Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Propserous New Year.

The girls were happy with their hand knitted hats. Other than working on seven tileboards for a friend and going to school every weekend for the last three months, I haven't done much crafting. But at least I am still alive and kicking. Blessing to you all.

RRR

Our "Southern Mansion"

I know, I know. Where the tarnation has RRR been and what has she been working on?

First let me say that my computer hard drive crashed and that put me out of business for quite awhile. There's a love/hate thing going on with me and computers.

Well, I haven't been doing a lot, but I have started working on Christmas presents :)

As you will see from the slideshow above, we have (ahem..DH has) been very busy sprucing up our humble abode. You will also see pictures of our greenhouse and our Jack in the Beanstock tomato plants (that term was coined by our neighbor).

"Them dern maters taste just like sunshine." I have put up several quarts of tomatos and salsa. We have given away AND eaten much more than I have put up though.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that life is going on somewhere in central Nevada.

Happy Trails to all
RRR

Look at My Latest Creation

Just taking a moment to show you my latest creation. Been working on tile boards again and wanted to try something a little different using decorative paper for the edging. Let me know what YOU think.

RRR

This Plan Will Work

This is from an article in the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday.

The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?"

I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr. President:

Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander
the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the
following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

It can't get any easier than that!

If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes...

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

If not, please disregard.

You should see my front yard

because it looks SOOO much different than it did two weeks ago. Two weeks ago I had 8 trees in my yard. Last week I had none and this week I have four.

We (DH) and I decided to start work on this fixer upper we live in. The trees were very old, some were diseased and some were just ugly. DH sawed them off and the backhoe pulled them out. I was most worried about the cinder block wall that my father built and was sure glad the backhoe operator didn't damage it. Thanks dude!

The same day DH was having the trees removed, I was on my way to buy new ones. In one of our past abodes DH had planted me a Purple Robe Locust and it turned out to be my all time favorite. It's blossoms are purple and hang down like grape clusters. It is a very fast growing tree and is beautiful and provides great shade. DH placed the 4 trees I bought to align with the center of each window on the front of the house so from every window I will be able to see a Purple Robe Locust. Isn't that just the best thing you've ever heard?

Yesterday we went out of town to pick up our 8X10 (I think that is the dimension) greenhouse. We also got a new window for my office as the other day when the wind was blowing just right, I could see the blinds blowing. Actually sounded like a Nor’ eastern was blowing thru my office.

It is going to be such a pain to put the new window in my office because I have this HUGE oaken desk and a plethora of electronic gadgets and files (quite the mess) to move so DH can get in here to work. UGH! Anyone volunteer to come help me move the stuff outta my office so I can get the new window installed? I didn't think so, wish I could be gone that weekend too. :)

I am so excited about the greenhouse. I know absolutely nothing about growing things in a greenhouse so any and all suggestions will be welcome. I did buy some starter plants yesterday, got two tomato plants and a pepper plant and some herbs. I was looking for Comfrey and you just don't see that at Lowe's or Home Depot. I want to make a salve out of that as it makes a great healing concoction.

On the way home yesterday I told DH that we should get some chickens to put in the yard once we get the fence reestablished. Boy did I get an ugly look............LOL.

I hate chickens, the only way I like chickens in frozen. I remember when I was a young lass, an old beat up ornery rooster used to attack me every time I tried to feed.............but that is a story for another time.

Also found some resin so I can do more tileboards. Had lunch at Red Robin. You have to remember that I live in the middle of rural Nevada and to go to the city is an all day trip, we try to make the most of it. All in all it was a great day.

Gotta go now and do my two miles on the treadmill. Sigh! Being beautiful and intelligent and talented and....takes so much effort. JK......have a GREAT week.

RRR

Just Back from Krafting Korner

If you have read many of my posts you will know that I love to do crafty things. All kinds of crafty things. I like knitting best of all but I do crochet, sewing, painting etc.

Maybe you remember me mentioning the college age kid got jewelry making tools for Christmas because of a class she was taking and she has had too much fun with it.

Not to be outdone I had to try it myself. Wire wrapping is more challenging than I expected and my friend Karen makes it look too easy. Guess I will just have to keep on practicing. Gives me something to do on my Fridays.

The pictures shown are of a wire wrapped dichroic pendant and a simulated white turquoise pendant. I really like how the silver wrap turned out and it was my second attempt.

Let me know what you think?

Many Many Blessings

I am just beside myself with all the wonderful things that have been happening lately. OM gosh, I don't know where to begin.

I will start with what happened yesterday. Take a look at my Tile Board creations below. I now have someone that wants to market my work and they will provide all the pictures. How cool is that?

What's really awesome about this endeavor is that my DH and I work on the project together. That makes these projects so much fun.

When the tile board is dry, the back of it needs to be sanded down and painted so that you can add the metal hanger and have it ready to hang.

I am usually in a bit of a hurry to get the project done and might fudge a bit on the drying time, this takes 72 hours. Instead of laying the tile boards face down on a towel for sanding, DH developed a method that amazed me.

He puts his sander in the vice, locks it in so that the sanding paper is face up and locks the trigger in place so that it runs by itself. Then he takes the completed tile boards and holds just the edges to the sander and never has to lay the tile board on something that may damage the resin. Isn't that just the coolest thing?

He is looking into buying the wood in 4 X 8 sheets so he can make custom boards for me. I am not exactly sure where we can get the wood but we have used particle board and that worked out ok.

Looks like I have an up and coming Tile Board business. If I wiggled any more I would just fall off of my chair.

Looking further into my posts, you will find pictures of a sweater I made that MaryAnna Clemons wrote about in an article called "Purposeful Knitter".

