Merry Christmas from the babies

Patience
 

Peace

 

 

Enlightenment

 

 

Curiosity

Comfort

 

 

 

and yes........JOY!

 

 

Mistletoe

Do you know the history of the mistletoe?

 A parasite, I would have never guessed.

 

Mystery Christmas Tree

Here in Arizona On I-17 just north of Sunset Point someone secretly decorates this juniper tree with Christmas decorations.

Sitting in the middle of a median of the freeway it has been decorated every year for over 30 years and no one has been able to figure out who does it.

 

It's a "Christmas tree" mystery like no other.

 

Recycled

The girls were freezing so I wanted to make them some sweaters. After several tries with yarn I came up with these.

 

I went to my favorite used store "Savers" and bought a sweater, cut the sleeves off and used the wrist area for the neck. Measured about 3 1/2" down and cut the holes for the legs. Used left over material and made the legs. Hemed the back and poof!

 

 

 

Nice and warm and a lot cheaper that the $22.00 for one at Petsmart.

 

 

 



Idle hands

Most of  you who follow my blog know that in the past I have been very active in knitting for charity, but it seems I may have burned myself out a bit. I did make a commitment to finish a blanket for my grandson for Christmas that I started many a year ago.

The crogheted pattern is called "Make it quick afghan" Well, it was slow going for me. I guess maybe if I would have stuck with it and not taken a break it would have helped because every time I picked it back up I had to learn the pattern all over again and then when I thought I had enough panels and went to sew them together I realized that they weren't all the same size!!

So I had to rip out four or five and start them over....

Starting to sew them toghether...

 

The finished product. Now to find a Christmas bag big enough to hold it:)

 

I also have knitted a couple of small gifts for the Granddaughter...A cowl and some boot toppers.

 

I enjoyed crocheting again so maybe I will start back with my baby chairty and make some of it in that as well as knitting.

 

"It is not good to have idle hands"

 

 

Yesteryears

This is a  throw back but maybe from the archives:)

 

I shot in the World Fast Draw Association with my hubby for 35 years. I would not say I was the best but I won my share of titles and championships and met a great group of people around the world.

 

 

This is called  "double balloons".  The black thing on the top is a light that is hooked up to a clock that starts when the light comes on and shuts of at the sound of the shot. In double balloons you shoot the first target and then turn and shoot the second target (balloon). If you look close you will see there is some smoke from the first shot and I haven't fired the second one yet. The "bullet" is actually black power that is propelled by a shot gun primer. It won't kill you but it can do a lot of damage up close. A good trusting friend took this picture:)

 

As I look at this picture what amazes me is not only being thin but my dark hair! Seems I have been grey forever ha.

 

Note to young people....you never know what that old lady did in her past!

This is another post about fast draw if you are interested.
http://www.monirae.blogspot.com/search/label/Fast%20Draw


 

Coin tidbits

Ridged coins

 

According to the United States mint, ridged or "reeded" edges serve two purposes.

Originally, reeded edges made coins harder to counterfeit, they also prevented people from filing down or "clipping" the coins.

 

In 1793, the first U.S. coins were linked to a silver standard. A half dollar contained half as much silver as a silver dollar, a quarter contained one-fourth, and so on. The ridged edges prevented people from skimming the coins' edges for extra silver. Over a short time they would have a pile of silver or gold shavings and the coins returned to circulation would be light, but still, usually accepted at face value.

While coins these days aren't made of precious metals, the government decided to keep the reeded edges on certain coins to help the visually impaired. The dime and the penny, for example, are roughly the same size, so the ridges help people distinguish them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonus fact: The movie cliche of biting a gold coin is not to verify that it is real gold. Gold coins are tooth-breakingly hard. The practice was to check for another nasty gold-thieving technique of hollowing out coins. If a coin collapsed when bit, you knew it had been emptied of it's core values.

 

 

 

Did you know?

Knock knock! Who's there? (Macbeth)
In a pickle (The Tempest)
Heart of gold (Henry V)
Faint hearted (I Henry VI)
Wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)
Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)
Come what come may ("come what may") (Macbeth)
Wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)
and many, many more.

 

 

 

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet.

 April 1564- April 23, 1616

 

Fun

Hubby and I went to the State fair and it was such a pretty day, not to hot and not cold. Couldn't ask for more!

 

Nope didn't ride

 

 

Nope didn't eat

 

 

 

So what did we do?........Just looked and looked and walked and walked.

 

 

 

My favorite part was watching the little ones with their eyes so big at the wonder of it all and we ran into our granddaughter with some of her friends so got a bit hug to top the day.

 

The weather her has really been wonderful the last few days and when I walked out back I found these blooming...

We suffer with the heat in the summer but few can pick roses in Nov.

