11 Years Ago Today...

we met with the Mayor and made some promises to each other...

It's been a great 11 years!  We've made a pretty good dent in our goal of 40.

For lunch we celebrated with Sushi, Sashimi & Yakisoba...and of course, people watching.

Happy Anniversary Honey! 

The vignettes that they place around Marado are always so nice...

Sometimes the smallest tools...

can bring the greatest satisfaction. 

I've spent some time today hand quilting.   An art that I have too long neglected.  My work today has reminded me how much I love it.  Aside from the sore fingers and the damage to my fingernails, hand quilting brings me much comfort. 

As I sat at my frame this evening I was visited by thoughts of my good friend Kitty.  She moved into the house across the street from where I lived with my young family back in 1980.  Jared was 2 and Rena was about 6 months old when Kitty & Joe moved into the newly finished house across Dobbins Drive.  She was about 68 at that time.  Within a couple months of their arrival a lumber delivery appeared in their driveway.  Over the course of a few weeks I watched that 68 yr old woman build a deck on the front of their house with very little help from her physically ailing husband.  I took her presence outside as an invitation to introduce myself and my children to what would become our surrogate grandparents for the next 6 or 7 years.  When I would get up in the night for whatever reason I would see light shining from her living room windows...sometimes at 2:30 or 3am.  Kitty would be sitting at her quilt frame late into the night...she hand pieced and quilted 2 king-size Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts that first winter.  During our first few visits I would learn that she was from Ohio, had worked in a foundry during WW2 as a welder.   They had decided to move south to enjoy some warmer weather and be near her sister who lived a couple miles away. 

Kitty, like most quilters, enjoyed sharing her enthusiasm for the craft with others.  She encouraged me to go with her to a quilt show, my first but not last, and I was hooked  We would travel to Fort Payne, Alabama where there were mill outlets and we could purchase fabrics for quilt backs that were 108" wide, something that was not readily available where I lived back in the early 80s.  On one trip we even stopped at  the official Alabama Museum.   She was a fearless woman and showed me I could do anything I set my mind to.

I hold her memory in my heart and thank her often for the wonderful world she introduced me to. 

When I sit at my frame I can still see her light shining...

A lobster boil, fireworks, exhausted dogs and some quilting

It was an awesome weekend!  So sorry it is winding down now heading into another work week.  I didn't really feel awake today until about noon.  Two nights being up late (for me) and I was wiped out.  So much fun...

I stopped at a couple yard sales on Saturday afternoon and picked up this beauty for $10.

 Saturday evening Wes & Rena joined us for a lobster boil that included

 Mojitos...yum! 

This is what happens when D & W throws a big lobster sale on Saturday morning and you can't pass up the $8.99 ea lobsters and $.12 ears of sweet corn.  The Saint set up the steamer on the deck and got to rockin the feast...lobster, corn on the cob, red skin potatoes, mussels & shrimp.  Totally awesome!

and this guy stared at me during the entire meal thanks to some strategic placement by Wes...

 

After dinner we enjoy a few fireworks in the backyard.

Sunday we drove up to Croton to visit some friends, had a great time sitting on the deck watching the boats cruise by on the river.

Skip & Mary put on a great dinner of pulled pork and some tasty salads.  Then the crowd enjoyed a nice fireworks show over the Muskegon River.  Hope you all had a great 4th of July too.

Today we've been resting, doing laundry and working on the quilt.  The dogs have finally calmed down and are able to get some sleep.  LittleDog spent 3 nights freaked out and is exhausted (despite the Xanax I picked up for him at the vet) so he spent most of the day like this...snoring lightly...

And speaking of dogs...do you think this is looking ok? 

And, what would you do about stitching around the individual colors on the collar?  I just can't decide what I want to do with that little detail.

Thanks so much for spending a few minutes at Chez B.  We all appreciate your kind words and encouraging thoughts.

Toodle-Loo!

In the frame...

As another Fiber Arts Friday rolls around I realize I haven't been here since last FAF.  I'm sure one of these days work will give me a break but it doesn't look like that's coming any time soon.  Until it does I'll have to stick with the once a week routine.

For those of you that just come for the pictures of LittleDog I'll give you a break this week and post him first...

Don't you just love that tongue?

I've been looking at this little quilt, hanging on the front of my bookcase, trying to decide what to do about quilting it.  After two weeks of practicing on the free motion quilting - without obtaining what I would call good technique I've decided to quilt it by hand.  On Sunday I rearranged a few things in the office and pulled my twin size quilting frame up from the basement and now I'm ready to get to quiltin...

 I'll post as I go, hopefully it won't take me very long.  If all else fails I can work on it intensively during my next staycation which, thankfully is only 8 working days away.

