Moose Pillow for Grandma

I made this moose head pillow for my grandma, and gave it to her this weekend as a belated Christmas gift.  She loves moose and the Adirondacks.

Visiting Grandma!

I am visiting my grandma this weekend!

After having the worst single-serve instant coffee yesterday morning, Grandma suggested we go out for coffee this morning!  So we went to a local donut place, Dippin Donuts.

I taught Grandma how to make the crochet hearts this weekend.  You're never too old to learn something new!  We've been doing a lot of crocheting in the past couple evenings, while watching "House Hunters" on HGTV.  I make something of a game of it...if the people on the show choose the home I guess, I win!  LOL!  I keep saying, the only thing I miss about having cable is watching HGTV.  I love all the home improvement shows!

We spent today doing some de-cluttering and de-stashing some of her craft supplies in one of her spare rooms (my mom's old bedroom).  We came across this little clay pinch-pot I apparently made when I was 5.

This is the side view of the pot.
I not only gave Grandma permission to get rid of it, but I TOLD her to get rid of it.  She was a little resistant, but once I took pictures of it, she seemed okay with letting it go.  So the memory can live on in digital form.

There was a lot of thin crochet cotton thread (usually used a lot to make doilies and that kind of thing).  I'll be donating it to Craft Bits & Pieces, which is like a thrift store for craft supplies in Fairport NY.

And Grandma gave me a LOT of yarn.  This is just a small bit of what she gave me.  I will be keeping some, but definitely not all of it.  Whatever I don't decide to keep, I'll be giving it away to any friends that want it... and then donating what is left to Craft Bits & Pieces  I'll be giving the embroidery hoops to my fellow RNESTer, Tiffany of Freckles and Frizz.

Visiting Grandma: Part 3 (Stained Glass Window)

I spent Tuesday night at Grandma's house and on Wednesday I went with Grandma and her friend Sybil to a luncheon a local Methodist church was having as a fundraiser. Grandma and Sybil had been planning on going, I just kind of tagged along. There were a ton of people there and they actually had to have people wait in the sanctuary until their ticket number was called! While we were waiting, I became mesmerized by the large central stained glass window and passed the time until our numbers were called by taking pictures of it and playing with the settings on my digital camera.

The colors were so gorgeous...

Although not as impressive as the main central window, I enjoyed taking photos of the side windows as well.

I took this shot, but then decided to play with the camera settings...

I took the picture above after messing with the white balance and exposure settings. I like it better than the shot before it. It has a more moody, peaceful feeling to it. I think it would make a nice print.

Grandma and Sybil waiting for lunch...

Grandma and Sybil after lunch in front of a flowering crab apple tree.

Grandma and I in front of the tree. (It was sunny and Sybil was having a hard time seeing the view screen...so that's why our heads are a bit cut of at the top!)

Visiting Grandma: Part 2 (Birdwatching)

As far back as I can remember, Grandma has always had a birdfeeder right outside her kitchen window. She has a passion for birdwatching and is my resident bird-expert. If I see a bird and don't know what kind it is, I just ask Grandma. When I was at her house on Tuesday, I spotted this beautiful little blue bird outside her window.

Not a Bluebird...just a bird that was blue. It was SO pretty and I'd never seen one before!

Grandma said she thought it was a Blue Bunting. She checked her bird book (that she keeps right by the kitchen window!) and thought that it might be, more specifically, an Indigo Bunting.

Then there were also cardinals...

And a Blue Jay. At times like this I wish I had a fancyschmancy professional camera with a telephoto lens so I could zoom in and get a good clear shot!

There were also house finches and chickadees that were camera shy and would flit away as I was trying to zoom in on them.

Grandma gets the prettiest birds in her backyard. I want to get a new birdfeeder for my house now (I have one now, right outside my dining room window, that looks like a little red barn, but it's all cracked and broken). I only wish my kitchen was set up so that I could look out a window while doing the dishes like at Grandma's house. My sink faces a wall and the window is behind me. Although we are talking about taking that wall out someday to expand and make the kitchen and dining room into one large room, and then I will be able to see the dining room window. But that plan is way in the future for our house renovation plans.

Next post: Part 3 (Stained Glass Window)

Visiting Grandma: Part 1 (Grandma's Birthday)

My Grandma's 86th birthday was this past Tuesday, and I had decided that I'd go visit her. We went out to lunch with the "Tuesday Girls", Grandma's friends that she's known since high school. They used to meet every Tuesday when they were younger, but now they meet one Tuesday a month.

