NO more blonde. I made these 2 t-shirts and poodle skirts for a party that Gaby's (on the left) sister was having. Amber called me the morning of the party to ask me to make the girls skirts.

the Patio I made. I planted irish moss in between the rocks. I have since added more.
Planting ferns in the back garden that I dug up from Summer's house.

knitting needles

Why do I wait so long??????

April 20th was my last post? What was I thinking? A friend of mine, who has a blog, because she is sailing around the east coast, living on her boat with her husband told me to write a little every few days and it wouldn't be so over whelming. Well, that was 2 weeks ago and you see I jumped right on that. Who can keep up? What with facebook and twitter who has the time?I was up at 4 am today and let the cat out, made coffee, hung 2 empty picture frames(I did remove the price tags) and did a little surfing. I heard this screeching outside, dropped everything a ran out in the pouring rain to look around. Nothing. Ran in the garage to find my soaking wet cat shaking like a leaf. I scooped him up and ran upstairs to towel dry, scrub him off, only to find him bleeding from his front and bag paws. As I tried to examine him, not only did he bite me (I'm not afraid of him, whats a little biting), but my clean white sweatshirt is now covered with MUD. Now I am doing laundry. The poor little thing. Needless to say he is in for the day! I am hoping this will not be another $400 extravaganza!
So let me fill you in on what has been going on here in PA.
We found a marina in Bouley's Quarters, MD on the Middle River for the boat. It is a very big and friendly marina. It is 1/4 mile walk on the pier just to get to the boat. It is also very rocky. I mean the motion of the boat while at the marina. My first few times on the boat I thought I was going to get sick. I am much better now. We took the boat out of the slip and took our first sail 2 weeks ago. It was great to be back on the Chesapeake Bay. I can't wait to start crabbing and fishing. We met our friends from Sodus, mentioned above, for the weekend. They are now headed north for a visit with Jim's mom in Long Island. We are going sailing again this weekend, if it ever stops raining.
The end of May I got a new front lawn (sod) and seeded back yard. The rain is helping that and all of my new plants but not good for sailing. It is so funny to hear everyone here complain about the weather everyday. Let them try Rochester right? In my last post I showed a pic of the wall we built with Barbara and Tony. Since then Ray and I have added more rocks and I have planted tons of things back there that I get at Lowes in their garden clearance. Yes, they do have one. I can buy perennials for about 50 cents, shrubs for $2 and annuals for 10 cents. They just need some TLC, and I have all the time in the world for that. I did build a limestone patio next to the deck and have a fountain on it for the birds. With all this rain they don't need it, but it looks cute.
My dad is doing great, he just doesn't know it! He had joined the gym (not mine) and was going everyday. He told me the class wasn't good but he liked the tredmill. His membership ended and he was going to join another gym but has not.
The grandchildren are out of school for the summer and looking forward to time in their pool. Summer is doing good and is now 22 weeks. She is having a boy and Lucy comes up with some crazy name every day. I see them a lot and know why I needed to be closer. I haven't been to FL since Kyle's birthday. We are going the end of July for mini lobster season. It is a 2 day event right before the offical lobster season begins. People come from all over to catch lobster. 6 per licensed person. I want to bring them home this year.
I have kept busy with all of my craft projects. I have been knitting and crocheting, making polymer clay things and now beaded salad bowls and utensils. Why, when I see something must I say to myself, oh I can make that?? Then I need all the supplies and somewhere to store them
I am sure there is much more to tell but I don't want you to get bored of reading so I promise I will be back sooner.

WORK WORK WORK

Barbara and Tony came for a real whirl wind, too short visit. They arrived here at 4:15 on Friday and we were all digging and planting by 4:30. She and Tony dug up all the plants that I had stored in a holding cell at her house, that she insisted I remove from Folkside Lane before I moved. I tried to fight her on it but she told me I would be sorry if I didn't take them with me. Believe me, she was right, again! I had only a couple of gardens ready when they arrived but by Saturday afternoon, I had gardens all around the house, including a new veggie garden and a rock wall garden too. It looks like I have lived here for years, except I don't have any grass yet. Maybe this week. My plants and trees were soooooo happy to see me and hear my voice, not to mention so very warm! It was 80 degrees here Saturday and all the just starting buds on my things are twice the size. I kid you not. I am so glad that Babs would not take no for an answer and made me dig up things to get me started here. I am sure my neighbors must think I am out of my mind but they would have found that out sooner or later.
The rock wall was a big project with a lot of laughs. I happen to live in the sink hole capital of the country. I am sure most of you remember that when they dug for my house they hit a sink hole. Anyway, the land here is filled with beautiful limestone. When they dig the houses, they have to break up the limestone and dump it. There are several piles of it, that we can get to by car, so we made several trips in Tony's painting van and put them 2 at a time in a wheelbarrow then up the back yard hill to their new home. I still need more of them to stack but at least hauss Tony got the big ones out of the way. Ray and I can manage the smaller ones, I think. Then I will have it filled in with top soil and plant perennials that I am growing from seed in the basement. Can you say Suzy Martha Stewart??

