He Looked Beyond My Faults

…and saw my Needs.  Praise God!

Have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend, everyone!

The Good Life

This morning, it was raining. Yay! I love sitting on the porch in the rain. It is so peaceful. Hubby was in bed, and I took my ‘necessities’ and enjoyed a few hours on the porch.

Later, when Louie woke up, he joined me on the porch for a visit, then he went to Subway and brought us back breakfast, and we ate on the porch. The rain soon stopped and the flies starting pestering us, and so ended my porch time. It was sure nice while it lasted!

Saturday, my new friend KT took me and another friend shopping.

Have a great week!

‘New’ Vintage Kitchen Table

Louie and I went shopping yesterday for a couple of banquet tables (see below), but of course, we went junkin’ too!

On our last stop, look what they JUST BROUGHT OUT OF THE BACK ROOM!!!! Oh MY GOODNESS!!! A green vintage kitchen table! It took me less than a minute to know that I had to have it.

When we got home, Louie immediately took the legs to his shop to hit them with the chrome polish and buffing wheel. They were kind of dull, but not anymore. There are a few spots where the chrome has bubbled, but overall, it is in good condition, and very sturdy.

It came alone, without any chairs, but that’s ok. I’ll just use my stackable chairs I have been using. There is no extension leaf, but that’s ok too. It’s just the two of us.

I am beyond thrilled at this new table. I always thought it would be nice to find a green vintage table like this, but I had never actively looked for one.

Among some of my other finds, was some fabric. The shoe fabric was bought at the same place the table was. There is 2 yards there. The bags of ‘scrap material’ as stated on the tags, and the pattern were found at the Salvation Army ‘As Is’ store. 

I also bought a flannel raggy quilt for $4.38. It’s colors are exactly my own! My silly hubby said I should just use if for ‘Show and Tell’ at quilting and say that I made it! Funny thing is, I think I have some of the very same fabrics downstairs, waiting to made into a raggy quilt. Sigh!

I found a cute kitchen towel to hang on my oven door. Sew cute! I like dresses, I just don’t like to wear them!!

Here is how it looks opened up. It has hook and loop to fasten it closed.

We went to Lowe’s to buy two banquet tables that were 5’ long. Lowe’s in Davenport did not have any 5’ long, so they sent us to Moline. The website showed this picture of the 5’ table.

What we got were two white 5’ FOLDING  tables. The photo below shows the 6’ table on their website, and the color is slightly darker, but it shows how they fold in half. I was thrilled to see that they folded in half, because they will be so much easier to handle, and store. I like that they are white, because you can lean them up against a white wall, and they are hardly noticeable at all.

Before we came home, we went to see the movie Hope Springs. Louie and I both liked it. Funny thing though, the theater was filled with people our age and older. I only saw one younger couple, and it looked like they were with a set of parents. Lots of couples though. A few groups of ladies. Definitely worth seeing.

 It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day, and I just might end up on the back of our Goldwing!

Have a wonderful day, whatever you do!

Michelle

Crispin’ Up The Steps

Saturday, my hubby took on a big project, and he did it all by himself. He told me ‘It should take about an hour, then we can do something the rest of the day’. Uh huh. I knew better.

Here are the steps before he started. When we had our retaining walls rebuilt several years back, the contractors built us a set of steps, as we had none before that. Those steps required maintenance, which we didn’t do a very good job of (apparently). (In our defense, we did, one time,  have a MAJOR eve spout overflow, which dumped tons of water right on our steps). They needed some ‘crispin’ up’, and weeded.

As you can see, the bricks were sinking and making an unsafe, and uneven stepping surface.

Top step in progress. He laid down landscape fabric to try to keep the weeds from growing, added sand/stone used to put under paving bricks to build it up to where it needed to be, tamped it down using the side of a big mallet, and then laid the bricks back in.

Much better!

So to recap…Before:

After:

Good job, honey! I appreciate your hard work. It looks wonderful.

What’s For Supper, Girls?

Mmmmm….Chili! Nice THICK chili!

It’ll be cooking all day. I can’t wait!

UPDATE: We had some good friends stop by, and we shared our chili with them. We had a great time visiting! Thanks D and J! We love you!

Never Walk Alone

What I’m Reading

Thank God, I am His.

 

This book, although fictional, sure has made me think of my own life and personal relationship with God, and I’m not even 1/4 of the way through the book. It makes me think of the things I have done in the past and of the choices I have made in life along the way. Have they all been pleasing to God? Have I done everything I need to do for His forgiveness? Most importantly, is my name in His book?

This book is a free ebook from Barnes and Noble if you are interested in reading it. It’s free on the Amazon site too.

This book could have been titled, ‘Scared Straight’.

