Sewing projects for Christmas

I started sewing for Christmas in early November and I could not post my projects until after Christmas as I did not want to spoil the surprise for the recipients. So now that Christmas is over I can share.

I made some hats for the grandkids. Mr. Bear got the privilege of modeling the hats and then I got pictures of the grandkids with their hats.

        

Zeke had 2 hats, a mohawk fleece hat and a "ninja" fleece hat. He loved both of them. Fleece hats are easy to make but the added mohawk would have been a challenge for my old machine. I still have it, it's an old Kenmore that I bought in the '80's. My new machine, a Juki, handles lots of layers with no problems. My Juki is an industrial machine, it only does a straight stitch and does it really well. With the mohawk seam I ended up sewing thru 6 layers of fabric. The "ninja" hat is just like a ski mask. It has a trim around the face opening and bottom that is "Fold-Over Elastic". I found that I love working with this elastic. It has a (for lack of better words) line down the middle of it that makes it really easy to fold over the edges of something. I used my Kenmore to sew this part. I needed a very small zig-zag stitch and my Juki couldn't do that one. In fact I could not use the regular zig-zag stitch on my Kenmore. I ended up using part of the button hole stitch in order to get a very small zig-zag. The face part can be pulled down from the nose to sit under the chin in case someone wants to eat or drink something.

      

Again Mr. Bear was my model for this hat before Christmas. It is Micaela's favorite color lately. And I made her a t-shirt dress. I had left over material from her rabbit purse that I made her for her birthday. It worked great for this t-shirt dress. T-shirt dresses are easy to make, the shirt was a $4.47 Walmart purchase and went really well with the rabbit material-and it's her favorite color. Both of these projects were done on my Juki.

One of my projects was a challenge. There was no pattern, only an old tool roll from a 1969 Land Cruiser. When I was in California for Thanksgiving I got a chance to take measurements of the old one in order to make a new one for my son-in-law, Ryan. The old one was in fragile condition and Dani had some fabric and trim for me to use.




The fabric is waxed canvas. I'd never sewn on waxed canvas before. Ryan likes vintage items and this item seemed like it was from WWII. They had bought the fabric and trim from an army supply store but Dani's machine was not able to sew on it, too thick. It wasn't too thick for my Juki tho. The thickest part was 6 layers thick counting the trim. I put some tools in it just to make sure it could hold them okay. I was not able to find a buckle like the old one but had a wider one in my stash and a vinyl strap that worked to finish it off. I was surprised at how well it came out and the project got me to thinking about sewing more tool rolls for these types of projects and other occupations as well.

I got to sew a new bag for Dani.



I started out making her a lunch bag, but my original lunch bag was too small. I made one that looked just like a paper bag, it was cute but not good for a lunch-maybe a snack. Anyway I pulled out a book  that Dani let me borrow and made this for her. I had not sewn with zippers in ages but the directions in this book made it easy. I picked up this fabric at the thrift store. It was curtains that were in great shape. It had contrasting fabric plus an off white lining that I used for the inside of this bag. I'm pretty sure she can fit her lunch or whatever she wants in this one.

And I had more than enough curtain fabric to make another purse, this one for Jeni.



I had made Jeni one of these over the shoulder purses before and she still uses it but it is falling apart. The fabric is worn thru and it has holes in it. So I thought a new one was in order. It's a great purse to use when your hands are full with a couple of kids and all their "stuff". For this project I used the same fabric for the outside and the lining. It does have the contrasting stripe across the front and it has a 3 section pocket inside. Both Dani and Jeni's projects were sewn on my Juki.

I had great fun sewing for Christmas. I was very glad to have my Juki and I had taken some thread and needle classes at the sewing store. The information I learned was very helpful with all of these projects. I'm looking forward to sewing more in the future. Keep you all posted on future projects.

Whole-food plant-based diet/vegan 98%

My diet has changed to whole-food plant-based diet/vegan.

How did I get here, what made me want to change? It all started with my cholesterol levels. In 2015 it was 225, in 2016 it was 236. My health care provider in CA didn't get upset at those numbers-they get excited when it gets above 240. I thought that was odd because I thought the "magic" number to stay below was 200. So here is it 2017 and I'm sure that if I don't change anything my numbers will be above 240. And now that I have a different health care provider, I'm sure the normal number will be closer to 200. What to do...change my diet. My decision to become vegan is based on my health. I didn't want to take medication to control my cholesterol so I decided to change my diet. For me, being a vegan is a dietary decision, I'm not out to make an ethical or environmental statement. I'm just trying to eat healthy for me. About 98% of the time I eat vegan. I find when I eat out, especially at a restaurant, it is harder to stay vegan.

