Enough Already!

It's long-john weather! We have been in a deep freeze for a week and have a few more days to go of the most horrible cold.

Add to this temperature a breeze and you have wind chill of 20 to 30 below zero.

Even though there is snow, no one is taking advantage of having a snowmobile because it is too cold. The only people who are ice fishing are those with ice shacks they can heat. Mother Nature, a little mercy, please.

Fuss and Bother

I put away my Christmas stuff a few days ago. The only things I have left are for the whole of the winter season. We had a new print framed, called "Sleigh Bells Too" by Bill Breedon. I have liked it for a long time, so it is a gift to Dick and myself.

We have had an appliance adventure here for the last two weeks. It all started on December 19, when I tried to leave for work. Our garage door was broken and my truck was inside. Dick took me to work and began figuring out what would need to be done. To replace the main springs that pull up the door it has taken: at least 10 phone calls to PDQ Door in Bangor and a service technician in Calais, one shipment of replacement springs (which turned out to be the wrong size, even though custom-made) one 4 hour work session with the technician(only to find out that the springs were wrong), one trip to Bangor to drop off the wrong springs and return later that day to pick up the new correctly custom-made springs, one more two and a half hour work session with the technician to put in the correct springs and payment for the springs and each visit by the technician. Over the two week period my vehicle had to be moved in and out of the garage to keep the driveway clearer when snow came, so there was less to clear snow around. Due to moving the door when broken, Dick now has to make some adjustment to the door motor, or replace that.

Two days after the garage door broke, my washing machine broke. It was full of towels and water. No spin cycle and no draining. I had to take care of that by hand baling and rinsing and wringing the towels. Fun. The next day Dick went to Machais and bought a new washer. After Christmas we decided to buy a new dryer too, since the dryer had been fixed once and we couldn't remember how old it was. We have never had a matching set until now, after 28 years. A nice working washer and dryer are not to be taken for granted.

A Few Little Projects

I have enjoyed my vacation and relaxed enough to do a few little projects. I made Mom a couple embroidered handles on kitchen towels, but I didn't take any pictures. Mom hangs her towels from a drawer handle near her sink, so the towel hangs differently than another project I have done with towels. I adopted this project from a friend at work and made a few for family last Thanksgiving (yes, 2007). The problem I have found with this is that the "dress" hangs so low you have to bend over to dry your hands if you hang it from your oven door. So I moved on to other items. One I liked making because it gave me a chance to learn a few new feet or attachments on my sewing machine was an embellished bag. I have to sew the button on and open the button hole. This project required a special bobbin case so that the thick metallic thread could be used. The bag is a little overdone, but I learned from the process of making it.
A niece's daughter has dolls that need to be clothed, so I have had fun helping with that. I am working on a few things at present, because there is a birthday coming up in a few months. My doll, Shelby, doesn't mind being a stand-in for fittings for the American Girls. I needed Shelby because I am always altering patterns to make something different, so she's my model.
I have a few other types of things in various stages, waiting for the mood to strike.