Breathing a Sigh of Relief

I am one of the great procrastinators, I am sure. I started some projects for my sisters, months ago. Then I decided to do some pillowcases for my grand-niece and grand-nephews. Then decided I had to make stockings for my oldest daughter and her room mates! Why, oh why do I do this to myself? Maybe I love the rush of adrenaline towards the finish line, and there was a deadline with this one! I had to get all the stuff in the mail to reach California before Christmas.
Well, the pillows were done, I made a table runner for one sister and an apron for the other, those got done. Then the pillow cases got done. The stockings were my nemesis.

I stayed up until 9 o'clock two nights in a row to finish those. And that was after spending most of the day working on them. (Can you say my sewing room is disorganized?) Last night I got them finished, put the few little goodies I bought to stuff them with and got them packed up with my daughter's Christmas gifts and sealed the box.

I also got the other two packages sealed up, addressed and ready to go. I was so wound up from getting everything done I couldn't settle down to sleep. I didn't close my eyes for the night until around midnight thirty! I was going to get up fairly early to go tot the post office this morning, but I didn't wake up until 10:30! ACK!!! The room mate made us breakfast, I took my meds, got dressed, fed the outside critters and we finally got headed to town around 1 o'clock! Best laid plans and all...We got about three blocks away and the room mate asked me if I got the pink slips notifying us that we had packages. No. We had to turn around to go get those. No use in standing in line at the PO just to send stuff away, we wanted to get it all done at once. Then when we got to the PO, we forgot the pink slips in the truck! We were determined not to get the packages that were sent to us.

We got sent my packages off, pick up the ones that were went to us and now I can relax.

Here are the stockings I made. Colors are wrong because this was at 9 o'clock last night.

I touched it up the best I could but, I am not great at that kind of stuff!

So, today we got a little bit of snow again. I looked out the kitchen window and thought it was raining again, but when I looked closer it was coming down so softly. Tiny little itty bitty flakes. I'm enjoying this!

I'm off to make a cup of tea and put my feet up for a minute. Then I need to get in there and clean up the sewing room. Because I was rushed to get everything out, it looks like a bomb went off in there!

Of Rainbows and Sheds

Dreary weather. We were rewarded with a huge rainbow though. I don't know what it is about up here, but there seems to be more rainbows than back home in California. Maybe because there is more rain here? I don't know, but I love rainbows, so I'm in a good place! I know that picture isn't the best, but I haven't figured out how to get more color into a grey day.

The wind came up pretty big today too. I'm not used to that here. Back in CA, we had high winds a lot. Of course, there, I was right on the coast. Here I'm inland about 75 miles. (Weird for me, I was raised at the oceans edge.) I'm still surrounded by water. There is a river about a half mile to the east of me and the Strait of Juan de Fuca is about two to three miles north of me. I'm good with that. as long as there is water to look at. Of course, I get gigantic puddles in my driveway whenever it rains all day, so there's that!

Yeah. The wind. It made my goats' shed go boom!

It's kind of hard to tell by the picture, but that is the inside of the shed looking at it from the bottom. Those whitish strips you see are the ribs on the inside ceiling. The door is at the top. When the wind has let up, we will go figure out how to make it right side up again and then figure out how to keep it that way. Geez! Farm life is never dull. Never.

Since I have lived here (January 26, 2014) I have been gaining weight like an idiot. At first, I was more active and could handle the amount of food I was eating. I have COPD, and that started getting worse and the doctor didn't get me on the best meds he could have, so I had to slow down quite a bit. That just made it worse and I got a little depressed, therefore, since chocolate makes most of us feel better, chocolate became my best friend. Then last winter things blew up a little here and my daughter who moved up here with me, left on horrible terms. (We have since started talking again...but...) I was alone here for my first Northwest winter. I just sat in a corner with the heater and TV on, and ate. Chocolate had invited all it's other feel good friends to my pity party.  All this is to say, I have finally come to my senses and joined WeightWatchers. So, warning, I am probably going to bore you with all the facts of my weight loss journey. I'm putting it here, so I can watch my self grow in health and shrink in size. I have to. It's not doing my breathing any good. My knees are screaming at me, my ankles are screaming at me...my sensible head is screaming at me. Wish me luck...please?