I bought these earrings for her at the Lilac Festival. They are pressed Forget-Me-Nots, one of Grandma's favorite flowers. Grandma doesn't have pierced ears and wears clip-ons. The earrings I got originally were for pierced ears, but the lady was kind enough to change them! She just switched the charm onto clip-ons for me right when I bought them!

I also made her some Raspberry-Rosemary syrup and some sugar cookies that look like buttons.

I got the "Button Cookie" idea from this site (the cookies on the site there are peanut butter cookies, but I didn't have enough peanut butter). I wanted to do this idea of stringing a ribbon through the holes for the presentation, but wasn't sure if I could do it without the cookies breaking. But the jelly canning jar presentation was cute enough.

And Mom sent Grandma's presents with me to give her, which included this small bouquet of flowers (Forget-Me-Nots, Lilies of the Valley, and Lilacs) from Mom's garden.

Next post: Part 2 (Birdwatching)

Simple Pleasures: Vintage Spools of Thread

It's pretty silly how happy a bunch of vintage spools of thread can make me...

I've mentioned in earlier posts how I have a thing for vintage wooden spools. Well, while visiting my Grandma this weekend, I happened to ask her if she had any old wooden spools lying around. So she went upstairs and rummaged around in her sewing room. When she came back, she had a bunch of wooden spools for me! Not as many as Maya*Made's stash, but more than I already had! Grandma also gave me some fabric, and a bunch of her old Tupperware this weekend, but these silly little spools of thread are my absolute favorite thing that she gave me this weekend!

And I hadn't expected her to give me spools with thread still on them! I'd have been happy with bare wooden spools. The thread still being on them was a bonus! It saved me from having to wind my own thread onto them for pictures. And I couldn't have asked for better thread colors!

Now I can make some prints and add my own photos to the ones I've already gotten off Etsy from Abby Try Again and DearMachine. :) Now if I can only get around to actually framing and hanging them...

Most of the spools are Coats & Clark brand...but two of them have Fruit of the Loom labels.

Grandma's Vintage Calender

I'm visiting my Grandma in Rome, NY this week. I saw this beautiful vintage-looking calender at her house.

I thought it was a new calender, because the dates look correct. Plus it's that vintage style that's popular recently. So I asked Grandma where she got it...

She's had it since 1983! And she just happened to find it recently. It doesn't just look vintage...it really IS vintage! I guess the dates for 1983 are the same as 2011!

I told her I want the calender at the end of the year. I want to frame the prints.

A Couple Days at Grandma's...

I know it's been over a week since my last entry, but nothing really interesting happened last week. And I've been gone for the past 2 days. My mom called me on Monday to tell me she was going to visit her mother (my grandmother) and asked if I wanted to come too. Well sure!..packing can wait while I visit Grandma!



My mom works for BOCES with special ed. kids and the cigar box thing was a craft project they did this year. Apparantly it's a project that's been around for awhile. I told my husband about it and he said "Oh yeah, I've done that!" It's really simple...all you do is

1. tear pieces of masking tape and stick them onto a cigar box (making sure they overlap and the edges are pressed down)
2. when the whole box is covered with pieces of masking tape, you dab shoe polish onto it (not the kind in a can, the liquid kind that is kind of like a bingo stamper).
3. wait for the shoe polish to dry and voila!...a faux leather box!
   

On Tuesday afternoon/evening, Grandma had a birthday party to go to for one of her friends, so Mom and I decided to drive up to Inlet to see what was left of "the Camp".

Poor Luna...this was her first time to the Adirondacks. She never even got to spend any time at Camp.

Remember the movie "Carrie"? At the end when the house had burnt down and the girl was coming to set flowers in front of the for sale sign?...then Carrie's hand comes up and grabs her?

Mom had a rubber hand that had been on the dashboard of her car for 5 years or so and was starting to discolor on the back. She had been meaning to get rid of it anyway, so we semi-ceremoniously left it sticking up under the No Trespassing sign! My family usually deals with grief with laughter. We were giggling like teenage girls setting this up and taking pictures.

Then Mom and I went to 7th Lake to take Luna swimming (I'll put the video on my YouTube channel)

Rinsing the sand off out feet and off our sandals...

Beautiful mountains and sunset...

Then we had dinner in Old Forge (about 10-15 minutes away from Inlet). The deer in Old Forge don't mind the cars or civilization...they just mosey along like they were in the woods. I have video of that too.