Not much sewing going on here

     As you can see, my cutting table is now my computer desk.

 

     Just move the tubs of fabric, take the table down off its bed risers and abracadabra, my cutting table is a computer desk. Course that means I'm not doing any cutting and sewing, but it's time to do some genealogy work. 

     First off I had to re-enter some stuff  I inexplicably lost last fall. Then work on entering some material received from a kind gentleman in the Netherlands on my DH's elusive Veenker family. He sent me so much, and so detailed. I decided that after a certain point I would only enter the direct line ancestors in my database and then keep his file for reference.  I don't know of a single soul in the family who would be interested in all those collateral lines. 

      Then there was more information from a website that includes the descendents of DH's great-grandfather's sister. I've contacted the site owner, asking her to share some of the information about still living people that aren't included in the online version. I hope she responds favorably because I am willing to share what I have if she can use any of it.  

     Through the contacts I've made in the last few months there's finally been some progress. Once all this information is in my database I want to start trying to figure out how "our" Veenkers might be connected to the ones in Iowa. I feel sure they are, somehow. I also want to scan a lot of pictures and find Census images and copies of original records to include in the database. There's always plenty to do.

What a day!

The sun is shining AND it's snowing at the same time. Only in Nebraska!!  :-D

More Snow

Yesterday was such a beautiful, sunny day. And relatively warm too. I actually walked from the library to the post office wearing a light fleece jacket and it was just right.  Felt like Spring might be just around the corner. However, later in the afternoon the clouds came back and by 4:00 it started snowing again and was still snowing when I went to bed around 11:30. This morning it's snowing again.

 

At least the wind isn't howling, but this is Nebraska so it can start up any time.  Ole Man Winter just can't loosen his grip on us.

I wish I had taken my camera to Tues. night's Quilt club meeting.  We were quilting machines!!!  The project was working on a quilt for our friend who banged her head in a fall on the ice & has spent much of the past month in the hospital. By a little before 10:00pm we had the blocks all made, most of the sashing made and rows sewn together. Jennie took it home to finish up and quilt. She thought she might be able to get it to Linda P. yet this week. 

Ahhhhh, just now the sun is peeking through a little bit. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the snow is finished for this round.

Still listening to the wind howl

I'm still sitting here listening to the wind howl........at times almost a bad as last night and the night before...and all day yesterday and today. Enough already!!!  Many highways & roads in the area are closed to normal traffic...one way for emergency traffic only. At this rate they will all be drifted shut again by morning. One closing notice said the road would be closed until further notice. June, maybe??

Since all the schools in the surrounding area were closed today and the wind chill at 8:30 this morning was around 18-20 below zero I called a snow day for the library too and stayed warm inside out of the vicious wind. I didn't see any sense in struggling through the blowing snow & bone-chilling cold to get to the library to babysit a bunch of bored kids playing games on the computers.  It's not like they'd actually check out books to read or anything constructive like that. Let their parents enjoy their company.

Sunday while I listened to the wind I did the machine applique on a couple blocks for a friend in Quilt Club who wants them for a quilt for a grandson getting married soon. I think at tomorrow night's meeting we will be doing something for her. Not to long after our last meeting she fell on the ice and hit her head. She's been in the hospital & rehab ever since.

 

This afternoon I got myself moving to iron the pillowcases I made and washed for the Million Pillowcase challenge so they are all ready to be donated now. It was a great way to use up a bit more than 20 yds. of stash.

Some of the wind gusts make the whole house shudder.  Makes me feel cold. It must be time to go crawl under the quilts & flannel sheets and try to sleep, but the wind noise makes it hard.

From your roving weather reporter

Though it seems I don't rove to far from the recliner when the weather is like this. COLD and WINDY with light snow. Please refer to earlier photos on the blog. I look at pictures of the snow-buried east coast and am thankful we haven't gotten that much all at one time.

Tonight is our Quilt Club meeting at the library. I sure hope the weather doesn't mess it up. I need the inspiration of seeing and hearing about what everyone else is working on. We've had so much gray, gloomy weather that I just don't have much ambition for doing any more than what's absolutely necessary each day. Must be the "winter blues." Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

What I've Been Craving

I haven't made Cranberry Nut Bread for a couple years now.  I used to make up a big batch every year for the FCE Club bake sale, which we haven't had for the last couple years.  I've been craving it so today was the day:

A quadruple batch fresh from the oven. As soon as it was cool enough I cut off a good sized chunk, spread it with butter and enjoyed. Yummm!!  Love that crunchy crust.

Usually I grind the fresh cranberries but experimented with using them whole today. Still good, but I prefer them ground up. The cranberry goodness is more spread out through the loaf that way and you don't bite into a large tart berry.

