Something family and something quilty....

They are my mom's parents, Edgar and Thelma, we grandkids called them Daddy and Mama Mammer. He was born in 1904, she in 1907. My mom is the baby and her sisters were starting their families when she was just 5 years old. More than half of my 11 cousins are now in their 50s and 60s. In fact, many of my cousins started their families when *I* was in grade school. I've got 17 1st cousins once removed who range in age from 16 to their early 40s, and at least 35 1st cousins twice removed!! There are 5 cousins who are childless. I haven't seen some of them in well over 20 years, we're flung from San Diego to New York State, Texas to Virginia. Wish that wasn't the case, it would be nice to catch up with them!


(Mama Mammer with her sisters and her dad, she's closest to him)


(Mama and Daddy Mammer-top, Mama Mammer with assorted aunts, uncles and cousins, probably mid 1960s)

Sometime before I was born, Mama Mammer made this beautiful quilt. I love the geometric fabrics and the sunny sashing. She made many quilts but none for my children, I think she stopped being able to make quilts and crochet when I was just a small child, I don't remember her ever working on anything during our visits.



Yesterday I came across a 9-patch quilt-a-long at crazy mom quilts, and new immediately that I was going to play along! If you are a quilter, please consider joining in! I plan to do my sewing once a week because I have no place to leave my machine up but I will probably cut and plan each day, seriously I NEED more distractions to keep me from the housework!

Last summer my mom generously shared her floral fabrics with me. I had wanted to make a framed square quilt from a 5.5-inch block with 2.5-inch borders but it never got underway. Now I have a new and improved purpose for all these wonderful strips!



I'll pair them with some more solid fabrics from my stash, wish I had a large enough solid piece to work with but I don't and this is STRICTLY a stashbuster quilt. It is so nice to be quilting again, it has been a loooong time!

Blog surfing again...

(snapdragons in front of the girls' bedroom window)

I do this now and then, now because I'm practicing Housework Avoidance(and getting quite good at it, I might add!)... Some of these have been in my looooong blog folder for a while but some are new to me. Enjoy.

