Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

I have many crocheted pieces including linen hankies that an older neighbor of my parents made for me as a child. She gave me one every birthday and I treasured them. The edges are crocheted with different patterns, different colors, and they all look like spider webs they are so fine. I have a box of them and one she made for my wedding. I had a small set of dolls dressed like a wedding party and all except the groom had crocheted dresses. Does anyone remember those small dolls?

I have crocheted pieces in varying sizes to protect my good furniture from rough edges and have framed ones my mother made. My BFF's mother used to make me ones for holiday occasions, so red, white and blue thread for 4th of July, etc.

I have a whole small bin of antique ones I purchased at the Pennsylvania Dutch fairs. I love them, don't care if they are no longer in vogue or make my house look like my grandmother's (she actually had none). I have purchased them in Hungary from the local street vendors and display them on my dining room table.

Chris, I love your display and I have a framed piece of Irish tatting lace.

I admire anyone who can crochet or knit. My DH's GM made us a lap blanket once. When she finished it, she decided she did not like the pattern and ripped the entire thing out and started over! She used to crochet watching TV and never looked at her hands unless she was at the end of a row or running out of yarn.

We made a quick run to Costco in this brief pause between nasty weather. We needed some regular stock supplies, but I also wanted to replenish some of the things I have used lately from the freezer. DS decided to join us and told us he was able to get some of his stolen account back, but had just received a notice that someone from Kuala Lumpur had tried to breach his DSS's account. Of course, in spite of being told to change his PW, he hadn't as of yet so DS was annoyed with him. Costco was busy, but not as bad as it was the last time we were there. We lucked out when they opened a new line, as we were waiting in line. We got to be first in that line.

I found a great deal on a new HP laptop and this one has had wonky letter and number keys for the past few months. When the "J" or "K" on your computer work intermittently, you know it is time to let this one go. It is old enough it can't be updated to Windows 11. My family laughs because my non-standard typing style (hunt and peck and hard hitting with nails instead of finger pads) means you can no longer read the " e, r, t, y, u, i, o, a, e, h and n" keys because I have worn the letters off. DH will look into doing the transfer of data over for me and if necessary, I will ask DS to do it. I think I was using this when I was still working, so it has well served me.

It was cold today, with a nice warm sun until the breeze hit you. It got into the 30's but still felt like it was in the 20's due to the wind.

Hope everyone had a great day and waving "hi" to everyone.

mcbaker,

Lovely!

Thank You for sharing.

eleanora,

I keep Gram's crocheted doilies and handmade quilts carefully preserved for adult Daughter.

Our home is full of family keepsakes for adult Daughter.

Chris - what a great way to display and safeguard your treasures.

My grandmother crocheted - all my older cousins got tablecloths as wedding gifts. My sister and I were the only ones who missed out as she lost her vision. She taught us and we made vests as I recall. My sister still crochets but I knit. Made so many sweaters in the '80's that my family begged me to quit. I do have an Irish knit sweater that I keep in Maine with Debbie as it seldom gets cold enough to wear it here. Did a number of afghans too.

I started needlepointing and did 8 large dining room chair seat covers and 22 Christmas stockings for family members. Like my grandmother, my eyes and hands gave out and the last two great nieces and now spouses get ones from LL Bean. (Actually far cheaper than the ones I did but I think they appreciate my continuing the tradition.)

About 10 years ago, Debbie wanted an afghan and I started knitting again. I make afghans as high school graduation presents. The last great niece will graduate in '27 and hers is done and I've started one for Ella who is a freshman. When it's finished, I hope to start knitting for "knitting knockers" but it will depend on how small the needles have to be as my hands tend to tense up if they are too small.

I was sewing my own clothes by the time I got to junior high and did a parka when we were in Alaska and tailored suits when I was working. Then I just stopped. I imagine I would need lots of lessons on the new machines but have no desire to sew again.

Haley, many craft stores have classes if the YouTube classes don't work. I don't think they would for me.

Stay safe everyone. This weekend doesn't look any better than last for many of you.

It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.

Hank Aaron

My sister as a young bride in 1973 started to crochet blankets. She taught me and a cousin. My cousin was a lefty, so we would sit across from each other, mirror each other. Well, her blanket was super loose and mine was so tight it weighed a ton at 3’x3’. I never completed it.