I made roast beef for supper yesterday and today I used the leftovers to make Beef Vegetable Soup for supper. I sometimes make it with browned hamburger but think the flavor is so much better from leftover roast. My lunch for work tomorrow will be the soup and a couple of slices of Cranberry Nut Bread.

Yesterday and through most of today we had bright, sunny weather. Wow, BRIGHT!!  We're just not used to that any more. By about 3pm today  the heavy clouds reappeared. Now it's very damp out and we may be in for some more snow. I hope it doesn't get too carried away.

Small Things

Just getting a few small things done. I've always been afraid that someday Bonnie Hunter's great web site would suddenly disappear from the Internet. She has so many great quilt patterns on her site, many of which I'd like to make someday. So gradually I printed off my favorites & have them in a big ring binder.(I have lots of favorites. LOL) Leafing through it looking for a specific pattern can be a pain so Sunday I started putting index tabs on the first page of each pattern. Still have to make the little labels that go in the tabs, but it's a start.

And here is a pile of pillowcases all washed & ready to iron before donating. With postage costing so much I think I'll sort out some for Alycia's QOV project and take the rest to the Quilter's Candy Shoppe in O'Neill. They are participating in the Million Pillowcase challenge as a drop-off point.

Lately I've been spending way to much time on the computer & it has affected my sewing time & book reading time as well. I got sucked into a great travel blog.  It's written by a retired gentleman who realized he couldn't afford to live in his home state of Calif. on his Social Security alone, so he used his modest savings to buy and equip a small, used RV and set off to become a "Vagabond-Supreme."  He spends at least six months a year traveling around in Mexico because it it less expensive to live there, finding places to camp for free. His motto is "never pay rent." His blog has lots of pictures and descriptions of the places he visits. It will make you see Mexico in a whole new light. Very interesting. The blog is The Adventures of Tioga and George, starting in 2003 & continuing to the present. He's fixed it up so it's very easy to navigate and has a little calendar that breaks it up into quarterly segments so you can easily start & stop anywhere. Just don't blame me if you get hooked too. LOL

It's about time.........

......that I did a blog post. The problem is that I haven't done anything blog-worthy.  I don't think anyone really wants to hear about the time I spend reading other people's blogs.....quilting, RVing, scrapbooking and genealogy blogs. All interesting, but time consuming.

At this point I will share a picture of what my world looks like today...and yesterday and the day before and probably into next week sometime.

Notice the glaze of ice over everything. It's been really foggy almost every night so the trees got covered with a heavy layer of frost. Mix in a little freezing drizzle and everything gets crunchy. Today it's freezing rain and wind with sleet and snow to come. Only an inch or two of snow is predicted but with the high winds also predicted it's supposed to be blizzard conditions in places. Yuck. From what I read on the blogs the weather is frightful all over the country, even down south where the RVer's go to get away from such miserable weather so I don't feel like I should complain too much.

Do you think a picture like the one above would qualify for my DDIL's photography class assignment to take pictures representing the "winter blues"?? I would think so, especially since it just goes on and on and on.

So, you'd think I would get lots of quilting done. Not really. I've had several people tell me that when the weather is so miserable they really don't feel like doing much. And when it's really bad they spend time going from window to window just looking out. I'm glad I'm not the only one. The only thing I finished for a while now is some QAYG blocks for Jay. I didn't even have my head together enough to take a picture of the blocks........just the box they were mailed in.

I have another five pillowcases cut out and I WILL work on finishing them today. [Notice the Scarlett O'Hara tone here.] Maybe I can mention too that January has been a paperwork month so far. Annual state library report, the next form in line for the E-rate application and so on and so on. Plus working on computers.

When I got to work yesterday there was a note that some of the computers couldn't get on the Internet. That was an easy enough fix....the electrical cord to the switch had been knocked loose just enough to not make a connection but not enough to be easily noticed by looking at it. Pushed in the plug all the way and all was well. One computer wasn't so well though and it took reinstalling Windows to fix it, then reinstalling the programs and settings. Luckily it is a public use computer and there weren't any important files to lose. Wednesday night a friend brought me her laptop that was infected with one of those fake anti-virus viruses, plus a couple other things, and I cleaned that up. I've done several that were infected with this type of virus and each time it's a little bit different though it does seem that with every boot-up it attaches to more files. So, keep your Anti-Virus program up to date. Also Spybot Search and Destroy....use the immunize feature.... and Ad-Aware. I'm careful about all these and very rarely have a problem. Also, if you use the Firefox browser, get the Ad Blocker add on.

Stay warm, stay dry and watch your step on the ice. Oh yeah, keep the bugs off your computers so I can keep reading your blogs.

