Trees have leaves – and that grass? It needs a hay baler!
This is what greeted us yesterday morning as we trundled the short 7 miles on over from the cabin, a big box of something exciting in the back of my van.
Once upon a time – I would have balked at an APPLIANCE being a great gift for Mother’s Day, birthday, Valentine's Day, anniversary or Christmas.
And I think the general rule is that it is never a great idea to gift a woman anything that represents “WORK” or “GET IN YOUR PLACE!” including vacuums, pressure cookers, a toaster, etc.
The only EXCEPTION being – if she WANTS it and asks for it! (Remember this guys, always remember this!)
There was one year while living in South Carolina, so I’m guessing about 15 years ago now- that my birthday went by unnoticed and forgotten causing a certain someone to make an emergency stop by CVS on his way home from the office. Evidently the light bulb finally went off as to what day it was.
I received the gift of a Pasta Pot (As seen on TV!) complete with the CVS bag and the receipt. LOL. I vowed never to cook with that Pasta Pot, and I never did. I think it hit the Goodwill when we moved to North Carolina. Oh, how we learn as we go!
And we still laugh about it from time to time "Remember the Pasta Pot!" being our battle cry.
Oh, and by the way - The Hubster's birthday is a couple of months past mine. That year? he got a case of light bulbs. LOL.
This year – it was an EXCEPTION YEAR!
Out of the box and ready to install!
I posted on Social Media a couple of weeks back about my frustration with the “hidden” dish washer at Quiltville Inn, bemoaning the fact that even with the manual I couldn’t get it to run. It was behind a cabinet panel. It had hidden controls on the top of the door. The door had to be closed within 3 seconds of setting or it wouldn’t run. It was going to be a nightmare for visiting guests.
Friday evening we stopped at Lowes for some yard care stuff – and just happened to walk through the appliance department and there was a HUGE Mother’s Day Sale going on.
Evidently Lowes doesn’t know that appliances are NOT the best idea for a gift – unless you are on an EXCEPTION year. LOL!
The old stupid one is out -
New, quiet Kitchen Aid is IN!
Do I really care that it doesn’t have a cabinet panel? No. Turn to the right and there is a stainless gas range/oven and a microwave and a fridge – So what is one more stainless thing in the kitchen?
The controls are on the front – plainly visible, easy to read, easy to run – you can’t miss that button that simply says START! The old one? NOTHING said start. It was from IKEA, what more can I say?
I did a happy little dance when I loaded the fun dishes I found in Marion, Virginia a couple of weeks ago – put in the soap, shut the door, pushed normal wash, heated dry - hit start and voila!
Yes, this EXCEPTION year made this girl very happy. And now that I am much older and much wiser (ha!) I realize that the gift was not just the dishwasher, but the gift of INSTALLING it.
And I know we will all be so grateful for this simple switch out for years to come.
View from the front porch!
Oh, these colors!
Driving down a long and winding road -
If you’ve never been in this part of the country, you just can’t fathom how impossibly green everything is. This is the color I miss most through the winter. The color I long for and look for as February Dreary turns to March Mud and April Promise – and finally it is MAY. It’s HERE. And I feel like I can breathe.
We headed over to Bristol VA for a wander – Mother’s Day late lunch. It’s about a 90 minute drive and home to our nearest Sam’s Club. For the guys, there is Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop, and Harbor Freight which I also wanted to hit to check out some work benches that I want to turn into cutting stations and pressing stations for the Quilting Quarters at the Inn. 25% off coupon in hand – and they were all sold out. Rats. I’ll be quicker on the draw next time.
I rounded out my Mother’s Day 2019 with a long sit in my comfy chair hand quilting and watching some Netflix. Perfect.
But TODAY – Oh, do I have high hopes and big plans for today -
TODAY is the day two sets of contractors should arrive – One set to start on the kitchen/bath counter top and sink removal/installation at the cabin, and another to start the dry wall ceiling install at the Quiltville Post Office. I am so ready to make progress in both of these areas.
And I’ll be tackling some work stuff here on my computer this morning, and hope to be sewing by afternoon.
This is the season where things start to ramp up for me. Deadlines are looming. Block sets for my Addicted to Scraps column with Quiltmaker are due soon, and then – there is a mystery quilt to start!
