Granny Squares

Good Morning to all of my friends in blogland!

It's Thursday, which means Bible study tonight at our house.  Over the years I've gradually begun to do the bulk of my housework on Thursdays so everything is spic and span when our friends arrive for study.  But with the kids gone, it really doesn't get that messy anymore.  Still, old habits are hard to break so I've already cleaned all three bathrooms, vacummed, dusted and scrubbed floors this morning and it's only 8:30.  It's supposed to be hot today so I wanted to get everything done early.  That leaves more time to knit or crochet of course!

And that leads me to my tah-dah moment.  In the past two days I've crocheted 12 squares for Japan.  I hope to mail them off to Maureen this afternoon if I can make it to the post office.  And here they are:

I tried some different patterns from a book I have and made up a few of my own.  I think they turned out rather well and they're brightly colored too.  Do you see the white one with the red circle center?  That reminds me of the Japanese flag!

Still no word of when the work will be done on our trailer.  They do think they have found the source of the leak and have fixed that, but are waiting on things to dry out enough to put back together.  So...no camping yet.  Imagine a sad face inserted here.  Nita and I did go up to the lake yesterday for a few hours and enjoy the view and eat lunch.  It was a good time and a nice getaway.

I spent the afternoon with a young lady from our church at a doctors appointment.  She gets shots in her head for severe headaches.  Her mom just had knee surgery last week so I offered to drive her.  16 shots in her neck and head and the relief is only for a few weeks.  This dear girl had brain surgery last year that was supposed to heal her headaches but that didn't happen.  It's a genetic thing and now they are getting ready to test her brother for it.   Please pray for this family.  I can't imagine knowing that this is what she has to live with.  Just yesterday was 3 1/2 hours in the Dr. office. 

On a more cheerful note look how my flowers are blooming!  I have six pots of these in various spots around the outside of the house.  I'm thinking of taking some of them out to the lake.  They didn't do anything for about the first 5 weeks they were planted, but with the recent warmth, they've just blossomed.

 And here is my flowering bush.  It never blooms until late July and then goes crazy until it frosts.  It just started blooming on Tuesday.  By next week, the entire bush should be covered with these beautiful lavendar flowers

 Isn't it beautiful?  I love this bush and wish it bloomed longer in the summer.

For my works in progress I have a shawl on the needles for me.  I have made three identical ones in the past, all for me, and I ended up giving them away.  We'll see if God wants me to keep this one or gift it to someone.  I also have a little dress begun for our 7 year old granddaughter.  I'm not liking the neckline right now so it may be frogged.  It's a raglan style and I want to get a little further into the pattern before I give up.   I also want to make some booties for one of the charity knitting groups I'm in.  The project for the summer is a crisis pregnancy center.  They give a pair of booties to each mother when she has a positive pregnancy test.

Otherwise it will be a quiet day on the Queen homestead.  I've had two calls this morning from some of our new friends at the lake, asking if we'll be down.  We have other plans for the weekend though, even if the trailer was in place.  I'll update you on those plans next time. 

Have a wonderful day everyone and may it be blessed and filled with sunshine!

Blessings,

Betsy

A Challenge for You

Good Monday Morning My Friends!

It's a beautifully cool morning here in Washington State.  I drove to the lake bright and early this morning for the pick-up of our trailer to go back to the dealership for warranty repair.  They were there right on time and I got to spend an hour enjoying the early morning birds.  I purposely got there around 7:15 and took my breakfast with me to enjoy while waiting and enjoying the view at the lake.  There was a beautiful sailboat out already and it was so peaceful.  "sigh"  Hopefully the trailer will be repaired by the weeks end and I can spend some time there next week again.

I was asked if I would post a request on my blog for you all from a Ravelry friend who does a lot of charity needlework too.  Here it is in her words.

"Thought that I would update you about Knit for Japan’s granny square project. At Monthly Crochet for Charity, I have “issued” a challenge to beat the number of squares (64) that were sent at the beginning of July. The next mailing is at the end of September; therefore, I will need them by September 27th.

Would you mind spreading the word on your blog and to your friends? You have my permission to give them my address:)))))"

And here's her address:

Maureen D. Aube
19 Mountain View Drive
Franklin,  NH  03235

This is such a worthy cause.  The squares need to be 8 inches and will be joined to make blankets for the people still in shelters.  There are many.  There is sinply nowhere for them to go, especially the elderly.  The radiation situation at the Fukushima Diachi plant caused many, many people to have to simply walk away from their homes, livestock and all of their possessions.  Their homes are still standing, but they are not allowed to return.  Then, there are of course, all the people that lost everything in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.  I know you are all wonderfully giving people and even one square will make a difference.  Winter will arrive again before we know it and they have severely cold ones in northern Japan.  Thanks a bunch.

