Tag Archives: Family

And 2023 is Here

6 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

We are almost a week into a new year. December is a pleasant blur. We celebrated the holidays in the North Carolina mountains. Our daughter drove up from warm and sunny Florida just in time to experience very unusual cold temperature.

Shortly after she arrived, the temperatures sank as far as 0 degrees Fahrenheit or -17 degrees celsius. She enjoyed the frigid weather, I did too in between praying that our water pipes would not freeze.

In recent years we have adopted a traditional Christmas afternoon drive.This year it was too cold and the roads were still icy so we delayed our drive for a day. We stayed cozy in our PJs, drank homemade eggnog and watched Christmas movies.

We live close to several waterfalls and people on Facebook were sharing pictures of them being frozen. This is not an every year occurrence and I was excited on the 26th to to see them.

We were unable to visit our favorite Dry Falls. The parking lot was full and traffic was backed up into the highway. Even so, it was a fun and memorable day. All too soon, the day arrived for our daughter to return to Florida.

She left at 7:30 am and at 9:00 am were on our way to celebrate Christmas with cousins near Boone, NC. We had reserved an adorable small cottage not far from our cousins house. To our amazement and delight, the modern furnishings were accented with an assortment of antiques. I had never seen a fan like this one.

There was also an assortment of vintage Tonka trucks and a lot of pewter pieces.

2023 arrived with no fanfare or loud fireworks and after a pleasant but tiring day with my cousins, we slept peacefully in the cozy cottage. A nice way to enter a new year. We only spent two nights at the cottage but I hope we can return and stay longer.

On January 3rd we had an unexpected visitor. My husband opened the front door and the visitor flew past my husband and made itself at home.

Not going. No way no how.

It had been a long day and we were tired but my husband tried to be gentle with our visitor. It gave us quite a bit of exercise trying to convince it to depart. After almost an hour, it finally decided to fly through the open door to the garage. We shut it quickly and decided to help it make its way out of the garage the next day. We didn’t see the little bird after that. We think it flew out when we raised the garage door.

Severe thunder storms were predicted for overnight and man, they were not wrong.. Booms, crashing and vivid lightning seemed to go on and on. Thunder in the mountains creates a serous echo! The next morning I checked my new rain gauge.

Soon, we will close up our mountain house to spend winter and part of spring in Florida with our daughter. We are truly blessed to be able to enjoy both the cool temperatures of the mountains and the sunshine and color of a Florida winter. We will catch up with precious friends, worship at our home church and maybe even throw in a trip to Disney World. A big plus…fast internet! Our mountain internet is awful and drives me to distraction

2023 is here and I will rejoice and be glad. In the blink of the eye, 2024 will be here.

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I Love Carpet-Part 3

24 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

continued

From Tyndall AFB, Florida, 

Photo credit WJHG.com  Credit Google search

we moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Credit Google Search and Fort Leavenworth website

We were to be there for only one year, for Fred to have training at the Army’s Command and General Staff College.  Again, we made use of the large rug for our bedroom.  The celery-green shag carpet went in the downstairs living room. 

We had some left over celery-green carpet, so cut it in pieces large enough to be tacked down on the stairs to muffle our going up and down those wooden stairs.  The gold shag carpet went on the upstairs landing and Janet’s room.  Again, we had a white rug for Karen’s room.  However, when people moved from that base, they had large garage sales.  In one of those sales, we found a gorgeous white rug that we purchased to put in Karen’s room in Heidelberg, Germany (our next assignment).

