Overwhelmed

I am completely and totally overwhelmed. I have done it to myself and I cannot blame anyone els...OK, I can blame Erwin, but what else is new.
Again I have started way too many projects at one time and I cannot seem to settle down to just one.

1) I still have one more quilt to finish and mail. I should get the backing on it today. Then all that is left is the quilting, which I will do by machine, and the binding, which will also be done by machine. Then, off to FedEx whoo hoo!

2) I have started knitting a small rug for my laundry room. I know, one more project, but AC Moores had the yarn on sale for $.99 a skein. I love Peaches and Cream Yarn, and a sale...an irresistible mix. The pattern is very simple and I am using it as my travel project.

3) I bought oodles of lovely pink yarn sort of rose colored for a sweater that a friend said was easy and that I should try.....I might hate her by the time this is over, ha.

4) I am still working on my two socks on one needle project. Hint: No matter how messed up it gets DO NOT take them off the needle and then put them back on...no,no,no. I have a space relationship problem anyway, and this just about took me to my crazy place. I think I have salvaged this, but I am not sure. I hope to finish this and I don't think I will try it again. With all the moving and fiddling and counting I could have finished one sock by now, but no, I have two socks unfinished.

5) Mother's Day is on its way. I have invited the family here in Chas. to our house for lunch...what was I thinking? I will have it catered by Sam's. They have good chicken salad, croissants and cake. So all I have to do is a salad and iced tea.
I still have to clean house somewhat and just get it together. Oh bother!

6) I have been to Wed knitting, Thurs knitting, Monday and Sunday knitting. In other words, I could be in a knitting group every day of the week. I went to these to eliminate the ones I did not want to join.

Decisions have been made!

I love the James Island group that meets once a week. I cannot go every week due to the distance from here, so I will go twice a month. The Sunday group is just too much, so that will have to be back to one or twice a month. The Summerville group only meets once a month, so that one I can keep.

The West Ashley group is changing to a more more pro-active group...in other words they want to do activities, etc. Don't know if I want to do that. So that one is on hold for a while. Not that I am anti-charity, I am just not in town on a regular basis, so I'm not very dependable.

Folk Art Fri is on hiatus til Sept. The redwork group is also nonexistent till Sept.

So the way it looks now is Monday two times a month, Summerville once a month and Sunday when it suits me. Whew, that was a soul searching exercise.

7.)I went to Spinning class last night. What fun! I can use my drop spindle now. I just need to practice. I want to go to a few auctions to see if I can find a small
wheel that is not too expensive. Yeah, me and 500 others want that.

8.) Clean Clean Clean. I have company coming in June.YEA!!!!! But as of this moment, only one extra bed and there are two coming.
Solution? I went to World Market and bought a chair that makes a twin bed. Hope that link works, it is very long. Go to World market and furniture and twin sleeper chair if you are really interested. I am wondering if I could use this in my camper? Small room, so when it is not a bed it is a chair. Cool. I will have my quilt done by then (YES I will, so hush) so the table will go back against the wall - instant walking space, plus a place to put the suitcase or bag or whatever. Yarn books, magazine, quilt books...so bedtime reading. I see an argument looming over who gets to sleep in a chair, so funny.

What I should be doing...

For some reason I went rambling in my closet and found all the old pictures. I should be packing for a trip to Myrtle Beach, but no. Here I sit
This usually makes me very sad to look at old pictures, but today I found them comforting and funny.

I think these are the only pictures I have of Jon and that is sad. She was such a part of our lives. now she is a big part of our memories. Watching the sheep dogs work Saturday reminded me of her, so I am glad these turned up.

 

 

 

 

More Middleton Gardens

Look here for tourist info

 

 

 

 

What a day!

Today was perfect, just perfect. I went to Middleton Place for the first time in 30 years. I went by myself and had a wonderful day. It was a beautiful day for pictures. If I can ever get photobucket to take my pictures, I will post them.
There was a fiber exhibition and a working dog exhibition.





I went to see the sheep dog exhibition,


the spinners, and the dyers. I had a wonderful day. PLUS All of the wildlife was out to play. So much fun.
I think is one of the few times I have ever done the tourist thing by myself. It may become a habit. Middleton is expensive, $25 a ticket. It is good for the whole day which is nice. You can take a picnic lunch if you like. There are plenty of benches in the shade. And Lots of animals.
The last time I was there, one of the kids was in Kindergarten. I went as a Mom helper. One of the Mom's was a "fashion" plate all dressed to the nines to go on an outdoor field trip with a bunch of K grade kids.She was the type that felt like everything had to be explained after she called the kid's name and spoke in a very slow artifical pace. We were standing in a petting arena when one of the goats decided to eat the bottom of her straw purse.....Did I tell her?
Today I saw no goats, but did see alpacas.



You enter the gardens through this archway



which leads to a small rectangular reflecting pond.



If you watch the shaking branches and look very closely, you might find one of these monsters of the green


Cute little squirrel isn't he.
I did not go on the house tour. That was another $25. So I spent my time just wandering and looking.There is the carriage ride with the big draft horses



These horses have the biggest feet!



Then on down to the walk near the Ashley River.













As you can tell it was a perfect day...So grab your camera and see if you can find pretty places in your town to photograph.

