welcome to this week's list of likes starting with other people's flowers!
We walk a lot and I enjoy seeing lawn ornaments and pretty flower displays. Our rose bush is adjusting to life in our yard, no blooms yet but they might be these colors...
this yard had 5 of them, orange, yellow, coral, sunset, pink
what are these? red violet colored TINY bells on stalks
how pretty this porch box is! Pink/yellow, white and lush!
mighty clouds filled the brilliant blue sky this week, as a storm blew in to put a stop to over 100 F temps
It is a pure relief to see merely 80's (I do not like it that hot)
we had a big leak from our dishwasher which meant we had to get a degree in dishwasher comparisons and fork out a LOT of money for this
Our plumber came out to install it. Midway he whistled, "are you kidding me?"
the builder put in the island and dishwasher, then installed the wood floor around it so it was super difficult to get the old one out, and this new one in, requiring some pounding. Our plumber said Lowe's would not have done all he did to get this one in,
having had poor quality from them before installing our Washer we automatically called our guy.
He goes by "mad mike" and he also replaced our water pressure regulator
When the temps dropped this week we hurried to bake a loaf of bread, a set of hamburger buns, banana muffins, a pizza, and some chicken. Oy vey.
Our flowers are not blooming, the lettuce was nearly killed by the heat, the tomatoes are behind not even making little tomato balls in flowers yet the wildflowers are green seedlings, but the parsley is alive.
A friend sent a pic of our old house in Maryland after the storm, condemned from tree falling damage!
We talked about Milo, and her dog Piglet... and I went looking for a video to show you of Milo's early childhood
Missing Milo
here's a video of Milo as a puppy enjoying his magazine hobby
for anyone who lost a button
gratuitous painting
Mission Impaw-sible with cats, hilarious to me
The conversation starter this week:
Do you play summer sports? Tennis, or golf, or pickleball, etc? Do you
have a special outfit for them, or equipment?
I'm not sporty, me and "ball" sports have little in common
I tried as a young university student to learn to really play tennis, my boyfriend at the time was all around sporty guy, ice hockey, tennis, marathon runs, hiking, camping, well many things.
He would hit the ball right to me, I'd swing, hear the air rushing through the empty strings, and the thonk of the ball wedging itself into the fence.
then I tried racquetball but again, not great.
I tried running, even did a 5K race where I came in next to last but counted it a win since I never stopped to walk.
walking long distances is my thing, and dance. Swing, tap, ballet, Cajun, jive, contra.... anything dance.
Our neighborhood now has a tennis court where pickleball people take over all the time.
I walk on by.....
oh yes, before marriage, I met a guy when I did the Renaissance Festival, who invited me to go to the yacht races on his sail boat yacht...
I may have been more for ballast lol but I still learned to be more of a help than a hindrance. Davis Island Yacht races I think, it was in Tampa.
Not even good at that sport, I went where told, ducked when the beam came across, pulled on ropes, and had a great time. He had a fairly small vintage beautiful wooden sailing ship, with lots of nice people there to help move me from side to side.
I remember it heeling over so far I missed having seat belts, and thinking, are there sharks just below my head?
I went out with him on the yacht a few times but it wasn't meant to be forever, just one of those truly interesting experiences.
I think that counts for a summer sport?
now please visit these fine folks to see what they liked this week!
I've been progressing on each project this week. Each step teaches me, each color excites me, art is healing
Above is my rainbow scrap challenge block this year, a hexie spiral. Hand stitched with small scraps from my orange collection. So satisfying when it is done.... here are the colors completed so far
just blocks lying next to each other
The Index Card a Day challenge is on, I'm woefully behind but have now done several. We use the prompts to create something each day....
"Spring" "Cobalt" "Iguana"
Love how the paints blended in the petals
drawn from an OLD photo online
when I see a prompt I wonder how I can interpret it in some unique way, so in person, her dress is brilliant cobalt blue
I could have drawn an iguana but chose to do mixed media. I printed out an image on paper, tore away what wasn't the black line drawing, glued it to index card then painted with watercolor pencils and ink
"embroidery" "Tidal Pool"
"Iridescent" "Leopard"
I did paint with iridescent inks but they don't photo well, and I thought of ways to show leopard....
I feel like I know this woman somehow.... the mix of animal prints, kind of chubby but reaching for fashion
the ladies so far
Back to sewing.... I finished piecing the Spring Leaves top basted the layers together with pins, and began quilting it
first pull threads to use, think about how I want the texture, face using the tiny Gem machine to do this
I usually don't try to match, but to accent with threads.... this one became my favorite to use for this stage of quilting
it has a bold thick texture, a lovely gentle color change, and looks so good when stitching in more leaves
A mix of straight line quilting to stabilize then some detail work here and there, keeping it flat and balanced with each addition. I don't do all one area then the next as that can distort.