Oh yeah. One more item of my life's goings on this week. (of course, it's THIS week) My middle daughter has decided to start helping me straighten out my sewing room. I am in the middle of finishing up really late birthday presents, I got some Christmas presents done, I am going to make stockings for my oldest daughter and her room mates. Then there are the dish towels I may or may not get to. I don't like the towels I got. I may just relegate those to my own kitchen and find some better towels to offer up as gifts. We'll see. It's only 25 days til Christmas and these have to get shipped to California! Accckkk!

Never accuse me of being organized...please!

I have been busy...

I managed to get three small projects done yesterday and today. I could have gotten more done but I am slow to learn the right way to do stuff. Maybe I just like the challenge of picking stitches out and see how fast I can do that...I don't know. On all of these projects I had to get the seam ripper out. Oh well, they got done and I am pleased with them.

Two of the projects are pillow cases for my niece and one nephew. Tomorrow I will do the second nephew's pillow case. I watched Missouri Start Quilt Company's tutorial for making these cases and it's really a straight forward tutorial. I did French seams, so there are no raw edges anywhere. That way the kids can be kids with them and they will hold up. Here they are!

The lighting sucks. Sorry. The ballerina case is pale pink and the band is a brighter pink, the cuff is pale apricot. I love the colors in that one. We all know what colors John Deere stuff is. The tractors and other equipment are on a two tone brown plaid. My other nephew plays football so his is a blue, white and black football themed fabric with blue and white accents.

I didn't take a picture of the little sewing organizer. I did it with scraps of fabric I had hanging out. I made it pretty bright and fun.

Progress has not been made on my pallet barn. Now I am thinking I need some of the materials from that to cover my chicken coop better. It's a mud hole! Except one small area where the food is and every time I go out to feed them I take my life into my hands walking through the mud to give them all fresh water and food. I know for sure by next winter that will be changed. I can't do this anymore. Slowly but surely I am learning what does and doesn't work. (And then things will change, so all my changes will have to be changed...but that's life, right?)

The time change is killing me. I'm north enough that the sun goes down early in the day during the winter anyway, the time change means that at around 4:30 in the afternoon, I'm thinking it's getting close to bedtime! I don't think I will ever get used to it. During the summer months it's fun, the sun is still up and shining brightly at nine or ten at night. I like that!

I'm off to go cook dinner. Breaded pork chops tonight. I don't know what else though. I'll just have to see what strikes my fancy when I look in the fridge! Have a good evening.

Look What I Got!

This is Euphoria by Karen Sikie. I won this from QUILTsocial. I was so surprised. I haven't won anything in a while. Which is fine, I think I win everyday when I look on all the quilty goodness blogs out there and learn from all the talented people out there in bloggyland. This was just the icing on the cake!!!

These are 1/2 yard pieces of really yummy fabrics. I can't wait to use them. I am thinking that I could make a nice wall hanging for my front room. I have one wall in there that is such a luscious color of red, but the other walls are a golden yellow and I think this will do well on the golden yellow wall, dress it up really nicely. My poor walls are bare because I can never decide where to put what. I forget I am not renting and if I put a little hole in the wall in the wrong place I won't get into trouble...it's MY wall!

Then there are these great little butterflies to go with it. I'm going to have so much fun with this! Sorry about all the wrinkles. I was too excited to share with you to stop and iron it all!

I just love this fabric! You all should head on over to QUILTsocial and check it out. There is all kinds of fun stuff there, including tutorials, which is why I went there in the first place. Now it is on my favorites list...I'll be going back more and more!

A Fun Flimsey

I started a table runner for my sister out of a batik charm pack I had wanted to play with. I also used a jelly roll that I bought which turned out to be the wrong color for the project I was going to use it in. I used maybe two strips of it for the table runner. I used more of the batik pieces. I had cut those in half and then cut five inch pieces out of the jelly roll strips. Sorry, I haven't taken a picture of the table runner. I guess I was too excited about this impromptu flimsy I did.
I just started sewing the cut charms after laying them out together in like colors. I did a "pattern" of sorts by just grabbing the top piece of a pile sewing it on the strip, then taking the top piece from the next pile and so on. I only stopped when I ran out of jelly roll strips. Then I started a "strip race". That always goes really fast once you get past sewing the first two strips together. I couldn't wait to see how it would come out. I knew it was going to be very light with some flashes of color.

Jelly Roll/Batik, strip race

That was fun! There would have been more color, but there were a lot of natural background pieces among the pieces of batiks, I supposed I could have pulled those out and added in the left over color pieces I have. I just didn't think about how it would work out. I like it anyway. I have no clue where I am going with this from here. I am thinking about an organic quilting, maybe curvy lines along the seams, maybe even some decorative stitches from the machine. I could go many ways with this since it is so open.

