Just Do It

You've all heard me whine before when someone asks me to do some sewing for them. One of the five doctors I work for asked me to make six cushion covers for some furniture. Isn't the fabric great? Flip flops on one side and stripes on the other. The only problem is, I have a short attention span for such projects. I have two of them finished (more or less), and do you think I want to make four more? No. . . I want to make something fun, of my own choosing.

she asked for placemats of the same fabric. I love making placemats, which are really just small quilts, so I won't whine about that. Maybe.

See this good looking group? It is a photo of my 35th high school reunion, held Saturday evening. It was such fun to be in a group where we all knew one another's background, and every one of us is 53 years old! It was a much smaller turnout than we had for our 30th in 2004, but times are tight. Not as many people could travel this year, but I only had to go about 15 miles. We had a good time, and plan to meet again in 2014. (I'm kneeling far right)

Summer Fun!

Larry has several guitar students. Most of them have longer fingers than this one. This one has nice long nails, though. :>} We spent the weekend doing lots of summery things. We got the pool ready. First we had to fish out the slimy leaves and pump the yucky water that accumulated in the cover over the winter.

A good time for reflection.

I don't know if I've ever seen such a perfect water lily. We heard lots of frogs and saw some splashing, but they kept out of sight. Water lilies make great cover for them.

A miniature summerhouse at Larry's parents' house.

A closer look. I do love miniatures.

Even though summer doesn't officially start for a few weeks, around here Memorial Day is considered the unofficial start of summer. My favorite time of year!

With honor and respect

On Memorial Day we honor those who have served in the military. They deserve our thanks and respect.

(Captain) John B. Martin is Larry's dad. He served in the Air Force during World War II, and today is our day to honor him. Thanks, John, for your service to our country!

Beautiful Buttons

Put your best foot forward with these colorful buttons. A lovely ceramic butterfly button.

I love these lighthouse buttons!

A little wooden mouse button.

Don't you just love buttons? They make such a fun addition to sewing projects. These gingerbread people are adorable, but came without holes to sew through. I guess they aren't really buttons - or at least they weren't. Larry came to the rescue and took his tiniest drill bit and drilled holes so I could sew them on. What a nice guy! This is a birthday present for my friend Ginny whose blog name is Gingerbreads House. I

This cat may be a familiar sight - I posted a picture of it last year, but I wanted to point out the use of the little wooden mouse button in the lower right corner. Today I was lucky enough to find more mice buttons. I bought this one ten years ago, and when I went back to the Knit Shop in Aurora, Ohio today to see if they had more, they did! Wow - ten years later - pretty impressive.

This one doesn't have a button - yet. It does have an underline beneath the word "your", though. A late breaking addition. It's for my brother who repairs computers for a busy government type place where everyone thinks his or her problem is the most important, and should be taken care of first. Of course.

Celebrate Life!

Today is my blog friend Ginny's birthday. (www.gingerbreadshouse.blogspot.com) We're celebrating her birthday with a delicious glass of ice water! And of course I baked her a cake, but unfortunately she lives 700 miles away, so we'll have to eat it for her. We'll think of her while we're eating it. ;0)

It's chocolate chip cake with walnuts, and we ate some while it was still warm. Mmmmm.

Her birthday outing was a walk in the park. This very large turtle came out to say "Happy Birthday, Ginny!"

The smaller turtle said, "A party? I'm in!"

Even the frog wanted to come.

What a pretty day for a birthday party! Wishing you the best, Miss Ginny!

Maybe someday they'll invent a phone that stays in one place so it won't get lost. It won't drop calls or need to be charged at the most inconvenient time. Oh, wait! I think they did that already - half a century ago. Do you like our rotary phone? We've had it forever, and when someone asks to use our phone (because their cell phone is dead) they say, "How does it work?" Sometimes you just don't have time to bake your own cookies. Fig bars (we used to call them fig newtons) with a square of chocolate make a dandy substitute.

Mmmm, yummy!

Unfortunately this is not a low calorie treat. Each fig bar has 60 calories, as does each square of chocolate. Yikes - they add up fast.

This is for a young man at work for graduation. I tried to make it look masculine.

Wishing you a happy weekend.

Trains, sewing, and a peace offering

Just a five minutes walk from our house is the Norfolk and Southern repair yard. Sometimes when we have company they say, "What's that noise?" We're so used to it we don't even hear it anymore.

Wow - all aspects of life, really?

It's a good place to walk with my best walking buddy.

