Hi everyone,
I called Word Press Support Help again today to see if I could get the comments to work this time. I think the AI robot I used today was smarter than the one yesterday. I “thought” whoever was chatting back and forth with me yesterday was AI helping me, but wasn’t totally sure. It seemed like a real person was on the other end as they were very friendly to me, even commenting how nice my blog was set up and how inviting it looked!
So, in today’s AI session, I mentioned how I had tried to get help getting the comments straightened out yesterday. (obviously, if you tried to comment, you knew that) so today’s “robot” gave me a few suggestions and after not too much time, told me it was fixed. It also told me my readers don’t have to login anymore… as long as I had approved your comments at a previous time, you were free to comment. If you are a new person trying to comment, it will say pending and I will have the choice of approving it or not. I hope this works for everyone today.
They also set the page where I write my posts back the way I was familiar with… I hope that works to.
So let’s try again…
Here is something I found that might be fun to comment on…
Did you know that Barbie had a full name? It was Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Here first appearance: She debuted on March 9, 1959.
The origin of her name came from Mattel co-creator Ruth Handler, who named the doll after her own daughter, Barbara.
Fictional Background: According to 1960s novels, she is from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin, with parents named George and Margaret.
I started my sewing “career” for dolls with Troll dolls but moved to Barbie pretty quickly. So, I kind of have a sweet spot for her!
I will see you tomorrow and hopefully there will be LOTS of comments!
Blessings, Jeanne
Well, looks like I’m first tonight, and I DID go back and comment on the last three days’ worth of blogs. I want to say that I have enjoyed and appreciated everyone’s sending pictures to Jeanne, and Jeanne’s efforts to keep the daily blog going despite the lack of commenting.
Yes, I did know that Barbie’s name was Barbara Millicent Roberts, and she was from Willows, WI. And Ken’s full name is Kenneth Sean Carson, Jr. I confess, I had to look it up because I couldn’t remember for sure.
On yesterday’s blog comment, I wrote about my dear friend Liz, who passed away last Friday. Even though she hadn’t been able to be out and about in some time, I will miss her. We used to get together every couple of months for lunch, back when she was still able to drive, and I went down to her house 2 or 3 times (usually bringing lunch from Burger King–our “daily dose of grease, salt and caffeine [Coke}”–to enjoy together). I will miss her.
Today I will update you on my friend Leah, who I am teaching to sew. She is almost finished with a pull-on blouse, but when I got there Tuesday to help her with the next part, she first asked me how I organized my fabrics, and we talked about that a little (she had been to a HUGE fabric sale last month, and “stocked up”, even buying one piece because she liked it, but had no plans for it!!). Then she held up something and said, “I just HAD to sew something, so look at what I made!!” and she had made a pillowcase with contrasting cuff and trim, all by herself!! She is now planning on purchasing a self-healing mat and rotary cutter in the near future!
Ladies, we have another sewer!!
I have missed you Charlotte!
Thank you for this update in your life… way over there so far away I can’t hug you.. I am sorry your dear friend Liz went to Heaven.
Your student, Leah is officially a “sewist” and I am so glad she stocked up on fabric
One is definitely a sewist when motivated to strike out on you own. Congrats to Leah big time. That takes courage. Give her a hug from me.
Hi Charlotte,
I’m so sorry your dear friend, Liz went to Heaven. I hope you have many happy memories besides Burger King. Congrats on creating another sewer.
I have missed everyone so much.
Charlotte, I am so sorry about your friend Liz, as we get older it happens! My Dad had a friend called Jack and Jack liked his whiskey, so when we came home from a trip to UK Dad bought him a bottle from duty free. He called him at 9am morning after we got back to hear that he had passed away about 30 mins before.
It is great that your friend feels confident enough to make something entirely on her own. You are a good teacher.
Very sorry to hear about your friend, Charlotte. I hope that you had many happy times together.
We’re back!!! So happy for you, dear Jeanne, and for all of us Sofa Sisters! While it was a disappointment that things happened the way they did, it was fun to read about what some of you were up to, and to think about the questions that you asked of us, Jeanne. I usually check the blog throughout the day to see everyone’s comments, so that part of my day was missing, and, yes, I DID miss it!
