WEEK 13

 

Hello again.  So glad you took the time to drop by.  Let me show you what happened this past week.

On Monday I finished another dishcloth.  It looks just like the ones I showed you last week so no reason to post another photo.  After that was completed I did not have any desire to cast anything else on.  So, I started this:

I have not done a puzzle in quite a while.  I am trying to work on this for about an hour a day.  It is very detailed with a lot of GREEN everywhere in it.

Tuesday I did laundry and other household chores.  

Wednesday I was ready to work with yarn again.  I started on another 'To The Point' shawl.  Now that I have culled out my excess yarn it is easy to find what I want to work with.  Hubby and I also cleaned the house this day.  It was his last day home for the week and he wanted everything all nice and clean before he left.  To help keep it clean we went out to our favorite Mom and Pop Italian restaurant.

It was so nice outside we were able to eat on their patio.  Yes, our temps have gotten much better this past week.  No 100's all week.  We will have a few more days of 100's this week but then back down into the 90's.

Thursday I drove hubby to the airport.  When I got home I sat down and finished the 'To The Point' shawl.

I love the red!  This color made me very happy.  Hopefully the recipient will feel happiness too when she wears it.

Friday I started hemming up my Grand Daughter, Jaxon's, dress she is wearing to a wedding next month.  I also made another run to the airport rental car place to pick up my youngest son.   My daughter came over that night and we had a lovely sleepover.

Saturday morning my daughter and I went and did the food pick up for our church's food pantry.  Then we went out for breakfast burritos.  Jaxon came over so I could double check the hem before I did the final cut and sew.  Good thing she did as the under skirt was a tad longer than the outer dress.  Then Josh (the middle son and Josie's dad) called and asked me to join them at the restaurant where Josie works for dinner and drinks.  It was so nice to be with them and their friends. I also picked up my cross stitch and put a few more X's on it.

It is slow going but I really enjoy working on it.  The thing with this is, I can not just pick it up and work on it for just a few minutes.  My goal is to be able to spend at least half an hour when I do work on it.  Not to mention, I can not watch TV while I am working on it.  Too many color changes too often to be distracted.

Today I got up early and went to Mass.  Afterwards, I stopped and picked up a few groceries.  I am now doing a load of towels and watching a movie while typing this.  In just a few hours I will be heading to the airport again to pick up hubby from his trip.

And that my friends is my week in review.  Still no new info on Josh's brain 'lesion'.  We are still waiting for the 2nd opinion and more testing.  Thank you all for you concern, thoughts and prayers.

Until Next Time................................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 12 + LIFE NEWS

 

I have much to tell you this week so let's jump right into it.

More FO's this week!

Hubby's socks are finally finished!  The yarn was a dream to work with.  It was Malabrigo in the colorway Atomic.  The pattern is Car Socks by Beverly Johnson and is a free pattern.  I made a FLK heel on these but that is the only change to the pattern I made.  If you look closely, you can see that the right sock's cuff is much darker than the left sock.  I had no idea this yarn was going to be a gradient from dark to light.  But it is fine.  No one is going to see that part of the sock anyway.  As for the contrasting heels and toes.............I am not sure of the colorway but I do know it is also Malabrigo SW wool.

When those were completed, I picked up my SIL socks and worked on one of them.

The lone DPN is where I was last week.  These are so boring.  They do change colors but it is a very long way between changes.  I don't even know if I will get to the exciting part of the skein before the toe.  Not to mention, the yarn is quite scratchy.  I am told it will soften up after a good wash.  I hope so!

Since the RCR sock was driving me a bit batty, I decided to put it aside and work on palette cleansers.

Dishcloths to the rescue.  I have two completed and.......................

One more at the halfway point.  I love the yarn I am using.  It is Sugarwheel Cotton from Hobby Lobby.  I use a size 7 (4.50mm) needle to make these.  This is so soft yet wears quite well.  One skein makes 5 - 6 full cloths.  I will go ahead and use up the skein before I go back to the RCR socks.

