I am at that time of year where the day passes too quickly and my to-do list is pushed to the next day. Why is it that the older you get the shorter the day becomes?

The window quilts are done. Yea! While working on them, I was frustrated by the small amounts of thread on normal spools. I could get the cones, but how to use them? Himself is very good working with metal. I showed him a thread holder for coned yarn and he made me one. It is very cool. While I work on the littlest grandson's quilt for his Christmas prezzie, this will be very helpful and save some time and money on thread. The photo sucks. I still have an old flannel sheet as a window curtain. I was working on the window quilt for this room at the time the photo was taken. It is hard to get a good photo of them. I cannot get good light, for some reason. Ah well...


Last month, Himself noticed the fridge was a degree warmer. Later in the day, it was a few more. The big, butt-ugly black fridge was dying. I was hoping it would last until the chimney and woodstove was paid off, silly me. Oh, and getting myself a new laptop, Himself's netbook dying and my old one, repaired, was best for reading email, at best. We stuffed everything from the fridge section into ice chests, dragging out the micro-fridge for the milk, cheese and cream. The meat was still frozen, though the pork was starting to thaw. I canned all the meat and then canned the butter. We had bought a lot on sale, of course, just before this occurred. The few veggies and such were toast. We drove down to Sears to order a new one. I wanted a fridge with not one computerized thing in it. When you live in an area with power outages or fluctuations in power, the computerized are pure junk. It shortens the life of a computerized appliances by half or more. When we got over the sticker-shock for a simple fridge with no ice maker or water stuff that took up precious room, we went for a side-by-side the same dimensions as the old one. I now have 9.6 cu. ft. of freezer space I can easily see and use. When the delivery guys removed the old behemoth, I was disgusted by the fuzz underneath. Newer fridges are hard to clean under, being too close to the floor. I got a special thingie to clean underneath and marked the calendar for pushing it out every 6 months to clean the fan. Another horrid thing- all fridges have a 1 year warranty, no matter how expensive it is. It is criminal. I had great luck with Sears, so I hope it lasts a good 10+ years, at the very least. There are few models that come in basic white. I prefer white appliances. The whole great room brightened up when this was installed. So far, I am very pleased. We will be extremely tight paying on this too, but that is the way things are...

I made my littlest grandson's Halloween costume this year. My daughter calls him "Captain Chaos", so... I bought a set of black sweats and picked up some red and black fleece. The cape is reversible. I also made a reversible mask, still needing elastic to hold it on. I used Velcro to hold his cape on for quick-release. It is the safest way to fasten a cape for little ones.



I then started on reversible flannels jackets for my daughter and I. It is shawl collared. I extended the collar bit, using a tracing of a favorite hood to make it hooded. My daughter's choices of flannels shrunk way more than mine, for some reason. I made mine first, cutting out what I could of hers until I can drive back down into the city for more to finish hers. Yes, my eyes are closed. The photo with the charcoal-colored side has me in mid-blink, looking like I was on a 3-day toot. I may add closures, toggles. I have not made button holes in decades and do not really want to cut on the jacket. Flannel has a tendency to fray. All seams that were pressed open on the inside and not graded were tacked down by taking a stitch in the seam allowance, then catching a thread or two between the material and allowance, instead of the normal way of the thread going over the top of the allowance. That method causes more fraying. I also did the same thing on the pockets for a few inches along the top and bottom of them so they did not go towards the back when reversing the jacket. I like it, as does my daughter. That is what matters, yes? It is very soft, comfy, roomy and warm.

I have the quilt squares ready to sew for the littlest grandson, canned all the harvested cabbage, threshing wheat when I take Miss Sally outside to potty, (more research before doing this again!), and making sure I have enough jars to can the few remaining stuff in this year's garden. Oh, and get my daughter's jacket finished. Then there is other Christmas prezzies to make before we visit them in a month.

There is never enough time... ;)