Cardiac Collage Afghan, Peruzzi Leather Purse, and Toilet Paper Rolls for Halloween

Cardiac Collage got a vacation while I was tarveling recently in Italy.  But, there is now the beginnings of the 7th square so it's coming a long.  Whether it will end up being a 9 square or 12 square ghan remains to be seen.  My current plan is to make 9...see how I like it and whether adding more to the existing squares or adding more squares is the way to go.  Since this is without a pattern....it truly evolves.  Once completed it will be donated through my charity, Bridge and Beyond to benefit the Homeless.

What's a trip without souvenirs?  Not sure I'm able to answer that question.  I'm a person who dislikes buying purses.  They either all look the same, are too big, too heavy, or too expensive...or don't have good pockets or something.  For years, I had stopped buying leather or pretend leather purses due to the weight on my shoulders and got "into" Vera Bradley's cloth purses.  But, while the prints are fun....they almost always clash with what you're wearing.  AND the particular style I liked they stopped making.  Florence, Italy is known for fine leather goods, hand crafted, durable, fashionable etc.  Guccio Gucci was a Florentine.  Even in antiquity, leather making was a big thing in Florence.  In part, because of the Arno River.  Tanning leather was a messy job, and a smelly job.  Lots of water was necessary in the process of doing the work and in cleaning up afterwards.  Peruzzi has been making fine leather goods in Florence since 1948.  I love this purse, it's not heavy on my shoulders, it's not large or small..a good inbetween size.  The strap is very adjustable to be a cross body or over the shoulder.  Italy has been the #1 country on my bucket list, so was pretty excited to travel there.  Been blogging about it with lots of pictures on my travel blog.  Traveling Suitcase.  Come travel virtually with me.

AND, yet another idea for you with re-using, re-purposing, and re-cycling your toilet paper rolls.  Just in time for Halloween.  Isn't this a cleaver idea!  Those of you with your children at home ought to get a kick out of this.

A YEAR in Review

Today is January 1, 2018.  Happy New Year to you all.  We stayed in last night, had a good dinner, then popped the cork at 12 mn, watched a bit more tv as we were enjoying the bubbly and called it a night.  I hope if you were out and about you were safe and warm.

That's the last completed projected, emphasis on the word completed for the year 2017.  This knitted afghan wasn't yet laundered or blocked in this picture, thus it's not laying out super nicely.  Once blocked it will be added to the donations for the homeless through my blog, Bridge and Beyond.

This afghan was completed just prior to the one above.  Was pushing hard at the end of the year to get them done.  The center pink was a small square someone had donated to Bridge and Beyond, and I added to it, to make an afghan.  It too was laundered, blocked, and donated.

This was a cute ferry garden we saw while traveling in Ireland in the fall.  The trip truly being a highlight of the year.

You can talked about Ireland and Scotland without thinking about Castles!  WOW and then some.  I've posted some, and will continue to post about Ireland and Scotland on my travel blog, Traveling Suitcase.  Please enjoy traveling virtually with me.

In some respects this has been a good year, I traveled to Ireland and Scotland, as mentioned above.  I returned to a favorite spot, Hilton Head and Park City in Utah for vacations both with hubby, daughter, and girl friends on different trips.  I love to travel.  But, it's also been a difficult year.  I've lost a cousin rather suddenly that took me by shock.  Somehow we all think we have endless time and can do tomorrow, or call someone tomorrow.  Just isn't always the case.

Politically, I am extremely dishearten by the person occupying the White House when he's not playing golf at one of his private clubs and charging The American Public for it.  

I hope 2018 holds some improvements for people suffering from illness.

And tomorrow, will be another day, January 2, 2018

Hope you noticed a new badge I added to this blog to join a blog linky party that focuses on yarn!  Oh lovely yarn.  Check out the badge upper left, Ginx Craft.

TREES, storms, and what's keeping from blogging!

Step 1 of many. Working in the yard, weeding when I heard a crack ....I was standing right beside this tree; well about 3 feet from it. Dropped what I had in hand and ran the opposite direction. Yes...this old broad can still run; though in truth faster then I knew. lol
A 5 minute strong wind and pouf the tree was down on top of the house. Called hubby pronto. He arrived from work and we began pulling, and sawing, our way to the house to check for damage. We truly were lucky. Thank You, only the gutter appeared to be damaged. The next night we began cutting all this up, rented chain saw and trailer and also cut down the 2nd half of the tree which you see on the left at a angle. We didn't want it to fall and possibly hurt the cute little guy next door when he was swinging or something. So 3 days later, 4 trips to the dump later. This mess was cleaned up.

Then, the 2nd storm hit and we lost a major limb in the front yard. A even bigger tree slated by the electric company for removal started the next day of messes. The crew came and began the work. Pulled large limbs from our back yard through to the front ....I didn't even bother to take a picture of the mess I was so disgusted. Where things hit in the back yard we have holes, deep ones. They weren't careful, and left lots of stuff piled on top of our landscaping. Some items are totally flattened. They didn't even clean up after their day of work. We expected them back the next day to finish the job, as the tree still isn't totally down. They didn't show. Meanwhile day 2 and our grass is now all matted. The important thing here is this is NOT our tree they're working on; but our neighbors across the back. This is the same tree we spent 2 days last year working on when a big junk fell in our yard because the electric company wouldn't do anything at our say so...not our tree. The neighbors informed us it was our problem since it was in our yard...even though it's their responsibility to take care of their trees. Two large work trucks have our street blocked, hubby can't even use our drive. The neighbors who's tree this is have no mess, they have a large circle drive where the equipment could have been pulled up pretty close to the tree, saving them time and energy. Go figure.