My condolences to you, Charlotte, on the loss of your dear friend, Liz. And that is wonderful to hear about Leah, and having a new sewer to help!
A note here about my upcoming cataract surgery, well, I canceled! I need to think more about what to exactly to have done, besides having the cataract removed. Do I want to be near sighted or far sighted? The fact is, I am near sighted in one eye,, and far sighted in the other. I do not normally wear glasses during the day, except to watch tv or for driving. My husband will be having his in a week and half, and I felt it too close to mine, so I decided to let him go first, because his was worse than mine. I will get it done next year.
It is finally fall here! Summer was so long and dragged put, it feels so refreshing with the cooler air and lower humidity! Fall decorating has begun!
Hi Linda, and thank you for the condolences. As we get older, we do tend to lose friends because they are getting older, too!
I can understand your waiting a bit for your cataract surgery–you don’t want both you And your husband to be going thru it at the same time, even overlapping a bit.
Here is something to think about: Did you know that you can actually get your cataract surgeries done so one eye is near-sighted and one is far-sighted? Since you are already that way naturally, do talk to your doctor about keeping your eyes as you are used to! Something to think about, anyway, and I wish you a good outcome, whichever way you decide to do it. (I got mine as far-sighted, but I have astigmatism, too, so I wear glasses all the time anyway.)
Charlotte, yes, I know about that, and that is an extra $500. The technician said that the doctor is iffy on giving it to me. She said that if you give Monovision to 100 people, 50 love it and 50 do not! Plus it is not reversible, so that threw a wrench into my decision. I was going for the usual Medicare covered surgery, so not expecting extra expense.
Thank you for your concern and information!
fortunately, like me, you are not in a pressing hurry to have the surgery done. Actually, my eyes have changed over the years and I will have to cross that bridge in a year or two. I am not looking forward to it.
Surgical amendments 😬
I’m also ready for the cataract journey and my Dr told me $3000.00 per eye for those not Medicare provided lenses! I am thinking that wearing glasses for close work like I do now. I wore glasses since 5th grade and had lasix surgery a few years ago to be finished with glasses. But that complicates things too.
Good advice Charlotte!
I have missed you Linda. I hope you have been enjoying summer days in St. Louis
Enjoying? It has been way too hot here to enjoy it! When the temps are on the high 90’s and the “feel like” temps, are like 108 degrees, you just stay inside!
But thank you, Rosemary, I miss you too!
Linda, we had a very warm muggy summer here on the east coast Northern Virginia 35 miles west of the swamp.
Just this past Monday, the weather changed over night, from 90º very muggy to 60º then it just kept going down! I am kind of surprised but we have had Septembers like this in the past. Other years the hot annoying weather lasts all the way to mid November or beyond.
We cant control the weather and that is probably a good thing.
Our neighbor had cataract surgery recently. She had to wait two weeks between each surgery and loved the results. I think that she had to do something like you will, but she had great results.
So the cooler weather is getting as far south as St. Louis now. Well, it’s a start. Dallas is supposed to get a front through next week but they won’t say if it will get far enough south so we get a chance at it. With the heat index being in the 100s nearly every day this summer, quite frankly we’ve all had enough.
Your decision on cataract surgery seems to be more involved than just saying yay or nay to the surgery. I never thought of having to make the decision you have to. Will be praying for you when you decide to go ahead and for your hubby for his upcoming surgery.
Hi Linda, my mom got her cataracts done a few years ago now. She was nearsighted and wore contacts first, like I do, and then switched to glasses. Her surgery gave her one far sighted lens and one near sighted lens. Now she wears nothing for anything. She can read, sew. knit, watch TV, drive, everything. Her vision is perfect.
Well, it looks like I’ve fixed the Remove Me from WPress. Tks so much for letting me know. Nothing like being removed when you didn’t intend to. 🙂
First I am thanking Jeanne for trying so hard to get us back together! I have really missed all of you. And Charlotte, I am so sorry for the loss of your
friend. My closest two friends live far away and I really miss them. A few Springs ago we decided to get in our car and drive to visit them, one of a time.
I hope they can get to come to see us one more time.
Linda, Peyton is going to be having his cataracts removed soon. He does not have astigmatism as i do so I am hoping he won’t have the problem of the lights at night when he drives.