I did something else with yarn this week.

I culled out my yarn stash.  There was one more of the large white bags done after this photo was taken.  I separated them into  worsted, bulky, fingering and DK.  These bags were given to the Prayer Shawl ministry group.  It was ridiculous how much yarn I had accumulated and knew I would never live long enough to use it all.  My family already had instructions to donate all yarn to the ministry, upon my demise, so I just took it upon myself to give them a head start. My husband panicked when he saw how much yarn was leaving.  I assured him there was plenty more in my craftroom to keep me busy for years to come.  This was all acrylic yarn and I have plenty of acrylic yarn left in my stash to make more prayer shawls to donate.  It felt wonderful to finally wheedle my stash down to a manageable size.

In case you did not know:

My goal this past week was to keep myself as busy as possible.  Dwelling on the 'what ifs' for my son was not healthy for me or those around me.  I am normally a very 'glass half full' type of person but worrying about every little thing and was making me a 'glass half empty' person.  So, I kicked myself in the bum and decided to find other things to occupy my mind.

FIrst thing I did was clean out my fridge.  And I mean CLEAN it out!  I removed everything from inside of it.  All the shelves were removed and given a good scrub.  Then I cut my plastic shelf liner...............................

And lined each shelf with it to make cleaning easier.

The idea came from a fellow blogger I follow.  She used vinyl placemats in hers.  I did notice, after installing the liner, it shrunk up a tish because of the cold temps.  That doesn't bother me.  At least the main part of the shelf is covered.  Removing the liner and washing it will be much easier than taking the entire shelf out to wash.  I even took everything out of the door baskets and got those cleaned and reorganized so it is much easier to find items.  That took me all day on Monday to do.

Tuesday I cleaned out my free standing pantry.  I love this thing but for some reason, things just get tossed in there and finding items is horrid.  The only shelf that is always organized is my 'baking' shelf.  So, I took out everything and got it all organized, labeled my plastic containers so I knew what was in what, threw out expired items and wiped down the shelves.  It is now a joy to open and grab what I need to make my meals.  I also know I do not need another can of soup for the rest of the coming winter LOL.

Wednesday I picked up Thor from Josh's house and took him to the vet.  The poor dog has terrible allergies not to mention his toenails were longer than most ladies artificial nails.  The vet we met with was fantastic.  He answered all my questions and gave Thor an excellent physical.  He gave me info for over the counter meds to help Thor with his allergies.  They even were able to cut his toenails.  Thor sounded like they were killing him when they did his nails.  He is not a fan of that procedure.  But, he survived and was very glad when we got out of the Vet's office.

This is also the day we were told Joe's car was going to be in the shop until the middle of October.....at the earliest!  (Gotta love having a foreign made car)  So we went out to  the dealership and picked up a loaner for him to drive. That was Blessing #1  On the way home, the windshield go hit by a rock and now there is a 22 inch spidered line in it.  We are waiting for a new windshield but...........it is a brand new car so it has to be ordered and guess what................the windshields are on back order! (yup, another foreign car)  It is still drivable though so that is a blessing.  Not to mention, we have full glass coverage with our car insurance so that is blessing #2!

Thursday and Friday was cleaning the craftroom and culling the yarn.  But the best thing that happened on Friday was this!

We were informed we were Great Grandparents again!  Blessing #3!  Actually she was born on Thursday but we got the news Friday morning.  Welcome to the world, Sophia.  She was 3 weeks early but weighed in at 6lbs 2oz and is 19" long.  She and mommy are doing fine.  They went home yesterday.  Not sure when we will get to see her in person since she lives in Texas.  But hopefully it won't be long.

We also did our grocery shopping on Friday.  Why does it wipe a person out to grocery shop one day a week?  I was so tired by Friday night.  Good thing we had leftovers in the CLEAN fridge for dinner.

