Snoopy and the Great Pumpkin, or Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, or Shorty and the Pumpkin Caper

In the  quiet  little town of Pumpkinville,

where neighbors show they care by giving pumpkins to each other.

There lived a short, little, black and white dog named "Shorty", aka "Shorty Jo", aka "Short Cake", aka "Shorts",  aka "Taz", " aka "Katrina" (as in the hurriane), aka "The Shortseneger".

This little dog was loved by all, and was well known throughout the land for her adorableness, She had the  ability to jump over buildings in a single bound.  She leaped like a deer and flew like a flying squirrel, and was often admired for this great feat except when she jumped on the car, after which she was  sent to bed with no supper.  Inspite of her mishaps with the law, she was still a jolly dog, and brought much cheer to the family she belonged to.

One dark and mysterious day, however, when the leaves were blowing, and the darkness prevailed upon the land, a pumpkin was discovered in the carport, with a chunk eaten out of it. 

And if that were not enough, to bring dismay upon the hearts of the people, it was discovered that the baby pumpkin was missing, causing quite an uproar in the house.

Mama looked high and low for the baby pumpkin but could not find it.  She was very sad.

The saddest thing of all was when Mama realized that her little "Short Cake" had the smell of pumpkin on her breath, and strangely appeared to be wearing orange lipstick.

Mama followed "Little Shortseneger" as she crept around the yard,  to the front.

What she saw there filled her heart with such pain, she could hardly breathe.

What about the pumpkin pie?, the pumpkin torte?, the pumpkin bread?, the pumpkin pancakes?, the pumpkin soup?, the pumpkin casserole?

Poor Little Katrina,

she had to stay in the Kennel until after the final pie was baked.

And like the 3 little kittens who lost their mittens, She could have no pie.

Because our story takes place in the land of Pumpkinville, there must always be a happy ending,  and this story is no exception. This is what happened; Shorty Jo's very best friend came and encouraged her and talked to her very sincerely about staying away from pumpkins altogether.

And to be honest, except for a few stems, Shorty Jo never did eat another pumpkin... at least, I don't think she did.

Bedtime Stories

Attention all Grandkids, coming soon to this blog: "Bedtime Stories" just for you.  Look for the "Grandkid" label.

Jewelry Bag

I'm getting ready to go to Henderson, Nevada to visit my Mom for a few days, but actually got a couple of posts done ahead if you can believe that.  This one is a little bag for my 52 weeks of projects, and is an easy little clutch purse, or bag for jewelry or make-up. It was a really quick project, and I thought I might make a couple more for travel... might put some cotton batting in the next one to give it a little cush.

1. Cut two pieces of satin or silk type material (on the fold at the bottom) into a rectangular size of your

 choice.  Cut the corners of the top edges to make an envelope shape.  

2. With right sides together, sew the 2 pieces together, leaving a 2 inch opening at on one side.

3. Turn right sides out, and iron with (silk setting).

4.  Fold bottom half of purse to desired height.  Decide where to put button and button hole.  Add button hole.

5.   Pin together and then top stitch together (including top flap.

6.  Add button.

 All done.

Cows

My husband is a Cowboy.  He has always loved working with cows.  In years gone by we have had our share of cows, and plenty of cow stories to go along with the wonderful memories; But these days we are "cowless".  While being "cowless" has several benefits, one being that it allows us to come and go whenever we need to, for however long we need to,  it lacks other benefits; one being that we all miss the cows, especially my husband, who enjoys working with them more than many other things.  Building and fixing up houses has never had a pull on his heart the way horses and cows have.

On the positive end of this, our neighbors at the big ranch next door to us, always cherish Steve's help whenever they are branding, or preg-checking, or vaccinating.   Steve was there this week to help, and took my little camera like I asked him to. He took a few pictures for me.  Unfortuntely he wasn't able to get pictures of himself or the crew working cows, because he was well...there working cows, but he did get a few nice pictures.

The Ranch usually works about 500 cows per day, (2 days each time, about 3 times a year). This is an amazing amount of cows to get through in a day, but their system is down to a science.

Updated Update for the Great Apron Swap

Okay after hearing from several ladies, I decided it was best to push our deadline out one more week, which will be Monday, November 1st.  Now lets take a deep breath and carry on.

The Great Apron Swap Up-date

Here's a little up-date for those who are participating in the "Apron Swap".    Lets plan to have October 25th as our deadline to get the aprons mailed.  Let me know if you can't get it finished by then, and we can re-adjust if necessary.  There will obviously be a variety of arrival dates,  depending on how far each one is being shipped to.  Please use the least expensive shipping options... especially those who are shipping over seas.  (I probably should have hooked up each gal within their own country borders, but that would have taken the fun away... its a very special thing to be swapping not only between States, but also between Countries...)  Please scroll down and read previous post for more details.

