ANOTHER NEEDLE HOLDER - 6 SIDED BOX THAT HOLDS ANOTHER BOX AND OPENS OUT FLAT.
I finished this needle holder yesterday.  I like the fabric on this one a lot.  I also like the way it folds up and unfolds.  It has a smaller box inside called the thimble holder.  The fabric had a few different designs in the print so that I was able to select one part that has a hex that fit the top of the thimble holder just perfectly.  Later I gave this one to Sister Zimmernink for her birthday.

The Needle holder box as it looks when it is closed.

The bottom of the box is covered too.

The lid off, showing what it looks like when folder up.  The draw string has a clasp that allows the sides of the box to open when the cord is expanded.

Shows the box opened.  The sides of the outer box and second inner box has needle holders .  The small box on the inside is a thimble holder.  I'm going to look for a smaller pair of embroidery scissors for this case but these small gold embroidery scissors fit OK for now.

This is the thimble box.  The pattern called for glueing it to the bottom of the larger boxes, but I chose to leave it as a separate box and I finished off the bottom as well.

The thimble box has the hex print centered on the top of the box.  It worked out very nice.

ANOTHER NEEDLE HOLDER
I bought these cute needle holder kits at Costume College last year.  This one is in the shape of a heart.  I'm done except I wanted to add some ribbons or decorations to the front but I'll have to find a better fabric store.  The one department store that I found that has some fabric has very little choices of anything.  So for now it is done...
I have another kit that is much larger and complicated that I will want to get some more supplies for before I start it.  I gave this one to Christie Watson.

The finished needle holder

The top view showing the layers and button holding it closed

Showing the button holder off and starting to open.

Opening the needle holder

The inside.

The outside

The inside with some needles, pins, small embroidery scissors, etc.

 THE STEPS - in case you are curious

Fabric is cut about 1/2 inch larger than mat board and glued.  There are main fabric outside and lining pieces. 

Showing the parts with the outside and insides glued and a few of the hinges

Detail of the button holder

Showing clothes pins to show how I hold it while the glue sets

MY CATS

Patch, he is fat!

Patch

Muffin

Elder Lyons is being transferred to a place in East Germany.  We will miss him.

The photos are blurry because our apartment doesn't have much light.

Elder Lyons and Elder Ellsworth and Steve

Elder Lyons, me, Elder Ellsworth

BIKE TO RUIN STRAHLENBURG of Schriesheim
On Saturday March 16th we rode our bikes out to find the ruins we could see sometimes from our apartment.  We missed the Ruin Hirschburg but found the next one called Ruin Strahlenburg.  The ruined castle has a restaurant open during warmer months that will be fun to re-visit when all the vineyards are growing and as the seasons change the views will be even better.
http://www.strahlenburg-schriesheim.de/en/index.html
We rode about 25 miles round trip.  It was a pretty nice day although there is still a little snow and ice here and there, we stayed warm and enjoyed our exercise and fresh air.

Looking up at the Ruin Strahlenburg from the town below and the narrow streets.

This steep cobblestone path going up through the vineyards was a real challenge for me.  I couldn't ride it and I kept slipping on the stones when I walked up it because of the cleats on my shoes.  Steve made it up pretty fast, you can see him in the yellow jacket near the top of it. 

View from the vineyards approaching the ruins.  Where we live would be on the horizon.

Looking up at the Ruin, just before getting to the top.

The entrance to the Strahlenburg Ruins

View from the terrace at the ruins.

The terrance where you can buy food and drinks in warmer times, snow & ice still on the ground here.  When the vines start growing it will be even prettier.

Before 1237 the castle was built on monastery property illegally but was allowed after much money was paid.  The  castle still shows the round keep, and a four-storey residential house of the time of around 1240.

A spring by the road still has ice, strange globe shapes.

Looking back across the valley to the ruin after we went DOWN and the back UP  the other side along the Blutenweg road.

March 12, 2013 - Wow I guess I won't be riding today.

At least not this morning.

MUFFIN TAKES A BIKE RIDE
I felt Muffin needed a Vet check-up because she has been acting strange.    Last week I bought a smaller carrier that would fit in the basket of my bike.   It went pretty well on the bike.  COLD though, about 35 degrees F and windy!  I put a beach towel over her for the trip, that may have helped.  She didn't make a sound.  She was pretty scared at the vet but very docile.   The vet speaks pretty good English, a lot better than I can speak German.  The blood & urine work showed she does not have a bladder or kidney infection.  So the vet is sending the samples to a lab for further work including thyroid tests and she will call me tomorrow.  She gave her an injection that might help.  She gave me a paste that I can feed her to help if it is an accumulation of hair in the intestines.  She said to cook some chicken and mash potatoes, because that will sometimes help to firm up the soft stools.  So some of this is good news, no kidney trouble, we have to wait to see if anything else shows up.  Muffin is a bit jumpy now, I just moved my foot and she jumped up in the air.

She says, "What have I done to deserve this?"

Cat on bike.

Muffin goes for a cold 20 minute ride to the Vet.
You can see part of the stairs and bike-ramp to the underground rooms where we store our bikes.

BIKE RIDE TO MANNHEIM AND LADENBURG
The weather didn't stay warm very long but on Saturday, March 9th, it had not turned too cold yet.  Although by Monday it was back down into the 30's.   We took a ride into town to find a route that Steve could use to ride to work.  Turns out it is about 5.7 miles one way, by a short route, not bad at all.  From there we headed east along the Neckar River to Ladenburg, then back to the apartment and only had a few sprinkles.   Ladenburg is about halfway between Mannheim and Heidelberg.  There is a Dr. Carl Benz auto museum in Ladenburg but it is only open 6 hours a week, 2 hours at a time,  so we'll have to go on one of the days it is open.  We rode a little over 20 miles.

Quad crew boat and coach on the Neckar River

Quad turning around to row UP river for a extra good workout.

Some of the bike path along the Neckar River going towards Ladenburg.

bike path along the river

Petting a swan at the Ladenburg park.  

We counted 17 swans at this one spot.

Is Steve being "goosed" or "Swanned"?

BIKE RIDE TO LADENBURG

At last "Das Wetter war gut."

I had so much fun I feel guilty.

Today the sun was out and it got up to about 50 on our balcony in the afternoon and it wasn't windy.  I left about 11am to take my bike to the bike shop in the next town of Waldstadt.  I left it there and I'll pick it up tomorrow afternoon.  Steve will go to the dentist in that town so we can go at the same time and I can show him where I found the dentist office.  I'm having a back rack with basket and new grips put onto my bike.  I bought a bike trails map.  The owner, doesn't  speak any English but we communicated, he was nice and said something like "hier warten eine Minute" and went into the next room and brought out this nifty little bike to loan me.  Hey, "das sehr gut" I said and then planned to go take that bike all over the county.  I left the bike store and rode off into the country.  I even ended up taking off my heavy gloves, scarf and down vest, the weather was so good!  I went to a nice old town called Ladenburg.  It is about 10km to the south east of us. 

Nifty little bike the bike shop owner loaned to me.  He didn't even ask me for my name or anything.

Another cute Kinderplatz

A fish ladder

Ladenburg square

typical narrow cobblestone streets.

1620 is the year of this building.  Many of the buildings in this town have very old years on them.  That is a wine barrel in the door.

Down at the Ladenburg Neckar River Park, I saw 13 swans in this one place.

This is the first black swan I have seen in Germany.

This guy was really friendly and wanted me to feed him.

This is the inside of the swans mouth as he trys to taste my camera.

The black swan is smaller than the white ones.

This is a small car ferry.

The cost is really reasonable.