Category: weather

A New Bookmark

A friend of mine had her retirement party last week. I was trying to think of something to give her and felt a bookmark might work. I was too lazy to look up a bookmark pattern, so, as usual, I just started one. The bookmark is a common pattern type, I just put my flair on it.

Arlo bookmark on wandasknottythoughts
Arlo bookmark

This is made in Lizbeth #165 Grape Splash in size 20. This was quick and easy until I came to an end. I couldn’t make up my mind about what I wanted to do, so the two ends are different.

One end of Arlo on wandasknottythoughts
One end of Arlo

I like the look of this end but not how I got there. This needs a bit of work. Because I wasn’t happy with it, I did the other end a bit differently.

The other end of Arlo on wandasknottythoughts
The other end of Arlo

I like this look as well, but not the stitch count. The clover at the top joins to the sides a little wonky. I can see how I should change it – the next time.

I decided this bookmark didn’t come out well enough to give as a gift, so I gave her a Hymnal Angel that I had already made instead. My friend was quite happy with the angel, and I didn’t tell her that it wasn’t what I had originally meant to give her.

Monday was such a beautiful day outside that I took the dog for a walk at a local arboretum. Our normal temperature this time of year is in the lower 40° F, today was in the upper 50s. She and I enjoyed the outing greatly.

The pond at the arboretum on wandasknottythoughts
At the pond at the arboretum

Being winter, most of the plants were brown and not so pretty, but the walk and the weather were lovely. This was a wonderful change of scenery from our normal walk in our yard.

After our walk, I took her to our local coffee shop, where she got a pup cup, and I got a yummy coffee. Both of us were quite happy with our outing

I have several ideas for what I want to tat next. I’m even writing them down so I can remember them later! They might include hearts for Valentine’s. We’ll see how they come out. But today is the start of Jane’s 2023 TIAS!

Day 1 of Jane's 2023 TIAS on wandasknottythoughts
Day 1 of Jane’s 2023 TIAS

As there are no clues in the TIAS to indicate what colors to use, I’m doing it in Lizbeth #617 Magenta Med in size 20. Hmm, I have no guess yet.

Are you doing Jane’s TIAS? What do you think it is?

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx

Finally Fall

The calendar shows that it is fall and now it feels like fall – mostly. We’ve had a few nights where there was a freeze and some days of cool weather and then there is today. When I got up this morning it was still 66° F with enough humidity that all the sidewalks were so damp it looked like it had rained. It’s currently cloudy and windy with an expected high of 77°. The average temperature for this time of year is around 60°. Friday they are projecting a high of 49° and staying around that for over a week. Fall in Kansas, don’t you love it?

I actually have some fall decorations out already. I’m usually terrible about decorating early enough to enjoy them before the season is over, except maybe Christmas. For some reason, I’ve gotten into the fall season early (for me!)

My fall decorations on wandasknottythoughts
My fall decorations

I’ve been working on an edging that I need to have done ASAP, which is for a Christmas runner. It’s not far enough along to share yet, but I’m finally excited about it. Unfortunately, it is in white while I want to tat in more fall colors.

When I have the chance I plan on writing out the pattern for the October Snowflake that I spoke about in my previous post. I’m sure it will look great in other colors.

In early October I shared a picture on my Facebook page of a new angel I’ve designed but never shared here.

September Angel on wandasknottythoughts
September Angel

I’ve been working on the pattern and thought it was almost ready to share, but looking at these I realize I’ve made a mistake. It’s a minor mistake but means it will delay sharing the pattern. Very soon, I hope.

While scrolling through Facebook the other day (a dangerous rabbit hole to go down!) I saw a cute way to make Christmas trees using toilet paper rolls. The site is coleykuyerart.com if you want to check it out. It is so easy I thought I’d try it. I even had just emptied a roll of toilet paper, perfect timing. I didn’t decorate it but can think of so many easy ways to do so.

TP roll Christmas tree and two angels on wandasknottythoughts
TP roll Christmas tree and two angels

I did this quickly just to see if I liked it. I will be making more of these but cutting them a little more carefully. I have a granddaughter I believe would have fun helping me do this.

This post would have been out sooner as I was almost finished with it yesterday. I know I saved it several times but this morning there was no trace of it. I had to start all over. Bummer.

Now I must get back to the runner edging. What are you working on?

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” Charles Dudley Warner

The Week before New Years

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas? I hope you did. We did. We had family get-togethers, presents, a Christmas Eve program, and a wonderful Christmas day. Now we are in that week just before the calendar year changes from 2021 to 2022. Are you ready?

I finally finished the wings for my tree-topper angel, the day after Christmas. But that’s okay, I still have my tree up and the angel is now ready for next year.