One more note about Kansas before we moved to Germany:  the mover came out and inspected all our belongings, so he would know how many boxes, etc. to bring to pack up our stuff.  He also took note of our carpets.  When the day came for packing up, when it came to the carpets, he told the inspector that he hadn’t brought enough boxes for the carpet.  Two things could happen: 1) he could drive back to the warehouse (about 50 miles away, as I recall) and bring the boxes, or 2) they could just take the carpets with them and pack them at the warehouse.  The inspector agreed to #2.  As they were driving off, one of the packers was sprawled out on the rolled-up carpets on the truck.  I told Fred then that we would never see those carpets and rugs again.  And we never did.  I am sure they are still sitting on someone’s flooring in Kansas!  They were all gone, with the exceptions of those pieces we had cut to tack down on the stairs.  So when we arrived in Heidelberg, that’s all we had to work with.  I wanted to go to the authorities and complain, but Fred said they would probably tell me the boxes with the carpets were at the bottom of the ocean.  Oh well…

Okay, on to Heidelberg.  The government apartment we were assigned there did have a rug in the dining room – another of those really heavy rugs.  But it worked.  The kitchen and bathroom floors were terrazzo again, but not squares – solid floor.  I left the kitchen that way, but purchased a bathroom rug for the bathroom, in a rust color.  Then I purchased sheer curtains for the bathroom in rust, 

The bathroom curtains

and cream-with-rust trim for the kitchen.

The kitchen curtains

I liked the way both of those curtains looked.  We purchased a somewhat-white rug for Karen’s room.

Karen in her room with the somewhat-white rug

I can’t remember what we had for Janet’s room, but I have vague memories of having enough scraps of the gold shag to cover her room.  For our bedroom, we found enough pieces of the celery shag to go around our bed so we could step out of bed onto rug rather than just floor, and mostly fill in the rest of the room.  Nothing under the bed.  We found two sort-of-green rugs that fit together for the living room.  

Fred’s parents with Karen and Janet – the green rugs we bought

Later, we found a large amount of rust-colored carpet to replace those celery green rugs, and found it went quite well with our blue couch and chair.

Judy and a friend – the “new” rust carpet

I wanted badly to bring that carpet back with us Stateside, but a friend said he really, really needed it for his office.  So we sold it to him.  Eventually, we found, that was a good thing.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Sailboat

26 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

REBLOG

Credit Pixab

Growing up in New Mexico, there wasn’t a lot of water around – no swimming pools (except at the public ones), no ponds or lakesides, no oceans, etc. So, consequently, I was not really familiar with boats of any kind. That really didn’t bother me too much I had a lot of other interests.

If you have ever lived in government quarters – as we did on any military base where we were stationed – then you know that, when you leave that posting, you are required to have those same quarters absolutely immaculate! Better than when you moved into them!  And there would be an inspection of those quarters by an official inspector. If they found anything wrong – you were required to “fix” it before you were allowed to leave the base.

We had lived in quarters on Tyndall AFB, Florida for five years. That’s almost too long, actually. Our usual moves were about every three years. I told Fred that we needed to leave soon, because I was beginning to put down roots – in a government duplex!!

He was finally given orders to relocate. So then the work of packing up and moving out began. After the movers had taken our belongings away, we started cleaning the unit. We had always thought we could do that ourselves, rather than hire someone to come in and do it for us. So I set Fred and the girls to cleaning, 

Credit Pixabay

and I thought I would tackle the kitchen. I had planned on the weekend to do the entire kitchen. Unfortunately, the stove was so old that, in taking it apart and cleaning it – it took the entire weekend just for the stove!

By the time we had finished, we were exhausted.

Now….you may think there is no connection to cleaning and boats…but wait….

There was a gentleman who worked in the Weather Station with Fred, who LOVED boats! And especially sailboats. Not being able to purchase one for himself, he had contracted with another gentleman from Alabama to care for his sailboat.

It was a 33-foot Hunter that would sleep six people. It had a full galley and full shower. It had a small auxiliary engine to get us in and out of port. It was set up for ocean voyages and was one-person configured. Whenever the owner wanted to “play” with it, he would call and come down and retrieve it. That usually only happened once or twice a year. The rest of the time, our friend could take it out whenever he wanted.