I just love the way it's coming along. As I quilt I decide what to do, where, which with treads.
so many tiny scraps, added one by one in the strip stage, inserted curves, all different tones and shades of green, different fabric prints, all come together in this... some planned, some serendipity
I called a local shop to ask prices for the Janome 6700 P machine.
It's time (I miss the demise of my Bernina 1630)
The salesman mentioned I should check out the pfaff expression 710 and it does come with a lot of feet I use, and the dual feed is a good thing.
tell me what you think...bernina's are just too expensive for me at this point
welcome to this week's list of likes starting with another yard ornament, this time on a shed, and I always smile at it. Plus the people that live there have a bulldog.,, who is very engaging and happy.
Hiya! can you see me? I'm a little happy gnome behind the fence
I'm a yard bunny not an ornament!!!
I came out this week, to paint my nails and startled the yard bunny who leapt off the patio, then stopped to see if I'd go away. Since I continued to paint my nails, he sat, then laid down steps from me, then rolled over in the most casual poses...
just like Milo used to do, are you reincarnated already Milo? or did this bunny watch you too?
I LOVE clematis but didn't know it would grow here!
The grocery store delivered two cabbages instead of two heads of lettuce....
oy
I thought I'd try slaw, which I have never made. I've made a mighty number of dishes and meals in my life, but not being a fan of slaw generally, never made it til now. DH grated it into shreds, grated a carrot to go in and I made the dressing.
I loved it!
I also just love using our big bowls to mix stuff in... a shiny silver bowl! So pretty to use
never content to truly follow a recipe and they are mostly all the same online for slaw, I mixed mayo and greek yogurt, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, white sugar, S & P onion and garlic powder and a bit of dried mustard.
it came out great! I do like a deli salad for sides, and make carrot, potato, 3 bean,. broccoli salads
I scrambled egg whites with cheese tomatoes and chives this week to have egg quesadillas for lunch...
and had eggs left for breakfast later in the week! win win.
as my niece says, if you cooked and don't have leftovers you wasted your time.
(she may have heard that from me)
breakfast of champions
I've been doing index card a day prompts as morning pages... more on saturday's art post, but
I like to paint
I love to sew and finished the quilt top I've been working on (working title Spring leaves)
just a peek, more on Saturday's post
reading
on audio, next one in the Hannah Swenson mystery series by Joanna Fluke
on ebook one of Rhys Bowen's mollie murphy mysteries
Conversation starter this week
Did you go away to sleep=away camp in your youth? Did you like it, or were you homesick, did you learn something new there? How were the other kids and the counselors?
I saw things like that on movies but I never went. The most I did was a 3 day church camp in Florida, with bunk beds and swimming pool were girls and boys had to go at different times. No pants allowed, just skirts, OMgosh it was all uncomfortable. I was afraid I'd walk or talk in my sleep.
as far as camping, it's not my thing. I've done tent camping, with an ex boyfriend, Mr Mountain man, and once as a young social worker, with coworkers, we canoed and camped out and I learned the meaning of chiggers, and had Baileys Irish cream in my morning coffee made over a fire.
Mountain Man was a big outdoors guy, so we camped in Jasper Nat'l park, and near Lake Louise, and other sites. I woke one morning to seeing the tent being pushed in by some disgruntled critter. I had slept in every outfit I took, since I was cold, was out the tent and on top of the concrete picnic table in a flash. I saw an enormous elk pushing the tent with it's antlers, yelled at MM to get. out. now.
He came out and laughed at me.
Undeterred, I insisted on reporting the incident to the park rangers who also laughed at me.
"miss, would you like us to relocate the elk?" bwaaaahahahaha
(some old guy is now telling his side of this tale to grand children)
every time my now husband and I tried to camp it was miserable. At one point our lab-radaughter Chelsea left the campfire went to the door of the camper and whined to just go to bed such as it was, and maybe it would all disappear in the morning.
Please visit these fine folk to see what they liked this week:
I have just a few things to share with you this week starting with one of my two rainbow scrap challenge blocks this year. The color focus is on orange scraps this month, and using them.
I chose 4 duos this week, cut them into 2.5" strips, sewed cut sewed cut sewed them into blocks of orange
Orange covers a large spectrum of color, from yellow orange to pink orange (coral)
I tried to blend some as they will not be together in the final quilt top, but mixed in with all the other colors.
