fifty-four, oh my goodness

Posted on January 15, 2024 by is there any more pie?

Banjo Man and I went out to dinner Saturday night. Yes, it was an official “date night”.   Can you believe this sunset?

We don’t often see such a glorious sky, as we live in the woods and rarely venture out in the early evening.

January 12 was the 54th anniversary of our first date, but we celebrated on Saturday.  The restaurant staff was lovely about it.

Dinner was delicious, as it always is at Ella’s.  We finished off the evening with a stop at CVS for eye drops (me) and the rare purchase of mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Quite pleased with ourselves, we were happily back on the couch by 7:00, which is a very good time to be home on a cold and windy January night.

I love to hear stories of how people met.  Blind dates, a chat in a bar, set up by friends, co-workers who have a spark, a random meeting in a coffee shop?  Somehow the magic happens!

Writing about romance was my career for over thirty years, but I still want to hear how people found each other, how they recognized “the one”.

What’s your story?

 

Posted in family, rhode island | 6 Comments

hello, kitty

Posted on January 13, 2024 by is there any more pie?

Nothing ruins a peaceful lap around the driveway than an encounter with a bobcat.

Banjo Man did not take this photo.  It came from iStock, online.

American Bobcat – This is my most popular photo and one of the few of a REAL bobcat listed on iStockPhoto. This bobcat was not camera shy and seems to have posed for this picture.

The bobcat had been sitting on a stump at the edge of the driveway. He’d watched Banjo Man come around to his side of the oval and wasn’t the least bit intimidated. Once they exchanged stares, the bobcat slowly left the stump and slinked into the woods, but not before stopping one more time to look over his shoulder to see if the man in the giant black coat had dared to follow him.

Banjo Man raced into the safety of the house to declare, “I am never walking at dusk again!”

Here’s more info on our RI bobcats:

Click to access bobcat.pdf

This morning we’re in the middle of another rain-and-wind storm. Gusting up to 66 mph, the wind is roaring outside. So far no trees have blown down and we have not lost power. Many towns in the state continue to deal with historic flooding–and that was before this new storm dumped another 1-2″ of rain overnight.

Just received a warning email from the electric company. I’m going to post this now before the power goes out.

Enjoy the weekend. We are looking forward to the playoff games!

Posted in family, rhode island | 2 Comments

i should have turned the page

Posted on January 11, 2024 by is there any more pie?

See the layout of the blocks?  I didn’t, because I assumed I knew exactly how these blocks were sewn together.

I didn’t, not until this morning when I turned to page 112 of “Quilts by the Sea” to check the number of blocks I needed in order to make this quilt longer.

Uh-oh.  They are supposed to be staggered: one up, one down.

I picked this particular quilt design because it was so simple.  I designed one row at a time and made a relaxing day and a half out of the process of selecting fabric and cutting simple squares and rectangles.  Result?  I was a bit too relaxed.  Complacent, even.

 

The good news?  Well, I’ve only sewn two rows together.

And…my daughter-in-law gave me a new seam ripper for Christmas.

Posted in quilting, rhode island | Leave a comment

say yes to the dress

Posted on January 10, 2024 by is there any more pie?

Is this my 1970 wedding dress?  Yes!

Is it going to the thrift shop?  Yes!

Was it insane to keep it for 53 years?  Yes!

Will I have more space in my closet after donating it, my 1968 prom dress (size 3, by the way) and several other 2000-era dresses?  Yes!

No shortage of polyester here.

Banjo Man is sad. He needs to get a grip.

Posted in just for fun, rhode island, secondhand stuff | 4 Comments

a mystery

Posted on January 9, 2024 by is there any more pie?

These are empty.  EMPTY.  But the removal of them and their contents has not resulted in a cleaner, more organized, roomier office/sewing room.

Why not?  I don’t know.  I’m baffled.

Then there is this:

It’s empty, but right now it’s not going anywhere.  Banjo Man is not at all interested in moving it somewhere else, so there it sits until we figure out how to get it out of the house.

Do any of you want it?

Remember the four boxes of vintage flowers?

They are on their way to Montana.  Retired Mountain Lady’s daughter-in-law loves all things vintage so, along with the buttons, they are heading west to be made into pretty things.  Enjoy, Julie!

I’m going to take a break from decluttering and make some pretty things, too.

Pondering these patterns, but not these colors…

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and winter begins…

Posted on January 8, 2024 by is there any more pie?

Total snow?  Two inches.  Rain, wind and icy roads.  Further north totals exceeded 10″.

And we of course stayed home.  There was football.  There was food.  Why go anywhere?

Banjo Man made a pot of Texas-style pinto beans, I put together a pan of ham and cheese sliders and also baked Amish custard.  My happy husband took this picture and wanted it posted here.

I’m actually happier about my empty island.  Lots of progress was made yesterday when it came to putting the kitchen and dining areas back together.  The cabinet is empty and awaits its fate.

Yes, the peaches are from Idaho.

Thank you, Peach Man.

More storms are coming, so I’ve had to postpone attending tomorrow night’s Pilates Reformer class.  I’m sad about that.  I even bought a yoga-suitable top at TJMaxx last Friday morning.  And the Pilates socks arrived from Amazon.

