In the garden

Not sure what I have really qualifies as a 'garden' but it sounds so much better than 'in the backyard'. :)

Took a walk out to see what was blooming. (my aunt says my backyard looks much bigger in pictures than in real life - let me assure, it is tiny!)


Anyway - in the back corner, I was glad to see this potato vine finally sprouting again! I was afraid it wouldn't come back. The only thing I did to it over the winter (if you can call what we had winter) was to pull the dead stuff off the trellis. After noticing the neighbors coming back I thought I should give mine a look-see and there it is! Yeah!


The hosta has a little bloom trying to pop out - sorry, looks like my 'focus' was not exactly on the bud.

And look at my hydrangea! I'm so loving this! If it makes it through the brutal summer here, I'll plant some more next year - maybe even in the front (side) yard.

Did you have a good weekend? Ours was pretty nice. Nothing on the calendar for a change. On Saturday we drove (or, hubby drove, I rode) an hour to a quilt shop I hadn't been to before. I'm sorry to say it wasn't worth the drive and I came out of the shop without buying anything. I tried to find something - walked around the whole shop at least 3 times but I finally left empty handed. Not that they didn't have anything I liked, they just didn't have anything different than the stores around here. Oh well - there are more shops that I haven't seen yet!

I did get a few stitches in yesterday. Not enough to show an update but a few is better than nothing!

Hope your week is off to a great start. Looks like ours is going to be a warm one!

I can't seem to get the spacing to come out right since blogger started changing stuff. I'll keep trying.

Are you adventurous?

Are you adventurous? Me - not at all. I'm pretty much chicken. Do I miss out on things because of it? Absolutely. Are there places I would like to see, but never will because of it? Yep. Can't say that about my sister. A few weeks ago she took her youngest daughter (who graduates from high school in a few weeks) to Germany. Just the two of them. Last minute, throw stuff in a suitcase and fly to Germany.

I thought I was doing good to drive myself to the stitching retreat this year.

So anyway - last weekend while we were setting up a new computer and trying to decide what to do about replacing some furniture, this is what my sister was doing.

How about you? Would you jump out of an airplane?

Do I wish I had the guts to do it? Yes.
Will I ever do it? Not likely!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Looking good!

My hydrangea is looking good!


This picture is from just after I planted it a few weeks ago


And this is from yesterday! Isn't it looking good?


A couple of the blooms on the back are starting to turn a little blue - I tried to get a picture but it just doesn't show up well.

I wish I could say my hanging baskets in the front are doing as well, but I think they are past the point of no return. I haven't had any luck with baskets out there. (faces north) Any suggestions?

Quiet

The first thing you notice about the new computer happens before you ever enter the room. (Above is a picture of the old one - it is still sitting on the floor, just in case) Anyway - as soon as you hit the top of the stairs, you notice how quiet it is up here. I knew the old one was loud but I didn't realize how loud until Timothy started up the new one! Can't even hear it running. I keep thinking something is wrong. I can even hear the clock ticking now!

This is the best I can do as far as a picture of the new one goes - it is nice and shiny (with more than a few fingerprints) so there is a glare from every angle. I would show you the whole desk area, but it is a disaster!

As you can see, I have come up with a (temporary) solution to photos. I went back to my pre-picnik days and reloaded the editor from picturetrail until I have time to figure out something else.

Timothy was such a huge help over the weekend. Not only did he take care of my computer, he helped move some furniture. (You know how when you move one thing it always leads to more!) Getting to spend 4 days visiting with him was a bonus!

I did figure out how to go back to the old blogger - don't know how long it will be available but I'll put off learning anything new as long as I can!

I'll try to show something more interesting tomorrow - not too interesting since I'm pretty boring these days! Oh - and my blog reader currently sits at 841 unread posts. I guess that is better than 1000+.

Speedy

But no pictures. :(

The new computer is up and running. Speedy, but I'm having an issue with editing photos so no pictures in this post. I had been using picnik to edit photos and I had tried picmonkey once before the computer swap and made it work, but today when I try to save and close it comes up with an error message and won't save the picture. Anyone else have this issue or is it just me? I don't think it has anything to do with the new computer. Most likely an operator error but either way I don't have any pictures to share.

And since I don't have any pictures to go with this post, let me just add another gripe - I don't like this new blogger thing either.

I hate doing pictureless posts so I'll be back when I can figure it out.

The box

This box has been sitting on the floor of my office/sewing room since last Friday - inside is my new computer! The one I'm using is at least 8 years old (maybe older - not sure) which is a lifetime in computer years. The only thing that has been updated is a new power supply when the old one died and the monitor was replaced at Christmas. Sometimes it is so slow you can click on something then go fix a cup of coffee while waiting on it to load. Heck, sometimes you could cook a full breakfast. Sometimes it will just hang up and the only thing to do is restart the whole thing. (this is not an occasional thing - it is pretty much daily and if I spend too much time on it, more than once a day)

Anyway, being the computer idiot that I am, the new computer is still in the box. I'm sure I could hook it up and turn it on, but when it comes to moving stuff from this one to the new one, I'll leave that to the experts and my computer guy (aka - my middle son) is coming today! He will be spending the weekend helping me get set up and ready to go! For my part, other than cooking for him all weekend, I'm supposed to have gone through and made note of what I use and what I need moved over. I haven't done that part yet. (I have done my grocery shopping and I'm ready to cook, but. . .)

So - I'm off to put a roast in the crock pot, then I'll clean up all the crap that is in front of my computer and try to figure out what needs to stay and what needs to go!

Have a great weekend! Hopefully I'll be back next week!

Christmas in April?

Well, kinda.