And that’s what happened with us. He had offered to take us out for a sail, on the last day we were in town. And so we did. I was a bit confused when we motored out of port, thinking “what does this have to do with sailboating?”

But then he cut the engine and unfurled the sail. It was the most wonderful thing – so very quiet, and peaceful, and RESTFUL…just exactly what we needed after all that cleaning.

Fred and Judy on the sailboat

He even let our 8-year-old handle the wheel for a while. She loved it!

Picture by Judy Wills – Janet at the helm!

We’ve never purchased a boat of our own – never felt the need to. But it was an experience that we savored and have remembered all these years.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Seamstresses in My House-Final

5 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I really didn’t do much more sewing after that – mostly just repair work.  And that continues even today.

Somewhere along the way, when we lived in Panama City, Florida, I purchased a Bernina sewing machine from a store in town.  It wasn’t the top-of-the-line, but it was still an amazing machine!  I still have it.  One thing that impressed me about it, was that it could go “from nylon to leather in one stitch.”  I’ve never had to try that, but it is still an amazing machine.

Credit Pixabay Images

At the same store, they offered classes in sewing.  I had Karen take a class once, and she made a pillow case and a nightgown in the same nylon fabric – in lavender.  She wore that nightgown for many years.  Apparently it was quite comfortable.  Unfortunately, she hasn’t done much sewing since then.

Here is a picture of us in Albuquerque, at the Sunport, just before we headed off to Heidelberg, Germany in 1980.  The top I have on is one that I did make, and liked it very much.  Short sleeves, but a cowl neckline.  Cotton and polyester blend.  Very comfortable.  I believe I made the slacks I had on, out of polyester as well.

Here’s a picture of Janet and a dress I made for her when she was in high school.  As I recall, it was made out of polyester fabric.

But one of the things I enjoyed most, was making this bedspread, dust ruffle, matching curtains for both windows in Karen’s room in Heidelberg.  I think I had the pink-and-white gingham cotton fabric when we went to Germany.  The bedspread was out of already-quilted cotton fabric.  I had already made the bedspread and dust ruffle for her bed in Virginia.  But when we got to Germany, I discovered an entire bolt of the cotton eyelet lace, and I purchased the entire bolt, and added it to the curtains.  It made a lovely addition to the curtains.  Karen was thrilled.

As I said earlier, I’ve really not done much true sewing recently.  Not that I’ve lost my love of sewing, but just haven’t found the time or inclination to do so.

However, it’s been a nice journey throughout my lifetime.  I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings, and the pictures that have gone with them.

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The DARN Bear is back…and Other Things.

3 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I gave the bear top billing in the title but I think his video will be at the bottom of the post. Kind of my passive aggressive way to deal with my frustration.

Since we arrived back in the mountains, I have sort of checked out of the world’s goings on. I blame it on our porch and the sweet, cool breezes. I read a lot. The only “fly in the ointment” is that darn bear. As I am writing this, my husband is sitting with me on the porch carving and one of the two visiting hummingbirds is sipping nectar from the petunias. I am loving petunias this year.

When our daughter was here over Easter she placed a basket of petunias atop the rise behind the porch. They are now blooming riotously and bring me joy everyday.

We did manage to get ourselves off the porch in mid-May. It had been over a year since we visited my extended family who live clear across the state of North Carolina.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

On our way there we stopped outside Charlotte, NC to visit with my brother, his son and daughter-in-law. We had a broken relationship for 20 years and God brought restoration shortly before my brother’s wife passed away the end of February. Since my brother was alone in Florida, his son moved him up to be with him. We spent the night and had a wonderful time together.

On to the visit with the extended family. We spent three days there before heading back to the mountains. My cousin has an outdoor cat and one morning at breakfast I observed it guarding a bird feeder.

