Getting my craft on, sentimental style

I know I mentioned here that my Grandpa died early in September.  The day after his and my Grandmas 65th Wedding Anniversary, to be exact.

I was looking for ways to memorialize him when I came across this idea on Pinterest.  To turn his old shirts into pillows.  When Grandma finally decided to start cleaning out the closest, she came across a bunch of his old work shirts.  He was an over the road trucker for MANY MANY years and never got rid of his work shirts, even tho he has been retired for over 20 years at this point.  I scooped these up and got to work!

Instead of buying stuffing and doing pillows that way, I found pillow forms at Walmart.  They had 2 sizes and I chose the 12″ x 16″ over the 16″ x 16″ size.

To start I laid out the shirt nice and flat on my table and pinned the middle.  Then I measured 13″ top to bottom and 17″ across, getting it as centered as I could.

Measuring out the cuts

Measuring out the cuts

I marked it and drew lines with a disappearing fabric pen and got to cutting.  Believe me that the first cut was the hardest on my Grandpas shirts!

All cut and ready to turn inside out and sew!

All cut and ready to turn inside out and sew!

After it was all cut out, I turned it inside out (no picture of that) and re-pinned it.  Then I sewed around all 4 edges (since they are button up shirts, no need to hand sew!), about 1/2 inch in.  Once that is done you unbutton them, turn them inside out, stuff with the pillow and button back up!  They were super easy and once I got to working on them each one only took me about 15 minutes.

Finished shirt pillows

Finished shirt pillows

I made 5 total, one for my Grandma, Dad and 3 uncles.  I have another shirt left and will make myself one too.  I love the way they turned out.  I was going to give them as Christmas presents to the recipients but couldn’t bear sitting on them that long!

Lunches with Dad – Ophelias

Yesterday Dad and I headed to Independence, MO for lunch.  He had a gift certificate for restaurants on the square that needed to be used and that’s what we did!  He chose to try out Ophelia’s.

Its a lovely restaurant on the Independence Square.  It’s clean and cozy and not too dark.

To start we got an appetizer of Portobello Rangoon Rolls.  These were delightful.  They had great flavor and the sauce over them was yummy too.  We are lucky we caught a picture of them before they were all devoured.

Portobello Rangoon Rolls (with 2 missing...)

Portobello Rangoon Rolls (with 2 missing…)

Dad chose the special, which was a Turkey sandwich of some sort that had sliced turkey, some cranberry-ish sauce and other toppings.  He chose sweet potato fries as his side.

I got the Oak Grilled Chicken Sandwich with sweet potato chips.  I’ve had better sandwiches but it was good.  The best part was the house made pickles on my sandwich.  They were perfect.

My lunch

My lunch

Dads lunch

Dads lunch

I would go again, they have lots of interesting things on the menu.  So would dad.  He did mention that it was the cleanest mens restroom that he had ever been in.

Scores?

ME:  3.5, DAD: 5

Throwback Thursday

I’m just going to leave a couple of my favorite pictures of memories past here.  The first one is me and my Great Grandma and my sister in Pennsylvania when we went to visit family years ago.  The second is my favorite cabbage patch doll, Dianna Robin, and I just “hanging around”.  When I wore my overalls, I would also put Dianna Robin in her overalls and dad would “hang” us by the straps of our overalls by the light pole out front.  Sounds weird but I remember loving it!

Me, Great Grandma H and Saralyn Circa 1989?

Me, Great Grandma H and Saralyn
Circa 1989?

Dianna Robin and I just "hanging around"

Dianna Robin and I just “hanging around”

WIP Wednesday

This week has been a low key week for knitting.  I haven’t started any new projects since my last WIP Wednesday.  I have worked a couple rows here and there on my grandmas shawl but that’s about it.

There is a good reason I haven’t been knitting though…its my sewing machine!

A great friend found a sewing machine at a garage/estate sale last year for $5 and gave it to me.  I was super excited, but yet my machine sat in a cabinet, unused.  Last week I finally dusted that baby off, bought some necessary notions and tried this thing out!  Lo and behold, it works!  I am thrilled!  I have been working on a project in memory of my Grandfather and should have it completed next week and can reveal it then.

IMG_2022

Kind of a big deal

So if you’re not from New York or Kansas City or don’t follow baseball you probably don’t know this.