Every November I get my blood work done so I wanted to start on this diet at least 2 months before my lab appointment. In August I started changing over my breakfasts. That wasn't very hard because I usually have just oatmeal for breakfast. Then I started on my lunches. That wasn't too hard either. Dinners were more of a challenge. It has been a fun challenge. My resources have been plentiful: blogs and cookbooks. It doesn't sound like much but there is so much information out there. Some of my books are Forks Over Knives and America's Test Kitchen's Vegetarian Cookbook. Blogs include kitchentreaty.com, cearaskitchen.com. Now I know that in this paragraph I've mentioned 3 different diets, vegan, vegetarian, and whole-food plant-based diet. My aim is whole-food plant-based diet. Every once in a while I'll use oil in something or butter or put a sprinkle of cheese on something. But for the most part I stay away from dairy, oils and processed foods.

My cholesterol numbers for this November's blood work came back with better numbers. It was 219-on it's way down!!! And I feel better too. I don't have that "bloaty" feeling, my head is clearer, my arthritis in my hands is better. In addition to changing my diet I need to keep up on my physical activities. The combination is important to keeping the cholesterol numbers down. I find that I need to plan my physical activity more now that I'm retired. So I'm working on that too...subject for another blog. In 2+ months my cholesterol numbers were down, next year with a whole years worth of dietary change and workouts I'm hoping that my numbers will be below 200. By the way, my protein numbers and calcium numbers were more that fine.

I'm sure some of you are wondering how Mr WAU is handling this. He has been a very supportive spouse. He eats what he wants for breakfast and lunch. Dinners are meatless. We like to try new recipes a few times a week. Some of them are so-so, only a few have been bad. Most of them are pretty good. There are times that I just have to break out the chicken for him, but he bravely tries all that I set before him. We now have our favorite recipes. I'm getting more confident in my abilities and are willing to share with family and friends now.

So if you have any favorite sites for recipes let me know and I'm sure I'll be sharing more here as time goes on.

Tualatin Wildlife Refuge

The Tualatin Wildlife Refuge is only 4.5 miles away from our house, it takes about 10 minutes to get there. We started going there when we first moved to Oregon, when we were living with my daughter and son-in-law and grandkids. It's even closer to their house. It's one of 10 urban refuges in the USA. It is 1,856 acres of wetlands and lowland sanctuary or about 200 bird species and more than 70 other animal species. Five miles of trails enable you to see many different animals. I'm not very good at identifying my birds, but I'm learning to get better. On this day there were a bunch of Cackling Geese, these are smaller than the Canadian Goose. We also saw 2 Bald Eagles, a mating pair that has lived at the refuge for many years.

   This is the wetlands, so many birds use this place.


This is at the far end of the trail where you can look out over the wetlands.

   We found a tree frog.

 Some of the trails        

   A poor picture of a raccoon from the viewing platform on the Tualatin River

   A view of the viewing platform over the river when we were kayaking last summer

  Park Rangers are more that happy to show you the "critters" living in the water.

This is a good place to go to get away from the hustle of the city, the trails are easy, the grandkids can do it, and it doesn't take all day.

Christmas Decorating

We came home from our Thanksgiving visit to California and started decorating for Christmas. That is usually early for me but I knew that it would take time to put everything where I wanted it. Being in a new house means everything, including Christmas decorations, get to find a new home.

  It was nice to be able to use the red hutch for decorating this year. Previously the hutch lived in my bedroom and there was no sense in decorating it there. So now it makes a nice place to put up our nativity set. And it's at eye level for the grandkids to see.

   We weren't sure where we wanted to put the tree. For this year it will sit here and as time goes on I'm getting used to it. I love putting up the tree. Each ornament has a story connected with it so it's a good reminder of past experiences. Some of the ornaments have a joyous remembrance and some of them are more melancholy. I continue to put them all up there because for me one of the things about Christmas is celebrating how God redeems things. Those ornaments that make me think of past sadness reminds me to leave the person or situation in God's hands and that brings a peace to me. And peace is one of the things this season is about.

