"Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least." ~Goethe~

23 June 2014

Lazy days of Summer...















     The start of this Summer has been the best in a long time.  The garden is doing great and lots of early Summer treats are coming out of our little patch of veggies.  It has been so wonderful to walk out to the garden in the cool morning air and pick things to eat on during that day.  Such a great way to start the day.  There have been many times already when I just stop and eat little snacks while I'm still out there.  Snacking away at all kinds of lettuces and other yummies while listening to the early morning birds.  Such a wonderful way to start the day.

     There have been many visits to the library so far.  So many books to check out, so many activities to join in on there.  It seems like it's been non-stop at least for the last two weeks.  Science experiments to see, reptiles to hold (not for me), free movies and much more.  The girls have rated our library as the absolute best in the world.  And just think, the Summer activities aren't over yet.

     The weather has been absolutely perfect this Summer, so far.  I don't remember the weather being this great in years.  The mornings are cool, there are breezes all day long and even with the temps getting into the upper 80's and a couple of low 90's I still have not turned on the A/C once.  I know that day is coming.  But for now I'm just loving having the windows open every day.  Morning, noon and night.  It's been a wonderful treat to have the windows open every night.  Just about every night.  There were two nights where I flew out of the bed to shut the windows as fast possible due to a lovely smelling skunk somewhere nearby.  I only ran into a door frame once and scared the begebees out of every one else in the house.  It's a wonderful ruckus to have to deal with in the middle of the night. 

     There have been quite a few days we have been lucky enough to where there was no where to be rushing off to, no expectations.  Those days were fabulous.  Slow starts in the morning.  Lounging around in pj's until nearly lunch time.  Blankets thrown out in a bedroom so special play time can happen.  Special little animals being read fantastic stories by a sweet little girl.  And another not so little sweet girl creating more things to decorate her room with.  It's been wonderful seeing the girls go from one creative thing to another and filling their days with such happiness and "busy" work since the rule for the Summer has been no TV or video games.  It reminds me of the Summers when I was little and makes my heart sing seeing the both of them enjoying every day with all that they find to fill the day with.  

     I finally finished the quilt for my Mom for her birthday.  It turned out just as I imagined it would, probably a bit better than that truthfully.  My favorite part of it all was learning a new technique to add the heart on the back just for Mom.  Just hearing her voice when she opened the package made all the work put into it so well worth it.  Love you Mom!

     And apparently I'm the best Auntie ever in the world.  My sweet little niece wanted a Princess Elsa dress for this coming Halloween more than anything in the world.  So once I received all the supplies from my sister, construction commenced.  It turned out pretty good.  But it may be the one and only princess dress I ever make.  I have a great appreciation for all the seamstresses in the world that work with all that slippery, shimmery fabric all the time.  I have also figured out why wedding dresses and fancy schmancy dresses are so expensive.  There is a "frustration" charge added to all of them due to all the finagling that must be done with this not so wonderful fabric.  This is just my theory to it all.  But I will be reminding someone in the years to come that I am the best Auntie in the world.  I wouldn't want her to forget that.


~*~

Kar




06 June 2014

Summer time sewing...





     After being inspired by a beautiful quilt, I couldn't help myself and just had to start cutting out fabric for one of my own.  My measurements are a tad different so I could use some fabric that I've had stashed away forever.  So far so good.  Here's hoping for lots of sewing time this weekend.

~*~

Kar

02 June 2014

Too many favorites...











     Can a person have too many favorite quilts?  I'm starting to wonder.  I quickly finished my aqua/orange quilt on Saturday while watching a movie on the computer and listening to the girls rummage around in the craft room for perfect "stuff" for their creations.

     It's hard to say what is my favorite part with this quilt.  The colors are awesome, the front is made of half-square triangles and the back has the left over HST's thrown about randomly on it and stitched straight to the backing.  I didn't even bother with cutting the backing out from behind the squares because it wasn't that bulky. The binding was just right.  And let's not forget the blue wavy quilting.  So hard to choose.

     There were three people who immediately started bartering for time with the quilt as soon as it came out of the dryer.  They were not happy that pictures were to be taken first.  Afterwards, I just handed the quilt off and moved out of the way so three people could work out their snippets of time as they saw fit.

     I may have even slept with the quilt on the bed that very night, even though it was not needed.  After I got up in the morning I heard footsteps going into my room and came in to find a weasel getting more time in with the quilt.

~*~

Kar