FOUND! MY STAMPING FRIEND, CAROLYN

This is my dear friend, Carolyn. This picture was taken about 10 years ago in the

back yard of Mary Lea, my stamping, and now knitting, friend.

I met Carolyn @ Tea Time Rubber Stamps, a shop that was three doors away

from my apartment. After selling the cross stitch shop (and getting bored with that

needle craft) I found Bev Kish, the owner of the stamp store and

fell in love with stamping. Bev held a once a week? month? gathering

of stampers for a "Show & Tell" evening. Carolyn was @ the

first one I attended and was showing an elephant card she'd made. I am

an elephant lover (OH! ANOTHER BLOG IDEA!) so I asked Carolyn

if she'd send me one of those cards for my birthday. Instead, she made the components,

gave them to me and said, "Make your own!" And that was the

beginning of our friendship.

We went all over the place together, searching out stamp stores and

card stock and envelope stores. We went north to Northville, MI, to a great

shop. We went east to Hollo's in Brunswick, OH (outside

Cleveland)* for card stock they sold by the pound, envelopes in a

multitude of sizes and colors and much much more for the

rubber stamper. The first time we went to Hollo's we said we

"had died and gone to heaven" as we walked in the door.

Carolyn moved to Jackonsville, FL but that didn't stop us!

I went to Florida 4 times (right, Carolyn?). We hit the stores there, going 

south to St. Augustine, and north to St. Mary's, GA. We also

shopped @ Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

Sadly there came a time I was not able to drive to Florida and when Joan moved here

all trips south ended. Carolyn and I lost track of each other

for a few years but in November she called and we have

been talking via e-mail, snail mail and phone. I am

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

happy she made that call in November!

Here we are in front of Carolyn's house in Florida.

We had on shorts - both the same color!

+++++++ The Stamping Twins +++++++

This picture sits on an end table by my chair all the time. :-)

*Bill goes to the Hollo's for his card stock. He sends handmade birthday

and Christmas cards, using clever photos. OH, ANOTHER BLOG IDEA!

P.S. Another Thing I Do With My Hands

How could I forget my knitting! On the right is

 a Diamond Scarf and on the left a Hitchhiker Scarf.

Both are in the process of being finished.

Above the Diamond Scarf is a

scarf for the homeless, in progress.

These are two scarves I knit for the homeless. I give them

to my friend, Phyllis, who takes them to the

Cherry Street Mission. The mission is the oldest

establishment in Toledo for the homeless. 

On the right is another shot of the Hitchhiker Scarf. On the

left is an afghan I am knitting for myself. I feel the cold

in my knees and wanted something to cover my lap

and........my knees!

HAPPY KNITTING!

TA DA! I FINALLY GOT IT!

What I'm Going to Watch

I didn't start watching "Downton Abbey" on PBS because

I thought I wouldn't like it. Then read reviews, heard raves

and decided I wanted to be "one of the gang" and

got the first season from my library.

What I'm Doing With My Hands

I am working on a small jigsaw - only 550 pieces.

I have a 1000 piece Charles Wysocki waiting.

I enjoy jigsaws. Know it's a good thing to do to keep

one's mind active. You can see how I lay the pieces out

by shape. I am anal that way. I also do not like

someone else to touch my puzzle.

What I'm Reading

I have read some pretty heavy stuff lately and decided I

needed to read some "fluff". The definition

of "fluff" is: a fast read, not well written,

usually by someone who wants the money 

and doesn't care how poorly the books are written.

Examples of fluff authors are Stephen King, Danielle Steele, and

David Baldachi (his first book was excellent. Then he

got diarrhea of the mouth.)

That's it for now. Love to all you who read this stuff.

P.S. "Hi, Bill". Only you and I will know

what this P.S. is about. :-)

HELLO FROM JUDI IN SYLVANIA, OHIO

I am totally frustrated because I wanted to put some pics in here but I can't find them.
I'll just say "hi" and "bye" and try another time.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A Lovely Christmas Cactus

I have had this cactus for many years. at one time I gave it to 

a friend. It wouldn't bloom for her so I she gave it back to me.

