Solitaire and Such

Pirates of the Caribbean playing cards. My souvenir from Disneyland. I love to collect playing cards from the places we visit. I have tiny cards from Hawaii and Alaska, regular size cards from the Royal Caribbean Cruise line, Disneyland and Las Vegas. I love to play spider solitaire, so it takes two decks for me to play. Yes, I play with real cards - not on the computer. I don't have a laptop, and I play cards in the kitchen a lot to pass the time while I'm canning, etc. I remember playing the regular 7-Card solitaire when I was little up at Gramma and Grampa's cabin. I loved to go to that cabin with my Mom and I learned lots of things there. Gramma and Mom taught me to crochet, and I still crochet all the time. It's great therapy for the stressed out brain. I've made afagans for almost all my kids, I am now working on one for Robert. Then, I guess I'll start over as Tawna's is looking a little worn now. Still pretty, but they could use a new one sometime. Gramma taught me to play solitaire and I spent many an afternoon in the cabin or on the front porch doing just that. Those days of afternoon rain showers when I would read (with M&M's of course), play cards or crochet are pretty ingrained. Every time it rains I start looking for a good book and a bag of M&M's, the most recent afagan in progress or a deck of cards. Funny the things that stay with us for a lifetime. I loved those days of quiet, peaceful times. We had lots of fun too, but the things I learned have really stuck with me. I remember Gramma canning all kinds of stuff. She was an avid fisherman and would bottle rainbow trout. She put Catalina salad dressing in with it and I only wish I knew what else. After being pressured it tasted like salmon. So good. One of the other things I did a lot at the cabin was sew. I would bring fabric with me and make all my clothes for school while I was there. I sometimes would sew for various cousins too. If I ran out of fabric, we would go to Showlow to the T,G&Y (dime store) and buy some more. I guess this is on my mind lately as I'm finishing up a couple of weeks of sewing baptism outfits and doing dresses too for Faith and Madison. I will finish Madison's (after the font) dress tonight and I am happy I could make these things for the girls. The outfit to be dunked in was so very cute on both of them. I made the same pattern for them both, and I love the way they looked in it. So very sweet all in white. I am thankful I had a patient Mom and Gramma and that they didn't give up on me when I was frustrated in the learning process. I take great joy and comfort in being able to make things for my family.

I'd probably get a lot more done if I lived in a really rainy place! (not).