Thursday, June 25th, Haircut time means cuddle time

My hair dresser's cat, Peanut is one of the most friendly I have ever seen. She always climbs up on the customer's lap while Cindy is working for some lovin'. Cindy says she is more like a dog than a cat. She comes when she is called, talks to you with mewing, rides in a carrier in the car and is very anti-cat like. Except for the shedding. Cindy need to take stock in lint removal devices.

Wednesday, June 24th, Ugly purses

This morning there was a purse sale in the hospital lobby sponsored by the Auxiliary. I usually like what they have for their various sales, but gotta say, these were some Butt Ugly purses!!! And very expensive, with brand names like Dolce and Gabbana, Chanel, Prada, etc. Didn't even remotely like one of them:
This is my friend Bonnie, modeling one of the more putrid ones. Not worth almost $100.00 to me. These, I can live without!!

Tuesday, June 23, Caving in.

So, I decided to finally incorporate an eating change along with my exercise plan. I have been reading and studying the meal plan for over a week and I think I am ready. I am not seeing tremendous progress either with the scale or with inches lost and I know it's because I have a carb addiction. So, I am starting with a higher protein menu for a month. It means lots of shopping, stocking and food prep, but Chuck is supportive, so here I go.....starting Saturday!! Why Saturday, not today? Well, I have quite a bit of prep work to do and I want everything on hand so there are no excuses.

Monday, June 22, Grilling perfection

We love to grill in the summertime and Chuck has quite a gift:Look at those grill marks on those delish pork chops!!!

Sunday, June 21st, Such a good Dad!!!

We couldn't go to see my dad today as he is going out of town and I worked last night, so we went out for lunch after church and Chuck had a burrito as big as his head!!!
Chuck has always been the best to our girls. For that reason, they seek his opinion, counsel and comfort on a regular basis. A top notch guy....Happy Father's Day, Chuck!!!

Saturday, June 20th, Sorting my scraps

I have started the daunting task of sorting my fabric scraps into "strings", 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3, and 3 1/2, inch bins. I know I will do this from now on with every project, but to go back and do it is overwhelming.
These are just the Thimbleberries scraps. I already have a big bag of 2 1/2 inch strips and squares for the present project and I have a sweater box full of yardage. Gotta start using it, but first it must be sorted into usable pieces. Bonnie reminded us that it doesn't matter if the piece you have is 3/4 inch wide, it still costs 9.00/yard. After I dumped that on my table, I started digging through the 14 other bins that I have and this is the mound I now have. I have yet to sort through the neutrals, the Civil War, the flannels, Christmas and red and pink bins. I think I may have enough to sort for about 30 minutes every time I am in my sewing space for the next 6 months!!!

I was up until 1:30 cutting, and sorting and I barely made a dent. I am keeping the bins right next to my machine so it won't be that hard to do in the future. A fresh new approach, I am loving it!!

Friday, June 19th, Hannah Montana party

Last night we were invited to Alecia Bernau's 8th birthday party. She is a neighbor and her mom was in my small group and they attend our church.
I was a bit concerned because we have had torrential rains here for the past 24 hours. The clouds parted briefly for the entertainment:
Heather and Aaron heard this gal at Key Lime Cove, our local indoor water park and their girls were crazy for her. She sings all Hannah Montana songs and is quite the little entertainer. I guess I would equate her with Brittany Spears before she lost all of her morals and was the preteen icon for my girls.
The girls at the party went nuts for her, not so much the boys. One of them says he is in the "I hate Hannah Montana Club". We were only there for about an hour as Chuck had a ton of stuff to do to prepare for climbing tomorrow. Right after we left, it rained buckets and buckets. I hope they got the sound equipment dry before that happened.

Thursday, June 18th, a year ago today

Mom passed from this life into the next one year ago today. It was 9:05 a.m. and just like when other significant things happen in my life, I know exactly where I was at the time. Dad, Beryl and I had just spent the night sleeping right by her and listening to every breath as it was a loud groan. I was up every three hours to medicate her with pain meds, anxiety meds and Robinal to dry out her secretions.
At 8:30, the hospice aide came to bathe her and give us a break. Dad was in the recliner talking on the phone, Beryl was making last minute adjustments to the obituary and I was eating my breakfast. The aide came in the room at 9:05, gave me a bottom lip biting look, but couldn't say it. I thought maybe mom was sick again like the night before and she finally said, "no, I just turned her on her side and she's gone". We couldn't believe it. We weren't with her. She was a very dignified woman and I think she waited until we had left the room.
The rest of the day passed in a blur as we had loads of phone calls to make, deal with the arrangements, etc. This was taken 10 days before she died, with my cousin Rene. She took a turn for the worse about 2 hours after this picture was taken. We could no longer get her out of bed or feed her. She was mostly out of it from this point on.

