Back to normal . . . ?

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day here.

Through my diningroom window screen, I see sunshine and a light breeze. 

The temperature is in the mid-upper 70s.

Definitely toerable :)

FIL headed out this morning for a flight back to Texas. He's been here since mid-May. It was a very nice visit.

In the wake of his visit, we are rearranging furniture and cleaning. I took a break for a bit and restained the bench in my front garden.

We had an unexpected guest . . . for dinner . . .

It's a wonder I have any flowers in my beds. I wish they would eat the weeds so I wouldn't have to do the weeding !!

I gave Rocky a bath.  He was less than impressed with me. 

After a bit of a nap, it appears I'm forgiven :)

He helped me with some sewing. . . 

I think he knew it was for him :)

A new nappy pad and toy. 

Puppies are like babies - things get dirty. 

Nina really likes the chew toy - guess I'll have to make some more.

Sunday, overcast and rain forecast. 

After church I went to work on cutting out a project for Vacation Bible School. I have ladies coming on Monday morning to help with more organization and "kit" assembly.

It was a busy, but productive weekend.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Weekend plans

I am going to have a very busy weekend . . .

First up, a trip to the airport. Father-in-law is headed back home to Texas. 

He's been here for about two months. Just long enough to get used to him. 

Of course, we told him again that he is more than welcome to stay. 

We have enough room. But he's not ready yet. 

He did ask me to think about what I would like him to work on next year - so he's planning on coming back :)  

Yay me :)

Second, cleaning and reorganizing bedrooms . . . again. We vacated a first floor bedroom to make it easier for FIL to maneuver around the house. We moved to a second floor bedroom. Now we'll move back downstairs. It is the perfect time to do some heavy-duty cleaning. I'm kind of looking forward to that :) I know . . . crazy :)

After that there is always laundry, cooking and general cleaning. I have several projects to work on, and will as time allows. The other things are priority. We are only 10 days into July so I have time, not that I want it to get away from me. I also have Vacation Bible School and the prep work prior to that week.

I do have a finish to report.

My Wool BOM is ready for class next week.

The only thing I wasn't able to finish were adding some yellow bugle beads to the crown of the pomegranate. I have them on order and as soon as they arrive I will rectify that.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a weekend filled with creativity.

Time flies . . .

Days and time go very fast when you are busy.

I spent Tuesday morning trying to wear out Rocky. He found his Eveready Bunny button and was on the go all morning. I love that little pup, he's so comical and he keeps me out of the fridge :)

He spent half the morning on the floor with Nina exploring while I prepared dinner for the crockpot - barbeque brisket.

It's really too hot, well humid, to cook. I still want my family to have a good hearty meal. And there's nothing easier than putting it in the crock for the day.

You can find the recipe here.

When I wasn't chasing pups, cleaning up around the house, I was working on my Wool BOM.

Progress is slow, but I'm still progresing. I have a week to finish before class and I still have other projects I want to work on . . . some with deadlines.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

A new week begins

My week begins on a very positive note . . .

My weekend goal has been accomplished :)

My Trip-Around-the-World quilt is finally finished.

I will link it up to A Lovely Year of Finishes at the end of the month to officially post my finish.

Once I finished (not really) doing the happy dance, I went about my day. I did the usual Monday chores, but because the weekend was so productive I was afforded an easy day.

Between chores I worked on my wool block of the month.

I'm progressing slowly, but at least I'm progressing. The detail stitching (flower center, beads, french knots) are very time consuming. It needs to be finished for class next week. Yes, that month went very quickly.

I'm also faced with Vacation Bible School deadlines, so I'm having to make everything fit. By God's grace - it all gets done :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

Independence Day Weekend

July fourth is always a big holiday celebration for summer. People spend time doing extra chores, grilling, meeting with friends and family, going to parades.

It was a very productive weekend at my house. Sunday found me exhausted :) But it felt good.

