Saturday Fly-by

(image from Yahoo)

I was amazed at how quickly Saturday flew by.

I didn't have any specific plans, things just kept cropping up that kept me busy.

I splurged and bought two bags of mulch that was shredded and had a weed prohibiter built in. I emptied them and have discovered I need a whole lot more, but that's ok. I'll go again on Monday and get some more. It looks too nice already to not push it.

I also planted the two surviving lavender bushes I purchased the last time BF and I got together.

Next up, a bird bath.

This was gifted to me by BF. It was a found treasure that she didn't need or have space for - lucky me :)

I purchased a couple of small hummingbird feeders at the local dollar store and placed them near the bath. I've always wanted them but couldn't justify the expense at the big box stores. Granted, they are made of glass and my version are plastic, but if we are successful then maybe I can justify the expense.

This is a relatively small garden and the up keep shouldn't be much if I can get this mulch to do its thing and just keep adding to it every year.

I need to figure out a way to get rid of the thistle that's in the neighbor's yard, that goes to seed every year and manages to transplant itself in my yard and gardens. It's very frustrating. I've been cutting the tops but they just seem to keep coming.

I've also decided that when I start weeding my front gardens again, any over flowing plants will be transplanted into my back yard. Not necessarily the butterfly/hummingbird garden, but the back yard - where the dogs and deer roam. We'll see how well it does. It's worth the shot. Worst case scenario - things don't survive the animals. Best case - I have a beautiful back yard :)

Since the temperatures are just scorching today - 90s,

I decided to work on some projects in the house.

Gathering up my patterns for another quilt project 

and a wall hanging.

And finishing up my little bathroom stitchery.

So Saturday flew-by, but it was a good, relaxing, productive day :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with countless blessings.

What ?? !!!

No Phone !!!!

It's amazing how attached we are to our technology.

About a month ago, Honey Do and I finally decided to discontinue the land-line and only use our cells. That was a great financial decision . . . 

until my cell phone died !!!!

I call the service provider and they tried to help, but couldn't.

I went to the store and they tried to help, but couldn't.

So the wonderful young man at the store set up a replacement and that came. 

Unfortunately, I have to recreate my contact list. I didn't have a hard copy anywhere.

It will be interesting to see who I won't be able to recover.

In the meantime, I've gotten all the laundry caught up.

The vegetable garden is weeded and the rest of my seeds are planted.

I transplanted a few plants from my front gardens to the backyard. Lamb's ear specifically was taking over a rose bush and needed to go away.

 

I transplanted them near an old stump further back in the yard along with some day lilies from BF.

Friday had me waiting to do things away from home. It was too hot to do anything more than just pick up around the house.

Once I got home though, I was able to do some planting that I just hadn't gotten around to doing.

I am absolutely thrilled with my "barrel" planter. Honey Do is using half of it to make pens from and I got the other half to make this planter. I finally managed to make time to go and get the dirt I needed to fill it with. I did line the bottom with plastic bottles that were headed for recycling to take up some of the space because the plants are only in the top third of the barrel. 

I am spending Friday evening working on my little stitchery. It's too hot outside to do much, although the temperatures finally dropped a bit after dinner.

Saturday promises to be in the 90s so I'm planning on being in the house and finishing this little project.

And finally, some very sweet squishy mail from a very dear friend, Susan :)

I have to see if I have enough 9-patches to start working on a new quilt. And look at those bright gorgeous additions to my package :)

Thank you Susan :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with countless blessings.

Monday, Monday . . .

(Image found on Yahoo)

Monday has always had a stigma that it was a bad day. Even before it has a chance to get started, the day was bad. 

Honestly, I never minded Mondays even during my younger days when I spent every weekend out doing something.

These days I look forward to Mondays. It means Honey Do and Newton are out of the house doing what they are meant to do. I'm home alone with the pups doing what I'm meant to do. 

At least that's always the plan. 

It is the plan this week. I am meant to be home everyday until Thursday when I'm going to Mom's.

My to do list is made - always.

It's supposed to rain again Monday and Tuesday, so the plan after the household chores is to do some extra cleaning and hopefully some purging from either the basement or the attic. Both are in need of my attention.

Also on the agenda is to start finalizing the plans for Vacation Bible School. We are roughly four weeks out. My Sunday School class informed me that they were done with school for the year. Seems everyone has different start and end dates, so it's hard to keep up.

