Needlework Tuesday

Once again, it has been a week of little actual needlework at my house . . . in fact, none at all.  Kids were home on my days off, so other things took priority.  However, we did accomplish two needlework related projects.

1.  Design board and bulletin board.           

I recently moved my sewing/crafting area to the basement.  It's not nearly as nice looking as the spare bedroom where it had been, but much larger and more functional.  To help cover some of the bare concrete walls, Dave hung two ceiling tiles (free leftovers) on the wall using spray adhesive.  (And they may never come down - that stuff is sticky!)  I covered one in beige fleece to serve as a mini-"design wall".  Fabrics stick to the fleece so quilt blocks can be arranged and rearranged to find the best plan before stitching.  Or, as in this case, an embroidered square will stick there until I get around to sewing it into a quilt block.

I covered the second tile in fabric left over from the mini-ironing board I made last October as part of the Pin It/Do It Challenge.  It will serve as a place to pin patterns, notes, ideas and other important things I don't want to misplace.  And I even have enough fabric left to recover the seat of my sewing chair.  The fabric is just held on the tiles with straight pins, so it can be easily changed any time the spirit moves me.

2.  Prayer Flag Display Rod

Needed:  A way to hang prayer flags that won't fall down in the wind, yet can be taken down to add/remove flags without requiring power tools.  Voila!

Two curtain rod hangers - a full circle for the rod to go through with a small screw that keeps the rod from sliding back and forth; a 4' dowel rod; black spray paint.  That's all we needed to create this cute flag holder.  Now I just need to get to work on the next flag.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather @ Books and Quilts as a way to share what projects you've been working on this week.  Visit Heather to link up and to see what others are up to.

Another Post About Nothing

When you have nothing to blog about, blog about nothing.

Like Mitch and Dave (Son and Hubs) repairing the yard and driveway that was torn up to run the new water line,

Or planting the garden.  (That made mama happy!)

Or going fishing.  What a beautiful, peaceful spot.

Or sons who make fun of mom's who don't catch a single fish.

Or the beautiful flowers my daughter gave me for Mother's Day - plus a few of my own lilacs.

Including vibrant pink daisies...

That slowly fade to white and tint the water pink. (I thought that shade was too good to be true.)

You could even post about this adorable "bird camper".  The way the wind blows here, it wasn't fairing well hanging from a tree or plant hanger, so Dave built this little stand for it and now it's "parked" in my flower box.

 Or attending a Luau Party

Or Larry, Mo and Curly...

These three cuties were at the concrete plant where Mitch works and needed a home. We volunteered to take them and hoped for them to be barn cats/mousers (with some supplemental food, of course). But the dogs are having none of it!

We put them in the old chicken coop for protection, and they venture out occasionally - but the dogs go beserk and chase them back in. The poor little guys can't live in a chicken coop until they're big enough to run from dogs, so they are going to live with a family on a farm down the road, where they will have children to play with and not have to live in fear of drooling monsters.

I'm not a cat person, but even I have to admit, they're cute little boogers.

At least, that's what I would blog about, if I had nothing to blog about.

Maybe It's TIme We Got Back to the Basics . . .*

     We've all heard of "Keeping up with the Joneses," the idiom that describes trying to keep up with the standard of living of other people. It's a pretty commonplace expression, but do you know where it comes from?
     The phrase was coined in none other than a comic strip. Comic artist Arthur R. Momand created the "Keeping Up With the Joneses" comic strip in 1913, and it went on to span 26 years in print and syndication in newspapers across the country. ( - from Brass)

Click to enlarge.  Image from Stuff By Cher

 Today, maybe the idiom should be changed to "Keeping up with Pinterest".  Last Christmas, I wrote this post about Pinterest-induced embarrassment and self-loathing.  Trish, at Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity, recently wrote this post about social media's "slippery slope towards [a] skewed perception of reality because we mostly see the shiny rather than the failures."   So true!  I normally don't post or Tweet or Facebook about the balls of dog hair under my furniture, or the crud around my faucets, or the sewing projects that come out crooked and puckered, or the number of nights we have frozen pizza for supper.  I'm quiet on these subjects partially because I assume no one wants to read about them, but more because I don't want you all to form a bad opinion of me.

When I started this blog in 2009, it was all about books.  Writing reviews and entering reading challenges brought self-imposed pressure to read more, know more, impress more. Writing posts became a chore and, honestly, I never impressed anyone with my knowledge of or opinions on books.  Over time, I discovered that the posts I really enjoyed writing, and reading on other blogs, were the ones about family, foibles and folly . . . the stories of life's silly, mundane or even embarrassing moments.  Slowly, this blog has moved away from books and towards reality.  Trish's post made me think I need to take it a step further.  So, if you have a moment, come on in and get to know the "real" life at Green Acres.