 

 

Boo

 

Happy Halloween

Just for a smile

Some time back I saw a little coffee mug that made me smile. It had strawberries and looked like spring and summer. I decided I would buy it and have used it ever since.
As the seasons have passed I kept  thinking I should get one more for fall and winter but never found one I liked until last week....

 

Isn't it the cutest thing with a apple inside the rim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all living here in the desert we are a bit seasonal deprived.......

 

 

 

 

I phone woes

Two years ago hubby got a iPhone

and when the lady at Verizon (where we bought it) set it up for him she put his email address wrong on I cloud and created a password which we can't remember. After hearing him grumble about it for a LONG time I said okay...lets go to Verizon and get it fixed. Of course you know the routine...they say hello take your name and you have a seat. They say they can't fix it and to go home and get one line with a apple support person.
Apple support person has me back up I phone not once but twice and then I am suppose to just be able to download all of it back and it will be fixed. Wrong! Now he has no I phone data at all and the phone is locked. Off to the Apple store in the mall (hate going to the mall) and told we have to go back to Verizon to get a copy of our receipt of purchase so we can prove it is our phone, After the same scenario take name, wait  we get the receipt and go back to Apple and they unlock the phone and we correct the wrong info on the I cloud...Yahoo. Get home and can't get any emails:( Go back to Verizon and they say...go home and call Cox (our phone people) and they will help you. Go home and get phone people and after trying this and that and that and this she gives me a new password and poof! We have email.

Most of the back and forth took place on Sat. and it made for a lousy day but like I told him..."At least we were miserable together".

This is a good lesson on just how dependent we are with these gadgets!!!
 

A special day

Granddaughters 18th birthday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice how she looks rather puzzled? Well typical of her Grandma, I came up with this unusual gift. A rolling back pack (not that unusual) but filled with 18 wrapped gifts. Some small like a couple of rolls of mementos which she loves to a new cork purse and face wipes and bubble wrap as a stress relief and  baggage tags and gift card and fifty dollars in cash for gas and lip balm etc. It was a fun time! She actually had two parties at the same place in one night. The first with us her family which included appetizers and dinner and cake and then with her friends which also included appetizers and pizza and two bond fires in the back yard. She is well loved:)

Catching up

Last week-end hubby and I flew to Texas for the annual Colt show being held at the Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas. All the Embassy suites are pretty much the same and they are always nice but this one had the best breakfast buffet:) You know it is good when you are thinking about breakfast as you are going to bed!

This was a decoration in the hallway going down to the convention center. It appeared it may light up at night but was never there after dark.

One of the many colt displays

 
 
It was our first time to leave the girls and so of course I was worried but our dog sitter kept me assured with pictures like this....
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

Sites around the world

 This was cited as a lake above a lake but it is a little deceiving due to the angle of the picture

 

in truth it is a lake above the ocean

 

It is one of the biggest lakes on Faroe Islands and as you can see it runs into the ocean.

Still pretty amazing if you ask me:)

 

 

 

Please stand with me on this

It will soon be time for us to cast our vote for the leader of our country and yet there has been no changes in our voting laws even though it was proven over and over that in the last election there was a vast amount of voter fraud.
This is one example that you might remember.

I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican I will encourage you to cast your vote but even more I encourage you to take a stand to be sure YOUR vote counts. There are people who say that this will cause a hardship on minorities but explain to me how the requirement for ID is not a problem in all of the following:

It's time we take a stand..........

 Please go to the following web site and put in your zip code. It will allow you to send a letter to your congressman right on line.

https://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup

This is the letter I sent to my senator, Senator John McCain.

Dear Senator McCain, I am hoping I might inspire you to introduce a bill that would make it a law that in order to vote in our Presidential elections you MUST prove you are a citizen of the USA. Without that we will soon be right where we were last time with fraud deciding the outcome. I think since so many are in favor of people from Mexico to be here we should adopt their election policies.

(If you do not know the election policies I posted about them here.)

In case you need a chuckle

I can relate:)

Did you know?

Before there were drones......

In 1914  a carrier pigeon wore the miniature pigeon camera invented by Julius Neubronner and were sometimes used during WWI to take aerial reconnaissance photographs

.

Did you know?

Love comes knocking

Sadly on Aug. 15th there was a dead baby found in a dumpster in the back of a grocery store here in my area. I have contacts at the Police Dept. that know that I knit for babies and contacted me to see if I would be willing to make it a hat for burial. I already had one made up along with a blanket..

and was happy to provide it. In case anyone wonders that little baby is in Jesus arms today and that baby's mother has some horrible memories to live with.

      (To be more clear on this situation, this baby weighed only 2 lbs and may have died prior to be put in the dumpster)

Frugal

Are your bowling days over and your ball is sitting in the closet?

He can have center stage once more:)

Just a reminder

 

Remember to be thankful