"Finds"

Hello Again!

I'm heading to my "happy place" in just a few minutes but thought I would pop in with a couple of pictures of the tablecloth I found for the bargain price of 50 cents on Monday.

Isn't it beautiful? I do need to iron it again to get the folding creases out. I don't see any stains on it at all. Such a fun vintage find. I think it will have a home in my camper. The little embroidered flowers make me smile! :-)

And then I found this.

I have my grandmothers antique and I mean old, old, old potato masher that I use all of the time. Mandy wanted a similar one but all I could find in stores were those sqiggly wire ones that didn't mash anything and left lots of lumps. I happened upon this masher at the same time that I found the tablecloth. It's not nearly as old as mine, but it has lots of little holes and should work just fine for her.

A few people emailed me about reading and crocheting at the same time. Here's how I do it.

I found this book holder at a craft fair several years ago. This is for a trade paperback size and I also have one for regular paperbacks. The cover has a spring in the back that lets you lift the front or back and turn a page. Then it holds the book flat and that strip of clear plastic stays clipped over the pages to keep the book open. You don't have to unsnap it unless you want to close the book completely. This has changed my crafting life. I LOVE to read, but as you know, I also LOVE to knit/crochet. Now I can do both very easily. If you're interested in one of your own, just email me, I have the couple's name that makes them. They told me that making and selling them supplements their retirement income. I'm NOT selling anything and I really don't even know the people, I just met them at the craft fair and bought these book holders.

The painters that were here all day yesterday just left. We now have a freshly stained deck and fence. They had hoped to complete the job yesterday, but it started raining about 3:00. Both guys are wonderful Christian young men. They also painted the outside of our house last spring. We've had some great conversations. One of them was a marine with two tours of Iraq. He told me of the families he met over there and that his heart just breaks for the regular, everyday people, just like us. They just want to raise their families in peace but then war got in the way. So sad. He told me he spent a lot of time in Falujah. (I probably spelled that wrong.) While there he got close to two families that he still tries to keep in touch with. Mail delivery is sporadic at best. It was an interesting two days, hearing his stories and listening to how these two fine young men are trying to live their lives helping others. It gives me hope in this world that we still have young people like that. It seems all you hear these days is bad news.

Anyway, now that they're finished I can head back to the lake. I'll be reading your blogs while there and trying to comment. And I'll be back here next week with an update on my little life. Hopefully I'll have made some good progress on my blanket to show you.

Blessings,

Betsy

Mountains and Deer in the backyard!

Hello my friends!

We had a very quick trip to Montana to see our son and his family. Oh my it's hard to leave our grandbabies to come home. We were blessed with beautiful weather while we were there so Grandpa played lots of baseball with Caleb. Actually it was catching the ball Caleb hit from his T-ball stand. Then we went to the park and played some more! Lots of fun. Helena sits in the Helena Valley and is surrounded by mountains on all sides. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. But it gets cold in the winter. The first year after Jamie moved there it got below -30F which is very normal. I don't think I could live in that cold. Here are a few pictures of Grandpa playing with the kids.

Here we are with our precious grandbabies, Kyleigh and Caleb.

The drive over and back was beautiful. These were taken at an overlook just below the top of McDonald Pass looking down into the Helena Valley.

These pictures don't even begin to capture the majesty and grandeur of these mountains. Unbelievable gorgeous. In the summertime. In the winter it's also beautiful but dangerous, and I dislike this pass intensely when we're traveling over it in the winter. You can see some snow still on the mountains in one of the photos.

Then, after we got home Sunday evening we headed back to the lake. I think I was home an hour and a half or so. Just long enough for hubby to trim, edge and mow the lawn and I did a load of laundry and repacked the car. Chloe was one happy dog. This dear visited our backyard at the lake last night. I took this picture at 9:20 last night. Look how light it still is outside!

Our camping buddies, Larry and Nita got a new tiny poodle about 3 months ago. Here is Sophie and Chloe playing this morning. They are almost exactly the same color. Sophie now weighs a whopping 4.2 lbs. and thinks Chloe is her Mama. Chloe is very patient with Sophie biting her tail and climbing all over her. She's such a great dog. :-)

I forgot to snap a picture of the blanket in progress that I showed you in my last post. It's about three times the size that it was in that picture. Eleven hours in the car sure helped! :-) That's about all I've been working on lately.

Tomorrow night we're having a potluck for about 18 people here at our house. It's our Bible study group and we decided it would be fun to eat dinner together before study. I bought 30 boneless chicken breasts today and I'll marinate them and then put them on the grill. Yum. We usually provide the meat and ice tea and the others bring side dishes and desserts when we do this. It's always fun.

Also tomorrow we're getting our deck and fence stained by the same painter that painted our house last summer. I usually do the staining since I'm home, but I burnt my lungs two years ago when I did it and now I can't stand the smell. My lungs just close up. Hubby just plain doesn't have time for it. He works about 60-70 hours every week and I don't want him to have to spend several weekends doing that job. He's exhausted by Friday. That's why we started going to the lake, so he could relax. I think I reap more benefits from it than he does though. The painter was scheduled for Friday but finished a job early so he'll be here by 6:30 tomorrow morning. So much for dining on the deck for the potluck. Oh well.

I went to a thrift store at Loon Lake, WA on Monday. It's a tiny town close by our camper. I found a beautiful vintage tablecloth for-----you won't believe this! Fifty cents! It's beautiful. I have it in the washer right now and I'll take a picture of it for my next post. For only $1 more I got four books, a pill holder for hubby's vitamins when traveling, a brand new jump rope, (I gave it to a little boy at the campground), an angel music box that works, a ceramic bowl with the new tag still on it which said $6.99, and a package of thank you notes. All for one dollar! I feel like I stole from them but that was the price I was given. They even threw in a antique metal spatula for free! I definitely will be going back to that store. Lots of fun. Two other ladies from the lake went with me. We giggled and poured over shelves and tables. So much fun!

