Kiddos

Millie had another heart cath procedure in Salt Lake City today, so we've  had the two youngest since yesterday.  Chris is in Wyoming and Isaac has a new job at Pizza Hut so it's just the two little ones.

Stan took Sam fishing today, along with his friend Anders.

They had a really good time, Grandpa even let Sam "drive" the boat for a while.

The catch of the day-five walleye and a trout.  We had trout and walleye for supper tonight-yum!

Gracie and I went to town to get some sewing supplies.  We were just starting lunch when I realized I had left my phone at home.  Since I didn't want to miss Jim's call about Millie, we cut our time in town short and came home.  It gave us some time for some sewing.  I gave Grace a sewing lesson, and she watched while I made her a new dress:

A nice summer frock, cool and airy!

Millie is doing great-she was even alert enough to call the kids tonight.  They think they hit most of the damaged spots this time.

These Fit!

Did some more sewing.  I used the other sheer piece and made a peasant blouse.  It floats over my body like it should!  I did make the sleeves shorter, but I might make one with elbow length sleeves when it cools down.

I did the final elastic work on the peasant this morning, then I quickly cut out a tee before I left to do my errands.  After supper tonight, I talked myself into going down and finishing it.  I had a bout of insomnia last night and really wanted to go to bed early, but I knew that today would be my last chance to sew for a few days.

I picked this fabric up at Jo-Ann's yesterday with a half price coupon.  It's a really nice knit-kind of slippery and it rolled, but it worked up really nice.

Used my favorite tee shirt neckline finish-I think it makes it look professional.

 I also whipped up a pale pink tee, but I neglected to get pictures of it.  I'll probably save that for wearing under jackets, etc., because you know how the dirt will show on it!

The best thing-not only do I have three more tops to stretch out until laundry day, but they all fit!  Oh yeah, and the young lady-my friend from Facebook-came by and picked up the disaster blouse.  She loves it, I just have to figure out how much to charge her.

They're in Trouble Now!

The dogs love to race through the house barking, sigh....  Most of the time it isn't a problem, but once in a while Merlin will clip one of my potted jade plants and scatter dirt and plant matter everywhere.  I'm actually surprised the plants have survived.  I've had them for years-I bought a tiny potted jade from the Girl Scouts at a craft fair.  It was in a little paper cup.  It grew through a few pots, and when a dog broke a branch off, I potted IT and it's almost as big as the original.

Merlin (of course it was Merlin) really ran through there like a tornado!  Ignore the nose marks on the flap-for some reason the dogs won't clean it off no matter how many times I ask!

He hit so hard it threw dirt into the middle of the door!

Anyway, Mom yelled and they cowered.  Then I vacuumed.  I've vacuumed the living room three times in a week and the dirt cup is full every time!  Today, finally, it was only half full.  My carpet salesman friend said that it happened to him and it took a while after he got the new vacuum to catch up with the dirt.  Oh, and you know those fancy expensive vacuums that that British guy invented?  Carpet people say not to buy those-they actually have too much suction and will fray the carpet.  Who knew?  (Mine isn't the expensive one.)

On another note, I jumped on my blog to write a new post but noticed one of my friends on my blog list had a different sounding post, so I read that first.  My prayers go out to Lisa-her husband had an unexpected health issue right after he arrived at a trade fair.  Thank the Lord for modern medical procedures!  Stan had a similar event five years ago, and was able to have a stent.  He's healthy as a horse now, and got that way with a far less invasive procedure than a bypass would have been.

I was going to be a lot farther along on sewing by now but here it is 10:00 and I haven't started.  I want to sew a while then hit JoAnn's.  That plan got changed Saturday, so I'll try again today.  Stan is fishing again-yay-so I can do MY plans instead of his.  Ladies, don't let your hubbies retire!

Aaarrrrrgh!

