The Rehearsal

Goin' to the chapel and we're

gonna get married...

...Goin' to the chapel of love!

our DD and her BF

opening a wedding gift from Grandma

Wednesday Women V

Wednesday evening we enjoyed dinner with Steven, Melody, and her family. I meant to get a picture of the women in the group, but I forgot! This picture is Melody serving dinner; in back is her mother and in front is her sister. So it's most of the women who dined together, except for me.

Steven and Melody made delicious all-from-scratch enchiladas (vegan). The only thing they didn't make themselves was the tortillas, and they say that's next on their "to-be-made-from-scratch" list.

We had a wonderful time... talked some wedding, some history, some stories, had some laughs. This partnership has the look of "forever" about it. Hooray! Wedding is in two days!

Earrings!

This is a long overdue nod to the artistry of Pamela's Jewelry Designs... here is a link to her Etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5774194

A while back she had an earring give-away for early visitors to her shop. I was one of the lucky recipients. Here's the crazy part: I don't have pierced ears, and I don't wear earrings! Last night my daughter came over and decided to take them as possibilities to wear to the wedding. Maybe you'll see these again in a wedding picture!

Reward for Working Hard

Yesterday, after a long day both of us spent cleaning, Charles made us a delicious dinner. He used his George Foreman grill which I gave him for Father's Day.

That's all for now! Just sharing a photo of the wonderful dinner we had last night. Today it's on to more cleaning and some last minute prep for the Saturday wedding. Excitement mounts!

And One More

I had this photograph ready to go last night, but forgot to post it. Guess I was more tired than I thought.

It's another quilt top I made yesterday at our sew-in. The 5 pieced blocks were donated by my friend in Nebraska. This will go to Sunshine.

Refusing to Panic

The wedding takes place at our house next Saturday... we are not totally ready, but I refuse to panic. It's going to be a fun day, and we'll be as ready as we can be when the day arrives.

Meanwhile I spent the day sewing... 13 hours today! My guild gets together once a month for a marathon sewing day. Well, a fraction of my guild shows up, but those of us who do show up always have fun and get a lot done. I'm very tired and about to go to bed, so I'll just show you what I managed to sew today, and that's it for now.

baby blanket for Rosebud

an overdue gift quilt that I assembled; all it needs now is a border

another baby blanket for Rosebud

ditto the above

a lap size quilt that is assembled except for the borders;

and there was one more baby blanket that I neglected to photograph

It's Friday, Barely

Bea - my co-teacher - working on a quilt for her almost-born granddaughter! We get to see pictures and hear all about the new baby in a couple of weeks.

Leslie working diligently in our quilting class.

It is currently late on Thursday night, early early Friday morning. I am about to go to bed, but first I wanted to jot down some thoughts. Nothing profound... I'm just feeling blessed with happiness and wanted to make a list.

1. I ran across an old file of my son's artwork starting from kindgergarten up to about 7th grade. He has always been so creative! And his vocabulary at young ages was so impressive! I'm glad I saved all this cute, wonderful work of his. It was a joy to look at it and remember the old days.

2. Leslie is learning how to quilt (in the class I'm helping teach) and is doing a good job. She criticizes herself, but I hope she's enjoying the process. I think she's doing so well. Today she brought along strawberry bread that was super delish! I'd never eaten strawberry bread before. And she brought along her mom who is also super delish! :-)

3. Tomorrow Charles is taking the day off so we can work together on cleaning our house. AND a professional is coming to wash our windows! I always love it when I clean my glasses and can see in High Def (my little joke). Clean windows might blow me away!

4. It's fun to plan little trips to beautiful places in Minnesota. I love this state! And I like to share our family's little bit of heaven with friends. I get to do that next week after the wedding.

5. Today Megan was wearing such a cute summer top. Isn't that a funny thing to be thankful for? I just liked it and thought she looked adorable.

6. I like it when I can share my abundance. I packed up some fabric and sewing supplies to send off and share with others. It makes me feel happy to know that they will enjoy working with this stuff as much as I do.

7. When it's really late at night like this, and I'm starting to feel chilly, I love looking forward to crawling into my warm and comfy bed. We got ourselves a new bed a couple years ago, and I am still amazed at how wonderful it is. I often get into bed and then lie there just feeling like a queen and commenting at how much I love our bed! So I'm off to my Happy Place. Nighty-night!

Wednesday Women IV

Today's lunch was with Tammy from Texas. Sally and I met her at a St. Paul coffee shop. Tammy and her son are here on vacation. What a nice young guy (and isn't he cute?)! He took this photo. I wish he would have turned off the "make them look old and fat" button... why did he use that special effect? We all wondered.

Tammy gave each of us some Texas fabrics. Wasn't that nice?

After lunch we went downstairs to a local bookstore, Common Good Books, owned by Garrison Keillor. No GK sightings today, but we all found some books to buy. Upon leaving the store, Sally was muttering.. "it's like taking an alcoholic into a bar." LOL. Exactly.

I bought this book. I don't usually buy books like this, but lately I've been more receptive to this kind of thing. I want to open myself up to "awakened living." (In case you can't read the subtitle, it's "Daily Reflections for Awakened Living.")

