My Cozy Little Sewing Room

Today is Monday, which means it's time to show off your cottage.  This is hosted by Cielo at The house in the roses.  Follow this link to see all the beautiful rooms and cottages:

Show off Your Cottage Monday

This is the door to my cozy little sewing room.  This picture I found in an antique store just reminded me of how I feel in my room.  Like a little girl playing with her toys!

This is where you will find me almost every night, sitting in my favorite chair with knitting or sewing in my hands.  I had this chair and ottoman made a few years ago.  I had been wanting this chair with these fabrics I picked out for a long time.  I also ordered extra fabric and was able to make some throw pillows to match.  The pillow on the left is one I made doing a faux chenille sewing technique made of flannel.  And if you can notice the crocheted doily on the back of the chair, that was made many years ago by my great grandfather.

My dogs hang out on the couch as long as I'm in that room.  The couch is quite old.  It was my grandmother's and my boys used to take naps on it at her house when they were little boys.  It's in excellent condition and has so many memories for me and I also like the small size of it.  I had a white slipcover on it but I just got tired of messing with it.  The quilt on the back was the very first full size quilt that I ever made about ten years ago, and a few more throw pillows that I made for the dogs to cozy up with.  The little end table was found at Cracker Barrel by my mother about five years ago.  I should have taken a close up picture of it because it has the prettiest roses and ribbons decorating it. 

My little TV sits on top of a repurposed old sewing machine bottom made into a stand.  The top was brown but I painted it white, as I did with every piece of furniture and trim in the room.  The scarf under the TV is a gift from Germany given to me by my mother when she was living there for a while.  The table under the mirror was a credenza in my old dining room and it was also a light oak wood.  My husband put the legs on for me to make it the right height for me to stand at and cut fabric and iron.  Again, I painted with a white wash, then stenciled lace on the drawers and glued on cloth covered buttons and hearts.  This little room is so jam packed that it's hard to even point out every little thing in there.  I made most of the wall hangings, the collection of pin cushions on the TV stand, and the framed mini quilt on top of the TV.  All the baskets on the floor are filled with either yarn or fabric.  The closet is also filled, but I won't even go there!  I try to keep it as organized as I can, but this is all stuff I need.  And I love just sitting there amongst it all.  Uh Oh! does this sound like a hoarding issue?

 

The sewing machine is from 1970 and was my grandmother's.  It also started out brown, sort of Early American style and came with a Singer sewing machine.  I used this old machine of hers until just a few years ago when I finally got a new Janome.  Here's the original owner's manual that came with the cabinet and machine and this is exactly what it looked like.

And you guessed it!  I painted it white with pink and green trim.  Then I sanded spots to give it a more shabby look.  The cover on the chair came from Sure-Fit slipcovers.

I just didn't know when to stop and stenciled the roses on top of the cabinet. 

I made the curtain, but they did not originally start out at curtains.  It was a quilt top that I had never made into a quilt and I needed curtains, so I cut the quilt in half, sewed a backing to them, made a rod pocket and they worked out perfect.  But then after I hung them I thought they didn't quite look frilly enough, so I hung lace behind them that hangs down beneath.  

Everything on the little white shelf is stuff I've made.  More pincushions and miniature pillows.  I also made that mini little quilt hanging under the clock.  It's a quilt of a sewing machine.  Oh, and notice the lamp shade on the right.  I made that, too.

These are some miniature quilts that I have made.  I  have thought about selling them, but I would have to ask so much for them that I doubt anyone would buy.  Besides that, they take me so long to make that I hate the though of parting with them.  I'll have to show more on these in a different post.

My mother and I also do counted cross stitching and she made this for me.  Isn't it just perfect?

I made this wreath many years ago, incorporating things I like into it.  It's maybe a little cheesy, but I love how I feel when I look at it.

So that's my cozy little sewing room.  It's not very big, and there's a lot crammed in there, but when I'm in there I just feel like I'm wrapped up in one big comfy quilt.  I hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoy being in it!

Elvis Was in the Building!

I'm sorry this isn't a better picture.  The lighting was terrible in our old lodge where Elvis was performing last night.  His name is Bill Barnhart.  He is an Elvis impersonator, of course, and he actually was pretty good. 