Orange makes a quilt sparkle, even just a bit of it in whatever tint you choose
close up of the pink/orange block to show the words
I started basting the hexies for this month's spiral hexie block
I played with the idea of another small embroidery piece done with fabric shards
like a rose kind of, or a like life, making some order out of chaos
I am not doing much other than morning pages right now in painting/drawing
a mix of gouache paint, and inktense ink pad with brush. Tried to control the slanted leaf brush, but the bristles tended to separate. I must be doing something wrong. At the end I did the hyacinth in blue/purple, lavender and white dots of posca pen.
I'm woefully behind on Index Card a day challenge but with focus I'll catch up
this one was from the prompt pretzel
pencil, and inktense pan set on top
of course this spring green quilt is still in progress, each step of sewing together joining strips defies my design ability. It's almost together into a cohesive top... started the week kind of like this
curvy piecing to put those scrappy strips next to a straight one, decided the bottom set needed to go into a different project...
feeling proud of myself for making a decision the borders started going on, and from looking at it as a picture I saw those two light green strips looked like railroad tracks... GRRRR
I do not want to unsew anything so how to mitigate, applique a little light green on the border?
note I also cut wee leaves out of dusty greens to applique onto the bottom area between the first two scrappy strips and love it in person
they will be free motion quilted in the next stage if ever I get there!
so here's to overcoming anxiety about my country and life, for long enough to be my true self,
welcome to this week's list of little likes starting with another yard ornament, or is it a house ornament?
Anyway, I love the way it looks against the stone, the beautiful plants/flower baskets and the bench next to it all on the front porch of this house. The house next door has a kokopelli tucked into a tree stump
I enjoy walking and looking at what each person adds to their yards.
I notice things such as the roof on this house turret is the exact same shade as their shiny VW bug
which was charming in the shade... I had lessons in driving a stick shift (manual transmission) on several cars but truly learned the feel of it driving my friend's VW bug and I still love the look of them
I have lots of cute yard ornaments to show you in the next few weeks, but flowers catching my eye this week were
a glorious display of purple iris!!!
yellow iris, amid an Enormous rose bush
Sunlight catching this tree and making it glow
a gloriously blue sky with mighty clouds building up to rain
I kind of see a bunny or puppy facing to the left
our teenaged yard bunny, always likes this particular area of the yard
it's getting bigger daily!
til an eagle hawk or owl dismembered a bird right there overnight.
Bunny, be careful out there....
Bunny: I saw the feathers right on my prime eating and napping area, luckily I can come up on your porch still, so stay inside mama!
I do not like the taste of store bread now, so we tried a new to us recipe for faster loaves and it was fast and it is perfect sandwich texture and the house smelled great while it baked. Recipe :
I tried half recipe to make one loaf, and let it rise IN the loaf pan, even at high altitude it only took the 28 min to bake. Try this one!
We visited the donkeys again this week, and they were in a field of orange flowers...
and their horse friend...
and we met Phoebe, a 9 year old collie, who had just visited the groomer and had butterflies in her top hair.... so cute.
we had a good visit with her mama, and talked about pets we've all loved, vet care, etc
(I always keep my eyes and heart open to the right rescue for us, but not happening yet)
We visited with one of Milo's friends a doodle named Murphy, and his mom too
She told us she had a toy poodle she once took into the movies with her in a purse. She had popcorn water in a small tupperware and her dog was silent except for one burp!
Luckily her husband patted his stomach and said, excuuuuuuse me!
I'm still trying to paint and quilt, especially morning pages/doodles
progress on my spring quilt
Reading
I just finished Blackmoore by Julianne donaldson the third book I read from her and LOVE her style
Starting another Jana Deleon in swamp mysteries series
yep
Conversation Starter this week:
do you swim? Who taught you? Do you still enjoy swimming and where? Were you ever on a swim team? Are you comfortable in the water? Pool, lake, or beach?
I became afraid of drowning when I was about 4, from sinking in a pool and it took a long time for family to notice. I did take swimming lessons, as a child, learning to float, tread water, and tried to learn to do the crawl.
I not only retained my fear of face in the water, but developed some kind of ear issue where water won't come back out or dry with alcohol. I got a lot of ear infections then wised up, now ever shower or rain blowing into my ears, gets stuck and causes trouble.
Even with all that I love the beach, love floating on a plastic chaise, love the feel of pool water swirling around my skin, love the buoyancy feeling, everything but face in the water.
I kind of maneuver around with a breast stoke, or puppy paddling look which might save me if needed!
Diving is awful to me, never mastered diving boards as a child. I'd pick the beach first, in fact while on vacations in Florida I am the one down at the beach while friends stay at the pool. Lakes? ewww too much to step on for me there.
My sister lived on a lake in Florida, and I once tried skiing and got up but man, it was scary. An alligator in that lake ate one of her dogs!
Now please visit these folks to see what they liked this week (let me know if you want to join us)
