Goodbye Halloween 2009!

It snowed yesterday and last night, and woke up to this...........

Later this afternoon, as it was warming up a little, the sun tried to peek through. Forecast for next week is looking better.

Some of our trick or treaters!



We had the normal number of kids come, and our last visitors were Vivie and Gabby - they walked right in and made themselves at home!

We had a good visit with them, their father and grand father. I wonder if they already had enough sugar in their system. Look at those smiles! The girls played with Hooch, and shared their suckers with him. He sure liked that!!!!

The bottles of candy were hits with the kids, and the kids had a good time trying to figure out how to get the candy out! Most of them were small enough to think that all they had to do was to take the cap off.

Vivie and Gabby helped themselves to our other candy (less for Steve and I to eat later) and they had Hooch doing tricks for dog treats. They especially like the trick where he is sitting on hind haunches and front paws up in the air with a dog bone treat on his nose, sitting for a minute, and when we tell him to "get it!", he tosses the treat up with his nose and then catches it. He was in good form tonight and crawled on the flower, rolled over, danced and played dead when they shot him!

When they left at 9:45 pm, there was frost on our wood patio out the front door. It was slippery! So as the temperature gets lower tonight, I'm sure the roads may be a little slippery. Glad I'm home and not having to go out in the cold. Hope the snow melts off tomorrow.

Now we wait for another year til next Halloween.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy Halloween to everyone! Pictures of grand daughter Renee all ready for Halloween! She had a doctor visit yesterday, and now weighs 12 lbs 11 oz. She is growing good! Still has the heart monitor on, but hopefully soon that will be off.

It will be a cold evening out for trick or treaters this year. Will have pictures tonight of them. We have snow on the ground - yuk! It was really nasty yesterday afternoon and evening with big wet snow falling, and staying. It should be warming up next week, and then the snow will melt - we're not ready to have winter quite yet.

More Halloween Memories 1979!

Stephani got water up her nose! Cousins Max and Daryn waiting their turn to bob for apples.


Great Grandma Arvilla and Jessica when she was 4 months old. I think little baby Renee Arvilla looks alot like her mommy!

Baby Renee 3.5 months old......

She is growing just fine! She still has her heart monitor on. Renee sees the doctor this Friday, and Jess is hoping they'll be able to take the monitor off. Renee has not had any incidents with the monitor going off for over a month. I see that she is loosing all her dark baby hair and new hair is coming in blonde; all our girls were very blonde their young years! In the pictures below they are at the LSU (Louisiana State Univ) FB game, tailgating. Jessica, baby and friend (holding her) stayed at the camper during the game. They didn't mind. Had good view on TV. Floyd and friend were in the 9th row! Pretty good for tickets given to them. Baby Renee is wearing her LSU cheerleading outfit!

Treats for Halloween!

Today after getting home from buying groceries, I've been busy making Treat Bottles for the little goblins that will be coming on Saturday - Halloween evening. We usually don't have over a dozen kids come, so I figured this would be fun to do for them. I saw this at a craft show and thought it was a very cute idea.

I bought the small bottled water and saved the water in another jar. I don't usually buy these small bottles, but it'd take way too much candy to fill the bigger bottles. I used a serated knife to cut off the existing label; saved it and used it for a cutting out a new band out of craft paper; it was about 2" by 8 1/4". Then I cut the bottle almost in half. I didn't want to wait for them to air dry, so pried the bottle apart and dried them out with a dish towel.







Filled them with candy and then put scotch tape on to hold the bottle together. Then I put on the new decorated band and used double sided tape to hold that, then put a Halloween sticker over that seam to hide it a little. Then I put some more filler candy in through the top, put on the cap and then tied on a scrap of halloween material to cover the opened seam on the cap.



The kids will get a bottle of candy and I made up extra hot pads out of left over Halloween material, so the Moms will get a new hot pad! I'm sure some of the smaller kids will wonder how I got the candy inside the bottle!

Busy Friday!

This morning my girlfriend and I went sewing machine shopping! I have several old sewing machines, and the one I use the most, is a Riccar 9900. It has been fixed several times, and the last time (about 3 years ago), the repair man told me that the next time he would not be able to get parts for it, as he had a terrible time then getting the replacement steel parts. So this past weekend, when I saw an ad in the paper for overstock of school sewing machines, where schools have cut back and not purchased like they have in past years; so my interest perked up a little. Of course, I knew that the ad had a leader for the student machines, and there would be more upgraded models available. So we got there and were 2nd in line! I watched and listened, and did upgrade to the most expensive one there. These were Necchi machines, and I ended up purchasing a Necchi Model 4825. It features an automatic needle threader - happy me! I have a terrible time threading a machine because of my bi-focale glasses - so I'm excited about that. It also has a built in overlock cutter - great - now won't have to always use my 4 thread serger that is always giving me fits, and is not working right now. You can also monogram and embroider with this machine. That will be fun to practice.

