Michigan Winters

Well I have found the greatest benefit of retirement. No more driving in snow and ice. We kee our freezer and  refrigerator well stocked and we are set for anything. Good thing to as this week has been a " Winter Ride" for sure.

We have had  rain, feezing rain, sleet, and snow. And with that the blessing of the power being off for 2 days. Our county was the hardest hit. many, including one of my daughter are without power and they say will be Sunday and possibly Monday of next week before they get it back. School has been cancelled for the rest of this week. Started of Sunday afternoon with a sleet and rain mix, turning later to all freezing rain, We have trees  and limbs down all around. Roads are still as of today a sheet of ice. We are 12 miles from town and in town grandson, Austin  went ice skating on the street in from of his house.  I love this picture of him. Looks like he is going to do a big jump.

We have lost one lage tree. Split right down the middle and laying on the ground. ... A Couple pictures of our yard.

First picture is of the juniper bush, and lilac by the road and second is tree down partially blocking the road.
And then came the snow. About three inches adding more weight to the trees.  I have to say though sunrise was beautiful that morningof the second day.
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The birds are eating us out of house and home the last few days. Even the pheasants are coming to the feeders . And now squirrels have arrived. I love the cardinals when they arrive and then when the bluejays arrive the lilacs look like Christmas trees all decked out in red and blue.

The above picture was taken before the ice hit. At times we have had up to 20 cardinals and 12 bluejays all at once. On a snow covered bush or tree it is awesome to see them all. Mother Nature at her finest.

One benefit  of the last several days is lots of computer time with the use of a generator for which I thank God we have. And I have gotten all the Valentine tree and decorations down and taken care of and the St. Patricks tree and decorations up.  Will be posting pictures of some of the items I have used in another post.

Starting in April I will be doing a "Kraft With Karan " day each month at the local Senior  Center. Our first project will be Wire Angels I think. In January I did a Valentine Wreath. Heart Shaped and made of Paper Cupcake liners. The ladies had a lot of fun and asked if I would do a day a month with them. I am looking forward to it and am really excited they have asked me to do this.This is a picture of the Valentine tree and the wreaths I did.

Well off and running . Hope that you all are having a great week.

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It has been a long time Coming

I really have been a long time in doing this but finally I made the decision to retire. My last day of work was the 29th of October.... Since then I have been playing catch up, voluntiering at  Daybreak and the Adrian Senior Center.

Oh how nice to actually be able to sleep in a bit in the morning. Even the dogs have finally decided they no longer have to be up at 4:45 every day.

I did think I was going to have a year of 3 days with no one around so I could craft, play on the computer or just do what ever I wanted. That is until early December when George came home and said  "My last day is the 23rd." Oh well. His computer is in one end of the house and mine is in the other end. LOL

I  am so enjoying not getting up and the drive this winter on snow, ice or slush. Then trying to wade through a half plowed parking lot to get into work. It snows and I manage a nice cup of hot chocolate and a good book, curl up on the couch and watch the birds at the feeders and read to my hearts content.

I am looking forward to now really leaning this blog idea and working at it to really get it going. I have found so many wonderful blogs over the last few months and think to myself. Now I can do this. I have found wonderful projects and hope to share many of them over the months ahead. 

So bear with me as I learn how to really Blog.

Crafting for summer Holidays

I found this wreath and thought it was a simple and attractive  item to decorate your door for the 4th of July...

You will need:

11 yards 1" wide red-white-and-blue ribbon
20" grapevine wreath
Three 4" x 6" American flags
Floral wire 


Instructions:

Weave 2 1/2 yards of ribbon through the grapevine wreath. Glue the ends of the ribbons together; this is the bottom of the wreath. 
Arrange three flags at the bottom of the wreath in a fan shape so they slightly overlap; glue the flags in place. Use a small amount of glue to secure the edges of the flags where they overlap.

Cut two 36" lengths of ribbon and fashion a small multi-loop bow from each piece; tie with floral wire. Glue a bow to each side of the wreath.

Use the remaining ribbon to make one large multi-loop bow. Glue bow to the bottom of the wreath to cover glued sections of ribbon and flags.

October Already

Well summer flew by so fast and the weather here is sure cool mornings. And they are saying snow for us on Monday. Now I really need to think about getting in gear for the Christmas Holidays and lots of ideas I need to get going on producing rather than just thinking. LOL

I have been working on paper clip angels. Am helping do them for our homebound seniors to brighten their Holidays.

