Crochet and Biscoff!

Every time I get a few minutes, I've been working on this blanket. I have one more color to go on the border, then I probably need to figure out what border I'm going to use for the last go around, then I'm done. My Shug and I have noticed, that anytime this dog sees a home made anything, he is on it.

And I took the advice of a friend who commented that I need to stick with one big project, and work on smaller things in between, but not to start another big project. I remembered seeing some coasters somewhere, but I couldn't remember where I saw the pattern.

It looks something like this, but the petals were more defined.

I fiddled around but I just couldn't get it. Then I remembered, it was in an issue of Mollie Makes.

I've been looking for it again, and I can't find it to save my life.

But what I did, was use the middle of the pattern I made up when I was playing around, and then some of the pattern I saw in the magazine, or on the blog, (wherever I saw it) and now, I've made several of them.

Quick, easy, and fun.

I gave my cousin Vickie a set for her birthday.

I want to make some for myself. I

I made a smaller one so I can stack them and use them for embellishing as well. So that's what I've been up to. Finishing!

And bummer....I bought a pack of Biscoff for our Italy trip...just gotta have Biscoff when on a plane....

My Shug found them.

Ciao, (did I spell that right?)

Cindy Bee

Flowers for Leontien!

Leontien, we don't really know each other,

but if I had my way, you'd get a wish for every Queen Anne's lace flower you see here!
Instead, I think every flower represents a prayer from all of your blogger friends you have everywhere!

Some more flowers to add to your boquet!

Eveyone else who reads my blog, please link up for Leontien.

Cindy Bee

Planning for Italy

So, as you now know we are going to Italy. Not my Shug. My Ma & Pa and My Sister and I are going to Italy.
We leave two weeks from today. YIKES! I'm stressing! I need more time to prepare.
For those of you that missed the post, here's how it came about. Many years ago, I mentioned to my Sister, or she mentioned to me, one way or t'other, that we'd like to go to Italy. What? We didn't know that about each other. A few years ago our parents were planning on going, but then changed their mind. So, my Sister asked me a couple of months ago if I'd go, if they wanted to go. I said sure. I really didn't think they'd really go through with it. I really didn't think we'd be going so soon! Apparently I just wasn't thinking.
But, a few weeks ago my Sister sent me a text and asked if I could get together this weekend to "discuss this trip." What? I thought? What trip? Oh, that trip. The one we will talk about, but surely won't actually go on. Sure I said. When?
So we met at our parents house that Sunday, and as she was entering the information in the computer for plane tickets, I said, "Are we going to discuss this a bit more?" Because I figured they'd (the parents) would back out. Well, my sister looked right at me and clicked "Purchase Tickets." WTH? I thought! And the next thing I knew, plane tickets were bought.
Truth be told, I was more nervous than excited. Truth be told, I still am. Truth be told, I'm claustrophobic, and get anxiety attacks every time I step foot in an airport. Truth be told I don't even know why I have a passport. I've never had a stamp put in my passport. Ever.

But friends have helped. The boys that I used to watch...well their Mom gave me this as a gift! Thank you Anh.

It's got gorgeous pictures in it. And nice shiny pages.

Then another friend, Peggy, sent me these journals and a map. Thank you Peggy.

I bought these stickers to put on these journals, which I haven't done yet.

And Monday, I got this scrapbook because I thought it was kinda cool. I'm going to actually print some pictures to put in it, along with the smaller journal Peggy sent me. It has a pocket in the back.

Here are some of the pages inside.

This is what makes me nervous. Besides flying, and going to a foreign country whose language I don't speak, and missing my Shug and my dogs. We aren't going on a tour. My sister has planned it all! (Thank you Theresa) She was very organized with the paperwork, giving us a folder with the hotel information and itinerary and such.

