right for her. I decided to get over there when I felt better. But, there were two or three more small meetings and such... Then Husband got sick. I had the sniffles, what he got was BAD. Down for three or four days bad. So, I made chicken soup, forced Vitamin C down him, and went on my way. He finally recovered...
And then I was blessed with the crud. I was down for better than a week, and even had to call in sick to my one volunteer day at the sub. Bless her, I said "hello" on the phone, and my 'boss' piped up, "You sound like crap!" (Good call, Mistress Obvious.) I had a continuing cough after that, and didn't know if I was contagious or not, so I didn't go see Grandma.
Well, she died just a day or so ago. I did get to see her before this whole thing started, and chatted with her when she was having a 'fairly good' day. She knew who I was, didn't know what season it was, and was surprised that I had something to do with the Sheriff's Office. Still, I enjoyed the talk, and walked her to the dining room, and left her to her supper.
I guess, if nothing else, at least I have a good memory to think of, at the end.
And, I am going to be giving up one volunteer job, (not the one at the sub), and am getting a handle on what I am doing, and if I want to continue doing... Let's just say, I have had a bit of time to think, and some conversations that lead me to believe I need to make some changes.
But I am still loving to blog. And so, that, my dear blog friends, will continue. (And I will get about to reading your blogs, too. Of late, the phone has been my computer, and for some reason, I haven't figured out how to get it to post on blogs... Odd.)
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