After I got home the first thing I did was set it up and started sewing. It works great, and I'm pleased that I didn't have to spend an arm and a leg to get a machine that should last a long time. It is warrantied for 25 years. I did have to pay extra for the optional accessory packages, which includes extra feet for working on leather and doing upholstry.



I made a couple of hot pads from scraps for part of wedding shower gift tomorrow. Maybe I should stay up late, and make her an apron too!

Of course I was busy sewing, so I had not started anything for supper. Good excuse to go to a neighborhood little bar that serves great burgers. So thats what we did for supper! Leah and Steven (oldest daughter & hubby) were there also, and they stopped over on their way home. Visited for awhile, and now it's after midnight, and I may just start that apron!

Getting ready for Halloween 1978

Leah, age 11, (of Living It Up Country) and Stephani, age 6, with our dog "Blue", a barn kitty and their pumpkins! Pumpkins are so fun!!!!!!!!

That was about the time we started our TUB for collecting Halloween clothes, and dress up clothes. One Tub grew to two TUBS, etc. and finally, the clothes and accessories took up two of the largest TUBS you could buy. We had old nighties - really pretty ones that I picked up at garage sales, etc. An old wedding veil that was mine, a Chinese outfit, square dancing dresses and puffy slips. Old mens suits, shoes, canes, suspenders. Old sequened dresses that the guys used to wear to dress up like fancy women; wigs; hats; dog and cow costumes; containers full of makeup and lots of other stuff. We used stuff out of those TUBS for 4-H Share the Fun skits throughout the years, and everyone in the neighborhood would come to borrow from those TUBS for Halloween! Lots of neighbors (Adults and Kids) for their parties. We had collections of masks from pig noses, to very scary ugly rubber masks, with my favorite, the big guy and gal rubber mask, that we'd wear the largest bra we could find (it was HUGE) and long flowing skirts, and the guy in pillow stuffed big overalls.



It was 2 years ago that I finally decided that the TUBS of clothes HAD TO GO! Someone else could be caretaker for all that stuff. Well, the girls each took some, and the rest got donated! Kind of miss all those fun days with little girls getting so excited for dressing up to play make believe; for Share the Fun skits; Halloween with kids in the house! I know our girls instill that fun in their families, which is good, because I'll still get a call from one or the other asking - "Do you know where that mask is? I want to use it this year!"

Quilted tablecloth project!

Hoping to get this done before Halloween!!!! Took these pictures tonight as I'm working on the last border. This will be the first time I'm making mitered corners, so I hope as I sew them together it will turn out. Almost like it without that 5th border, but then it wouldn't be big enough. I did change the pattern a little as I cut off over 10 inches off the first center square, because my square table is smaller than normal, and I didn't want a big overhang. Now it will be just the 4th and 5th rows that will overhang. I hope that when I start the quilting, that it will go okey. I'm nervous about quilting the big center. Don't want any material to bunch up; but if I pin it good, I should be okey.

While I was sewing today, I started a veggie, beef stew! I just use what I have, so it usually is a little different every time I make it. The stew makes the house smell good if you like it; but if you don't (like my husband), the smell isn't inviting! It has beef stew meat - browned, beef stock and water as needed, cabbage, rutabega, (spell check isn't working), sweet potato, onion, carrots, and celery. Steve doesn't like the smell of the cooking cabbage. The carrots and sweet potato lend a sweet taste to the stew, and I do shake a little Watkins Soup Seasoning in also. I use my big Griswold roasting pot that I inherited from my mom and dad. Couldn't do without it!

All the ingredients fill the whole pot, but after slow cooking a couple of hours, it settles down. These pictures are after we've eaten supper, and the bowl, is a second-or is it a third helping! It is a good meal for those of us on diets - in fact, this is similar to a weight watcher veggie stew!!!!!

To feed Steve, I'll just pick out the beef and boil up some white potatoes for him tonight. He likes cottage cheese, and if he wants some other vegetable warmed up, I can do that. So it looks like I'll have a couple of lunches with this beef-veggie stew!