So, the next night hubby and I moved all the junk we could lift from our yard and put it by the tree in the neighbors yard. Hubby called, and called, and called. FINALLY, got someone to answer so he could register a complaint. We were told they would be here today. Writing this now at 3, and they've just shown up. However, the equipment is still on my street...and not on the neighbors street which means they'll still be tromping through my yard. Why, I really don't know. Thought after we called maybe it would change?

Spent another day in Urbana checking on my aunt with my Dad, and managed to get some cleaning and laundry done today. Between that and my work schedule....I've not been here as much. Knowing my time is becoming more limited I deleted the EntreCard widget from this blog. Sorry folks for the ads that were canceled, hope some of you will continue to visit as I will still visiting you all from my Travel blog dropping etc.

Have worked a bit re-designing my SIL's blog. Please take a look. I'm pretty happy with her Animal Talk Blog but think more work is needed on her Ignite to Write. Though it's coming along.

I hope things calm down soon so I can get back to regular blogging. It's Friday, definitely TGIF for me. Hope you all have a good wk-end lined up.

Maybe hubby and I are becoming to good at this tree business?

Badges, BlogUpp, and Bridge

Ok, the voting is in...see my new badge! I like it; but am keeping the lightpost in my file in case I want to change it somewhere down the line. Thanks to all who took the time to vote and voice your opinions, much appreciated. Please feel free to grab my badge and add to your blog. That way clicking will bring you here easily. Right click on above picture and save to your computer, add widget to your blogspot blog, click browse and find the picture on your computer; then add url for my blog which is http://4ccccs.blogspot.com/ I really need to change that, if I can remember all the places it's listed that way in order to get it changed. But, for now...I'm leaving it, even though it's a weird url.


This badge is one I made for Jan, my SIL. I know she'd love visitors. I also know lots of you are animal lovers so think you'll enjoy her blog. Tell her I sent you traveling her way.

Have you noticed my BlogUpp widget? It's cool. Click on it and you can find other interesting blogs. Add one to your own blog easily. No registration required. Simply click on the widget, once on their page, add your url and presto......you have a widget. Cut and paste the code on your blog and have fun visiting. It truly is quick, easy, and very enjoyable to go blog walking in places you might not otherwise have known about. Have fun!

And now for my 3rd B...funny how everything today was a B word! I've updated things over on The BridgeThanks so much for all the help. Please take a look and see what people working together can accomplish. And...please feel free to help spread the word, even if you yourself don't knit or crochet. Thanks!

Tough Day, & Followers??? The changes?

A tough day at the hospital. Mom is not feeling better; in fact she feels worse. She had less activity today; but had more pain and needed more medication. She's very frustrated and isn't shy about letting her frustrations out...on whomever is around be they family or hospital staff. Her breathing continues to be very labored. She is still in ICU, she is still holding too much fluid in lungs and elsewhere. Vitals are not what we'd like them to be. In a handfull of hours, she'll hit the 1 full week in ICU. I don't know what to expect of tomorrow, but am hopeful she'll be rested and doing better tomorrow.

I'm lost here on blogger...what happened to our followers section? Why did they change it? Do we have an option to change it back to the way it was? I see no reason to go through the motions of inviting everyone as a friend when we're already connected? It's time consuming for one and then I assume we'll have yet another list on our blogs? I already have my list of links that I visit, as do most of you. The other time consuming thing is when you click on the head/avatar you used to go to the person page which was great...now you don't. Now you have to sign in a 2nd time? What a pain, and then if you scroll down without signing in you get this whole long paragraph about the person, part of their bio which takes up space...all the stuff one would see if you went to their profile page. Then you have to pick a link before you finally go to their page. All of these steps slow down the works, plus it would seem use up bandwith? Doesn't that slow the whole net down? Then once you do that, you can't see anyone else on your followers list without yet another step...refreshing. I really dislike this, can someone tell me what I'm missing here? Why, when it began, and can we get rid of it?

Thanks

Another cold day here in Central Ohio, I've updated my travel blog to help us all get through the winter...pop over no packing necessary.

My head hurts!

Can any of you, I know you're out there...more tech savy people than me. Can anyone out there explain to me the difference, importance of google ranking vs Alexa? I've posted the widgets...look on the right in the sidebar.......and now that I've done so, what do they mean? Clueless back in cold Columbus.

I managed to knit 3 pair of booties and a hat (pictures posted in here), while we were out of town. Got back last night and did an update over on The Bridge Blog today. PLEASE, check it out. Pass on your thanks, and or see if you can help.

I spent the bulk of the day unpacking, doing laundry, and putting stuff away. I did post a travel rant, not sure that can really be counted as a traveling suitcase update. Although........some good advice there.

**My 2 cents worth for today**
"Our time on earth is what we make it, so get ready and cook something up!"

WIP (for you non knitters and crocheters), works in progress:
Christmas Ghan (crocheted)
Opal Ghan (crocheted)
Candy Corn Ghan (crocheted)
Scarlet & Grey Scarf (knitted)
*****Packing box for womans shelter in Michigan, Caring House which includes, hats, booties, sweaters for wee ones, toiletries (shampoo), conditioner, lotion, soap for women in need. This box will go out tomorrow*******