Trick or Treat!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

(painting by "Mandy")

Just curious how people celebrate Halloween in other countries, if you do celebrate.

Cindy Bee

How did the Walton's do it?

We went on a hayride, visited a farmer, fed some cows, and played with the chickens. We walked through the woods on a hiking trail.

Winston got in the cow pen and got very muddy.

We had a bonfire, ate smores, did crafty stuff, and are now watching Little Women.

It looks like fun and games....but one of them left the gate open and the dogs got out. Why she was messing with the gate is beyond me. I sent her outside to brush the straw out of her hair, not to open the gate. One of them has pooped her pants three times. As she pointed her finger in my face, she informed me that she is not telling her Mom and I better not either! She also refuses to call me Cindy. She is calling me Mrs. Kelsey. No one even knows a Mrs. Kelsey. Two of them stuffed the last of the dessert in their face so they wouldn't have to share it. One of them got mad at me because I wouldn't do more crafts. It was 9:30! One of them won't stop talking during the movie, at all. Will. Not. Stop. Talking.

I hope we are making memories and I'm not just griping all the time. How did Mrs. Walton do it?

Cindy Bee

What I've been doing...

My bees are all snuggled in for the winter. I still have a couple of things to do, which I'll explain later, but for the most part, they are ready. And I didn't have anywhere I HAD to be this week. Besides the grocery store. So I've been practicing making more of these crochet holders. They look easy enough but it's hard to get the circles to look good and the clay even.

And I've been crocheting more flowers like I showed you in a previous post. But I've also been making some out of this Christmas yarn. My first thought was to use it for a Christmas bunting, with the balls in between the flowers and maybe hang it on a tree, or across a mirror, or a picture. But then I thought it might be cute with a pin on the back, worn on a lapel, or a scarf, or a sweater. Or they could be hung on a tree. What to do....

I've also made some more stars and trees. I was wondering, for you crocheters out there, how do you stiffen your motifs? I've never made anything like this before and have heard of several different ways of making them hard so they will hang properly.

Between crafting, and cleaning, a little bit of house painting, and moving winter stuff back from our house we are not moved into yet, (I had to throw that in there) I've been cutting the last of the flowers I grew.

Saving seeds.

and bringing plants indoors.

oh yeah....and decorating for Halloween!

My nieces are planning to come and stay with us this weekend. They haven't stayed all night in ages. Rumor has it, my great niece is coming too.

And now...thoughts from a peri-menopausal woman...(this might become a new feature)

I am OK with winter coming on. I am. For those of you that do not know me, I usually love decorating, entertaining, and the holidays. Spending time with family and friends, creating traditions and keeping up the old ones. And I usually enjoy winter because it's a lot less work! No gardening, no beekeeping, no food preserving, just snuggling in, watching Hallmark or Lifetime and crafting. But last year was not good for me. I have actually had the stomach flu the last two Thanksgivings, and missed out on our traditional festivities. I was sick most of last winter and for a time didn't leave the house for two weeks. Building the house has been a lot of stress. Last year was supposed to be the last year that we were to live in the house we are living in, so I took our winter stuff and our wall decorations and some furniture to the new home. Now I'm bringing the winter stuff back. More stress. But you know what? It's going to be OK. And my house I am living in may not be perfect, but it's got a lot of memories. Good memories. And I do love it here, so I'm going to embrace the holidays, keep with traditions, snuggle in and enjoy the season, because I do believe this will be the last winter at our old loving home. I will cry when I leave this place. It's special.

Edited to add..another thought. Blogger is ticking me off, for obvious reasons....

Cindy Bee

SCORE!

I got these locker baskets at a garage sale this weekend.
















They are filthy dirty, but...
18 of them for $8.00!














And they fit perfectly on my shelves in the basement, that I plan on using in my craft room (studio) in our new home. I'm going to use them to hold yarn and material and such.














I'm excited!

Cindy Bee

Luggage

I bought this piece of luggage at a garage sale this summer. My plan was to store my nice wool pieces in it. But I could never get it to open without taking a pair of channel locks to it. I would take them and squeeze until it would open. I asked my Shug to work on it for me. He didn't need to.

Apparently, I just needed an education in opening old luggage. You simply put your thumb on the inside of the lock, and push. It opens...easily. Very easily.

However, it has an odor. It's that musty moth-bally type odor. I've washed it completely out and left it open, outside for a few days. I put a box of baking soda in it, and that little fish is a lavender sachet. So far, it still has an odor.

Any ideas?

Cindy Bee

My Mother will be proud...

