Ribbet Photo Editing Tutorial

 Way back in 2012 I used Ribbet.com, a photo editing program, to design a new blog header.

Then the past several years I didn’t blog at all.

Now that I’m back to blogging I think I would like to update my header.

I found out that Ribbet has an app now.  

So I downloaded it and discovered it is different from what I remember.

Luckily Ribbet invited me to a webinar today to talk about their new browser version.

I think I will have to play with either the website version and/or the browser version to come up with a new header for my blog.

I’m still working on my office.  I wish I wasn’t so slow.

It’s an unbelievable 69 degrees out and windy today.

My gifted Christmas Poinsettia is finally looking a little under the weather.  

But I’m surprised how long it lasted.  

Have you ever had one of those days where you have so many things to work on and you don’t feel like doing any of them?

That’s me today.

I have six accounts to reconcile for the last month.

Bah...

Ain’t going to be done today.

I started a new Alan Hunter Gently book and it is calling me.

How is your day going?

Hope it is happy!

Happy Easter

Hello!

This is my first posting from our new home in Ohio. 

We finally got connected to Internet and WiFi yesterday.

It's gray, dark and overcast here in Ohio this Easter morning.  

I slept better last night and woke up this morning sort of concerned I only had one Easter decoration out in our new home. 

Hearth Room Fireplace

Now I should be easier on myself since we just moved in about two weeks ago and many of our boxes are not unpacked yet. 

Great Room Fireplace Mantel

Then as I was lying there in bed this morning I remembered we put the Christmas bins and other holiday bins in our lower level storage closet.  

Easy to get to. 

New Kitchen!

I jumped out of bed and went downstairs, opened the Easter bin and carried up in my arms as much of my Easter decorations as I could. 

Bunnies placed in the front windows.

I had fun going around our new home and setting up the decorations.  

It seems silly putting up the decorations on Easter when it will be over so soon now.  

But I may just leave them up this week to enjoy.

Well, at least the bunnies can stay out for Spring.  

Our flat screen TVs were hung the other day.

There is a long punch list of items still to be finish in our new home.

Gutters were installed two days ago.

The screened in porch and deck aren't finished yet either.

And we have to wait until the weather warms up to have the driveway and sidewalk poured.

Now our yard is all mud…thick horrible clay.

A different view for us out of our screened in porch slider.

We are having Easter dinner at my brother-in-law's house.  

And instead of having to drive 450 miles like we had to in the past now we have less than 10 miles to drive to his house. 

We love having our family close to us.  

That is our Easter blessing!

I hope you have a Blessed and Happy Easter! 

Meanwhile 420 Miles Away...

I haven't posted about our new home being built in Ohio for awhile.

So here goes...

Model on left.  Our new home on right.

We made another trip to Ohio over Christmas.

We loved The Model and we are duplicating it pretty much except for a few modifications.

We first saw The Model when we were back in Ohio for Christmas over a year ago.

Having a home built takes time.

Our new home is down the street from The Model.  

Lot has been cleared.

First we had to chose an available lot in the subdivision.

There were several corner lots available and they would probably have worked the best for driving our travel van into the garage but we liked the two lots remaining that had trees behind it (a protective strip of trees that can't be cut down or built on).

All of our previous (and current) homes had lots of at least 3/4 of an acre.

This lot is just under an half of an acre.

It's 106 ft wide and our ranch will just fit on it.

If we had chosen a two-story we would have had more room between the houses.

Ranches take up a bigger footprint.

But we wanted a ranch since we are getting older.

If you don't know northeastern Ohio the dirt there is 100% clay and lots of shale. 

We are only two or three miles from Lake Erie. 

We will have a full basement with lots of unfinished storage, a huge hobby room for Hubby and ME, a family room/library, a bedroom with a connecting bathroom with shower and an unfinished kitchenette.

Basement walls going up.

 Framing going up.

Roof faming going up here.

We added two separated windows on each side of the garage.

And enlarged the garage and bumped out one bay so we could park our travel van in the garage.

No more having to put the RV in off-site storage.

We already drove our RV back to Ohio in November and put it into off-site storage until the house is ready.

One huge thing off our to-to-list.   

Me at our EIGHT FOOT front door!

The ceilings are 9 feet on the first floor except where it is higher in the Great Room, Kitchen, Morning and Hearth Rooms.

The roof shingles are going on here.

                           The garage doors are ten feet high to accommodate our travel van.

                      We should have ordered an eight foot garage man door but didn't think of it.

Model on left.  Our home on right.

We changed the window placement - I thought it would fill in the huge area of the front of the garage if we had two windows separated rather than the one triple window.

And we wanted it to look different from the model.

Top is model.  Bottom is our home.

When we came back at Christmas we discovered the builder had moved the two windows on the garage front because they weren't positioned correctly under the garage peak.  

Much better now.

Top is back of model.  Bottom is our home's back where we added a screened in porch and deck.

We haven't been able to get photos of the back of our house since summer.  

It's been too muddy back there.

This picture was taken this summer.  

The Great Room window on the porch has since been replaced with the correct triple transom window. 

   

Screened in porch.

This is an earlier view of the screened in porch this summer.

