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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

New Purse

Well, the other day I finally made that new purse I was vowing to sew for quite a while now.  My goal was to make it by the end of the month so that's what I did.  What a difference from the first one!  That one I made in a morning with so few pieces.  I did need a bigger one and had this in mind  -  a bow purse.  That's just a bow in the front of the bag  as decoration.  First there were a lot more pieces including separate handles and a side panel.  Of course, I tweaked the pattern to suit myself as I always do.  This one also has side outside pockets which will be nice for the cell phone and sunglasses.  I also put magnets in the top to keep it closed better.  I never had to worry about that with the other one because it was so small.  Now what surprised me when I moved all my stuff to the new purse was how quickly it filled up, despite being so much bigger.  I guess a girl never has enough room in her purse!

Monday, March 19, 2012

The Down Side

There definitely is a down side to this mystery quilt I'm into right now.  Our teacher told us the first class not to use stripes but checks were OK.  That was our practice class before we bought our material but by the first class (block 1) I saw the repercussions of my choice.  I had my fabric lined up by gradation and then realized we were sewing them from side to side.  That meant when I purposely didn't put my 2 checks together by sewing them like this they ended up next to each other.  Oh well, I got used to it.  Then this last class (block 2) I had to extend one of my strips to a point and sure enough it was my small check!  It was hard enough to match up the seams but to also make it so the checks matched was worse.  The first time I tried to sew the 2 parts of block 1, I tore it out twice and sewed three times.  The second block went a little better.  I guess I was right when I thought this choice would come back to bite me  -  it did!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Lovin' the New Dryer

We got a new dryer on Tues. and it's working very well.  Of course, things never go as planned, including this purchase.  They called from the store that morning saying the salesman had put the wrong amount in for our debit card and we still owed $20.  She caught me off guard and I didn't even have the receipt in front of me so I asked to call her back after I looked it over.  Sure enough he had put in $20 less than we owed.  So I called her back and she put it on the card again.  Then at about noon or so the delivery truck pulled in.  I heard them moving the old dryer out and then they were gone.  I went to check things out and I said to my hubby "that didn't take long".  Then he told me the problem  -  the cord they brought wasn't long enough.  So we had to go out and buy a 6 ft. cord to finish the installation.  The funny part was that we were charged $20 for the cord and they had to refund us the money (same amount she put on the card that morning).  Strange coincidence, huh?  The only other thing was this strange buzzing noise coming from the basement that had me searching all over.  Here it was the automatic signal from the dryer about 10-15 min. before it stops.  There is no signal knob so I can't adjust or stop it.  I just won't be able to put a load in right before we go to bed.  Other than that I'm pleased with my purchase and no more burn marks!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Magazine Overload

Since I retired my thing has been magazines  -  lots of them.  I've written before about the problems with subscriptions I had with several of them but now I get very few of regular house/home/food magazines.  I can handle those ones by reading and then tearing out a recipe, website to check or craft idea.  After that I throw them away.  The ones I tend to hang onto are the craft magazines and especially now are the quilting magazines.  When I first retired I did this kind of purge with my magazines but it's time again.  I have two tote bags full of magazines that have to be sorted through.  So every day I go through a bunch of them and pick out patterns that I might want to try sometime.  I'm really trying to be tough on myself and only keep the ones that are special but who knows.  I got a magazine subscription for Christmas which I'm keeping and also with that I get access to 2 yrs. of back issues online.  That outta keep me going for awhile.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

New Appliance

Well, we finally bit the bullet and bought a new dryer.  This has been a long time coming and I fought it as long as I could.  Even when our youngest was still home, the dryer has been acting up and leaving burn marks on our clothes.  I would get yelled at like this was somehow my fault.  At first the burn marks would come clean in the next wash but then they wouldn't.  I didn't even realize they were burn marks  in the beginning, just dirt of some kind.  Then, when I started quilting and washing my material first it became a problem and it wouldn't come out.  I looked it up online and found others had the same issue and I came away with some solutions.  My hubby got inside there and cleaned everything out good and I started using the permanent press cycle which used lower heat.  That worked for awhile except I had to run each load (small in fact) a second time to finish drying.  Then a couple weeks ago it started again and now all over my hubby's underwear.  The last thing I wanted to do was spend money on something we would only use until we move to the cabin but I had no choice.  I also didn't realize how overpriced they were with features I would never use.  I wanted something very simple and lower than $400.  Well, that didn't actually happen, it has more knobs than I'd like and is pricier, too, but what could we do.  As we left the store, the salesman said to enjoy the new dryer but the purchase of a new appliance has never instilled much enthusiasm in me.  I told my hubby that if it came with a little man inside that would jump out and do the laundry for me, then I'd get real excited.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Observation

When I first started this blog, it seemed pretty easy to find things to write about.  As I was out shopping or reading the paper, things would pop into my head and I'd feel motivated to write.  Lately it hasn't been that easy or at least not much as motivated me in that direction.  Now I'm reverting to the good old days when shopping brought up concerns and issues that drove my to blog.  This week my hubby and I went to Erie County Farms and I noticed something as we shopped.  For one thing the customers that particular day were different than ones we normally see  - they were mostly white senior citizens.  My hubby noticed it too.  Mind you I have no problem with the usual clientele, it's just I knew something was different.  Because of this fact, the store was much less busy, especially the deli counter.  This is where my hubby's eating habits differ from the typical senior.  He can eat sandwiches every day, any time of the day.   How I explained this to my hubby was that older folks probably eat more leftovers for lunch and don't eat sandwiches, especially if they are not working.  We have gone in there some days when there were tons of people waiting for lunchmeat and then get behind a person who fills half their cart with it.  I can't imagine anyone eating that much so they must freeze it.  Anyway, that was one observation and another was the people in there that day were buying the chicken like crazy.  It was very interesting to observe this and speculate on what a group of people are eating and it's also blog-worthy.