We have visited this area many, many times so it’s hard to find something different to do. After a delicious country lunch in a diner with an aunt and uncle, my aunt asked if I would like to visit a market that only sold pork. We said sure. After all, Eastern North Carolina is pig country. Think Smithfield ham. I had no idea what to expect but it was interesting and for me at least, fun. It was like entering a huge butcher market but the only meat on offer was pork. And it was pork from every crevice of a pig. There was even a whole frozen pig in the meat case. There were plenty of staff (butchers?) on hand if one wanted a different cut than was in the case.

It has been decades since I have seen country cured hams that weren’t in some sort of packaging or wrap. I had recently reminisced about seeing them hanging in stores. I remember one of my aunts kept hers hung in her utility room and would send her husband out to cut some slices.

Nahunta Pork Center

We enjoyed our visit but it was nice to be home for awhile. The lure of the porch is hard to resist. Two weeks later, over Memorial Day we returned to Charlotte for a family gathering, this time my other brother would be there. Fortunately the Charlotte family has a huge porch, so I didn’t have porch withdrawal, and we spent lazy hours talking, remembering the past and savoring the joy of all being together again.

husband chilling

My nephew’s wife is a horsewoman (not sure if this is the correct term). She rides Dressage and we enjoyed watching her practice.

I am so blessed and thankful that God brought restoration to my family. I remember a line from the last episode of Downton Abbey. The sisters who were usually at odds, were sitting together and making peace. One of them said something like this, “in the end, we will only have each other to remember the past with.”

Now about that pesky bear. We have been taking in our feeders at night but he remembers where they hang!

We keep the feeders in a plastic tub to discourage mice in the garage. Not sure how he did it, but this fella got in the tub. We rescued and released him this morning.

Not all thieves sneak in the night. This brave and crafty creature was determined to score some seeds! Final picture/video. I promise.


The end. The porch is calling and I must answer.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2021 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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The Seamstresses in My House-Part 11

22 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I’m going to jump ahead in years here.  While on one of our trips to England, I purchased some of Fred’s family’s tartan.  Since I had learned that daughters retain their father’s tartan and clan, I purchased that particular tartan.  It is a beautiful tartan, and unique in that both Fred’s Mother and Father were from the same Scot clan – the Gunn clan.  Here is a picture of that tartan.

I had purchased quite a bit of the fabric – in a soft, light-weight wool, and debated for several years just what to do or make for the girls out of that fabric.  I thought about making a skirt for each girl, but thought that might not be a lasting choice.  Then I thought of a “vest” – but just never got around to making it, either.  And so, I finally made up my mind to make a stole for each daughter.  A stole is a type of shawl.  So I set to making them as Christmas presents a few years ago.  

I made each one with a relatively short “fringe” all around the stole.  That probably took more time than anything else, as it needed to be done by hand, pulling the threads on both the short ends, and the length of the stole.  

Here are some pictures of the girls in their stole pinned with the Gunn clan pin:

Karen:

Karen stated:   I looked it up, and apparently normal people should wear it over their right shoulder; only important people, like daughters of clan chiefs, are supposed to wear it over the left shoulder. Who knew.

Janet:

There is a “Scottish” store in Colonial Williamsburg that we like to visit whenever we are in Virginia – The Scotland House.  I found some fabric in my family’s tartan one time and purchased enough to make a lined vest from it for my Aunt Jessie.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that vest, nor of Jessie in it.  Here is a picture of my tartan – very similar to the Gunn clan, but with a different color stripe in it.  My clan is Colquhoun – it’s where we “Americans” get the word/name Calhoun.  I’ve never made anything for myself from that tartan, and I’m not eligible to make something for myself from the Gunn clan.  And that’s strange, because I’ve always liked plaids.

Also at the Scotland House, we found and purchased a new tartan tie for Fred, and also one in the “Ancient” or “weathered” version of the tartan.  Interesting.