So I managed to keep myself home all day. My day was disjointed . . . did some laundry, then pulled some weeds, more laundry, some mending, dusting, phone calls, playing with dogs. It was the perfect day to hang the sheets and towels out. It was supposed to rain, but didn't. 

Dinner was in the crock pot but Honey Do decided it was too warm for it (80F) so we opted for sandwiches. I'm trying really hard to get back into the routine of staying home, cooking, cleaning. The first month without Bible Study responsibilities went really fast.

It rained off and on all day Sunday. I was hoping for a rainbow but didn't see one.

It was a good night to start the small stitchery. It's going fairly quickly. 

That's a huge positive because today a block of the month I've been waiting for has begun and I'm so excited to begin.

Jacquelynne Steves is our hostess and designer of this free BOM. All you have to do is go to her site and sign up for the emails and she will send you the patterns and instructions. In fact, she will send you any that have been published to date. But you must sign up or there won't be patterns available to you. I've got you linked up, just click on her name above.

I haven't decided which format I'm going to do - applique, embroidery or just the plain blocks. It will probably be one of the first two choices. I'm not a plain block kind of person :)

I'll keep you up to date on my progress.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with countless blessings.

Finally some progress . . .

Block 3 of Crabapple Hill's Lace Cabins

 

I haven't decided if I'm completely done with the embellishments on this one. I've decided this is one of those never ending projects. If something comes to me later, I can add it. For now, I'm done working on it. It seemed to take a long time, until I was finishing and then the time went quickly.

I've chosen this to be my next project. It's just a cute, simple project that I'm going to embroider, frame and put up in my bathroom.

I found the image on Pinterest and it was just too cute to pass up.

Sunday started out with a pleasant, gentle summer rain. At noon, the sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze. A gorgeous day to just enjoy the peace. I haven't decided what to do with the rest of my day, except to enjoy it. There's time enough during the week to worry about the chores and all the things that need to be done.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a Sunday filled with countless blessings.

Where's "Edi" ?

(Image found on Yahoo)

Remember Where's Waldo?

Well that's been me lately - where have I been and what have I been up to?

In a nutshell (a rather large one) . . .

I've been attempting to stay at home, that's not working very well as I was out and about everyday this past week. It was a short week too, which I had to keep reminding myself.

I did manage to catch up my collection of Farm Girl Vintage and the Add-A-Block, both sponsored by a favorite local quilt shop.

I also got to spend a day with BF and Mom.

I'm finally settling enough to write a blog post. I'm trying to get better at it. When I'm not out and about, I'm trying to keep up the house, laundry and gardens. My hands have touched everything at least once this week.

 

 

 

These Japanese irises are a favorite of both Mom and myself. We've felt like we skipped spring and went straight into summer here. These gorgeous blooms only last about a week and then they are gone. I have been debating about letting this garden go. It's more grass in the spring than anything else. Then the magic happens . . . the irises and peonies and roses start to bloom . . .

 

Peonies

 

a spring bulb that comes back every year and never disappoints.

One of my first rose bushes. This one is about 15 years old. This is the most beautiful it's ever been.

 

The vegetable garden is doing fairly well, although there is a fair amount of weeding that needs to be done. I'm attempting to work on it every time the dogs ask to go out. The large leaves in the center of the photo are radishes and the weeding is done just beyond these plants. Tomatoes, peppers and kolrabi went in on Saturday. Peas are finally peaking through. And the herbs are doing well. Rain Saturday evening helped with the watering and is supposed to continue through the beginning of the week. I'm not going to complain - we could use it.

The visit with BF garnered some new furnishings for my outdoors. We were very excited. I hosed them off and will wait for them to dry to see if they require more elbow grease from me. I'm going to shop for cushions as I don't really have time to make them. I've already checked out a local discount store and I couldn't make them for those prices. Looking forward to relaxing with this new set.

 

I found this adorable little wood chair on another outing. I didn't realize the seat was broken until I took it out of the car. I've already talked to HoneyDo and he assures me that we can replace the seat with a sturdy wood (instead of the pressed board), re-use the wood with the hardware and I can paint and reupholster and have a new chair - probably for my bedroom upstairs (I'm redesigning it every day).

 

Outside time isn't all work and no play :)

We've discovered that Rocky loves chasing bubbles.

Very inexpensive entertainment :)

Nina's been "gossiping with the neighbor". 

:)

I finally finished Block 3 of the Lace Cabins. As soon as I get the photos taken I'll share them with you. I'm off to find a little project to do before I go onto the next block.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with countless blessings.

:)

I couldn't resist. I found this one on Facebook :)