My heart goes to...

Vera.  Thank you everyone for entering, for praying, for lifting my spirits.

 

 

 

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Spending money

Hey!  The sun is out and tomorrow will be in the 70's!  Mark is in the garage cutting the fridge cabinet that Dominic made so we can get it in the house, and then put it back together.  Geez.

 

Ran errands this morning and flew through the antique shop at the mall.  I'm cheap enough to squeeze a 1938 nickel until the buffalo poops, but I've been loosening up a bit lately.  So I came home with these.  The blue bucket is an ice cream maker?  Don't know don't care.  I pictured it with greenery at Christmas on my front porch.  The little firkin (?) seems to be pretty old.  I'm not knowledgeable about antiques and values so I don't know if I paid too much.  Too late. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guy working the counter was surprised at the reasonable price.  Does it look old?  Sure is dirty enough to have been around for a while.

Now about Carole.  She was told by a very nice doctor, to have AV node ablation this Wednesday.  Yikes.  It's not the type of ablation you get for Afib if you don't have a pacemaker, because this procedure shuts off the electrical outlet and you are totally dependent on the pacemaker.  She asked him what happens if the pacemaker fails or malfunctions, and he said "you die".  Really? "Really."  Fairly simple procedure that kills around 6% of patients within the first two days following the ablation.  It is to stop her rapid and irregular rate, but not the Afib, which I don't understand so we are going to her cardiologist Tuesday at 5, and telling the hospital to schedule her later in the day Wednesday in case she backs out.  We need another opinion even though this doctor is highly respected.  There is no going back, no fix, no reversal.  Why can't she have the safer regular ablation?  For now, she is going ahead expecting to be less weak, less breathless, and off several meds.  The one I was concerned about, the dangerous one, he told her to stop immediately.

 

I'll be back tonight with the winner of the heart.

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

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Shredding

Good day to you.  Everyone well?  Hope so.  I worked on Eliza a little and although this linen is not coarse, I have been shredding the DMC like crazy. 

This has happened before but because of pulling out a good number of errors in this piece, it's become maddening.  Just this morning, two times.  The arrow shows where the thread comes out and you can see one is fine, the other shredded and broke into several pieces.  Another piece...

 

 

I never had this trouble with my old DMC skeins.  Maybe because this is 32 count and I never used higher count linens in prior stitching years.  Whatever, it irks me.

This is what the original design looks like and I didn't care for the wacky vase so I changed the symmetry, colors, and fill.  In my defense I didn't change everything - the handles are the same.

Here's where I am and the color I'm considering for the house.  The Uniform Blue is spot on with DMC 413, I'll probably go with the Gentle Art thread.  I haven't followed many of the recommended colors and would prefer the house to not be a color used elsewhere.

And here's what I got yesterday.  I saw the wood frame and metal wheel which made me think it was an old-timer, but my husband said it's a contractor's wheelbarrow.  Still older but not what I thought.  It was free for my bathroom consultation at my cousin's.

I now have several with metal wheels so I think that's enough.  This will go in the back yard somewhere.  I also bought two oak whisky barrel halves that Lowe's had on clearance for 1/2 price.  No where else around here has them any longer, just the newer light wood versions.  Mark drills the metal bands and puts little stainless screws through them to hold the staves in place. We learned from prior barrels!  They stay intact even when rolling to move. I think I'm finished with hanging baskets and will just fill barrels next year.  Next summer.  Summer.  ((sigh))

The cake is gone.  I was going to tell my husband that it slid off the aluminum plate and hit the floor. But he knows that floor dirt would never come between me and chocolate.

 

If you're looking for a really nice (large!) bundt pan, I recommend the Simax.  I have the 10" and would like to get the 8" and the European.  Very very nice stuff.  Several sources online in various prices.  One is here.

I need to find a small project for my Magma (I'm still in love with it) for the doc this afternoon.  The last time she was there, before the hospital stay, she waited 2 1/2 hours in the waiting room.  I'm taking a cooler with snacks.

I have two things I want to post.  One is about what the doc recommended yesterday, and another is storage of threads.  As soon as my head is on straight!

 

Have a great day!!

 

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One of my favorites

Chocolate zucchini bundt cake.  Intense, extra moist, luscious.  I posted the recipe on my food blog and finally put a link to it in the top right column.  It was included in a post back in 2012 but is worth repeating. 

One thing I love about bundt cakes is they don't require icing which cuts down on the calories.  But their greatest feature is the self-healing trick.  I always take a slice right away and then close it up.  No one can tell that I'm an impatient piggy unless they measure the humps.