I am starting to gear up my brain to do a quilt called Labyrinth. I had seen a picture of it on Pinterest and then a girlfriend sent me a link on Facebook. I figured that was a sign. Then the very next day I found the pattern for it at my LQS! Of course I bought it! I am now going to go and pick up the fabrics for it. I'm doing it in purples. Although purples probably won't look wonderful in my bedroom. I might have to give it to someone else, we'll see. I may be too attached to it after I spend the winter working on it!

Speaking of seasons...fall came to my neighbors yard. I have some fall in mine but most of my trees are evergreens, so I don't get the color like my neighbor did.

He does a wonderful job keeping his yard nice. I was talking to him today when I was out taking pictures of the flimsy. He was out draining all his irrigation pipes. I water with hoses and those have been hung out to dry for a while now. As soon as the rains come back I start putting my stuff away. No need to water when Mother Nature takes care of that for me.

The pallet barn had to be set on the back burner for a while. I don't know when it will get finished. The poor room mate was rear ended last Thursday evening. Some teen aged boy, not paying attention. The room mate seems to have a pretty bad case of whip lash. He is at the emergency room right now seeing if they can get some X-rays to tell if there is any worse damage. I just got off the phone with my insurance adjuster. GAH! Accidents are such a pain in all aspects of the word!

Hope your week is going well!

Horses, Pallets and Barns

The room mate and I (mostly the room mate though) are putting up a pallet barn. My old mare that I rescued in California doesn't do well in the wintertime here. She's a California girl after all and used to the mild weather all year long. So I dreamt up an inexpensive way to help keep her and her little pal warmer during the winter. I went and collected pallets from the two towns close to me. It took a while to figure out where I could get loads of good ones. I initially collected 42 of them. So far the barn has cost just over two hundred dollars for 2 X 4's and 2X 6's. We won't add in the equipment I had to buy to make it easier! (That stuff just goes with owning a farm anyway, so it's an expense I would have had whether I built a barn or not.)

My first dream barn was twenty feet by ten feet, and then I got realistic for the time we had to build it. The barn is now ten by ten feet, which should be enough for a horse and a half. I will have to train the old mare that this is a good thing. She's a nervous girl and doesn't like being confined. I will just give her her favorite foods in the whole world to show her that the barn can be a good thing. I am sure that she will go in on her own when the rains and winds are coming down on her. She's been spending the cooler nights with her butt backed up against my bedroom wall and I am sure that can't be good for the house!

The pallet barn half way done:

It does look a little wonky in spots, but keep in mind these are pallets that were thrown together for one time use and not engineered for a building. They are definitely not square by all means. But nailing them together in several places and then putting up the roof will make it stable (ha ha...get it? Stable.) I have metal sheeting that I picked up at a recycling store last year just for this purpose. I am also going to put the sheeting all around the outside walls and that will make it even more sturdy.

I'm so excited! The room mate has been such a great help to me around here!

Next year I want to put up a hay barn, and if the two horses don't get along in the one space we will build another horse barn too.

Fire in the Sky!

I love the sunsets here! When there is a good one it is always so bright and firey! I have tons of sunset pictures.

Last night was gloomy and cold. No fire in the sky. I took this picture a couple of days ago, but still wanted to share.

When I went out to feed the big critters, there was a familiar nip in the air. One that I hadn't felt in a while, which is fine with me, I don't particularly care for nips, especially ones that are in the air! I looked south and low and behold, there was a little bit of snow on the Olympics. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think that is a little early. I haven't been here long enough to say for sure.

I guess that means it's time to get out the mucking boots and make sure there are no spiders lurking in them, and get them ready for mud season. I do know that if there's snow on the mountains, I need to be ready for the mud to come soon.

I just want to be the first to say...it is Spring yet?

I Have Pillows!

They are done! Actually, they've been done for a couple of days, I just couldn't get the pictures due to busy-ness and cloud cover. So, without further ado...

The backs.

 The fronts.

 Back and front.

Front and back.

I am so happy to be done with these. I loved creating them. There was no pattern. I just sewed by the seat of my pants. Putting in the zipper turned out easy enough. I found some really good videos showing how to do them. One in particular was done very well. I would love to give credit to the woman who's video helped me the most. Her name is Christy Burcham and her business is Scisssortail Studio. She did a really nice video for the placement and sewing of the Flap Zipper. Thank you Christy!