I have been having a terrible time with a hacker in my facebook and other places in my computer and my phone. He/she even found Jeanne and asked her to send me money. Jeanne had the sense to know it was NOT me. Other places he put out a photo of a nice car and said I was selling it. He even had Peyton “trying” to sell a car to my nephew. Then he put my name in lots of places that sell stuff on facebook as if I was interested in buying them. I have finally got rid of him/her I hope forever.
Today is my 3 monthly back shot, which is not so bad and it really does help my back. We missed 2 weeks of going to the Y because of a problem in the water there. It is back now thank goodness but I can’t go in the water until 3 days. Our guy that helps in the yard was here yesterday and I worked with him too long. I try to forget my age and don’t know when to quit!! I have recovered.
I am SO happy that we can be together again! I have really missed “talking” to you all and thank those of you who had fun photos sent to Jeanne for us to see.
I will check it here again when we get back from my back shot.
Just horrible with the hacker. I know many friends here that have had this exact thing occur. What a horrible mess. Unfortunately, we have to constantly be vigilant with our computers. Hackers destroy your life to eventually gain access to your bank accounts. Hubbs reminds my very “clicky” sister to not click on anything. Think about it and …. realllly be careful. I am glad you got it resolved, and that whole ordeal is traumatizing
Sissy, my main problem is also lights from oncoming cars at night. It doesn’t matter if I am the driver or passenger. However, I rarely go anywhere at night anymore, but lights in general do bother me.
David and I have bought these amazing glasses that cut down on the nighttime glare hugely. The headlights of cars are largely LED these days and so bright.
Barbara, we have bought glasses to help with nighttime glare but they didn’t work. Do you know the name of the ones you have?
Sissy – I saw the post on facebook, in a Kish Doll group, of the car for sale! I thought how weird it was for you to be trying to sell a car on facebook in a doll group! I knew something was not right. I hope you have it cleared up for good! Hackers are such a pain!
I don’t believe anything I get in my email and often have to verify that the sender is real by going to the website. But I could not convince hubby that he must not respond to every message he gets. If he gets spam he feels he has to reply with “unsubscribe” or “take me off your list”. I tell him that now they know the email is real and you’ll be hearing from them again and again and again. He’s had his debit card hacked several times so that he had to go to the bank and cancel the old one and get a new one. Between me and boys I think we’ve finally convinced him to not do that.
So very sorry to hear that you’ve been hacked. Crazy times. Hope that everything is fixed now. 🙂
Quel plaisir de vous retrouver,toutes .Belle journée . Georgina.
Chère Georgina, c’est merveilleux de lire ce message de ta part.
🥰
Jeanne, dear adorable wonderful friend. I hope the comments stay for good. This has been a traumatic summer!
Jeanne, I hope you and George are navigating treatments for George and all is going smoothly. Both of you have been on my mind all summer!!!!
And the rest of you, oh my. I am so glad for these comments. BIG virtual HUGS all around.
Well, I am so glad to read the latest from all of you: keeping busy and being productive. Well done sweeties!
This morning we have the heat on! It is 48º outside. The past few days were in the 60’s with a chilly wind mainly from the west and of course not a hint of sun. It has been very dreary. I do not know what others do during the day but …. I have turned into a home body and have been sewing up a storm in my temperature regulated party house!
I loved your daily entries Jeanne, all of those questions were great to think about.
I finished the patriotic quilt top and now I need to find more fabric to make a good backing.
I found a new long arm quilter 30 minutes away, I hope to bring this to her and just get it finished up.
I am still working on the two quilts at the same time… and having a lot of thoughts of increasing the size of them since these finish at 60″ by 60″ kind of small. so I am using my brains to lengthen them and use MORE fabric.
I hope all of you are doing just great. I have missed all of you.
Jeanne, this is such a great accomplishment from your AI helper.
Lucky you on the weather. I’ll take cold and dreary over extremely hot and sunny any day. Great time for hanging out in my sewing room. I loved the pictures of your quilts. You might even motivate me to try my hand at quilting. But I’ll have to do it on the sly. Every time my dolly girls see me at my sewing machine they think I’m making something for one of them. They want to know who it is and how soon it will be their turn.
Yes, dolly girls can be bossy!. Perhaps you can move them to another room with a view 😁
So happy to see you all back! Even though I don’t post often, I do enjoy reading what you all have to say every day.
