four things | two

what I’m watching

We have a population of pileated woodpeckers around our area.

We’re not sure if it’s the same family year after year but we love watching them and other birds at our feeder.

what I’m eating

Most days Mr. Aitch and I have a late lunch/early dinner that my brother named “linner”. Our charcuterie board “linner” was fabulous.

Two kinds of cheeses, leftover prime rib bits, fresh veggies, thinly sliced apples, assorted dips and crackers, plus wine.

what I’m loving

My pedicure.

I’ve been going once a month since October. I don’t go for the polish color during the cold months but having someone massage my feet is such a relaxing experience. With the bitter cold temperatures we’ve been having, I went with a frosty, shimmery ice blue. Next month maybe bright red for Valentine’s Day, a different color or none at all.

what I’m working on

Our dishwasher doesn’t completely drain and there’s always a puddle of water (estimating a gallon) covering most of the bottom when the cycle is complete. I know the cycle is complete as I run it mostly at night and it doesn’t take eight hours. I also turn off the heated dry cycle as the dishes are 99% dry in the morning. No point in making our electric bill any higher than it already is!

I got on YouTube to find some answers and what I could do to try to fix it. It amazes me what information is there!

It looked easy enough for me to tackle. Plus I was tired of water sitting in the bottom.

I grabbed a couple of screwdrivers, a pair of pliers, and a roll of paper towels. then I donned my headlamp (a gift from Mr. Aitch), some disposable gloves and got to work unscrewing all the screws and discovered grossness.

Most of this was hard lime scale and some soft gunk. Fortunately it didn’t stink.

A vinegar soak, an old toothbrush, an old turkey baster, some elbow grease, and various other “tools” helped get the parts cleaner, not brand new clean but clean enough.

I found a screw and rivet from a saucepan, a small chard of glass, and some paper from a label. Nothing looked large enough to restrict the water flow to the drain.

After three hours with my head inside the dishwasher, I climbed out, cleaned up the wet mess and turned it on..

The whole ordeal cost me three hours of my life, a gallon of vinegar, and a broken thumbnail.

It still didn’t drain completely. I’m certainly no repair person but I’m pretty sure it’s gotta be the pump. Since this dishwasher is 22 years old, I’ll be looking at buying a new one.

Things I want to do this year

We’re already two weeks into the year and I’ve been thinking and writing down things I want to get done this year. If they are good, I can keep doing them in future years.

  1. Post at least once a week. And on a schedule. Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Pick a day and stick with it.
  2. Knit at least one row a day though I tell myself it’s five rows a day. That’s not really hard when it comes to socks which I seem to knit most of the time. I’m joining a KAL this month and surprise, I’ll be knitting a sock.
  3. Plan and finish one sewing project a month. The first project is a bag to hold my new yarn swift. Our church will have a baby shower in the spring with items donated to a local pregnancy center. I will sew burp cloths and perhaps knit a few hats.
  4. Practice makes perfect (or at least improvement). I painted wooden sorority and fraternity paddles for pledges in college which it was quite profitable. My Old English calligraphy was pretty good back then as that was the most popular font style. I even designed and printed invitations for a wedding and parties many years ago. Now that skill has all but disappeared. Lindsey at The Postman’s Knock is my go-to for inspiration to get back into calligraphy. I have the materials. I need to sit down and do it at least 30 minutes every day.
  5. Organize and declutter the basement is on my list Every. Single. Year. My grandson helped me paint one cinderblock wall one summer. I painted another wall myself. Two more walls to go so it’s brighter and cleaner looking. It’s cool in the summer but cold in the winter so this will be a warm weather project. Making zones might be best: craft zone, workshop zone, paint zone, storage zone, etc. Having rubber-type flooring would make standing on the cold, hard concrete floor much more comfortable, too. I could make space for a sewing room and get my sewing machine out of the tiny laundry room.
  6. Speaking of cleaning and decluttering…this blog needs some major work. Posts, tutorials, and how-tos need updated tags and categories that include specific words about the content. All posts related to the Dots and Stripes Purse should be tagged as such so all posts pertaining to that sock would appear in a search for that particular project. That will be time-consuming with over a thousand posts but tackling a couple a day should make that go faster.
  7. Include some self-care by relaxing and unwinding in healthy ways. I started getting a pedicure every month last fall and will continue this year.
  8. Stop playing mind-numbing games on my iPad for hours and use my time wisely. I’m pretty sure I have fewer days ahead than behind. I seriously doubt I’ll live to be 144 years old so I shouldn’t waste time with nonsense. Life is too short.
  9. Learn something new.
  10. Show gratitude.

Those are some goals, resolutions, things I want to do this year.

What are you doing this year?

Patti nona

Keeping track

Our mall is slowly dying so most of my shopping is done online and not just for Christmas and birthdays but for so many things we need or want. I don’t know about you but I have a hard time keeping track of things I order online. And with Christmas just around the corner, I’m going to need to make sure I order the gifts in time for delivery.

My daughter, who lives in Colorado, and I have a deal: I buy the gifts for my grandchildren and have them sent to her house. She in turn wraps them for me any puts them under their tree. The first year they lived there, I had the gifts sent to me. I wrapped them and shipped them to her family. I decided that wasn’t going to work out for us as it was way too expensive.

I decided to make an Online Shopping List for keeping track of my orders.

It has the important information at my fingertips. I made a printable if you are interested in one for yourself. depending on your shopping list, you might need to print off more than one sheet.

Have a great day!