*REMINDER!!!* Our Mother's Day Weekend Digital Pattern Sale ENDS TONIGHT! All Digital Patterns in the Quiltville Store are 25% off using coupon code DIGITAL25 at purchase. Remember to use the code to obtain the discount. ENJOY!
*REMINDER!!!* Our Mother's Day Weekend Digital Pattern Sale ENDS TONIGHT! All Digital Patterns in the Quiltville Store are 25% off using coupon code DIGITAL25 at purchase. Remember to use the code to obtain the discount. ENJOY!
Quiltville Quote of the Day!
I feel a creative burst heading my way-
Watch out, world - move aside!
Happy Monday, friends.
38 comments:
I am laughing my butt off about the pasta pot. The first Christmas my parents were married, my father bought her a set of frying pans. He chose to wrap them separately...unfortunately the first 3 things she opened were frying pans. She let him know that those were for the HOUSE, not her. We remembered frying pans. 37 years later, my mother was on hospice. She called me over and told me there was an envelope with some cash in her dresser drawer. She enlisted my help to prank my dad. I was to buy 3 frying pans - one each for the first 3 Christmases she was gone, and she signed the cards to stick in my drawer. The look on his face? Priceless.
We just returned from a lovely trip through your area of the country as we fetched our son back from college (in TN). It was a STUNNING day of driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway and marveling at the green as we passed through the varying elevations and looked at the gorgeous views. Returning to NH where we've just barely begun to see spring was a tad disappointing - we won't see rhodo blooms until July!
Love following your progress! Thanks so much for sharing!
In MY world the exception year is any year that I can get more than normal. I don't wear jewelry and am picky about so much. But there is an iron I really want but it is more expensive than I am comfortable with - gift! The refrigerator with all the bells and whistles - gift! Lots of those things. I am a bit cheap and getting the extravagance as gifts make them more special. I forgot the sander the year I was refinishing furniture. We talk about things that will make me happy so I get very few Pasta Pots.
I've 'asked' for a dishwasher for a birthday present twice now. A couple of years ago, we bought hubby a triple set of brad nailers with the compressor for Mother's Day. Hubby uses that to make me wooden bases for some of my orphan head sewing machines. He also used it to build me a bookcase for my recipe books. Hubby forget to buy me a present for Christmas one year, and it cost him all year long, as I kept buying little things and calling them my Christmas present (yes, even new shorts in the summer).
Thanks for the memories. One year I thought I was getting an outfit I had seen in a store window, only to get a bread machine. There is so much more to the story to make it hilarious. From that day on the rule has been to not purchase anything that plugs in unless it's specifically requested. I live in Illinois and my son lives in the Charlotte area. We had the atlas out yesterday planning my trip the Quiltville Inn!!! Happy Mother's Day to ME!
I was a widow with four children - 3 teens and a preschooler when my now-husband and I started dating. On our fridge, I had posted two lists for my kids of ideas for my birthday (Sept) and Christmas. On the Christmas list, I had put 4 slice toaster... future hubby saw the lists but apparently didn't understand what they were for.. He bought me the 4 slice toaster for my 40th birthday!!... It's a good thing I have a sense of humor - a slice for each decade. I kept it but let him know that it wasn't a good idea for this birthday in particular - and married him anyway. It's still 'hit and miss' with him... I've received an electric teapot ( I've never even taken it out of the box and it's been at least five years), a watch ( after I told him that the one I have is just fine - I just prefer not to wear one) and some UGLY green ( think army)crocs - I wear crocs all the time, just not army green winter ones - a beautiful diamond heart necklace and a longer chain for it so I wouldn't feel like I was choking and several teddy bears ( I collect them). You win some - you lose some... lol
Oh my goodness. This is so poignantly funny. Thank you for sharing. Hugs!
Hahahahaha! This is just great!
LOL! He still sounds like a keeper to me! :)
Love keeping up with you. I live in Boquete, Panama during the winter months. I brought the Chinese mystery quilt with me. What fun. I am finishing the last row and have the borders left. I think there is only one quilt shop in this whole country and thankfully it is about an hour and 30 minutes away on the other side of the volcano. An American expat started a quilt school to teach the Panamanians how to sew and quilt. They loved it and it has really grown from there. They are really talented. I love to go over and sew for the day for company. We don’t speak the Sam language but we communicate through our love of quilting.
