Cat-Free Guest Room ?

 This is our guest bedroom. New carpeting, completely new bedding for this bed & the built-in beds in the alcove. ( not shown ) New curtains, new paint. The closets and bureaus are empty to accommodate guests' needs. Low lights by all the beds for night time reading. The best part of our new room is we are keeping it cat free because we have so many visiting friends & family who are seriously , almost life- threateningly allergic to cats. Well, Blizzard, our cat, is making this hard to do. He can open doors, and he intends to make himself at home in this "new" bedroom.

All we can promise is the bedding will be completely laundered if our cat-sensitive friends & family visit and they can lock the bedroom door when they retire for the evening. Otherwise they'll find Blizzard sleeping with them. He's friendly and loves to share himself with everyone .

1,000 Pieces Minus One

 We had 2 of our grandchildren over to spend a few days with us this past week. I discovered they love to put together jigsaw puzzles and are so good at it that we need at least a 1,000 piece puzzle for it to be any fun. My husband loves to put puzzles together too. What a pleasant way to spend a cold & rainy weekend ~ hanging out indoors with grandchildren, eating good food, and assembling a cupcake puzzle.

 Most of Saturday & Sunday ( including the evenings ) was spent gathered around the table putting the cupcake puzzle together. No prompting was necessary, these three were drawn to the puzzle like bees to flowers , bears to honey, or kids to cupcakes !

 Almost finished....

 ...but what's this ? There is a piece missing ! Our 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle is only a 999 piece puzzle. How could this be ?

The teeth marks on the scattered puzzle pieces we found Sunday morning gave him away. Wonder where he hid the 1,000th piece .

 

Blessings this past week : playing with grandchildren , a warm home with plenty of food, a husband who loves to play with his grandchildren, a husband who loves me , and most of all ~ a husband who loves God !  ( O.K., a magnificent cat who makes himself known & appreciated even if it means to compete with a puzzle for attention he has to steal a piece. )

Busy Days Indoors Make Me Happy !

 I have quite a large flock of sheep indoors , and they all fit on my dining room table ! The nice thing about this flock is they require no feeding and don't damage my fences. They behave themselves very well. That is why this flock is allowed on my shelves or under the Christmas tree. Yes, I have been happily crafting away indoors on these cold & rainy days, after I care for my very real & live flock of Jacob sheep.

 My sheep produce a lot of wool for me to spin, weave, felt, & craft with. I dyed one fleece a beautiful crimson red. The wool is drying in my sunroom. After this newly red fleece is dry I will card ( comb ) it so I can spin it up or locker-hook it into a rug. I get so excited with the possibilities & creations I can craft with this precious wool.

 I also dyed some yarn I had spun up earlier this year. The dye color is turquoise, and you can see how the dye appears different in these 2 skeins of yarn.

 The top skein was the white wool of my sheep. There was no black fleece in the wool I spun up. The bottom yarn was a skein of gray yarn, that is the black & white wool of my sheep carded together making it gray. I find I prefer the rich hue of gray wool when it is dyed but I am loving this yarn. I had originally decided to list this yarn in my Etsy shop *  but I am now considering keeping it for a future weaving project. I have more yarn & fleece to dye and a lot more little sheep waiting for adornment.

..."make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we command you ; so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need." I Thessalonians 4:1

Weaving Again, Finally !

I am counting and wrapping threads & yarns , making warps ( sounds like a Star Trek adventure ! ) to thread my looms for fall and winter weaving. I find myself humming as I count out the wraps on my warp board. Does this sound like a foreign language to you ? Simply put, I am making a warp, that is what I thread onto my loom so I can then begin to weave. This is my table loom taking up space on my dining room table. I intend to weave a table runner on this loom.

These are bags full of loom ends from the Pendleton Wool Mill. The scraps left over from that Pendleton rug, jacket, shawl ..weavers buy these bags of wool ends by the pound and they are very cheap. Worth it for many of us to travel there to buy them to weave into rugs.

Here is a close up of a bag of wool ends. I will be weaving them into rugs very soon.

