Around the House – Thimbleanna

A Storm and A Wedding

10 Comments / June 25, 2022 June 25, 2022 / Around the House, Quilting, Wedding

Ahhh June. You’re almost gone {sigh}. But surprise, this will be my second post this month! I was thinking about why posting has taken such a back seat lately. I thought maybe I could pin it down to retirement — now that I’m retired, I feel like I have so much time but it makes it hard to actually do stuff (I work much better under pressure). Like, why is it so hard to write a blog post? While it’s true that posting has slowed down since I retired, it was already slowing a little before then. For some reason it’s just harder to take the time to write a post these days. Maybe because in the back of my mind I’m thinking … I have plenty of time, I’ll just do it tomorrow??? Oh well, chalk it up to just another mystery. I thought once I retired I’d get SO much more done. Haha.

We had a whopper of a storm last week. They called it a Derecho. Which, they say, if it had been over water, it would have been a hurricane. Our part of town was particularly hard hit and we had really REALLY high winds. They clocked them at 100 mph at the airport. We had trees and power poles down everywhere. We were without power for 2 days. Luckily, TheFirstChild and SweetiePie, who live 2 miles away, only lost power for about 5 hours so we were able to stay with them for a few days. We would have just camped out at home but the daytime temp the day after the storm reached 99F so, it was a little steamy. ;-D

Anyway, we were lucky and only lost one tree (which I attribute to the fact that we’ve lost so many other trees from storms and disease over the last 20 years that there aren’t that many left). The wind uprooted a pine tree that was dying — we were going to have to have it removed anyway, so the storm actually saved us a little money.

We were really lucky — the tree was exactly the height of the space that it fell into, so there was no damage to the house. Many others were not so lucky. Here’s a picture of a house a few streets over — the tree stump just to the left of the trailer used to be a huge tree that fell onto the middle of the house:

They had another big tree fall on the back corner of the house, so there’s a lot more damage that you can’t see. I’m so sad for these people — what a job to repair the mess. MyDadLovesMeBestSister also had a huge tree fall on her back deck — it destroyed the deck and caused some roof damage. Thankfully, everyone is ok though!

Speaking of MyDadLovesMeBestSister, she just hosted her second wedding in a year a few weeks ago. CuteNiece2 married her high school sweetheart in a beautiful beach ceremony on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina.

The photographer did a great job — you can’t tell it, but it was actually raining. In spite of the imperfectly timed rain, the wedding and everything about it was perfect — everything was SO beautiful and it was fun to gather as a family again. And, where there’s a wedding, there’s a wedding quilt:

CuteNiece2 sent me a picture of a quilt that she liked and I tried my best to reproduce it. It’s a scrappy quilt, made from lots of neutral fabrics from my stash — many of which were used in SweetiePie and TheFirstChild’s Wedding Quilt.

The background fabric is a sweet little neutral designed by Brenda Riddle.

And the backing is a Riley Blake wide back from a few years ago that I had in my stash. I sent this quilt out locally (thanks for the quilter recommendation Ginny!) to have it machine-quilted — I don’t do it often, but I sort-of ran out of time. It seems like such a luxury to have the quilts machine-quilted by someone else — I’m thinking I’m going to have to do it more often.

I’m itching to start a new quilt (or 2 … or 3!) but I’m trying to resist the urge, as I have a lot of UFOs. Lots of Christmas fabrics have been arriving in the shop though, so I might lose the battle!

XOXO,
Anna

Checking In

10 Comments / April 3, 2020 April 3, 2020 / Around the House, Chat

Well, how’s it going out there? Are you guys coping with this virus mess? It’s been reasonably gloomy around here, even though I’m a homebody and I have lots of projects to keep me busy. We’ve had the usual slate of activities — a little cooking, sewing, knitting, jigsaw puzzles, walking, and a whole-lot-a Netflix binge watching. I laughed when I saw the meme going around that said “Today, I finished Netflix” — that’s sort of how I feel. TheSecondChild was here for awhile and we took a few long walks. One really long walk, just to see if we could do it. We walked 5 miles to TheFirstChild’s house and then walked back. It was fun, but it took three hours, so that was a bit much.

We’ve finally had a break in our grisly, cloudy weather and the last two days have been beautiful — making me think spring is finally around the corner. I sat out on the patio for lunch today and surveyed the yard — we definitely have some winter clean up work to do. Starting with our patio furniture. If you’re a long time reader, you might remember our squirrel problem. The squirrels have been stealing the stuffing from our patio chairs for many years now — this is my third set of cushions in about 10 years, and I’m finally giving up on them. I’ve left them out for spring nests this year. We need to figure out what to do for squirrel-proof patio furniture — replacing cushions isn’t going to do it anymore. Last year they discovered that the chairs and table are made from aluminum and they’ve been happily sharpening their teeth on them. Not sure where we’ll go from here, but if you have any suggestions, please share them!