My hubby seldom buys me gifts on the "special" days. However he buys me gifts for no reason at all. (Hopefully it is because he loves me) sigh ! One night he handed me a small box and said, "I found something for you today." When I opened it I saw a beautiful dinner ring sparkling. He said, "The man at the jewelry store said this is a dinner ring but he didn't say if you wore it when you go out for dinner or when you are cooking dinner." Guess when I wear it.............. very seldom! ! ! ! Love your blog and all the nice things you do for all of us. Thanks Bonnie.
One year my husband forgot my birthday. I was home dresesd and ready to go out to dinner. He didn't get home til midnight. (Next week I got a new sewing machine.) The following year he was out of town on business and with a solid sheet of ice on the streets I received two dozens red roses. The delivery man must have received a big tip. All was forgiven.
My husband doesn't follow the "first anniversary - paper, second anniversary - cotton" guidelines. He gave me a wheelbarrow on our 11th anniversary so I could garden easier. Never again did he give yard tools as a gift!
When I was little, in the early 80's, my parents bought a small acreage w no improvements. Long story why we had to delay building a house, but we started w a 24x32' garage and rough-finished it inside to live in for a few months. We ended up living there (family of 5) for over three years, while also trying to tame a piece of land. Money was tight, and my mom focused on practicalities. She asked for trash barrels for her birthday one year. My dad owned a small machine shop, and his bookkeeper was aghast. "You can't buy your wife trash cans for her birthday!!" But.... she wants trash cans for her birthday. And he bought them. And she was pleased. ;) Another year, she asked for insulated coveralls bc it was so cold while doing chores. The bookkeeper though my dad was daft, but the gifts made mom's daily life easier.
I recall one year when my son was little, someone asked what I got for Mothers Day. My reply was, "The only new thing that appeared at our house over the weekend was tomato plants, so I guess I got tomato plants for Mothers Day"!
That fuschia and Kelly green at the Inn would be pretty colors for a mystery quilt.
I am grateful for my hubs who never says no to me buying fabric although he does wonder why I buy large pieces to cut into small pieces to sew back together into large pieces.
Amusing to Read the comments. For Mother's Day I'd rather have had the Presence than the Presents. A Card and some Chocolate is what I got from my hubby who used to remind me I'm not his mom. The best year I got 6 Rose bushes planted in my front yard. I'd been away at a PTA Conference. We Used to get flowers at Church, one year it was a small pot of Chives, lol. My Bishop knows better now, we got Utah Truffle Bars. Yummy, melt in my mouth goodness. I'm not complaining.
LOLOL!!
Quiltville Inn with the Rhodies blooming out front is so pretty! I could just live there! Of course, I'd need a couple maids and a yard guy to keep things looking good. LOL I think a lot of men just aren't good at presents. You have the Pasta Pot story, I have the deep fat fryer story. Never did use it and I'm not sure if it went on a garage sale or to the Good Will. Never have gotten flowers. Most presents run to something like cheap plastic bowls for him to put his cleaned fish in. I guess what takes the cake is the last anniversary it was a pound of fudge. I'm diabetic.
My mother loved popcorn. One year a local grocery had 25 lb cans of unpopped popcorn in a big cannister so I bought one and wrapped it for Mother's Day. She helped unload my car, saw the present and had to open it right away. She laughed and laughed and loved it. And she got a big kick of telling everyone at work on Monday what she got for Mother's Day!
My mom and dad ate all that popcorn and asked for another one!
No gift story here, just total agreement with you about longing for the color of green to appear as the signal that spring is finally here. Rhododendrons of the pink/red variety are my favorite too!
You read my mind!
One year a friend got a toilet bowl brush for her birthday. I'm pretty sure her husband never made that mistake again.
One year I got a vacuum as I had two miscarriages and the doctor said I should not vacuum as we had an old heavy vacuum! Momma was not happy!
In our early years I got those soft fishing worms for catching bass. When questioned, he said he didn't have money for both and we could eat the fish.
I can't wait to read your next blog and then it comes and I have to wait another day for your blog again. I am so glad I stumbled upon you while learning how to use YouTube. Your time and wit is so appreciated!