I almost forgot to tell you that we saw four, yes that's right four, beautiful bald eagles on our drive to and from Helena. And then, yesterday at the lake one flew right at the tree line behind our trailer. Oh my goodness it did my heart good to see those birds in all of their majesty soaring on the wind. I'll be watching for the one at the lake to make another appearance, that's for sure.

Well, I better get busy around here. Take care and I'll be back soon with a picture of my "new" tablecloth.

Blessings,

Betsy

Weekly Check-in!

Happy Thursday to you all! Even though I'm not able to post as often since my iphone won't let me post pictures for some reason, I do check my blog list every day and try to comment. Please excuse all the typo's on those comments. The tiny buttons on my phone and my fingers don't always write the same things! :-) So, for awhile anyway, I'm limited to posting pictures when I'm home at the desktop computer. And home I am...for one day anyway! We're heading eastward to Montana to see our grandbabies, Kyleigh and Caleb tomorrow. Hubby has taken a half day of vacation so we can leave at a decent time and be there in time for dinner. I can't wait to get some Grandma kisses from them. Teresa, (you can see her blog on my blog list on the sidebar), has been making me jealous with all of her posts about her grandboy's!

I don't have a lot of news to report since I've just been spending lazy days at the lake. Judy in Michigan sent me a lovely crocheted flower as a thank you for making her some dishcloths. I meant to take a picture of it and now I have it decorating the camper and I'm at home. I'll try to remember to snap one when I go back on Sunday or Monday. We'll just be in Montana until Sunday afternoon. It's about a 4 1/2 - 5 hour drive, so depending on when we get home we might go to the lake Sunday night. I'm thinking it will be Monday though by the time I buy groceries and do laundry. Hubby told me last night that he was down to one set of drawers-when was I coming home to do laundry??? He was kidding. He does laundry all the time. I haven't left the campground since Sunday afternoon until my drive home an hour or so ago. Oh how I wish I could just stay there.



This first picture is my new recliner in the camper. I L-O-V-E it! It's just the thing for achy feet. I sit there in the mornings and drink my tea and at night to knit/crochet and watch "America's Test Kitchen" on PBS. It's so comfy and I'm so thankful to my Hubby for getting it for me. That footstool there by the sofa? It's full of yarn. What you can't see is that stored behind the chair are two baskets full of - yarn! My knitting bag is behind the footstool, full of - yarn! You can never have enough yarn and I'm always afraid that I'll run out. :-) I wanted a matching chair for Hubby too, but he likes to stretch out on the sofa at night. Soon it will be warm enough to sit outside by the fire until bedtime and he won't even need the sofa!

The second picture is a sign our camping buddy Nita found and brought out. Hubby hung it in the gazebo and soon this is where will be, at the beach or on Nita's boat. Other good friends that live in Seattle have rented the camping spot on the other side of us this weekend. Yeah! We've known them for almost 20 years, ever since we moved to Washington. Since, at least for the time being, they won't be able to come over more than a few times a month, Lori's mom and step-dad who live in Spokane in the summer and winter in Arizona are also using their trailer. They've been there the past few nights and it's so very nice. We've also known them the same length of time and we all go to the same church. It's so nice to be surrounded by our friends. Our trailer is smack in the middle of the three of our campers. Basically now we have three spots to overrun!

Here are a few pictures of our lake again. Just look at the beautiful rainbow we had Monday night! It was actually a double rainbow but I missed getting a picture of that. And the blue sky above the camper yesterday. The third one is of the mist coming off the lake Tuesday morning. A lone fisherman on a big lake. Then I thought I would show you some of the larger houses across the lake. I really had to zoom in to get as close as I did. Lastly, we have a train that goes by around 9:15 in the evening and back again around 9:15 in the morning. This was the train this morning. We are grateful that it is running again twice a day. It used to run every day, but last year, with the economy still struggling, it only went past every other day or so. It heads to a logging operation up north by the Canadian border and then back south to Spokane. So, even though it gets noisy, we're grateful. It means jobs for people. And really, it's not bad, the engineer always waves to me and calls out that he's jealous I'm sitting at the lake and not him! It's also during waking hours so it's not a bother at all. Plus...I love trains and always have. I love riding the "bullet" train in Japan. I wish we had some kind of subway/rail system here in Spokane, I'd probably never drive again. Just think, I could knit while traveling! That's what I did in Japan. I knit socks for Alex while riding the Shinkansen all over the country. I did get strange looks as knitting isn't as common there. :-)


Lastly, Shari at Kashmere Kisses, (you can also see her blog on my blog list on the sidebar), has been making the most beautiful blankets. She inspired me to begin this one to use at the camper in my new recliner on those chilly nights. It's very fun and relaxing. I find I can read a book and crochet this blanket at the same time. Talk about multitasking! I finished two books in the past two days by reading and crocheting!



And now, I'm off to fold laundry. I know my life isn't very interesting these days, but I do love the slow pace of summertime. I enjoy sitting by the lakeshore for a few minutes when I take my morning walks and just meditating on the handiwork of God and the majestic mountains surrounding me. All made by His hands. All made by our mighty Creator God. It overwhelms me to tears at times.

And now, I leave you with a picture of my baby dog Chloe. I practically had to pry her into the car to come home today. She loves the lake as much as I do!



Have a lovely weekend my friends. I intend to spend lots of mine playing with my grandbabies. Remember to smile at someone, it may be the only one they see all day. You CAN make a difference in someone's life with just a little smile.

Blessings,
Betsy