Happy Easter

Have a sweet Easter with the ones you hold dear.

I crocheted the tablemat and its fun lace from Teacakes yarn from JoAnn's in "Lady Grey" colorway. I made a matching scarf and am now midway though a two tablemat project in the same thick, wool-blend yarn in  "Spiced Cider,"

Linking with Between Naps on the Porch



Whimsy and Hugs!

Thanks, Gramma!

In just spring...  Remember good old e. e. cummings?

Today was such a beauty. Of course, I went for a drive. It is  still in the 30's here but no snow like the the East's weather. My dear Gramma Minnie  adored the springtime, while my sweet Ma Iona was an autumn girl through and through. Lucky for me, I am both!   

                                                                                                                                                                  

This blog looks like a crochet blog lately. One of my favorite things to do is flip on all the living room lights with a voice command to our "Alexa."    My son is heading out to work, and I quiz Alexa on the weather for seven days, the news flash briefing (which I sometimes cancel), a daily Bible verse, and some album, any music I request...  I sit there and crochet up a storm. 

My latest project is a shawl for a friend who had some upsetting health news. I used a self-striping yarn from Jo-Ann's called "peaches and cream pop" in the Sweet Roll line. It is called a prayer shawl, and as I crocheted, I said a lot of prayers for her. I recently discovered crochet-alongs on YouTube. It is really easy to watch and do, pause and replay! 

I was thinking this week about a little navy blue velvet sofa my Gramma had... She sat with me on that couch for days and days while she taught me to crochet. At that time we used cotton thread and teensy hooks. She could make delicious doilies and lace around a hankie in a flash... My gramma almost never sat down still with nothing brewing to work on. Her hands were busy with embroidery, quilt piecing, crochet, latch-hook, or handwork on something she was sewing. I finally learned to crochet.  We both made granny afghans together from kits. She have hers to Mom, and I gave mine to her.   That sweet woman had such patience with me, and I often stop what I am doing with my yarn and hook (I just never loved working with thread) and whisper a little thanks to her. A few days in 1965... when I was 11 years old have made my recent days so enjoyable. 

My other grandmother Ma... she could crochet beautifully also, and she tried very hard to teach me to tat. Ma could tat in her sleep. I made only three little isolated tats... and I sent them taped in a card with a long-winded tale of the "Three Little Tats"... That card and those yellowed-tape bits and bobs became a treasure I found when we cleaned up Ma's keepsakes long ago on a sad August day in 1976. 

It is always best to crochet with a clean cat by your side!

Have a lovely spring... 

            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       






Whimsy and Hugs!

Four Years in the Making....

Whimsy and Hugs! Sunday morning I stretched and looked first at my clock to see just how late his new Daylight Saving time had let me sleep. Eeeeek! And then a glance to see if we had sunshine...  Uh, nope. Huge snowflakes and this met my astonished eyes. Now by tonight most of the beautiful white snow had melted...  March in Missouri. Of course, I made chili. My son and I decided chili is my favorite comfort food.

As I have babbled on before, I mean to finish up projects this year in crochet, papercraft, and other horizons. I confess I used to be a project starter. I once sat by my cozy fireplace at home and burned to a crisp  two-thirds of a cross-stitched, afghan-paneled thing I had started for my dear gramma, who has sadly passed away. I just couldn't see my way to ever finish that and not see her face when I gave it to her...  I had procrastinated too long, and I was so angry at myself. Fast forward about 25+ years... I am not sorry about that afghan's demise, but I am sick of little storage spots here filled with starts...  

In February of 2014 I chanced upon a pretty blog called Hopscotch Lane, which seems to have moved or ceased that year. I hadn't crocheted since the 70's or 80's. My sweet gramma had taught me when I was 11...  I made a lot of gifts when I went to college. So I quickly ordered this Bernat Satin yarn and worked on these squares for myself. I am not a perfect crocheter...  And I have improved over the past four years. I have done a few projects in the middle of this, including a baby afghan in this colorway. However, my first "child" remained in process all this time. This morning I finished her... Through the years she has been christened in Diet Coke, washed block by block, and stuffed into bags, totes, fancy 21 bags, and Wal-Mart sacks. She is no longer made in my yarn of future choice, but... she does make me smile. 42 squares of 7 rounds each. And a pretty shell border...  

"Happy Birthday-Christmas-Mother's Day-Easter-Halloween-Everything"  to me. Thank you... Thank you very much. I had no idea you cared!

I think she will be cheery throughout summer with these fresh colors. Hopscotch Lane said at the time it was Kath Kidston-inspired. That's just perfect. 

My son keeps saying a gray or brick colored blanket with grey or black "mortar" in brick-shaped blocks would be cool. I dunno. (Sounds like a guy who pretty much would wear all black if I didn't gift him a colored polo every now and then. He wears them if he needs to do laundry. I was told to keep hands totally off his laundry, so.... I make that "sacrifice.")

Officially not a fan. My kitty was on it about 3 seconds. I had visions of getting a photo of her all curled up, but she got spooked of either the texture or the colors. 

She looked right and left, and then...

Peace. Out.

I heard her running through the house, sharpening her claws and crunching kibble in a panic...  

Have a great week...  Thanks for visiting today. 

Spring ... a dozen days from now!

Well, spring will be here in less than two weeks, so I feel as if I am okay to start getting ready for it!

 Loved the wintry coziness and all the projects and hot cups of tea. Right now my dear little gramma and I would be drinking sassafras tea to"thin our blood" for spring. She believed it made us feel better, and I think it might have. I know the sassafras we get now is not the same because the Food and Drug regulated it due to its anticoagulant properties.  So, I guess Gramma was right about thinning our blood! 