There is no more news on Josh.  He had his MRI's done this past week and we have the reports but there is still not a real conclusion as to what is going on with his brain lesion/tumor.  Not to mention the medical jargon was so dang confusing!  He is still hoping to get a second opinion from the other neuro center here in town before he makes any final decision as to what course of action to take.  So, please keep those prayers going.  He seems to be handling things much better now and is at the point where he just wants answers and action.

How many of you are old enough to find the humor in this?

And that, my friends concludes this addition of today's blog post!

Until Next Time......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 11 Of YOP 13

 Sitting here, watching my dog sleep/snore.  It is nice and quiet in my house.  I love a quiet early morning.  It won't last long, though.  Hubby has a meeting at church this morning, one of our Granddaughters is coming over to have me hem her formal dress for a wedding and then hang out to study for her insurance license test.  There is quite a bit of kitchen work I need to get to today too.  So, I will enjoy this bit of respite time and use it to update my blog.

I have a finish this week!

A Wee Sherlock sweater is completed.  It is a size 3-6 month.  It will be going to Texas for our Great Granddaughter who should be here in the next few weeks.  This is still my favorite pattern to make for all my special babies.

Of course there is a baby beanie to match.  There were so many different patterns tried for this hat. (four actually)  I finally settled on one that had the garter bottom that matched the sweater's bottom.  I added the cable on it so it would truly match the sweater.  Both of these FO's plus last weeks baby blanket FO will be heading to Texas as soon as I receive the address where they want them sent.  They are moving shortly and asked for the package to be sent to her parents home.

With those completed, it was time to decide what to work on next.

I grabbed hubby's sock and decided I wanted to get it going again so he would have a whole pair shortly.  There were only 10 rows put on it last night.  This will be my main project until it is completed.  Then I will move on to my SIL's socks and get those done and in the mail.

I have no other major plans for knitting at the moment.  My biggest plan is go go through all my yarn and thin it out.  I have yarn in there from YEARS gone by and will never use it.  The prayer shawl ministry, at church, is always looking for free yarn. (Especially acrylic)  I will be bagging it up this week and taking it them next Saturday.  This is not an excuse to purchase more yarn, though.  I will still have plenty left to play with.  

There were treasures in the mail this week too.

I finally broke down and ordered a set of QSnaps for my cross stitching.  Hoops are nice but do not hold the fabric taunt enough for my liking. I had used these years ago when I was cross stitching all the time.  Then, when my hands got so inflamed, I thought I would never cross stitch again and got rid of ALL of my floss, QSnaps, hoops, cloth and pattern books.  Who knew I would be able to take the craft up again 15 years later!

My 2024 Hobonichi Techno Weeks planner also arrived this week.  The planner itself is dark navy.  The cover is what gives it the interesting little art clips.  As soon as these planners go on the market, I grab one.  They sell out very quickly each year.  This has been my planner going on 3 years now.  Karen from Pumpkin Sunrise blog fame, is the one who introduced me to them.

News on my son, Josh.  He has had his consultations with the neuro's at Mayo Clinic.  There are more tests to be done.  He already had an EEG completed this past week.  We are now waiting for 2 more MRI's to be done before they decide what they will do next.  He is also hoping to get into Barrow's Neurological Institute for a second opinion. The waiting game is hard.  The not knowing what is going on in his brain is hard.  Being his mom and not being able to kiss it and make it better is the hardest.

We are keeping the faith and praying.  All of us are trying to stay strong for him and his family.  We have our moments, in private, when we break down too.  We are trying to continue living our normal lives.  It is not easy but we are trying.

I leave you with a photo taken last weekend.  This is Josh and Josie at the Metallica concert they went to last week. This was also 3 days after we were told there was a brain tumor.  

Memories in the making! 

Until Next Time...........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 10 Prayers needed!!!!!

Hey there!  Want to see what I did this week?

TA-DA!