Credit to Google Search and Houston Traditional Kiltmakers website

You can see the difference between regular and weathered.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Seamstresses in My House-Part 8

1 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

During the one year we were in San Jose, my father had a terrible accident, just before Christmas, and we all – Bill and his family – and Fred and I flew to Albuquerque for Christmas.  I was there three weeks, Fred for the middle week, and Bill’s family for about one week, as I remember.  It was to be Daddy’s last Christmas, as he died four months later.

The whole gang – Mom, Dad, Granny, Aunt Jessie, Bill, DiVoran, Renie, Billy, Fred and myself

Since I was pregnant with our first child, I began looking for fabric to make maternity dresses.  As it happened, in San Jose, the couple next door to us in the apartment building were also Air Force people.  The wife was a home economics teacher, and was teaching in a relatively poor school in San Jose.  She went to some upholstery stores, and begged them for any scraps of drapery fabric they could/would donate for her students to learn to sew on.  She gave me the first choice of that fabric, and I took several pieces.  Some of them were large enough to make several dresses.  Here is one example of a dress I made.  

While we were in Albuquerque, before we headed to Germany (our first assignment), I was given a baby shower.  Here is a picture of one of the dresses I made.  Mother had told me to make a “dress” rather than a “top and bottom” and that I wouldn’t look so big.  Well, that didn’t work, did it?  I look as big as a house!  Perhaps the fabric was just that flimsy, suppose?

Mother and me

Another dress I made from the drapery fabric was a really pretty, off-white, silky, shiny fabric.  It made up into a lovely dress.  Unfortunately, it was quite heavy, and had a “backing” on it.  Great for drapery, but not so much for hot-weather wearing!  Again unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of that dress.  Also again unfortunately, my passport had not come through, and we had to stop in D.C. at the Pentagon to pick it up before I could accompany Fred to Germany.  He had been told that all personnel in the Pentagon wore Class-A uniforms, even in the summer.  That included his wool uniform, with long-sleeved shirt and full jacket.  So in hot hot hot June, we were in D.C., with me wearing that hot hot hot dress, and Fred in full uniform – only to find that ALL the military personnel were in short-sleeved summer uniforms!  No wool and no jackets!  We were both about to melt!

After securing my passport, we were scheduled to fly to Philadelphia, PA, and spend the night with Fred’s Aunt Anna and Uncle Lyn.  I could hardly wait to get there – and into that air-conditioned house!  And perhaps take a nice, cool shower, as well.  Well, to our surprise and dismay, when we got to their house, we found it to be a row-house:  no air conditioning, and no shower – only a tub!  But I made the best of that situation, and got into a cotton dress I had made.  Here is a picture of me in that dress alongside Fred’s  Aunt Anna and Uncle Lyn.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Visitors…Furry is Not my Friend

28 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Our daughter drove up from Florida over Easter, making a stop on the way to spend a couple of days with a college friend. We enjoyed spending Easter together before she drove over to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a few days with an old friend. They both love rollercoasters and were looking forward to some thrill rides.

Rebekah and her dad enjoying coffee on the porch before Easter service.

The big, black bear is definitely back. As I mentioned last week, It was first sighted at a neighbor’s home so we made sure to bring in our bird feeders at night in hope that the bear would not visit. It seems our plan did not work. So far we have recorded him twice on our game camera. His second visit, we were in bed, but not yet asleep when we heard a noise and ran to look outside.

Our family, cousins visiting from Florida heard the same noise we did but decided to stay safe and snug in the bedroom. After seeing the video from the game camera the following morning, it took some coaxing to convince them they would be safe on the porch during the day.

Our cousins have visited several times before, and I knew that they enjoyed exploring and driving back roads. I remembered a quaint church we discovered a couple of years ago, just a few miles away. Saint John’s Episcopal Church. It is a small lovely church surrounded by graves dating back to the 1800s.

While we were there, a volunteer was tending to the church needs and shared the history. We were surprised to learn the congregation meets outside in good weather. Our previous visit there was in summer. This visit the blooming dogwood trees changed the whole atmosphere.

