Recycled Wine Bottle Torch

My son made the bottles a couple of years ago, and had them sitting around the deck.

Beautiful lighting in the evening. 

Now that our grandchildren are over, 

and they love to play out there.

Had to get them up.

Saw this on Pinterest,

Ran to Menards,

to "Save Big Money,"

got the parts, 

and there you have it.

You can go here to see all the parts and pieces you'll need.

http://www.designsponge.com/2009/08/diy-project-eriks-recycled-wine-bottle-torch.html

Kiwi Moment

KIWI MOMENT

Some of you may not know what this is, 

if you click on the kiwi, on the right hand side of the blog, 

you'll get an explanation there.

Now for this moment

A friend, we will call Mexican Martha, 

went to the big city of New York.  

She is from little old Crystal Rock, 

a spit on the map.

 This little community consisted of Mexicans and Hillbillies,

no lie, I came from there.

But there was no better place to grow up.

Back to Martha, 

We Mexicans are not known for our height,

tortillas, yes!

She is no bigger than a minute.

 Her and hubby were touring the city,

 and felt very out of place.

Well Martha had to go to the bathroom.  

Once she finds one, goes in does her job, 

washes her hands.  

Looks around, NO towels.  

OK, she sees the blower.

 Her hands dripping she goes up and realizes they want her to deposit some change. Not familiar with the ways of the big city, she figures they charge for everything. She puts her wet hands in her purse to get a coin. 

Drops the coin in and leans forward to dry her hands.  

Remember she is no taller than the machine, 

which is eye level to her. 

Instead of air drying her hands 

a squirt of perfume comes out and shoots her in the eyes.

She grabs her eyes with her wet hands 

and was worried that she is going to get raped and pillaged, 

while going blind.

Now wouldn't you think she would have had enough sense to read what the machine was for.

She said she was alone and nervous.

Poor little Mexican, 

went home with her sombrero between her legs!

Another Great Auction Deal!

Went to an auction last night.

And this little beauty came home with me.

And are you ready for this

Three pieces, cast iron. 

50 Cents

That's Right!

A sweet elderly gentleman got it with a lot of items he bid on

I went and asked if he wanted it. I didn't think he would, knowing it would be heavy. And come to find out the base was buried half way down, as you can see from the dirt line.

But just so happens, 

I had a shovel in one of the box lots I purchased.

A little digging and a lot of muscle and

I delivered that little baby direct from Mother Earth.

It was a tough birth though,

 weighing in at about 175 lbs.

But this little girl was coming home with mama, 

she was worth the labor!

She even came with the dirt.

He said he paid 1.00 for the whole lot,

which consisted of: 

My Planter

cement goose with a broken neck

(and that's what he was after)

4 Yard sticks

( which I have a fetish for, he gave me 2) 

Two cement small animal ornaments

Yard tools

Handicap tub bench

and a TV stand

All for 1.00

He only took the 2 yard sticks and the goose.

Left the rest. 

So he told me .50 would buy the planter.

What a great night.

I'm A Genius!

Or I saw this somewhere, tucked it away in my 

subconscious, and then claimed it as an idea of my own.  

Yeah that sounds about right.

Either way, great way to keep those boots from sagging.

Little hard to make out, 

but there is a pants hanger, clipped to the boots.

And I have Jesus there, keeping an eye on things. 

The gold pipe cleaner has a heart on the end of it,

my son made this for me when he was a little boy. 

OOOH Baby!

Saw this calendar at an auction 

and starting shooting pics of it, until the auctioneer gave me the stink eye.

I guess he wanted me to bid on it, instead of taking the shots for free.

Ethel and I decided this was us 

in our younger years as quilters

This Is How Cheap I Am!

My daughter and I have motion sensor soap dispensers.

We love them! 

When we ran out of soap, 

 we tried to open them to refill.

Well Lysol isn't going to let you do that,

 you have to buy new ones.

The jokes on them, 

a drill and a cork fixed that little problem.

Yeeaaaa, were stickin it to the man!

And like Hunter says,

TA-DA!!

To Be Young!

Wouldn't it be nice, if the only thing 

you had to worry about was, who can throw 

the rock the farthest. 

Exploring the shoreline, Raegan ran across this dead carp.

 I know gross,

 but she was fascinated by it, 

poking a stick at the bones and eye holes.

Great opportunity for a science lesson. 

Papa had to explain the food chain process, 

how seagulls dine on this delicacy.

She wanted to bring it home.

I swear that child is going to be a vet, she was even a doctor/vet for Halloween.

 And check out below her "collection" of animals.

This kept her busy for quite some time!

Reminded me of a Mexican dance.

If you've ever been to one, you'd know what I mean.

They dance in circles.

Redo

Here you have a metal table Ethel and I purchased at an auction last summer.  Came with 4 chairs.

5 Dollars!

My girl needed a larger one, so there you go Sis.

Little spray paint to match the chairs she already had

and you have a perfect match.

Amazing how the pattern matched her existing chairs.

It didn't come with the glass top. 

Someone was throwing that out in Ethel's neighborhood.

She gave me a call, to get the measurement of the table, and low and behold,

 God was shinning on us again. 

IT FIT!

Little over hang, but who cares more space.

Ever hear the saying "Don't awaken the beast"

Well we have learned our lesson with this one.

He is the nastiest, most unpleasant person to be around if he sleep is disturbed.  Him and Papa went for quite a lengthy walk and Hunter didn't make it home. 

So tilt the stroller back and let him be.

And when he wakes up on his own time we get,

Smiles and 

"I'm happy"

English Paper Piecing

Here's the start of my next quilt.

 Do you see stars or boxes?

Both!

These are just a fraction of the stars or boxes to come. 

But I was so excited to post, 

so here you go.

 You start with what ever color combination you like.

The finished size of the diamonds measures 2 1/2 "

So you cut strips of fabric 2 1/8 wide and use the 60 degree mark on your ruler to get all of these little gems.

These are the templates I use, they come in a package of 60

The holes in the center make it easy to pop them out once you join them together.  If your interested I can supply you with these just contact us.  

Next: Use paper clips on two of the sides,

 it makes it easier to baste around the template. 

Fold at the points and stitch to the next point. 

No precision needed here.
But do pull the corners and fold as tight as possible.

Baste all the way around and don't do like I did with the one on the right.  Well I guess you can, all you have to do is clip it when you are ready to pop it out,

 but why make and extra step for yourself

 because the sides will be joined.

Face two right sides together, whip stitch along one side. 

Add the next color, and so on, 

until you have your star completed. 

 Next add the two white stars, they are your background. 

Then you end up with a bunch of these. 

And then it's puzzle time!

The trick is to have each star or box surrounded by white.

Scroll back up to the first picture 

and I think I laid them out correctly, 

with the few I have completed. 

It's mindless stitching. 

My kind of needlework!

Everything you need fits into one little box, 

grab and go. 

You can go to this site and Jess my new best friend has a video on how to do this, you will meet George also.

http://lifeunderquilts.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

I'll keep you posted on my progress!
Thanks for stopping by!!

Thank You Will and Sam!

Our neighbors out grew their swing set.

So we carried it across the street, to our yard.

Funny, I refused to have one when my, now adult children were little.

Our yard, was the go to yard.

And I didn't want 17 kids out there

trying to kill themselves on it.

The school was one block away, they could handle the weight of everyone.

But my Pride and Joy get everything!

Here's their mother after we assembled it.

Just need to put the roof on.

Don't you love neighbors like that?