Here is a link to them. They go together fast. Being we have about 225 homebound seniors at this point we needed something easy to do..

http://home.att.net/~mcdermand/angel_paperclip.htm

I also have done several shopping list holders. I have given some as birthday gifts to the gals I work with. They both loved them. Thanks Lisa for mine all those years ago.

Will try to start posting a craft each week to enjoy....

Starting on Christmas

Well, here it is mid June so guessed I really needed to get busy and start on a few Christmas gifts. George hung my lights back up in my craft area so I can again see to paint. Stained several items yesterday for gift giving at work. Am doing note pad holders. Also managed to get a couple birdhouses stained that I should have had done and hanging out early this spring. But guess the birds will have to use it next year now.

I was checking out a few Christmas sites and found the cutest frog ornament I thought you may like to see. I have all in my stash of craft items and think I may just do up a few of these this week end.

To make sparkly Frog Christmas Ornaments like this one, see the step-by-step tutorial and photos on the How To Arts and Crafts.com website.

So what do you think of them. Easy enough to do with a small child .. And who does not like frogs.

Well hope that I can actually get in here more now. We finally have come up in the world. DSL came our direction and we are now not only able to get it but both George , Ashley and I can all be online at once. What a treat this is for us. Lately it sems I have not been online near as often as I would like to be.

I hope you are al having a great June.

Where has spring gone

Well today is Memorial Day. Spring has just flown by and I still do not have all the flowers and flowerbeds completed.

Do have the hitching post up now and the huge iron kettle is hanging from it and all planted in red, white and blue. Need to plant all the different herbs around the kettle today and as soon as it warms a bit more will be going out to get started. The majority of the veggie garden is all in and starting to pop. George started most of the plants himself this year to help save money. It was lots of work but we have spent very little other than for seeds.

I have been off work for a week and really have enjoyed the time off. Sort of down about having to go back to work tomarrow. Sure wish I had a job where I could take the summer off. maybe I will have to really save up lots of my days off and take a few weeks off in a row next summer. But then maybe I can retire next summer.


And now inHonor our late veterans I would like to share this poem

Memorial Day
By C. W. Johnson

We walked among the crosses
Where our fallen soldiers lay.
And listened to the bugle
As TAPS began to play
.The Chaplin led a prayer
We stood with heads bowed low.
And I thought of fallen comrades
I had known so long ago.
They came from every city
Across this fertile land.
That we might live in freedom.
They lie here 'neath the sand.
I felt a little guilty
My sacrifice was small.
I only lost a little time
But these men lost their all
.Now the services are over
For this Memorial Day.
To the names upon these crosses
I just want to say,
Thanks for what you've given
No one could ask for more.
May you rest with God in heaven
From now through evermore.


And I want to add a "Thank You " to all our Military personel now serving or have served through out our world.

An addition to the family

Well after loosing Pierre our mini toy poodle a few months back our 2 year old poodle has about driven us to our ropes end. She missed the little guy so much we finally decided she needed a playmate. I have been looking for about 3 weeks or so hoping to find one to rescue or buy within a few hours from us. Seems like all I found on the different Michigan, Indiana, Ohio sites were to expensive and a lot farther to drive to buy than we really wanted to go.

Yesterday when leaving the Dr. office I wanted to stop buy the pet store to look for a new color for Cinnamon.I totally had forgotten they sometimes have puppies for sale. I really wanted George to see their male poodle as he is the same red our Cinnamon is and the owner of the store and I had chatted last spring about possibly using her male for stud and her taking pick of the litter. We decided we were going to breed Cinnamon this summer . Well to make a long story short, we went in and they had Morkie-poos for sale. Well were both fell in love with them. If not for Cinnamom we would have come home with both of them but refrained. So we are now the prowd owners of a Morkie-poo. (Mother was Malteez/yorkie and father is the owners red poodle (Jeffery). Now to come up with a name.

George mentioned Morkie, Ashley says Oreo as his face is mosty black and his tail end is black . The rest in the middle is white other than one small black spot on the top of his back, and I mentioned Zorro as his face looks like he is wearing a Zorro mask. I did tell George I thought Oreo would be cute. Grandaughter said we would not have to go through our spice cabinet to find a name that way. Joke has always been that we look through the spice cabinet of dog names. We have had Pepper, Ginger, Cinnamon, Butterscotch, and Cocoa. So I think Oreo would be fitting for him.

So that was our day on Friday.