It's a Mystery

 

This picture was taken when we were looking at this house in July of 2016. When the previous owner moved out in August 2016, she left this chandelier on the back porch. I never checked the lights to see if they were turned on or off, or even if they had batteries but we never saw the lights on. I left it there because I thought it was cool and would figure out something to do with it sooner or later.

Fast forward to 2020. Sometime either late fall (2019) or early spring, we took the chandelier down to put up windchimes. We just put it over on the concrete bench because, well, it's kinda cool and eventually I will do something with it, right?

In March, hubby went to let the dog out and saw this.

The lights were on! I promise we have not touched the lights. They stayed on for 4 days. They got a little dimmer each day until they went out completely.

In April (Easter Day) they repeated.

On Mother's Day, in the middle of a storm, they came back on again.

Last week when I walked by the window early in the morning, the lights were on again. The only thing we have done since May is to move it from the concrete bench to the deck box. Still have not touched the lights.

I took these pictures last Friday morning.

Most days they are pretty bright before daylight then get dimmer during the daytime though a couple of times they have stayed bright all day.

This entire time, the switch has been in the off position.

Right now they are pretty dim but we will see if they get bright again after dark.

I'm not sure if I want to open the battery pack or not. 

What if there aren't any batteries inside?

Halloween Decorating

I finally got all my Halloween stuff out.

 I re-finished three pieces that I stitched years ago. (All from Lizzie Kate) I forgot to take before pictures - I know I have some but I guess they are on the other computer. 

All I did to this one was replace the ribbon. It had a purple satin ribbon/bow. I swapped it out and added the black and white button. Much better.

 

This one had a wide purple ribbon/bow and the bottom was about the same as the top. I never really liked it but it was finished so I left it - until this year. I took the ribbon off, took all the stuffing out and cut 2 1/2 inches off the bottom. Thanks to Vonna's 'fluff and stuff' method I re-stuffed and used all the stuffing I pulled out. Still not perfect but it is firmer and less bumpy. I changed out the ribbons and I like it much better now!

My last re-finish was originally finished on a foam block (again, never really liked it) I found this frame at Michael's - it has a Halloween picture under there - I covered a piece of sticky board with fabric and mounted the stitching on foam core with two layers of batting. A new bow and a felt ghost to finish it off. Thanks to Priscilla for teaching us to think out of the box.

I had to take this from off to one side to keep the lights from glaring on the glass of Too Cute for Pie (still one of my all time favorite stitches!)

My white cabinet - still one of my favorite places to decorate.

The gnome is new - isn't he cute? He's hanging out in the laundry room.

Last, but not least, a couple of cute pups.

Have you decorated for Halloween?

I have no idea if we will have trick-or-treaters or not this year. I'll have some treats but I will probably just leave a bowl outside and keep it filled until I run out.

A Heartfelt Thanks and Outside the Closet

 I'm a little slow these days, but I want to say thank you to Patricia over at Bird Nest On the Ground

Patricia likes to rescue things and she has been making 'Heart prints' from an old quilt and sharing them with her readers. I was lucky enough to receive one of her creations.

 I haven't decided exactly how I will display it yet - I might just put it on an easel like it is or I might frame it. However I decide to display it, it makes me smile every time I see it.

Take a look at her blog and see what lovelies she has there.

And here is a look around the rest of the sewing room. This room has not been painted since we moved in so I did not choose this color. These shelves have a combination of both cross stitch and quilting books and patterns.

It's a small room and packed full. The cabinet to the right of the sewing table has my 'fancy floss' in it. My stash has outgrown the boxes it is organized in so I'm in search of a new storage solution. 

The white cabinet on the far right has fabric in it.

 It's full and most of it is fat quarters. 

Most of this shelf unit is cross stitch. The plastic tote on top is paper crafting supplies and there is one basket of quilt patterns but the rest of it is cross stitch. The white cabinet with the glass door has some of my scissors displayed inside.

And there is the closet. That's it. I told you it was small. The shelves in the first picture are just to the right of the open door.

It looks nothing like this today - I'm working on a few projects. Some of them are gifts so I'll have to wait to show those but I'm also updating a few Halloween stitches that I wasn't really happy with the finish on. I'll show those in the next couple of days.

Our weather has been so nice. Cool mornings, nice afternoons. Unfortunately the skeeters are still here so if I spend too much time outside I become a skeeter snack.

That's it for now. 

Hope you have a great week!