Tree-top angel with wings on wandasknottythoughts
Tree-top angel got its wings

I made the wings in Lizbeth # 601 Snow White in size 10. I had wanted to make them in # 602 Natural but I didn’t have any in size 10. I thought the color would go better with the rest of the angel, but this looks okay. I modified my Angel Wings pattern to make the wings come out larger than I made them before. I even stiffened them so they would stand out nicely. I’m very happy with how the whole angel came out.

At Christmas, our families play a white elephant gift exchange game so we don’t have to spend so much on presents, but there are still a few gifts some of us give because we want to anyway. My sister embroiders and always makes something for the women and bakes goodies for each family (the guys and kids don’t complain!) She enjoys embroidering tea towels throughout the year so we all get them at Christmas. The women don’t complain, either. This year they all had gnomes on them.

Gnome tea towel on wandasknottythoughts
Gnome tea towel

I love my new tea towel, isn’t it cute? Unlike some, I am not afraid to use the embroidered tea towels my sister gives me. I have them out almost exclusively. She put all that work into them, I’m not leaving them in the drawer!

This year has been unseasonable warm here. We’ve been hearing of snow in some other parts of the country, but here in the middle of the USA we have had warm temperatures and haven’t had any moisture but a few sprinkles in over a month. The weather is supposed to change a bit on New Year’s Day.

Weather forecast for the week before New Years 2021 on wandasknottythoughts
Weather forecast for the week before New Year 2021

It’s too far out to know if we really will have any moisture or in what form it will take snow, rain, or ice, or a combination. I’ll take it in whatever form we can get it.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I don’t, I just review what’s been going on, what I’ve been doing, and consider if I’m going in the direction I want to be going. I do sometimes make a list of tatted things I would like to make, but I usually lose it. As I’m retired now maybe I’ll post that list on the refrigerator and remember to make a few of the items on my wish list. Check back at the end of next year to see how well that goes, LOL!

New Years’ Day is this coming Saturday. Are you ready?

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start.” Nido Qubein

A hot Tatting Tea Tuesday

This morning I enjoyed a lovely glass if sweet iced tea, Black Cherry Berry flavored – very yummy! I hadn’t been sure I’d like it iced but I’m very sure I like it now! Yes, the picture shows a cup of tea not a glass but I wanted to show the pretty cup:-) The doily is one I made quite a few years ago, and sad to say I have only a vague idea where I got the pattern.
The little book “Get Well Tea” I picked up on my vacation in Branson, Missouri. I found it in the back room of an antique/flea market that my sister and I visited on our way out of town. The author is J.C. McCracken, the owner/innkeeper of the Inn at Fall Creek, Branson, Mo., at least as of 1996 when the book was published. This little book has a brief history of tea, a little about the hummingbird and a few recipes for “Get Well Tea..” I’m really going to have to try a few of these, they sound very yummy, though I’m not sure they would all taste good if your tummy wasn’t feeling to well. But being unwell doesn’t always involve the tummy, does it?

I’ve done some tatting this week, I just don’t have any I’m quite ready to share yet. I’ve also spent a lot of time on the computer (not surfing, though), working on diagramming patterns. I’ve noticed lately looking at the stats of my blog that a lot of people are looking at the pattern I posted for the Christmas bell ornament from this post, so I diagrammed it and have it in the right sidebar. I spent my day Saturday doing this instead of all the cleaning I should have been doing, isn’t that sad? And, yes, it took more hours than I planned; I have a ways to go before I’ll be quick at it.

As you might guess from the title of this post it’s been rather hot here in Kansas. It was mentioned on a local TV station that the average high temperature for this July was 103 deg. F (39 deg. C), which makes it a pretty hot month. The average temperature is 90 deg. F but we haven’t had a day under 93 deg all month. And August is usually pretty hot as well. Today is a good example of how hot it is here: at 7:00 PM CDT it was 110 deg. F (43 deg. C). There have been several records set for the heat this year – these are records I would prefer not have broken! I’m ready for cooler weather.

“Whether the weather be fine,

Whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold,

Whether the weather be hot,

We’ll weather the weather,

Whatever the whether,

Whether we like it or not.”

TTT, March 9, 2010 and the weather

I had a wonderful picture for today. I had chosen the best picture of the several I’d taken, with everything showing up well and the lighting right. I had my cup of tea ready and had already taken a few minutes to tat. I was all set to have a nice TTT post.

And every time I upload the picture to Blogger it’s rotated 90 degrees!

In every program I look at the picture it is showing correctly which side is up and which side is down. But every time I upload it to Blogger – Boom! – it’s sitting side ways!

I’ve been playing with it, trying to get the picture right, but it’s just not happening. I might just end up taking another picture and starting from scratch.

Unfortunately, I can’t do that until I get home again after work. So no picture today : (

The good news is that it’s looking like I will have a little more time for tatting. At least in theory. They’ve cut back on all the over time, at least for a little while. So I should have a little more time to do stuff I want to do, including tatting. I’m hoping to have a little more energy for a lot of things. And we have a lot of things we’ve let slide at home because of the over time. Of course, it’s also beginning to feel like spring here, so we’ll probably end up with a lot more things on our “to do” list.