 The Baby Blanket for our Great Granddaughter is completed!  I am so glad to have that off my lap.  It is a very warm blanket.  It is made with Pipsqueak yarn from Bernat.  So soft and squishy too.

Immediately, I cast on the next GGD knit.

Wee Sherlock is in progress.  This is usually a quick knit for me.  Unfortunately I have not had as much time to work on it as I would have liked.  Read on below to find out why.

On Wednesday I received a frantic call from Josie's mom.  She needed me to get over to their house ASAP.  I flew out the door and got the their house in record time.  My son had just received the results from his MRI and was totally freaking out.  Seems he has a brain tumor!  Not at all what any of us thought was going to show up.  So, now things start to get crazy.  I spent several hours with him as we waited for his wife and daughter to get home.  He was in a total state of shock as were most of us. Nothing could have been further from our minds, last Friday, when he went to get an MRI!.

Thursday we got the good news that Josie's car finally got fixed.  It was still under warranty so the repair was done for free!  I took Josh out to pick up the car which was 35 miles (one way) across town.  It was nice to have a one on one time with him so we could discuss his diagnosis and what he was planning on doing next.  

Friday I got another call from Josh (this is the one with the brain tumor) that he needed me to come and take him to pick up his MRI disc and get it to the Mayo clinic as he has an appointment on the 5th with the neuro-oncologist and also the neurosurgeon.  This was another 60 mile trip (one way).

We are blessed to have two excellent neurological centers here in the Phoenix area..  We have the Mayo Clinic and also Barrows Neurological Institute.  The Doctors at these two facilities are some of the best in the world.  Yes, we are blessed.

We would appreciate all prayers for Josh. Our other son (Jay) and his family are going through medical things too that I am helping out with.   With all that is going on, I do not know how often I will be with blogging. I will try and keep y'all updated as we are.  Not to mention, this blog is a wonderful outlet for me to express myself.

Until Next Time.................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 9 And Life

 

There were many times, this past week, I thought about doing a quick blog update.  As you can see, that thought never came to fruition.  So, once again you will get my craft and life update jammed into one post.

Let's start with the crafting.  I spent quite a bit of time working on the baby blanket I started back in June.  It is still like a blast furnace outside, but decided if I waited until the weather cooled off, the baby would be here and looking towards her first Christmas.  I just turn my little personal desktop fan on high and knit away.

This think is HUGE!  Much bigger than I thought it would be.  When finished, it may be better for the stripes to go vertical on it.  Each strip is about 7 inches.  There will be 2 more stripes added after the pink one, currently being worked.  I do have enough yarn to do 3 more stripes but really do not want to end with a white stripe.  Baby will be able to use this blanket for many years.  Her daddy still has the blanket I made him when he was born 23 years ago.  

Then there are socks.

This saw quite a bit of love this week.  I got the heel done and you can see from the progress keeper where I was last week.  This sock is my companion when I go out and about.  Especially if there will be waiting involved in that outing.  

I did manage to finally complete the section of cross stitch I was working on.

You can barely see the white/gray stitches on the far right, in front of the gold beads.  That took me 2 nights to complete.  My count was off so many times!  I finally got it done with only 1 stitch being of a color it was not supposed to be.  There are 3 colors in that little tiny section.  Oy! The next section has been started and I have 2 colors done on it.  It was put up because of the impending birth of our great grand daughter and the need to complete her gifts.

While I am talking about GGD gifts:

Hobby Lobby had their 30% off yarn sale this past week.  Baby girl will be getting a sweater and hat also, to go with the blanket.  Sweater, hat and buttons came to just under $10!  As soon as the blanket is done, this will be cast on my needles.  Thankfully, the pattern I use does not take long to knit up.  My goal is to have everything done and mailed by the end of September.  Baby is due early October.

And that ends my crafting news for this week.  In other news.......................

Monday - I tore my kitchen apart and got all the counters polished up.  I try to do this twice a year.  Even though my granite is sealed, it still seems to dull after many washings.  Plus, I love the way things slide on it once polished up.  I even washed the window above my sink.  It gets all sorts of water splashed on it.

