It took most of the afternoon for Rick to clear the yard and for me to shovel the sidewalks, etc. And there wasn’t that much snow but the wind from the east packed it into hard drifts.
Hank is spending the night as a dry run before he comes for 2-1/2 weeks while mom and dad go to Florida. Diane in CO – wish I could loan him to you!
Reader photos
Remember the shirt I cut up? A reader was impressed by how the manufacturer matched the pocket to the shirt. Here are some other shirts I have waiting that are also perfectly matched.
Last week I bought the sweetest small cake plate at the thrift store – clear glass and I was going to make a display of pincushions on it. It has been sitting on my table just waiting and this morning I got up to shattered glass all over the floor. The cats evidently had quite an event during the night. Does anybody understand what kind of glass this is?
Tiny rectangular pieces and it’s layered. This isn’t like any glass I’ve ever seen broken. I don’t know why this mystifies me so – I’m really sad that my cake plate is gone.
Love all the pictures, as usual—especially the animals. Patti, so glad you posted—I’ve been thinking of you and wondering how you’re doing. Please keep us posted.
I figured something out about reading the comments. I have an iPad and click over to the blog to read Mary’s posts. When I was reading the comments, people would talk about various topics and I wasn’t following the discussion. I finally figured out that the most recent comments are at the top—if you want to follow a discussion you have to start at the bottom and scroll up to the top to read the comments in order. Ah! Clarity!
Hi Mary, I live near a small town in Victoria, Australia and due to the Bird Flu effecting many Poultry establishments, eggs here are also in short supply. Supermarkets with very limited supply and home breeders selling eggs for $10 a dozen and selling out. Only going to get worse. Thankyou for the reader photos. Cheers Ros
Ros – I only hope a game bird infected with the bird flu doesn’t land here on the farm and wipe out my flock. My friends are thrilled to get the eggs – I give them away free as a gesture of friendship.
Mary, I am jealous of you getting to baby sit Hank! Keeper with miss him when he leaves!
Needlework is awesome!
It is cold. Our snow was really blown hard too. Of course, it always piles up right in front of the garage, Jay tried scooping with a hand scoop but he had to get out the big guns…John Deere! I hope your Rick has a heated cab! It was so brittle! We didn’t always have a cab in the loads tractor. I’m not sure how jay took the cold scooping with the M farmal! He had a heat houser in it, so that helped some. Sometimes He would even scoop the road open so he could go to work! A half mile of scooping to the highway.
I saw they are calling this a Siberian blast instead of Polar Vortex ….
I’m anxious to hear the kitty story!
A great post today. I loved the library. It looked so inviting.vi really liked the saying on the stitchery about the family. I’m not looking forward to the very cold weather headed out way.
Oh! We would love to bring Hank here to play with Skyler!!!! I would definitely help you out with him is I was closer!!! What’s better than a Golden Retriever??? Two Golden Retrievers!!! I have really been missing Akira this week. It’s interesting how the body knows even when you’re not paying much attention. I lost her one year ago tomorrow.
That is impressive matching on the shirts you’ve got there! I remember when I was sewing clothing way back in the day and my Mom would tell me to avoid plaids because I’d need to match them. Bring it on! I loved that challenge!!
You definitely have quite a fortune on your counter with your beautiful eggs. They were $7.89/dozen at King Soopers this afternoon. I’d love to be able to buy some from you!!
Diane,
How sweet of you to love on Hank. If we ever head your direction I’ll keep you in mind.
2 goldens would be wonderful!!! We are so lucky to have Mary and Keeper. 🙂
We would love that!! He looks like such a sweetie–as most Goldens are!
I wonder if the pocket matching on the shirts is done by hand or if there is some machine that matches things. Whatever it is, the perfection is amazing. The library nook is pretty as are all the stitchery pics. Hank is a lucky pup.
To translate from one language to another on an iPad (or on any computer), highlight (click and drag) and copy (right-click and select ‘copy’) the text you want to translate, then go to translate.google.com and paste the copied text into the box on the left (to paste: right-click and select ‘paste’). Google detected French on its own, and already had English listed for the box on the right, so I didn’t have to select any languages on my own. This will make more sense once you get to the translate website.
Just reread your 2-14 posting. What was the name of the lady having surgery on Feb 13 and have you heard from her yet? It has only been 4 days so that might be too much to expect.