I had purchased some more yarn and was going to make up another sweater but I ordered a worsted weight instead of a bulky. I started casting on and had done a few rows and it just didn't look and feel right. I was afraid it was going to be too small and needed advice.

I sent MaryAnna an email and asked for her advice. She sent me back an email and even praised my work. Now, how cool is that? I personally think my Neapolitan sweater looks a little odd but I told myself I had creative license. Fancied myself a designer. LOL. But can you imagine that? She answered me back just like DK from the Nautical Knitter did. I guess I thought these very talented ladies would be too busy for lil ole me. WRONG. Thanks ladies.

DK, I was thinking about you this morning, yep, I am fixing to get out the Estes Park Shawl that I started working on and get it finished. I am feeling strong and brave.

My daughter's jewelry making enterprise is going very well. She has sold several pieces and that makes me very happy cause then I don't have to subsidize her as much. Wahoo.

The best thing is that there have been changes to my Infinity 800 business and it is just booming. Take a look at my new landing page at

www.blessedlink4infinity.com

Thank you for the Unlimited Blessings Team. You guys are the best. We are truly thankful and blessed for all that you do. Love you Paulette.

Last but not least, my son is on the way to visit. It has been a long time since he has been able to get away for a visit. He has made some remarkable things lately and we are very proud of him. GREAT job, son.

Whew, now I better go check my lottery numbers as I just know I have the winning ticket. ;)

Born Again American

I just finished watching the most incredibly uplifting, well put together video that I have ever seen.

During these troubled times when we are on the brink of financial ruin, people unified in a classic venue through music and show the world that no matter your age, your gender, your color, your age, your geographic location, that we are all AMERICANS. They joined forces through music and song to show the world that we all can work together to make our world a better place.

This is a must see http://www.bornagainamerican.org/
When prompted to show the lyrics, please read along as they sing.

Please let me know what you think.

RRR

My Latest Creations

I just completed my most current project, tile boards, for a friend that runs The Belmont Inn, a bed & breakfast in Belmont Nevada. http://www.belmontinn.com/







The pictures were taken during the annual Belmont Days Celebration. What great fun.

I had fun doing the tile board for Henry & Bertie and want to thank my friend Karen of Karen's Krafts and my DH for all the help in the completion of this project.

The picture below looks surreal but is actually a real picture taken during roundup. The lady that took the picture did an awesome job of capturing that incredible shot. Wish you could see that picture without the camera flash..............

A True Entrepreneur

We gave our engineering student daughter, jewelry making tools for Christmas and she has created some unique and beautiful items. Look at this beautiful heart necklace.
To see other items created by Jessie, go to

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=30568815&albumId=2643848

I gotter done

I am so proud of myself. I finished a knitting project. It was an interesting project because it was not a "traditional pattern" nor was it a charted pattern. A friend of mine subscribes to a "Hobby Farm Home" magazine, January/February 2009 issue and it had an article entitled "The Purposeful Knitter".

It was six pages of the author talking about growing up and learning to knit and intertwined was the instructions on how to intuitively knit a top down sweater. I was intrigued and decided to give it a try.

I had some rather nubby yarn in the stash that I thought would work up nicely. I usually stay away from real "wool" because it makes me itch. This yarn didn't bother me until I slipped the turtleneck and top section over my head. That's when I realized we may have a problem.

Although I am pleased with how it turned out, if I were to make another one there are several things I would do different. It would be for me and I would choose the softest yarn in a pale color that I could find that was consistent in structure. The yarn I used was probably hand spun and went from very thin to very fluffy.

Since I am tall, I would make the body longer and may make the sleeves less tapered. The thought process on the color scheme was a Neopolitan Ice cream theme. Next time I would make sure I had 1200 plus yards of maybe a cashmere or even a faux seude.

All in all it was a good experiment and I really enjoyed it. I am very thankful my dear sweet sister always agrees to be my model. She said the sweater is very warm. Thanks hon. If you look real close at the picture, in the background you will see the beginning of a tileboard project. I can multitask. lol

The friend that gave me the pattern will be the recipient of the sweater. AND, if she doesn't like it for whatever reason, no prob. I will rip it out and use the yarn over in a felting project and say "dang that was fun and I actually learned something new".

See DK, told you I would finish something. Not as pretty and flashy as your shawls but that's coming ;)

RRR

Happy New Year 2009

We all had a wonderful holiday and look forward to a prosperous and rewarding New Year.
I didn't get as many hand crafted gifts done as I would have liked, but plan on doing better next year.

At the moment, I have three crochet afghans that are each about 1/6 of the way done....ok, maybe they will be ready by next Christmas. I have one pair of knitted socks on a 40 in circular needle and just recently started a top down knit sweater that used more of a blueprint than a pattern. Once my friend Jenny taught me the CORRECT way to use stitch markers on this pattern, it started shaping up nicely. I started out using those split stitch markers and moved it within my knitting rather than from one needle to the next. Bless Jennie as she is the most patient and wonderful teacher and friend.

There are several projects that I have put on the back burner for the time being. Don't tell DK the Nautical Knitter that I put the Estes Park Stole down for awhile, but if you do, let her know I do plan on finishing it. :)

The original shawl that got me started on this path, dang that Debbie Macomber, Alix's Shawl is also on the back burner. I started reading the pattern and then switched to reading the chart and ..............sigh. I was even reluctant to have Jennie help me with this one again. Maybe now that the holidays are over I can get back to them. I am very close to finishing the top down sweater and then I am going to work on one project at a time until I get them all done. Famous last words.

Blessings to you and yours and until next time
RRR