Wrapping up 2012 projects and a start to a new life!

A very Happy and Safe New Year to you all.  I figured before the New Year was running wild down the tracks of time I had better post some picks of my other projects I was so frigging busy with for Christmas Presents. 

Do you have a member of your family that wears t-shirts?  Our son Todd, has collected t-shirts for over 15 years.  Over 50 tshirts with logos for high school, track, cross country, college, worthy causes, but a lot of them just silly sayings.  Todd's wife, Erin sent all they had to me, and I added them to the collection that never left my house!  It was actually Todd's idea that I do something with them all.  I had bought most of them and they brought a lot of memories back for me.  Here is a collage that was my screen saver for years with photos of Todd each year when we dropped him off for college.  Most of those shirts made it into the quilt!!

So I decided to make a rag quilt with the shirts. I cut them all up (that almost brought tears to my eyes), had enough shirts for a double sided quilt, and cut up flannel to sandwich in between!  Here are all the pieces layed out to start the sewing!

Lots of Sewing,  but really sewing is not that time consuming, it's the cutting that takes the time, and the nipping of every seem edge that sucks up the time.  But after all that, and a throw in the washer to fringe everything up, it is all worth it.  Here is my little boy/big bad Marine all cozy and warm, back home in NC! 

Now add in 7 pairs of mittens, 7 dog toys, a bench pad, and another quilt for our other daughters family (which I am still waiting for phtos of!!!) and it's no wonder I couldn't get on here and blog!!!

Since Christmas I have still been crocheting, but for me!!!  So a hat, tablet cover, lip balm carrier on my keychain, and a pair of Grammie Crazy socks for Brockers!!  I have one more curtain valance to make.  Then I will figure something else to whip up!!

So this is the end of the year wrap up.  Thank You for being part of my year, and I certainly hope you will join me next year to help me SIMPLIFY and downsize for our new life in 18mths!!!    Dilly

Returning to Normal Mode after Christmas!

Well really it won't be normal, because in a few days, the sorting, selling, and simplyfying will begin January 1st!!

So I thought I would share what has kept me busy and away from my blog.  All those handmade presents I was working on and couldn't share because of family checking this page out!!  Here is the project that was way out of my norm....but it is something I want to check out and see if I can add it to my craft bag of tricks.

These are/were my grand puppys Dylan and Daisy.  Daisy left us last summer and she will be dearly missed by all of us but especially her Mom & Dad, Shannon & Shawn and their little guy Brockers.  Here is photo...Daisy is the big girl, and this is when Dylan was just a pup.....beautiful dogs!

While Daisy was with us I had the kids collect the dogs hair from their groomer.  I had read that Great Pyr hair could be spun into a useable yarn for making things.  Well 3 huge bags of dog hair have set in my closet for a few years while I was trying to find someone to spin it for me!  Alas I gave up, so I made a drop spindle and tried my hand at spinning the yard.  NAH  to frigging much work.  So I ran across a pattern for a kick spindle that you could make.  It involved a bun foot, and being the cheapskate I am I waited for my footstool to meet the grim reaper and took all the feet off it! LOL I was looking for the bun feet, but this was easier!!  Hubby and I built the kick spindle in about 45 mintues once we got all the parts.

So first you have this pile of dog hair, being frugal I used two slicker brushes that we have for our Great Danes.  Carding brushes are like $80, until I know if I even want to do this again I am not spending that kind of money.  You have to brush the hair out so the hairs lined up and ready for spinning.  After a few U-Tube videos I got that figured out.

Then you start slowly feeding the hair onto a leader string, and kick the spindle to spin the yarn.  Also learned on U-Tube!! LOL

When you think your leg will fall off and you only have a few rows to go, your grandson comes and spins the spindle for you and all is much better!

Finally with a big old hook and some additional yarn to give the dog hair strength I began crocheting!  It turned out beautiful and from Shannon's tears, and a misty Shawn I think it was worth learning all the new stuff to make this special memory.  I addressed the present to Mom & Dad Binkley from Dylan and Daisy and when Shannon read the tag she said Mom....Daisy isn't here!  I said she is today and she knew what was in the package!

Here is Brock curled up on their sofa cuddled up with the very special afghan! The light stripes in the afghan are Daisy and Dylan who will be around for a long time!!!

The Secret to Happy Dogs - Pheromones!!!!!

Well as goes the earlier part of this year, we were back to the Vet on Friday with Kylee.  Good thing I love her to pieces because she sure likes my pocketbook.  We are blessed with purchasing ASPCA dog insurance, so though we pay up front, they are really, really good about sending us a check for the parts they cover!!!

So this episode was for a double ear infection!  Not sure how that one came about!  Randy is really good about keeping on top of the ears and smells that come from them.  All I know is that after Dr. Jamie gave her meds in the ears, she has slept like a rock at night!  Is there a happy guy jumping up and down I can insert here.  Because when Kylee sleeps, so do the rest of us!!!