I am ready, once the weather cooperates.  In the meantime I will continue with chair yoga (“Yoga Go”) and gorge on peaches.

What are you doing to get through January?

 

Posted in family, food, rhode island | 2 Comments

is it winter yet?

Posted on January 6, 2024 by is there any more pie?

We might be getting a snowstorm tonight and all day tomorrow.

Maybe.

The local tv weathermen seem to be having a pretty good time charting the possibilities.

At one point this week the forecast was for “between 1 and 12 inches”. Ha!  I love it.

But as of this morning I think we’re supposed to get nothing but rain here on the coast.  Maybe a little sleet.  Since Banjo Man and I have no plans to go out tonight or tomorrow, it doesn’t matter.

Here’s what my Saturday looks like:

Tomorrow I hope to baste a quilt on the kitchen island if the kitchen island is cleaned off and ready for action.  The Patriots are playing the Jets in Foxboro during the snowstorm, so it should be a wild game.

Remember the 2001 “Snow Bowl”?

Patriots fans do.

https://www.patriots.com/news/2001-flashback-snow-bowl-remains-an-all-time-patriots-classic

As the Patriots stagger toward the end of a rather pitiful season, at least they know how to play in the snow.

We hope.

 

Posted in just for fun, rhode island, secondhand stuff | 2 Comments

the reformer

Posted on January 5, 2024 by is there any more pie?

No, I am not going to blog about a violent tv show.

Check this out:

Believe it or not, I took a Pilates class Tuesday night.  On the Reformer machine.

This was epic because (a) I am afraid of exercise machines, (b) I hate to drive in the dark, and (c) at that time of night I am always on the couch with Banjo Man watching reality tv or British crime dramas.

I wore black leggings, of which I own many, and a Walsh Jr. High t-shirt given to me by the Funny Grandson.  I do not own Pilates socks (who knew there was such a thing?), so I was barefoot.

Barefoot, overweight and old.  What a combination.

Oh, yes, and uncoordinated, too.

Fortunately the very sweet and very young instructor took pity on me and helped me change the springs according to the exercise and reach the handles behind me when necessary.  There was one other newbie in the class, so we groaned and laughed at the same times.  That was reassuring, as she was thirty years younger.

Am I going back next week?  You bet I am!  I will conquer this machine and I have all winter to do it!

Meanwhile, back at home, I use a Yoga Go exercise app daily.  Chair yoga, thank you, in my office.

A bit less complicated than the Reformer.

Not this one.

 

Posted in just for fun, rhode island | 2 Comments

flowers, flowers everywhere

Posted on January 4, 2024 by is there any more pie?

I collected lots of silk and velvet flowers (mostly from hats) when I was making vintage Christmas stockings for fundraisers.

It’s time to pass them on to someone who will do something beautiful with them.

I didn’t realize I had so many until I opened the storage boxes.  I’ve divided them into lots and they will be listed on Ebay sometime this week.

And then there are the buttons.  I spent most of yesterday afternoon sorting through a million or so of them.  All vintage.  All colors.  Plastic, bone, ceramic, bakelite, wood…and so interesting.

And yes, they are bound for Ebay as soon as I can figure out how to mail them without it costing the buyers a small fortune.

I hope a fabric artist/seamstress/craftswoman enjoys creating with them.  It’s time for someone else to delight in the possibilities!

And it’s time for me to acknowledge that I am no longer going to use them.

The winter purge continues…

 

Posted in rhode island, secondhand stuff | 2 Comments

anyone want a cabinet?

Posted on January 3, 2024 by is there any more pie?

While football games blasted from the tv on New Year’s Day, I made a start emptying the cabinet that has lived for years in the corner of the dining area.  Last month, when I realized that I no longer used my collection of ruby-flashed glassware, I also realized that when the ruby stuff went on to another home there would be little need for this piece of furniture.

An interesting thought. 

I pondered.  I stared.  I envisioned an empty space with some artwork on the wall.  I liked the vision.

You can see there are a lot of cookbooks stored on those shelves.  And, to be exact, 29″ of them I use frequently.   They will be stored on a shelf above the stove.  The rest I will have to sort through.  Some I will keep.  Others will move into purgatory in the basement bookcases.  Even more will be donated along with the eight bags of books waiting to go to the library’s storage shed.

And hey, unless I am cooking up an old favorite recipe, it’s more fun to peruse recipes on Pinterest.

I am also trying to cook less, but don’t tell anyone.

Back to the cabinet, Banjo Man wants to know what I am going to do with it.  His first idea is to push it out to the little back deck and bang it apart with a hammer, then take the pieces to the dump.

He has done this before.  Sadly, several times.

I hate to throw it away.  But there is also the issue of how do we move a piece of furniture down the stairs and into the car to take…where?  There is a waiting list at the consignment store, but hopefully we could donate it to the store in Westerly that supports music programs.  I’ll ask if they take furniture if we ever get the darn thing into the car.

In the meantime, I spent Monday reorganizing the kitchen shelves and wrapping up glassware to donate.

A great way to start the new year!!!

What are you getting rid of in 2024?

 

 

Posted in rhode island, secondhand stuff | 1 Comment