The best part of the weekend was that my family worked together on projects. Normally I do these things on my own or they just don't get done.

I worked on my bench - it was in desperate need of water-proofing. I scrubbed it clean on Friday and added the stain on Saturday. Honey Do added a second coat early afternoon, while I worked on something else.

Friday, Newton weeded the "herb" garden. I have debated of several years whether or not to just let this garden go. I have a difficult time maintaining it, mostly because there is poisin ivy and it always finds me.

So the decision was finally made on Saturday to let the garden go and it would become grass again. It will make it easier for Newton to mow and one less garden for me to maintain.

Newton's job on Saturday was to paint this picket fence - which he absolutely did not want to do. Eventually, we all pitched in. It has some fine tuning that needs to be done, but I'm going to do that next weekend.

We grilled - check that, Honey Do grilled :)  The rest of us ate. Boy was it yummy too. My motivatioin for cooking lately is really lacking, so I'm doubly blessed that he enjoys doing it and it always ends up tasty. This steak and shrimp were leftovers !!! I know, really?

I managed to get some sewing time in to work on the binding of the Trip-Around-the-World quilt. Rocky, of course, supervised.

I hope you all had a restful, productive weekend - is that an oximoron?

Anyway . . .

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

I have signed up for another goal  (linking back) for July - You guessed it, Trip-Around-the-World quilt.

The positive aspect of this four-month goal is that the borders are on and quilted. 

The binding is on and the plan for the weekend is to get the binding hand-stitched in place. As you can see, I have plenty of help :)

Hand-sewing is very tiring work, don't you know :)

This is a holiday weekend for us - Independence Day - July 4th.

As is customary - at least in my family - we spent the day doing yard work. We always took advantage of a long weekend when I was growing up to get some extra work done. No exception now that I'm an adult.

Today's goal was to get this completely weeded.

To that end, Newton was "drafted". No he didn't volunteer to help out, but "Grandpa" thought he needed to contribute and shamed him into it. After a very slow start, Newton accomplished the goal of getting them mostly pulled. He's 14 - enough said :) He did do the heavy part, so I really don't mind fine-tuning it. And because I can't ever seem to keep up with this garden, we may just pull the boards and let it go back to grass and make mowing on that side of the house 100% easier for Newton, and me whenever I have to do it.

We did lots of other odds and ends so that we can enjoy the rest of the weekend. As for me, that will be with my goal project.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and an appreciation for what it really means to be "independent".

A Lovely Year of Finishes

Hosted by Sew Bittersweet Designs.

This month's goal:

This quilt is 20+ years old. It's my very first attempt at machine piecing (is it still considering "piecing"?).

It was supposed to take one weekend - Saturday and Sunday - to complete the top.

I ran out of the red tonal fabric and could not find another scrap of it.

In my inexperience, I didn't know how to finish it and didn't have enough experience to ask. 

As I was preparing my goals for this link up, I had decided this one WOULD be finished this year. It's sooner than I had planned because I got over excited and planned it when I meant to plan another quilt (which isn't done yet either).

This is now the third month that it has been a goal. I was determined to get it finished, even though a week ago I didn't think that was going to be possible.

And . . . I didn't make it. . . again !!!!!

But I got so very close.

I have 1/4 of the fourth side of the second border to quilt, then the binding.

It was just one of those days. I was making such good progress and then just ran out of time. Once the family is home, my personal time becomes theirs. And that's as it should be.

Dinner was made, kitchen cleaned up.

Honey Do defragmented and cleaned up my computer - I just know enough to get me into trouble.

Newton had an appointment after dinner.

Honey Do and I watched a movie together - something we haven't done for a very long time.

So it now becomes my goal for July. IT WILL GET DONE !!!!

Follow the link above to see how everyone else's goal worked out. That's where I'm headed.

Some yummy-ness arrived by post . . .

Aren't these gorgeous? !!!

Not sure what they will become, but I just couldn't resist.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.