Lights, Camera, Action!! A New Year A New Word

Hello and Happy Wednesday. We are well into the new year. I have been thinking a lot about my word of the year. When I pick a word I visit it several times throughout the year to see if I am actually living up to my word. I didn’t know if I even wanted to do that this year. We know things will happen as they are going to happen. But I still think focusing on something that can be positive, can’t be a bad thing. So, I decided that my word of the year will be “action”. Why this word? I have a lot of things in my life that I need to take action on. I have things that need to be dealt with and I feel that action is what I need to get me going. Action can actually lead to a lot of things. Action can stand for a lot of things. That is my hope for the new year. I will keep you posted on how it is going.

Last week I had the chance to visit one of my favorite thrift stores. I wasn’t really looking for anything particular. I did find a couple of flower vases, pots whatever you want to call them. I thought I would put my orchid pots down in them. They were only a couple of dollars each. I also saw a large platter with spring flowers on it. I kept picking the platter up and putting it back down. This is always a sign that I should buy it. I didn’t get the platter. Now I regret that I didn’t and I haven’t had a chance to get back and see if it is still there.

Speaking of orchids. I mentioned in a previous post that I always thought my orchid Zsa Zsa might be two orchids in one large pot. I received Zsa Zsa when my sister Pat died, which has been almost two years ago. Zsa Zsa the orchid came from a flower shop and was given to me to keep after the funeral. My friends from work had sent her and requested that I be the one to keep her. As if anyone could tear her out of my hands.

She was beautiful and in full bloom at the time. As a matter of fact she has bloomed constantly on one stem or another since I got her. She is the prettiest shade of pink. She was one of my first orchids.

The reason I call her Zsa Zsa is because when my sister was in the hospital and getting ready to start chemo treatments. I would go in and comb her hair for her. I told her I was making her as beautiful as Zsa Zsa Gabor. So I started calling her Zsa Zsa and she started calling me Eva, Zsa Zsa’s sister. There actually was another famous Gabor sister, Magda. When I explained to my husband that I now have to have another orchid so that I could name it Magda, he didn’t quite get it. He thinks I have too many orchids now. Anyway I still have texts from my sister where we referred to each other as Zsa Zsa and Eva. They are precious to me and so is Zsa Zsa.

The orchid Zsa Zsa has thrived. Mr sister did not. She passed away a short time after her stay in the hospital. It has now been almost two years. I never repotted Zsa Zsa because she has always had such amazing growth. But I started to notice some changes and I thought I had better repot her. I was scared. I procrastinated. I ordered new clear pots. I finally did it!!!! Sure enough there were two orchids in that pot. There was a lot of root rot and I am not sure if they will both survive. I repotted them in separate pots and had to trim a lot of the stems back. Of course I named the second one Eva and if I lose them it will break my heart.

This is after they have been separated and repotted. I am praying they will survive. Sorry for the bad lighting. It was night and I don’t have a lot of extra light in this room.

I had a lot of trimming to do on these roots. But there is still good green in some of the roots. I have a large utility sink in my laundry room and that is where I always water the orchids and trim away any dead roots.

Sunday I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. I had a bag of chocolate chips that needed to be used. I am trying to shop my pantry before buying things. I told my husband we could probably live out of our pantry for a couple of months without going to the grocery store. I think it would be fun to try.

They were delicious!!!

***I took most of the cookies to work for my coworkers.***

We have had some really cold weather and lots of rain. Some of the local schools were closed on Monday because of flash flooding. I was able to make it safely to work and back home.

***This is a field beside a small creek. This is after the water had gone down several inches***.

I have been knitting the most wonderful scarf. I say this because the yarn is so soft and squishy. I love the way the different pink colors fade and blend together. I am almost finished. I think I may be a little sad to see it finished. It has been so much fun to knit. But I also can’t wait to wear it.

I have also been working again on the heart cross stitch. I am getting really close to finishing. I still have to decide how to frame it. Any suggestions?

***If I had this one to do over I think I might have made several different colors of hearts. Oh well. Maybe next time.***

So that is what I have been up to. How about you?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Its Monday, I ‘ve Been Making Christmas Ornaments!!!

Hello and happy Monday!!! I started a new coffee share on the blog yesterday. If you missed it, check it out here. I think it will be a lot of fun.

The temps here have been so warm and dry. There are burn bans everywhere. We desperately need rain.

