Closing In The New Deck

For sometime now, the deck on the back of the house has been in serious need of repair/replacement. It was already needing work back in 1999 when I first moved in. The boards were splitting, splintering, and bowing up. Nails were popping out of the wood every where. I have been so afraid someone was going to trip and hurt themselves on it. It was also a real eye soar.

Is that ugly or what?

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Ta-Da! My Crochet Dishcloth

Now, that is a dishcloth!

Plain and Simple Crochet Dishcloth

I just had to take a quick minute to show off my dishcloth. This is the third one I tried from the quick beginner dishcloth pattern. I crocheted this one Sunday evening after church while watching a little TV. I am only using the chain (ch), single crochet (sc) and turn, but it is finally all coming together.

Much thanks to all those with helpful advise and encouragment! Now, I’m thinking scarf…..

My Quick Beginner Crochet Dishcloth

My Maggie Weldon’s Quick Beginner Crochet Dishcloth has not been so “quick” for this “beginner”. The pattern says it should look like the photo above. The first attempt I took it apart and started over so many times that my yarn had frayed terribly bad. I ended up starting with fresh yarn so that I could again easily see what stitch was what and not hang my crochet hook countless times. Still,  I was struggling.

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Closed on the Land

Jon and I are so excited! Yesterday we both took the day off to close on a 37 acre land purchase. We have been working on this for several months now and it has finally come to fruition. It has been so hard not to talk or blog about it (except with family). However, we did not want to say much until we knew it was going to happen.

Creek Winds the Back Border

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Peroxide Mouthwash for Whitening Teeth

I used to be a smoker and drink wine, coffee, tea, and grape juice. Although I quit smoking a few years back and rarely drink a glass of wine, I still frequently enjoy coffee, tea, and grape juice.  These are all some of the worst things for staining or yellowing teeth. There are many products on the market that offer teeth whitening (Crest White Strips, Rembrandt, etc.).  I have never paid for professional whitening, but over the course of my adult life I have spent countless dollars on the over the counter products to keep my teeth white and counteract the staining effect of some of my favorite things. Although over the counter, they can still get quite expensive. On top of the price, none of them are really enjoyable to apply or use. Some are abrasive gritty toothpastes, bleaching gels and plastic trays, plastic whitening strips, and brushing a liquid bleach onto the teeth.

About 4 or 5 years ago, a friend emailed me an article about various home remedies one of which was using hydrogen peroxide as a mouthwash. If I still had it I would share it, but that has been many moons ago. After that email I looked at some of the products I had been using and found that hydrogen peroxide was a key ingredient in them. The mouth rinse which is the last step in the multi-step system that Rembrandt has was pure hydrogen peroxide. So, I read the Hydrogen peroxide bottle I had at home (for wound antiseptic cleansing) and found it also said right on the bottle it could be used as an “oral rinse”. The bottle I currently have in the medicine cabinet says “oral debriding agent”.
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Is It Spring Already?

In our part of northern North Carolina we do not have a harsh winter like up north. We do typically have four full seasons that I consider to be fairly mild and none of them too extreme.

Our winters are generally cold, gray, and brown with the occasional snow or ice. My definition of cold probably varies greatly from many of you. Our average highs are around 40 and average lows around 28. That being the average, we will have some warmer and some colder. We typically have a few teens and single digit days, but they are few. Those colder days sometimes we still do not get the snow. It just depends on when the precipitation and temperatures line up.

We do tend to get more ice than snow, because we teeter on the edge of freezing many times. I would much rather have the snow than the ice or freezing rain.  I do enjoy a good large snow, but must confess after one good one I grow tired of it. I get tired of the shoveling, salting, scraping, and mess tracked in.  Last year we had an extremely warm winter and saw no snow at all. And this year, it is halfway through January and all we’ve seen is a little snow flurry in late December. It has barely felt like winter. No, I’m not going to support the global warming topic. I personally think weather is cyclical and it cycles back around. Just two years ago we had so much snow at Christmas that I wondered if everyone would be able to drive back and forth for family celebrations. It was gorgeous.
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My First Crochet Stitch

I have been telling myself that I was going to start crocheting for some time now.  Like many other things, it just kept getting put off. A few months back I was on listia and saw a “Beginner Knit & Crochet First Projects” booklet including a crochet needle for only a few listia points. So, I bid and won the auction.

When it arrived it came with a 4/E needle, a tiny bit of pink yarn, and the booklet. I quickly flipped through the booklet and found it had a couple of project patterns and even a few pictures of how to stitching. But the problem was there was no helpful hints on starting! I knew nothing so I needed the very first step demonstrated. So, I was a bit disappointed and put it away for awhile.

Then I just recently started on pinterest and found the best pin ever!

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