Author Archives: slfinnell

About slfinnell

Child care provider for 22+ years in my home. I feel so blessed to have cared for so many children. Spend my spare time creating items for Etsy and searching for vintage items that need a new lease on life. Blogging?, well I just enjoy it.

Hearing Cars Rust/#Thursday Doors

Posted on by
2

First, the doors. This is a sliding door –  garage-style-  with an entrance door to the side.

Setting: Green Ridge, Missouri on one pretty hot, Saturday, June afternoon.

slidingdoorgreenridgegarage

Green Ridge: population 476 as of Census 2010.

Hearing the cars rust on Main Street is a real thing.

So are Pot Luck and Fundraising dinners, church on Sundays, checking on your neighbors, volunteering, and bad cell phone service (with my phone company choice).

GarageDay

Click here to visit Norm 2.0 and more doors from around the world.

Advertisements

Ernst & Sons Hardware/#Thursday Doors

Posted on by
10

Presenting Ernst & Sons Hardware, Lawrence, Kansas. From their  Facebook page I have learned sadly of their end. I never walked through the front doors, but was taken with the entrance at the back parking lot. Love the stonework, the window-paned doors and just the unique personality of this loading dock area.

 

Ernst_son4

Home owned hardware stores are becoming extinct and outdone with the huge chain-owned ones that have no idea of what they are snuffing out.

Ernst_son3Take time to visit your small home-town businesses this summer.

For other wonderful Thursday Doors please start out at Norm 2.0 and he’ll direct you to the proper isle.

A Pause/ #ThursdayDoors

Posted on by
2

I’m pretty sure that part of the reason I enjoy the Thursday Door challenge is to make a feeble attempt at capturing surroundings we normally ignore.

Inside door view
Elevator doors

At the last couple of doctor visits, I’ve been thinking about sharing this one…….with a little extra something.

Droffice

This is a nice view to see in person, but the camera just isn’t doing it justice.

looking west
doors down there
new motel nearly finished
cars with doors & more
closer view

These are better, but still not there.

Droffice3

I may not be the expert at panoramic photos, but I think this definitely gives you a better perspective of the edge of the prarie view I wanted you to see. And if you’re needing a way to lower the blood pressure (I hate going to the doctor btw), maybe a minute of taking in a scenic view will help.

Visit the world reknown Norm 2.0 for many more door destinations by clicking here.

Executive Decision

Posted on by
Reply

Back in the AtoZ Challenge 2017, I completed the 26 blocks you see below, and then some. The directions often allowed you to cut enough fabric to create 2 blocks. So I thought, why not?! I’ll have extra in case of mistakes. Well, I surprised even myself and had very little waste. So much so that there isn’t much of any of these fabrics left. There’s a familiar ring to this for me. I seem to have a knack for having just enough to do the blocks. Can you say ‘throw caution to the wind’? I must be good at that.

AtoZVoteImage

I also took a vote as you see in that above photo. I wanted to know which color everyone preferred as the sashing (the strips connected the blocks). I totally agreed that the blue was pretty and between the comments and FaceBook, it won the vote.

The unfortunate thing is, I am making an executive decision and using a coordinating gold fabric that there is an ample amount of and as you may notice, there are 30 blocks rather than 26. I am positive that I don’t have enough blue. There is a common theme between the 2017 and 2018 A to Z quilt construction. That common denominator is a lack of fabric as I mentioned above. I’m determined to stay out of the fabric store as long as possible in order to use up my gargantuan fabric supply. So my apologies to my votees

—-the color will be gold. 

North Lamine/#Thursday Doors

Posted on by
5

I’m offering up a continued edition of last week’s Thursday Doors post. This one is on the opposite side of the tracks in Sedalia, Missouri.

NorthLamine6

 Directly to the left of where I stood for that Big Sky View to be more precise. This building at 118 North Lamine I learned through a phone call, yes I still have a land line, has been a moving/storage business for around 80 years. Currently State Fair Moving and Storage operate from here. Prior to that, the informer says he believed it was a carriage building business. It is not on the list I found for the National Historical Register in Sedalia. But in my opinion, it should be. I’m still waiting for a phone call or email of the person who is supposed to know all the good stuff. Til then I hope you enjoy a little slideshow of this golden oldie.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Please take a moment to visit Norm 2.0 for other great entries in his weekly Thursday Doors challenge!

Crochet Notes

Posted on by
3

It’s been awhile since I posted a crochet post. However, I’ve not been neglecting my creative duties. I finished the 2018 A to Z Challenge with a quilt top,  began the Season of Yardwork and Gardening, did plenty of mending, got contacted to do some custom items, and finished the following little number for my Etsy shop. There’s never a dull moment at my house.

Just going to make one more of these in Pink and white before I dive into some other projects.

 What’s next? With the heat of summer, I will most likely stick with small projects that won’t raise my temperature in Missouri’s humid months. Here are some Pinterest ideas I find enticing.

I highly encourage these motif centered ideas for my crochet friends along with a tall glass of lemonade while sitting on  your porch. Don’t forget the fan!

 

 

 

Big Sky View/#Thursday Doors

Posted on by
6

This is my take on one city block of Sedalia, Missouri, Queen City of the Prarie.

Alongthetracks (2)

One of these days, I’m hoping for a pic without any vehicles along this street to visualize a hundred years ago.

Visit the world reknown Norm 2.0 for many more door destinations by clicking here.