I just can't believe a year has passed.

Wednesday, June 17th, playing with fabric for a whole day!!

I was up very early today to continue to cut strips for today's workshop and get to Lake Forest by 9 a.m. What a great, fun day. The best part of the whole day was that we didn't share fabrics!! Which means that even though my quilt is scrappy it still all matches, because that's how the Thimbleberries line works. I walked in with another attendee who had very funky Sandy Gervais Christmas fabric and she didn't want to share either. So we decided to sit together so if that came up, we would be the odd balls.
The blocks we made for this project are very simple in concept, but Bonnie Hunter taught some wonderful tips that I will be utilizing in the future.
Even though it was simple, we still made mistakes. My first nine-patch:
Cindy's first finished block:
Pam showed us how it was to be done:
I am so glad I went and got to know some other guild members a little better. I went "by myself", without another good friend, which I think was a good thing.
By about 3, by behind was so sore from sitting on these generic conference room chairs, that I was ready to stop, but I am armed with new knowledge, new friends and renewed enthusiasm for my craft!!

Tuesday, June 16th, Inspiration

Tonight was quilt guild and I have heard of our speaker for years, so was thrilled to finally hear her and see her quilts. She was not a disappointment and the group was hanging on her every word because she is such a great orator and teacher. Bonnie Hunter, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina is a scrap quilter. I have been interested in scrap quilting for about a year as I have noticed my stash of fabric has many small bits of fabric that don't necessarily coordinate. In fact, I went to a scrap quilting seminar while at the show in Madison, but didn't gain a whole lot of information from it except to collect neutral fabrics.

Tonight I volunteered to help fold the quilts after she showed them, so I got to touch every one of the close to 20 that she brought. Tomorrow I am taking a workshop from her and I am thrilled to be with a quilting hero for a whole day!!
This is the quilt she will be teaching us, "Sister's Choice". It will be perfect for the huge amount of Thimbleberries fabrics that I have collected over the past 5 years. I am really scared that we are going to have to share and mix up fabrics, which I really don't want to do!! I registered for the workshop only this morning so have been cutting 2 1/2 inch strips in every spare moment.

Monday, June 15th, Red catching my eye

I look out my back door every morning while the coffee is brewing and to view the demonic damage of the chipmunks and this morning a lovely streak of red caught my eye:
That's a beautiful male Cardinal with a worm in it's beak. You probably can't see his pretty color due to the pixilation, but he was so brilliant against the very green grass!!

Sunday, June 14th, Home maintenance..the pits

We will be in our house for 15 years in November. There are always plenty of projects and things on the "wish" list, but frequently the routine repairs get in the way of the luxuries.
A few weeks ago, we noticed that our fence was leaning pretty badly. Chuck dug around the two posts and found they were rotten at the base. Rather than replacing the posts, he is attempting to support it. He bought 4 steel short fence posts and drilled them into each corner of the post. Then he dug a hole around each base and filled it with cement. It was a very messy, and dirty Sunday afternoon job, but I think it will hold for a while. We can't afford to replace this fence right now, so the fix up will have to do. Next, the rotten retaining wall.

Saturday, June 13th, Quilting another piece

I went to the library on Thursday and searched for books on Quilting the quilt. One of the books I got is by Harriet Hargrave. (a legend in machine quilting) This quote in her book really spoke to me and where I am in my craft:
"Today's quilter is inundated with ideas for pattern,, design and color for quilts. Books are filled with wonderful photographs of beautiful quilts all focusing on pattern, design, and color. But where is the quilting? How often is the quilting not even visible in the photos--if there is even much quilting at all? How often is the quilt quilted with generic meandering on a longarm machine, so the quilting plays no part in the overall quilts design? When you reach the end of a pattern or project, expecting to find ideas for finishing the quilt tops, how often do you read "quilt as desired?" How often are quilt shop samples left unquilted? A growing percentage of quilts at quilt shows are not quilted by the person who made the top. Many are quilted similarly, on commercial longarm machines. Where is our guide and inspiration for quilting all of the tops we've been lured into making based on pattern, design and color? So often, out of frustration ,we neatly fold the top, and start another pretty project, concerned only about pattern, design ,and color."
Boy, gotta tell you, this spoke directly to me. I have 7-10 tops hanging and waiting to be quilted. Most of them I don't want commercially quilted, but I am totally uninspired as to how to quilt them, but I will never become comfortable unless I dive in and do it!!! So I have decided that my time needs to be spent doing a piecing project alternating with a quilting project. I will never get these done unless I just do it. And I have to learn to not apologize for my mistakes.
Today, I dived in to the last Jo Morton project from last year. I hope my attitude is starting to turn...