Fiddlesticks- My crochet and knitting ramblings

Dandelion Quilts

Dances Wtih Wool

Driftwood

Fat Orange Cat

We are THAT Family

Coyote Craft

Tales from the Den of Chaos

the sky is pink

Cocoa Cream's Craft Closet

LollyChops

Vashay Fam

No Mother Earth

~~~Updated~~~ to add this, wow!!

Philigry

In other news...

We are expecting rain sometime today. Was supposed to be here around 4am, then by 1pm, now its almost 3 and no rain yet. Hmmmm, would be nice if they could get it right, or that the rain would cooperate!

Our swimming pool is a nursery for a gazillion tadpoles of various frog species. We know we have these beautiful Pickerel Frogs and Gray Tree Frogs but there are at least 4 different kinds of tadpoles out there. Some are as big as giant black olives and some are small as thumbtacks.

I've started a new knitting project, inspired by the first blog I linked above. Its in browns, black and whites. Can't wait to have it finished!!

I made this!!

(Apologies in advance for the TERRIBLE photography! I'm not sure what is going on, maybe its because I'm sick or something, lol) (be sure to click to enlarge)



This is my second loaf of bread made from Alton Brown's soft pretzel recipe,blogged earlier. It makes really, REALLY, good bread. I suspect the reason why it isn't taller is that it didn't rise long enough and/or it wasn't in a loaf pan. It went through two risings but the second was hurried(maybe 35 minutes) since I had to be somewhere. Next time I'll let it sit longer and try a loaf pan, or two-this thing is huge(20 slices after we ate the ends off)! This is seasoned with garlic and onion powder, savory, parsley, caraway, sunflower, and fennel seeds, along with some seasoned salt from Herbal Grace. It is wonderful toasted with mustard, black forest ham, and munster cheese.


Aaaaaaannnddd....

I

also

made

this!!!!


(obviously not blocked yet)

I am so NOT good with patterns, not one bit. But, I was looking through the patterns that belonged to my grandmother and found this book. Most of what I got from her is for bedspreads, chair sets, luncheon sets, and larger doilies so I was glad to finally see something with smaller projects. Rest assured I will NOT be taking on anything much bigger than these!



I am not sure if the one I chose(the bottom one) was the easiest or hardest of the six but I managed to complete the first square in about four hours without ANY ripping! The second square took slightly less time but I had to frog half a row a few times. I think it was because it was late and I was tired. My stitches are fairly steady even so each side turned out within a 1/8th inch of the other or better, size-wise. Now I've got to find some satin and make a pillow and get the border put on. I'm sure that can't be any harder than the sides themselves.



I LOVE the red but I don't have much left so a trip to Goodwill is in order, they usually have tons of this stuff! I also have black and brown in bedspread weight but can't locate it right now. These would be cool in a sport weight or worsted for larger pillows or purse. Hmmmm, creative juices are now flowing, stand by. I have nothing to do this afternoon so I think I'll try another one of the patterns.

Now, because he disobeys my commands to stop. being. so. darn. cute...


(just today, see how BIG he's got? I bet he's nearly doubled in size since I found him)


(he's finally -slightly- bigger than the remote)


(most of our cats are afghan kitties, he took right up with them)


(he's also a daddy's boy)


(Jeff, just because he is cute too, and slightly larger than an Oreo cookie)

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

After I wake up a bit more I plan to celebrate by spending a good part of the day outside, planted in my camp chair with a crochet project and a pitcher of iced tea! It might be at the lake or a park, or maybe in the front yard, that part hasn't been decided yet. Our temp will be in the mid-80s today so the lake would be nice but Ryan has a friend coming over, we have to get our raw milk sometime after 2pm, and the kids have church tonight so my guess would be that we'll stick close to home.

I came across these websites this morning. They'll make you think.

Christian Ecology- Christians for Environmental Stewardship

Forum on Religion and Ecology

Evangelical Ecologist Blog(see Christians Don't Do Earth Day)

ThinkChristian.net

The National Religious Partnership for the Environment

In other news...

The pretzel recipe from Alton Brown makes wooooonderful bread!!! I whipped some up Monday night to go with our leftover spaghetti and threw in onion and garlic powder, fennel and caraway seeds, parsley and savory. Instead of a loaf, I patted it down to almost fit in my large jelly roll pan, about 13x10 inches. I also didn't let it rise the second time, just once. We are using it for sandwich bread and toasting it. I can't get over how good it tastes with black forest ham. Next time, I'll leave it as an oblong loaf shape and let it rise a second time.

The girls just found their camera so pictures will be more frequent. They misplaced the cord for my camera, grrrr. Oh well, it will show up someday.

Don't Worry, Be Happy....

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. ~Denis Waitley

Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves. ~the Simons

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. ~Bertrand Russell

But the greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness -- each system only too delighted to find that the other is wicked -- each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity. ~Herbert Butterfield

One should never direct people towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the market-place. One should direct them towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This moral sensitivity to the sacredness of human personality -- the Commandments not to kill, not to hurt, not to put a stumbling block in the path of the blind, not to neglect the widow or the fatherless, not to exploit the servant or the worker -- all this can be found in the Bibles of humanity, in all the sacred books. All teach in substance: "Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you." But most of the great religions agree on mercy, justice, love -- here on earth. And they agree that the great task is to move people from apathy, from an acceptance of the evils in life, to face the possibilities of the world, to make life sweet for one another instead of bitter. ~Algernon Black

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. ~Anne Frank

Yummy Pretzels!

We finally had a lull around here so I jumped in the kitchen and made Alton Brown's Homemade Soft Pretzels! Altered of course, subbing honey for the sugar and half whole wheat flour. My topping was regular table salt mixed with granulated garlic(not powder) and onion powder. I was out of kosher salt. They. Are. Spectacular. I'm on my forth one(I made mine small and got 2 dozen) already with spicy horseradish mustard.

The girls didn't get the camera batteries charged in time so enjoy the picture from the website, or at this lovely blog. Apparently I'm not the only one who loves them!

