A Stitch in Time

 

After drying in the sun, many of my newly found cross stitch projects were badly stained. They got soaked overnight in a vinegar solution and then spot cleaned with some Oxi Clean. I sat in the sun to dry and I was surprised how well most of those 30 year old stains faded. What a difference.

When they were dried I had a pile of wrinkly samplers to iron. 

I couldn't believe how many there were. I have no idea where I got the time for all this stitching with three little kids. I can barely find the time now. I was really happy to find this one. It was on the living room wall of our old house. It's in pretty bad shape but I can work around it. 

I had the bad habit of stapling or thumb tacking my work to the backing boards and you can see all the rust marks. My other go to was masking tape. Up in the hot attic it baked into the fabric which also left marks.

I also have no idea why all these ends are flying all over the place. Did I not know how to weave in all that loose thread? Who knows. I don't even remember making any of these things. This one says 1984. That was a long time ago.

I do remember this one. I remember thinking this was the hardest thing I'd ever stitched and I never wanted to do fill work again. 

I am beyond tickled that I found all the little things I had made for the kid's rooms way back when. I have no idea what I am going to do with all of them now but I'm glad I have them. Even if they live the rest of their lives in a drawer at least I know they are safe. 

A Light in the Attic

 

Guess what we did on Friday. We had space left in the dumpster so The Mister insisted upon emptying the attic. I was totally against this move because attics are icky. I'm of the mind that you just burn it all down with the house when you've had enough of it all. The Mister didn't see it my way so he started pulling stuff out and handing it to me to take out front. 

Most of the junk went straight to the dumpster but a few boxes held things that couldn't be parted with. Daughter's American Girl dolls got a good bath and hair washing and spent the day in the sunshine. She's been asking me for them for ages but I wasn't going up to get them. I avoid the attic at all cost. 

Their clothes went straight into the laundry and then I had too much fun dressing them. Look at Pup behind them. She was ticked off that I was sitting on the floor playing with dolls when I should have been making dinner. Too bad. We had spent all day running up and down stairs, in and out and I was going to sit and play whether she liked it or not. 

They weren't the only dolls I found up there. Ladies of a certain age might recognize this one. 

Before I cut off her hair and painted her face she was a 1963 Charmin' Chatty and looked like this. She was the only doll I ever asked my parents for when I was a kid.  You stick a record in her side, pull her string and she talks to you. Not anymore, poor old thing. 

Then there was artwork. Mine. I painted this when I was in my first year of college for some art class.....

....but my favorite find was an old book about dogs that I had kept through the years because apparently I had used it as an art journal. It holds some of my best work. Lol.

You have to admit that my ballerina is pretty good for a 3 or 4 year old. 

What had me doing a happy dance in the front yard was finding these. Many years ago we had an attic purge when mice got up there and ate everything. We just tossed it all without looking and I assumed that my old stitching projects were gone. They weren't. They got a good wash and when they are dry we'll take a look at them.

And......the thing that tickled me the most was finding this. This belonged to my step-grandfather. It sat on his bar and I was fascinated by it when I was a kid. It was filled with wine that is long gone.  I didn't even remember I had it but she's got a place of honor now. She's right at home among all the other junk I can't part with. 

On the Mend

 

In between cooking the various part of our St. Patrick's Day dinner I was gluing little shoes....

....and darning little sweaters. I'll tell you why tomorrow. 

Today I want to show off my St Patrick's Day dinner. I've been busy, busy, busy but I pulled it off for another year right down to the homemade soda bread. 

I can always count on The Mister to bring home dessert. No beer this year. No Irish Whiskey. The Mister's on the wagon because of his impending surgery. Today is MRI day. Good times. 

If You Are Lucky Enough to be Irish....

 

...I'm not but that doesn't stop me from throwing some soda bread in the oven and a corned beef in the crock pot today to the tune of some Irish folk music. My English ancestors would probably raise an eyebrow but thanks to those folks who went for a long boat ride I'm an American and we celebrate everything and everybody here. Ain't it grand!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Fill'er Up

 

The crazy wind was still rocking the house yesterday but The Mister was still determined to get that dumpster loaded even though we have it until Monday. In spite of having had to sleep in the lower level, he was raring to go before the sun came up. I am not kidding when I say he slept in the dog's bed on the floor all night. I slept on the little love seat we bought for Pup. He tried to sleep in his recliner but it hurt his hip so I woke up at 4 am to find him on the floor on the dog's bed which he swears was comfortable.

I did not want to go out there with that wind under those trees but nothing stops him when he has his mind made up so out I went. It took us just a few hours to get the piles we had in the driveway and in the backyard gone, gone, gone. We'll clean up the cinder blocks and the pallet that we had everything piled on when that wind dies down.  

I even got my fleece shed cleaned out. It was jammed packed full odds and ends leftover from whatever job we were working on. I'm not planning on buying any fleece anytime soon but you never know. The MDSW is just a few weeks away now but The Mister's surgery is just two weeks before that so who knows if I'll get there again this year. If I don't it will be the fifth year in a row of not getting there for one reason or another and that is just so very sad. 

Taking a Breather

 

The Mister had a morning doctor's appointment so I took advantage of it and had some me time while he was gone. Of course, that was after I did a major house cleaning. Up first was the warping board. This warp has been languishing but I am getting closer to having it done. I've been in no hurry because I can't get to the loom right now anyway from all the bathroom debris piled up in the living room. It will all be in the dumpster soon, hopefully.

It would have been a great day if the wind hadn't kicked up. We were having 40 mile an hour gusts. That means a day in the lower level which is fine. It's not like I don't have things to do down there, like my yo yo project. 

I did some more stitching on the nautical sampler. 

It also gave me a chance to get my March Madness brackets done. I joined 6 groups this year. It's always a struggle to navigate the ESPN website but I prevailed. 

Pup and I stayed downstairs all day only going upstairs for food where I helped myself to a tiny sliver of chocolate cake I made the day before. It was just a simple cake mix but I had subbed out the water for buttermilk. I bought a huge container of it to make soda bread on St Patrick's Day and I've been trying to use it up. I'm not sure if it was the buttermilk but it was the best cake I've ever made. Every time I walk past it I sneak a forkful. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Needless to say, with all the bathroom drama, I don't have much to show for this week stitch wise. I did get the middle cow started on the cow pile.

We didn't get anything done on the bathroom yesterday either because we couldn't make that trip to the hardware store for more pipes while we were waiting for this to show up. Every year The Mister asks me what I want for Christmas and every year I say a dumpster. Better late than never. 

While we waited we did something we have never done. We did our taxes online. We used to do it the old fashioned way with paper and pencil and mail them in but it took months and months to get our refunds so we thought we'd try it this way this year. We used one of the free services offered by the IRS. Since we file separately we did them side by side. Not being used to this sort of thing, The Mister was pretty much hysterical the whole time but I thought it went pretty well. We'll see. 

And.....in case you are wondering why we are using a cat book to do our taxes, this the Maryland state book with a kitty on the cover. Apparently the calico cat was named the official cat of Maryland in 2021. You learn something every day.