And while reading the cat comments brought back memories from your quilt shop. You had a good sized cutting table and that was where the cats liked to watch. They had their baskets lined with small quilts and were such good help. And you were always careful to make sure where their tails were before you cut the fabric. There was no extra charge for petting, rubbing, purring or fur fiber content. And you always said if you didn’t like cats, were allergic, etc, don’t come because it was the cat’s home, too. And I’ve said this before, but because you have so many new readers – I overheard my husband, Frank, telling a friend “she always has to stop at this one shop, but it isn’t a bad place to wait with all the critters to watch.” And that was the truth
Betty in Rapid City
Today I learned something new!!!! How to translate foreign languages to English on my computer. Very nice. Before I would encounter it looking at pictures of quilts or watching some of the music videos from French restaurants/airports. Of course, with quilting or music, no translation is needed.
Has anybody else discovered the music from Paris? There is a man paying piano in the airport/restaurant for the enjoyment of the people. Somebody requests a song, which he plays and others playing other musical instruments or singing from the crowd. This looks very spur of the moment, but every thing is planned and they are very professional. I just get teared up sometimes. And I was surprised at how “clean” the pianist’s hands look. Yep, they are YOUNG hands compared to my OLD hands!! The music is great and I love to see what the people are wearing.
Today’s temp is in the single digets, but thru Wednesday, they are headed to the bottom like 20 below. A lot of other places will be lower than that. Then it is supposed to warm up. More snow tonight but we aren’t getting a lot at once, yet. Who knows? Right now the sun is shining and it is so pretty. Gotta make hay while the sun shines? I’d better get busy.
Betty in Rapid City
betty, i enjoy those ‘random’ music scenes in airports, plazas, etc. also. i don’t care if they are planned. i enjoy the music and the comraderie. i must say i do not envy the weather you are all having. way too cold for me. after being in the 80s now is is 53. course it is 7:56 in the a.m. also. rare for me to be awke. i am enjoying all the pictures and comments. a friend and i were just commenting on the difference in the small local quilt shows and the large commerical (AQS – type) shows. big different. the local ones are more to my how i quilt. the commercial ones are more for the ‘artist’ type quilts. local more to how i quilt and use my quilts. patti in florida
Patti – the large quilt shows don’t tempt me much either – seems they’re just an opportunity to showcase machine quilting.
I love the reading nook, but I would need to have a recliner to put my feet up while reading. The sun is warm and inviting today but fools us when we go out. The wind from the northwest is brutal.
Beautiful needlework today, and the shirts have very cool patterns.
It is 23 w/wind chill of 1 due to 20 mph winds. We are staying in, so it will be a sewing day.
Patti, I hope your pain is somewhat under control; I think of you often.
Thanks, Mary 🥰
The way that glass shattered is unusual – but I have no idea about it. SO sorry you lost that little cake plate!
I also love the reading nook/library and all the needlework photos.
You may want to take out an insurance policy for all those eggs… .LOL!!!
We’re waiting for all that snow to arrive midweek. Love the library and the latest needlework, especially the 23rd Psalm, such a variety of text. Your plate might have been tempered glass. I’ve had Pyrex measuring cups break into small fairly uniform pieces. Good luck keeping up with Keeper and Hank during Hank’s upcoming visit. If only we could bottle some of that energy.
Karen in MD
The library nook is so inviting! I’ve been a reader from childhood, so thankful for that outlet. Well, besides music, and in the last few years quilting. Keeper will be beside himself with Hank’s visit. Hazel, maybe not so much.
Stay warm and safe all.
Jan
Every picture has been a joy to see and recognize the workmanship. I don’t comment often but I do look forward to the post every day! That library nook….oh to dream! Local library had drive through Chili and cinnamon roll supper last night. It’s a good fund raiser for summer reading programs. Attendance slightly down from previous but wind had increased and snow was moving . No doubt kept people in. The next few days are predicted especially frigid. Reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. And fabric to pet! Love the shirts!
Mary,I would love Hank to hang out with me. He would be bored at my house. Keeper will keep him busy.
When someone responds in their own language, just highlighted the comments and then RIGHT CLICK on your mouse. From the options that popup, about 2/3 of the way down, click on “translate to English”. It will appear in a box at the top right of your screen. This is the Windows process. If you have an Mac, someone else will have to share the directions.
I love reading the comments from around the world. Here is a loose translation:
Fabie has loved the show of the handwork and they are amazing when you remember that many of them were created by the light of a kerosene lamp. The matching pockets on shirts are a sign of quality clothing.
Linda – how does that work on my iPad?
I just tried on my iPad. First you tap-and-hold somewhere in the text you want to translate. You’ll get into “selection” mode, with a blue highlight, and draggable markers for the beginning and end of the selection. Drag those markers so the entire paragraph is selected. You’ll see several options for what you can do with the selected text, and one of these is Translate. Tap Translate and a translation will appear.