We do have a few signs of spring. My little chive patch is growing. I don’t have much of a green thumb, but you can’t really kill chives. Plus, I love not having to buy chives except in January and February.

Our sad little tulip patch is coming up too. TheManoftheHouse loves tulips so I thought I’d plant a few for him this year, even though I know they’re never very successful here, due to our rodent problem. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but the first two little plants that are blurry in the photo below have been nibbled — probably by bunnies. >:o

Oh well, it was so nice to be out in the beautiful weather. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more pretty days mixed in with typical chilly, wet April days. In the meantime, I’ve had lots of projects to keep me busy inside. Easter will be here SOON, so I’ve been knitting. I also finished a winter sweater, but I’ve been too lazy to take pictures. ;-)

On the quilting front, I have a big-stitch quilt on the frame, but I work on it about 30 minutes a month, so it’s going to be there for awhile. I’ve also been making some star blocks for a quilt — this will be a long term project but I’m having fun with it.

I hope you’re all managing to keep safe and sane. The worst part about this whole isolation thing is missing the grandbabies. I just want to make cupcakes and rough house like we usually do. I can’t wait until it’s all over. In the meantime, I’m going to let you in on my little trick that keeps me from going over the edge. Don’t tell. It will be our little secret. It starts with the view out our kitchen window. This is my view every night at dinner. Except MeMum sits in that chair there. So, I sit and talk to her and TheManoftheHouse while we eat — all the while, staring over her right shoulder. It’s there. Do you see it? Perfectly framed by the window muttons, bird feeder and giant tree in the background.

I stare off at that beautiful little view and pretend I’m in England, walking through the forest and glimpsing a beautiful English Manor house. Every night, just me and my little secret. How fortunate I am to have such a view.

Hang in there — I hope you have a little secret that’s getting you through too!
XOXO,
Anna

A Picnic Quilt

12 Comments / July 7, 2019 July 7, 2019 / Around the House, Quilting

I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve had a quilt finish, but here’s one for the summer. Knowing that TheFirstChild and his little family would be moving here this summer, I felt the need for a picnic quilt to use in the backyard when the grandbabies come over to play. I started this quilt a month or two ago and finished it just a few days after the move was completed — perfect timing!

This quilt was so quick and easy, I almost feel like it’s cheating to call it a quilt finish. I’ve had a big pile of blue jeans that I’ve been hoarding for years. (I know this because when we lived in Minnesota over 20 years ago, TheManOfTheHouse and I used to play a little game with his jeans when they were worn out. He would put them in the garbage and I would sneak them out and into my hoard. Sometimes he would catch me and throw them out again, but I always won LOL.) Anyway, I finally cut into some of those jeans. I cut my pieces into 8″ squares and then pieced them into 10 rows of 10 patches, making this a finished quilt just under 75″ square.

The backing is a piece of fabric that I bought at Ikea several years ago after seeing someone post it on the internet. It’s a heavier weight than normal quilting cotton, and I bought it thinking that someday it might make a cute backing for a picnic quilt. Sometimes, my plans actually do get implemented! I used DMC cotton thread (in pink, green, yellow and orange) and big-stitch quilted the squares in a big “X” pattern. Here’s an in-progress shot on the quilting frame.

Quilting through denim wasn’t exactly easy, but I ended up taking just one stitch at a time and using pliers to help me pull the needle through, so it didn’t seem so bad.

This was a really fun quilt to make! And the best thing is, it’s already been pressed into service. Grammy had a little babysitting session this afternoon, so we had to break-in the new quilt and have snacks in our secret little place under the Ugly Tree. It was perfect!

Happy July (Already)! And Happy Picnicking!!!
XOXO,
Anna

Mouse Houses

12 Comments / June 22, 2019 June 22, 2019 / Around the House

Hey Hey — it’s Saturday!!! Otherwise known as the weekend — YAY! I love the weekend — it gives me a little extra time to try and catch up on things around here. I’ve been meaning to update you on Mouse Houses for months now, and yesterday, I got an e-mail (which I’ll explain later) that has given me the little extra reminder that I needed.

I’ll back up a bit … long time readers might remember when I posted the picture below of a cute little mouse house that CrazyBIL built for DadLovesMeBestSister when they were remodeling their house.

I’ve always wanted a mouse house in our house, so, when we had a bathroom remodeled about a year ago, we had the contractor set us up to make a mouse house of our own. (Well, “we” didn’t really have the contractor do it — I kept it a secret from TheManoftheHouse ’cause I was afraid he’d think it was goofy, but I’m glad to report he’s very happy with it.)

We have a landing at the top of our stairs to the second floor, and the wall between the bathroom and the hall was the perfect place for our mouse house. I had the contractor turn the light switch in the bathroom into a double light switch and the second switch turns on the mouse house. From that switch, he dropped a nightlight cord down the wall and then just cut an opening into the wall on the hall side so I could access the space in the wall.