Jeanne, I include you and George in my daily prayers. I thought of you on our birthday! I have a neighbor who makes and sells sourdough bread and other baked goods, and she also shares our birthday, though as I told her, I’m 11×2 years older than her. (That just sounds less than 22 years older. 🙂 ) She made me chocolate sourdough brownies on that day, and they were delicious!
I hope things are getting back to a regular routine for you, Jeanne, maybe we’ll see a new doll dress in progress in the near future!
Oh, so happy that Jeanne, is back and everyone else! I actually had blog withdrawal. Crazy. I would go ahead and write a sentence and try to post it. Always failing. They were pretty comical in a desperate way.
I hope that George is comfortable and doing well. I don’t think we ever heard if Jeanne, was getting any help with everything? Hope so.
I loved seeing the new and improved sewing room and so hope that Jeanne can grab a pattern and do a little sewing. I know that there hasn’t been any free time or time for sleep either, but maybe she can sneak in a few minutes there soon.
Here, we’ve been at the other house up in the attic trying to get things ready for the new roof that is going to be put on in a couple of weeks. I’ve made many more trips up and down the narrow stairs and through the little door to the outer attic gathering empty boxes and bringing them down the stairs, through the laundry room, kitchen, and garages to the driveway than I can count. The empty boxes were used by my parents to move my grandmother from place to place when she was still alive. She liked to meet new people and try different living places. Anyway, those boxes were a fire hazard so glad we got them out of there. More full boxes to go including a lot of Christmas. It is supposed to cool down again, so we’ll be back up there working on it some more soon.
I know little about Barbie except that our girls liked them and enjoyed making movies of theirs riding around in cars and motorcycles. 🙂
Have a great day everyone and so happy that Jeanne, was able to get the blog fixed. AI is interesting, but doesn’t know everything, yet. I love to stump it. 🙂
Speaking of AI, I was reading a story about Caesar Rodney and his ride from Delaware to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence in the midst of facial cancer that caused him excruciating pain. I asked AI how long he lived after and it told me 18 years. I knew that couldn’t be. In truth it was eight years. If you can’t trust AI who can you trust. LOL
Yep, you caught AI! 🙂
Joy, excellent exercise for you dear! I bet your legs are strong. You are in good shape now with “forced exercise”
You have a lot to do. Just small do-able tasks and you will get a lot done!!
bonjour, je lis votre “new letter” depuis plusieurs années . J’habite en France et mes commentaires ne vous sont jamais parvenu alors je tente aujourd’hui, l’IA ayant amélioré votre blog peut être les recevrai vous maintenant . ?
que notre seigneur Jésus, vous bénisse vous et votre famille.
sabine
Hello Sabine and welcome. So glad you were finally able to comment. We will look forward to hearing from you
Glad you finally are getting through. Believe it or not, I had trouble today trying to post. 🙂
Hello, Sabine! I’m so glad you were finally able to get through in the comments! I’m so happy to meet you. I have been following Jeanne’s blog almost since the beginning, and one of my dolls (GiGi, one of Ten Ping’s friends) has several “Jeanne Marie” outfits. She is very spoiled!! 😄
It is wonderful to be back visiting with my Sofa Sisters again. I have truly missed the opportunity to tell everyone how much I enjoyed all the things they were sending Jeanne.
Sad to say, at least for me, I have not been in my sewing room much for months now. Hoping to remedy that soon. I did make the dress and jumpsuit to go with the lovely sweater that Anne knitted that I won. I still need to take pictures and hope to do that soon.
It’s been a wicked summer for me. Aside from the horrible heat which I have trouble with normally I was going to PT several times a week and then started massage therapy. My massage therapist worked with me for a few weeks and then said I can’t do more until you get your hips evened up. I tried to get back with the ortho doctor to recommend me for PT for my hips but never could get them so I decided to go the chiro route again and thanks to Divine Intervention I located the chiropractor I went to over the years before COVID. Someone told me he was no longer here but it turns out he never left. He just joined with some other chiropractors and I didn’t recognize the name they used. So I’m over the moon now. I have an amazing massage therapist and a great chiropractor and together they nearly have me walking on my own again. Plus I joined the wellness program at the Wellness Center through my Medicate health insurance and I try to go there at least once a week – the other days it’s appointments with my chiropractor and massage therapist.