We're having guests for dinner tonight and I think that I will attempt chicken parmesan with spaghetti.  I made it before and it turned out fairly well.  Hubby likes it and I like to make him happy!  :-)  I also have the first picking of green beans from the garden.

Thanks for joining me today.  Sorry I don't have any pictures.  Nothing exciting to report at all.  As always, I love your comments and suggestions.

Blessings,

Betsy

Long Absence

Happy Thursday Morning!

I'm so sorry for the long time between posts.  I tried to post from my iphone a few times.  It wouldn't let me post pictures and then somehow both posts deleted before being saved.  I finally gave up and thought I would just do it on the computer at home.  Hubby and I were in Missoula, Montana last weekend with our son and his family at a KOA.  We had a Kamping Kabin and they had their trailer.  It was so much fun.  The grandbabies slept with us in the Kabin and we had two nights of grandbaby cuddles.  Although they aren't babies anymore.  K is all legs and seven years old and C is 5 and smart as a whip.

One of my favorite pictures of the weekend.  Smore's are better all over your face!

 Hubby and our son on the porch of the kabin.  Our granddaughter didn't like the spelling of the kamping kabins.  She kept telling me the correct spelling is camping cabin.  :-)

 Hubby making the fire for the smore's.  He makes a great fire with just a few sticks and some kindling.  No lighter fluid.  He was a Boy Scout as a young boy and learned lots of useful things.

 Our little kabin.  It had a porch swing that I spent lots of time swinging on with the grandbabies.  That is real fire in the pit, not pieces of paper. It looks sort of artificial doesn't it?

 Here we are on the way to the Farmers Market in Missoula on Saturday morning.  Of course they wanted to ride with Grandpa and Grandma.  (They also wanted to come home with us, but unfortunately that didn't happen.)

 Bountiful produce everywhere I looked.  Isn't this gorgeous?

 Herbs, herbs, herbs anyone?

 The bakery tables were almost sold out before we got there.

 Last Thursday our Bible Study group had a potluck dinner before our study.  Look at the goodies.  Hubby and I provided the drinks and chicken breasts that I had marinated and then grilled outside.

 One of the yummy desserts.  Goat cheesecake.  There were raspberries to top it with.

 One last picture at the end of the day.  Hubby adores these kids and they love him.  Oh, how we wish we lived closer to them.

We drove home in a driving rain that slowed us to 35 mph on the interstate for about 90 miles.  Then the skies changed to blue and it's been beautiful ever since.  We arrived home about 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.  I washed laundry. We packed the care and headed to the Lake!   I just came home this morning, (Thursday).  Hubby has been driving in to work every day until last night when he had to pick someone up at the airport for work at 11:30 p.m. so he stayed at the house.  We have study tonight and will head back to the lake tomorrow night.

We are having MAJOR trailer issues and it's very disappointing.  First off, we noticed the dining table had a huge crack, not a scratch, a crack, right down the middle, so they ordered a new one for us.  Then, when we took our first showers in the trailer on Monday morning, the shower leaked all over.  They came and fixed it, (hopefully) on Tuesday.  Right after the repairman left, I noticed water dripping under the trailer so they came back yesterday and worked on it for about 4 hours.  Mission UNSUCCESSFUL!  They can't find the leak so they have to tow it back in to the shop on Monday.  Basically we have no running water except we can use the toilet.  I'm so happy we have the toilet!  We have to flush it with pitchers of water since we can't run any fresh water through the lines.  So- I'm not sure if the shower is fixed or  not, we haven't been able to use it.  I've been showering at our friends trailer next door all week!

Then, the repairman who was there yesterday said our electrical converter sounds bad and he's ordering another one!  All is being fixed under warranty, but here won't be any camping next week at all.  Hubby and I will go out this weekend and pack the food, etc. out before it's hauled away for repair.  How disappointing.  Oh well, it is what it is. Right?

I'm off to do errands today.  Visit the nursing home and collect mail etc.  It's good to visit all of you today.  I read all of your blogs this week but only have my phone, no other internet connection and it wouldn't let me comment. 

I'll check back soon!

Blessings,

Betsy