We've been told by many people....You HAVE to go 'here', you HAVE to go 'there', you HAVE to see this and that. We've done a lot of reading and one thing we read a lot is to take your time and realize that you aren't going to see it all in one trip. So, we've shortened the amount of places we were going to visit, and just kept it to Rome and Tuscany. There are some tours planned and some free time planned. We had to cut Venice out because it just wasn't working out. We'll be there 9 days, take two days off for flying. But our parents REALLY wanted to go to Rome. After that, they didn't care. And being the nature person that I am, I wanted to see the Tuscan vineyards and olive groves and such. The one thing our parents were concerned about was dragging their luggage off and on trains all the time. And we gave them the choice on what they wanted to do.

Sister Theresa (I think I'm going to start calling her that! Or maybe Tessy. I love the name Tess. That's what we called her as a kid. OK Tess it is.) Tess also gave us some paperwork to read. I don't think Mom & Dad read it. I did. I even highlighted some stuff. Stuff like, wear your shoes for a month in advance and walk in them for miles and miles in all kinds of weather! What? And pack light. What?

So, as I was wondering what to do about getting a medium sized piece of luggage, my friend Mandy kept telling me to go to TJ Maxx. OKKKAAAAYYY. (there's another story behind why I don't shop there, but I did.) And she was right. They have TONS of luggage. So I called Mom & Dad and told them they need to go there for luggage. I looked up and there they were! They came right over (lol)

So as we are perusing all the luggage, Dad tries on this backpack.

He couldn't even get his arm in the sling and Mom was standing there saying...."Oh TOM you are not hauling that on your back all over Italy. Put it down." So he did.

Then they found their luggage and said they were coming back the next day to buy it. "Why?" I asked. They want to use cash. They do not charge. So, I said, "I happened to have cashed a check that day and have some cash on me, do you want to borrow money before the trip even starts?!?!!" They did and posed for these pics!

It's gonna be fun. We're all gonna have to have patience!

Then....last week I went to get some shoes. I walked in the store and no one was there so I said to the sales lady, "I want the most comfortable pair of shoes you have and I don't care what they look like." She showed them to me and I said, "ummm, maybe I do care what they look like!"

So, she just started bringing out shoes.....

and sandals...

and more shoes. I love these (above)

I ended up buying three pair.

The biggest decision was red or blue.

And after three hours, I finally got the brown sandals (above), the black fun shoes, and these blue shoes. Only....

I wore them all day yesterday and they started hurting my feet :-(

Back to the shoe store I go. I got some miles to hike before I get on that plane.

Truth be told....what was I thinking?

Cindy Bee

I got my old interface back!

I stopped by Groovy Girl yarn store for a little while because I needed her advice on a border with my blanket that I AM FINISHING! And she got this yarn in.....YUM.
the picture does not do it justice.

I LOVE IT.
Wonder what I could make with it. Something small, cuz it's a tad expensive. But YUM!
It is nice.

And while she was giving me all this great advice on a border.,,,

(these are just sneak peaks!)

she showed me how to use my old Blogger Interface!!!!

WOOHOOO!!!! I just don't have time to learn change right now. I'm preparing for a trip to Italy. (Yes Julie, you missed a post. My sister and I are taking our parents to Italy. And really, we aren't 'taking them' but they probably wouldn't go if we didn't go too.) I got yards to take care of and bees to keep and a house to build and dogs to attend to and dinner to cook! I do not have time to learn anything else besides Chow, Bonjourno, Grasseous, and Prego (which is not the sauce, it's please or thank you.... or something)

And I got a lot of posting to catch up on and I think I'm gonna do a special Italy blog just for fun. Why not? It's an adventure. Maybe I'll get my sister to do a post or two too.

Cindy Bee

Fiona - what would you recommend I use?  And how do I download it?  I just went to update my blog and it said I couldn't use my current interface with blogger anymore.  And they said to try Google Chrome.  So I did.  But as you can see (I tried to take pics for you) the little square (above picture is all the space I can see, for my post. 