We have another grad at work this year - in fact we have two, so I have a bit more sewing to do

Our neighbors came over with a peace offering and an apology for the flowering tree disaster last week.

Time to go give David a haircut. Have I ever told you that I cut all our hair? Larry hasn't been to any other barber in over 30 years, Daniel never has in his 26 years, and David only went one time, and paid $12 to find out that Mom does a better job at home for free. :>}

I hope you have a lovely week.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! Larry's parents came for lunch and brought this lovely bunch of lilacs from their own tree. They also brought gorgeous pink impatiens for the garden, and the beautiful heart shaped cookie you see here. I think she forgot for a minute that she's the mom, and we're suppposed to treat her!The yellow placemats and napkins posted a few days ago are for my mother-in-law, and Larry gave her a pretty plant. We are happy we still have our parents! My mom and I had our day together yesterday, and David even came along. The talking clock I ordered for her hasn't come yet, but she'll get it soon. It's great for someone who can't see. She just has to push a button, and the clock announces the time.

David gave me season 5 of Boston Legal. Do you watch it? We like it a lot! Larry gave me the first four seasons for my birthday. I'm not really much of a TV watcher, but I do enjoy Boston Legal. I can listen to one side of a court case and agree with the lawyer, and then listen to the other side and completely change positions. It's interesting and makes me think. It's also hilarious!

Vista Print can even make mouse pads. How cool is that? I needed one for work, the one I have is all curled at the edges, and advertises some kind of medicine. This will be a vast improvement.

See the mama duck sitting on her eggs? In six more days she will have cute little ducklings to take care of. She built her nest right outside Larry's parents' front door. This is not the first year they've had feathered visitors making their nursery close by.

I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Rethinking

I know, I keep saying I don't like to shop, but look what I found at Goodwill! Cute little bread and butter plates. I like them on this fabric much better than. . . what I intended to use it for - the backing and sashing for an I Spy quilt. I think I'll use white for that - unless you have a better idea?

Don't cry about that.

Have you heard Tina Shafer's song, "Don't Cry About That"? If I were clever like Daisy I would find it on YouTube and put a link here so you could hear it. I'm trying not to cry about it, but I can hardly believe the destruction that has occurred here. Our neighbor thought he was "helping us clear the brush" as he said, and cut down a whole row of beautiful Rose of Sharon bushes along the fence. As you can see, the fence is very ugly, and the bushes were beautiful. We loved them. Tears come to my eyes just thinking about it. How could someone come into our yard and do this? I am crushed. I still haven't learned how to do links, but last July I posted a picture of this same fence covered in lovely flora, if you're in the mood to do some scrolling. As this neighbor said, "They'll grow back in a few years." :>( I know that in the main scheme of things this is not important, but today it seems important to me. You all know how much I love flowering trees.

The gal who hates to shop

The gal who hates to shop found that using her birthday gift cards (from two months ago!) to JoAnn Fabrics wasn't too much of an ordeal. ;0)

I had a list so I wouldn't just go crazy. I needed brown - you can never have too much of chocolate colored fabric.

I needed something pink and bright and cheerful for a graduation wall hanging like I made last year. We have another grad at work this year.

I've started cutting the blocks for an I Spy quilt. Light blue with white stars seemed like a good choice for the back and sashing. I got a quarter of a yard each of the novelty prints above to use. It's for a baby quilt, but this baby isn't due until November, so I have a lot of time. So far I've cut about 40 squares, all different. I'm going to make it like the Hawaiian postcard quilt, with sashing surrounding each square. I'm wondering if it would be fun to make a match game I Spy, with two squares of each print, randomly placed.

Shhh, this is a present, but don't tell.

Ohio Paradise

Ohio really is the perfect place to live! The weather is so gray and gloomy for four months of the year that we REALLY appreciate it the rest of the time! On Sundays Larry and I like to take a long walk to admire God's handiwork. Today my friend Maxine invited us to breakfast since we were walking right by her house. Don't you love her giraffe tea kettle? I made the wall hanging for her, and then forgot to take it! I'll drop it off soon.

Her wall looks like a quilt! She just spent the last six months remodeling her kitchen, and was excited to show it to us. When you do the work yourself it takes a long time, but her results are fantastic.

Just a short walk from her house, Larry and I came upon this bridge. Neat, huh? There are no supports from underneath, and it sways a bit when you walk on it. I don't think I'd take a very big group across at one time!

Mmmm...our first watermelon of the season. Would you like a slice?

I hope you have a happy week, and have a bit of paradise where you live, too.