Over the winter our daughter’s much loved friend, Mia the cat died.As she emerged from grieving she began praying for direction in choosing a new companion pet. Ideally, she wanted to adopt one that was given up due to the owners inability to no longer care for it. She was open to a cat or a dog. She brought a carrier with her, to be ready just in case. One day on a grocery run she saw a sign for a shelter with a website listed. She found two dogs, brother and sister that had been surrendered and were available. They were two years old, part dachshund and chihuahua. By the time we arrived the following day, the female was adopted but the male was still available. I think it was love at first sight.

HIs name was chewy, which I thought was a bit ominous, but so far he hasn’t lived up to it. Our daughter has always wanted a dog named Ollie and is in the process of training him to recognize it as his new name. Has anyone every changed a pets name?

The weekend before she returned to Florida, she helped me pot some flowers, which she is good at and I am not, and climbed the hill behind us to anchor a flower basket. I love seeing the petunias waving at me as I sip my morning coffee on the porch.

She also supervised her dad hanging a sign over the door to our porch. It was a Christmas gift and I had waited all winter to be home and have it hung. I enjoy it every time I see it.

Sadly, our time together with our daughter was drawing to a close. She had really wanted to have a campfire one evening and on her last night, the weather was perfect, warm with a touch of cool.e could have toasted S’mores if I had planned ahead. Living a low carb lifestyle would have meant I would have needed to make both marshmallows and graham crackers. We substituted with mango ice cream and Razzle Dazzle coffee. The coffee is from a local Florida roaster and has a delicious raspberry flavor.

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The Seamstresses in my House-Part 2

13 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Last time I mentioned my first sewing experience.  I would like to quote myself from a previous posting about that:

All those yards and yards of fabric would eventually be made into a Fiesta Dress, or Squaw Dress, as some called it.  Three tiers, each one “longer” than the one above it.  Those dresses could be made from just about any fabric and color combination.  I remember a royal blue fabric with nothing but copper trim – one of my favorites.  I remember a winter dress made from blue corduroy – no trim needed.  I remember one made from fabric that looked like bandana design – no trim needed on that one, either.

 I remember one that was made in light cotton – white – with red and red-and-white trim.  It was great – until I washed it the first time – and the red ran like crazy!!  So my Aunt Jessie took the dress (blouse and skirt) and dyed them beige.  For some reason, the red didn’t show where it had run, and really looked rather classy with the red trim.  Another favorite of mine.  Oh, so many dresses.

And the skirts were not left “pouffy” like they might be today

Credit Pixabay

but  they were hand-pleated after being soaked in starch!  And to keep the pleats in, we rolled the skirt into itself and stuffed it into a nylon stocking.  Jessie’s dogs LOVED to get at those to fight with them!  

One might ask how we “pleated” the skirts.  It was a process, for sure.  The seam that joined the skirt together was done in a “basting stitch” – or a very long stitch.  It was easily removed, which we did before washing.  Of course we washed the skirt as usual.  Then we dipped it into a starch solution, and while wet with starch, we would attach it to a large board by the waistband to the top of the board with old-fashioned clothes pins. 

The board we used was pressboard (similar to peg board 

Credit: Home Depot

but without the holes), about 1/4 inch thick, and about four (4) feet by six (6) feet.  One side was painted white, where we laid the skirt.

Credit:Home Depot

 We would – literally – hand pleat the top row of the skirt.  Then we would stretch a long strip of cloth across the seam of that tier, and anchor it on each side of the board with another clothes pin.  Then we would repeat the pleating process on the tier below that, and then repeat it with the lowest and longest tier.  We would than stand the board upright at an angle, so the excess moisture and starch could drain off the fabric and board. Since New Mexico is such a dry humidity state, we had no fear that the skirt would mildew – and they never did!  When dry, the joining seam would be baste-stitched again, and the skirt was ready to wear.  As mentioned in the previous paragraph, we would roll the skirt together, and stuff it into an old nylon stocking to keep the pleats in.

