The Musings of an Amateur Philosopher

I have had the feeling lately that life was moving too rapidly and that I was short of breath just trying to catch up.  We had planned a Father's Day Celebration for this evening - a bonfire with all our extended family.  This past week has been a rough one for the family, several of us have been dealing with our own specific problems - some physical, some emotional, and some financial.  I don't really think that any of us were feeling festive, so we have canceled the bonfire and decided to spend a quiet evening with just our immediate family.

My mom has been gone now for six weeks, and I'm not sure how I'm doing.  And then yesterday was my dad's birthday, and that didn't help my sadness any.  This morning, I went out to sit by the pond in an attempt to clear my head.  I looked at the pond in a different way.  Other years our pond has been home to many tall plants, Japanese iris and cattails.  This year we have smaller plants - the parrot's feather, the water hyacinth, and the little water lily.  The Japanese lilies bloomed as usual. 

I never understood why the water hyacinth was called such until yesterday when I went out and found this.  That small and simple water lily was displaying a beautiful flower.  And I came to realize that although  in this world, I am small and simple that I, too, can display my own special beauty.  

I watched the fish and noticed that some dart around the pond like they are in a road race, while others swim slowly and gracefully.  And I came to the conclusion that I want to swim gracefully, I don't want to enter the race.  I dug out my Simple Abundance book.  It always offers me comfort and hope.  And I decided that I need to start a new gratitude journal.  Nothing fancy, mind you.  Just a small journal, in which to count my blessings.  And I am reminded of one of my favorite hymns - Count Your Blessings.

                When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

                 When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
                 Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
                 And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. 

                 Count your blessings, name them one by one,
                 Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
                 Count your blessings, name them one by one,
                 And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

                Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

                Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?                

               Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
               And you will keep singing as the days go by.

Just Checking In

It's been a few days since my last post, so I thought I'd check in.  I finished the kids' capes, and they had a great time playing "superhero".  It's funny how they can put things together.  They were superheroes playing house, you know it was sort of like The Incredibles, each with their own super power.

I had wanted to buy something for myself with a bit of the money that was left from Mom's life insurance.  Mary had been talking about the Kindle Paper White, and how she hoped to get one when she sold her books back after then end of this semester.  I was fascinated with the light, and so checked into it.  And decided that's what I needed.  It's smaller than my other Kindle, so now I need to make a nice bag to fit it.  Mary is graduating from Drexel this weekend with her Master's Degree in Elementary Ed., and in checking discovered that she didn't have enough coming back from her books to buy the Paper White she wanted.  Don't you think this would make an excellent graduation gift??

Today I am starting a new project - baby quilts for twin girls.  One of the technicians from the vet clinic where Kristin works recently gave birth to twin girls.  Kris asked me if I would make quilts for them, and since twin girls are so close to my heart, I couldn't say no.  When my girls were little, I made sock monkeys for them and decided that sock monkeys would be great.  I went to one of my favorite embroidery design websites and searched for "filled sock monkeys".  JuJu had several different packages, and since her prices and specials are so reasonable, I purchased three packages.  (One of them here).  I ordered fabric from ebay, this orange and a lime green to match for the sashing.  Today I begin the embroidery.  Have a great day.

Just Call Me Doofus . . . with a Capital D

I've been working on capes for the grand kids from a page that I had pinned on Pinterest.  The original pinner had posted a drawing of how to cut the cape pattern along the fold.  Sounds simple enough.  But, do you know what happens when you are drawing an arc which ends at the fold????

 Just picture that you are drawing a heart on the fold.  And because the arc doesn't end flat at the fold you get this little inward dip.  Well, that's what the cape looked like - an upside heart.  So, I had to cut part of it off so that the arc ended straight at the center fold.  Of course I didn't realize that until after the fabric was cut. So, Doofus had to re-cut the capes to eliminate that inward dip. But they ended up looking OK.

I had ordered some metallic thread, and thought how "super" it would look to top-stitch the edges of the capes with the metallic thread.  I don't use metallic thread very often, and didn't remember that it works best with a metallic needle.  So, after several breaks of the thread, a light bulb appeared and I knew I had to find the metallic needles I purchased years ago.  Where would those needles be?  Of course, I said, with the metallic thread.  But noooo, they weren't there.  Just on a whim, I opened up the plastic box where I store all my needles, and Voila, there was the pack of metallic needles.  Why wouldn't I have looked there first?  Can you say Doofus!!!  But the capes are finally done. This is Krissy's and I topstitched with one of the patterns from my machine.  The photo is a bad quality, but you get the idea - right!  Now Izzy wants a mask.  It will have to wait til the weekend

A Pond Memorial

It has been a beautiful weekend.  Sunny, warm, breezy, and just the perfect weather for sitting and relaxing on the deck.  I should have been working on the capes, but when the deck calls, I answer.  I've been feeding and watching all the fish, and the new ones have bonded quite nicely with the older ones.  The sickly looking water lily that we paid so much money for, has sprouted five leaves that have reached the surface and you can see more that are growing.

My mom loved the pond - she would sit for hours watching the fish.  She and Bubby spent a lot of time out on the deck when she was living with us.  I wanted to do something special as a memorial to her, something that wasn't expected of me by today's standards.  After much pondering, I decided that a stepping stone would be a great memorial.  This is the one that I chose.  Rod put it at the edge of the pond near the deck, where I can see it every day.  You can see that the fish like this end, too.  Hope you approve of this addition to the pond, Mom.

Maker of Super Heroes

Today, I am the maker of Super Heroes.  School will be out next week, and I wanted something special that all four of the grand kids could play with.  At age 12, Kristina is almost too old for super heroes, but she will do just about anything to amuse the younger ones.  I used a pattern that i found on Pinterest for the capes.  I also have pinned a pattern for the masks, but haven't decided whether to do them with fabric or felt.