When Dave accepted the job here in 2011, the owner of the business offered to rent us a house he owned out in the country.  Anyone who's ever moved a distance that makes commuting impossible (we moved 500 miles) knows that finding a home with only a day or two to look, and an impending moving date, is a huge stress.  The offer of a decent rental home was a blessing.  Once we got here, we discovered that we love living where our nearest neighbor is a mile away and the only sounds you hear at night are the coyotes, so we dubbed the spot Green Acres and decided to stay.

If you've ever seen our namesake TV show, you know that, while it was Oliver's dream, it was not a show-place.  Neither is our version.  Our home was built in the 1960's (-ish) and hasn't been updated since.  The living room has aqua sculptured carpet, the kitchen has brown/gold flecked linoleum, the bathroom walls are covered in green tile.  All the windows were bare, so I reused curtains/drapes from our previous home in the living room, even though they don't quite fit.  Two years later, they haven't been changed, and the bedrooms still don't have curtains over the cheap mini-blinds that were here.  

Speaking of bedrooms, we only have two, with one small bathroom between them.  So, when the kids come home, they sleep on air mattresses and we ration shower time.  The Americana fake-quilt on our bed came from a 4th of July sale at Wal-Mart and there's an iron-shaped melted spot on the guest room rug from when I had my sewing area in there.  My sewing "room" is now in one corner of the un-finished basement - concrete walls, bare joists for a ceiling, a very, very worn carpet remnant on the floor, and a view of the treadmill and stacks of laundry.  

We recently purchased a "vacation home", but it's a used pop-up camper.  Our "good" car is a 2006 Mustang, but the car I drive daily is a 1999 Concorde.  Also:

• There really is crud around my faucets most of the time.
• You could assemble a Pekingese from the wads of dog hair under my bed.
• I leave clothes in the dryer for days because I hate putting them away.
• I let the dogs get on my couch.
• We don't have a dishwasher so there are almost always dirty dishes on my counter.
• There are bags of recycling stacked in the garage cause I never get around to taking them to the recycling pick-up.
• And I let the trashcan overflow until Dave empties it cause I don't like doing it.

On the other hand:

• The bed spread is pretty.  I like it!
• The aqua carpet actually goes well with my furniture.
• My clothes are never wrinkled because I can re-tumble them before dressing.
• The dogs are loving companions.
• Sewing - even crookedly - gives me joy.
• The house is full of books - more joy.
• Did I mention the peace and quiet?
• The camper is big enough for two people and two dogs and takes no time to set up.
• We have lots of space to garden.
• At least the recycling isn't in a landfill.
• And, no one ever died from a little crud around their faucets.

I have never been a fan of recreational shopping, the precursor to Pintrest browsing.  I'm perfectly content when I enter Target or Bed, Bath & Beyond, but a total failure when I exit because my home isn't filled with all those beautiful things and I can't afford to make it so.  But...my home IS filled with beautiful things.  Things collected through thirty years of marriage and raising a family.  Some of them are worn, and some of them don't match, but they have a story.  And the money saved by not replacing them with show-room furniture pays for trips to see our kids and grandkids, tickets to shows or K-State games, sewing supplies, books - oh, and college!

The key is in being content. Would I like my house to be spotless? Yes.  Would I like to drive a new car?  Certainly. Would I like to have a closet overflowing with stylish clothes? Of course.   Am I willing to change the ways I spend my time and money to get any of those things?  Evidently not.

So this is me - a less-than-June-Cleaver housekeeper, a crafter with little artistic talent, a bookworm who usually prefers a paperback romance to the classics, a Wal-Mart bargain shopper, a gardner without a green thumb . . . and content with all of it.  Well, most of the time. 

*Name that tune.

Just Carryin' On an Old Family Tradition

Families are like fudge . . .

Mostly sweet with a few nuts.

At least that's what it said on the invitation to our recent family reunion - but I'm sure "nuts" doesn't refer to me.

With the exception of time in the military and business school, my father has lived his entire life in the same small Kansas town.  Three of his four siblings remained within twenty miles.  For years, the entire clan got together one Sunday each month to celebrate that month's birthdays.  It was a big group, at least from the perspective of a small child, and lots of food, noise and laughs.  The location rotated so I'm sure it came to our place every few months, but my clearest memories are of being at my Aunts' houses.  At Aunt Bernice's house we climbed the hay bales in the barn and swung from a rope. Aunt Pauline's was home to our only girl cousin, so that was a treat. At Aunt June's there was a nook in the upstairs hallway with a few toys and books.  One book had blank spaces and you drew a word from slips of paper stored in an old kitchen match box to fill each blank and create a funny story (retro Mad Libs). Hours of entertainment for a young bookworm!  