So glad we are all back. I missed all this so much. Thanks, Jeanne, for your perseverance and your efforts to keep us together.
Barbara, I am so glad for your good news on your physical therapy!
Sounds like you are getting some good help and can look forward to taking walks once again. Keep up the good work!
Barbara, that is wonderful about finding your old chiropractor, and still in practice, too! And you are getting some much-needed help with your back, and that is the best news of all!! Hope to see pictures of your sewing soon!
I’m so glad to be able to visit with all my Sofa Sisters again. It has been a loooooong time. Do you know how long???
I shared my kitties, sewing things, and dollhouse on August 11th. Jan shared her sweet RRFF on August 12th, and that was the last time we could make comments before today.
I enjoyed seeing and reading each day even though no comments could be made. Thank you to all the Sofa Sisters who sent in fun things.
Praying things are holding steady for George and you are able to get a little rest also.
Laura, that was one Lonnnnngggg month!!
Okay, here we go. For whatever reason, I have been retitled as Remove me. Haha So, I’m testing to see if I’m back to my old log in. It looks like it will work now as I can see an email address, name etc. which I could not before.
Joy
I am so glad. I was kind of wondering who you were 😁 🥰 🥳 🧐
Yeah, the mysterious stranger, “Remove Me”!! 🙂
I have really missed reading all about your happenings. Thank you so much for the ones who have been sending photos and messages for Jeanne to post. And thank you so much Jeanne for keeping the blog going even when you were going through a really difficult time.
Linda, I hope you get your eye situation fixed soon. Just a side note, there is an Australian/NZ charity called the Fred Hollows Foundation. They go to poor countries (many of the Pacific Islands) and fix cataracts. They advertise that a $25NZD donation will give cataract surgery to one of their patients! If I wanted to go private to have my cataracts done it would cost me $25,000NZD. Go figure!
I think I told you before the comments stopped that my cat Luna was losing weight but the vet couldn’t find anything wrong. She was always hungry and always trying to steal food. (She hadn’t done that before). a couple of weeks ago she started to deteriorate. She wasn’t really eating and when she did she vomited. I took her back to the vet on the Monday and this time there were obvious lumps in her gut and she only wieghed 2.5 KG. I had her put to sleep on Tuesday. She was only 6.
My garden isn’t really a great place to bury animals, the ground is clay or it has been covered with weed mat (not by me) and very hard to dig. When Louis passed away I had him cremated (which was very expensive) and then I didn’t really know what to do with his ashes. After we brought Luna home we went out and bought a big tub, some compost and a rose. We buried Luna in the tub and scattered Louis ashes on her then planted the rose. It is a white, David Austen Rose called Tranquility. I still miss her a lot.
It is finally Spring here. Still cold sometimes, it was -2C two days ago, but lovely sunshine all day. The daffodils are out and the blossom is blossoming, summer is coming. Unfortunately it looks like summer will be more like yours, Barbara, than what we usually have. El Nino is now halfway across the Pacific, fortunately we have had a fairly wet Autumn and Winter but the farmers are bracing for an extremely dry summer. I will enjoy the nice weather while it lasts.
I need to go and get started on my day. It is wonderful to be back and in contact with you all again. Thank you so much Jeanne. I am still praying for you and George. We all love you
Oh Anne, I am so sorry to hear about Luna. That is a lovely way you devised to honor both of your pets. I still have our Charlie, cremated and in a little redwood box on a shelf. He was the nicest cat ever.
Take care.
Did you mean 2,500NZD? Otherwise, why SO MUCH???
Hello Ladies! Jeanne, you and George have been in my thoughts and prayers all summer. Praying our sweet Lord lays his healing hand on George!
Wonderful to see everyone chiming in. Its great comments are working again. We’ve had a busy summer. Our youngest grand was here every day. Amazing how busy our little man is. He doesn’t sit still for long! Well, he’s back to school now so Nana gets a little brake until 330pm! lol PS He’s picked up the Trombone for band and needs to practice every day for ten minutes! Yikes, pass the earmuffs please!
oops that should say the other brake… break!
So nice to see you back on the blog, Ingrid! I’ve missed you!