On the weather front we’ve had a bit of spring-like weather, you know, spring rains. It’s also Severe Weather Awareness Week here in Kansas. This is to remind people to be prepared in case of severe weather – including tornadoes. They (the state of Kansas) were planning a state wide tornado drill today but because of the cloudy skies and rain it has been postponed until Thursday. They don’t want to alarm people by having the sirens go off when there is no threat but the weather is such as it could be. This drill includes having the local warning sirens go off and the All-Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System activated to signal the start of the drill. Everyone is supposed to treat the drill as if an actual tornado was imminent. Also to be in readiness for other severe weather such as flash floods, large hail and damaging winds.

Where I work we do the drill and everyone goes to the closest weather shelter in whichever building you are working in. They’ll do it when the sirens go off on Thursday, about 1:30 PM, and then again with second shift later in the evening, though there won’t be the city sirens for that one. We have a lot of turn-over of people, so there will be some who wouldn’t know where to go if we didn’t do this. There are signs showing where to go, but it’s not the same as actually going to it. We’ve had to go to the shelters for real several times in the last few years, but fortunately for us we were never hit during those times.

If anyone is interested in some Kansas weather statistics this has some interesting information in it. Even if you don’t live in Kansas, it has information of what should go into emergency kits for your home. Every location has some sort of hazard to be prepare for.

I’m looking forward to spring, for warmer weather and sunshine. I’m betting most of you in the northern hemisphere are, too. Of course, winter isn’t officially over yet, so the weather could get cold again, but I’m hoping not. But I’ll have to take what the Lord sends us.

I hope to have my picture problem figured out by next week. One way or the other!

May you all have a great week!

Motif #13 and the weather

This motif I found on Nita’s Creations here. She designed this in a Design Tat class on line. I really liked the looks of it and have several ideas of what I would like to do with it. She graciously said I could try it. This one I made with DMC size 30 pink and green. This will be my #13 in the 25 motif challenge. And I notice that it’s a bit crooked – oh, well. Check out Nita’s motif and her other projects on her blog. She’s been doing cloonies, which I haven’t mastered yet. Hers are lookin‘ good!

I’ve had a little bit of time to tat and to post because I haven’t been outside since I got home from work Thursday night. Because we had a blizzard! Yes, ice, snow, wind, cold, white out conditions. It was projected to be so bad that they canceled 2nd shift where I work so I didn’t have to go to work Friday or Saturday – thank goodness!! The roads got nasty in a hurry. Wichita had lots of ice and lots of accidents to go with it. So I got to stay home and just watch it all come down.

It looks like it finally quit snowing. It’s hard to tell because the wind is really blowing it around. It’s also very hard to tell just how much snow we actually have. Some places you can see the grass, other places have drifts. It’s not as bad here as just west of us, they got about 20 inches a few miles west and more than that south west of here. I’m just glad I don’t have to get out in it! Welcome spring, ha ha.

I should be tatting

The excitement is over for awhile, and things are pretty much back to normal. But I haven’t picked up a shuttle all week! I think my mind is taking a break. There are a few ideas percolating in the back there but they haven’t yet made it to the top. Maybe next week.

The weather has decided to be cold again, after all the interesting, warm weather we had last week. There were actually snow flurries on the way home from work last night, nothing sticking. There was fog and haze this morning with the chance of the roads being slick, but I don’t have to get out this early, so I didn’t worry about it.

I was on eTatters and see that it is moving to InTatters. I’m trying to make sure I have everything from eTatters, like my friends, so I can find them on the new sight. I’m registered as tattldy there, so look me up when you get there. I’m slowly figuring out how to get around there and what’s what. It might take me awhile to get used to the changes, but I’ll get it – eventually!

Rough Weather

Well, tomorrow is the baptism for both the grandsons. My daughter from Nebraska came down yesterday with Mercutio so she could be here in plenty of time.

Today we went to pick up the cake for after church – and spent 10 -15 minutes in the freezer in the store. The tornado sirens went off in town. They made an announcement over the intercom to either leave the building or go to the freezers until the all clear was given. Having the baby with
us we went to the freezer.

There were about 20 people in the freezer we were in, all standing around shivering. It has been above average in temperatures here for several days, which of course leads to tornado weather around here. And the sirens went off because of a sighting close to where we live!

But every thing is fine. There was only a funnel cloud which never touched the ground, a little hail, a little wind and a little rain. We’re still in a severe thunderstorm watch, but it seems to be going south and east of us. I don’t know how well it’s showing up in the picture, but the sky was very orange when this picture was taken, and very dark looking to the south.

Oh, the joys of living in Kansas in the spring time!