December 23, 2011

What to do, what to do.

Having a bit of a difficult time getting in the Christmas Spirit. Missing Mom so much. Have not gotten one thing out to decorate the house. Don't know how to decorate this year. Every year Mom planned it all out and I did all the work. Right now all I have is a vase of Christmas Greens and a huge red poinsettia like the ones in the photo. I'll figure it out, but for now, I miss Mom's plan.

Decided what to bake and what to bring for dinner on Christmas Eve. Shopping is done. Last of the cards and packages to mail will be done today.

No photography has been done is such a long time. Next weekend it is going to be a girl's get together at the Rockefeller Greenhouse and Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Both places have their Christmas shows, so I plan to blow off the dust off the cameras and myself. I'll post photos here.

Anyway, time to start. Errands to do, post office, butcher, Christmas Tree lots, maybe some evergreen roping for the picture window, JoAnn Fabrics and of course the grocery store.

Have a great day;
Joanne


EDIT: After going to 4 tree lots, I cannot drop $40.00 on a 5 foot tree, so I am going to use the 4 foot multi colored lights fake tree and use the fragrance, Thymes Fraser Fir Reed Diffuser Refill. I am amazed at how much this smells like the tree. I bought mine at the Orvis store. Looks like one can also buy it thru Amazon.The evergreen roping was all dried looking, also not worth the money.


EDIT AGAIN:


Went to my local LOWES and got a real Fraser Fir Tree (5ft for$29.00), a 24" Fraser Fir Wreath with Pine Cones and a 36" evergreen mantle piece. Also got a trunk load of free branches of Fraser Fir and Scotch Pine. I use them to cover my lavender bushes and to make some covering around the bird feeders. I may use the mantle piece on the cocktail table and put my little village around it.


Stay tuned, pictures to follow!

Rain

It seems like it has rained for 30 days.... No yardwork can really be done. Afraid to plant bulbs, as they may drown. It's just ugly here, plain old ugly. Had some sun yesterday, just enough for me to blow the leaves off the front lawn. Tried walking in the backyard towards the shed. Shoe just stuck in the mud. Turned around and came back in. Forecast for this week is rain every day. Ugh!

It's been a very long time ...

... but sometimes life gets too busy to sit down and blog. Work is beyond busy and I come home too tired. It is enough right now to keep the house clean, the laundry done and the grass cut. This year that garden has some very beautiful patches of weeds. Ugh!, but it is coming to that time when everything will get pulled and the perennials cut back. I am going to put down an extremely heavy coat of PREEN to help with fewer weeds.

No stitching has been done, no quilts have been cut out, but the Babylock sewing machine is up and having tension issues, so it will be off the the repair shop for her. Lucky for me, I still have the featherweight to use to finish finish ornaments I have stitched over the years.

One a personal note, it is 10 years today that my Dad passed. Miss him every day. Think abut him and Mom everyday. They were separated in death by 9 years, so at least this year they are together, continuing their love they had for 51.5 years of marriage. This photo was at her sister's weeding and they had just gotten engaged.

Friday morning, bright and early I was wheeled into a surgical suite and Dr Nida erased years of pain by straightening my hammertoes. Little did I know that the numbing medicine would hurt so much. See, I chose to be awake during the procedure and just have the left foot numbed. I am not a fan of anesthesia. Never have been, never will. I was out the hospital door and in my car in under 1 and a half hours. Drove home, slept for a couple of hours and was woken up by the numbing medicine wearing off. O.M.G.!! what excruciating pain! Got up, downed 3 advils and grabbed a bag of frozen peas, hobbled over to the couch, plopped down, threw the leg over the arm rest, tossed on the bag of peas and tried to take my mind off of the pain.

Saturday the pain was so bad, it interfered with my thought process. Again, advil to the rescue. (Yes, she prescribed Vicodin, but I do not like how I feel on the pain meds). The dressing got to come off after 24 hours and I did not know there were more shades of black, blue, red and purple than the DMC Color Card.

Today, I acted like an adult and did not go to the race track to do photography. It rained very bad during the night and me hobbling around in muck did not seem like a prudent thing to do. I do not want to risk infection. So today I read a bunch of cross stitch blogs and window shopped at various OLNS. Keyword: WINDOW shopped.

Tomorrow, I have a few things to read for work and I may pull some threads for a couple of stitching projects.

As always, I wish you a good week;
Joanne


Since the foot looks gross, I'll not share a photo. :-)

Father's Day 2011

It will be 10 years this September that Dad passed away.


Copy and paste this if your Dad is in heaven. If roses grow in heaven Lord, then pick a bunch for me. Place them in my Dad's arms and tell him they're from me. Tell him that I love and miss him, and when he turns to smile, place a kiss upon his cheek and hold him for awhile. I miss you everyday...

 Dad and Lucky

The NAVY Garden I planted for Dad

Miss you, Dad

Your loving daughter;

Joanne

Thoughts on a June night.

With all the rain, my garden looks horrid. Spent the better part of 4 hours this past Sunday and only got half of it done. The veggies are in. That's it. Thank goodness I grow perennials otherwise there would be no flowers. There is still a ton a weeding to be done, but when I get home at night, the bugs are already out. In one 10 minute foray outside I got 12 bug bites! ugh! Not a fan of OFF or skin so soft, cannot stand the slimy feeling.

I plan on working outside again come Saturday before I go to my great niece's first birthday party. Should be fun.

Sunday, I am going to my first race of the season. Wonder if I can still shoot cars. Been doing so much flower photography, I hope I can still do my magic with cars. I'll start getting all the camera gear ready Friday, all the cleaning and dusting. (Wonder where I put that can of air....hmmm).

There has been no sewing or stitching but ALOT of reading on the kindle that is on the Droid X.

So that is it for my corner of the world.
Joanne