Tuesday - Had a lunch date with one of my girl friends.  We try and do this every other month or so.  It is always such a great time and she makes me laugh a lot!  I also went to pick up my mom's diamond ring from the jewelers.  It needed prongs built up on it so the stones would not fall out.  It will be going to a grand daughter when I pass and I want to make sure it is in good shape when she receives it.  Not to mention, I do wear it now and then when going somewhere special.  This was also Hobby Lobby shopping day.  I was most impressed with myself for only buying the yarn and buttons.  I did walk the entire store though.  OH!  And they changed the location of the yarn on me.  I almost had a little panic attack when I couldn't find it.

Wednesday - I spent the day at home!  I made Cherry Bars with the fresh cherries I bought last week.  I was waiting for my cherry pitter to arrive so I could make these.  

Isn't he cute?  It was fun to pit the cherries this way.  I still had cherry juice everywhere though.  I may try and find a pitter that does more than one piece at a time.  Anyway, the cherry bars were very yummy and super easy to make.

You can get the recipe here.  In fact, the recipe was so easy, I did not need anything from the store to make them.  I had everything in my baking supply closet.

Thursday - This was errand day.  The most fun was going to the At Home store.  I don't know how many of you have this store in your area.  It is a HUGE store and carries everything you would ever need for your home.  Not to mention stuff you really don't NEED but WANT!  I was looking for a large pot to plant my Christmas Cacti in.  They have overgrown their current pots and I am no longer able to keep them in the window they are at.  They will now be infront of our French Doors leading out to our backyard.

I was thrilled that the pot and little table were both on 50% off.  I did not realizer how big the pot was until I got it home.  Hopefully, I do not put the cacti into shock by transplanting them into such a large pot.  I also got cushions for our pool chairs.  They, too, were 50% off.  And if you have ever priced patio chair cushions, you know they can be very expensive.  We need to replace ours about every 3 years because of sun rot.  

Friday - Hubby and I did grocery shopping together.  Normally I go alone.  When he goes with me he loves to look at unique food things.  It takes me much longer when we go together than if I go by myself.  But that is ok.  We did not have much else planned for this day.  We even went out for dinner that evening.

Saturday - We got the house cleaned.  We normally do this during the week but we were having people over this evening and wanted the house all spiffy for it.  We went to Mass and then had the Fantasy Football draft at our house.  It was so fun to have a few people over.  Even though I do not participate in the fantasy league, I enjoyed listening to the guys talking about their picks and who had the best team and what team was going to do what over the next year of NFL.

Today will be a quiet day (I hope).  I would like to nothing more than work on the baby blanket and watch some TV.  My body batteries need a bit of recharging before Monday comes around.  What are your plans?

Until Next Time.....................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 8 And What A Week!

Hello there & welcome.  My crafting this past week was pathetic.  Once I show you what all I did this week, I will show you why my crafting took a down wards trend.

Last week I made a goal to finish the section of my cross stitch I was on.  Well, I almost made it.

The main part is completed for this section.  There is a bit of bead decor and part of a dove on the far right.  I will get to that this week and then move on to the next section.

And that is all I did this week.  What?  The socks, you ask?

Pushed to the back of my crafting area.  I know, they do look sad, don't they.  Maybe this week.  Maybe not.  Who knows,  Depends on what the week brings.

Let's start with Sunday after I posted my blog.  

Hubby and I got as much done in the house as we could before Monday morning came.  Why?  Because we had roofers show up Monday morning just before 5AM!

Monday - Roofers were here from 5AM until about 2:30pm.  They got the back half of our roof totally scraped off and applied the felt.  Hubby had to get into our pool, with a magnet, to get all the staples out of it.  Oh my.  So many staples!  I can not blame the roofers.  They have no control where those staples go when they pop them out of the shingles/roof.  By the time they left, we were spent.  Over 7 hours of constant bounding and scratching was a bit of sensory overload.

