My Experience at Costco

Okay, this is a long story and I'm not about to make it short! I need to vent!! You've been warned, chicks.

But first. ;-) I've been workin' th' roses a bit—it seems I've lost my touch a bit so struggling to get back. Also, I've been having an issue with my newer sewing machine. The tension was off. When that tension is off, my tension is aggravated! So after a fruitless call to where I purchased it and didn't get much help, I called my friend, S.G., who rushed over and solved my problem—I didn't properly load the bobbin. Aaarrghhh. I can be so clueless sometimes, but the frustration of trying to do 3 projects at once was getting me down...big time. Plus the craft room is in such a shambles, it's a wonder I can even walk around in there. I know, I know. I should stop and clean it up a bit, but when I'm on a roll, nothing interferes, even dinner.

Anyway, S.G. asked if she could do a folded rose since all my practice roses were sitting there and I, of course, said, "Be my guest, but if your rose looks good, you'll have to make 5 of them." ;-) She just started rolling a length of wired ribbon, kept "picking" at it and came up with a great idea. I worked it some more when she ran off to get her youngest child from school. I'm starting to get th' groove back. But here's what we both worked on to settle my nerves from the sewing machine caper.

Last night. Same ribbons, different light. Hers is on the left and mine is on the right in all photos. I need to pluck and tuck at it a bit more. I really want to get it right as they'll be glued on to the chandelier shades.

This morning.

The final result of the one on the right. These aren't hard to do so I'll probably be taking several apart in the next few days and redoing them. I don't want to waste the ribbon. And please bear in mind that this ribbon does not photograph well. ;-) Well, it might if a pro did it but I'm not a pro and didn't take the time to set up a light box. I'll get right on that! Yep, right on it. ;-)

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A couple of weeks ago, I went shopping by myself in Boise. I had several stops to make and hubs didn't particularly want to go. That was fine with me. I didn't realize at the time I was almost on empty. Now, I'm a chick who never lets my gas gauge go—at the most—below 3/4 of gas. Why? Well, many years ago, a comment was made by someone and it stuck with me. What if in the middle of the night you had an emergency and had to drive a bit of a distance and were almost on empty. Getting gas may not register immediately on your mind. Made sense to me so after that I keep my tank at least between half and three quarters full but being below half is unusual for me. Hubs goes on fumes a great deal of the time! He and I differ on a LOT of things, trust me.

Anyway, I asked him to go get me some gas. He called me from Costco and said the car wouldn't start. What?! I didn't have any problems at all that day and made several stops and not once did it act up. But he said he couldn't get it started and in our car it won't budge from park if it's not started. Two men, a customer and an employee, tried to help him as I made my way over in his truck, which I rarely ever drive and couldn't find the lever to adjust it forward and since he's 6'2" and I'm 5'4", I was driving with the tips of my toes on the gas pedal. It's about an 8-10 minute drive over to Costco. When I arrived I was happy to see he wasn't holding up any lines. We tried jumping it with the cables in his truck but to no avail. Nothing. The little light on the battery itself was glowing green. A good sign. Well, there was no way I was leaving my car for 2 days in the store parking lot because hubs had to teach a class the next day so it would have been 2 days before we could get back to get it.

So we drove to a friend's house and asked if her hubby could at least help us tow it to our house. He's a mechanic and we thought he'd possibly have something that could tow a car. She got him on the phone and he told her it was the battery. They had a similar occurrence that she'd forgotten about. Something about if it's below a certain percentage it won't start. So back to Costco after a stop at the house to get some tools. (Hubs is prepared for anything with all the tools he has! Sigh...) Anyway, I ran in to Costco, bought a battery as he's taking the old one out in the parking lot. I put it in a cart and pushed it out the door without stopping as I was in no mood to stop in 100° heat and wouldn't ya know the Costco "police" ran out and stopped me wanting to see my sales receipt! I hate having to get in a line for them to check my receipt! Plus the look on my face didn't exactly endear me to anyone that day. I have pity for whose who have to do that job. Bless their hearts.