Many Blessings to you all

Pam

Crocheted Purse with Beaded Strap

Well, its mid week, and I think I will be able to get my apron mailed tomorrow (hope you like it Anne).  I hadn't stated a deadline to send it, but in talking with a couple of the gals through e-mail, decided Ocotober 25th would make a good deadline to mail (let me know girls, if you can't make the deadline and we'll  still make it work). Perhaps you all can e-mail me once you have received your apron, and I will e-mail you back once I hear from everyone then we can all post at the same time if we want to.

My project this week was inspired by all that yarn I got last week.  I started crocheting and the next thing I knew, I had finished this little purse.  It was very quick and easy.  If you are a crocheter and have ever crocheted a hot pad, then you can make this purse.  I began with the basic hot pad pattern.. chain the length you desire, then turn and double back with a single crochet in each chain, following around and around until you reach the height that you want. (click here for a nice set of instructions http://www.mielkesfarm.com/diagonal_hotpad.htm  ) (just a note, I'm having trouble making this link go directly to the site, so click on it and if it doesn't come up right away, hit your return button and it will come up then... not sure why its not completely linking).

I increased a few rows to make a larger bottom half and then decreased slowly at the top.

I couldn't resist a beaded strap.  I picked out beads I had on hand, matching colors and stringing a fun little design.  I used a medium gauge wire, stringing it with beads, adding 3 crimps and running it through a couple of rows of crocheted stitches. I finished it like I would a necklace (see jewelry under 52 weeks of projects... previous post). Clamp crimps and be sure to glue them with bead glue.  I glued them quite liberally to make sure they would not slip under the weight.  You could crochet a nice little strap if you didn't want to use beads, but they really did add a little glamour to the purse.

I am by no means an expert crocheter or knitter, but do enjoy a nice easy project. This one can be done in a few hours while on a trip or having a nice little visit with someone.

Blessings

 Pam

Its hard to believe that you can turn this into a purse, but you can.

 Pretty yarn makes a difference.  Start with a fat chunky yarn, (red yarn on bottom) 1/3 third of the way up add a nice nobby yarn (on top). I used a multi -colored, nobby yarn along with the red.

Using medium to large gauge wire, string your beads, then crimps, then string wire through 2 or 3 stitches of crocheted bag.

 Bring wire around and back into crimps.

Squeeze crimps firmly.

Drop a couple of drops of glue onto crimps, soaking both crimps and wire.

 Test it out. This one holds wonderfully.

There it is.

Garage Sale Treasures and Reorganizing

I guess I was not able to keep that momentum last week as I thought I would.   Sometimes there are so many things going on I can't keep up with my blogging.  I did, however, blog many times in my mind, because I was thinking of you  girls while I was partaking in all the busyness of life.  And that is a nice thing said about blogging,  it facilitates the delight of sharing life with your friends.  Have you ever cleaned your house spick and span and had great satisfaction in its wonderful cleanness, but then there was not a soul coming by to see it (young children and hubby do appreciate these things of course, but I don't know....they don't seem to rouse up the enthusiasm that you feel for all that you have accomplished, but girlfriends and grown daughters seem to share your enthusiasm for these things, and that is why I like to post about them, and read about yours.)  Most of the time, my visitors pop over when the house is a mess, and well, you know what I mean, you just wish they could have seen the place the day before or the day after... well, I guess we shouldn't waste too much time on the vanity of these things, never the less, I am going to get show you the pleasure of the "before and after" of my little craft room reorganization.  I always like how Danielle ( afamilystory.blogspot.com  ) does her "before and afters".  It builds up my enthusiasm to do likewise.

I thought  I would also share some of the wonderful treasures I was able to find at the 2nd best garage sale in my life (the first one goes down in family history for the most "amazing garage sale ever",  and is where we got many of our pieces of furniture and antique odds and ends years ago. We had been in need of some bookshelves and several other things.  Back in those days, there was no "Craig's List" or internet, so a great garage sale was the thing you hoped for.  There were some older neighbors a few houses down from us who were moving and wanted to get rid of everything and who didn't really care about the prices they got.  Steve and both felt like we hit the jackpot on that one.  This recent garage sale was a little like that except the specialty items were yarn and craft items.   I was able to get oodles of very good and expensive yarn very, very cheap, as well as many other craft items, canning jars and other pretties.  Thanks for letting me share with you.   Those things wouldn't be nearly so fun if I didn't have someone to share them with.  I was able to get enough yarn for myself and the other knitters and crocheters in the family (namely Marie and Elizabeth), to last us through many babies.

Last week, we got our Green Chilis and a few other things from the farms.  So between that and the apples, we have been busy putting up food, as well as a little trip to Wyoming, to watch Olga in a soccer game, after which she was able to come down for an over night visit with some of her team mates.  It was fast and furious week, but great fun.

Blessings to all,

 Pam

Before

A mess in need of a clean up.  I pulled the closet doors off, and realigned the little shelf I had put in there to place things on.

After

Garage Sale Treasures

"Warning!" Kitty coming up!

What's a ball of yarn without a kitty?

Hand knitted and felted purses

 Lovely shawl

Casserole