   We have a tradition that we hide these little elves in the main room(s) of the house. There are 10 of them. I let the grandkids hide most of them while Grandpa is out of the room. They have so much fun watching Grandpa trying to find all 10 of them. And I get to hide 1 of them and they all have to find it. This tradition started when I was a little girl. In grade school we would have Christmas parties and every year there would be cupcakes and on the top of the cupcakes was a small Christmas decoration. Some years it was a snowman, a present, a Santa, etc. Well my mom saved them and my dad started hiding them in the main room of the house every Christmas. Every year it was a challenge trying to find all of them. Fast forward to when my kids were little and my dad bought me a set of these little elves to continue the tradition. So now we hide them with the grandkids.

   We've started a new tradition, Gingerbread Pancakes. They were so good. The recipe can be found at kitchentreaty.com  And yes, in the background is our Gingerbread house that I do with the grandkids every year. It's in "progress", put on hold due to the flu. So a post will be coming with that decorating adventure.

I hope your Christmas is full of peace and that you all have a grand new year.

A new horse life

Horses had been a big part of my life while we lived in California. I have been wondering for quite some time if they would be part of my life here in Oregon. When we decided to retire and move, we knew we could not take the horses with us. On a retirement income we would not be able to afford it. Mr UAW and I both brought in an income and we could afford the horses board. I worked off some of the boarding costs by volunteering my time at the barn and got an enormous discount on veterinary costs by working at an equine hospital. Our family originally had three horses. We sold one, Sky-an Arab gelding, a few years before deciding to retire. So we had two horses when we knew retirement was coming soon, a mother/daughter pair, Skippy-a Quarter/Arab and Zoe-a Quarter/Arab/Fox Trotter.  Zoe was my personal horse. About two years before moving, we decided to place them with our boarding barn, Knicker Knob Stable. The owner took them on as lesson horses and they quickly settled into their new "jobs".  Giving up the horses was difficult but I knew they would be happiest staying together at the barn, the lesson program was easy, and the care they would receive would be good. And I thought I'd be able to visit them a few times a year once we had moved. Seven months after giving them up, Zoe died due to complications from Temporohyoid Osteoarthropathy with secondary vestibular disease. Because I still lived and worked close to the barn and still volunteered at the barn, I was involved with Zoe. I raised her up from birth and I made the decision to put her down. It was one of the hardest periods of my life and to this day it is difficult to speak of that time. Zoe was my partner, we were a team, and we learned to depend on each other as the years went on. I've never felt a connection to any animal as I did with Zoe. The relationship is difficult to explain. We depended on each other, especially out on the trail-she watched my back, took care of me many times and I paid attention to her needs and took care of her. We watched over each other. It's a relationship that I will always treasure and never forget. Zoe died 20 months before we actually moved. Since then, Skippy has found other horse friends at the barn and continues to give lessons to this day. I did not do much riding once Zoe died. It was difficult to ride, I needed time to grieve and move on,  and the pressures of setting up things for retirement and moving took up much of my spare time. But I always wondered...would I ride again?

Fast forward to September 2017, we have retired and moved...and I began thinking...I have a skill that I've worked on for many years and I'd like to use it again. All that "horse knowledge" just doesn't go away. It follows me everywhere I go and I still use it. Things like keeping your focus, keep your eyes on where you want to go, pay attention to the little things, acknowledge the little tries in life, so many things that I learned and that had become a part of me- are still with me today. I wanted to use my knowledge of horses again, but did not want to own a horse again. Mr UAW and I talked it over and agreed that volunteering at a horse facility would be a good thing. So I began to pray. After coming to this decision, I met a woman at our church who volunteers at Trillium Creek Training and Rehabilitation Coalition (TCTC), you can find them at www.tctchorsecare.org. It's a non-profit with 10 acres of woods, trails, barns and about 12 horses who have been healed from previous injuries or neglect. The horses have been retrained to safely have new jobs:  giving lessons, driving carriages, or just retiring as they age. I called the owner, we met and my riding skills are now used to exercise and help train horses at her place. The teaching/training philosophy at TCTC is very similar to what I've experienced at Knicker Knob Stable. We have gone on trail rides at one of the local equestrian parks and I ride in her arena. I feel like I'm at home at her place. I'm not sure where this journey will take me. We've talked about taking and giving lessons at her place and on the trails, me helping out with their summer camps for kids, she will teach me to drive horses with a carriage, there are so many opportunities there and I'm excited about it. Prayers have been answered and I guess there is more to come on this adventure. By the way, Zoe's name means life in Greek and even tho she is not physically with me anymore and because of my experiences with her I can grow and participate in the horse community and continue on my journey on this unexplored trail of a horse life.