I chose special fabrics for each of the kids, and a coordinating name. These fabrics are for Kristina's cape.  She loves yellow and is very into peace signs.  The cotton is the lining, and the cape will be the satin.  I have designed  peace sign to applique on the back, and she will be known as the "Peacemaker".

These are the fabrics I chose for Bubba's cape.  Again the red satin will be the outside with the baseballs for the lining.  He will be known as "The Home Run Hero", and his cape will feature a large baseball on the back.

Izzy's favorite color is pink, so I chose a pink satin for the outside of her cape and a ladybug print for the inside. She has chosen the name "Mutant Ninja Ladybug". (she's a big fan of the Ninja Turtles).  I have a ladybug applique designed for the back of her cape.

And last, but certainly not least, is Jake.  He loves all things dinosaur related, so I chose the lining fabric first. The characters from the Dinosaur Train on PBS are on the fabric, and then I chose the satin to coordinate with the lining.  And he will be transformed into "DinoMan" when he dons his cape. His applique is a brontosaurus.  I am so anxious to finish them for the kids.  The capes are all cut, and ready to start putting on the appliques.  It should prove to be a fun project.

A Problem, A Party, A Pretty Penny, and Peace

I think that I've posted several times about how much I love our pond.  Krissy used to say that Grammy tells Pappy what she wants, and Pappy gets it.  Such was the case with the pond.  About 10 years ago, I wanted a pond, and Rod and the twins worked really hard to create the pond as my Mother's Day gift that year.  Sometime over the last two weeks, our pond liner sprung a leak.  And this was the problem. We ordered the liner, and a new filter from Lowe's online, and through ebates.com, we saved nearly $20.00.  In order to replace the liner, the pond would have to be drained, the fish and plants removed, and the liner pulled out and replaced.  That also meant moving all the stones around the pond, and that in itself is a job.  We filled the canoe we have with water on Thursday evening to let the chlorine evaporate out of the water.  Friday evening, Rod began to drain the water from the pond.  As it drained, we realized how dirty it was and that this was a good time to clean it.

Saturday morning, we had some errands to run.  When we returned home, we called the twins and they came down to "go fishing".  Those little buggers are hard to catch, especially when you don't have a net.  Pam solved the problem by using a large leaf rake.  But it picked up the fish and a lot of crud.  Pat and Rod were a bucket brigade, taking out the water that the pump didn't remove.  These are the two of the pictures from Saturday.  In the photo on the right, you can see some of the crud that rake picked up.  Pat ended up "going in" at least twice, shoes and all.  And soon Rod was in there too.  Not intentionally, mind you.  We laughed really hard at trying to catch the fish, people falling in, and putting the fish into the clean water in the canoe.  And thus, our problem became a party.

This morning, Rod and I took a road trip to Elmer's Aquarium Store in Monroeville, PA.  We were waited on by a great young man.  Not only was he knowledgeable, but he patiently caught each fish that I wanted.  And when we decided to buy bullfrog tadpoles for the grand kids, he made sure he got ones that hadn't grown legs yet so the kids could watch them grow. We ended up buying five new fish ($10.00), three tadpoles ($4.50), a water hyacinth ($4.99) and a parrot feather ($2.99).  Oh, and we bought a new water lily.  And when we checked out, our bill was $69.00. Say what!!!  Well, what we didn't know since our clerk picked out the water lily (the last they had) was that the water lily was $36.00.  Yep, a pretty penny!
We ordered two catfish to be picked up next Saturday, and stupid us . . . we didn't ask how much they are.

Rod had picked out a wonderful filter.  It is a floating filter/pump combination, so there are no unsightly hoses like we had before.  It also has 4 LED lights on it and a fountain, and is just beautiful at night.  If it ever gets warm enough to sit outside, we'll enjoy it from the deck instead of from the bathroom window.  So, now the fish are in, the new plants are in, the new filter is in, and the pond is nearly full.  In the photo on the left, we are floating the fish to acclimate them to the water temperature, and are preparing to pump some more water in.  In the photo on the right, you can see the fountain, and the pond is nearly full.  We had to fill the canoe, and will be able to pump that water in tomorrow.  The Japanese iris at the far end, aren't looking so good and I'm hoping they will snap back.  And now this evening, we are at peace.

Bummer!

Yes, today I'm feeling a little bummed out.  I was so excited about the "gourmet" shoelaces I was working on. I loved the way they looked, and couldn't wait to finish them.  To do the agets, I needed a way to heat the shrink tubing. Everyplace I looked suggested using a heat gun.  I couldn't find the heat gun that Mary had loaned me.  I have looked everywhere I could think of, but alas, no heat gun.  So, when Rod suggested that I try ironing them between sheets of parchment, I thought it might be a viable solution.  And I thought they looked pretty good.  I gave the first pair to Izzy, since she loves pink and her own shoelaces were in really bad shape.  Unfortunately, when Kristin tried to put them into Izzy's sneakers, they wouldn't fit through the grommets, and in the end, the tips pulled off.  That was not acceptable.  I couldn't sell them like that.

And although I've searched again, I still haven't located the heat gun.  I googled making aglets, and read that someone suggested using a curling iron.  I plugged mine in, turned it on to "turbo" and tried it on the shoelaces.  And it was a bust!  The aglets are no smaller.  I have pulled the laces from Etsy until I can solve the problem.  So, I guess I have four choices - either I break down and buy a heat gun, I search every nook and cranny until I find the gun Mary loaned me (which I need to find anyway), I find another way to make the aglets, or I chalk the shoelaces up to a very good idea that just didn't pan out.

Today is very gloomy, which probably is aided to my "bummed out" feeling.  And as Annie says," The sun will come out tomorrow".