This and That…Just Chatter

Everyone that knows me, knows that I am not a gardener. I don’t plant flowers, although I love them. I don’t have a green thumb, and gardening gives me nightmares from our HUGE HUGE HUGE garden when I was a kid. I had to help pull weeds, mow the lawn, and ‘trim’ with those AWFUL clippers that looked like funky scissors.  

Our garden was as wide as our lot, and at least a lot and a half long. Our whole yard ran from the street, and connected with the highway behind us. (I’m guessing we must have had 3 lots). My stepdad planted 40 rows of potatoes, then there was corn, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and carrots (and I can’t remember WHAT else). There were 7 kids at home at one time, and we washed 6 loads of laundry every day, and hung it all out on the line in the summer time.  In the winter, it was an all day event just to do laundry. We won’t even talk about supper dishes!

Anyway, I took these pictures a week or two ago.  These three peony bushes are the only flowers in my yard. They are along the right hand side of my driveway. They were here when we bought the house, and every year, they make my yard beautiful. (Thank you Leona!)

 

The sad thing is, they only last anywhere from a few days, to maybe a week, at best. I can always count on a rainstorm to destroy them in no time flat. Yes, this is what they look like now (Insert sad face here).

Have any of you ever made the mistake I did when we first moved here, and brought a few of these beauties in your home, just to find out you had invited in a bunch of HUGE BLACK ANTS???  Oh, why don’t I know about these things beforehand? Why do I always have to learn the hard way?  Did you know that what people say about peonies needing ants to open the buds is not true? It’s a myth. Click HERE.

It’s been a rainy weekend here in Iowa, so yesterday, Louie and I went junkin’ and grocery shopping. Can I just say that at least the junkin’ was fun? We found a few fun items for ebay.  One of the items, I probably won’t part with for a little while, but eventually I will, is a 503 Singer Rocketeer sewing machine. I always fall in love with these machines when they pass through my hands.  I am reminded each time what wonderful machines they are.  I always I tell Louie, ‘GET AWAY, this one’s  mine!’, but eventually, I part with it, because after all, who can’t use a few extra bucks?  I will be going over it in a little while here, by cleaning, oiling, and testing it out. We rescued it from Goodwill, and removed it from it’s cabinet, then left the cabinet to be resold. It does have a few chips along the edge of the front, and one on the bed, and Louie just repainted part of the hand wheel (unfortunately in NOT the original color) because it was all chipped up from someone banging it up with the extension table that flips up on the right hand side. Despite a few chips, it will be a very nice machine. The 503’s have a gear driven motor, which is very strong, and you would be amazed at how many layers of fabric you can sew through. This machine is also VERY fast. I think that is what I love about these machines. The Singer 400 series sewing machines fall in the same category.

And…if you all don’t know by now, I have a sewing machine obsession…. ‘Hi, my name is Michelle, and I have an addiction to sewing machines!’ (Bett’rn than drugs, eh?)

Anyway,, as I went through the accessory box (an old christmas card box, as the original is gone), I found three bobbins that had thread on them. Excuse me while I go off in another direction for a moment…..

Do you know how I met my friend Sue? 

Several years ago, I belonged to a sewing machine yahoo group call Featherweight Fanatics. I posted to the group and asked, ‘WHY WHY WHY, did women wind bobbins with so many dang colors of thread that were only a couple of feet long? What the heck were they thinking?????  Sue replied that was how women did things several years ago. They used every inch of thread they had, as women didn’t have lots of thread like we do now days.  Well, Geez Louise! They couldn’t have had a very good sewing experience when they had to stop every minute and take the bobbin out, pull the thread out, and bring it back up through the throat plate when they ran out of thread!! Besides….half the time, I bet they couldn’t even get the thread to unwind from the bobbin! What a FUN sewing experience THAT must have been!!!! 

Anyway, that question left me frustrated with the bobbins (and continues to), but I found a GREAT friend, who I still have today. (Did I mention I love the internet?)

Here is one of the bobbins. See how wonderfully even it is wound?

 

See all the different colors of thread?

I had to get out my razor knife and cut across the threads to even get the thread off the bobbin! There’s no way it would have unwound nicely. I would have to give up sewing if that was the way women saved money today. 

All three bobbins are empty now.  Isn’t that pile of thread beautiful? So colorful!

 

So, even though it is gloomy outside today in Iowa, I am still thankful for the gift of a beautiful day that God has provided for me. I am thankful for my health, my job, and for all my friends and loved ones. Please do have a wonderful day, surrounded by people you love, and have fun doing what you love to do.  I also would like to give all of you these beautiful virtual flowers to brighten your day, and I promise, there are no ants on them!

be blessed,

Michelle