Spin, Quilt ,Knit, Sew, and Repeat

This has been about the busiest month that I can remember. I have been on the go just about every day, and those days I have been home have been spent in my craft room.
I finished the second twin quilt and it is just as cute as the first one. That just leaves one more that is already cut out and on its way to being pieced.
Note: We have the quilt rack hung! Now to find the quilts that go on it. We have redone that section of our house three times and we still aren't satisfied, but it is better.

Talking about finding things. My cross stitch patterns were all missing. I have opened boxes, taken apart drawers and cabinets and searched high and low for them I was convinced they were in this house. Yesterday we went to visit our poor lonely camper out in the storage lot and there were my patterns. Whew what a relief. Since someone appropriated (stole???) my Charleston Sampler for her apartment I need to make me one....or send her the pattern to make me one. Bet I would get mine back lickety split!

Talk about losing things. I am still missing 2 quilts. Have not the foggiest where they are.

We went to the World Famous Grits Festival in St. George.
What a disappointment. We went years ago and it was great, but this time we went on Friday and maybe things weren't set up yet. There were very few crafts and those that were there were not of good quality and expensive. Plus the weekend before, a sister and I had gone to the Azalea Festival here in Summerville along with about 40,000 other people and it was fabulous. At the Grits Festival I bought a T shirt because it was lavender and that was it!

I have been to numerous Meet ups here in the area all to do with knitting.

Have you heard about MeetUps.com? If you are interested in starting a group or joining a group that has similar interests to your then go to MeetUps, put in your zip code and it will spit out all the groups in your area. Too fun.
I met a lady at one of the meeting that does the most beautiful pictures and has them on the web. Plus her blog is pretty funny too. I met another lady that works with an organization called Newborns in Need . Woo Hoo there go my baby hats to a good cause, right here in the area.

Darling daughter, you will be glad to know that I signed up for a drop spindle class here in S'Ville, May 4 and May 11. Can't wait!

I have been off and on working on a baby shrug. I finished it. Due to the size yarn I used and the needle size, it will fit a small doll. But I now know how to pick up and knit and it turned out rather cute. Bought more yarn (Naughty, naughty) to do another one. This one is definitely a proto type.

I am still working on the genealogy thing. It is so much fun. I have had some really nice pictures sent to me that I will post soon. One is of my mother when she was about 18. She was a beauty! No wonder my dad treated her like royalty.

The redwork quilt is coming along nicely, but slowly. I have 3 blocks finished and 3 more to go then put it together and voila another project off the boards.

I have had nothing but computer problems lately. Slow to start...then found out every program I have was in the start up menu...How did that happen?? Then the network card quit. Plus Mr Security put an 18 digit password on the network. Guess he still thinks he has nuclear secrets or something, Geez! We have so many computers around here, I hate to get another one, but this laptop is about 8 years old at least. It has been reformatted and disk cleaned and still si slow..............
We will see..........

Things I am working on in my spare time

Strange things can happen in the land of genealogical research.
I was just looking over my files and thought just once more I will type my great grandfather's name in the search and see what happens. An explosion happened. I found his picture. He was very tall...what happened boys?
He sort of had that "Abe Lincoln 'look.
There is another picture, but it is not as good.
There is a man that lives in Yorktown, VA working on the Hines/Hinds side of the family. Mary Meece, my ggrandmother married a Hines before she married PF Baker. He had a few pictures of my grandfather, Luther and a picture of PF. His nickname was "Big Pete" and I can see why.
I know this is boring to some of you but it is amazing that I lived for 10 years near this relative and worked within 5 miles of his home.I am stunned that there are pictures from the 1800's floating around in 1's and 0's in space of my family.
Also funny that so much is written now about blended families, yet most of the families I have researched have had second families, and even up to 17 children that lived in the home from different families.
Maybe we are becoming a generation of complainers..always looking to blame some one for our unhappiness...but you know
You take your party with you....
The man has finally gotten interested in researching his side of the family now. Competitive spirit got him I guess...If I can find 2 photos he is sure he can find more, ha!
I have found another relative that fought in the Revolutionary War and lived in S.C.
Now I am trying to track down how one of my ggrands had so much land. He lived on what we would call a plantation, hmmmmm

New Technology

I am such the techno GEEK... I want a Sony book reader so bad I can taste it..why? Cause It is out there and I don't have it.. I want a small pocket book sized computer, see the afore mentioned reason. ( Is there such a word as "afore"? Sounds so much more learned than "Previously")
But ta da....My new phone...It is a Palm Centro, works from the Palm OS, which I am familiar with. It will not synch to my Palm, thank you Verizon since the system is set up to only work with Verizon, but I can beam things from my phone to the Palm....where there is a will there is a "work around", right?

I am still trying to find my way around all the things it can do. BUT the one thing that I did find that I could do is amazing. I can download my entire genealogy file into the phone. Can you imagine that! All 300+ people with their lineage right at my fingertips. Amazing. It takes fair pictures so that is good. I never intend for it to supplant my camera. I can access the internet, if I can figure that out...haven't tried, haven't needed to.
Sometime this week we plan to go downtown and take Spring pictures for all of you still frozen people. Everything here is in bud or bloom.