I picked up several of these little pre-printed ornament kits at the quilt festival, but of course I didn't get any of them stitched before Christmas. I finally got one stitched - hopefully I can get it made into an ornament before Christmas this year!
Sorry for the crappy photo. The piece isn't as wrinkled as it looks - something goofy going on with the picture but I didn't notice it until after it was loaded on the computer and I don't have time to retake it. I'll take a better one when I get the ornament finished. (or at least I will try!)

I know I owe several people emails and responses to comments, I just haven't had time to get to all of them. I have hopes of things getting back on a normal schedule next week - at least for a short while!

I need to take new pictures

I took these last week when I got back from J'ville. Hubby did a good job of keeping them watered while I was gone. (okay - he always does a better job of keeping them watered than I do!)


Blue daze on the patio


This hydrangea is supposed to be blue - hopefully it will turn as it gets bigger!


This is our attempt to hide the utilities - you can partially see them in this close up, but it works pretty good at hiding them from the patio.


I've never had any luck with keeping mums. Usually once the initial blooms are gone (like before Thanksgiving) the rest of the plant goes down hill quickly but this is the one the girlfriends brought when they came in November. It has been sitting on the bench in the back yard all this time. It was barely covering half the container a few weeks ago and now look! When I stuck that landscape light in there you could see the whole thing, now you can barely see it. I need to take new pics because those buds are starting to open up!


The (plastic) container this hosta was in broke a few weeks ago so I re-potted it in this clay one. I think it is very happy in it's new home!

We had a lot of rain Sunday night and yesterday. I think we ended up with close to 3 inches here - the yard and plants are happy! I'll try to get some newer pictures later today.

The way back machine

I told you I would eventually get around to showing some pictures from the retreat. Well, these aren't exactly 'from' the retreat - they are from after I got home. (the pictures from the retreat, which are very few, are still on my phone - I'll get there)

Anyway - here are a few pictures of some (but not all - I was trying to get things put away before company arrived so I missed some stuff) of the goodies I came home with. If you would like to see some pictures from the retreat there are some posted on the shops website. 3 Stitches
Link is on the left side of the page, all the way at the bottom.



The theme this year was 'treasures through time'.


The wooden box, scissor holder and scissors were part of the goodies we all received. There is usually always something with the year on it. (this was get-away #14 - I've been to the last 6)


There are always 'door prizes' given over the course of the weekend. Everyone puts their name in a basket and she keeps drawing until all the prizes are gone. I came home with this cute cup and saucer (vintage), teapot (not vintage) and the dresser scarf (also vintage) that is scrunched up under the goodies.

Pam (3 Stitches owner) does all the gift/goodie planning/shopping/packing herself. There are always employees at the retreat but no one except Pam, including store employees, knows the theme until the retreat starts. They might have cut fabric for projects or something but they only knew what size to cut and not what the project looked like. Even the ones who help get all the boxes of stuff to the retreat don't know what is in them! I would have loved to have gone shopping with Pam this year - there were so many vintage items in the door-prize bags!


I kept my shopping way down this year. There were several charts/kits I liked but I already had most of them and I restrained myself from buying the few I didn't already have. I thought I was doing pretty good to limit myself to one pair of scissors. The key ring is already holding my keys. I'm starting to have quite a collection of the needle magnets too. The only other thing I bought was a set of storage boxes but those had to be ordered since the only two sets she brought were snapped up before I got to the table! I picked them up last weekend but I haven't taken pics yet.

The garage sale went fairly well. Our next door neighbor had stuff out too - it always helps to have more than one together, brings in more traffic. They had a lot of kids stuff so that tended to get people to stop. We didn't make a ton of money, but we got rid of a lot of stuff (it takes a lot of quarters and dollars to add up to a lot of money!) The good thing is that we didn't bring anything back in the house or garage. If it didn't sell, it got donated. The bad thing is there is now nowhere to sit in the game room. The plan is to get a new sofa for downstairs and bring the one we have now upstairs but I'm having a bit of a hard time picking a new one!

Well, I've rattled on long enough for today. I'm trying to get back to a more regular routine this week so hopefully that will get me back to more regular posting/reading. I'm still way, way behind on reading! Better get busy on the stuff that has to be done so I can move on to something fun - like blog reading!

One lonely picture

Just a quick fly-by post.

One would think that after spending a full week with family there would be pictures to show for it. One would be wrong. This one picture is all I came home with. :(

Remember I told you I would be visiting with family last week? Two of my mother's (three) siblings came to Texas for the week. They flew here from Washington and South Carolina. We picked them up at the airport (a whole story in itself!) then I took them to my parent's for the week. My aunt also had her 13 yr old grandson with her (poor guy, it was his spring break and there is nothing to do in J'ville!) so that was 3 extra people at my parents house. Funny how there were 5 of us in the same house when I still lived at home (I have one brother and one sister) but the house seems smaller now! I slept at Sarah's - she runs a pretty good B&B. Fresh coffee every morning! :)

Anyway - I don't think anyone pulled out a camera all week, but Friday night when I got back to Sarah's I found these roses on the dresser along with a note from Sarah's granddaughter so I snapped a pic. Pitiful isn't it. A whole week with family and the only picture I come home with is this one. I'm so ashamed.

So, I'm back, but still no time for blogging. Several weeks ago I signed us up for the neighborhood garage sale and it is this weekend. Sarah deflated my balloon this morning by informing me there is no garage sale fairy to come in the middle of the night and gather everything up and get it ready. I'm so disappointed. I don't have a lot of stuff since I've been taking stuff to Goodwill on a regular basis but what I do have is boxed up and stored in the garage. I really should go through closets and drawers too. . .

I did get a little applique done while I was gone along with a little embroidery on a Christmas ornament - hopefully I can show you those next week.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!