Wrought Iron

I don’t know what it is, or was, in it’s former life, but I know that I liked it when I saw it at a resale shop in Indiana a few weeks back when we took a short vacation.

I didn’t know where I would put it when I found it, and paid $20 for it, but I knew eventually, I would find a place.

And I did. At the top of the basement steps, right inside the house from the garage.

Singer 404: Update

I have a confession to make. Of all the Singer straight stitch sewing machines, this model is my favorite. It is a straight stitch only, slant shaft sewing machine, and the it was the ‘lower end economy model’ of the 400 series when the Singer 401 was the ‘top of the line’, and the Singer 403 was the mid-range model. Each of these models have the same size, gear driven motors. These models are strong, and they can sew a lot faster than any of the newer home sewing machines. I don’t know how many stitches per minute they can sew, but in my mind, it must be close to 1500, as that is how many my Juki TL98E can sew.

I have had many of this model pass through my hands, and each time, I fall in love all over again. I’m not sure why. When I started collecting sewing machines several years ago, I found these often. Now, I don’t see them very often. At one time, I had about four of these. My friend Christie, at the time I had all four, hosted a sewing day here in my home for the ladies on her husband’s side of the family, and they all made a flannel raggy quilt. All four of my machines, and a few other of my machines were put into use that day. A few years ago, I donated them, and a bunch of other machines back to Goodwill. (That was before I knew of The Sewing Machine Project). This is the back of the ‘now clean’ Singer 404. I’ll start with the ‘after’ photos, then I’ll show you the ‘before’ photos.

It sews a beautiful stitch. That is the beauty of a straight stitch only sewing machine. The precision of the stitch is perfect, because the machine was not built to do any other stitches. There is no ‘play’ in the movement.

You’ll have to enlarge the photos to see the full extent of ‘dirty’. We found this machine for $4.99 in Madison Wisconsin, the day we delivered 21 sewing machine to The Sewing Machine Project. (We didn’t want to go home with an empty van!)

I believe it had been terribly neglected for many years, and I really don’t think it had been used much, as the original, although dry and brittle bobbin winder tire was still on the machine.

It was missing the bobbin cover slide plate, and the power cord.

Look at the lint and dust on the inner workings! I wonder if the machine sat above a heat register. I also wonder if the previous owner smoked.

I couldn’t believe the amount of lint I collected from the bobbin area. Just when I thought I had all the lint, I would find more. It reminded me of wool.

The back wasn’t too bad, just dusty, really, as was the foot control. We removed it from it’s cabinet, and the evidence can be found by the attached cabinet hinges.


The motor sounds strong and FAST, and we didn’t feel we needed to do anything with it, so we didn’t.
I am undecided at this moment on whether I will keep this machine, or donate it. Do I NEED it? No. Can I part with it? Not sure. I have decided to donate this machine. I have another. 
Am I the only selfish person who does things like this?
Have a great Sunday. We plan on a motorcycle ride. Unlike the 100+* temperatures we have been experiencing, the high today is only supposed to reach 82*. It should be a beautiful day!

How Do You Cook Your Eggs?

I used to cook my eggs in my Krups egg cookers, and that worked fine. (Confession: I have always failed with the water on the stove method, so these cookers were a Godsend to me). I have two of these cookers, and I can cook 14 eggs at a time, which is a good number, because I have an egg tray which holds 14 eggs. I cook that many at one time, and then I am ready to take eggs to work for break and lunch, and they last us all week, even if we use the eggs for other things during the week.

Last week, Jillee from One Good Thing posted about how to make a perfect egg by steaming them on the stove.

Essentially, that is what I have been doing with my Krups egg cookers, except that those cookers have a buzzer that goes off when all the water has evaporated. You then need to go turn the switch to off so the units don’t continue heating. The directions said to put the eggs round side down, and poke a tiny hole through the shell at the top.  They are a bit messy to clean up too.

Jill’s method did give me another idea though! I have a couple of these Steamers that I steam vegetables in. I love these steamers. I usually throw cauliflaur, or broccoli, or cut up potatoes and onions, or cabbage, etc in these steamers, set the timer for 35 minutes, and when the timer ‘dings’ the cooker shuts itself off, and  supper is ready. I got to thinking this might be a better way to cook my eggs. I could put 14 eggs in the ‘basket’, fill the bottom with water, set the timer for 30 minutes, walk away, and they could take care of themselves. The water all stays in there, and collects in the tray under the ‘basket’. There is virtually no cleanup. I didn’t even poke the eggs like I did with the other cookers.  I cooked these this morning while I was getting ready for work. I needed one to take to work, so I put one in ice water, with a couple ice cubes, and it was ready to go. I didn’t have time to put them in their tray, so I put the basket itself in the refrigerator, and went to work.

It worked great, and my steamer is now my new way of cooking eggs! So much easier!

Perfect!!!