It was so easy and fun! So far, I’ve only added a little tricycle for Mr. Mouse, photos of Grandpa and Grandma mouse (from this fabric), and a sewing machine (naturally) to our little house, but I’m dreaming of lots of other fun little things to do with it. (At Christmas time I added little battery operated Christmas lights around the door — that was fun.)

Several years ago, a man named Carlos found my original mouse house post and contacted me asking some questions. I wasn’t very helpful (sourcing a mouse was a problem) but he figured things out and has built a mouse house of his own for his little boys. If you’re at all interested in mouse houses, you must go watch THIS video he has about his house — the picture below doesn’t come close to doing it justice. His little mouse (I think since they couldn’t find a mouse, his wife worked so hard to hand-craft their own gorgeous little mouse) actually moves AND he has a motion sensor in his hall to make his light come on and off. (I think that’s a brilliant idea and now I want a motion sensor for our house too!) And look at his perfect little furniture — I need more mouse houses so I can still have a sewing machine AND a reading nook just like this one.

Because I’ve had many questions about the details of these little houses in the past (the original mouse house is one of my most popular pins on Pinterest), here is a list of where I got some of the pieces for our mouse house:

The Light – We used THIS single night light from Lowe’s and our contractor hard-wired it into the light switch in the bathroom.
The Door — I found THIS door and it turned out to be the exact same door that was used on the original mouse house.
The Mouse — I searched and searched online for a little mouse and had no luck — the ones I did find were just SO expensive. I had almost decided I would have to figure out how to make one, when one day, MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I were going through MeMum’s Christmas ornaments and we came across our little mouse. MyDadLovesMeBestSister said “Hey, this is just like the mouse in my mouse house.” I’d never noticed he’s a Christmas mouse — shhhh, don’t tell. In the meantime, Awesome Carlos mentioned that he found some super cute little mice HERE that would work perfectly for someone searching for a mouse.
The Walls and Floor — I bought scrapbook papers at Michael’s to decorate our mouse house. You can’t really tell by the pictures, but the paper on the floor is a wood-grain looking paper and it’s perfect to make a little wood floor for the house.

So, there you have it. I LOVE our little mouse house and happily, FinallyAGirl loves it too. One morning she jumped out of bed and ran over to say good morning to the little mouse. Carlos said his little boy says good night to his little mouse every night too. I’m thinking we might need to make our mouse a bed (with quilt of course!) so we can put him to bed each night and wake him up in the mornings. And, for even more fun, I’m thinking, when the grandbabies are big enough for chapter books, our mouse might have to go on a vacation while The Borrowers move in for a little while. How cool would THAT be???

If you stuck it out ’til the end of this post, The Scruffster would like to thank you. Don’t worry — he’s keeping a watchful eye on his little mouse friend ….

XOXO,
Anna

Remember When …

17 Comments / May 5, 2019 May 5, 2019 / Around the House, Chat, Family, Liberty Love, Store

It’s been a long (yet somehow speedy) and busy spring, so I thought I’d just check in and dust off ye ol’ blog …

Remember When I posted here about our little newlyweds just starting med school? Unbelieveably, that was ELEVEN years ago. FINALLY, all that hard work has come to an end and it’s time to start their real life without school. We’re very happy and excited that they’ve accepted a job here and will move back home this summer. Yay for living close to the babies!!! SweetiePie sent this cute picture a few weeks ago. The babies are growing quickly. I’ll let you think on this picture until the end of this post too LOL.

Remember When I went to Shetland last summer? And I promised to write all about my trip? I finally did just that and posted about it here in the travel section of my little blog.

Remember When I posted here about the squirrels using my patio chairs for nest materials? Well, I replaced those chair pads a few years ago, but last fall was so busy I totally forgot to bring my chairs in for the winter. Maybe I’ll learn my lesson {sigh}. (Oh, and they’ve stepped up their destruction level — they’re now gnawing on the metal parts of the table and chairs — you can see it along the edges of the chair handle.)

Remember When I used to actually quilt and sew around here? There is still a little of that going on these days. I do occasionally drag my Trip Around the World UFO out to work on it. I think I’m on round 38 or so and I think I decided I need about 44 rounds. Only 5 or 6 more rounds to go! Sadly, each round is taking me about 15 hours to complete, so there’s still a LOT of work left. Not to mention ironing all those seams — not looking forward to that part.

Remember When I had an etsy store and used to tell you when new fabrics arrived? Well, I still have that little shop and new fabrics arrive alllll the time, I just can’t seem to find the time to post about them. Here are the latest arrivals in the Liberty department. I LOVE the classic prints. That 4th-down-from-the-top print makes me all twitterpated.

Thanks for sticking it out to the end. Now … did you have a think on that first picture??? And get the message??? We’re beside ourselves with excitement that FinallyAnotherGirl is going to be a Big Sister late this fall (let the blog naming begin LOL). And if you’re counting, that means those two little babies will only be 14 months apart. Good thing the kids are moving back home — they’re going to be BUSY!!!
Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna