Just for me

I've been working on some things that are gifts (including the little snippet I showed yesterday) but I finished up this throw late yesterday and it is just for me.

It is a really good thing I like the crinkly look since it helps cover up how awful my quilting is. I really hope to get better at it - someday.

Someone asked about the quilt on the end of the bed. The one hanging is one I purchased a long time ago (maybe 10 years?) I ordered out of Country Living magazine. When I bought it we were still sleeping in a full-size bed and I used it as the bed cover. When we bought the queen-size bed it would still work, but could stand to be a few inches wider. I still love it, so I hung it on the foot board! The yellow and blue quilt folded at the foot of the bed was given to me by a friend who no longer uses those colors in her home. I don't think there is anything between the top and backing. Sherry didn't make it, she had bought it when she had those colors in her home. I don't know if she has any idea how old it is or not - I'll have to ask her. Sometimes I swap them around and hang the yellow and blue one - just to be a little different! :)

Today I've been working on another gift - I'm doing some applique and it doesn't look any better than my quilting does. Maybe I should try hand applique and hand quilting - I do better with hand work than I do with machine work! I'm still debating if it looks too bad to give as a gift or if I should start over.

I think it is time for a chocolate break.

Have a great weekend!

106 - oh my!

Yes, 106.

We hit 104 yesterday. A few minutes ago I walked past the TV and saw that we are now at 106. I've spent the day inside with Bertha and thought I would take a break and go down to the mailbox but I've changed my mind - I will wait until later when it cools off a bit!

I wasn't going to show any of this project since it is a gift, but I thought maybe he might cool us off a bit so I'm showing just a tiny corner.

Hope everyone else is staying in and keeping cool!

101

The temp hit 101 yesterday and is supposed to do the same again today. It has been 30 days without rain (so far). What is a girl to do when it is so hot out? First she should water the few plants she has outside - then -

play with fabric!

Just plain hot

That is about all you can say about the weather here these days. We are supposed to hit 100 tomorrow. Yuck.

I took this picture awhile back. For awhile, dh and I would get out and walk around the block every evening when he got home from work. It was a nice shady walk, but now it is still in the 90s when he gets home. Heck, it is still in the 90s until after it gets dark. I like being outside, but I don't like being out when it is sweltering hot. (among other things, getting too hot usually triggers a migraine and I have enough of those without asking for another) Hopefully we will get some rain soon and it will cool off enough for a few more evening strolls - then again, it may be September or October before we get to walk again.

Hope you are all having a pleasant week. All I can say is thank goodness for air conditioning!

The grand tour

I showed you the balcony the other day so I thought I would show you the rest of the apartment.


Come on in


You have to climb. The door at the top is the pantry.

at the top of the stairs, to the left, is the kitchen

From the far corner of the living area you can see where the stairs come up

From the other corner, you can see the bedroom and bathroom doors. There is also a door from the bedroom to the bathroom and they all meet in that one corner - you have to play musical doors!

The bedroom

note the lovely window dressings

the bathroom

From the bedroom door you can see more lovely window dressings in the living/dining area

Let me open them so you can see the view.

Not much, but it is home for now.

If you think there are some things hanging in odd places, they are. The only nails I have put in are the chalk board and the plate in the bathroom - everything else is on nails that were already here.

Well that's it.

Hope you come back soon.

Another square finished

I'm still behind - this is the April square

for the Thimbleberries quilt but it is the latest one I have so I guess you could say I'm caught up. :)

I'm still not sure how the shop lady managed to finish the whole quilt in a couple of days. Granted, she has been doing it a long time and knows what she is doing, but it took me all day just to do this much!

Sure hope everything fits together when it is all ready to be assembled!

I'm way behind (again) on reading blogs too - I do dream of some day being all organized. A girl has to dream, right?

Porches - and sinks

A couple of weeks ago there was a great porch party going on in blogland. I didn't participate because my porch is 150 miles away. :(

This is what I have here

It is 'maybe' 4' deep and 15' wide but then you have to take out for the post that is slap in the middle. It is better than nothing, but I sure miss this

Something else I miss - my kitchen sink.