So now on to the other two pieces I want to sew for my sisters. One is an apron user. So I am making her a cute little apron. I have a pattern for that. If I can manage to read the directions correctly I will have that done tonight. I'm just not one for following directions very well. I tend to go off on my own path, so this is a good challenge for me. I already messed up on the cutting directions, but it wasn't a super critical place. I will be able to fudge the finish without any telltale signs. I am making a table runner for the other sister, since she has this gorgeous huge dining table and does a lot of entertaining. I will be Kind of following a picture of a runner, but I will mostly be doing my own thing.

I am so happy to be getting back into the swing of things here. It feels better. Now, I just have to keep my momentum going....

I hope you all are happily stitching away at your next favorite project. I can't wait to see what you are all up to!

Oh My! What Fun!

I would have never thought pouring too much bleach on something would be so much fun!

I got the denim fabric to complete my denim pillows, but I didn't like the way the new denim looked with the old. So I thought I would age the denim, and threw it into hot water with bleach added. That did nothing to the fabric. It looked new still. (Now if I were to do that accidentally to something I loved the color of, it would fade it in a nano second!

Then I thought since I am not in love with the denim I would experiment with it and bleach. Why not? Well, now I know why not. I think I have started something that will turn my craft room into even a bigger mess than it is already. I love how the experiment turned out and my brain is already churning with the possibilities I have just opened up!

There are some spots that the bleach ate the fabric, but once I have ironed and trimmed up all the bad spots I think this will work for the pillow backings. And now I will probably go look through all my boring fabrics and "re-do" them.

Then, knowing me, I will turn this new fun thing I have discovered into dyeing my own fabrics and making all kinds of messes.

At least I played in my sewing room!

Warning: Picture poor!

Just an update on my progress. I went and bought some dark denim fabric for the backing on my pillows. I was thinking about going ahead with zipper closures, and was going to buy the zippers today when I went to get the fabric. But being the me that I am, went off and forgot to buy them!

So maybe tomorrow I will run to Walmart and see if they have something appropriate, or just forget about it altogether and do the flap version or a nice button closure. I'm so scatter brained sometimes!

I really have to do some talking to get myself to leave my property. I don't know if it's the lazys that get me or anxiety. When I leave I have to stop my car, get out, open the gate, get back in the car, drive through the gate, stop the car get out, close the gate, then get back in the car and go. Then it's the same thing in reverse when I get home. So, you see, it could very well be the lazys! (Especially when the weather is being miserable!) I'll see in the morning when I get up, if I'm in a zipper, flap or button mood.

The room mate told me today that we have a date for the actual walking and planning for my pallet barn tomorrow afternoon. We've been talking about it for a month now and nothing happens. He's a busy guy. I'm just grateful that he wants to help me with this task. (Task? I think maybe it's closer to a major project!) If we can get this done, then I will also be putting up a fence at the back of my property to keep the horses on an acre back there, so maybe no gates in my future!

I sure wish I could have done all this when I was a younger, healthier person. It may have been a little easier!

Just because I didn't have any fabric-y kinds of pictures to show...I get to see this sometimes when I am having my morning coffee. Isn't that the coolest?

Hope you are all loving that fall is around the corner. I am!

Gaining On The Pillows!

Look! A post only four days after the last post! Something must be wrong.

No. I finally got my vision of pillows in check and have been moving forward with them.

For some reason the computer won't let me put this to the left, so I'm stuck with center.

The first picture is the second pillow top. I didn't end up quite with the plan I had. I was just so busy adding strips and making sure not to put all darks or all lights together I forgot what I was going to do. Until, that is, the very last little corner there. Oh well, it gives it a little more dimension. I put a straight border around the whole thing to give me more room to work with and to stabilize the edges, because those are bias cut. The border is a little "ruffle-y" but I think once I sew the back on it will work out fine.

The first pillow top needs to be enlarged, so I will add another row all around it to bring it into line with the size of the pillow forms.

So far I am pleased with how this is turning out. I always have worked better with an ad lib sort of plan. Hopefully, I won't screw up the final sewing of the pillow covers!

Two squares Become One!

Finally! No...FINALLY! I got one pillow top done. Not the whole pillow, but there is progress. I worked diligently on the top and then tried really hard to dive into the second one, but my back was not having any part of it. So I put everything away and covered up anything I didn't want the cat sleeping directly on, and went to bed. My inspiration seems to come at odd hours, like when I should really be eating dinner, or taking a shower, feeding my critters, whatever it is I want to avoid for some reason or another. Don't get me wrong, I get it all done, just not by a clock or schedule. It's a good thing no one has to count on me for something!

Yes, that is a hole there in one of the strips. I'm keeping it real here. I did keep the stains for the most part out as much as possible. There were, after all, my dad's work pants. Which he wore until he absolutely could not work anymore. And then they were his "puttering around" pants.

So, I have cut more strips from other pants. I have to decide how they will go together. I want to do a diagonal pattern of some sort. Maybe one side diagonal and the other side the strips going in a different direction. Like:

I have cut the strips in different widths, so it gives it some interest. We will see what comes of it. I have to get brave again and battle the back pain! I am inspired though!

After all this I have a pattern for an apron and the fabric I need for it. I want to make the one sister an apron. She wears one whenever she cooks. (Probably why her clothes are never stained!) Then I want to make a table runner for the other sister. Confused yet?

More to come. What do you think of my projects so far? I am not looking for compliments. I would like feed back. Your comments mean a lot to me and my growth as a sewist!

Happy Labor Day! I hope you all aren't laboring!

If all goes well, next week I need to bake some bread. I have a couple of yeast packets to use before they expire! I can't wait to smell the kitchen! Hee Hee!

What a difference (Almost) A Month Makes!

I'm still at those TWO squares! and my other sister's birthday is coming up!!! ARGH!
But so many things have pulled me away from my sewing room. Still a tad depressed, but things are better.
Who would have thought?
My former husband, who I have not been married to for several years needed a place to live, so, I rented him the loft in my house. I am not comfortable with having strangers in my home and I wanted to rent it. It's extra money and then I have someone here besides me just knocking around in this house. I never ever go up there, it has a spiral staircase and those are extremely hard on my knees and hips. I figured why not? Plus it helps to have someone around who is willing and fairly able to do some of the heavier work around the farm. We have been friends for years. There was just no reason to not be, after all, we share a family, and I adore his mom and dad, they love me, so instead of being the typical divorced couple, we have worked out a good relationship.
Besides, our adult daughter (who lives on my property)  has a boyfriend who seems to listen better to "dad", so things that have aggravated me are getting replaced with things that are more productive to my peaceful frame of mind!
Okay, well...since other things are getting done, not so much the things in my sewing room. The stuff that is getting done, is stuff that had gone by the wayside since the aforementioned boyfriend is listening now, and I have been catching up on other things that I struggled with because of my physical limitations, now that I have help.
My daughter and her boyfriend are spending a couple of days at his folks house to help out his disabled dad. She has promised when she gets back we will start organizing my house room by room. So I hope that in a few weeks, maybe less, I will be getting some sewing done.
The "boys" will be putting together a pallet barn for my horses, and fence in a smallish area for the horses to hang out in the winter. My poor old mare doesn't do well in the PNW winters. (She's a California girl!) Then they will be putting a roof on my chicken coop, so I don't play mud slip-n-slide when I go out to feed and clean the coop. There are other farm chores to be done, but I won't spring those on them until we get the critters taken care of.
Also, no pictures for now. I had to get a new computer, because the other one is tired and shuts down in the middle of stuff. I need to transfer the stuff from there to this new computer and then download what I have on my camera...actually, there really is nothing new to show!
Tomorrow I should be getting my farm truck back from the mechanic. I bought this truck and it had noises when I drove it. We did get to use it for a few farm type errands (like gathering pallets for the barn) When I bought it the woman told me it needed wheel bearings, so I was aware of the need for a fix up. I have now spent $5000 on buying and fixing it! It better be worth it! We do have a huge dump run to do since we are rebuilding the mobile that my daughter will be renting from me. I need to buy a trailer to do that more efficiently too. It never stops, ya know?
Okay, I have gone on and on. I'm sure you are bored with it. Next post, hopefully will have pictures, and pillows!!!

A Journey

A journey of a thousand stitches begins with the first two squares...let's see where this takes me!

It's been like getting my teeth pulled to make myself make those first cuts. It's ridiculous. There is nothing so important pending, I have no job, it takes all of a half an hour to do the animal feeding outside and five minutes max inside. I never get to my dishes until afternoon, heaven only knows why. I know I am depressed. Enough so that I am thinking that since I have to change doctors before September, I will get the one tagged as Geriatric and spill the beans to her. My last doctor's bedside manner sucked so bad, I told him nothing. NOTHING! I'm glad he is leaving his practice here and going to work in a hospital. There he won't have to form relationships with his patients. Okay, wait. This wasn't supposed to be about my medical woes.