I did cross stitch for years, embroidery, plastic canvas with yarn, and even rug making with printed canvas and precut yarns. My fingers are double jointed, and as I aged full of arthritis too. I’ve had de Quervain’s thumb surgery, to release the tendon on the right thumb. And sometimes my left thumb will make me yelp in pain.

I have some lace that was tatted in Bruge, Belgium. A cousin lived in Belgium for a while and we toured Bruge. Many women in the stores were hand making doilies, lace trimmed handkerchiefs, and more. And I have older lace trimmed handkerchiefs that were my mother’s. I should look into framing them.

Recently I grabbed some embroidery floss, tiny scissors and threaders to free hand embroidery as repairs on a pair of my favorite jean shorts. I wouldn’t say the repairs are fantastic, but they’re good enough for me. My fingers did ache the next day.

Any of the above activities make the time fly by. I don’t know how to knit. Many ladies in my FL neighborhood do both. I should have someone show me.

Tuesday evening SO saw a few crazy or ghost ants in the master bathroom. We put out syrup and borax which attracts them; they take it back to the nest to kill them all. But today we had the bathroom sprayed by my neighbor who uses the professional sprays. We had to empty everything so she could spray everything; leave it to dry, before putting everything back in. They come from our shared wall neighbor; I could elaborate but I won’t. 🐜

I also cleaned out our clothes dryer vent today. I try to do it every other year. It wasn’t real bad, but it wasn’t clean either. I probably should do it every May, so it’s clean when we get back in November. The cleaning isn’t hard, but it’s a pain hooking that accordion vent part back up to the dryer and the wall - ours vents through the roof.

It was raining this morning, which we needed. Then sun for a bit, before winds picked up to 30 mph. That’s why I stayed in cleaning. HA!

I ran out for the mail around 5 pm and I was frozen. Tonight it’s going back down into the low 40’s, but instead of sheets on my plants I just brought the amaryllis bulbs back in. I’m tired of it.

All my life, I have been a positive thinker... I have always been able to survive by telling myself that no matter how bad things are, they will one day be better. And that out of every event - no matter how tragic - one can always find a way to survive and even, perhaps, to be a little bit happy.

Zsa Zsa Gabor

cindyny,

Excellent repairs and worth the sore fingers!

I only sew by hand and don't use a thimble. Love the feel of material, needle and thread in my fingers. I've a collection of different types of old hand sewing needles and thimbles passed down from my mother grandmother's and great-aunt.

petite1,

Lovely!

Intolight - love all the little dolls.

Whoever mentioned knitting lap robes - the VA always welcomes them. My DAR chapter did them one year. My sister also crochets baby blankets for the local hospital.

Glad you got your kitchen organized to your liking, Chris. I just want to purge stuff but DH isn't ready.

Biggest local news is that ICE plans a 1500 bed holding center in our town. Supposedly the feds don't need to take into consideration local zoning laws.

Stay warm everyone. Wish I could send you some of our weather in exchange for some rain here.

"Peace is not just the absence of conflict. Peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish, regardless of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, class, caste, or any other social markers of difference."

Nelson Mandela

intolight, loved the crocheted animals and what a wonderful gift to give to one's grandchildren.

I am a huge fan of the Olympics and last night's opening ceremony was spectacular in scope and breadth. The presenting cast was varied including some of my favorites and the theme is harmony. So thankful I will have this to watch until February 22 and not have to watch any news. I was surprised that Mariah Carey as the opening singer and what an honor for her.

Andrea Bocelli singing "Nessun Dorma" by Puccini brought back a memory of visiting Lucca, Puccini's birthplace, where our lovely tour guide sang it outside his home. She had a spectacular voice and it was the first time I'd heard a female sing it. I just love him, but the honor of best male voice for this still belongs to Pavarotti.

The above quote was spoken there by Charlize Theron, a fellow South African, and is in synch with the Olympic theme.

Chris, what a great save of the microwave cart and being handy. Glad you were able to customize the shelves to give yourself more room in your kitchen.