Heat wave

Wow, it warmed all the way to -5 today.  I hear it might get up into the teens tomorrow.  Guess I'll have to go to work, won't I? Actually it will be good to get out and go somewhere.  I haven't been out since Monday and that's getting a bit much even if I am a hermit at heart. Most of the blogs I've read lately talk about the cold and show snow pictures. I'm skipping the pictures, but if you want to see snow just refer to JenniferQuilts and DakotaCityQuilter.  It looks pretty much the same here.

I keep doing a little more sewing....made 18 QAYG blocks yesterday and cut out another five pillowcases today. Then I got side-tracked by genealogy. A friend called & we talked genealogy for awhile. Then I had to spend some time doing a little searching........my, time flies when you're on the computer. LOL  I did find an obituary for someone in a family that I would like a little more information on....well, a lot of information really.. After that branch of the Veenker family moved to Oregon the trail gets pretty slim.  I looked up the widow's address & will have to write to her.

Sewing and the computer have really cut down on my reading time. So I've started putting audio books on my MP3 player and listening while I sew, play on the computer and do things around the house. I get frustrated with the player though because the bookmark feature is worthless....or maybe I'm too dumb to figure it out. I have found though that if I just shut it off, when I turn it back on it starts up where it left off....as long as I don't push any buttons.

Well, that's about it here.  Spring can't come soon enough to suit me.

In the icebox...............

.............that's where I am now..........snow, wind, icy cold.  Windchills for tonight and tomorrow are predicted to be around minus 35 to minus 50 or so..........and the snow falls off and on.  I'm seeing a snow day for myself tomorrow. It sure puts a dent on the paycheck but if it comes to a choice between a fatter paycheck and staying in where it's warm, I'll choose warm.  Who knows how deep the drifts will be by morning......there's no crust on top of the snow from the Christmas blizzard so it will be drifting right along with the new stuff. Where's global warming when you need it? I hear it's in the 70s in L.A. during the daytime and if I liked cities at all I might be tempted to go there. LOL

I've been working on my pillowcases for the One Million Pillowcase project.  Fifteen are about done and I have fabric pulled for another five.  Photos coming soon.  Once the pillowcases are done I'm going to make some QAYG blocks for Jay in Fremont for his nursing home project and then I'd like to make a string quilt for Alycia's QOV project. That should keep me going through January don't you think?

It's A New Year

The New Year is a whole new, empty slate. Time to forget the crap & failures of 2009. A chance to start over. The beginning of a new year always seems so fresh and clean.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but if I did I wouldn't have a very good grade for all the usual ones in 2009....weight loss, finish UFOs, get organized, start exercising, get over those genealogy brickwalls, get all the old family pictures scanned, scrap the more recent pictures, etc. I will just keep plugging away in my efforts at all of these in the coming year......BUT, I am not making any resolutions!!! LOL

Happy New Year's everyone. Enjoy the day and a whole new start in a new year.

Our Christmas....

...in pictures...on Sunday.

I think she likes it.

Katie and her wallhanging. I think son Allen likes his book & money.

Tyler and Scott.

Oldest grand-daughter Ashley.

Hailey, grand-daughter #2.



He was so eager to open his gifts, but somebody decided he should be
last in every round. He took it pretty well.

Grandpa puzzles over the electronic picture frame.



And the Best Grandma, moi. That's all you'll see of me. LOL

The money was popular with all of them.

Could be...............

Had to share this. After the past few days I'd be willing to believe it's true.



Our street didn't get cleared until about 4:30 today so I took a Snow Day, authorized or not. Oh, that's right, I'm the Library Director and I authorized me a Snow Day. LOLOL Actually I was just waiting for somebody to call and ask, "Aren't you opening the library today?" And I was going to answer, "Bring your shovel & start scooping my street out. When you're finished I'll think about it." Darn, nobody called. Guess I wasn't missed at all. Or everybody's buried under snow. DH went downtown to see what he could see and told me there's still only one lane of traffic east of town and the big, state snowblower got stuck west of town, so it's possible. LOL The wind came up again too so I suppose the street will be blocked again in the morning, only deeper than before.

Santa's sleigh would come in handy today

These pictures are out my back window. They don't do a very good job of showing the snow coming down horizontally. The wind gusts shake the house when they're at their worst. The pictures don't show it but there is a three-ft. drift right behind the house and around the south side. Since the storm made us postpone our family Christmas it might as well keep it up.........maybe I could get a snow day from work tomorrow.

Our son called as we were eating our substitute Christmas dinner..roast chicken..and said his father-in-law was coming from Battle Creek to Pierce to get them & take them back to Battle Creek for their family Christmas. Pure insanity if you ask me. I just hope he made it to their place and isn't sitting in a ditch somewhere....I doubt if there's much traffic out there today so he could sit there without help for quite a while. Why can't people just stay inside when the weather is dangerous out?

Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone is somewhere warm, cozy & safe. Every weather report on this crazy storm sounds worse. Now we've been upgraded from Winter Storm Warning to Blizzard Warning until Sat. morning. Our family Christmas dinner has been postponed to Sunday. I'm beginning to wonder if we will all be dug out by then if we get a foot of snow and high winds. Oh well, the turkey is defrosted & will have to be cooked...........do you think the two of us could put much of a dent in an 18lb. bird???

Stay warm.

As Promised.....

.......here is the picture of the table runner I made for my daughter.



The gifts are all finished now. I just need to download my DH's 2010 hunting/fishing license and pop everything into gift bags. I'm ready, but I think the weather might not be. Here's a picture of what my world outside looks like this morning:



If you look closely you can see the shine of the ice on the street. This is just the beginning of the predicted Christmas Storm 2009 here in the Midwest. According to the maps on Accu-Weather.com Nebraska is right in the middle of the worst of it. They predict anywhere from 15-30 inches of snow by Friday night with wind gusts from 50-60mph. Looks like Christmas dinner will be postponed till Sunday at least. Please, everyone in the storm area, please stay off the roads. With the ice and predicted snow & wind it's just too dangerous to be out there. Stay safe now & celebrate Christmas later.

Still working towards Christmas

After sleeping in this morning I spent the day working on more Christmas stuff. I just about got the table runner for my daughter done. Still have to sew the turning opening shut and do a little machine quilting on it. I'll post a picture when it's finished. I think it's cute and I hope she likes the finished product.....the pattern was her choice.

I also got my Christmas cards/letters ready to mail...finally. I'm only mailing a dozen. The folks who have e-mail addresses are getting electronic cards this year. Really, I'm being "green" not cheap....though it does save quite a bit on postage, paper, ink and envelopes. Don't you think the Post Office shoots itself in the foot with the constant postage increases? The higher the prices go the less people use the mail.

Last night we had DH's work Christmas party. Supper at the steakhouse in Neligh...prime rib, baked potato, green beans, roll, salad and my annual Strawberry Daiquiri...Yum. This year they didn't have any games so I couldn't win anything...bummer. No door prizes for the employees either. Maybe it's their way of cutting back or maybe it's because the company secretary just had a baby & didn't have time to do all the work of shopping for gifts and getting games & prizes ready. It was still nice and I enjoyed it.

I guess if I just keep plugging along I'll get it all done by Friday. Our kids and grandkids will be here for dinner and gifts and then it'll all be over for another year.

Plodding on

Here's a quick picture of the little wallhanging I finished for my daughter-in-law for Christmas.

I hope she likes it. I made one like it, but with a blue plaid border, for the person who's name I drew for the FCE Club Christmas party.

This year family is getting some little thing and cash. That way they'll be able to buy what they want, in the right color and the right size. Grandma usually gets it wrong, or I get them something from their list and by the time they get here (last Christmas on the list) they've already gotten it. Viva la CASH!!! LOL

Cold....Lucky....Lighting Up My Life

Against my better judgment we participated in the "Blizzard of '09" and now it's cold, cold, cold. I DO NOT LIKE COLD.

Believe it or not, I won the grocery store drawing for $50 worth of groceries AGAIN.

That makes three times in the past year. Maybe I should start buying Powerball tickets.

As for lighting up my life, here's the lovely little Ott light my good friend Flicsha sent me for Christmas all the way from Florida.



Thanks so much, Flicsha. I have just the spot for it.

So....What Have I Been Doing???

Because we all know I haven't been blogging don't we? And I haven't been taking pictures because this is a photo-free post. (Photos added 12-09-09)

Let's see, since the last post we had Thanksgiving at our daughter's. Our son-in-law was (and still is) in the hospital so we brought our 6 yr. old grandson home with us for the weekend. He likes hanging out with Grandpa so they went turkey hunting one whole afternoon, put every puzzle in the house together and spent lots of time with the race car set. Oh yes, his dog came to stay too, they're kind of a matched set.



Look at that face...maybe he didn't want his picture taken!!! :)




Dec. 1st we went to the Christmas concert at school for grandson and granddaughter #2.

Tonight was my FCE (Extension Club) Christmas party. I made a little snowman wallhanging for the name I drew but forgot to take a picture of it and I'm too lazy now after the big meal to take a picture of the gifts I got. Also finally got the tree put up and decorated today. It will be my black kitty's favorite place to sleep now. She was under it within 5 min. of me getting it decorated. It's been snowing out so it's really starting to feel like Christmas. It's really cold out too and that doesn't add to anything. Brrrr.

And last, but not least, I changed my blog background to a Christmas theme. There are starting to be so many websites offering backgrounds that it can be hard to choose.