Part of the problem with cutting this fabric is, because it's from my father's work jeans. I am making pillows from the jeans for my sisters and me. Cutting into the jean fabric is just hard. I know the fabric will be around and my dad is in my heart always. Why is it so hard to let go of it? Maybe it's because my one sister may not appreciate it as much as the other sister. (and me of course.) This first one is for the sister who will not appreciate it as much. I'm still doing it, because well, she needs our dad's pants in her house. Why not? 

The first pillow and maybe even the subsequent ones will be log cabin squares. I have 16" pillow forms already, so the only thing I need to do is sew them up. I'm not sure how the back is going to be done just yet. I'm thinking the fabric needs to be as heavy as the front. Then there is the question of should I put a zipper on it, but that seems like a pretty heavy thing to do. I could do the overlap in the back so the pillow cover could be washed if need be. (She doesn't have animals or kids, so the pillow wouldn't get too dirty soon.)

Well, the more I type, the less I sew. So, I'm going to close here and get some sewing and cutting done. I'll post a progress picture. 

Just reflecting

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. It's just so beautiful. We get these kinds of sunsets quite a bit. I watch the skies each night to see if I need to grab my camera and go out to snap a picture. I am thinking about making a wall quilt in these colors and try to figure out how to make it look somewhat like this sunset. We'll see, I still have to organize my sewing room!

I have been working off my scraps a little tiny bit. I pulled Tula Pinks "100 Modern Quilt Blocks" book out and every once in a while, do a block. I am doing them in order, because to do them any other way would be cause for catastrophe. It would never get done, because I wouldn't know where I was and where I was headed. I am doing it in whatever colors tickle my fancy at the moment. I started this the Christmas day after my dad passed away and I am only on the ninth block!!! Can you say slow and steady wins the race? Yes, I am slow, but unfortunately, I haven't worked on it steadily. Good thing I am not running an actual race.

This tree blooms all over every year. Well, it has the last two Springs. That's all I have been here. It blooms, becomes almost pure white and then about two weeks later, the blooms are brown. I have no clue what kind of a tree it is. I need to get an arborist (Is that what tree people are called?) out here to tell me what all my trees are. There are well over one hundred trees on this property. The previous owner came one day and showed me where various things are ( the water lines, electrical lines, etc.) I asked him about the trees and he rattled off several names and pointed in a general direction, but I wanted to take pictures and notes, he didn't have the time. Oh well, maybe I should invest in a Big Book of Trees.

My middle daughter and her boyfriend have moved into the mobile home I put on the property some months ago. It has no electricity, so they are basically camping. We are saving up the money for the electrical installation. That is going to cost us $2500. I can't wait until we get the money saved up. In the meantime, they have been doing a lot of work around here with me. It's nice to have the company and the help. They eat their meals here with me and take showers and do laundry here. I am glad that I have someone else here, but it will be nice to have them be able to do their own thing in the mobile. I grew accustomed to having the house all to myself. some days the comings and goings get pesky. Still I love having them. 

I am so happy that we have warmer weather on the way. Each day gets better. I wish I could afford to be a "snow bird". I would go back to California for the winter. I would have to have the kids take care of the outside critters and that is not fair to them. So I will just take what I can get when it comes to visiting "home". 

I suppose I have reflected enough. And I am sure I have bored you to tears. I have to go do more organizing. Wish me luck!

Spring Life

As much as I hated this past winter, I LOVE Spring! We can discuss the sneezy, watery eyed, can't sleep part of Spring at another time. (Summer will be another story altogether).

My middle daughter and her boyfriend spent a good part of the weekend with me Easter weekend. I loved it. I didn't want them to leave, although I have become accustomed to being by myself, pretty much 24/7. (I don't like that) They rent the unfinished bottom half of a house and although it's extremely affordable, doesn't have great accommodations for living. They have a bathroom, living room, bedroom, kitchen. The kitchen has a hotplate and a microwave. So, she buys food and comes here and cooks for me. All I have to do is clean up after. I think it's a good deal!
While they were here, I got ambitious and started going through my ever changing sewing room. While I was doing that, I came across some little itty bitty triangles, so of course, I became instantly side tracked and sewed them together in pairs. There were an equal amount of greens and coordinating prints. I was experimenting with a pattern for a baby quilt and the triangles were cut off of some picket fence pieces I sewed together. (Those blocks have now been set aside, the baby has a different colored bedroom and the fabric I choose won't do.) Then I sewed the tiny squares together. I came up with 24 squares that measured 1-1/2 inches! I took some of the green fabric and cut out borders for those sewed together squares.