Well I don't have stock in this company or get commission for their sales, but I believe in making housework as quick as possible, so we can have more time for family and fun. I bought this sweeper a couple of weeks ago, and love it. I was actually going to invent it! But when I went to our local sweeper store and asked the lady, "Do you have anything small that I can carry around yet it has all the attachments of a regular sized sweeper?" She said yes, so it has already been invented. Dangit, I could have been rich!

It weighs less than my purse! Four pounds, and it comes with a strap so you wear it over your shoulder. And it has all of the attachments that a regular sweeper has.

It has more actually...it comes with a packet of small attachments to clean out the sewing machine and computer keyboard too. I haven't opened that yet.

It costs about $120.00. The only bad thing about it that I can see so far is, of course, the sweeper bag is very small. But it's great for sweeping up dog hair and getting cob webs, ceiling fans, and those unreachable corners.

Cindy Bee

Lots of Crocheting fun!

I knitted my dogs a scarf. A fallish looking scarf. I am going to embrace the seasons this year, and my dogs are going along for the ride, willingly or not. Dixie Doodle aka Winn Dixie aka Dixie (who is a boy but my nieces named him) would not hold still for 2 seconds for a pic. This is the best pic out of about 25. He has two speeds. 100 mph or sleeping. That's it.





















And Winston, LOVED his scarf. He would not let me take it off. He kept backing away from me when I tried to take it off of him! Funny. Actually, it's the same scarf in the pictures. It was too big for Dixie so I made him another one. I knitted them because I'm a whole lot faster at knitting than crocheting, but.........
















I'm having a blast crocheting! I made this star yesterday during Crochet Council. LOVE IT! I love how you can find things on blogs. You see, I am a follower of The Royal Sisters, but lately I have not had much time to follow blogs. So I've just been looking at the blogs that leave comments. Well, Handmade by Fiona left a comment, so I went to her blog. She mentioned that we should go to THIS POST so I did. On that post I found gemmipop designs
who was making trees and stars, and she got the pattern from The Royal Sisters blog.

And would you have a look at this...I made a tree too! The tree is very similar to a pattern I found in a magazine last year that I made, and of course cannot find on my blog so I won't show you, but anyway....I'm making these.

And would you look at this? My friend Erin taught me this stitch yesterday. Remember that yarn my friend bought me a few weeks ago at a garage sale? Well...I am using it to make scarves for my nieces for Christmas, and I'm going to make matching ones for their American Girl Dolls. They don't read my blog so I'm fairly safe posting this. And do notice the crochet hook. I've been messing around with polymer clay for a couple of months(sculpey, fimo) and I decided yesterday if I can make a star, learn a stitch, make scarves for the dogs, then by golly I'm gonna make this crochet handle. I did it. I LOVE IT.

And you heard it here first folks, I AM MAKING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS THIS YEAR. MAYBE ALL OF THEM! I say it every year, well this year I'm doing it. And Sister, I promise I will not give you another scarf. Promise. promise...

It's been cold and rainy here which is why I've had a little extra time to crochet. Tomorrow...back to work on the house, it's supposed to be sunny out.

Peace,

Cindy Bee

LuCindy Yarn Bag DONE!

My LuCindy bag is done! As you recall I called it the Lucy Yarn Bag because I got the pattern from Lucy's blog, Attic 24. Then as I was crocheting it, I was afraid it was too big. I used a different yarn and a bigger hook. I used an F or 5. I was afraid it was going to be too big, so I asked your opinion.

Everyone, including Lucy, said to go with it. So I did. But when I started getting closer to the top I thought the opening was going to be way too big and yarn would fall out of it. So I altered the pattern, henceforth, LuCindy yarn bag.

What I did was this... on the red stripe, the one with aqua below it and pink above it, I started decreasing. I crocheted three stitches together, one time. Then the next row up, I decreased twice. Next row up, decreased three times. I did this nine times, for nine rows, then just went back to double crocheting the last two rows.

and these flowers....I can't stop making them!

I'm shocked at how much yarn the bag holds. It actually holds all of the yarn and the afghan for the ripple afghan I started about a year ago. The problem is I'm afraid it's going to rip the bag as it's so heavy. Might not be a good bag for huge cotton yarn projects!

But wouldn't it be a very cool beach bag. Or smaller for a purse? I love it.

And I really want to start a new afghan with the yarn I bought last week, but I refuse. I am finishing this ripple afghan, and my granny square afghan, before I start another one.

But that doesn't mean I'm not going to do little projects here and there! I love quick little projects. And those flowers......fun.

Cindy Bee

The planets need aligned!