Tuesday - Roofers again at 5am.  I got a phone call about 10 to see if I could go to Josie's house and sit with her for a few hours while her mom and dad went to help get a place of business set up for an auction.  The business closed and they were auctioning off all the items left in the place. Josie had her wisdom teeth surgically extracted on Monday.

She wants you to know she is smiling in the photo.  Normally they would have not worried about leaving her alone but....................she was having an issue with her tongue and mouth working right.  Come to find out, she was allergic to the antibiotic they gave her.  Her tongue would swell up and make it hard for her to get food or water down.  Luckily they figured it out within 24 hours and got her off of it and got her a new antibiotic.  By Wednesday she was almost back to normal.

Wednesday - Roofers again at 5am.  Electrician came out to install a new electrical outlet for our water softener. Being the brave person I am, I took off and got our water dispenser bottles filled, picked up my wedding ring (it fits!) and filled my car with gas.  The solar people came out and reinstalled our solar panels.  By the time everyone left that day, around 3, I was fed up with all home repairs.  So, I grabbed hubby and headed out to our local bar and grill and enjoyed happy hour food and beverages.

The rest of the evening was spent watching TV and vegging out.

Thursday - roofers again at 5am!  This time they completed the job.  I will tell you, these roofers were so nice and polite.  They cleaned up our yards from all the staples, shingles and felt (tar paper).  They even swept out our carport and made sure the street was void of all staples too.  I felt bad for them as our temps were in the 110's again the days they were here.

It looks so much better now.  Just as that was finished the plumber came out to give us a quote on fixing my kitchen faucet and putting new valves on our washer and dryer lines.  He gave us a quote that was WAY too expensive so we called another company to get a comparison quote. 

While hubby was dealing with all of this, I was once again out of the house running errands.  Today was the day I decided to get our annual bag (30 pounds) of New Mexico green chili.  Where I purchased it, they offered roast it for me too!  Yes, please.

Eight minutes later I had roasted green chili in the back of my SUV and headed home.  It smelled so good!  After I got it home and in the house, we had to let it cool for a bit.  A couple of hours later we started bagging it and getting it ready to go into the freezer.

The last thing I did that day was wash and bag fresh fruit to freeze for sorbets and smoothies.  No photo of that but I have about 20 bags of fruit in the freezer too.

 Friday - The other plumbing company came out and gave us a quote that was substantially lower than the first company.  They said they could do it in 3-4 hours and got right to work.  Well,  nothing ever goes according to plan.  We had gotten all the replacement parts to our life time warrantied kitchen faucet.  When the plumbers opened the box, they found out there were 2 major pieces missing!  Well, by that time, our old faucet had been cut off (corrosion prevented them from just unscrewing everything) and we were at a bad place.  We ended up purchasing a new faucet and having them install it!

I love it!  After all of that, we left the house and went to Josie's house for dinner and game night.  We needed it!

Saturday -  Up early to go and pick up food, from one of our Kroger stores, for our church's food bank.  Got home in time for our TX son and wife to come over and reinstall my weather station items.  They needed to be taken down during roof construction.  We had a lovely visit with them.  When they left we got cleaned up, went to Mass and then out to eat for dinner.  

Today - I have a pot roast in the crockpot for dinner tonight.  I made a loaf of bread in my bread machine.  The kitchen sink was cleaned up, today, as there was still metal shavings and lots of dirty prints all over it from Friday's plumbing job.  The rest of the day I am going to enjoy being in my house with my dog and husband. There might be some crafting happening!!!!

Until Next Time......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 7 OF YOP 13

 

I'm back with some things for you to see and read.

First off, I have a FO (finished object)

Hubby's RCR (rose city roller) socks got completed Last Sunday evening.  And yes, he has already worn them.  