At the Lakeview Lodge, which is right across the little lake where we live, they had a dinner and a show with "Elvis" as the headliner.  What really made it fun was the audience.  We live in a very small community and so we knew just about everyone there.  The show started out a little slow, but after the crowd had a few drinks in them, especially the women, the audience participation and dancing was fun to watch on its own. We went with my parents and the majority of the people there were closer to my parents' age than my husband and mine, but those women, now in their 70's, got up there and danced like they were on American Bandstand.  Old Elvis just took them right back to their teen years.  It really was more fun than I was expecting.  I wish now I had my picture taken with Elvis.  Darn! too late.  Elvis has left the building!

Trying To Do It All

I just can't get it all done!  Too much to do, so little time!  I know, I say it all the time.  Most of us say it all the time.  Why?  How does this happen?  What to do about it?  It's not just the "Have" to do, there is also the long list of "Want" to do's.  Then comes in the issues of prioritizing, organizing and scheduling.  A big problem I have is feeling guilty if I put a "Want to" ahead of "Have to".  I feel like I can't do something I want to do until I have everything on my "have to do" list finished first.   At almost 53 years old, should I still be feeling like this? 
Now, sometimes the "want to's" and the "have to's" are on the same list.  Such as cleaning the house, which I really do sort of like to to, and cooking, which I like to do if I'm not rushed.  Outside work and gardening I like to do, but it is very time consuming and by this time of year I'm really almost tired of this job.  By the way, the last couple of days here have almost felt a little Autumn like and it feels good.  I think I'm almost ready for it.
If I could have a whole day of "wants", I would do a half hour of yoga or some sort of exercise in the morning, have my yogurt and coffee, then sit on the deck for a while and knit, then start a new miniature quilt that I've been wanting to do, have a quick and easy bite of a small dinner, watch the television shows that I like to watch while I knit some more.  All of this without an interruption or a request being made of me.  Dream on!! 
When the grandkids come to visit, both lists are pretty much set aside.  Some of the "have to's" still get done to a very limited degree.  And now with almost five grandchildren, the time spent with them is priority whenever possible.  Last weekend we took the two grandsons to the county fair.  We had just as much fun as they did.

The following day was Logan's 6th birthday party.  Bob and I and the GG's (my parents, the Great Grandparents) travelled the one and a half hours to my son and DIL's house for his little party.  It was a fun time and it also gave me the opportunity to hold my new little Leanna, now 6 weeks old.

Here's Little GG (my mother) holding Leanna. 

Anyway, I got a little off my topic there, but I just had to share about the grandkids. 
This week, the kids weren't around since they are in New York with their mother visiting her family.  I also spent a whole day catching up on the computer bookkeeping for our business.  I mean, a whole day!  I sat at this computer from 9 am until 5 pm.  My butt was sore.  I shouldn't let it get so behind like that in the first place. 
So now where does all that leave my knitting, sewing and blogging?  Yep, way down on the list. 
Here's the problem with a husband that works out of the house with a wife that works for him part time and also has a lot of other interests.  This is what I constantly hear all day long:  "What are you doing now?  What are you doing that for?  Shouldn't you be doing this, that or the other?  That's not necessary!  Do that later!"
You get the idea.  Don't get me wrong.  I love him dearly and I need and want to carry my end of the load, but every so often I need some alone time! 
So now on this beautiful summer/fall like day I'm going to take the dogs for a walk and ponder my "have to's", "want to's", and priorities and make some mental notes of adjustments that need to be made.  Then this evening my home alone son, my parents, Bob and I are going to see "Elvis".  Yep, that's right!  I'll take pictures.

Health and Fitness for Real Housewives - Part 3

Do you love ice cream in the summer?  I do.  And I try to limit myself in ways that I don't feel deprived, but still get a taste of it.  A couple of tips to not feel too, too guilty about having some ice cream:  First - don't buy it at the grocery store and keep it in your freezer.  If its there, and it's hot out, it's too tempting.  Disclaimer - I do buy ice cream for special events at my house such as birthdays or Thanksgiving, when there are going to be lots of family here to eat it all.   Second - when you go to buy a dish or a cone at your favorite Dairy Queen, ask for a baby cone.  You still get your craving satisfied without eating too much.  Third - frozen yogurt is a good alternative.   Fourth - Try this wonderful recipe from Kraft.  This tastes just as good as any ice cream and even my grandchildren loved it.

Raspberry Summer Sensation

                                    

What You Need

1 pt. (2 cups) raspberry sorbet, softened

1 cup cold milk

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

1 cup Raspberries

 Make It

LINE 9x5-inch loaf pan with foil. Spoon sorbet into prepared pan; freeze 10 min.

BEAT milk and pudding mix in large bowl with whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Gently stir in COOL WHIP; spread over sorbet in pan.