My Latest Project

So.............Three weeks ago I take a tiling class at Home Depot. I wanted a glass back splash in my kitchen and wanted to learn how to tile. Nothing to it! The class was an hour long and very informative. When I got all the information I needed I got out of there and was ready to tackle my job. The problem was that all the tile I liked had to be ordered which doesn't go well with my anal, obsessive, ADHD personality. I put that job on the back burner and got into polymer clay, which by the way is doing well on ebay.
Last Thurs and Fri I was in NJ for my nephews memorial, can you believe it's been 3 years?? On Fri my sister took me to a tile place and I found just what I wanted IN STOCK!! My dad and I left to come back to PA Fri and that night I went and got my tiling supplies and Sat morning go the job done. Well part 1 done. Part 2 done on Sunday. And that's how that is done. Well, kinda.....
I had a great time doing the tiling on Sat but Sunday's grout day wasn't as easy as I thought. The BLACK grout is messy and black. My poor hands will never be the same. I couldn't use the tool I bought for putting the grout on because the area I was tiling was too small for the large tool. I used a sponge and got my fingers and fingernails yucky! Then I left the grout on the tiles too long and Ray Hall and I spent 2 hours scrubbing. My dad kept telling me to tape off the woodwork and cabinets but nahhhhhhhh, that would take too much time. This morning I repainted the window. It needed another coat anyway. Well, you be the judge of this little baby....

House,cat, etc UPDATE

Hi everyone!! I sure do miss you girls and all of our chats. No one listens to me go on and on here. Sooooo, while I have your undivided attention I will go on and on...I am chomping at the bit to get outside and work on my gardens. Tomorrow the landscaper is coming to talk about sod for the front yard. It is all dirt still. They will seed but the neighbors say not to get their grass because it is full of weeds. I have a lot of my plants at Barbara's but since it is still winter in NY it might be a while before I did them out. Yesterday I filled my window boxes. You know, the ones I stole off my old house. It has really brightened up the front of the house and is so springy. Is that a word?
We are blowing into town on Wed. to get the boat ready for shipment. Looks like it might arrive in Maryland the beginning of April. We found a new marina on the Chesapeake Bay and we are looking forward to sailing and crabbing in our old stomping grounds.
Summer is feeling good but has her complications, as usual. So far so good, she is now 10 weeks. The kids are very excited and Lucy wishes the baby was here now. My dad is good, looking for something wrong with him. I am trying to get him to join a senior center but he is dragging his feet. Not sure why, tomorrow he is going for a sleep study.
KitKat had his first run in with who knows what but surgery and $400 later, he is recovering just fine. He crys like a baby to go outside but the vet says not till his stitches are out. He has a cone around his neck and looks adorable. Wed stitches out and cone comes off. Remember the skunks in Fairport?? I caught and released 8 of them, left the trap out a little longer with no results so I packed up the trap and was sure they were all gone. Right? Wrong. Tony was over the house painting for the new owner and she asked him if I had problems with skunks. He almost choked. She told him she tought skunks were living under the deck. Needless to say, the release videos on Youtube are gone/deleted.
I've been doing some clay art switch plates like MacKenzie Childs for my kitchen. So much fun that I made a few extras and listed them on ebay to support my new love. They are a bit time consuming but I have a lot of that. I made different ones for the family room, polka dots for the dining room and fancy ones for the foyer. Can you say A.D.D.???
That's it for now................I will be back!!

Where did February go?????

I just realized that I haven't posted in quite some time. Like the entire month of Feb. What a dull uneventful life I lead! Retirement is fun and I don't know where the days go. Everyday I wake up with somewhat of a plan and that really never happens. I have been going to the gym 5 out of 7 days a week. I figure if the people on Biggest Loser can work out for 8 hours a day I can do my part by going for an hour or so 5 days. I should be wasting away but nooooooo. I have met some ladies at the gym but all are young with kids in the daycare while they work out. I haven't told them that I hate kids. Speaking of kids, Summer and Jeff are expecting!! Wait, does she know?? We are all very excited and her due date is in Oct. I guess this move was really meant to be since her pregnancies are not a walk in the park, as you all know.
Jackson had his scheduled surgery a few weeks ago and is going to be going to rehab in another week or so. The surgery was to put a cath in his spine, to release medicine that will act somewhat like the botox, that he was getting in his legs to reduce his tone. It reduces his high tone in his legs, which reduces the pain and stiffness. The rehab will teach him how to use his muscles in his legs not his tone. There is a two year supply of the medication in him that the doctors can adjust from the outside. He was a real trooper thru the surgery, he had to lay still for 48 hours. His legs are much more relaxed and even his very tight right hand is not fisted and he can raise his right arm up over his head. Lucy stayed with Ray and I while Jax was in the hospital in Wilmington DE. She as you all know is a real piece of work. Oh yeah, we had the dog too. KitKat was not happy but Ollie was very good.