Oops! I had another shot of the plant but I goofed and put this in twice.

As my sister, Susi, would say, "Duh, squared"!

The cactus is pretty enough to be seen twice, right?

Christmas At Judi's Apartment, December 2013

My pretty little Christmas tree is sitting on the window sill.

She stands 34" high and is entwined with 100 little lights!

My dear friend, Bill, put them on the tree for me.

                                                 This little tree, made of round balls, is in the

                                                  bathroom. It has mini-lights stuck between

                                                  the balls but are not working anymore.

                                                  I liked the tree, even without lights, so use it

                                                                            this way.

Two Santas, composed of metal and wood

sit on a shelf on the bookcase.

Off to the side is an oragami swan.

This is a "lady tree" that I bought for Joan

a number of years ago.

It hangs on the wall in my office area.

Joan collected all kinds of Christmas trees.

That is why I gave her the "lady tree" above.

This is a set of silver trees that were Joan's.

This is another tree deco that was Joan's.

One side opens and a candle

can be inserted.

Joan is here with me at Christmas! As I look at the

trees, I am reminded of my dear sister!

Jesus is the reason for the season! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND PEACE AND JOY

IN THE NEW YEAR!

gsg

HI!

i lost this thing again but today i bit the bullet and worked my way thru a bunch of gobblely-gook and..
voila! here it is. this is just a short bit of nonsense to send so i can get back here easily tomorrow with
pics of my christmas decor.
enjoy your late afternoon and evening. tata!

A Picture of Lovely and And A PIcture of Oh, Shit! and Other Pictures

I just scrolled through my pictures and found some I don't think I put in here. If I have before, scroll on through here.

Here is a lovely brick wall Bill built under my back porch. We bought herbs and flowers and

they sat on the porch and the steps. To the left, on the ground, is a hydrangea and to the right 

is my peony, which is over 20 years old.

Here is the hydrangea in full bloom. Isn't it lovely? And beside it is the lovely brick

wall that fell down after we had a lot of rain. Bill told me if we had rain, the

ground would probably shift and the wall would fall. Damn!

He was right! I asked him if we could do it again and use

cement and he said, emphatically, "No way"!!

I bought these lovely mums for a fall display. I did add these two pictures, 

though, to show you my new steps and landing. My friend, Rick, who painted my living room

and bathroom, now works for my landlord. Rick put  this in because the old wood was really old!

and wobbly and dangerous!

Well, there is no picture of the landing but aren't these steps nice!

A Few of My Grandchildren

I want to share some pictures of Steve and Rebekah's children, my dear grandchildren.

Steve lives in Las Vegas, New Mexico.At the children's school, each day during one week, the children wore clothes to celebrate a number of things. I am a breast cancer survivor

(16 years!! YAY!!) so Steve made each girl this t-shirt. Isn't that sweet of him?

And here is Rio, the little, and Maddie, the bigger in their t-shirts and pink, pink, pink!

This is Rebekah, her son, David, and her daughter, Morgan.

David does not have corn stalks growing out of his head! He is a senior. Morgan is in first grade.

The family was at an apple-picking festival.

Judi's Yarn Stash

Guess what!! I just had a session with my wonderful tutor, Erik, and he got my blog back up. Because I let too much time go between entries, I wasn't able to figure out how to get this thing up and running. Well, now I do. (For those of you who have been with me since Day 1, my friend Heather

got a job working 8-5 Monday thru Friday and wasn't available anymore). Luckily, at the same time, I read an article in our local paper about a shop opening up right around the corner. Article said "Knows

Apple - repairs, recycling, used Apples for sale, etc". I went over and talked to Erik and scheduled my first tutorial. He comes to the apartment and we spend an hour - him teaching 

and, hopefully, me learning. Now to the picture.

I decided to take pictures of my yarn stash. In this one, all the shoe boxes with pink and blue cards in the front, are filled with specific yarn projects - 13 in all.

And here we are with more yarn. The big boxes hold from 10-15 skeins of yarn.

Think this is enough! HA!

And more............