Cooper Chapters - My dad "Ike"

This is one rare time when my dad visited North Dakota with us. Part of the picture didn't scan in because it was so white at the top, with the man standing closest to my dad, and it showed him pitching a soft ball. But with the poor quality, my scanner just didn't pick that part of the picture up. The fellow out in the back field with his hands on his knees, is my cousin "Bunty". Uncle Herb is pitching, and I can't identify the other person. I don't know the year this was taken, but must have been in the late 40's or early 50's, as my dad looks so young. But then again, it could be earlier, before I was born. I was born in 1947, and he and my mother were married after he got back from WWII. I don't know why he wasn't playing - he had been a really good athlete in high school.

What do you think of his hair cut? A white shirt and dress pants and shoes. Pretty dapper! I think he wore a white shirt a lot. And the little "box camera" sitting there on the ground. I think this was the case for the camera, and I remember using the camera as a child learning to take pictures. This case was brown, kind of a card board with a cloth covering. The camera itself was like a box too, but right now I can't remember exactly how it worked. I know I've seen some like it in antique stores; maybe I should buy the next one I see. Boy, hasn't photography come a long way????

In checking the picture out closer, I don't see where they had any bases made up, or maybe they were just pitching the ball and practice hitting. I remember in later years when us little kids were big enough to play, that we all played and ran bases. I think that would be the only place I've ever played ball. I am just no good at softball. My eyes can't follow the ball; let alone my hitting it with a bat!


Thanks Connie (Far Side of Fifty) for suggestion of putting a darker paper behind picture before scanning. It worked great. Now when I scan and print to give pictures to the kids, I'll know what to do.

Collecting Barns & Windmills

When visiting our daughter Stephani in southern Minnesota, we pass by this farmstead near Trent SD, where the owner collects barns and windmills. He refurbishes them and has them on display, and has tours during summer months. When Steph and I passed by this time on our way to Sioux Falls SD, I got her to stop so I could take some pictures. Next summer, we'll have to stop there when he is doing a tour. I wish the big red barn was in our yard, replacing the barn we have. Our barn needs alot of work, and if we had the money to refurbish it, we would. About 25 years ago, we did get it straightened. That was a process to watch. Our barn is 80' long, so is really big. We still store hay and staw in the hay mow, and when baby pigs are weaned, they go into pens at the south end of the barn. Years and years ago, it was used for dairy, but there have not been milk cows since the early 1960's. The north end of the barn has pens for boars and sows.

As for collecting - my collections are smaller in size, and considerably less expensive!

Back to sewing!

Just got done making this table runner "Square Meal" by Atkinson Designs. I really like it, but I'm giving it to one of my sister's-in-law that just moved into a new home. I hope the colors match well with hers. She has a wonderful long dinning table that it will fit on better than my small square kitchen table.


Had a little trouble at first following the pattern, but when I did exactly as the pattern said, it went smoother! I don't like cutting all my pieces out first. I'd rather cut, iron, sew, iron, and cut again. Why that is? Don't know. Probably because it started that way, so is a habit. I had trouble at first with the cut lenth not fitting right after sewing the first 9 square! So had to recut for that; and then got my 1/4" correct and away I went!!!


I used Windham's Clara Barton Collection material. It's so unique. Clara Barton (1821-1912) was known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" for her efforts in nursing care during the Civil War. She was instrumental in bringing the Red Cross to America and served as its president for 22 years.



Already have a Halloween table top started for myself, and on that I am changing the pattern! Duh! It was was to big for my table, so, down sizing it a little, you'll see pictures when done. Also have another project started for Christmas presents. Will get pictures of them soon too.

She's Still Growing!

Odda - Our Bernese Swiss Mountain Dog now is now 6 months old. She got bigger the week we were gone - we sure could see the difference, she's filling out more.

Each day I let her inside for awhile. I want her to know what she can do and can not do inside. She does behave very well. Today I had to comb out some burrs that were in her tail and a couple by one of her ears. Don't want those nasty things to get a head start on me and our brushing her. We've had to deal with cutting them out on one of our other dogs years ago, and I hate doing that. Odda now has the upper hand in size over Hooch (Jack Russell), but Hooch can still put her in her place! Hooch is the boss....




Odda can look over the kitchen table, and we'll have to make sure there isn't food there when she comes in. She had to back out this time - instead of walk right through! Not enough room with chairs in the way. She used to crawl through the chairs too --not any more!!

In the mornings she is so excited and happy to see us, but then in awhile she settles down. Sometimes when company comes, she can be a handful too. Hopefully that will settle down as she gets older. She really likes company, and loves to see the neighbors come over with Chance (border collie) -- except the last time Connie came, Chance wouldn't get out of their vehicle! Odda just likes to play a little too rough for Chance. Chance does love Hooch tho. When they're alone to run and chase the ball or frisby, they're both in 7th heaven!