FREEZE 3 hours or until firm. To unmold, invert pan onto plate; remove foil. Let stand 10 to 15 min. to soften slightly before slicing to serve. Serve topped with the raspberries. Store leftovers in freezer.

I also followed these Healthy Living tips for this recipe.
Kraft Kitchens TipsHealthy Living

Save 1.5 grams of fat per serving by preparing with fat-free milk and COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping.

How to Soften Sorbet

Spoon measured amount of sorbet into microwaveable bowl. Microwave on MEDIUM (50%) 10 to 15 sec. or until slightly softened.

nutritional information per serving :

Calories 140 Total fat 4 g Saturated fat 4 g Cholesterol 0 mg Sodium 130 mg Carbohydrate 26 g Dietary fiber 1 g Sugars 18 g Protein 1 g Vitamin A 0 %DV Vitamin C 10 %DV Calcium 2 %DV Iron 0 %DV K:520 v0:52767

I kept this in the freezer for about a week, just keeping it covered in the loaf pan.  Then whenever you have that craving, just cut off a thin slice, top with some fresh raspberries, and it truly is delicious. 
ENJOY!!

PA Wilds and Elk Country

After our day on Saturday, I was just going to putz around the house on Sunday and catch up with my knitting, sewing, cleaning and re-organizing my sewing room and put up some listings on my Etsy site.  Well, My Bob decided he wanted to take a Sunday drive up north of here about an hour.  I tried to talk him out of this because I had my day all set in my head, but I'm glad he persuaded me.  We had a wonderful day and saw some beautiful parts of Western Pennsylvania. 
We've lived in Pennsylvania thirty years now and I think I have only been up into Northern Elk and Cambria Counties about twice.  And I had never seen parts of the counties we saw on Sunday.  Like I said, it's only about an hour drive but there really is no other reason to go there except to site see.  And the sites really are few except for the scenery itself.  It is absolutely beautiful.  Trees, forest and just land.  Very few buildings, people or cars.  The weather enhanced this as it was a gorgeous sunny day. 
Bob's initial desire for driving up there was to locate a grape orchard that he was told was up that way.  The Orchard where the winery we visited on Saturday gets their grapes.  We never did find it, but we came across the Elk Viewing Area that we have heard about for 30 years where people go to see Elk roaming and grazing.  I don't know why we never went.  I think because we see deer in our backyard daily, to the point of annoyance, so why do we want to see more of that.  Well, now I know.  First of all, the view is breathtaking.

There weren't any Elk out there and we found out from the young man (Game Warden, maybe) on duty that the elk's mating season is late September and early October and that is when people are flocking up there to see.  Can you imagine the view at that time of year with the colored leaves?  We've already decided that we're going back up on some nice Fall weekend.

Now, I have never seen an elk before and like I said, I'm picturing in my head a deer look alike with huge antlers, as in the first board above.  Even though I've lived here for 30 years, I'm not very knowledgeable in wildlife.  Well, Bob explained that only the males have the antlers.  The second board shows a female elk.  Duh!  I just never thought about it!

So as we continued just driving around, we were just noticing and commenting on how rural it really is up there and how "rough" the people seem to live.  And as we were just driving down a back road (more back than the "main" road) I pointed out to Bob that those people in that little cabin sure had some funny looking horses in their yard.  Bob immediately got a little excited and corrected me as he laughed that those weren't horses, they were female elk. 

So that's what they look like!?

A little further down the road, behind another old cabin, some more were just taking an afternoon nap.

The pictures can't give you the same feeling as seeing them in person.  Now I know.  I'm looking forward to going back in the fall.  Heck, it's only an hour away! 

It goes to show that there is so much to see in our own backyards.  We just don't take the time to look. 

On our way back home we decided to stop in a little pass through of a town called Medix Run and have something to eat at the Medix Hotel.  We were there once many years ago in the winter.  It's actually a real hot spot.  It's one of those dives that has really good food.  It's mainly a bar with a tiny little dining room, if you want to call it that, with peanuts all over the floor.  I think the sign said, "established in 1894".  And believe me, it has not been updated except for electrical appliances since.  It's a place that motorcycle riders gather in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter.

We sat outside on the deck and the wrap sandwiches were delicious.  They are especially known for their wings.  Then right across the street was a relatively new, and I say relatively because it was probably at least 50 years old, country store and gift shop.  We browsed in there for a few minutes and bought some home made apple butter.

It was like a day spent transported back in time.  You feel like you're back in the Old Frontier Days. 

Such fun!