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is Thursday. Mark and I are going to my nephew’s house, but I will be making a few things to take with me for the dinner. I will tell you it won’t be a pecan pie. I made one last week for Mark. I forgot I had the oven set high and it burned. It was terrible. Poor Mark tried to dig it out to eat it, but I wouldn’t let him. It was just too bad. I threw it out and promised him another one soon. I don’t know why pecan pies are always tricky for me, but they are. Sometimes good sometimes bad.

I did make a blueberry cobbler that turned out pretty well. I gave half of it to my nephew.

We put up our Christmas tree over the weekend. Someone at work just ask what colors I used and if there was a theme? We have had this tree for about thirty years. I put clear lights on it, and it is decorated with the ornaments that we have collected over thirty plus years of marriage. I love it!!! Every year when we start to decorate it, we pull out all of our ornaments and talk about where we got each one. It may sound boring but to us it is a treasure. I do change the topper out occasionally. I haven’t decided for this year yet.

I have been working on these Christmas ornaments for a week. My friend Annie from work sent me a TikTok video on them and I just loved the idea. I bought clear ball ornaments from Walmart. You can get them just about anywhere this time of year. I used double pointed needles size 5 US. It doesn’t take a lot of yarn so this is a great way to use little bits of yarn from previous projects. I cast on 23 to 24 stitches depending on the yarn weight. Leave a long tail when casting on. I knitted a little pouch about 3.5 inches long. You then thread a darning needle and run through the loops on the bottom and pull together. Do the same thing at the top but put your glass ornament in first. Weave in the ends on the top and bottom. They’re so easy and knit up really quick.

This is some cotton yarn, and it is thinner. I had to cast on 25 for this one. I am a relaxed knitter so that means my stitches tend to be looser. The best thing to do is just knit a few inches, before you get too far, and see how the glass ball will fit into it. I had a bit of trial and error.

This yarn and the one below was thicker, and I only had to cast on 22 stitches for this one. However, don’t knit beyond the 3.5 inches in length for a regular sized ball or you will have a pouch that is too big.

This is what it looks like before you put the ball in and pull the top to make it tight.

***I plan to make a few more of these and put them in a bowl on my table.***

So, Thanksgiving and Christmas are definitely in the air around here. Have a wonderful week!!!

Always remember

Live your day your way!!

Hello Monday, Goodbye July

Well here we are again at the end of another month. This month seemed to pass both fast and slow. My brother in law passed away on the 10th, my little mother in law fell and had to have 12 staples in her head, she also spent a couple of nights in the hospital. We did a quick overnight to Nashville for a doctors appointment for hubs. And then when you work in tourism, like I do, July is usually one of the busiest months of the year. I am a bit tired of this month and ready to say goodbye to it.

The weekend was just what I needed though. It was long and lazy. It was also really hot with some of the hottest days we have had all year. Temperatures reached well into the nineties and the humidity was terrible. This caused a few late afternoon thunder storms. We stayed safely in the house and watched the lightning show.

I decided to bring out some cross stitch that I hadn’t worked on in a while. This particular pattern is one I tried to finish last year for Halloween. But I had gotten a late start on it and didn’t finish in time. I got it out on Saturday and worked on it for awhile. Maybe I will have it finished and framed by Halloween this year. I have also been working on a crocheted afghan. Don’t ask me what I will do with it. I have plenty but I just love making them. And I love giving them to people so maybe that is what I will do.

***I am loving the colors in this afghan. I am using a few different rolls of self striping yarn. Who know what it will turn out to look like. That’s part of the fun I guess.***

I am itching to start a knitting project. I still have those socks to finish and I know I shouldn’t start anything else until I finish them but you know I will.

I also started a new book by Jennifer Hillier. This is the third book by her that I have read in the last couple of months. I started “Creep” on Sunday when it became available on my Libby App. I should have known I wouldn’t get anything done that day. When you start one of her books you just can’t put it down. Be prepared to settle in and take the time it takes to finish. Her books are grisly I am telling you the truth. But there is always such a great story and there’s always a mystery. I read an interview she had given and she told the interviewer her husband asked how she could come up with such gruesome stories? I never read these books at night I always switch to lighter reading before bedtime.

We noticed a couple of weeks ago that something had gotten into our tomato plant. It had eaten a good chunk out of a couple of tomatoes. I thought maybe it could have been a deer, or possum or some other critter like that. Then I noticed these strange droppings around the plant they almost looked like tiny green grenades. But not that tiny. I told a friend at work and we googled different kinds of critter poop. Sometimes we need a little break from the craziness at work and I was really wanting to know what had been in my tomatoes. Well it turns out it wasn’t a critter at all well it sort of was. It was a horn worm. Of course if you are familiar with growing tomatoes I am sure this was not news to you. I would never have thought a worm could leave something like that behind. I think my tomatoes are pretty much finished for this year. We did get quite a few off of this one plant.