But he put it in and the car started right up. I got in my car and he got in his truck. I turned on the a/c and it blew hot air all the way home. When we arrived in our garage, I told him the a/c doesn't work now. Okay, here's where I show my anger when he does this: he starts to get in the car to check if I'm accurate. He does this just about all the time. I calmly with an acid look in my eyes tell him to give me some credit in knowing if hot air is blowing out of the a/c. There, I haven't killed him yet. Breathe, Connie, breathe. He looks under the hood as I scream sweetly say it could just be something jiggled loose. Th' man has the patience of Job. So, he then gets in the car, thinking enough time has passed and I won't totally freak out now. He gets out and says, "The a/c wasn't turned on." He turned it on. I almost apologized but then remember HE probably turned it off when he was trying to start the car. I never turn it off in the summer. Never. So I didn't think about checking to see if it was on. So this was his fault, right? If you don't agree, don't you dare tell me or I'll put a hex on you!
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Such a light-filled bedroom. Lovely.

This has to be one of those houses on Nantucket. It looks like a seaside home with its weathered shingles and roses growing up the roof, which, by the way, is a terrible idea. That roof will rot in no time being by the sea and the roses climbing up it.

Just colorful eye candy for you.

Darling mudroom. I think those hooks on the high shelf are a fantastic idea. I might try that in our laundry. Hub has so many coats and hats I can't find room for my everyday coats in winter.

What a lovely kitchen with that beautiful rose rug and those white floors and windows overlooking a lake.

Aaaaah, my kind of room.

Cute paint job on those stairs. I almost thought it was carpet, but I don't think so now.

Beautiful fabrics.

Just thought these two windows were cute overlooking their waterway. Venice, perhaps?

And I thought my living room was bad. At least it's not a narrow hallway.

How sweet someone made this clock.

Copper pots and hyacinths. Beautiful kitchen.

Fabric rose pillow.

An elegant and eye-catching way to put your dainty exquisite laces.

Very unusual but elegant living room. Love the colors but I'd need more light.

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My Heart Is Heavy This Morning

I have said I want this blog to be a respite from everything that happens in this world today. And I promise beautiful photos—always. However, waking up to news that one of our ambassadors to Libya and 2 of his aides were killed when they were attacked—2 dying immediately and the ambassador suffocating to death—brings a great sadness to my heart this morning. This man is a young husband and father. I grieve for this man. I can't imagine what his family is going through to see his body carried partially naked through the streets. Tears run down my face as I write this. Please, please, pray for this man and his family today. We need to also pray for the men who did this. Evil must be stopped. Sorry for this tirade but my heart is so heavy this morning.

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A sweet girly room, just my type!

My message to you this day.

Still more dinner ware from Green Gate.

Some plates from Green Gate

Another adorable frilly, feminine bedroom.

What a cute way to hold a few books if you're not a true bibliophile.

A small laundry room in Europe somewhere. See, we girls are much alike in how we dress up our homes, laundry room, kitchens, etc. No matter where we live.

I love this chair, but especially the yellow/red/pink of the fabric.

A gorgeous bottle.

Roses vignette.

Ohmygosh, how cute is this little camp trailer. I doubt it would be much enticement to me to go camping however. If I could just park it in my back yard and go out and play it in once in a while, it might be fine though. We all know how I hate camping!!!

While this is a lovely old sofa, I'm not quite sure about whether it's tattered or what. But it does look like it's at a flea market.

Pretty pink bowls.

Another quaint pretty little restaurant in France. Can't quite read the writing on the menu however.

This homeowner caught my attention with the huge rose painting on her walls. But her table setting is pretty also.

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My Ribbon Roses

I'm going to say this ONE MORE TIME for those of you who haven't read it before or don't know this: If you send me a question asking for help, then you need to send me an email address to respond. If your "settings" in your blog do not allow me to see your email and it comes as NOREPLY-COMMENT@BLOGGER.COM or as a Wordpress.com blog and there is no email to contact you on your blog, I'm just going to ignore it. It does no good if I have no way to get in contact with you to answer a question or offer help. In fact, it looks to me like the comments are simply spam. Plus the fact that if I try to find someway on your blog to leave a comment and you haven't posted for....oh say, 6 months , 2 years or EVER, then that leads me to believe you're not serious about your question or even worse, (gasp!) a serious blogger. Tell me it ain't so! And I handle spam by deleting it! You won't get past me, trust me, so don't waste your time. Okay? I'm really not mad, just wanted to make this very clear. :-)
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I just noticed the date I'm posting this and let me say since it's been 11 years today that our country was attacked and my heart still remembers it.