Grandpa Ab and grandkids circa 1962
Twelve boys, my sister, Teri (front row) and me (in Grandpa's arms).
There would be two more granddaughters added in the next few years.

Between birthday celebrations and holidays, it was common to spend a Saturday evening with one branch of the family or another.  These people were a huge part of my world as a child.  Of course, as we got older, the gatherings became fewer and farther between.  Eventually we only got together for Thanksgiving and Christmas, then even those traditions faded.  When one of the aunts passed away a few years ago, the cousins gathered for her funeral and I realized how much I missed that connection, so the idea of a reunion was planted.  It remained in the wondering and mulling stage until last summer when the cousins once again gathered for a funeral - this time for one of our own generation.  That was the impetus to finally set the plan in motion and, in April, we gathered forty-four family members to share a good, old-fashioned Sunday dinner.

Just as at those long-ago dinners, there was no shortage of
 good conversation and delicious food.

My father (back row, left), his brother, brother-in-law and two surviving sisters.  

 I thoroughly enjoyed the day, as short as it was.  "Thank you" to my sister, Teri, who did most of the work.  The consensus was that this should become an annual gathering, and the uncle who traveled from Florida just for this event insisted that we set a date.  I would try to explain how touched I am by the turnout and the immediate re-kindling with this group, but it makes me a bit verklempt.

The Abram Clan

Those two ladies standing behind Dad are my sisters, Teri (in aqua shirt) and Debbie (in peach).  I'm the one in olive green (5th from right in that same row).

Needlework Tuesday

I missed posting a Needlework Tuesday update last week because of extra hours at work that left little time for writing or crafting.  But, here's a brief look at what I have accomplished recently.

I posted previously about two projects I made as part of the May Pin It/Do It Challenge:  Mason jar skirts and the 10-Minute Table Runner.  I also made progress on my second prayer quilt.  This is the quilt made from the incredible stack of black and white prints I received through a swap with another quilter.  

I had hoped to have it ready for delivery this weekend but again, drat those extra work hours!  However, the top is pieced and it about half of the ties are in, so hopefully next week I'll be able to show you the finished project.  Here's the quilt top before I started tying.

Visit Heater @ Books and Quilts to see what everyone else is stitching this week or to link up your own Needlework Tuesday post.

Summer Reading

Ahhh.... such willpower, such self-control!  Or not!  Every summer  I say I'm not going to do it, but then the weather warms and I get bit by the "bug".  The pretty covers bloom like summer flowers and I find myself making a Summer Reading wish list.  Warm, sunny days always lure me to the swing with a cold drink and a book.  With the purchase of our "vacation home" (a.k.a. pop-up camper), I'm envisioning even more quiet hours for reading.  So here's my 2013 Summer Reading Wish List

Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg - because I like everything she writes.

Cecilia Ross is looking for a change. She has decided to take time off from her job as a motivational speaker and sell her home. She moves into a beautiful old house in St. Paul, Minnesota, complete with a big front porch, a wild garden and three roommates.   The four women are different ages, but all are feeling restless, and want to take a road trip to find again the people and things they miss. One woman wants to connect with a daughter she gave away at birth; another wants to visit her long-absent ex-husband; a third woman, a professional chef, is seeking new inspiration from the restaurants along the way. And Cecilia is looking for Dennis Halsinger, the man she never got over, who recently sent her a postcard out of the blue.

Ladies' Night by Mary Kay Andrews - ditto.  And don't you love the colors in that cover? (release date 6/13)

There’s the “Grace Stanton” who alluringly chronicles her glamorous Florida life on Gracenotes, her popular blog. And then there’s the Grace Stanton who had to slink back to mom’s with the clothes on her back after she drove her philandering hubby’s car into the pool. Things look up when she persuades the divorced women in her therapy group to move their Wednesday night sessions to the Sandbox, her mom’s ramshackle beach bar. Grace, Camryn, Suzanne and Ashleigh were all done wrong, and they’ve bonded together to heal each other’s hearts—and get even with their exes.

Lighthouse Bay by Kimberley Freeman.  This is a new author for me, but the story sounds intriguing and no way could I pass up  a book featuring a beach and a lighthouse on the cover.

1901, unhappily married Isabella Winterbourne is the lone survivor of a shipwreck off the Australian coast. But in her possession is a priceless gift that could give her the means to start anew in the seaside town of Lighthouse Bay. The year 2011 hasn’t been good to Libby Slater. After a failed love affair in Paris, she’s returned to her family home in Lighthouse Bay knowing that her sister Juliet may still, after 20 years, not forgive the egregious act that fostered their estrangement.  The century that spans these love stories is filled with breathtaking drama.

Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman.  Another new author.  The setting hooked me on this one and - surprise - the pretty cover art.  (release date 5/13)

Teddi Overman found her life’s passion for furniture in a broken-down chair left on the side of the road in rural Kentucky. Breathing new life into these discarded objects gives Teddi purpose, but has never alleviated the haunting uncertainty she’s felt in the years since her brother Josh’s mysterious disappearance. When signs emerge that Josh might still be alive, Teddi is drawn home to find him. It’s a journey that could help her come to terms with her shattered family—and to find herself at last.

Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble by Ann B. Ross.  Newest installment in a long-time favorite series.  And did you notice the pretty cover?

Upon feeling a nip in the air, Miss Julia decides to cozy up in front of her new fireplace—until she discovers autumn leaves aren’t the only things falling down in Abbotsville. James, Hazel Marie’s housekeeper, has had a bad tumble down the stairs, leaving the already harried young mother, who can’t boil water, having to feed and care for everyone! Naturally Miss Julia jumps in to help. And what better way than to have the town’s most accomplished cooks share recipes? But the last thing they need are too many cooks in the kitchen. When Hazel Marie’s no-good Uncle Vern Puckett shows up, madcap antics are added to the mix

The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan.  Her book, Maine, was one of my top reads last summer.  (release date 6/13)

A diamond lasts forever, wrote a young advertising wordsmith in 1947, and today the glittering gem is inseparably associated with marriage. J. Courtney Sullivan's The Engagements is a resplendent novel illuminating every facet of marriage—the shine, the strength, and the flaws.  Evelyn married for companionship, and her union has lasted four decades. Delphine lives for passion—its ecstatic beginning and its bitter end. Kate and Dan have been together ten blissful years, but Kate is loath to tie the knot. James is painfully aware that his in-laws feel his wife could have chosen better. And linking these four stories is that of the aforementioned ad writer, Mary Frances Gerety, who aimed to put a diamond ring on every bride’s finger.

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg.  I enjoy Janet Evanovich's writing and I'm hopeful that Mr. Goldberg's contribution to this book will be to keep her from reverting to writing the same characters and story once again.  (release date 6/13)

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare has a rep for tenacity second to none. She always gets her man. Except one—Nicolas Fox, a suave, charming schemer who scams the world’s movers and shakers just for the thrill.  Nick’s not running from Kate because he’s scared she’ll catch him—he just enjoys being pursued by a smart, sexy woman. But when O’Hare finally nabs Fox, he pulls his biggest con yet: He persuades the FBI to hire him...and partner him with Kate!  Now, Kate and Nick are after a crooked banker holed up on his private island. And if high-speed chases, pirates and hired guns don’t kill these two, they just may kill each other!

I know I can get a couple of these at my library - either in their collection or through interlibrary loan.  I am on a self-imposed book buying ban, but I may have to declare an exception in the case of birthday money and new releases.

These summer reading posts are more for my benefit - to keep track of what I had planned - than yours, although I hope you'll see something here that you may want to add to your own list.  If, for some reason, you're interested in previous Summer Reading posts, you can find them here:

http://tdreads.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-reading.html
http://tdreads.blogspot.com/2011/08/summer-reading.html
http://tdreads.blogspot.com/2012/05/summer-reading.html

Mother's Day - With a Twist

Hope you all are having a wonderful Mother's Day!

While you're celebrating, please take a few minutes to say a prayer for women who are feeling left out and "less than" today because they do not have children.  Many of them will never admit that they're hurting.  Through eight years of infertility challenges, I put on a brave face and pretended I was childless by choice.  Mother's Day was the worst - flowers and cards and gifts for women who had children; listening to pastors extol the virtues of motherhood and fulfilling God's greatest plan for a woman, while fighting tears because I thought I had failed my husband and God.

My mother is an amazing woman and I honor her today, but she would still be an amazing woman if she had no children.  I am blessed beyond measure by the children we finally had.  But  I am not a better person because I physically gave birth.  I am a better person because of the things they have taught me.  There is a beautiful woman and two incredible boys out there who call me "Mom" and "Grandma" even though I have no genetic link to them.  They enrich my lift just by being in it.

Motherhood isn't about getting pregnant.  That's a physiological state, like catching a cold - if you're exposed to the right "germ" under the right circumstances, it happens.  Those nine months are the easy part.  Motherhood is about what you do after they are born or adopted or fostered.

Say thanks for your mother today.  If you are lucky enough to still have her with you, tell her.  Say thanks for your children, however they came into your life, and say an extra prayer for the women around you who are not mom's yet or never will be.  Tell them what a beautiful creation they are, just as they are.  Tell them how glad you are to have them as aunts, sisters, mentors and friends!

*The complete story of our fight through infertility can be found here.  Feel free to contact me if you have questions or need support.