Just a Plethora...

Wow, it's been just over a week since I posted last!  Don't know how that happened...

Let's see... What did we do?  

Oh!  I won $90 worth of T-Bone steaks from a radio program!!!  All I had to do was be the 33rd caller!!  If you ever listen to Van on WHO radio, he was hosting the Wheel of Meat this past week in honor of HyVee's 90th anniversary. 

Then of course, the next day, they gave away $900 worth of meat....  Meri tried for it but wasn't the 99th caller. Bummer.  She had her deep freeze ready.

I took Leon with me to pick up some free bricks from freecycle and we stopped by my favorite metal bridge and went for a walk.

As soon as he heard my cell phone picture snap, he spun around and insisted that I delete it.

Um of course I just did!...

As soon as I sent it to my FB messenger for safe keeping... ;)

Also last weekend, Robb and I bought a used minivan!  It's so purdy...  

A few quirks with it, but we're getting it to our car guy soon to iron out any tiny imperfections.

I can NOT tell you how much stuff I've hauled in it already!  I missed my old van SO much!

A friend of my sister-in-law, lives nearby and was cleaning out her late mother's house getting it ready to put on the market.  She had three boxes of sewing things that needed to go somewhere and offered it all to me.  It felt so good to feel NEW(to me) fabric!!  Ahhhhh

The pile of dirt that had been gifted to us last fall is now cleaned up and a big circle of bare ground underneath is all that's left.  With my new van, I hauled 4 garbage cans full of the remaining dirt over to Meri's new garden.  Her garden will take more than that...  So I checked with city hall to see if I could get some of the dirt they have stacked around the yard waste place.

They said SHURRRE!!!

Woohoo!  4 garbage cans full later and Meri still needs more.

sigh.  It'll be a bigger afternoon that I thought.

Meri has put me on a 2 week quarantine due to the wedding we attended so it's been quiet.  She mowed her own yard yesterday but I did some socially distancing dirt moving for her. 

I miss my girls...

On Friday, Meri invited Leon and I over for a "socially distant" pool party.

She was having one with her friends on Saturday also and wanted to break in the pools.

Leon had a blast and splashed around like he was training for the Olympics.

Reedus and Ellie watched enviously from the doorway.  Meri is talking about putting up a fence some day, so then they could come out during a pool party in the future...

Then unfortunately a bug or garbage from Leon's feet got in the water and he flipped out.

So we went home.  I made a net for Meri to clean out the pools before her party on Saturday.

A pool party is always a great time until someone tracks in grass...  or a bug hits.

We used to make these all the time for our above ground pools growing up.  Not too many people have wire hangers anymore, but I found one.  Probably from a dry cleaners.

Worked at a church cleaning with a couple other women this last Saturday morning.  A woman in our church had just been moved to hospice and we wanted to make sure the church was clean for a possible funeral/memorial service.  I climbed a very tall ladder and rigged up a big pole to clean at the very front of the sanctuary.  But something needed to be done to get those dead flies and way up high cobwebs.  And that's why God sent me to this church anyway.  To reach high places.  That's what Polly said anyway, years ago...

The woman passed away that very evening so our timing was good.  But the memorial service might not be for a couple months.  The family hasn't decided yet.

Then on Sunday afternoon, I took the time to clean out three of my 4 sewing machines/sergers.  SO much fuzz and lint under the sewing plates... It took probably ten qtips to clean it all out and a tweezers to pull out a few rogue pins that were inside my Janome...

And I figured out my problem with the white thread serger!  See the mess on the right?  Yeah - it's not supposed to be that way...  So now it's looking like on the left!

Do you know what the secret was?  I had in ball tip needles which work best on knits...  This is cotton...  So now I know...  I need more needles. of both kinds...

AND the last time I'd used the black thread serger, it was for some rolled hem work.  But I put in the 2nd needle again and tried it out before I remembered the rolled hem thingy.

It looks like of cool!  I took a picture of the settings to remember this if I ever make 40 table runners again.