I think last weeks shenanigans might have had something to do with the moon. Did you see it? It was VERY full and bright. All I know is something was out of alignment with the universe, because I wasn't the only person out of character last week. On Friday, I got a phone call....my Dad had to be put in the hospital for his heart. "Nothing serious," Mom says, "just some tests." Apparently he was dizzy and "kind of buckled at the knees", went to the Doc, and his EKG showed a discrepancy from the last one. Well, the next day, around 2:30, Dad told me he was leaving at 4:00...with or without permission, and Mom says to bring him a cup of coffee! "What?" I said, "I think I'll stick around and watch." The person I know as Dad would never take off his heart monitor and i.v. and leave a hospital without permission. And breaking the no coffee rule on the cardiology floor? hmmm...

So, at 3:30 he told Mom to go tell the nurse that he is getting dressed to leave. Mom told him if he wants a nurse, he can push that button and get one. He did! OMG! I immediately pull out my phone and started texting my nurse friends, and sister. The nurse came, he told her he was leaving by 4:00 with or without permission. They somewhat jokingly chatted and a few minutes later she came back with a higher ranking nurse. Dad explained to her that she cannot keep him there against his will, as that would be kidnapping! The other nurse explained this is why they go out and drink margaritas. I requested that I go with them! A little later the Doc came in, and they chatted. Dad even told the doc that as far as he knows they are looking in the wrong spot. "Maybe you should be looking here (pointing to his head) instead of here (pointing to his heart)." A few minutes later, Dad was released. He said he's 75 years old and it's about time he took control of his life!

On another note....my "Lucy yarn bag" that I've been making is almost done. I am changing the name to LuCindy yarn bag, as I have changed the pattern a bit. I hope to show it to you later on today. My Shug says it looks like something I would take to Jamaica. Hmmm, not a bad idea... I am finding I really enjoy crocheting. I'm making flowers right now. Me...crocheting....flowers. (snicker)

Cindy Bee

My week in review...

Besides extracting about 100 pounds of honey, give or take...

and working on my yarn bag (because I've needed something to do since I keep waking up around 3:00 a.m. every day)

shopping for yarn....

this is how my week went down.

Last Sunday, I went to the grocery store and after waiting... and waiting... and waiting... in line, behind one person, they opened another lane. The cashier said, "I'll take the NEXT PERSON in line." The last person with a cart full of groceries must have misunderstood. He must have thought the cashier said I'll take the LAST person in line. So I casually excused myself from the people in front of me (who were buying soda and junk food with food stamps) and went to the cashier who wanted the next person in line. I explained to the man what she meant, put my measly 10 veggie packets for $10.00 on the conveyor belt, in front of his food. What? You know you've wanted to do that. I also told the cashier I realize it isn't her fault, but it really pisses me off when people buy soda and junk food with food stamps.

Monday I took Dixie to the vet, in a town 20 or so minutes away. I locked my keys in my car. At one point I was on my back with my cell phone on speaker, listening to my Shug as he guided my claustrophobic self under the car, while I held Dixie's leash with one hand, and searched for a spare key with the other. There was supposed to be one of those magnetic key holder things under the car, holding a spare key. The magnet was there, the box was not.

After placing 12 phone calls, ten to my parents, my Dad finally answered and said he'd come and get me. He did. I went and got a car key off of my shug's key ring and Dad took me ( and Dixie) all the way back to the little town to get my car. I then realized I had no house key on that key ring. I gave it to my friend to let the dogs out while we were gone. I got in after 1:00, from a 9:30 appt. And it is only Monday. My Mom could not stop laughing that her cell phone was in the trunk of her car when I called her six times. She was in a meeting and put her purse in the trunk with her phone. Who does that?

On Tuesday my parents needed a sub for their card game. Six handed euchre. I suck at cards. We won two out of about ten games. Or I could say we lost 8 out of about ten games. I also realized on Tuesday, that I messed up my front tooth. Got an appt for Thursday to get it fixed. (no big deal he just smoothed it out with some grinding tool that smells hot and sounds awful) Apparently I should not be eating caramel apples with some bonding thing I have on my front tooth. He said I need to cut them up. Like I'm going to walk around Brown County with a knife cutting up my caramel apple.

When I was getting ready to leave Thursday morning, I noticed my rubber mouth piece on the floor. The one I wear because I grind my teeth when I sleep. Dixie chewed it up. If I were to check his poop, just that morning, I would have found a leaf, slipper stuffing, and rubber mouth piece. What is his deal?

On Thursday night, My Shug thought I seemed a bit tense. Really? When he mentioned the pile at the top of the stairs needing to go into the basement I picked it up and heaved it into the basement. What? You've never heaved anything? Well, admit it. You've wanted to. I also yelled..."WHAT? YOU WANT THIS IN THE BASEMENT? WELL. HERE. YOU. GOOOO....IT'S IN THE BASEMENT" I threw a laundry basket and an empty box in the basement! I started to throw another box but it had two bottles of wine in it! Not to worry, we talked it out that night. That wasn't the only thing that happened, that was just the last straw. A peri-menopausal woman can only and will only take so much in one week. Do not push her buttons.