We are kind of a big deal around here right now.  We as in our Kansas City Royals!  We won the 2015 World Series!  We played 5 games and won it by scoring 5 runs in the 12 inning of that 5th game!

Tomorrow is the parade for the team and I’m pretty sure the whole city is basically shutting down.  Schools have cancelled, businesses are closing, its crazy.  I would like to go down, but I don’t love crazy crowds like that and think I will opt to stay out of that mess.  I found out today that I was actually at the parade in 1985, the last time we won the World Series. 

 

1985 me

 
WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!

WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!

Hello NaBloPoMo15!

Happy November 1st!

I’ve decided to stretch my “legs” and try this posting every day in November thing.  Life was seeming a little…dull?  I figured “Why Not?”.

I thought I would start off the month by introducing my furry kids.  We have 3 awesome dogs that im pretty sure we grow more smitten of every day.  Yes.  I know we are ate up.  I accept that fully.

Friends!

Friends!

Chuck was my first dog as an adult.  A couple months after I moved in to my house my mom and I went to the new Petsmart that just opened near us.  We were just looking around and I hadn’t really thought of actually adopting a dog but there was a group from Saline County there and there was this medium black dog in a cage.  They got him out and I sat there on the floor with him knowing that I could not put him back in the cage and walk away without him.  My mom helped me with his adoption fee and the rest is history.  Life without Chuck hasn’t been without trials.  He had separation anxiety and hates being in a kennel.  Luckily he is a well behaved dog these days outside of his kennel and doesn’t have to endure being in one.

When I adopted him I took him to work with me to be checked over and whatnot.  The shelter had pegged him as a much younger dog than he actually was so they never tested him for heartworms.  We nearly didn’t, either, but did on a whim and his test was positive!  We treated his heartworms and neutered him and he has been fine since.

Chuck is quick to bark if he thinks his honor has been insulted.  He is that grumpy old man that is always yelling at the kids to get off his lawn!  He has to eat special food to keep his gut happy.  His greatest joys in life are rawhides to chew on, soft beds to lay on and eating.  He is the first to get in your face if he thinks you have missed feeding them a meal.

CHUCK!

CHUCK!

Noodle came into our lives 5 years ago today as a little 12 week old baby.  We had been looking for a companion for Chuck for a month or two beforehand.  We had very specific “wants” and it took awhile to pin those down.  We ended up meeting a rescue lady in the McDonalds parking lot.  She had brought 3 litter mates out and Josh chose Noodle out of the mix.  She was so little when we got her, yet its hard for me to imagine her that small after all this time.

She is a funny creature and the ruler of our house.  If there is a scuffle, she is there READY to intervene.  She doesn’t take any sh1t off of other dogs either.  Or the cats either for that matter.  She loves to cuddle and get under the blankets and be warm.  Toys with stuffing do not stand a chance with her around as she takes great joy in digging out the stuffing and leaving it all over the living room.

NOODLE!

NOODLE!

Pickle is the youngest of the bunch, yet the biggest.  I was dabbling with fostering thru the local city shelter and Josh, Audrey and I went down to pick up a foster.  When we got there, the foster coordinator decided that the dog we were going to take was too adoptable and gave me a list of other dogs to foster.  While I was talking to her, Josh and Audrey were out in the kennels looking at dogs.  I found them and they led me to a cage with Pickle (formerly Yasmine) who was also on the list the foster coordinator gave me.  With that we took her home and started our foster relationship.  We fostered her for a couple of months and then found her a home.  As it turns out, she wasn’t a good fit for that home.  She had a short stint with BFF’s and then came back to us.  When she came back, we knew that she wasn’t going ANYwhere.  She was ours.  Her and Noodle are BFF’s and inseparable.  The only time they are separate is when they are in their kennels.

Pickles biggest fault is sometimes she loves tooooo much.  She will get really excited about seeing someone and just need to be a part of them.  She likes to put your fingers in her mouth or if you are sitting she might get up and kiss/nibble on your nose.  I think its adorable but house guests don’t always think so.  She also will tell you how it is if she isn’t getting enough attention.  The laser pointer is her favorite toy and sometimes she will just go stand and stare at the laser pointer device. Rawhides and most plush toys don’t stand a chance in her presence.

PICKLE!

PICKLE!