My house is not the cleanest place on Earth.  Far from it, in fact.  However, when BE and Miss V left to go down south for the weekend, a trip that it seems may be extended an unspecified amount of time due to familial issues, I was suddenly struck with the urge to rearrange the living room.  But in order to rearrange, first we need to clean.  So, that’s exactly what we started to do, and then by Sunday, we had enough done to finally move the furniture.  Now we just have to clear up the remaining debris so that the living and dining rooms are completely clean.  And boy, oh boy, I can’t WAIT for that to happen!  

We’ve been working on it little by little every day since Thursday, and already it looks SOOO much better in here already!  With the furniture moved from where it was, in the middle of room the way it all was, the living room looks positively huge by comparison!  I’m so glad I decided to do this!  Once it’s completely done, I’ll be sure to post pictures!  🙂

Our Home...

Our home is in danger.  Not from invaders or wildfires, or natural disasters, but from a much more insidious villain.  Money.  You see, in order to keep our home ours, we need money.  Pots and pots of it.  My siblings are talking about selling it, and I’m simply not in a position that I can buy it at the moment.  And I really, _REALLY_ want to be able to buy it.  We’ve started a GoFundMe (link HERE) to try to buy it, but so far, we haven’t even made 1¢...  its really disheartening, and I’m seriously afraid we’re going to lose our home, and have nowhere else to go to live.  It’s really scary to think about...

But on the bright side, my old man still loves me, so I have that going for me.  lol

Wow!

So.  Remember the embroidery stuff I’ve been working on?  Well, someone asked me to make her one that she could then appliqué onto a pillow.  I gave her a price, she was happy with it, and off I went to start working on it.  It wasn’t terribly difficult, I don’t think it even took me 2 hours of total work to complete it, and when it was done she LOVED it.  So I’m glad of that!  And here it is, in all its glory.  It really is a simple project, but it made her happy, and that’s what matters.  🙂

I hadn’t unhooped it yet when I took this picture, as you can tell, but I’m glad I could make someone smile with something so simple.  It really is the little things that can make all the difference.

Finally!

Well!  I’ve been working on an embroidery project for several weeks now, and I am pleased to say that I am FINALLY finished with it!  It was much more detailed than the simple ones I made for my sister and friend, but SOOO worth it!  And I’ll admit that several times I put it down and didn’t touch it for days/ weeks at a time, but now that it’s done, I can show it off!

It took so much to get this done, but I’m so proud of it, too!  I just hope the intended recipient likes it when she gets it!

Glasses

So, among other things, I wear glasses.  This isn’t unusual, a great many people do these days.  However, when I went for my exam this year, I found myself admitting to looking under and taking off my glasses entirely so as to see things up close.  So the eye doctor recommended I get... bifocals.  😳  I was not best pleased with this plan, but at the same time I kinda understood the need for them.  I do a lot of up-close work, especially when I’m working on an embroidery project, so it kinda made sense.  

Well, I picked them up Monday afternoon, and have been attempting to adjust to them.  They’re WEIRD!  And I find I keep running into “the line” at the top, where they change from regular glasses to readers, and that just makes things worse.  But I haven’t gotten a headache from them (yet, lol), so I suppose that’s a good thing.  It’s just adjusting to them that’s taking me some time.  I had to drive to Tallahassee on Monday, so THAT was certainly an interesting experience.  I kept trying to look through the reader portion while driving, but everything just looked blurry.  lol

But having decent vision up close is slightly surreal.  I don’t think I’ve had that in ages, not since before I started wearing glasses, in fact. So here’s an obligatory picture of me with my new specs, what do you think?  🙂

Cooking

I have to admit something.  I absolutely _LOVE_ to cook.  And I’m not too bad at it, either.  Before Big E moved back in with us, I did about 85% of the cooking, with E doing the remaining 15%.  That boy LOVES to cook, though it takes him forEVER to put a meal together and get it on the table!  Anyway, I also like using my slow cooker for cooking, because, well, it doesn’t use propane or a lot of electricity, it doesn’t generally heat up the house, and we have dinner at a reasonable hour when I manage to get the food into it at the proper time.  

I also like the IDEA of slow cooker freezer meals.  The problem I have with most of the most of the ones I find?  They’re written to serve 2-4 people.  That’s IT!  Not only would a meal that small burn up in my slow cooker, but that wouldn’t feed my family!  Not even half!  There are currently 7 of us, with number 8 due in the latter half of October (yay fall birthdays!!!  And yay more grandbabies!), and 2-4 servings just will NOT cut it!  

So I’ve decided I need to search out a bunch of slow cooker recipes to feed 8+ people, then figure out how to freeze them for later use.  That way, I can test them out one by one, and link them all together in one place, so that if anyone else needs something like this, they’ll have a whole list of recipes to choose from.  And just because I can, here’s a picture of my Sweet Little Flower.  🙂

Ooh, I love those sweet cheeks to PIECES!  ❤️🥰

I know no one reads this.  I don’t really write for anyone else.  I do it to keep track of what I do, because sometimes my brain doesn’t let me remember things properly.  But just recently, I got a crafty bug going on, and I started making stuff again.  This time, it’s embroidery projects.  I made one for my sister, and a couple for some friends.  So I thought I would share them so I don’t forget about them.

This is the one I made for my sister.  It’s a bit wonky, and completely uneven, but I like it.  It’s my first foray into larger embroidery projects in quite a while.

I backed it very simply, just a circle of purple felt, and now I need I mail it to her.  

This is one I made for a very dear friend of mine, who is going through quite a lot in her life, and I thought she would appreciate it.

Again, it’s backed with just a simple circle of felt, this time in white.

And this one...  this one I made for a friend in another state, but now I’m thinking I might send it elsewhere.  It just doesn’t feel right sending it there anymore.  Does that even make sense?  lol  But here it is anyway, and I do have to admit, it’s one of my favourites so far. 

And as with the others, this one is backed with felt, this time black felt.  It wasn’t backed yet when I took this picture, though.  And as I said, this one is a bit of a favourite.  I might have to make another one like it for myself.  🙂

I have another one in my head to make, for the same friend I mentioned above, but it’s going to take quite a bit more work, so I’m not posting anything about it just yet.