I spent the better part of three days working on a new blouse.  I spent an hour on the neckband, doing hand stitching.  I measure and measure and measure, because I know how hard to fit I am.  I finish it-it looks great-so I tried it on.  IT DOESN'T FIT!!! 

I really like how it looks-very crisp.

The neckline I worked an hour on.

Not sure what went wrong, but it won't fit over my round bottom.  I complained on Facebook and a young lady I know said she'd take it off my hands, so I guess all is not lost.  I am in need of some tops so tomorrow will have to be another sewing day.

After my big disappointment, we went into Bozeman to Bogert Park for the band concert.  When we arrived home, we saw all kinds of emergency vehicles in the next block.  I walked down and got the story-it seems a neighbor had decided to "deep water" his trees, so he was using a 4 foot rebar to punch holes in the ground in his backyard.  Yep, he ruptured his gas line!

Everybody on that block was evacuated and our block was alerted.  The power company showed up very quickly and shut the guy's gas valve off, so everything is fine now.  It was kind of a scare and I still have a headache from the gas smell.  I could smell it inside my house.

Just another day in our "quiet" small town....

Summer Stuff

It's been pretty hot here.  We've had a couple of storms that actually brought some nice rain, but then it warms back up again-so not like Montana.  Usually it's hot for a few days, then rains and gets chilly.  I don't mind this one bit!

Took the grandkids to the Bogert pool, but it's an outdoor pool and the thunder and lightening hit, so the pool was closed.  They played in the playground for a while and then Millie stopped by and picked up Grace and Sam.  Syd talked his dad into staying for the farmer's market and concert, so he was with us all night.  Mostly he played on the playground-we positioned our chairs at the concert so we could watch him all evening.  He had a blast, and we heard a nice concert.

His dad gave him enough money to go on the bungee bouncer:

We celebrated Independence Day by going to the fairgrounds to take in the Bozeman Symphony's all-American concert, followed by fireworks.  The Symphony even accompanied some of them.  The best fireworks evening I think I've had.

Since Syd had to go back to his mom's soon, he, Stan & Steve took the boat out fishing.  They had a ball!

A beautiful Montana sunrise!

 Yesterday we took our Costco rebate and a World Market gift card to town-time to get them spent.  We made quite a little haul-I got a new vacuum cleaner, a small TV for the kitchen, a 16G memory card for my camera, and ribeye steaks for two meals at Costco.  At World Market I found a new outdoor rug for my deck.  When Stan and my cousin built the deck, my cousin talked him into leaving a gap between the floor boards.  The only problem is, the thin legs on my chairs fall through, so I put a rug over it to prevent that.  The old rug was bad enough to make it into the trash.

Chloe and I both think it looks snazzy-kind of tropical.  It's quite a bit larger than the old one.  This one is made from plastic, so maybe it won't rot quite so quickly.

We assembled the vacuum and I took it for a test drive in the living room.  I was astounded to see how much dog hair ended up in the dirt cup!  Plus a lot of dirt-and I thought my old vac was working!

Now that my deck is spruced up, I'm headed out there to catch a cool breeze and eat ice cream with fresh strawberries from the garden.  Can't beat that for a summer evening!

Progress and More Car Socks

I got my next pair of socks done-brought them into the house to do the finishing.  I call them "car socks" because I keep a zipper bag with a sock project in my car to work on during trips to town and road trips.

I just love the self-striping yarns.  The secret to getting both socks the same is to make both your slipknots at the same time-be sure you match the dye pattern.  You might have to pull some yarn out of one skein until they're both at the same place.  Then I tuck one slipknot inside the skein and start the other one.

And my log cabin blanket is coming along, too.  I only knit on it in the early morning-it's been too hot to be covered up while working on it during the hot part of the day.

Chloe approves!

I'm running out of scrap yarn balls that are big enough to do a whole side, so now I'm digging in my stash for full skeins.  Gotta keep plugging.

I designed a sock pattern for toddlers, too, I really need to write it up and put it on here.  I'll probably put some of the socks in my Etsy store.