Friday, June 12th, A morning at the Botanic Gardens

Celia and I hung out for several hours on this beautiful sunny day at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I can't count the number of times we said "oh, look at that", "isn't that gorgeous", "I wish my yard looked like this", "What is that, I want it!!"
Enjoy:







This Swan with her signets swam very close to us. Notice the dad sitting on the opposite shore:


I was fascinated with these Dahlia's. Love the dark foliage!!

Thursday, June 11, Poppies!!

Aren't they so pretty and delicate? Oh, how I enjoy their annual blooms.

Wednesday, June 10th, Chipmunk wars

Chip and Dale be damned....I hate chipmunks!! This is a bone of contention between Chuck and I. I have threatened to poison them, drown them and a number of tortuous killings, but Chuck adores them. He even has named them.
They do all sorts of terrible things in the garden. For example, they dig in my pots, scattering dirt everywhere, dig up bulbs and eat them or plant them in the middle of the yard. The most recent evidence of destruction has been the sign that they plant things in unwanted areas. I usually save my "potting" dirt from year to year. I sift through it and refertilize it.
I planted trailing nasturtium seeds in this pot with a climbing trellis and when they sprouted, I noticed some spiky plants coming up also. When dad was here last weekend, he told me that it was corn. I decorate the front porch with field shocks from the farm in the fall and then throw the corn cobs in the yard for the squirrels. The chippies save it and got into the garage to hide their treasures in my saved dirt.
This year the thing that has me the most frustrated is the destruction of my new finch feeder. Somehow, these demonic creatures have figured out how to climb the shepherd's crook, tear a hole in the bottom of the sleeve and dump all of the expensive seed on the ground. See that guy hanging there??? HATE HIM!!!

Tuesday, June 9th, Baby quilt #5

Nicole was thrilled with this quilt for her baby, Immanuel. She didn't want to open it at work because she wanted her family to open it, so after our co-workers pressured her to do it, she carefully rewrapped it. She said it matches her nursery exactly. It was funny because the three new mommies at work have hung out together and had the babies picture made together. So last week when I gave the quilts to the the other two ladies, they had to hide it from Nicole because I didn't want her to feel cheated. She said that Agnes showed her some gifts she had received, but Nicole noticed a large one that she didn't show her. She was curious, but decided not to press it.

Monday, June 8th, loving friends

Tonight was our last meeting for the ladies small group that I have led for 8 years. It is very bittersweet as I remember the wonderful times studying God's word, laughing, crying, and sharing. Most of these ladies live in the neighborhood and I see them frequently, but not on quite the same level.
Even though I hosted tonight, they served me by providing the entire meal. All I did was set up the dining room table and provide tea, lemonade and ice.
They thanked me for my years of service by giving me this gift:
I have already spent it several times over in my head!!! I am going to wait and spend it wisely. I counted the number of UFO's (unfinished objects) in my sewing space and I think I am nearing 20 projects. Must finish what I have started!!!

Sunday, June 7th, A week goes so quickly

Catie got us up this morning at 5 to say goodbye.

As soon as she drove away, I already missed her. The week would have been totally perfect if Candice could have come home.

Saturday, June 6th, Day with dad

I was in recovery mode for the most part today. Steve drove to Milwaukee to visit a friend and Catie did laundry. I planted my flower pots and Dad came for a visit to meet Steve and to visit with us since we hadn't seen him since Easter. Every move I made today was an effort!!!

Friday, June 5th, Climbing part two

After the ropes are secure and the belayer is in position:


The climbing begins:
Steve had never done climbing this way before and he loved it. He was rather like a spider and did 4 climbs in total.
Our friend Roland came to learn to belay and to help Chuck so he could also climb.
Catie loves to do this and was successful for two climbs.
I got brave and attempted it. I have only done this once before and got about 20 feet off of the ground and freaked out. This time I got about twice as far and freaked out a little. By the way, does that harness make my butt look fat??? Don't answer that, because it even makes Steve's butt look fat.
Aren't they just so cute???

After they all had climbed that area as much as they wanted, Chuck and Roland moved the ropes to another area:
It has this interesting hole at the top that the climbers actually come up through.
So, I went up to the top with them and then took off for a hike along the bluff and to the south beach area.

I won't bore you with all of the flora pics I took, but the forest was in bloom and I was entranced by all of the wildflowers. I also listened to a book while hiking. I thought I would only be hiking for about an 1 1/2 hours, but ended up on a long trail and it took over 2 hours. Needless to say, I was sore!!!
The view was incredible!!
I got back from my hike just in time to see Chuck's head pop up in the hole:
After gathering all of the equipment, and the difficult hike down, we head to a favorite place to eat, "Log Cabin Restaurant". We were hoping for a fish fry and were not in the least disappointed, but it is never a bad meal at the Log Cabin.
What a great day!!! Catie wanted Steve to experience Oberweiss Ice Cream, so we took a long way home and capped off the day with a cool treat.