Well, back to work.  Things have been busy.

Have a wonderful week!

Rub A Dub Dub Tree Skirt

Friday night, I scrambled to get the bridal shower gift ready to ship off on Saturday, the day of the shower.  Yep - I'm on TOP of things!!!  

Saturday morning, I got it photographed and boxed up.  As I labeled it, I took another look at the invitation.  The shower is NEXT Saturday...  Hmm..  I guess I didn't have to ask USPS to turn back time after all!

I did forget to stick the shower card inside the package...  sigh.  Week early, card short.

And if my dear sweet sister will NOT tell or share this post with her future daughter-in-law, I will show you what I made.  

I'm going with an Amish theme for this Christmas Tree skirt.  They leave in at least one mistake because no one is perfect!  I left just enough to leave no doubt.  And probably a few threads here and there...  Hopefully no pins.  But it does have a one year old's butt print on it.  oops.

Then on Saturday, I had found a Freecycle.org post about someone giving away a TON of stuff and only between the hours of 10 - 4 on Saturday.  They were cleaning out their barn or garage or some such thing and just wanted to put everything out for people to take during just that time.  Cool!  They listed a bunch of what they had, including a cast iron claw footed bathtub, Tonka toys, theatre chairs, etc.  Meri set her sights on the tub...  REALLY???  

So after we had spent the earlier part of the day purchasing literally tons of groceries, we headed out to find this mystical farm where they give things away.  

Found it...  After getting lost on ill marked gravel roads for over 30 minutes.  

Oh and the giveaway was on Sunday, not Saturday.  I was wrong.  Full car, day early.  I was really hoping that by being late, the tub would have been gone...  So much for being lost!

The lady said that since we were there, to take whatever we wanted!  Well, Meri wanted the bath tub and I wasn't going to argue with her in front of a couple strangers.  Although looking back now, that would have been easier than moving that behemoth into our garage!  And Sonya and Alisa wonder how my garage fills up...

We unloaded most of the groceries onto their yard before loading it, then piled everything in around.  I have a station wagon type car...  Leon just patted it from his seat and pushed the packets of toilet paper and diapers out of his way so he could see the movie screen and kept munching away on his fruit snacks.

I got the Tonka toys too.  They need cleaning up but Leon will love them next spring in the sandbox!

Meri's idea for the bath tub...  She wants to paint it all sorts of funky colors and put it in her bedroom, probably under her lofted bed.  Fill it with pillows and cushions and have a little reading nook for herself and Leon, with possibly a great place for Leon during sleepovers.  One of the 2nd grade teachers had something like this in their classroom and Meri had LOVED it.

Robb and Ryan weren't as thrilled with the idea and my hands and arms still hurt from moving it from the car to the garage last night.  I thought I was having a heart attack.  The tingling feeling is leaving my arms today, but last night they weren't feeling so hot.

During the afternoon, after we sifted all the groceries into the kitchen and sworn about the tub, I got several pizza crusts ready to roll.  Maddy and three of her closest and dearest college buds drove in around 4:30pm!  They weren't here really to see us.  We were just a place to fill up with supper and get gas.  Not at the same time.  We fed them and visited and in a whirlwind suddenly they'd left!   Maddy was wanting to see her old high school's fall play and had brought the other girls to help her stay awake during the superdy duper day trip.

That night I got to sew.  I made a sample top out of some muslin for my DATE night next week.  It fit pretty well, after guessing the next size up on the pattern.  Don't you hate it when the pattern is too small but you're determined to make it work anyway?  I'll tell you more about the project later in the week.  Currently I'm trying to make the button hole guide be the facing...  Don't ask yet...  Just roll your eyes and roll with it.

Sunday...  That will be tomorrow!  I'm tired of typing and my hands are tingling.

Happy Veteran's day to all the brave men and women who have kept and are keeping our country safe!  Thank you for all your service!  I'm planning on attending the program at the middle school today.  Meri has a prominent role!!  Have a great day!