Unexpected Blessing!

We had an Arctic week here! I live in Northern Indiana, and one night this week it dropped to -22*, not including any wind chill factors. Now, that's COLD folks!

I hate everything about being cold. Having to wear extra clothing, boots, mittens, the works. But, I have to tell you about a blessing anyway.

While it was -22* this week, we left our water running so it wouldn't freeze in the lines. But, one of us forgot to turn the hot water on too.. big mistake. We got up and of course, the hot water wouldn't run.

So, I called my local plumber, and he came out and worked on it. Poor guy was so popular that day, his cell phone kept ringing with people around town with the very same problem. He had to come and go, as we weren't quite sure where the frozen spot was. He put a small space heater near the water heater, thinking it was where it came into the house from the garage. But, it wasn't and he had to come back and do some more searching. Several hours later, he found it and got it running. During all of this he drained the hot water heater, cut some of the wall board out from behind my washer and dryer, and put in some new lines. It was frozen right by where the dryer vents outside. We were pretty pleased to have it working again.

Then I decided to get in a HOT bath, and I found my blessing!

When we moved into this house we noticed that the hot water took forever to get upstairs to the bathroom, and we didn't have much pressure on the hot side either. It was on our list of things to fix when spring arrived. But, when I turned on the hot for my bath, the water pressure was about doubled... and it got hot right away!

SO, the frozen water fixed our pressure problems! And now we can cross that off our list! I'm so thankful that I could find something positive about the whole experience.

Voyage of Discovery

At my local quilt shop, Homespun Treasures, we are doing a Block of the Month. It will be a quilt called "Voyage of Discovery", following the journey of Lewis and Clark.

The first block is the Illinois block.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Ok, so I'm a little late with the greeting.. but, wanted to share this cool photo. It was taken in the Dominican Republic on New Years Eve. Mike went there on a mission trip, but also got to see some sights. You can see some other photos of the trip if you visit my flickr photo page.

While he was there, they did several different ministry works. They held a kids day at the mission compound, helped a blind group, handed out food, toys, and clothing. They also helped at a men's maximum security prison with a "family day". At the prison once a year, they let the families come in and visit with the inmates. They have a christmas party and other activities.

Hawaii quilt block

Every state has a quilt block named after it. I didn't know that before I started looking at quilt patterns. You can find them at Quilter's Cache It's interesting to see what each one looks like.

I've been looking for something to use my Hawaiian fat quarters, I thought the Hawaii block would work well, what I didn't know was, that I would struggle to get it done correctly. I made 3 different sizes in the same fabrics before I was satisfied.

This block will go to Carol on the Yahoo! Group "Quilting in Indiana". The group has a "lottery" every month and she was the winner for January. The winner gets to pick the block you make, and she chose "your favorite state block." I picked Hawaii because it's my favorite vacation spot. This photo is of the block I'm sending her.

The Chair

So, I'm home alone for a week, and I decided I needed a project. While at JoAnn Fabric, I found a piece of upholstery fabric in the scrap bin for a $1.50, about the right size to redo a chair that Erin left here. It's a great chair, just needing a new look. So, I bought it, and some black to do the bottom, as I knew I wouldn't have enough to quite finish the whole thing. When I got home, I started tearing the old fabric off and kind of figured I'd probably picked a challenge that I wasn't quite up to! This is what the chair originally looked like:

And here is the chair with her new look! Not bad for my first time!!



Hope you like your chair Erin!

My REAL Christmas present

I got the best gift this year! Karissa and Josiah came home for Christmas, handed us each a gift and said we had to open them at the same time. I had a feeling I knew what was about to happen and excitement filled me! I ripped off the paper, and saw the gift, a photo frame that says, "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's" Mike got one too, that says "Grandpa and me" In the frame was a paper that said "Baby Southworth coming in August 2009" being mischevious at Grandma Laurie's" Mike likes the little ones to call him "Uncle Buck" so his said "Baby Southworth coming in August 2009, hanging out with Grandpa Buck"

We LOVED it! We are going to be grandparents for the very first time! We are totally ready too!

Just call me Grammy!

Happy 2009!

It's been a busy few weeks so I haven't really had much time for posting to my blog.
After I finished "Mrs Frosty" I had to give up the sewing for awhile, it's the Christmas Holiday after all, and there are many things that needed to be done.

We've had some really cold weather here in NE Indiana. About 2 weeks ago, it dropped down in the subzero temps, when the wind was factored in of course. About that time, the furnace in our house decided it was tired and didn't need to work very hard. I took issue with that additude and called the furnace repair man. Naturally, it had a factory defect, and of course, we needed a new furnace. Just what you want for Christmas right?!!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They worked for about 5 hours and finally got it running so we wouldn't freeze until they could get the new equipment installed. It's done now, and supposed to be more energy efficient. I hope so, after the power/gas bill we got in the mail today, I could use some good news!

During that, Mike was getting ready to go on a Mission trip to the Dominican Republic. We packed him up and he left on the 30th of December. He landed in Santa Domingo later that day, but at the wrong airport for the mission! YIKES! After much prayer and pulling strings, the mission person there, Tim, got him a ride to Santiago. It was a stressful trip for Mike, and since he isn't home yet, I haven't heard all the details. I'm glad he made it safe though! Since then, they've had a good time.

Since Mike is gone, I've decided to get a few projects done around the house. Like organizing his office, cleaning up the garage, and a feeble attempt at re-upholstering a chair. I'm taking photos, and I'll post them later!

The best news of the holiday deserves it's own post... so, I'm signing off for now! L