I had just gotten out of the shower when my phone rang and my neighbor told me to get over there immediately since we had no television. I stared in horrific wonder at those two buildings coming down. I still get teary thinking about it. I hope with all my heart our country never, ever lets that happen again. Being a very religious person, I knew the end times were going to be tough and our Church advises us to be prepared—economically, temporally and most of all, spiritually. But that day just stuck in my mind, thinking about the moms and dads who wouldn't be going home that day. I also think about those brave NYC firemen and police who tried to help and lost their lives doing so. So mostly I pay tribute to them. I love our brave soldiers, firemen, police and emergency personnel. (I'm blubbering like a fool typing this.) Just be prepared, my friends, to defend our country.
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First of all, I'm doing something on this blog post that I don't normally do. When I was selling on eBay, I would make the photos 2 different sizes so when they clicked on the photo it would enlarge. This can only be done when using a template, which I use every single time I sell on eBay or do these blog posts. This took a bit more time and I decided early on not to do it with my blog. However, I did it on this post with only my own photos. I can't do it with photos I didn't originally take. So if you click on each photo of mine you'll see a larger photo of the roses, etc. I really like large photos but they take up much more storage space on Photobucket or any image hosting so I rarely ever do it here. Enjoy.
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One of my passions is making ribbon roses. I don't use a lot of them most of the time so I don't make many now, but with the redo of the chandelier shades I'm going to make some. I'll need five of them. Below are some of the ones I've made in the past. I have more than I'll ever use but I love making them. It gives me peace when I craft. My dilemma is which one I'll like the best on the shades.

A flower I made years ago. It isn't velvet; it just looks like it. Red—and purple, for that matter—are very hard to photograph unless you are a professional. I'm not!

This is a flower I had hot glued to a craft—can't remember what at the moment—and I took it off. Yes, you can get them off using a heat gun (hubs') but I do not recommend it as you can burn your fingers severely. I haven't so far but I'm very, very careful when I remove things I've hot glued on.

I have no more of this exquisite ribbon or I'd do the flowers I want in this. I can't even find this ribbon anymore.

I wanted to see how a 7/8" ribbon would work. Way too small.

This one worked pretty well.

But this is my all-time favorite ribbon rose besides the red one. They are assembled differently. This one is much quicker to make. Both are lovely.

Making the red rose requires much more work and time. I'm just starting this one to see how it comes out.

This is another favorite of mine. I pinned it to my jacket to wear to church recently. Simple and very quick to make.

My craft room and table are a horrible mess at the moment. I'm very fortunate that I have a room all to myself and can just shut the door if I have someone come over.

I'm thinking of doing a ribbon rose in this polka dot. The only down side is that it's one-sided. Hmmmm...maybe and maybe not. I hate to cut into this ribbon and destroy the 2 long pieces. We'll see. Oh, btw, that's me and hubs during one of our frequent trips to Mexico, but the picture was on a sight-seeing day cruise on the ocean and a dinner. They put that silly hat on him to take a picture. He hated it but was a good sport about it.

While I was in the craft room I noticed a pillow I had. I made this pillow out of some leftover fabric from the 2 chairs in our family room. They have since been recovered in another fabric, but I doubt I'll ever part with these pillows. It's a moire fabric and beautiful, but you all know how photos don't do justice to the actual item. Even though Ethan Allen makes pillows to come with the sofa, I may put these on there in place of or rather with the other pillows. We'll see how they go.

Now, enough of me. Look at this glorious area in a homemaker's kitchen. Cute!

These lamps are among some of the most elegant I have seen. I'd take these in a heart beat.

Haaa, you thought I wouldn't include a little cottage-by-the-road, didn't you?

And more from Green Gate for you to see. Isn't it a "fun" kind of dinnerware?

And a beautiful bouquet of roses in a french pitcher.

And I leave you this day with 3 boxes of beautiful candy, cookies and cupcakes! :-)

I know this is a long post but back here I promised to a few more tidbits on our U.S. Presidents and their Secret Service men from this book, In The President's Secret Service. So here's another tidbit.

At a dinner party given at the home of a personal friend of this President, the Secret Service gave the hostess some recommendations that she really had to adhere to so that the President and his wife could have this small, personal dinner with her and a very small group of friends.

The SS agents asked that draperies be put up on her windows. Agents were stationed everywhere around the yard and no-parking cones were put up in front of the house. Another request was that she empty a closet nearby big enough to fit at least two men as that was where they would take the President in case of a threat. They also selected where the President would sit. (Going out to dinner with friends as a U.S. President requires a lot of preparation. It's not done lightly!) She acquiesced to their demands and she then asked a question about what would happen to all the other guests and what they should do in the case of an emergency. The agent's response was, "Madam, I have only one client: the President." I wonder if she thought about reconsidering the invitation!
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Linking up with WOW and At the Picket Fence.