crystal theodore sanchez

The small Christmas tree residing in Erin's bedroom this December was so happy and lively that we extended his stay through January.  A couple of weeks ago when finally retired, he left a little buddy behind. The family was seated at the evening table for devotions when little Hermie (short for Crystal Theodore Sanchez... don't ask) crawled out from his hiding place behind my husband's hat to say hello.  The girls did what any other 'home-schooled their whole lives so they don't know that teenage girls don't do things like this' girls would do.  They built it a habitat, replete with color coordinated bow, placed it on a doily and proceeded to Google.  Hermie is an inchworm, did you see him in the fourth picture?  He's in the exact center.  He's the fat looking pine needle attached to the thin one.  

For days I would come downstairs in the morning and take the lid off and search and search, convinced that somehow in the night he had just vanished.  When I did find him I would be amazed at his outstanding camouflage.  He truly does look just like a pine needle, from above and below.  We knew that he had to have come from Erin's Christmas tree as Larry had just taken it out prior to sitting at the table, so we placed a small snippet from the tree in with him.  If we weren't positive before, we knew for certain once we saw him (or didn't see him, actually) against the foliage that yes, he definitely was created to live in that particular type of tree.

He seems to be happy to be living here with us.  We even harbor hopes of seeing a metamorphosis.  This isn't our area of expertise so we are just happily observing and caring for Hermie.  Well, what would you do?

Blessings, Debbie     

salvation

You remember this yarn?  I knew that I was happy as it was drying.  Then I was giddy after winding it into balls.  I became ecstatic as I began knitting!  Erin has been asking me to make the fingerless gloves from this book (the same book I'm using to make this) for weeks.  Now she's glad we waited...

Joining Ginnys' Yarn Along

Blessings, Debbie

the girl's got wheels

After much reading and nail-biting... she had all the right answers (except for one). I've already experienced this twice before.  That time when your young lady (or young man) sprouts wheels... Congratulations Erin!

Blessings, Debbie

a lovely shade of chestnut

visit rachel for a fun pattern using your knitting mushroom/tower/nancy/ned...

A couple of weeks ago I put some spinach on to simmer. It simmered and simmered, then I put it in a jar to sit overnight.  The next morning I strained it and returned the spinach juice to the fridge (the rest went to the chickens) while I finished plying the 6 ounces of merino that I had spun.  After Googling natural dyes and realizing that my spinach concoction wasn't going to be strong enough for the amount of yarn waiting I decided to see how much Kool-aid I could come up with.

Shown above, we have the result of several packages of grape with a package of cherry... then just to muddy it up, I added the spinach juice.  This wasn't my first time dying but somehow I made a mess of things.  Of course it had to happen when I had the most yarn in the dye-pot that I had ever had in at once.  I was loving the color... a nice mulberry.  Everything seemed fine until I was removing the water from the yarn and noticed that where the skeins were tied together I had apparently gotten a bit, shall we say, enthusiastic?  I thought that I had tied loosely but I guess it wasn't loose enough.  Two lovely mulberry skeins with white spots every 8 inches or so were the result.  Not only that, but the fibers seemed to have (very lightly) felted.

Not one to cry over felted, spotty skeins, I put them out of sight until I could mentally handle the idea of handling them again.  Today was the day.  I mentioned here that I had purchased a new dye-pot.  Today I took her out of her plastic wrap and gave her her first assignment.  FIX MY MESS!

I found my Jacquard dyes and chose Chestnut for it's camouflaging possibilities.  I tossed in the disgruntled skeins along with a recent small yardage from the spool.

I pressed out the water and this time... I think we're good!  Right now the wet skeins are hanging from doorknobs in the kitchen and utility room and I think I can safely say I have saved them!  I feel kinda like a heroine... can you be the heroine if you were the villain to start with?  Hmm.

Blessings, Debbie 

peggy sue and debbie lou

A last minute invitation to a birthday dinner called for a quick creative answer as to what to do for a gift. Luckily, I know my friend.  And luckily we have this wonderful tool called the internet.  And luckily, this site offered exactly what I needed... for free.

First I printed the dolls and several pages of clothes.  Next, I named the dolls ('coincidentally' their names are very similar to hers and mine) and wrote a little blurb to go with.

After that, I made a large envelope using the brown paper gift wrap that I purchase for a buck a roll at the dollar store.  I printed the dolls names and the date on a label for the front.

She loved it!  I knew she would.

Blessings, Debbie

a cheap date

The time spent... meandering.  First we head down the highway looking for an interesting byway.  A left or a right catching each sight that comes our way.  All through an appropriately smudgy windshield.

Holding hands as we smile down each shadowed mile.  Dusk chases us back as the night sky turns black. The thirty minute road trip.

Have a blessed weekend,  Debbie

does God have a sense of humor?

You tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor.  Erin and Audrey dutifully set their alarms and checked again to make sure the time was set right, hollering back and forth to one another... "what time does yours say... NOW."  "O.K.  What time does yours say... NOW."

They made sure that they were turned on.  Then double checked before turning out the lights.  Here's where God steps in.  Remember that I live snuggled into my little valley where the weather is mild and relatively predictable.  No earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes.  Rarely even a power outage.  Ahem.  

Once a year, maybe once every two years even, during a rare and crazy summer thunder storm we may be victims.  But rarely, I say, do we lose power.  

When I moseyed into the kitchen to make my coffee this morning the room was flashing!  The little clock on the oven was flashing.  The little clock on the microwave was flashing...  NO WAY.  I trotted back up the stairs to say, "girls, time to get up."  Just like days of old.  There was a gentle stirring and then the confused popping up of heads.  "Mom, my alarm didn't go off!"...  "Why is it flashing?" 

So, that's day 1 of my trying to get a bit more order and sunshine into the beginning of our days.  And that's what God thinks of my best laid plans.  

Things still got rolling pretty well seeing as we too had a sense of humor about the whole thing.  We even managed to get a fair amount of schoolwork in before the girls had to leave for their Keepers at Home meeting and I took off for a lovely lunch to celebrate my mother's birthday.  I can't believe she's 29... again!

Blessings, Debbie