My go-to tea right now is Harney and Sons apricot. I just can't get enough of it. In fact, I think a cup right now will boost my energy. If it doesn't thin my blood!

Last Saturday my son and I drove to a huge Ford dealership in Louisburg, Kansas, and he bought a great pickup truck. He had been patiently Internet shopping for seven maonths. He loved the truck he had but it didn't have much going for it right now, and it seemed a good time to get one with a heater and defroster, he said! Oh, my! We have had a pretty chilly winter for those conditions.

I must say I was a lot nervous to drive home in my car through Kansas City and all those exits and Semis. We had met a dear friend who lives near Kansas City, and she boosted my mojo a bit. I kept thinking that facing my fears would help...if I didn't crash.  That was a bit of positive thinking with a whammy. I heard a funny rattle about 75 miles in, and that's when it hit me my teeth had been chattering pretty much the whole time. How funny!

Well... time out. Just got a phone call and I am having company for afternoon tea! How delightful! It's sunny and 40 degrees right now, up from the dreary 24 degrees it was earlier! We had snow this week, but nothing like the East Coast Nor'easter....  I am back! Wow! We had a nice little supper actually. She brought cinnamon bread and fancy cream cheese, and I made chicken salad and had crackers and sharp Wisconsin cheese. 

Next weekend is St. Patrick's Day. The Irish Tedford clan in me is gearing up for that. I almost always had my parents for Irish stew, green jello, and Soda bread. Somewhere at home is a wee collection of chalk leprechauns. Where they be... hard tellin'.

I was thinking about that phrase of, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." That is so true. I can still hear my mother's version of it if I ever lost my temper in a pure tantrum. She would look at me a minute and say, "You can go  ahead and act like Rumpelstiltskin with his beard caught in a crack if you want to, but you will just split wide open in a room spun full of gold."  Uh...  even knowing that fairy tale well did not make me get what she meant at first. But I get it now.

So many of you are looking forward to the warmer weather and maybe a garden or flower bed. In Missouri we have had an old-fashioned winter season, cold, dry, long, gray. I personally don't mind that, but I know most are impatient for the true signs of spring.

By the time I get this posted, it is going to be eleven days until spring, so...  enjoy the weekend!

It is Taco Salad for Sunday here. That's one dish that always makes a hit with my family.

Whimsy and Hugs!

Pink Sugar and Cheer

Such a good question. I haven't blogged in a bit. However, the weaving in of a new month asks for a little wrap up of February's busy agenda. 

Since fair February was robbed of a full moon due to blue moons in both January and March, I felt a bit sorry for her. However, you see here a full worm moon at the end of our drive last night. Stunning.

 

There has been  recent dilemma. Do I watch TV? Do I read my Kindle? or Do I sleep? I won't tell which one has been winning out except to say I read Jane Eyre again after 56 years. It is free on the kindle app from Amazon. When I was seven, I stole JANE EYRE from my mom's bookshelf. She had forbidden me to read it because I was too young. Well, I had a little 1/2 watt night light from our electric company that I plugged in underneath my big iron bed that had the lion's head in the middle... In the wee hours of the night you could find me scrooched under the bed reading by that night light... and when I came to the chapter 25... where someone escapes from the attic and tears Jane's veil... I just about peed my pants, and I lay there all night too afraid to crawl out from the protection of my bed and too afraid of my mom to call her for help... It was probably my first (not my last) quandary.

This week I ventured forth after 67 days of just staying home for no reason. I don't like the term "recluse" because of the mental association with a certain brown bug....  And I love company...  I just have a ton of projects to accomplish, and I did go out in the world for 36 years nearly every day....  I had some company arrive quite late last Sunday to share some good news. Good friends stopped several times to keep me company. 

And, tragically, there has been such sorrow in both the world news and with several friends here at home. I keep them and grieving families in my prayers.

Say hello to a new little friend! Isn't she beautiful with her lovely auntie above and her beautiful mommie below? And I had them all in school, as well as the super vivacious and proud grand-mum in the last photo. We all had tea.

My dear sister-cousin and I celebrated her birthday on Monday. I made breakfast pizza and cherry cheesecake, coffee...  and this afghan. I got her a couple other little gifts, too. She asked how long it took me to make. Well, of course, I didn't work on it solidly, but it was started at least before Mom fell on Thanksgiving of 2014. Isn't it funny how we use little landmarks of photographic memory to timestamp memories? I recall ordering the yarn for this while I still had my bedroom on the lower level here at Mom's.- 

I am currently working to finish my own Kath Kidston inspired afghan,the first I started even before this one. I revived my interest in crochet after about 25 or more years of non-activity. I told myself I would do Granny afghans until I got tired of them. Something about their finished look just stabilizes my soul although I have been looking at different patterns and different kings of yarn lately. I vowed to finish my started projects, and, so far, I have done three "finishing acts" in 2018.

Finally, I have been enjoying some delicious hot tea as my companion drink. I am more of a coffee, Diet Coke girl, but I have a lovely cupboard with many tea flavors to choose from. Today I drank Yellow and Blue, a herbal blend from Harney and Sons. It is beautiful with blossoms visible in the silk bag ---- chamomile, vanilla, amd lavendar...  Tea makes me think of a pink kitchen, specifically my Gramma's...  She kept her tea by the farmhouse sink I let get away...  Her cabinets, her table, her spirit... all pink and rosy... and full of sugar and cheer...  And that, dear friends, is what I wish for you.


Whimsy and Hugs!