Lucky-was an eventer, stadium jumper, cross country jumper until a suspensory injury changed  her "job" and now she has a new life at TCTC. A very nice horse to ride.

On the trail with Lucky 

               

Willow-an Argentine Thoroughbred. She was a polo pony and a school horse for eventers. Neglected and with a stifle injury her "job" changed to a new one at TCTC. She's a great horse to ride. 

On the trail with Willow 

                               

Katie was a Montana cow pony when she foundered. After recovering she was ridden English and did jumping, was a school horse and did 3-day eventing. Due to changing circumstances in the owners life, Katie came to live at TCTC. With her arthritis and swayed back she now takes on riders under 75 pounds-and my grandson, Zeke enjoyed his ride on this wonderful mare. 

Bobby is a nice miniature horse. He teaches people how to drive and loves to work. I'm told he can jump as high as he is tall when in good condition. Zeke is enjoying a horse that is his size. 

               

Family Visit

So excited, we had our first visitors from California, my daughter and son-in-law, Dani and Ryan!
They came in early October. It was great to see them again. Just a few pictures...


Dani and Jeni-I love this sister picture


Dani and Ryan at Silver Falls


Penny, my granddog, at the beach


Dani and me

It was a great visit and we have places we want to see the next time they come!

Hike to Ramona Falls

I've been wanting to hike in the direction of Mt. Hood. We've been to many parks in the Portland area and at the coast, but not east of Portland. So I researched some hikes and came up with a hike to Ramona Falls in the Mt. Hood National Forest. I wanted to go in that direction before the snows hit that area. My research on the app "All Trails" told me that it is a 6.9 mile loop trail located near Rhododendron, Oregon, off of Highway 26. "The falls drops 120 feet, cascading and splitting into ever smaller fingers of water broken up by the hexagonal columns of basalt at the base of the cliff." Elevation gain of 1100 feet. It said to plan 4-6 hours to complete. And there was a warning, there is no longer a bridge to cross Sandy River-you will need to cross logs. And it also said in the comments that after you cross Sandy River that the trail can be hard to pick up again. With our directions and information in hand we set off late September for Ramona Falls.

One of the things we should have done on the way up was to type Ramona Falls Trailhead, instead of Ramona Falls,  into the Google Maps app. Ms Google took us up as close to the Falls as she could get, on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere, and announced "you have arrived!" It was a good thing we passed some road workers about 1/2 mile back and could turn around and ask where the trailhead was because we had no cell service. So Ms Google didn't get any second chances. And speaking of chances, what are the chances that we would find help in the middle of nowhere? So with Someone watching out for us, and armed with our new directions, we found the trailhead.

The trail and the falls were everything that we read about. Pictures do not do it justice, especially pictures from a cell phone. Someday we might get a nice camera, but for now we will have to remember everything from our cell phone pictures.

The bridge was indeed gone and logs were the best way to cross the Sandy River. I suppose we could have waded in but it seemed slippery and a bit deep, and we don't like hiking in wet clothes. Crossing on the log wasn't to bad, just don't look down! And, yes, the trail was a bit difficult to find again but we did and continued on.

We had a "friend" join us for a while on our hike. He didn't seem to be in a hurry. 

Ramona Falls were beautiful, all the descriptions that I read about were accurate.  I saw spring pictures of them where the water had a greater flow, but this was still impressive. We ate lunch there, enjoying the view, and we were the only ones around for a while. 

The trail to the falls were next to the Sandy River and the views were nice. We took the loop to the north to return to the trailhead. It was nice to see different things on the way back. We followed a creek for a while and there were many basalt cliffs nearby.

          

On the way back we saw an awesome view of Mt Hood. 

All in all our hike took us about 5 hours. We stopped for lunch and for lots of pictures. The hike was not difficult to complete, the elevation gain was easy to manage. I did notice that some of the hikers that started out from the trailhead were older and they didn't feel comfortable crossing Sandy River on the log. These people must have been disappointed. I hope someday that the bridge will be built again over the river because I'm sure these people could have handled the rest of the trail. It was a great day for us and I'd recommend this hike!

Picture updates

A few updates on some of the things we've been doing.