Taco, envy your weather and if I could ship you some of the ice from my yard, it would help with your drought. It may be March before we thaw at this rate. A large warehouse in Berks county was just purchased for $87 million for the same purpose and the people there are not happy either. Concern is about property values and humane treatment.

cindyny, our winds are to be between 50-60 mph today which means we will hear loud whistling for much of the day. Not looking forward to them. Temps will be below zero before we discuss the wind chill factor. So in the 60's sounds good to me. Loved what you did to your jeans.

petite1, loved the doilies. I hope you have them on display.

While cleaning out drawers in my DD's old room, I uncovered a counted cross stitch which depicts a Mickey and Minnie Mouse wedding theme. I can't believe I paid as much as I did for it and obviously I have had it for years. I never got around to doing it and I should do it for their anniversary (they have been married for 10 years) which is in September. I haven't done counted cross stitch in a while and I have this lovely wooden frame on feet where I can work on it while seated on the couch. I should dig it out and start working on it now that I will b ehouse bound for awhile.

I once did a very intricate one for my BFF which took me over 300 hours to complete. It had an involved border, a center that was personalized to her and her DH, and I can remember working on it as we drove to Fl to visit Disney with our children. I couldn't use the frame then so I had to rely on just a medium hoop for each section. It had to be carefully plotted given the border demands. I have one of the Irish blessing in my bedroom that I had done for my uncle as a gift which was returned to me when he died. I used to do pillows, wall plaques, plastic mesh plant containers, etc in counted cross stitch.

Asked DH to check oil tank gauge the other day and he kept putting it off, citing we had received a delivery before the storm. I finally insisted he do it after dinner on Thursday and it read 10%, so he made a quick call to the oil company and they delivered yesterday before this cold weather front moved in. When we first moved here our oil schedule was not regular and there were a few times in bad weather when we ran out of oil so they did emergency deliveries of 5 gallon cans on foot. I don't want that experience again, especially when our steep driveway has ice or snow on it. They used to walk up my neighbor's driveway and then have to cut across the lawn to our driveway. What a haul and climb.

Working on a genealogy challenge with my cousin. She has a family member that sort of pulled a disappearing act, but then may have emerged under a different name. Trying to parse this out is the challenge since the new name was a name of an old friend.

Hope everyone has a great day and waving "hi" to everyone.

Betrayal, definitely get that cross stitch set up and while away the time.

Carole, I’ve purchased the tax software and have most of what’s needed to file. All due 4/15, I’ll file both through the software.

Your mention of sales tax reminded me of a time traveling down here, via TX. I think we were by Loretta Lynn’s ranch, headed back to the main route and stopped in a gift store. I bought a few things for gifts and at check out the total was so off of my estimate I had to ask did something ring up wrong. No, it was their sales tax … I swear it was near 13%. Blew my mind. We pay 8% which we thought was high. I digress!

We had a beautiful sunny and warm day. First good day in some time. All neighbors are comparing our power bills, on how much they’ve gone up now that we put heat on. I think from last month which included Christmas lights and guests, ours went up $20. And in comparison to NY it’s still lower by about $40, and that house is empty!

Speaking of NY it’s absolutely brutal there right now. Winds were causing -21 feel temps. It’s going down to -6 overnight. I keep checking on power, wifi Thermostat and cameras. So far, so good.

We went down to the casino for another free outdoor concert. Weather was great, but attendance wasn’t real high. We’re thinking it was due to the many things going on today. It was a New Orleans funk fest, zydeco music, which is fun.

This was Soul Rebel, a lot of horns that sounded great. I did run into the casino to leave some money. Hope to collect some money one of these days.

Super Bowl tomorrow, I’m viewing it as an east coast, west coast challenge. Sorry ladies, I’m east coast for both houses!

We’re planning on running down to Bonita Springs for their music & seafood festival at noon, before football. Really it’s for SO to hear some guy play - he’s tried 2x and the guy always cancels. I hope he shows up this time.

Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.

Dan Gable

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.

Leo Buscaglia

For those of you experiencing warm weather, here is a look at our winter wonderland. Temps to be in the 30's stalled at 26. It was sunny with no perceptible breeze.

DD and DSIL stopped by with some goodies and to pick up some goodies I had for them.

DB to start painting tomorrow. Yeah, I really would like to dismantle the 2 rooms of doom as soon as he is done.

Hope everyone had a great day and waving "hi" to everyone. Olympics have my attention for the moment.