Now I just need to figure out what I will do with this. I love how they went together. No plan in mind, no idea what I would do with it in the end. I seem to work better that way! This piece is about 6-1/2 inches by 8-1/2 inches.

Then I have been finally finishing up the curtains for my bedroom. The curtains that are in there right now are hideous. Just something the sellers had purchased and thrown in for effect. Nice when there wasn't any furniture in there and great for simplicity. Awful for any kind of style. Not that I have any sense of style when decorating a room. I just like what I like and put it there. I took a paint chip of the color for one  the walls, Butterscotch, to JoAnn Fabrics to see what I could find. I ended up ordering a bolt of fabric because they didn't have enough of what I wanted on hand. This fabric has every color conceivable in it, especially the butterscotch, so it's perfect! (I think) I bought eleven yards, with a 50% off coupon!!!

I also picked up just white cotton/polyester mix to put up curtains between the color fabric and the window, so the fabric won't fade as quickly, and will still be light. Which, you know what that means right? I will have to start all over again when I get the first set done!

I'm just happy that my winter blahs have subsided and I am finally able to move and get some stuff done. I am still debating on whether I am selling my property and moving closer to my home town. I will still be three hours away from there, but right now it's an 18 hour drive. I can do the three hours! We'll see. I will have to get rid of goats, geese and two horses. I really don't have the health to take care of them all properly now anyway. I mean, I can do it, but it is taking a toll on me!

Off I go to finish up my curtain project for today and maybe mess with my little triangle project too!

Farm Life

I love it! I do! I hate winter though. I have been depressed. Things have happened that weren't fun. My daughter moved out which is what threw me into the depression. Well, that and the winter weather. And unfortunately, we had to have our oldest mare put down today. She was 30+ years old and the winter was not kind to her. We didn't want to have her suffer any longer. So my daughter has no more horses. I doubt that she will get any more any too soon. Losing this one was very hard on her, she's been around that horse most of her life.
BUT...
Spring is here. Or close...I see buds coming out on the trees. One tree is in it's early stages of blooming. I think it's the Pussy Willow. Those soft looking little fuzzy buds, and now there's a hint of yellow coming out. The daffodils are sending up their leaves and there are buds on a few. Two crocus have showed me hope. A white one and a golden yellow.

I love these signs!





Other signs that I love...

Born Feb. 16 and Feb. 17


I think they may both be little girls, but I am not absolutely sure. They are not letting me get too close of a look at their undersides. Both were a surprise. I knew we were getting babies, but I thought I had another month.
The first baby's Momma is a Nigerian Dwarf/Nubian Mix and the daddy is Nigerian Dwarf. The second baby's Momma is Nigerian Dwarf, and the daddy is the same Nigerian Dwarf. The second one is a jumper, from the get go. Can you say CUTE!!! They made me a little happier, but now I'm even more confused, because I have been thinking about selling my farm and going back to California and buying a smaller place that I can handle on my own. I don't know.

Sewing and quilting haven't been happening at all. My friend is having a baby and I have picked up some fabric to make a quilt, I just hope that I can get my quilty mojo back. I have even picked out a cute pattern for it. It's not a baby-ish pattern, it will be a quilt that the little girl can use to have tea parties and picnics on later when she's "older" too. And ACK! I owe her big brother a quilt too. So I better get to mojo-ing!

I have done some crocheting. I had purchased some gem colored skeins of yarn and it sat here for a while I wondered what I was going to do with it. At one point I was going to make a gypsy kind of sweater shawl with it, but it was too thick for that. I found a cute pattern for an afghan and my living room is a colorful place, I decided to make the afghan for the living room. It's easy to sit and watch/listen to TV and crochet afghans. I've also started a cross stitch along, but I'm not doing as well on that. It's a design for each of the months. I haven't finished January yet!!!

I hope everything is good in your neck of the woods. If we all wish at the same time, maybe we will wake up tomorrow to SPRING!!! Let's do it on the count of three. 1...2...3!