My floor loom is on my staircase landing. Here is one view. You can see a basket of hand-spun yarn , one of my spinning wheels, weaving shuttles, and bags of mill ends from Pendleton. I love the cheerful turquoise mill ends with splashes of red, orange, and white . The rugs I can weave from them will be bright and cheerful.

A glimpse of my floor loom ( far right of picture ) with spools of warp thread lined up on my window sill. I have my audio books from the library to listen to and I have already begun to warp ( thread ) my loom. I am so excited to begin weaving again. My calendar is cleared and the week of weaving will begin, finally !

Thursday Ladies' Bible Study & Luncheon ~

 I know I've shown this Royal Grafton teacup before, but I love it and it is a perfect teacup for Autumn table-settings with its' cheerful yellow & white color and orange red dots.

 I set the table for the Thursday Ladies' Bible study with my Charleston by Noritake china. The quilt in the center of the table was made by one of the ladies from the Ohop Ladies sewing group , a local group of ladies who meet every week at the grange to sew.

 This old buffet once upon a time belonged to my husband's grandmother. It holds many precious memories along with our china and table linens. Sometimes it holds dessert too !

 Lunch was baked chicken breasts, home-made coleslaw , home canned applesauce, spinach salad ( thanks Marlene ) and chicken salad ( thanks Karen ). Dessert was a chocolate cake and a butter pecan cake...thanks to Duncan Hines ! We had cranberry juice , coffee, & tea to drink . After we ate we shared our thoughts on our study of I Samuel using After God's Heart by Myrna Alexander.

Later that day I sipped tea from my cheery teacup as I pondered the study and how I long to be a woman after God's own heart but so often my selfish desires prevent this. God is gracious and merciful though and He will forgive me and continue to teach me His ways if I seek Him.

I am glad I had time to clean up, and even more time to ponder than I had thought because my dishwasher is not working. I washed all the dishes, pots & pans the old fashioned way, by hand.

"A heart that does not try to compromise God's command is a heart that is His. A heart that desires to follow the Lord and obey His command is a heart after His heart."  I Samuel 15:20  Myrna Alexander

I am linking with the ladies listed below for all things Tea , for my Tea-Time Tuesday.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

Terri at Artful Affirmations *

Bernideen's Tea Time Blog *

Martha at Martha's Favorites *

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Joyful Times

I've been hanging out with this crazy bunch , their parents, aunties, uncles, & friends. Now I'm back home, getting things in order and excited to catch up on my life this side of the mountains. I have renewed energy and excitement for my weaving & wool crafting, plus the joy and anticipation of the upcoming holidays.  "A joyful heart is good medicine," Proverbs 17 :22   ~"These things I ( Jesus ) have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." John 15:11

Gifts That Keep On Giving ~ One is Pink, the Other Is Furry !

 Two of the best birthday gifts ever !

 The evening I returned home from my week at the Puyallup Fair, after unloading sheep around midnight with the help of my daughter and daughter-in-law, I discovered this beautiful bicycle on the front porch ! My heart almost stopped, was it for ME ?

 Yes my daughter said. She and her 4 children bought me this beautiful hot pink bike, because they knew I would love it. I did not even know she was paying attention to me when I talked about getting this type of bicycle, and even if I thought she was listening closely, I would never have considered they would buy it for me. And surprise me too ! "give: to bestow without a return". Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

 I immediately felt like the little girl I was many years ago, hoping for a bicycle from Santa. I did not receive my own bicycle then though. My sisters & I received a bicycle to share. Santa had to be careful with my parents' finances, for good reasons. I was thankful, but somehow, it was not the same . But look, now I have the bicycle of my dreams ! Isn't she a beauty ? I am going to get a basket for the handlebars soon.

Whimsy-Two ( or just plain Whimsy ), my German Shepherd puppy was a present from my husband. Whimsy already likes to run alongside me as I ride my new bicycle. She & I are getting along very well. Truly two of the best birthday gifts ever ! I think my family knows what I love because they love me and I am feeling pretty spoiled by them. Thank-you A.Joy and grandchildren. Thank-you Jim. These are gifts that will keep on giving. Gifts that bring me joy, entertainment, and the knowledge I am well- loved. "You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving." Amy Carmichael

 

"Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father f lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures." James 1:17,18