As for his second Car Sock:

I put a few rows on it.  Thirty more rows and I can put the heel in.  Probably won't be making another pair of long socks for a while.  They kind of seem to drag on forever.  Even in the winter here, we wear short socks 99% of the time.  Long socks are only worn when Mr wears pants to church.

Hubby's sister reminded me I had promised her, over a year ago, some socks.  Well then;

Let's get crackin' on doing those ASAP!  I have had this yarn in my stash for many years.  It is not a very soft yarn but will wear like iron.  She asked for short socks and since she lives in Colorado, I chose wool to help keep her toes a bit warm and dry during her cooler seasons.  I am not sure I will get to the part that has the multi-colors in it.  She has a small foot so may only get through the lighter blue segment.

The baby blanket is still in time out for a few more weeks.  I will need to get back to it though by the beginning of September.  The baby is due the first part of October.  I still want to make the baby sweater and hat too.  Guess I need to get those socks done and get busy on baby stuff.

I did work on my cross stitch again this week.  

Hopefully you can see the gold metallic accents on the white portion.  I did that as well as putting on the beads.  I know the beads do not make sense to you right now, but they will once I get to stitching down further on the pattern.

I managed to put in just about two hours total on this piece.  It is time consuming with all the color changes that happens all the time.

This weeks view:

Versus last weeks view:

Let me just tell you, white on white is tough.  There is a lot more of it to be done.  Luckily, with the way I have planned the progress out, it will be done in bits and pieces so as not to make me loony!

That covers all the crafting done for this week.  Hubby and I will be thankful when this coming week is over and done with.  This is the week we get our new roof put on!

Yesterday morning we were greeted at 6am by the gentleman with the roll-away trash bin.  We had to move our cars to the street so he could put the monster in our driveway.  This is where all the old roofing materials will be going on Monday.  Tuesday, the new felt and tiles will be laid and nailed down.  Wednesday, the solar panels will be replaced on the roof.  Hopefully we will not need to do this again in our lifetime.  It is kind of stressful trying to get everything coordinated plus working with an insurance company for payment...........well, it has been very hard especially on hubby since he has done most of the work.

After this, we will be getting our kitchen faucet replaced.  The old one has kind of worn out and all we get from the tap is hot water.  Luckily, we have a faucet that has a lifetime warranty so the replacement was FREE!  I was disappointed to see the faucet only lasted 8 years.  Not a great record.  The last one was over 20 years old!

I took my wedding rings into a jeweler this week.  I wanted them separated.  My left hand has severe arthritic changes in it and with the rings, when attached, were very wide and were rubbing and causing severe pain in-between my ring finger and pinky finger.  They were also way too big thanks to another jeweler who though he should oversize them incase my fingers swelled up with my RA.  He had them at a size 9 and I wear a 7.5!  They hardly ever stayed on without a ring guard infront of them.  I fought with those rings for over 3 years!  So, I looked for a jeweler in my area that was a privately owned place.  I believe in supporting local mom & pop type businesses when possible.  The jeweler I found is about 4 miles from my house.  When I walked in I immediately felt welcomed and comfortable.  The jeweler is about 3 years younger than my youngest child.  He also went to the same high school and took the same silver smith class my youngest did!  What a coincidence.  His prices are very good plus he custom designs jewelry.  I went in on Friday to pick up the pieces.  I was impressed as he had managed to etch my wedding band to match the etching that was already on it.  My diamond band was all polished and clean and VERY shiny.  Unfortunately, he made the wedding band a 7 instead of a 7.5.  I could get it on but it was a bit snugger than I thought was a good idea.  Because, my hands do swell at times and I like to be able to get my rings off if I see/feel that happening.  Hopefully, I will be getting the wedding band back sometime this week yet.

It took me 5 tries to get a photo without the light causing the stones to 'burn out'.  I am very happy to be able to wear my wedding jewelry again.  

I will leave you with a photo of what our life is like in the evenings while watching TV.

This is the dog who would not let my husband near him for almost a month after we adopted him!  Now they are best buds.

Until Next Time......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!