So funny - and the comments. For my birthday my husband (no imagination at all) just used to go down the road to a garden centre. One year was a rake - we already have one - but for my 40th I received a CD - fair enough it was by someone I liked - but he said he'd already listened to it and the first 2 tracks were the best and the others were rubbish! Well thank you - a now used CD and I'll be the judge of what songs are good or not. At the same time he bought on behalf of our little ones. A really drab dried flower arrangement - it was brown, all brown! Now if I could have cut that into smaller pieces it might not have been so ugly. Plus a watering can to add to the other 3 watering cans that I had over previous years - the only one I really liked was one that I bought! But after I returned the favour for him (and he wasn't happy but hey ho hint hint) it was decided that we'd buy our own presents in future. He did make a better effort for my 50th and I had a chicken house and 3 chickens. Always wanted chickens so that was super. Plus I think I've done better over the years with fabrics, sewing machines and gadgets for sewing (including rulers)! Happy sewing everyone! :D
How you made my heart sing thin morning. The first thing I read was "Rhodies are blooming..." well we have a different understanding for Rhodies. I am, and always will be a Rhodesian by birth and choice. Rhodesia is now named Zimbabwe, but in our hearts home is Rhodesia, and for the many of us who left in the late 70's and early 80's our hearts still long for the good ol days! We are Rhodies! Thank you for tying my heart in a knot this morning. I love reading your posts and seeing your beautiful country. Maybe one day a visit to you QuiltInn will be a reality as I have gone through every moment with you on your lovely renovation. Thank you for my morning treat every morning, I so look forward to opening and seeing what is on your menu for the day! Gods blessings from the South Coast of South Africa
This is just so funny!
My Ex never remembered my Birthday or our anniversary! His sisters shopped for me for Christmas, after the first year, when he got me an electric blanket (which I was thankful for). But what his sisters picked out for me, rarely was anything I would want for myself. One year they did get me a Birthday present of a beautiful cross, from them, not him!
Dishwashers, in my new house, I have one that has the controls on the top of the door, yep, you have three seconds to close the door, after you push the button. I had to get the manual out to learn how to use it, too!
Funny things to make us chuckle. I am glad You got your new dishwasher for the Inn!
Donna
Kasilof, AK
Thank you so much for sharing this awesome info! Los Angeles Mall
If you're supposed to have a giggle everyday, I have about a months worth from todays posts. Thank you all.
Oh, today's post and comments are why I like to read ALL the comments, so I get ALL the stories! Thank you everyone! Guess who did not receive one thing from hubby for last Christmas?? Yep, not even chocolate! Nothing for Mother's Day either - but we did go out to a steak dinner! For our 43rd wedding anniversary, also on Mother's Day this year, we went on Saturday to the Philadelphia Temple, to celebrate being married in the Salt Lake Temple 43 years ago. My children gave me a block of knives for Mother's Day. I remembered a murder movie from years ago and reacted badly to even having them in the house. But they are out in his car now, so I am safe from murderers.
LOL! That's why we have an agreement in our household, between hubby and I. We DON'T buy presents for each other at all. If we want something, we get it ourselves, with the other's blessings. No hurt feelings, and the 'gift' is perfect!
This is what got me rolling on the floor, laughing... "The old stupid one is out". I THOUGHT they were supposed to be 'Smart' appliances!!! They are anything BUT. It takes a genius to know how to operate them, and geniuses are actually few and far between. Average Joes are much more common, and we're the ones that buy these STUPID machines because we're told that they'll make our lives much easier. NOPE! I don't want a machine smarter than I am, in my house. And I have an IQ of 161! So, long story short, good job on picking the true SMART machine, Bonnie! (BTW, in my household, we buy our own gifts, with the blessings of the other, so that sounds like your 'motto', too!)
We don't buy gifts for each other either. Unless we have been sent to get it with permission. If I get a gift it's to be for me not for the family to benefit. I am a bit selfish. I love the look of quiltville inn and the bloom. Oh so pretty. I can only wish one day I am lucky enough to visit. It could be on my bucket list....
Left to his own imagination, my husband is the WORST gift giver. You can usually figure out why he bought what he bought but you might have to think a while. However, I won the jackpot in kindness so all is okay in our world 31 years after we first said, "I do."
On my sixtieth bitthday my husband got me a couple bags of dirt! A few days before I told him I needed to get some for my garden,but not as a gift! Now no matter what he gets me my grandkids always say"anything is better than Dirt"Love your blog Bonnie,I look forward to it everyday!!
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