This is mom's aluminum cake pan, I have another that is larger and locks with a handle.  But this wooden acorn top and the embossing is my favorite.

 

And here's something interesting.  Mark closed the garden and look what he found.  Two completely separate peppers on one stem.  Cool!  Today will be spent baking sausage/rice stuffed hot peppers in spaghetti sauce for the freezer, jalapenos stuffed with breakfast sausage, and a few zucchini casseroles with diced ham. They all freeze well.

 Silk mums and a 5 day candle will be put on my parents' grave for their anniversary.  My cousin has been bugging me to stop and give her some ideas for a bath remodel so I will get that out of the way too.  Mark was searching for mushrooms in the woods behind my brother's house and found a perfectly good old white porcelain farm sink with drainboard and high back buried in mud and brush of an old junk pile close to a steep ravine.   How could old farts with bad backs rescue several hundred pounds of cast iron out of dense woods?  We're thinking.

 

Enjoy your day.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

For all the prayers - edit

EDIT to this post - to make sure you understand my gibberish. ALL comments on this post will be included in the drawing. I guess it wasn’t clear enough, but anyone can enter. I received many emails and comments offering prayers and wanted to thank them but not exclude everyone else. So they are getting a double entry, but ALL readers that comment are included. Just leave your entry on this post, with or without prayers. No exclusions.

Original post..
Good morning. It's been cold and rainy, my furnace is on, and I am not a happy camper. But there are other things to be grateful for, and one of them is my group of stitching buds. I have gone through my comments and noted everyone that offered prayers and wish I knew who anonymous was. Why? Because every one of you is already included twice in a giveaway. We won't have enough information to gauge Carole's condition until Thursday, but we greatly appreciate all the caring concern and prayers that you have given and I want to offer something in relation to that.

What would be more appropriate than a heart? I added a little to my heart freebie, stuffed it with sawdust,

added a pretty fabric back, and you can be included by leaving a comment on this post. Even though I have you praying stitchers already, enter again if you would like a third chance.

It's not a perfect finishing job, but I've been a little distracted lately so it is what it is.

If you happen to notice that I am always wearing the same bracelets, let me explain. I am lazy. I don't want to be bothered taking jewelry on and off and I feel naked without bracelets. Gold is too expensive and soft, silver tarnishes quickly on me, so I browsed Kohl's and JCP online and purchased men's stainless steel. I chose styles that had links and could be shortened which was a plus because women's are usually too tight. Then I can add costume pieces to them but these never have to come off.

OK getting off track. Random will draw a winner Friday night at 8pm EST.
Make sure to leave your initials if no-reply or anonymous.

Thank you all again so much for your support and kindness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For all the prayers

EDIT to this post - to make sure you understand my gibberish.  ALL comments on this post will be included in the drawing.  I guess it wasn’t clear enough, but anyone can enter. I received many emails and comments offering prayers and wanted to thank them but not exclude everyone else.  So they are getting a double entry, but ALL readers that comment are included.  Just leave your entry on this post, with or without prayers.  No exclusions. 

Original post..
Good morning.  It's been cold and rainy, my furnace is on, and I am not a happy camper.  But there are other things to be grateful for, and one of them is my group of stitching buds.  I have gone through my comments and noted everyone that offered prayers and wish I knew who anonymous was.  Why?  Because every one of you is already included twice in a giveaway.  We won't have enough information to gauge Carole's condition until Thursday, but we greatly appreciate all the caring concern and prayers that you have given and I want to offer something in relation to that. 

 

 

 

What would be more appropriate than a heart?  I added a little to my heart freebie, stuffed it with sawdust,

added a pretty fabric back, and you can be included by leaving a comment on this post.  Even though I have you praying stitchers already, enter again if you would like a third chance. 

 

It's not a perfect finishing job, but I've been a little distracted lately so it is what it is. 

If you happen to notice that I am always wearing the same bracelets, let me explain.  I am lazy.  I don't want to be bothered taking jewelry on and off and I feel naked without bracelets.  Gold is too expensive and soft, silver tarnishes quickly on me, so I browsed Kohl's and JCP online and purchased men's stainless steel.  I chose styles that had links and could be shortened which was a plus because women's are usually too tight.  Then I can add costume pieces to them but these never have to come off.   

OK getting off track.  Random will draw a winner Friday night at 8pm EST.
Make sure to leave your initials if no-reply or anonymous.

 

Thank you all again so much for your support and kindness.

 

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