This was one of our last kayaking trips. It was the longest trip yet. We did almost 8 miles that day. We started at the Tualatin River at Highway 99 and went up river to the Tualatin Wildlife Refuge. It was a beautiful day, not hot at all, and we had most of the day to spend on the river. I never know how the pictures are going to turn out while I'm on the river. I have a clear, waterproof bag that I put my phone in and it hangs around my neck. I don't take it out of the bag to use it so I can't get picky about my pictures. This one did turn out okay.



I did say I had another chalk painting project and here it is. I'm done with the red now. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Bulb Garden

There was a corner of our back yard that needed some help. It had a nice archway with a Clematis growing up one side of it. Whenever I looked at the archway I was always looking for something inviting to be seen on the other side of it. However there was nothing nice to look at. There was weeds, piles of moldy grass clippings the previous owners left, and years of tangled, pruned tree branches. There was also too many trees planted in that area. So we took out some trees. Now I could see my lilac bush and my maple tree. Then of course I had to clean up the weeds and left over branches. That lead to an idea...a bulb garden

   

So I cleaned up the ground, we got some more "good" dirt, dug it in, watered it, and dug it in some more. In the meantime I searched the area for bulbs, especially bulbs that would do well in part shade. I told my 6 year old grandson about my idea and he was fascinated with the idea of a flower coming out of a bulb. I showed him pictures of different bulbs and their flowers. Then he wanted to help me with my idea. When planting day arrived, he was there to help me. We transferred some of the ferns, columbines, and iris from other parts of the yard. Then we started in on the bulbs. Once I described the planting process to him, he was "all in". We did not plant individual bulbs but groups of bulbs. It was a good way for him to use his math skills as we had to divide up bags of bulbs. He loved using the garden tools, various shovels and rakes, to make it all work. In the end together we added up the number of bulbs we had planted 330!!! It's a good thing we planted them in clusters, I think digging 330 holes would have been too much for either of us. Here is our after picture. I'll have to post a flowering picture in the spring time.




Mr UAW and I will refinish the park benches in the back and we have a trellis to set up behind them. Now I think the arch way has something inviting on the other side of it.

Chalk painting

I've read about chalk painting and have wanted to give it a try. My first project was a picture frame. It seemed like an easy, small project and if I messed it up it would be no problem to change it up. I started with an idea I got from my daughter, a large picture frame with 4 pieces of twine strung horizontally so that I could hang 4 x 6 pictures from it. I wanted to make these pictures the "adventure" pictures of my family. So I started with my thrift store $5 large picture frame. The painting inside was a canvas of an ocean scene, the paint was peeling, cracking and wasn't something I wanted so I didn't mind getting rid of it. I cut out the canvas because I was after the frame. I did not want to buy a whole can of chalk paint for a small project to I researched on Pinterest how to make my own. I had the color of latex paint that I wanted, I just figured out how to make a small portion of it into chalk paint. If your interested, there are many recipes on Pinterest on how to do it. I also knew I wanted to dark wax it but again didn't want to buy a large can of dark wax. So I did the same thing and ended up making my own out of clear wax and black paint that I had bought for something else. So now I was ready, I had all my supplies made up and ready to go. Painting was easy. Distressing it was easy. I clear waxed it first then came back with the dark wax. I think I came out pretty good. Below are pictures of it. From left to right: first is the chalk paint and distressed, second after the clear wax was applied, and the third is after the dark wax. Then a picture of the final project.

               


So then I got ambitious. I have a hutch that is really nice for storing things, but it is heavy and was badly chipped, the veneer was peeling off, someone had tried to nail the veneer back on, it had stains on it I couldn't get off. I didn't want to move it to Oregon and we tried to sell it in California, but no takers. It's an older piece, 1940's, and it belonged to Mr UAW's grandmother. So for this project I purchased the official Annie Sloan chalk paint. I wanted a certain color, Empire Silk, for my project. And I purchased the dark wax from Annie Sloan. Because I had a large piece of furniture that I was working with, I wanted the color of the paint and wax to be consistent throughout the project. I felt comfortable making my own chalk paint and dark wax for something small, but not something this big. It took 3 days to do. I did chalk paint, distressed it, put clear wax on it, then the dark wax. Just the chalk paint itself was a pretty bright red, but the clear wax gave a depth to the red and the dark wax just made it rich.

before and after 

before

after

       

          

So I have a few more chalk painting projects to do. One in the same red and dark wax, good thing I have some left over. The other project is another picture frame only this one will be black, distressed so the white shows up underneath and just clear waxed. These are small projects so I can get them done in the garage if the weather turns nasty. More to come on this theme later.