I couldn't get a recent photo because the painters were painting inside this past Christmas and had plastic over all the windows and cabinets. 

The porch is further along now. 

And the deck is almost done too.

As I mentioned, the cabinets are in and interior painting should be done now.

We've selected the flooring, countertops, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures and are getting quotes for the closets, mirrors and initial window treatments.  

No word yet when the closing will take place or when we will be able to move in. 

In the meantime we have been busy getting our current home ready for sale.

So stay tuned for more!

My Santa Claus Mugs

Only five days remaining until Christmas!

My favorite time of the year.

I found these adorable vintage-looking Santa Claus Mugs at Pottery Barn.

They look cute next to my "true" vintage Santa Claus candles!

There were three designs; a Santa with open eyes, a winking Santa and a Santa with closed eyes.

My Santas are sitting on a beautiful red and white small gingham tablecloth I bought while we were in Italy.

My brother-in-law and his wife bought me the lovely lighted black deer lantern for my birthday.

The Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus Salt and Pepper set are from Avon - I think I bought this set back in the 1980s. 

And, of course, the "Ho, Ho, Ho" wall hanging is one I machine embroidered this year.   

I bought four Santas... one of each design plus a second winking Santa.

Once I had my set of four home I decided I wanted a set of six; two of each design.

But when I returned to buy two more they were all sold out.  

I'm still happy I have four!

How about you?

Do you have any Santa Claus Mugs?

Xxx

Mr. Claus Potholder

I'm crazy about Santas!  

You know that if you are a regular reader of my blog. 

This is the first of my three Mr. Claus Potholders.  

I always consider the first try of a pattern practice. 

The pattern for the body had you chain three at the start of each round.  

Which I did but... I don't care for it because the start of each round is more noticeable. 

For the last two I crocheted the body in rounds with no chains at the beginning.  

It looks much better.  

The tricky part is getting the thumbs and legs pointing in the correct direction.  

For example, it's confusing...when the pattern says "left" arm - which arm do they mean?  

Is it when looking at the photo it's the arm on my left?  

Or is "left" the left arm of the body when facing out?

The pattern has Santa with wide legs so I modified the next two and bought the legs closer together.

I'll show the others closer up in the next posting.

  

Through trial and error I finally got the thumbs and feet pointing correctly.

But only after frogging many tries on all three Santas!

  

I'm not using any of the Santa's as potholders so I didn't crochet any backs.  

I'm hanging them on my brick fireplace.

They make me laugh every time I look at the fireplace. 

Click (here) for Mr. Claus Potholder details and pattern link.

Click (here) for Mr. Claus Potholder II.

Click (here) for Mr. Claus Potholder III. 

My Christmas Granny Square Stockings

This is another free crochet pattern (here) by Maggie Weldon.

I liked it so much I crocheted a second one for our front door.  

Simple granny squares.

The pattern called for three rounds to make a 4 inch square.

I crocheted the first round with a large J hook.

Then I forgot I used the large hook and crocheted the next two rounds with an H hook.

So my square measured 3.5 inches instead of 4 inches.

What's a gal to do!

I added a fourth round to make my squares 5 inches because I wanted a large stocking.

I loved the two shades of red…the last round is Bernat Handicrafter Holidays "Red Sparkle"yarn.

All 16 squares joined together and ready to sew into the stocking.

I reversed the colors for the second stocking.

It's hard to see but the third round is white yarn and the fourth round is Bernat Handicrafter Holiday "White Sparkle" yarn.

Quick and easy...only takes 16 granny squares.  

I added some fancy yarn on the top.

  

I love how my Granny Square Christmas Stockings "POP" on our black Front Door!

I added some white pine needles from our back yard as embellishment.

Click (here) for more details on my Ravelry project page.

Ha!

More crochet coming!

Chilly Willy

Today's the first day of December!  

I have to get busy with our Christmas cards and draft up our annual Christmas Letter.  

Luckily our Christmas shopping is done just have to wrap the gifts this week. 

"Chilly Willy", the November "Party with Patrick" project, is finished.  

Chilly is an adorable snowman wall hanging. 

I had this textured "3D"ish creamy white colored plush fabric on hand called "Minky".  

It looks like snow. 

It's perfect for the snowman. 

I haven't been feeling 100% the last few days so the house is a little messier than I like.  

My biggest headache is paper.  

What to do with it.  

And where to file it.  

My dream is in our new home - because we will have a separate office there - is that all incoming mail will go into the office for processing and NOT into my kitchen as it currently does!  

Anyway that's my dream. 

Kitchen is for food and office is for paper!

My messy little office spot in the dinette.

And I plan to keep my yarn stash in the new home's lower level hobby room so that will eliminate storing yarn in a bedroom.  

Sewing and yarn stash will be in my area of the new hobby room!

Our goal is to have a more clutter free home in Ohio.  

Of course our current home is in a state of disorder with sorting and packing going on in different rooms in various stages.

I have resigned myself to accepting the state of affairs when one is getting ready to move.

We are still a few months away from moving but I will be glad when all of this is behind us.

Now to get busy on that Christmas Letter!

Have a lovely week!