Saturday Mini 'TOGA' or LOOKOUT she's got a rotary cutter!!!!

                                             Nancy   Jim B.  Treadle Annie
Hi Jeni and Mary,
I had a lovely Saturday today.  Mom had her bath early (early for me) and then I went over to my friend Annie's house for a day of sewing and playing with old sewing machines.  Our friend Jim came too.  First, of course, we had to go to lunch so we went to The Convention Grill.  Hey, it's close!  What can I say?  I had a California hamburger and a small vanilla malt.

                                               Nancy   Jim B.   Treadle Annie
Then, fortified and happy we went to Annie's and cut out our fabrics.  She carefully guided us through the 'card trick' block.  It should be called card tricky cause it is a sneaky block.  I think she looks rather proud of us in this photo.  Then we sat around and talked until Jim, my Jim that is, called and wanted the van.  He was being taken to the Timberwolves game by our friend Mary who had an extra ticket.  He needed to be the driver.  So they came and got the van and took these pictures for us.
Then we worked on a Model 15 Singer that a friend of mine wanted put in working condition.  It just needed oiling and a little adjustment of the tension and stitch length.  Sure works nice.  As a result of talking about it I was offered a Model 15 for myself at a really good price, so I will be getting one soon I hope.

                                                Rose's Model 15-91
Good times!
Love,
Nancy

Junice

Junice Berg

Photo by Jon Drew

Junice Berg has died.  We are going to her funeral today.  She was a longtime worker at the Linden Hills Co-op and a friend of our family for many years.  Junice and our parents would go to the Co-op every Wednesday morning for 'coffee' and shopping.  Wednesday was Senior citizen's day.
A few years ago she had to move to a home for seniors as she was becoming very forgetful.  My feeling is that Junice has been released.  She wanted to go 'home' every time we visited her, and would cry when we left.
We miss you Junice, but we are glad you are in a better place.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Hi there Mary and Jeni,
All I can say is that thank goodness I have sister's who remember the family milestones as I am no good at it at all.  Mary had to remind me of Dad's birthday earlier this month and today Jeni just called to say Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad.
Dad's reply was "What day did you say it was?" and Mom said "What, is today the 25th?"
Evidently I come by my flaw genetically.
Anyway Happy 62nd Anniversary to Mom and Dad.
Here is a picture of them taken when they had only been married for 59 years.  Dad is looking soulfully at Mom which is making her laugh.
Love,
Nancy

Travel in the Flood Zone

Hi Mary and Jeni,
We made a quick trip up to North Dakota

to visit and renew and try to get healthy for the last part of the tax season.  I also made my first youtube video.  You can link to it here 2010 flood video   We had a good time in North Dakota even though we took our colds up there and brought back our coughs.  Those coughs are hard to get rid of.  While there, we looked at the flooding and played at the quilt shop.

Last fall I left a quilt to be 'quilted'  by Lois at Faye's Henhouse.  It was done when we visited this week so I picked it up and put on the binding and brought it back here to Minneapolis to finish sewing the binding in place.  I really like it, I used all floral prints.  I also used wool batting and it is as light as a cloud.
Both Abbie and Alice approved of it.   Alice when it was folded up for traveling and Abbie, here, while I was trying to sew on the binding.

Love,
Nancy

Look at that baby!

Nineteen years old and getting ready to leave home for the first time to World War II:

Today he is 86.  I wonder if he will deign to eat any sugary, high-fat cake today?  Everyone else probably will, heh heh.  Happy Birthday, Dad.  We love you.

Chris Drew in Chicago

Chris, Mom, Deb and Dad

Our brother Chris is fighting for Artist's rights in Chicago and has gotten into some interesting problems.  Take a look at this video made about his fight and posted on the ArtsJournal e-zine.   His video is on the top of the front page and to the right. Above shows Chris and his wife, Deb and our parents.  The photo was taken in 2005.

http://www.artsjournal.com/

Exciting times in the Drew Family.
Chris might be the one to get a case in front of the Supreme Court.  Not exactly what we thought of years ago when we were growing up.  But we always knew that once 'Kit' made up his mind you got out of his way.  Looks like he has made his mind up again.
Love,
Nancy

Have I shared my chicken recipe?

I don't think I have.  I am cooking it now while I muse on the staircase.  I'm not sure I would like my books where my feet are always walking.  I have to should sweep the floor a lot and I imagine all the dust and bits of stuff getting in between and on top of the books.  I would not like that.  I'm going to show the ol' bear and see what his thoughts are.

Meanwhile, I will tell about this chicken recipe that a friend of mine made up.  She doesn't cook much and likes to keep it simple.  She invented this when she was tired after work, but she had to cook (it must have been her turn).

This is what she did: she took a large frying pan with a tight cover.  She put a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of water in it.  She put two (or four- whatever) pieces of frozen chicken breast in it and sprinkled them with herbs de provence.  She put the lid on and turned the heat on to medium low.  After 12 to 15 minutes, she turned the chicken over and kept the lid on.  After 12 minutes more she had yummy chicken.  And that's what we are going to have tonight, although I add salt and pepper.  When it's done, I'm going to saute mushrooms in the sauce that is left, and then heat up leftover rice in the same pan.  With a salad, we will be all set.

And now, time for a Whitefish Weather Report: the other day we had snow, rain, sun, and then hail.  Here is a picture of the hail:

 Then we went back to sun, of which we have been getting a disproportionate amount.  This is what our backyard looks like today - no snow, and lots of litter from the mountain ash.  It was up to 46 degrees - and it's been doing that for the last couple of weeks, off and on.

The reason for all the litter is a bad storm and freeze in the fall before the leaves were ready to fall.  After that, most of them stuck on the trees and didn't turn colors (except brown).  Over the winter they've been gradually falling off.  I'm sure it hurt any trees that had a weakness.  We will see this summer.  And my forecast for this summer is lots of smoke from forest fires unless we get a substantial amount of precipitation.

The ol' bear agrees with me about the staircase.  He thinks his books would get all dirty (and they would, because I'm the one who sweeps around here, and I don't do it that much.)  And by the way, did Abbie tell you that Fatty Kitty posted?

The ultimate staircase

Hi there Mary and Jeni,

           Looking up the staircase.

I can't believe I haven't posted for a month.  I have to post something quick or February will  be postless.  I was just sent a portfolio of amazing staircases and this one jumped out at me.
This is a book addicts perfect staircase.  I am so jealous of whoever has this staircase.

                                                           Looking down the staircase

I just love it.  I would be afraid to go up and down it because I would be so distracted I would miss my footing.
Nancy