In my blog I plan to chat about nature, crafts, baking, gardening, beekeeping, family, and whatever else seems appropriate at the time. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

My Tuesday....

Hey Blogettes, Let me say, it was a busy weekend and a busy week. It's taken me two days to get this post together and I was gone most of yesterday. I apologize to a couple of you who left me comments and I have not been to visit your blog yet. I will, I promise! I might be a little chatty here, but I'm gonna tell you about my Tuesday. Go get a cup of coffee...or tea.

It started out having breakfast with friends. Now, this picture
is not what I had to eat for breakfast. This is french toast that I made from the bread, that I bought at the place, from where we had breakfast. Panera Bread. You all probably think it's the only place I go to eat. It isn't, but it just happens that I meet some ladies I used to work with once a month at Panera. We have a special relationship. We haven't worked together in over ten years, we do very little together outside of meeting once a month, but we keep up on each others lives via e-mail. We were so much like family when we did work together that it's like we never lost touch. The reason I was gone Wednesday was because one of them called me to see if I would go with her to Lafayette.
Back to the french toast....I buy a loaf of bread and have them cut it thick (it's more even when they cut it). Here's the recipe from a very old Betty Crocker cookbook.

So after breakfast, I decided to go use my 40% off coupon that was in Sunday's paper on an expensive magazine at our local craft store. I love these magazines but they are so expensive I'm going to have to stop buying them (to afford gas!). I'm just going to start looking through the old ones I have because they still inspire me.

Then I went to our local sewing store and bought these mags.


I had ALL of these coupons..but guess what folks....
I couldn't use any of them because everything was on sale. Of course, their magazines were on sale for 10% off. You can't use coupons on sale merchandise. So I had 40-50% off coupons that I couldn't use because most things were on sale for 10-30% off. I'm done being stupid with coupons. It's a gimmick to get you into the store, in case you didn't know that. I think I'm going to be done with that store too. Their magazines have been on sale since Thanksgiving.
Then I decided to bop on over to Goodwill. I'm needing a 'sailing' fix. Sailing is the term my friend and I use when we go garage sailing. There haven't been any garage sales FOREVER because we've had the LONGEST WINTER KNOWN TO MANKIND. Not to worry, March 15 is right around the corner. For those of you new to my blog, March 15 is the date the groundhog and I have deemed that Spring will start. Beth - say nary a word. (she doesn't believe me)
Anyway, I got this bag. (oh good Lord my dogs are outside raising a ruckus...hold on)......................geeez oh Pete they are cute but they drive me crazy. OK - so I got this bag. And yes I know I am a bag lady, but to my credit, I put a bunch of bags in my friends booth. I have more to get rid of, but the one I use when I go to beach is getting a big raggy looking, and some dog peed on my other one. (yes they drive me crazy-and the bag one of them peed on had yarn in it. Have you ever tried to wash yarn? It's not pretty.) Ok, so I know you're saying "what beach You live in Indiana for crying out loud." Well, we have beaches. A couple. I will have a faux' beach when I move...on the pond that the kids swim in....ok maybe I just have a bag problem. I was born with it. I was! I remember in second grade wanting a white shoulder strap purse. I did. I wanted one bad. One of my nieces, Sarah, the one that was sick, she has the same bag problem. I don't think I've ever seen her without a purse. She's in first grade.

Then I bought these pj bottoms that do NOT fit me! I make my own peri-menopausal pj's remember? I bought these because I LOVE the flower pattern. I'm gonna make something out of them. (My name is Cindy and I have a yarn/material/bag/magazine hoarding problem)

Look how cute...

Then I bought these....why? Who knows, except for I love Beatrix Potter. Every child that has come into my life is forced to watch the BP movies I have, and listen to the cd I have. And they have to sing Tom Tom the Pipers son with me in the car! So proud of the boys I watch, they even have me do the girl part while they do the boy part. Well, they used to. Now I'm a dork and know absolutely nothing because they are 11 and 13 and know everything...just ask them!