...........and more. I have been put on a budget - well, I had help setting up a budget - 

and will stay away from yarn shops* until all this yarn is gone and that will be just before

they carry me out feet first - to hospice or nursing home or MCO, who gets my body for science. 

I will knit scarves, sweaters, afghans and hats and give the items to

churches, who pass them on to the homeless. 

*Won't stay out of my favorite yarn shop, Yarn Envy, but when I go there I will leave

credit cards and cash at home!

The Electronic Age and Being Old

I need to say, first off, some of the words about the amaryllis got covered by the picture. Don't know what happened. Words you missed are not important.

THE ELECTRONIC AGE AND BEING OLD was written by one of my TOPS members. Aretta
puts out a newsletter every month and she wrote an article about electronics. I have paraphrased it and
want to share it with you. Aretta's title was "Trying to Avoid Becoming A Fossil in the Modern World".
(I am putting this article here to follow my ipad entry).

I can remember that I didn't want a microwave. An acquaintance got one and talked about making fudge and cakes and cooking meat (that was grey because micros didn't brown!) and I thought, "No way". I thought it was a foolish appliance and I would never use it. When sis, Joan, and I bought a house together, she had one and I did use it - to warm up my coffee and heat a TV dinner. When we sold the house and I moved into my cozy apartment I HAD to have a microwave. How could I live without it?
I fought owning a cell phone. Sadly, I got one when Joan became sick. Susi got one and we kept in
touch with reports of Joan's illness. I continued to keep it when my car started acting up. I needed to be able to call AAA or Ron, my car man, when the PT Cruiser died out on me. I did not give my cell phone number to anyone but Rebekah. I don't need to be wired to someone 24/7!
I have mastered the computer, do pretty well with it, although I probably use only 10% of what it can do.
The digital camera came along and I love it. If I didn't have my camera, there would be no blog. The blog was created to send pictures to family and friends who are far away.
"Progress" keeps coming at us at an alarming rate and it is hard to keep up with it. These electronic
gadgets I just talked about came slowly, giving me time to learn how to use them. But I am being bombarded with dozens of new things.
Now there is Facebook, Twitter, Skype, blogs (but I have a handle on that one!), texting and sexting.
E-mail is almost a thing of the past as people turn to Facebook to keep in touch. I stay away from Facebook because I don't want to "friend" everybody and his brother.

I want to say this about Facebook. I have a friend who is a teacher. She was out with a group of friends, having dinner @ a restaurant that serves beer and wine. Someone was ready to take a picture
of the people around the table. My friend moved away from the shot because the table was covered with beer bottles and wine glasses. No one was drunk but there were 10 people gathered there and that
could mean 10-15 beer bottles on the table. My friend had heard of a fellow teacher who had been let go from her job because she was in a pic much like the one I've described and her boss thought she was
not "the kind of employee" he wanted. (IF THAT HAD BEEN MY BOSS I WOULD HAVE HAULED HIS ASS INTO COURT!) My friend was afraid the pic taken of her friends would end up on Facebook. Her friend's picture did end up on Facebook and all believed that's where the boss saw it.

But, to go on with Aretta"s article. The most annoying thing about the 21st century is the inconvenient practice of the way business phones are answered. No more secretaries or telephone operators who
connected you immediately. Now, it takes a long time to get past the computer voice that wants to solve your problem by pushing buttons. And, sadly, many voices are so heavily accented I cannot understand what they are saying and have to repeatedly ask them to speak slower and, with my hearing, LOUDER!!! Sometimes, when you finally get through, a recording tells you, "I am away from my desk or am speaking to another customer. Please leave a detailed message and we will get back to you
ASAP". Sometimes you get a call back the next day and..........sometimes you never hear from them.
These'are Aretta's words They are so dear! I don't long for the good old days when things were slower and there were not so many distractions. I realize that those times would not work well in our fast-paced modern world. But I think if the present deluge of scientific gadgets continue at the current rate, I may have overstayed my time and need to
push on. NOTE: Since writing this some months ago, there is now Kindle, Ipod, Ipad, phones that access your e-mail and take pictures. latest information tells us they are not teaching cursive writing
in the schools anymore. I know I must sound Victorian but I still have love letters tied with a ribbon in
my cedar chest. They were written in a beautiful masculine hand. I am glad they were not text messages! Aretta"

Christmas 2012 - Tree and Flowers

 I thought I better get these pictures in here before it was Christmas 2013!!  This is my little Christmas
tree covered with 100 lights. I got the tree from my dear friend, Carol King Stager, in 2009. In 2011
I bought the lights and dear Bill put them on the tree for me. If anyone is interested, I have pictures of Carol's wedding and pics of this tree the first time she was loaded with lights.