And you can see by this picture (above) the little icon bar is covered and I can't get it to uncover.  The arrow doesn't work.  This is frustrating.

Herbs (Blogger issues)

Ok I'm just playing around with this new blogger thingy.  Apparently I should have changed to the updated provile or whatever it's called and I didn't.  Now I'm forced to.  I know it looks the same to readers, but it's not the same 'behind the scenes.  I'll adjust.  So I'm playing around . There might be several small posts going on in the next couple of days while I try to figure this thing out.  If anyone has any ideas on how to make the icon line where I can see it that would be helpful.  Right now I can just see the tips of the icons.  Know what I mean? 

Anyway, this is a picture of herbs from our back yard in town.  A friend called the other day.  She was having a shower for her niece and wanted some herbs to put in ball jars to decorate the table.    I told her to come on over.  I'm sure the tables were lovely.

Cindy Bee



Ok I'm trying to post to my blog and it says my web browser is no longer supported by blogger and to download Google Chrome. I did. I'm having a hard time posting. I can't even see the icons for bold, italiacs, links etc. hmmm.....

Sunday...Sunday

Today was one of those....oooohhhh.....kinda emotional days.
Our neighbors got married.
The lady in the red jacket lost her husband a few years ago. She lived across the street from us, and then moved (while her husband was still alive) to the corner. About three houses down, and across the street. Her husband passed. She met the guy across the street, on the corner, and they dated for a year or two, and today, they got married. I think she is around 70 something and he is in his late 60's. They are wonderful people, and I love our neighbors in this neighborhood. It is an old fashioned neighborhood where people care about each other. They are so funny at Halloween too. She dresses up like Maxine and he dresses up like a clown. While at the wedding, three other neighbors were there.

They were very nervous. So cute.

OH yeah - they got married right after church service, so my Shug and I went to the service. It seriously felt like we were on the set of the Waltons. I'm not kidding. We sang songs like , "By and By" and "I Saw the Light" and it was just cute and small and old-fashioned. I recommend it. People really seem to care there.


Then, at 2:00, I went to a memorial service. This man passed away in March, but they had a Celebration of Life for him today. He was a very artistic person. He was a photographer, he raised goats, made cheese, he spun (which is what he is doing in the pic), he wove rugs, he was a blacksmith, he did all of the old-fashioned craft work. And more importantly, he taught others how to do such things. I helped him warp a loom once, and I couldn't do it again! We actually tied the warp on to the old warp on the loom. He later sent out a letter to all members of the spinning group, telling them that we "tied one on!" He gave me my first drop spindle, which he made. He made me a walking stick, and gave my niece one too! He also gave me a lucette that he had made, and taught me how to use it. He left his mark on this world. He did. Even after he is gone, I am thinking about him and the mark he left on our world.

He was a character.

He won't be forgotten.

Cindy Bee

Amish School Auction

Last Saturday my Shug and I decided to take a morning off and head over to a school auction. I didn't have my camera with me. But I had my phone...so here are some pics of what was at this auction.


I loved the table, but there were around five or six auctioneers going all at once! And after a couple of hours, they still hadn't gotten to this tent of stuff.





I wanted one of these too, but I knew I'd wake up at 3:00 a.m. and my first thought would be....'what in the hell was I thinking?'

This auction is held once a year and the proceeds are used to fund the school. It is an Amish school. They don't believe in debt.

I did hang around this table to see how much these jars went for. I would have bid on them, but they went for $30 EACH!

We left before they got to this sewing machine. Probably a good thing since I have no where to put one!

We ate lunch, and to tell the truth...it wasn't that good. I suppose they keep the good stuff for themselves and feed us from a food service. It's true. You don't have to believe me, but I can tell you exactly where those frozen hamburgers came from.

The only thing we bought that day was a carton of eggs and some noodles.

It was a fun morning just getting out with my Shug.

What would you have bid on?

Cindy Bee