Most of my fiesta dresses were out of light-weight cotton, with only a few exceptions.  The one I remember the most was the blue corduroy – only worn in winter.  I remember the blue with copper trim was a heavier weight cotton, as was the chartreuse with purple trim.

DiVoran stated:  

Granny made one for me. It was red voile (lightweight cotton) with silver trim. I did find a place to wear it when we moved to Florida. I wore it to square-dancing with several crinoline (stand-out) underskirts.

And that brings me to say that all those skirts were worn with crinoline petticoats under them, to make them “stand out.”

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Seamstresses in my House-Part 1

6 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

My wonderful, delightful, loving sister-in-law DiVoran Lites, suggested recently that she would like to see some blogs about the clothes I have made and purchased.  She is interested in the fabrics, colors and things related to that.  Well…that is certainly a subject that I never thought to write about…yet definitely something to consider.

So, let me start with the blog that I did write about the “Fiesta Dresses” I made years ago while growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  (Please see my post of December 9, 2012 – Fiesta Dresses)  That was my beginning experience learning to sew.  You see, my Mother, her sister (Aunt Jessie), and their Mother (Granny) all worked in a handkerchief factory in San Antonio, Texas when they moved there.  So sewing was in their genes, so to speak.  And, of course, back in those days, store-bought clothes were more of a luxury – everyone made their own clothes!

  • 1954
  • 1954
  • 1954

1959 – originally white with red trim, but the red “ran” when washed.  So we dyed it beige.

1959 – light green with white and silver trim

I remember my Mother being a working woman most of my life, and while she did a fair bit of sewing, I seem to remember that Granny was the one who taught me to sew.  It was Granny who showed me how to work the sewing machine, and how to sew those very straight rows upon rows of trim and rick-rack on the fabric to make the fiesta dresses.  Fairly boring sewing, but gave me a sense of what sewing was all about, and a great sense of satisfaction with the finished product.

I remember several garments Granny made for me.  Here is a turquoise velveteen jumper that I wore over a shirt/blouse.  

1953

Turquoise is probably my favorite color in all things, so you will see Granny made several items for me that were turquoise in color.  For instance, she also made me a turquoise velveteen housecoat.  And a turquoise overcoat – I believe it was wool with a lining and filling that made it toasty and warm.

1953 – Me in my overcoat – Granny and her sisters (Lillie in the middle, Loa next to my Mom)

I am fairly sure she made this dress for me – it was the dress I wore for my initiation into Rainbow Girls when I was 13 years old.  The dress itself was out of a taffeta fabric, with a sheer overlay of chiffon.

1952

I am fairly convinced that Granny made my Mother’s wedding dress. 

1937

It was a taffeta fabric, and the skirt was full-circle.   Aunt Jessie took it following the wedding and wrapped it in tissue paper and kept it in a cedar chest in her garage.  All that to say that, when it came time for my wedding, we took Mother’s wedding dress, removed the sleeves, and had an entire over-dress made from Belgian lace.  I thought it was beautiful.

1961

My brother, Bill wrote about Granny sewing for him, as well:

During my teenage years, Granny kept an up-to-date (as I got bigger) long sleeve Western Shirt pattern, so all I had to do was find a fabric and pattern I liked and buy (3) yards of that material and give it to Granny. She would make the shirt and then she and I would install the pearl snaps (front, sleeves, & pockets). Granny also made a Red Corduroy Ike Jacket for me that was one of the items, along with the Red Corduroy pants from Penney’s, that got DiVoran’s attention in Miss Millers English class the day I wore that outfit to school.

1955 – This shirt shows the pearl buttons quite well

A good example of  Bill’s shirt made by Granny

Another good example of one of the shirts Granny made for Bill

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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