Thank you all for being so nice and posting comments.  I do so appreciate them and it's nice of you all to visit.  Be sure to check out the other creative peeps over on Andrea's Wisdom Begins in Wonder blog.

Toodle Loo!

So glad it's Friday!

Work continues to be daunting...let's celebrate Fiber Arts Friday instead, ok?

I have been doing some crochet.  Wanna see?

This is my favorite take out container, it's awesome for taking a nice big salad from home for lunch.  It's holding up pretty good so far but I have a difficult time finding a bag to carry it in as none are wide enough to allow my favorite take out container to sit flat...

 so I crocheted a bag especially for my favorite take out container...

Four skeins of Tahki Stacy Charles Cotton Classic, color # 3559 & #3703 held together, made up the pattern as I went along.  I think it is going to work perfectly.


Haven't accomplished anything else this week of the fiber variety.  Everyday when I get home I just crash from taxing my brain at work.  I know I'll stop and think a couple months from now that it wasn't all that bad but right now it seems pretty intense.  Starting at 7:30a, working through lunch and being just about the last one out of the building after 5pm...bleh.  It does make the work day go fast though and it is very interesting learning new things.  I'll be glad when I know "traffic"  as well as I know A/R.

Don't forget to stop in and say hello to Andrea and all the other Fiber Arts Friday peeps.  They're awesome!

LittleDog isn't liking the hot weather much but he's surviving.  He was even playing a game of hide n seek the other day...

all by himself!  LOL  It wasn't working out too well for him since he's still quite visible.

Have a great week, thanks for stopping by.

Friday June 18, 2010

Work is kickin my behind!  I'm slowly getting the hang of my new duties though and in a couple weeks should have a good handle on things.  I could certainly use a bit more sleep...Sam decided he needed to barf in 4 different places around the house at 4am Thursday.  Made for a long day yesterday, I think I ran out of gas at about 2 in the afternoon.  Tomorrow my computer will move to my new office so I guess it'll be officially my office then.  With a nice southwestern view.  No more avoiding the windows so I don't accidentally get a glimpse of Naked Guy, ew.  I'll be sure to take some pics to show you next week.

On the fibery front, I've been working on a couple different things in the few spare minutes I've found this week.  The quilt has been basted...

 I've practiced on some scraps to see if I can actually do free motion quilting around the clouds in the sky...

 jury is still out on that though.  And I'm thinking all that basting was a waste of time.

The Monkey that I showed you last week has stalled because I'm not crazy about the pooling of the color after the heel turn and I started this little mitten...

isn't it cute?  Made out of sock yarn, flat on two needles...a fun change of pace.  This is the child size.

Be sure to check out the other fabulous fiber artists at Andrea's blog.

Have a wonderful weekend.  I'll be Bashin' on Saturday and hopefully getting some yard work done on Sunday, weather permitting.

Does this look like a sick dog to you?

 Me neither, but he sure made a mess around here.

It's Friday! Have you had your fiber today?

Another week has flown by and here we are again at Fiber Arts Friday!  Don't forget to stop in at Andrea's blog and check out all the fine fiber artists she knows.

Here's a Monkey I've been knitting on for Rena.  She started them Magic Loop method and when she got to the point of starting the heel flap stuck them in a bag and forgot about 'em.   One Tuesday when I went to her house to sit and knit I took my red sweater to work on.  When I ran out of yarn and hadn't brought anymore with me she pulled out these socks and asked if I wanted to do the heels.  Pretty sneaky isn't she?

They are such a pretty color I don't mind knitting on them.  And I've changed back to dpn's...I really like not having to fiddle with a cable.  I got the dpn bug while I was knitting the sleeves for Mr. Greenjeans.  It was just easier to use the dpn's instead of running that cable around and around.  I'm thinking I'll have to order some of those nice nickel plated dpn's that Knit Picks has.  I got a set of size 2.50 mm but can see a couple other sizes in my future.

I added to my sewing machine flock tonight.  The Saint and I picked up a Singer 201 in a nice little cabinet.  I'm guessing that the original owner must have been married to a cigar smoker...pee-ewe!!!  I rubbed the cabinet down with Olde English and it doesn't look too bad.  It is nice and solid.  The machine is ree-ly dirty.  It'll take some serious work to get it super spiffy.

The Singer 201 is a straight stitch only machine.  The 201's original owner was either very creative or had a great passion for gadgets as there was a button-hole attachment...

a zigzag attachment...

and a blind stitch attachment...

in one of the drawers...along with a gazillion old buttons!  And then there was the very scary wiring that I'll have to deal with...

this is the machine end of the cord that goes from the foot pedal to the machine.  Don't think I'll be plugging this baby in any time soon.  Guess I'll get some wiring practice on this machine.

I'll leave you today with this, the sun was going down over the houses across the street from Chez B...such a beautiful sky...

LittleDog says have a great weekend!