We're about to get a nasty storm so who knows what we'll do this afternoon. The girls cleaned the boys piggie cage so we don't have that many chores. Maybe I'll take them to the dreaded "Mall". Yah. and hoo.

Finally, a name!

We have been through site after site and a pet name book I bought when my mom rescued a pregnant Llaso Apso from the side of the road when I was about 8 or so. Nothing seemed to fit although there were some fun, interesting names.
****edited****
Finally for whatever reason, it came to me this afternoon. His official name is Buster Tom(not Alexander) Sonier, and it was unanimously agreed upon. YAHOOOOO!! I'm so glad to have something to call him!





I am going to try and get some of him awake but he's a fast little thing! Maybe this weekend I can. Also, my other animals are quite left out lately so I may snap some of them as well.


In other news...

I am sick, sick, sick, with whatever Amy had. Now Sarah and I are coughing this deep, wet, cough. My chest itches just under my collarbone, weird. I'm feverish, dizzy, and tired, and headed to the couch for a nap. Mark will have the pleasure of running the kids around to their Wednesday night church activities tonight.

We have postponed our trip to the Ft. Worth Zoo and Botanical Gardens which would have included the Spring Festival at the Japanese Gardens. I hate that we'll miss it but with the zoo it might have been too much in two days.

We sold the Suburban. I keep telling myself that I'm glad but I miss it terribly! It was a 1990 model and there was more wrong with it than right(seat belts weren't reliable, power windows didn't work, a/c didn't blow at all, needed brakes, tires, struts, shocks, and other new stuff). Our neighbors across the street bought it from us for $500 and were driving it within hours so apparently it wasn't a fuel pump problem as we suspected. Oh well. It would have drained us to make it safe and comfortable for our family. I'm hoping to get used to the Jeep one of these days. It is easy to drive but getting in proves difficult. The door handles are touchy and sometimes the locks don't unlock(automatic sliding ones) and because of the contoured seats its hard to get in to and out of but its easy for me to see out of and the seats go in nine kinds of directions, and it isn't white(big plus).

I managed to get all my blogroll moved over from the old blog. I'll be adding more of my favorite blogs later. Does everyone else have 2000 blogs saved to a favorites folder or is it just me??? Sheesh!! There isn't enough time in the day!

Now, I'm off to the couch, iCarly be hanged.

Enough already??

By the way, this is my 400th post!!! Wow!! I never dreamed I'd still be blogging.

That's not what I meant by the title of my post though. I promise my next post won't be cute kitty pictures, much as I love them. But, that's not this post is it?


Jasper licked him a little bit and then settled back down to nap for over two hours! Tallulah joined them later. We've got a few more names to mull over. Rover(which I love), Rufus(think I mentioned this one), Merlin, and Rusty. All of our male cats have had names ending in "er" so Rover fits best. Our other males were Junior, Pipper, Chester and Jasper(current).

cute overload fo' sho'....

(he put both his paws over his head when meeting Tallulah)


(the two red-heads)


(he's very playful)


(but not big enough to be too tough)


(isn't he pretty?)

We have a few more names added to the pot, Rufus, Taco, Leo, and Cosmo. We want a two syllable name(we think).

I can assure you this was NOT on purpose...it was no accident either...

I almost didn't go for my walk today but something compelled me. I'm ever so glad I did, and so is this little guy. He was lost from his mom in the woods. These woods are filled with raccoons, foxes, possums, stray dogs, coyotes, and so forth. He would not have lasted the evening. I was sitting at a picnic table along the path, taking a breather and talking to a friend on the phone. I kept hearing this pitiful crying and thought it was a bird. Finally it dawned on me that it was a cat cry and a desperate cat cry at that. I started trying to pinpoint where it was coming from, there is a street of duplexes just yards away from the path. I figured it was a cat trapped in something. I called, "kitty kitty kitty" and the meows got closer. My friend and I had seen a nursing mama cat in these same woods on Sunday afternoon so I thought it might be her. I went about 20 feet off the trail, then 30 feet, then 40 feet, the cries were closer and I heard rustling. Finally he appeared, making a mad dash for me, screeching his poor head off! He was SO lost from his mama. I know he is one of her babies. Maybe he tried to follow her on a hunting expedition and couldn't keep up, she might not have known he was behind her. Or, as cats sometimes do, they move their babies. Who knows. All I do know is that we found each other and he is not going to be eaten by a forest creature tonight. Thank goodness.





He was absolutely starving when I came across him, tried to nurse in the crook of my arm and the back of my neck. Just frantic. My friend we get our milk from was letting Sarah have a play date with her daughter and just happened to have a can of goat's milk and we fed him there. It was obvious he'd never eaten from a plate or bowl before. We think he's about 3-4 weeks old. Oh my gosh he is TINY!!





I picked up some KMR(kitten milk replacement) tonight and he absolutely inhaled it. Sarah is playing with him in the floor right now and he's pretty stumbly on his little baby feet. The other cats are in shock of course but none have been mean to him, they mostly back away. That is dirt on his nose, we haven't had a chance to wipe it off yet.





I'm hoping to keep him until my mom(don't tell my dad) can take him. He's just a doll baby!! We're trying to decide on a name right now. Mark and I adopted a baby just like this the winter we first met. We named him Diablo and he ended up being my mom's cat. He also reminds me of the old cat across the street from us named Tom. Amy suggested Frisco but I'm not warm on it. I'm sure the perfect name will come to us eventually. Who does he look like to you?

Scenes from a North Carolina Winter...

Since I was in such a snit all winter I didn't get a chance to post pictures from our wonderful trip to visit my parents! We left a day or so after Christmas and came home on the 12th of January. There was a tiny bit of snow but not like our last trip durng the winter. Anyway, here are some scenes from around the house and yard. Click to see them better, its worth it!



(kids exploring in the boxwood patch)


(same mountains the morning after a snow dusting)


(bottles in the mud/laundry room)



(side landing in the morning sun)



(barn from the boxwoods looking down)



(Buckaroo in the snow)



(Amy at the kitchen sink from the mudroom)

my colorful world...

Remember to enlarge for better viewing, especially the caterpillar!



(azaleas along the walking trail)


(our oak tree at night from the trampoline)


(caterpillar I met on a walk at the park)


(new microwave)


(red kitchen carts-same color as the microwave-it shows a bit bright)