Is that an odd thing to miss? When we remodeled our kitchen we splurged on an extra deep sink. I love that sink. The one here is pretty much too shallow to spit in, much less get a good old sink full of sudsy water without splashing it out all over yourself. (I couldn't find a closer picture of the sink on my 'puter and trust me, even if hubby hadn't taken off with my camera today, the one here ain't worth snapping a pic of!) I wonder if it is odd to be so interested in a sink? Must be because nearly every house we have looked at - no matter how nice the kitchen - the sinks are shallow! Why spend all that money on granite counters then put in a wimpy sink? Yes, I know most people use dishwashers these days but sometimes you just need a big ole sink of soapy water - or at least I do.

Well - that's my 'gritch' session for the day. :)

I'll try to make my next post less 'gritchy'.

A change of plans

So what were your plans for the day? Mine were to do laundry, clean the bathroom, dust - you know, those fun things. Mind you the cleaning part doesn't take long when you are in a one bedroom apartment, but I had a good bit of laundry to get done. Since I wasn't planning on going anywhere I was taking my time getting myself ready for the day - when I went to get dressed I discovered we had NO WATER! Argh. Kinda hard to do laundry w/o water! I walked down to the office and was told it would be off (the entire complex was off) for at least a couple of hours. At this point I did the only thing a reasonable person could do - threw on some make-up and went shopping! Mostly looking but I did pick up a couple more boxes so I could work on a project I started a couple of weeks ago. I spent two days moving pictures from this box



to these boxes


That plastic box was at overflow status - and that is probably only about 1/3 of the pictures I need to go through. At the moment I am just getting them in order by year. The wicker container has pictures that have no real clue as to when they were taken but since I can narrow most of them down to within a couple of years, I'll go back through them when I finish the others and should be able to get pretty close by finding similar pictures. My goal is to eventually get them all into albums but I still have a long way to go. I still have pictures at home that I haven't brought back with me - I figured I had enough to get a good start with that one box! Once I get them all grouped in years, I'll try to get them in order by month - or as close as possible - before I start putting them in albums. I also have one full box of just play photos from Jason's high school plays - they aren't in any kind of order either! I was pretty good at making notes on the back as they were developed when I only had one kiddo - by the time #2 came along - and started walking at 9 months - I was doing good to get the pictures taken in the first place. That was one busy child! (he still is!)

Well - I suppose I should at least go wash the coffee pot since I hadn't even done that when the water went off.

Have a great weekend!

Working with what you have

Remember this table topper I made awhile back?
I wanted a couple of place mats and napkins to go with it, but I didn't have enough fabric left over so I picked up a couple of plain ones and added some binding to the napkins.


Good enough for me!

Hope you are having a good week!

25 years

Yesterday, after 25 years of service, my brother retired from the Air Force.

1984 - he looks so young! (he was young - only 19)

2005 (the last time I saw him)

Over the next few days he, along with his wife and youngest daughter, will be making his way back to East Texas. He has two other daughters, the oldest stayed behind when they moved posts several years back and the middle daughter is staying behind this time. I know my mother will be glad to have him close to home again.

Here's hoping for a safe, uneventful trip home!

Routine

Do you have a daily routine? I can't seem to get into a regular groove since we have been living in two places. I had a pretty normal routine before - I don't know what the problem is these days but I think not having a regular routine is one (of the many) reasons I don't blog regularly anymore. I visit blogs every day when we are here in Houston, but I rarely get on the computer when we go home (there is always so much to get done while we are there) so just about the time I get caught up enough to comment on a few blogs or post to my own, we go home for a few days and I end up way behind again. Maybe when we get back to living in one place I can find a new 'normal'.

Anyway - we went home this past weekend to attend my niece's graduation. Unless it is raining, graduation is held at the football field

Thankfully the weather was pleasant! They have gone back to having the ceremony in the evenings. For awhile they had them on Saturday mornings (which meant the sun was in your face the whole time) and there have been times when it was so hot you just waited to see how many people passed out from the heat. This time it wasn't too hot and there was even a nice breeze now and then.

She is just a little excited!

Kaitlyn with both of her grandmothers.

and with her chubby aunt.

I can't believe I'm actually putting a picture of my fat self on here for everyone to see! I might not have done it, but considering how rarely I post these days, I figure at this point I can't have that many readers left.

Hope all of you that are reading had a nice weekend and thanks for stopping by!

ps.

Debbie - if you are reading, I couldn't find an email address for you but if you want the Listen Honey chart, email me your address and I will see if I can find where I put it!