Now to the reason for this blog post.  Kylee is still barking her fanny off at anything that passes the house, flys or crawls into the yard, or is outside the van.  Drives us CRAZY and will put a kabosh to any hopes of traveling and staying anyplace!!  We have done, the can with pennies in it, the spritzer bottle, a bark collar, sonic area bark collar, a citronella collar, and she might react the first 10 times, then she just ignores everything and does what she wants!!  We talked to Dr. Jamie and asked about sending her to a trainer, because we have tried it with us and the trainer and we get nothing!!  She told us about a collar for Kylee that has pheromones in it.  It is the pheromone the Mother dog gives off to keep her puppies calm and under control.  Adult dogs will still react to that pheromone years later!  This is called Adaptil, and comes in a collar, a diffuser for you house, and a spray.

So we dropped $35 and got her the collar.  After everything we have spent on her, this is just a drop in the bucket!  The collar will last for 4 weeks, then needs to be replaced!  We put it on her Friday evening, and I can honestly say she is more mellow.  We are not expecting it to end her barking, but we are hoping we will be able to train her more easily and she might actually pay attention.  So far so good!  We are using the pennies in the can and a hefty NO with it and so far it has broken her focus on whatever is causing her to bark!!  Man that would be wonderful.  I'll let you know how it goes.  They use these for kennel visits, vacations, road trips, etc.  It's like using prozac without giving your pet drugs.  Our daughter, Shannon is using the product the same company makes for kitties, to work on making her old kitty and new kitty get along!

Better living for your 4 legged family members through chemistry!!!
Dilly

Are you feeling the pressure yet????

22 days until Christmas and as usual I am in way over my head!  Why Oh Why do I come up with these projects that I want to do for people??  I swear every year that I will not do it next year and then like a lemming heading to a cliff I do the same dang thing!!!

Of course I can't tell you what my projects are, because occasionally my children supposedly drop in and read this.  You wouldn't know it, because they never leave a comment, but they do let info slip from time to time that they actually do pay attention.  Lets just say I have 3 major projects going, 3 semi-major projects, then all the piddly things that need to be done.  Oh, I forgot I always do something with Xavier to give to everyone.  This year we will have to have Brock set in on that one, and don't ask.  I don't have a frigging idea what that will be!  Good thing I have piles of reference books on crafts, kids goodies, and anything creative!  I will have to chat about that on another day!

Now, I have been able to sleep at night.  When I do wake up and make the night hike to the potty room and crawl back in bed I have managed to fall back asleep.  When I start thinking about the pile of stuff I still need to do, I just clear my mind, and tell myself it will all get done, it has always (most of the time) gotten done.  We will see if my sister reads this because she is the one person I have failed to finish things for over the years!!  But I have made up for it in recent years!  Sorry Sis!!

Now all this moaning in the previous paragraphs, doesn't even count the Christmas decorating things, making my house presentable, or the best thing, having Todd & Erin visit!  So I will be working on things at 70mph in the van as we travel for work, watching Christmas movies so I will set in one place and dedicate that time to working on the project that has a cut off on December 10th!!  That is so I can start an even bigger project and have any hope of finishing it by Christmas. 

So I pledge to cut this stuff back next year!  Yahhhhh Right!!!  Ok, so the Mayan Calendar is looking better all the time.  But why would they be so rude as to end the world the day before my Birthday???  Nah, I am screwed yet again, and all my fault!!  Merry Frigging Christmas!!!

Dilly

Sorting through our goodies is going to be TUFF!

Last week our treasure hunting and the sorting of goodies to keep when we downsize butted heads.  I have been very good about looking at things and saying to myself "I don't need that, I am going to be downsizing!!"  Then I found something very special that I have been looking for, for the past 5 years.

When Xavier was born we had the room to establish a Kids/Baby room with crib, rocking chair and all the toys and goodies a little one would want.  We did watch Xavy for a year a few days a week.  So duh, little guys need their space.  To this day, when the grandsons feet hit the floor at our house, they head to their room!  It has things we have found and memories that we have saved from their parents childhoold.  One of those items is a Fisher Price Cash Register.  All of our kids loved it and over the years the cash register is in great shape after 33 years. But, we had lost all the plastic coins that make it fun!

This week I found a cash register at one of the many thrift stores we hit,  and low and behold CU-CHING!!!!  I found one with plastic coins in it, and it was 99cents, not the $16.00 for the coins on Ebay!!!  You know I am cheap and couldn't choke that price down!!!

The boys have both spent their time playing with my find.  Even little Brockers only took a few minutes to figure out how to put the coins in, hit the keys and wind the crank for the change drawer!

Now when I found this treasure, I emailed my 3 kids and told them about my find.  I got back Awesome, Great and "Are you going to sell them?".  Yup even our kids know everything has a value!!!  That is when I realized, there are certain silly things I am going to have to keep.  I promised Todd that Yes, his children (which are still just a twinkle in their parents eyes) will have the chance to play with some of these wonderful memories!  So maybe I won't have a toy room, but I will have a rubber tub full of goodies for the next Grand Children to play with when they come to Grammies and Papa's! 

I am not looking forward to the process of sorting that will begin the first of the year!  Most of it will go, but I might have to put things away that I will sort through a few years down the road again!  Letting go is not one of my best talents!!  A good thing is I can take all my memories and photos with me!!  Now if I could just figure out how to rotate this!!  LOL