Getting into selection mode, and dragging the beginning and end points can be slightly flaky. Might have to try more than once.
I’m wondering whether you can translate a reply from English to another language before you post it? You could probably compose a reply in the iPad’s Translate app, and then copy/paste it into a reply box.
Dot – oh, thank you! I hope I can remember your directions by the next time I need a reply translated. No guarantee on that.
Translating on a Mac is similar to Windows. Highlight what needs to be translated then click to bring up options. Click on translate.
You do have a small fortune in eggs! Around here the restaurants are now adding a temporary surcharge of .50 per egg! Fortunately, we have someone we buy fresh eggs from. He was charging $3/dozen, but went up last week to $4/dozen. I don’t mind paying that for fresh eggs from free ranging hens. Mary, thank you so much for continuing to put together this blog. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the beautiful embroidery!!
Mary,
Lovely samplers today too! What kind of needlework would the wedding anniversary piece be? Just curious, it is so beautiful.
Thanks for including Biscuits picture, he just loves the snow. Yesterday my husband used the snowblower to clear off the ice rink and we skated and played a little hockey. Kids had a round portable fire pit on the ice and we roasted smoked sausages and sat in Adirondack chairs around the fire. Tasted so good!! We had the four wheeler out and I even took a ride on the inner tube behind it. Decided that at age 65, I never have to do that again! But I do love skating and am happy to say I did not fall down at all. Scotch and his family came out and played on the ice too. He and Biscuit ran and ran on our end of the lake. Scotch has a 2 year old girl he lives with and when I petted Scotch, she told her mom no one but her can pet her “woof woof” as that’s what she calls him! Scotch demands to be petted so she’s out of luck on that.
Enjoyed this post while drinking my hot cocoa. Have a great day everyone. 🌻
Sunflower. . . I believe the needlework you were referring to is called hardanger (?)
I think you use linen & pick out the threads to make the design.
I’ve never done it, but have seen people do it.
How fun that Hank will be visiting for 2 1/2 weeks! I loved the 25th anniversary needlework. So pretty. We are getting snow here in NH. So nice to hear from Patti, I have been thinking about her.
move lovely photos. sleep habits messed up. went out to buy a new recliner today. to be delivererd next saturday. a lovely brick red what is a combo recliner/rocker. what the heck i’ll be sleeping in it also. the more i’ve looked at my large rug, the more the red will pul out of the fall colorings. will help it ‘feel’ cooler in the house. four hour nap.
going to try to take advantage of lucid periods of the day – making notes and then i can gather and post them. should help with catching up on contacts, things to stay to people (so many lovely cards and letter) and things i want to remember to tell family, design ideas, etc. then to try to compile them.
have been slowly having design ideas and would like to jot them down. it will be slow but it will be a start. nerve pain is driving me crazy. think it is time for pain pills again. i do want you all to undestand how much your thoughtfulness has meant to me hugs to all. patti in florida
I am a lifelong bibliophile (a person who has a great love of books) and avid reader – that home library would be a dream come true!!🤩
i agree that home library would be great! have a home library to go with the home quilting studio. marvelous! here’s a hidden benefit of the past 6 weeks. i’ve lost 19 pounds. patti in florida
Kelli – me, too! I love books and love to see stacks of them in my house. I read on my kindle at night only so I don’t have to hold a heavy book but I’d rather have an actual book.
Thanks for all the lovely photos Mary, that will be a hard act to follow.
Any news about your lovely cat?
Denise – do you mean Fluffy Bun? I will post her story tonight
Yes thanks Mary
Bonjour Mary,
J’ai beaucoup aimé ce reportage sur les broderies anciennes.
Et dire que certaines ont été réalisées à la lumière d’une bougie ou d’une lampe àpétrole, chose impensable aujourd’hui !
Quand aux poches de chemises, une telle finition ne peut être qu’un gage de qualité.
Belle journée à vous
Amicalement, Fabie
I agree that doing the detailed sewing by the light of a candle or kerosene lamp, for some of the older needlework shared, is truly amazing. I can’t imagine doing that. I want good lighting when I do hand work.
Fabie – we can’t read French – can you resend in English?
Mary – I translated it —- rather the computer did it.
Enjoyed all the pictures today.
Very cold here this morning with wind. The snow is drifting. Hope our road isn’t drifted as we plan to go to church this morning.
Sun is shining!
Thank you for sharing how to translate a text in another language. Just tried it and it works! Thanks!
Jeanine – Hwy to church was not great – drifting and sticking. Invited out for pizza tonight but I hate to go out again
Sorry, I don’t speak english…
Fabie – we got it! Not to worry! Thanks for being a blog reader –