This is the amaryllis I bought in November. It is
amazing how fast this thing grew. I swear I could
watch it grow!  The pic above was the first shot, the pic to the left the second shot and the picture below shows her in all her glory.
As you can see in the bottom pic, one stalk is in full bloom with 4 blossoms. To the left is the second stalk coming up fast. There are always four blossoms facing North, South, East and West. The second blossoms bloomed before all of the first blossoms had died. It was a spectacular
Christmas flower.

How $329.00 Became $539.04

This is my new ipad nestled in her pink suede case. Isn't she pretty? Ah, but what it cost me to get it here on my table is a story fraught with anxiety. So here we go with a fraughtful tale. (STEVE AND
REBEKAH: Look it up and expand your vocabulary!)
I had some fun money to spend and decided I would buy an ipad - or is it Ipad?? I asked my friend, Mary Lea to go with me to purchase one. We went to Best Buy and found what I wanted. Here was the first "fraught". The $329.00 ipad was smaller than the one I wanted. I wanted the one that cost
$399.99. Ok, I can deal with that. I'll get the $399.99 model. (Incidentally, it is 9.5"x7.5"). Now we move to cases. I do understand that I want to protect this $400.00 toy so we looked @ cases. Second
"fraught" - the cases range from $30 to $60. Wow!! I hit the middle price. That pretty pink suede cover
cost $49.99. Now I'm up to $449.98. That's still not so much that I wanted to back out. So I said "yes" to the pretty pink suede cover. Third "fraught" - You must buy a screen for the face of the ipad. "You must...." was said by the clerk and seconded by Mary Lea. "The reason for the screen is to protect the
glass of the ipad from scratches". "What would scratch it"?, I asked. "Fingernails and diamonds",

the clerk said. Right then and there I should have showed him this. This is the only ring with a stone in it that I wear. It is a peridot that is set down in a silver setting. Nothing sharp here. And....notice the nails? Cut as short as I can get them and not a bit scratchy! But I wasn't thinking straight so I said,
"Go for it". Guess what it costs. Go ahead, guess! $39.99!!!!! Now my total has risen to $489.97.
Fourth "fraught" - "It is not easy to install this screen so we"ll do it for you", the clerk said. Mary Lea
said it would be VERY hard for me to do it, and like a sheep led to slaughter, I went along with this last
suggestion.
This story does not end here. I paid the bill, noticing the total was $539.04. "Why is this bill so high?"
I asked. "It costs $14.99 to install the screen", said the clerk, with a sheepish look on his face. "Yeah, these screens are hard to get on,  BUT we'll do that for you" is what he had said. No words about the charge to "do it for you". Ok, ok, ok, I let the geek squad do it. But they didn't. While Mary Lea and I killed over 45 minutes waiting for my "screened" ipad, they tried two times to attach a screen only to find both were flawed. I got my money back for the screen and installation and we left.
I went back on Friday and said to another clerk, "Put a screen on my ipad with no flaws in it, do it in 45 minutes or you're getting the ipad, screen and case back!!!" 40 minutes later I got my ipad with a
flawless screen attached. Yay!
I must say my ipad is an expensive toy but, hey, you only live once......what's money for but to spend?......it's only money! How's that for justification?!?
I went to Yarn Envy with my lovely ipad in tow only to find it had to be charged. Duh!! We charged it and my knitting friend, Lynda, started teaching me how to use it. It takes some getting used to because
there is no mouse. You do everything with your fingertip. But....I  can do a lot with my computer so I'll get this ipad going in no time.