 

The Dusty Bookshelf/#Thursday Doors

Posted on by
11

Inspired by  Stepheny Forgue Houghtlin during the April A to Z Challenge for this week’s Thursday Doors is The Dusty Bookshelf in Lawrence, Kansas. During the Challenge, her theme was Bookstores-Stepping Across the Threshhold. I had to let her know about this treasure after we visited it during April. Thanks to her, I discovered yet more quilting books and a couple music (banjo) books to feed my book fix for a bit. And, oh darn, I’ll be back in Lawrence this weekend for a graduation and just may be forced to fit in a few more minutes here perusing those shelves. Until then, sharing the front of the shop. I’ve yet to get enough nerve to snap pics inside. Maybe next time and then I’ll even snap a few pics of my finds.

Photographed along the world reknown ‘Mass Street’ in Lawrence, Kansas.

Visit the world reknown Norm 2.0 for many more door destinations by clicking here.

A to Z Challenge Reflection 2018

Posted on by
Reply

2018 A to Z Challenge Reflections

I don’t always enter a Reflections post. But I did this year and want to show it ‘on the list’, so here goes…

another challenge down in the books. It was not a sure thing even as recent as January 1st. I bought 3 separate quilting books with A to Z blocks over the last year. Two were in January. And still I was not sure until the day I signed up which was the first day of sign ups. Talk about indecisive! I brought new meaning to procrastinating this year.

Another year to shuffle job, family, blogging and taxes. I complained a time or two about how many hours a day that I work. Some don’t really consider what I do as work. I won’t go on about that but I would say being self-employed anyplace and maintaining that career for 25+ years is validation enough to call my job work. Dealing with family is mandatory. Not much ‘splainin’ to do there. Blogging with my subject matter we’ll deal with in the next paragraph. And then the Taxes. Self-employed = itemization. That means keeping each and every receipt through the year and (hopefully) not waiting til the last month to go through them to tally up expenses. Unless you’re in this household. Ug! Will I ever learn?? Hopefully this year has taught me to be on top of the receipts if nothing else. Prayers sent were greatly appreciated.

Another year to expand my quilting experience. The picking out the fabric seems simple enough. The biggest demand of time is the cutting. The sewing didn’t even take as long normally. I say normally because a few times there were blocks that were a true challenge for me. And I loved my fabric choices this year. When each block was completed, I really liked each one of them.

But the down-side to my own 2018 A to Z Challenge was the fact that I did not truly like my block arrangement or the blocks when they were combined period. Each one stood alone wonderfully. But the quilt top left much to be desired by yours truly. I blame myself for not buying a little more fabric to fix that “one” in the middle–the Indian Square block. I will go ahead and leave it as is and hand quilt it. It’ll be a conversation piece for sure. But if there’s a quilt theme for me next year, it will be done way in advance, with ample fabric, and a different color scheme.

To reward myself, I purchased a t-shirt this year for my 5th year completion. Thank you for making these an option each year. It came in the mail Monday. Atoztshirt

Thank you to everyone who dropped in, liked, commented or supported me in any way during this challenge. This includes family and friends. I’m truly blessed to have such a phenominal circle of well-wishers.

And finally, thank you to all our hosts and co-hosts this year who went above and beyond to make this the best and most cohesive challenge yet. I truly appreciate all your time and energy invested in making our challenge a possibility this year and in years past. I’m convinced it’s a labor of love. A love for encouraging writers from all walks of life. I’ll be nominating you for sainthood just for the record.

Click here to see the latest information from the 2018 A to Z Blogging Challenge. There is a link to the Master List for this year, a survey, reflections link and coming up is an A to Z Road Trip. I hope you can check it all out.

And Z is the End/#AtoZ

Posted on by
9

The April A to Z Blog Challenge is an annual blogging event in which participants blog every day (except Sundays) one post for each letter of the alphabet for the entire month. My theme for the year will be “Quilts and Ozark Slang.” So gitchur cuppa coffee or sodapop, grab a pilluh, and sit a spell.

My original plan was to exhibit last years quilt top for you. At the time of this writing this won’t happen.But I do have a finished quilt top from this year’s A to Z. After all, last year is old news and why not give you a look at this years?! The arrangements were layed out in various fashion for my family to put in their 2 cents worth of advice. I was forced to keep the Indian Square block in a central location. This is because of it being the rogue block that was 15 1/2 inches compared to all the other 12 inch blocks.

Can I say how this kept me up all night? Can I also say how much I disliked the person who was responsible for writing the incorrect templates down in the book? I was ready to pull my hair out.

Image result for pulling my hair out gif

These were the possiblities below.

The blocks are not in A to Z order. Instead, I chose to arrange them in a visually pleasing arrangement. Had I been able to keep all of them in a 2-color scheme, that order might have been possible. But as we say ’round here, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.

So the last factor in the end result this year is a lack of fabric. You would think that with 4 fabrics in this quilt project, there would be enough to do what was needed. But no. There is no extra fabric left on this project. Not enough to put sashings around every block. Not enough to correct the Indian Square block either. That being said, I hope you like what I came up with.

I present the 2018 A to Z Quilt “The Thunderbird”:

2018atozfinish

2018 A to Z Quilt top

Ozark slang for the last day of the 2018 A to Z is /Zero for No Count Good For Nothin’.

This means you are counted in the lowest of the lows. And the person telling you this, should they be brave/angry enough to say it to your face, should be backed away from pdq(pretty damn quickly). You may be in danger of a punch in the nose. (And no, I would not punch the author of the book in the nose just for the record.)

Thank you all so much for stopping in each day, or even once or twice during this challenge. I appreciate all the likes and comments and encouragement so much. To my fellow bloggers, I will be spending some time catching up on all your wonderful posts the next week or two.  Happy Trails to you all!!

There are many more wonderful blogs this year that I hope you can spend a couple minutes reading. All you have to do is click here and select something that interests you. To read about the A to Z Challenge and what we are all about, click here.