I thought I might do something cute with the pictures inside. I was inspired by the Winter Woolen Workshop last weekend to do something...anything...crafty.
Tuesday evening I went to Helen's memorial. A whole bunch of Granny Bees went. Probably 20 of us. (Granny Bees is the name of the stitchery group I'm in, and Helen was THE stitcher. She was pro. It was even mentioned in her obituary.) After the memorial, we all went to eat. No not Panera...Pastarrific. A local Italian restaurant. While we were sitting there, THE Granny Bee, Beth (the one that doesn't believe March 15 will be spring) said, "Before we eat I want us all to hold hands (grumble grumble from the ladies) and tell one thing we loved about Helen" (lots of tears here). I put my shirt sleeves over my hands and got all kinds of grief. I was even called a Germaphobe! But blogettes here's the thing...I have been sick the entire month of Feb. I'm still coughing all the time and not up to par. Even went back to the Doc last Thursday. I do not want to hold hands, touch hands, touch anything. I'm washing my hands constantly. When I was in the receiving line at the memorial, don't tell them, but I kept my hands in my pockets so that when I was introduced to Helen's family, I wouldn't have to shake their hands. I'm not a germaphobe, but lets face it, the germs are out there. They are after us. They are making us sick. I've never been so sick for so long. So I held hands, with my hands covered. And I told them it was more for them, that they do not want my germs. I think the ladies sitting on either side of me secretly appreciated it. I think the others really wanted to cover their hands too, but were afraid of getting bullied like I did.
And let me just say What we did for Helen was a BEAUTIFUL thing. It really was. It's something I will not soon forget. I have goosebumps now. And here's the thing. Aren't women wonderful? Aren't we? I mean, how many times have you seen a group of men holding hands telling what they loved about a loved one? In public...or private. Women NEED each other. We do. We can just talk about anything and open up and just be ourselves.
As I was leaving, I asked a somewhat new friend (Scribe Vibe) to put her phone number in my phone. She started pushing on the screen with her finger! aaaahahahahaha.....my phone is only two years old, but you cannot push on the screen with your finger for crying out loud. You have to push the buttons! (guess you had to be there - twas funny)

(I made that scrabble tile by the way)
OK - I'm off now, to have coffee with a friend....I know, I know...it's just one of those weeks. My weeks are not usually like this.
Hey, make plans to have coffee with a friend this weekend.
Cindy Bee

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD!

My parents have been married over 50 years.

I'm proud of them!

Cindy Bee

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

WWW-Day 2

Following are pictures of Day 2 of the Winter Woolen Workshop. This is where it is held.


It's the Seiberling Mansion, and happens to be where my Shug and I got married.


And below is the Elliot House, which is right next door to the mansion.

Another view of the Elliot House. You can imagine the history behind these two places, but I'm not going to get into that now.




These ladies are taking a needle felting class. Needle felting is one of the least expensive crafts you can do and it really adds a lot of depth to a project.

Usually people start out needle felting flowers and such, but this lady decided to do a picture of her dog! You use a specific type of needle, that costs $1.75 from Beth's Main Street Folk Art, and you buy some wool roving, and you can needle felt on almost anything. These ladies are felting on little bags/purses, that were made from sweaters.


This is Leslie, and she is needle felting roving into a lamb.


Earlier that day Leslie punched me in the arm! I happened to have coffee in my hand and she burnt me really bad.....ok, I'm exaggerating...but she felt kinda bad I think because


she gave me the lamb! I named him Java.


This lady owns an alpaca farm and she was spinning alpaca the entire weekend while selling her wares she made out of her yarn.


More stuff for sale.




Quilting materials
And I thought I'd show you some of the stuff I bought, and didn't need!

This is an old linen tablecloth (I think) I love the way old linen feels, and I'm hoping to make something out of it at some point. Don't know what yet. I'd love to make a cami or shirt or something, but I am not a good seamstress when it comes to clothes.


I bought this cute little suitcase. I have an addiction to things like that and it was only 12 bills. I also bought some old quilt square for a dollar each. I thought they'd make nice pincushions.


This book was designed by Alli Strebal, who had a booth at our workshop. It has all kinds of stitchery ideas in it.

Wool mittens that someone in our group made and sewed beads on them.

Easter egg made out of wool. I want to make some of these to decorate our house for Easter. I usually have a big shindig at Easter with out family, and I'm getting all kinds of crafty ideas for ways to decorate.
There was a lady there with a booth and she had all kinds of stationary type stuff that looked really old. She came up to me and gave me this piece of paper with the bee on it and said, "I heard you are a beekeeper so I wanted to give this to you. I'm a beekeeper too!" Who knew? And I had talked to her several times the day before. We will be staying in touch I think.
And speaking of "in touch" here's another story for you. I saved this for the end, even though it's the most important, and happened at the beginning....you see, on Friday evening we lost one of our Granny Bees. Her name was Helen Kelley and boy could she stitch. She did the most intricate work with beads and such. Everything she did was beautiful. We got a call on Friday evening that she had passed away. I didn't get to know Helen very well, but I can tell you that she was well respected and loved by a lot of people. Tonight (Tuesday) we are all going to attend her memorial service. I thought it was fitting, and of course it was unplanned, that the local newspaper had an article on the Winter Woolen Workshop on the front page on Monday, and when you turned the page over, you saw this...

They even talked about the Granny Bee Stitchery Group in her obituary. She would have attended the WWW this weekend, and she even had some of her stuff for sale. If you want to learn more about Helen, check out Beth Notaro's blog (listed in my side bar) and Scribe Vibe's blog.
Blessings,
Cindy Bee