I found a couple of things from the Old Farmers Almanac that I thought was interesting. The first is how to tell a good watermelon when you see one

And the other thing: Have you ever said Rabbit Rabbit first thing in the morning on the first day of the month? It has to be the first thing you say, first thing in the morning. This is supposed to bring good luck for the month. Is this an English tradition? southern? southern Appalachian? Northern? I’m not sure just where it originated. I’ve heard a lot of tales of people who say this first thing in the morning on the first day of every month. I only heard about this a few years ago. I sometimes say it and sometimes I forget. It’s all in fun I don’t believe that saying anything like this one way or the other will bring good luck but I think it is a funny little tradition. And tomorrow is the first day of the month.

And I must leave you with a picture of my precious boy Gus. He was looking at me with this sweet face this morning, making it very hard to leave him and go to work.

So what was your month like? I for one am looking forward to cooler temps in the upcoming months. Of course this is East Tennessee and it has been over 100 degrees F in October so that is nothing you can count on. Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Weekend Happenings, Making a Halloween Wreath

Mums and pumpkins and wood smoke and red and gold leaves. I love fall!!! I just want to grab it and pull it close and savor it. I think that is what I will do. I have so many things I want to do to enjoy fall but it seems like it goes by so fast.

Happy October friends how was your weekend? I got back into town on Friday afternoon. I spent the last week in San Antonio Texas for a Caves Association meeting. I left out last Sunday and was gone until Friday so a long time to be away from home. For me it is anyway. Coming home to the nice cool weather and the changing leaves was so nice. Of course having my kitties snuggling on my lap to sleep was just the best. I think they missed me.

Our flight on Friday morning left at 4:45 AM and we had a rental car to return. So we were out and about super early. I think I got about three hours of sleep. I packed everything on Thursday night so I would be that much ahead on Friday morning.

Our flights were very uneventful. I think those are the best kind. I wasn’t sure if we would have delays because of the hurricane. But we didn’t and we were back in Knoxville by 12:30 PM. I headed straight home for a nap. Ahh sleeping in my own bed was just heaven.

Saturday I had a grocery pick up and I went to see my MIL at the nursing center. She is doing really well. I am so proud of her. If she keeps doing as well we are hoping she will be able to return soon to the assisted living village where she had been. My friend Kathy and I also ran back to Athens to their Dollar Tree and picked up some more things for my wreath. We stopped off and ate Chinese food on the way home.

On Sunday I couldn’t do anything but sleep. I had a lot of things I wanted to do but every time I sat down I found myself nodding off. Just the busy busy busy of the previous week catching up with me I guess. I watched two movies that I thought were good. The first one with Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. This movie was made in 2014 when Shirley was only a young girl of 80. I think she is amazing. The movie was a little slow but very sweet. The second movie was SO GOOD!!!!! it was Last Seen Alive. It is streaming on Netflix. It was so intense and starred the hunky, ever so easy on the eye, Gerard Butler. I think I could watch him in anything and love it.

I wanted to work on a Halloween wreath and I finally did get to it later on Sunday. I think it turned out pretty well. I got all of this stuff at the Dollar Tree, which is now Dollar and twenty five cents tree. Ha!!

***I used the shorter rolls of the decorative mesh. I didn’t want my wreath to be so large I couldn’t put a little sign on it. And I think they are easier to work with.***

***I cut 36 of these because I wanted my wreath to be full along the wire but not bunchy in the middle. I did black, orange and purple but you can use any color combination.***

I only used the black pipe cleaners for this wreath. I felt like the black went well with a Halloween theme. But once the mesh is tied you really can’t see the color of the pipe cleaners so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

***I used my cutting board and cut the strips into about 22 inch lengths. I then just crumpled them together to form sort of a bow.***

***I then added the pipe cleaners to attach them to a metal wreath ring. You can also get these at Dollar Tree.***

***I continued*** *adding the strips of mesh.*

***I liked the way it turned out. It took me less than two hours to complete including clean-up.***

And because I love fall and everything about it here is a cute Fall Bucket List . I got this from Pinterest. I think my wreath will count as “making a fall wreath” and I watched a football game last weekend, and I can conquer drinking a hot chocolate right now. I love all of these!!!! Which ones will you do first?