It's always something

Hubby's hand you see with screwdriver in hand working on the vent for the light/fan combo vent in the bathroom. Our bathroom is small, so venting it a huge deal. Very necessary in fact to try and stay a wee bit ahead of mildew. Our fan was making noise like a hurt animal. It was awful, made that noise when you turned in on and off; though once it got going it calmed down. In years past when this needed to be replaced, it was pretty easy screw off replace, screw on. No more, apparently. Our vent whole is a different size than those now made, and since ours is a combination light and fan outlet that too presents problems for those replacements that only one or the other. No doubt due to the age of our house this has become an issue. But, hubby's pretty hand and took a fan off one unit and put on another...or at least I think that's what I understood him to say.

Thanks Hubby, it sounds sooooooooo much better.

Does anyone ever feel like everything is done at their house? Seems just as you get one item taken care of, another needs your attention. He always says, "The joys of home ownership."

Snow fun when you're Young

Let me show you how to do it Mom
This shovel's heavy
I can run with it
She's taking my picture
Some of you might recognize my cute little guy. He's growing and so helpful around the house. lol I took these photo's looking out my window having fun watching him in his p.j.'s shoveling the drive. Kids are sooooooooo much fun.

Snow Days are Different

Schools are closed today, (or were the day I took this photo). This is a schedule post, so the day was a few days ago. We've gotten fresh snow every day now for a couple of weeks. It's pretty, but very cold. This was taken out my dining room door window. Right through the glass before I even had my first cup of coffee. Can you feel the cold? The snow isn't so much why the kids had the day off from school, but the strong winds which made the chill well below zero for kids standing waiting on a school bus.

I remember how excited my daughter would get as a kid when there was a snow day. Our routine then was to bundle up, and go for pancakes a local old dinner. She was out of school the day before this when St. Louis got socked with even colder temperatures then we had here in Ohio. That's pretty weird, normally they're warmer. She's now a school teacher; some things never change. She was still pretty excited to have a snow day. lol; though she spent the day grading papers, writing lesson's plans and getting a bit done from home.

Treating myself, LOVE it!

Technically, this is one of the 4 projects I posted when I posted my wip (ufo) before the end of the year. My goal was to finish by New Years, but I didn't make that deadline. This is a scheduled post. I finished this several days ago, and worked on some hats and scarves for The Bridge. This is using the 2 different sized needles, I blogged about it here. I LOVE this scarf, it's colors and texture; but wasn't all that happy with the yarn. I used 2 cakes of Taos 100% wool from Crystal Palace Yarn. It's super soft both around the neck and to work with; but twice the yarn broke/split and pulled apart as I was knitted. In both cases I was busy knitting and until I reached just a few inches (3-4) from the ripped piece didn't even know it. I assume that's a problem from spinning? This isn't cheap yarn though, so while I might accept this with a lower cost yarn, really wasn't happy about it here. Luckily I was at the end of a row each time this happened; and think (fingers crossed) I was able to restart the yarn without making a weak area in my scarf. Directions indicate handwash-dry flat or dryclean.

We're trying to stay warm, snow still coming down and it's cold. In 3 weeks we'll be heading to South Carolina where I hope to have a week of warmer weather.

Wise as an Owl

Olney Avenue School, wise as an Owl was the school motto. Funny all these later how I remember that. I attended this school from K through part of the 3rd grade. It was a wonderful old school. It's the picture I see in my mind when someone says the word school. Funny how much smaller it is, then my memory of it. lol

In my mind I see large big steps going up to the big doors. Seems I have better pictures of this somewhere, I must find them; and if I can ever get my scanner working again...

This school was built in 1906. It had huge windows that actually opened! It had a boiler room where you went to bang out the erasers, or cut through to get to the bathroom on the other side of the building. We were all actually a little afraid of going to or through the boiler room. The building wasn't very old went it caught fire in 1914, on a cold winter's day 96 years ago. That's right, the fire was Jan 13, 1914 and it gutted the almost new building. Firemen worked through frigid temperatures to control the blaze with ice on their uniforms. Several received scalp wounds when portions of walls fell down around them. The fire was caused by a defective heating system, and due to oil on the floors spread rather quickly. (the floors were beautiful hardwood). 320 students who were then enrolled got several weeks off; no doubt they were happier than their parents. Another difficulty of fighting the fire was lack of water pressure in the fire hoses. The firemen really had a time of it.

This school had large cloak rooms, with 2 entrances. I have fond memories of a certain cloak room. Mark, gave me my first kiss in the cloak room. lol This school educated a large number of students. Many of my school friends' parents attended school here. Girls played on one side of playground while the boys played on the other. Things weren't co-ed back in the day. Sadly this cool old building was demolished in 2004. I wanted to go and tour the inside of it, never made it though and am sorry I didn't get to before it was gone.

The buildings are gone; but I still have memories of the building and the people. How bout you? Do you have memories of your school days?

The black and white photo is the school prior to the fire, and the 2nd photo is shortly after being rebuilt after the fire.

When I Grow Up I'm Gonna....

When I grow up, I'm gonna be? What? This yummy, super soft baby alpaca yarn is waiting to be something. My daughter selected this when we had a yarn shopping day. She loves green and purple. Most of her clothes are green and purple. Her room where she's living will be green and purple (still hasn't technically moved in).

This yarn is too pricey to buy much of it, so one skein of each limits what it came become. She asked for a scarf and while she knits herself; she wanted something beyond her current knitting skills. So, it's not really a question of what it will become; but the details of what type of scarf. So, when you shop for yarn, do you know ahead what you're going to make? Or do you buy colors, textures you like and figure it out later?

She asked for stripes, so currently I'm thinking about whether or not I want each color to have it's own texture, or maybe only one color have a pattern/texture with stitches in contrast to a plain 2nd color....Thoughts? I don't think I want both stripes be the same stitch?