On Friday, I went with Reality Jayne to a yarn store that is going out of business. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. Click here to read about it. And on Saturday, my Shug and I stayed home and worked together around the house!

The good news is, this week is starting out better!

So if you've wondered where I've been, I hope to visit your blogs soon. It's been one of those weeks.

Cindy Bee

Brown County Fun!

I try and try to have a few small posts rather than one large one, but it just doesn't work out for me. I'll keep trying. In the meantime.....
I grew these flowers and decided to start bringing them inside, as we all know they'll be gone very soon. It's getting colder here in Indiana.

I have been working on beehives since Sunday. I've had a lot of time to think while working, and one person I've been thinking a lot about is this lady. Please go to her blog and wish her well. She is having surgery today for lymphoma. I'd love to see her blog get 100 comments! Surely if we can leave a person over 400 comments on a yarn decision, we can leave Feral Woman 100 for lymphoma, can't we?

Ok, so back to the bees. They are not happy campers this time of year. They know winter is coming, and I've been getting their hives ready. Reducing the size of their entrance, making sure they have enough food, and taking off extra supers full of honey that they won't need. They get mad when I do this. They think they need all this honey, they don't. I had one bee that refused to leave me alone on Tuesday evening, even an hour after taking the super off the hive. She found me on the front porch and, I had to leave the premises! My Shug said when I left they left him alone!

I've done posts before about extracting. It's a lot of hot, heavy, hard work. And when I put the honey in quart jars, which has been the request of a few people, I have a lot of time to wait for the honey to drip. First from the extractor into the bucket with filters. Three to be exact.

Then from the filters into the bucket, to be bottled.





































So last night while I sat and waited for the honey to drip, I crocheted. I think I'll finish my yarn bag soon. And it will have a name change, as I've changed the pattern a bit!














But I'll have to show you that another time because I promised pics of Brown Co.
Ok this isn't Brown Co, this is my 'sailing' loot that I got while in Brown Co. I talked my Shug into stopping at a few.














And these pictures are in no particular order because I don't have time to mess with rearranging them! I have a dentist appt. this morning. So this is what the stores look like in Nashville, IN. Fun huh?












































A lot of the homes are log cabins, some of them get rented out for people who take vacations in Brown Co. I don't know if this van was a "home" or the air conditioning went out in it, but I had to get a pic!














Story, IN is a small town. Well, it's not really even a town, it's a building and a garden and they call it a town! The building is an Inn, and a restaurant. We've been to Story before, but I wanted to go back and get a pic of the garden. I'm thinking I might want to put in a raised bed garden like theirs, rather than rows....I just can't decide.



During the month of October in Brown Co, they have off road studio tours. So we took off in the hills and hollers. I wanted to visit a weaving studio that I've been to before. You see, Brown Co., was and still is an Artist Colony. Sure, some of the stores in Nashville have changed to sell junk, but there are still a lot of pottery, painting, weaving, spinning, leather goods etc. stores there.



We went hiking in the state park. Some locals said it was peak weekend. That is a big deal in Brown Co. If you go at just the right time you will see the dressed in oranges, reds, browns, greens, yellows.


















Look at all of the initials carved on this tree. I wonder what happened to those people. Are TS and SS still together? Does JD still "heart" JW? What about Sheila...can you still call her for a good time? (OK kidding about Sheila...I didn't see that on the tree!)


















We always have to go through the covered bridge in Bean Blossom.



















We go on this trip to Brown Co every year. We stay in a rustic cabin in the state park. This is right outside our cabin door.




















This yarn is on the porch rail of our cabin!
















What the????? Yarn! Yup it's yarn. Sheep Street Fibers is in Morgantown. They even have their own sheep. If you go to Brown County, and you like to knit, crochet, spin or weave, you might as well stop at SSF in Morgantown. It's only about half an hour from B.C. They sell weaving looms, spinning wheels, fiber, and yarn. I bought the skein above because I thought it would make a neat granny square scarf, and I bought the skeins below because they are the same cotton that I'm using for my new yarn bag.

This stone marker was made in the 1800's as a mile marker to the next town. They found this one a few years ago, but they can't find the other one. Probably buried or in someones basement.













































And that's the end of our trip. We headed to Columbus, like the stonehead told us to, and came home.

Cindy Bee





PS - I have messed and messed with this post. Trying to get the extra lines out so you don't have to scroll forever to the next picture and trying to get the words under the pics like I used to do. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open. Have fun trying to guess what words go with what pics because I'm having one of those weeks. I'm done!