A fond adieu and a scam foiled!

Remember my tiny hothouse I have used over the years for my tomato plants in the spring and in the fall... I loved it because it was built of everything salvaged from around the farm....except for the stained glass which was salvaged from a Catholic hospital torn down in the 60s.

Well the winters, especially a couple harsh ones, had taken their toll and it began to shift a little each year until the glass began to crack and break...  Now I have a helper coming tomorrow to dismantle it.  He wants the stained glass but I'll keep a couple small panels for keepsakes and find somewhere else to use them..













Probably somewhere in my tiny multi-fenced veggie garden because it gets the lovely morning sun to light up the glass. On top of two of the posts in this garden I have antique owl andirons which have colored glass eyes which were designed to glow when a fire was burning...  When the morning sun rises they make me smile!

What doesn't make me smile is GREED!  A month ago a solicitor contacted my mother and assured her he could help her get VA benefits as my dad was a WWII vet.  I warned her it was a scam and if she wanted to apply we would go to the VA and see an A&A advisor and I'd do all the paperwork.  She is borderline financially to qualify, 94 years old and not likely to live long enough to receive them.

But as usual NO ONE listens to my excellent advice and against said advice she met with this person who turns out works for a scuzzy lawyer.  He took my mother to this lawyer who in turned wanted to revise my mother's perfectly good living trust to the tune of $2800... and help her invest her income. Luckily I did find out what was happening..  She was a perfect target and so willing to believe they were such nice men and they just wanted to help widows.

Update on chatelaines - 3 approaches

Our CQ group had a "sit & stitch" yesterday.  I was working on my cottage piece and three people were making progress on their chatelaine...  I love how diverse they are..

Theresa used an elegant tapestry and is basting down laces from her collection.  She also does doll costuming so has a supply of interesting embellishments.  She had also ordered some interesting tools from e-bay... I should have photographed them.  I'll to remember.  Several were antiques but one was a fancy retractable awl from a country with a cyrillic alphabet and none of us could figure out how it worked.

Kathy F. is using a paisley brocade in deep rich autumn tones.  Her  pockets are  of coordinating, heavy textured silk.  One of her pockets will have an elaborate spiderweb and the other will have lace butterflies.

She also has compiled a large collection of trims and threads..

Kathy S. (we have 3 Kathys) had the surprise of the day.. Hers is totally whimsical.  She has recently learned to crochet and is using this new found skill to make the embellishments for her chatelain.  Her lining is red with tiny yellow dots....perfect.  You just have to smile when you look at it...

Watch my garden grow and come to life.....

I said I was going to put this away for a bit but obviously I lied and will work as I can on it. The whole objective with this class project was creating perspective with color, size, detail etc. always starting in the background working forward.

Size of thread is the first consideration... On the climbing rose and the flower box I used a single stand of extremely fine German silk..

For the flowers in front of the house I am using single strand of regular floss.



I am using mostly french knots and chain stitches. But no matter how many flowers colors I add it will NEVER look like a garden until I do the greens.. Which I have sketched in with Photoshop so you see the difference.

I was surprised to hear Judith say she never used whites in her gardens.  I love using whites in my stitching and in my painting.  It adds life and interest in my opinion... and is great for carrying the eye.  I will use it to help define the path.

Color is the next tool for creating depth.  In the back I'm using dusky or muted shades.  I am a sucker for variegated threads when I see them and always buying them and then find the variegation is so long they are not  effective... but for this project they will be perfect.  As I move forward the colors I use will become more jewel-toned and intense... as well as switching to heavier threads and ribbons..

I'm starting with the greens now...threads plus some specials yarns etc... Judith Montano was so creative in her choice and use of materials and I'm using that as inspiration.

Here is my friend Holly and I at the seminar with our watercolor painting.  She chose an English cottage and a much larger format than I'm doing.

I am drowning in lemonade....

I really need a tattoo that says "when life gives me lemons, I make lemonade."

No one believes me how bad this house was when we moved in 33 years ago until I show  them the pantry... I had left the upper part "as was" to remind myself occasionally how far I've come.

The bedrooms were all papered like the first shot with a border going to the ceiling.  Some walls were a pressed board which had been painted with enamel and sealed with duct tape which had also been painted.

I myself  had added the shelves to the pantry and they were made from used and mismatched, salvaged wood.. So after the plumber mess was cleaned up and   repaired I decided to paint the whole damn thing black...black black... like they do ceilings in commercial buildings to hide pipes and heating ducts..

As it turns out  I love it.  It is so pretty now with all the jars and cans on the shelves.  And what did I do about the duct tape...?   I painted it black of course..  Now I have to come up with a clever (cheap) solution for the wallpapered section...stay tuned!!

And then there's the bathroom solution.... I went to the garden department and found this amazing sprinkler...  The red thing on the handle adjusts the flow and the head has NINE settings....including mist... Just like a 5 star hotel.  I bought a lovely white hose used for campers and when I want to take a shower I can just run the hose to the bathroom sink.

I think I am going to have to paint the black clamp a coordinating color... Whatta ya think??











I found an adapter for the sink faucet which allows a hose to be connected when I need to shower...  Works great.





Now I need to find a clever (cheap) solution to the hole in the tiled wall...  Maybe filling it with plastic greenery... any suggestions? Not anything using duct tape, please!

Some days are worse than others or the joys of living in 107-year-old house!

I do have both hot and cold running water in my bathroom sink but the cold water in the bath/shower was just a bare trickle and I finally called my favorite plumber... Both he and I thought corrosion has built up in the old galvanized pipes and it would be a relatively easy fix....NOT!

After trying to fix it through the faucet   he needed to break out the tiles to get to the   pipes in the wall but he still could not clear it.

Then he hoped the problem was where they had joined copper pipe  to the old galvanized pipe and the only way to get to it was to tear out part of the wall in the pantry.. (an old closet)

So he proceeded to tear out the wall in the pantry and was able to access that joint but the problem was even further back, There is just a small cellar and there is no access to those pipes from beneath the house..


So the one option left is tearing up the bathroom floor and possibly part of the laundry room floor to fix it. This is hardly a viable option because of the cost.   The other options are to get a faucet/hose adapter and run a hose from the sink to the tub to take a shower or fill the tub with hot water and bring buckets of cold water from the kitchen...

So I ended the day with no fixed water line, several hours of a plumber, and a big mess in the bathroom and pantry. There is a shower upstairs which my husband uses... But the only reason our marriage has survived 38 years is because we have never had to share a bathroom.  Today I am going out to find an adapter and short hose...