What I'm thankful for:

1) books

2) friends

3) beautiful summer days! (Tammy and her son are basking in the "cold" they feel here in MN after the 100's of Texas)

4) flowers

5) family

As the Summer Turns

WoooHooo! I'm really feeling good, and am so happy about the upcoming wedding. Steven and Melody asked me to put together a photo board to have on display at the reception. They emailed me a bunch of pictures, and it makes me grin from ear to ear to see the pictures. They have had SO MUCH FUN together ever since they started dating (about 2.5 years ago). Hubby and I love to see that. We think having fun and really enjoying being together is very important in a marriage. So they seem to be off on the right foot.

It is fun to be enjoying such a happy glow this summer.

Today I made a toy.. a two-headed wonder.

And then I realized that if I turned it upside down, it would have been a good shape for a square headed guy with two rounded legs. So I made another one.

They're twins, sort of.

Tomorrow I have to do the Mission Team attack (i.e., hard work organizing and cleaning) in my sewing room. Uffda.. what a mess. Wish me luck!

Butt-Shot Saturday

On this exceedingly gorgeous summer day, our soon-to-be-married son came over to help clean up some of our yard and the patio space where his wedding will be held. I ended up getting a lot of butt shots of the men in action. I declined to show you all of them (you've seen one butt-shot, you've seen 'em all?).

I did a little fancy stitching (via machine) on the shirt my son plans to wear in his wedding. Here's a sneak preview.

Last night I made two more blocks for Sunshine.

Today I had to run some errands for the wedding and just for our regular life. I ended up missing a surprise birthday party because of my errands and sewing duties, but I knew my attendance was iffy this close to the wedding. I hope the birthday party was fun! They had a gorgeous day for it. May we be as lucky on wedding day, two weeks hence!

The Summer Lazies

The summer lazies have hit. For the last few weeks I have been busy with volunteer stints, church stuff I had to do, various meetings, and self-imposed cleaning deadlines.

I have not completed all the above, but most of the time commitments have come to a halt. And I am reeaaaallllly enjoying my free time. I'm taking it easy, moving slowly, reading a lot, sewing randomly, and being the Ultimate Summer Lazy Queen.

I don't imagine my readers would be enthralled with a detailed account of my lazy days, so here is my life, in a nutshell: the sun shines, it rains, I water my flowers, I putz around the house, I go out for lunch, I take naps, I make an occasional toy or a quilt block. That's enough detail.

And I'm slowly getting back into the cleaning mode so we can get the house all ready for the wedding... two weeks from tomorrow!

Here are pictures of blocks I have been working on sporadically:

After all that work, I think I deserve another nap. Don't you?

Today I'm thankful for:

1) summer lazies!

2) my laid-back and oh-so-sweet husband

3) naps

4) good books (I'm reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett - fabulous!)

5) a wedding to look forward to very soon!

Wednesday Women III

Today I had lunch with my aunt and my uncle. (You see that it's not only women who are eligible for my Wednesday lunches.) They have lived in a new condo for a few years, but I had never been there before. It is beautiful! They fed me a yummy lunch, complete with ice cream for dessert, and we chatted, and I got a tour of their new place. I used to regularly see them over the 4th of July, but since our traditions have changed over the years, I don't usually see them on the 4th any more....sometimes not at all during the summer! I'm glad I started my Wednesday tradition.

Both in their 80s now, they are not as hale and hearty as they once were, but are still sharp and funny and interested in the world. My uncle makes me laugh, and he says my laughing causes him to become sillier, so it's quite the effect we have on each other. I also love how much he reminds me of my dad, even though they were brothers-in-law and not related biologically at all.

These two lovely people have always been my favorite aunt and uncle. They rock!

I'm thankful for:

1) loving family

2) another good book group discussion last night

3) friends

4) good books

5) laughter

What a Doll !

Since we have been working on cleaning up our house and getting extra "stuff" put away and out of sight, it seems difficult to work on large projects such as quilts. I am actually going to put away and box up my fabrics until after the wedding!

Toys, however, are quick and easy, and they don't require much fabric, so when I get a few minutes for fun, I make a toy. Yesterday I made a doll. She's my first "real" doll... all my others have been feeble attempts or more monster-y than dollish. At first I thought she was going to be a disaster, but once I got her stuffed, she started to look pleasingly dollish! I was surprised and happy.

Someone else made the cute little blanket. Just the right addition to her wardrobe, don't you think?

Fireworks!

Our neighborhood fireworks blast off in a park near our house. We can see most of the show from our own driveway. This year's show seemed better than I remembered... and plenty loud! I'm glad I wasn't any closer than this. Enjoy the photos!

4th of July Blah

Happy Independence Day! Mine has been rather blah. While I was growing up we always went to the lake on the 4th. Not being at a lake on the 4th is a big downer. I should have made better plans. Steven and Melody are coming over tomorrow, so that'll be a nice break in the cleaning routine.

Hubby and I have spent the last couple of days cleaning. There's still a lot to do, but I'm pleased with what we have accomplished. Here's Marjorie's ex-bedroom. It had turned into quite the depository of junk and extra stuff. Getting it back to this was a big job. Now all we need to do is fix the bed frame so the bed can be at a normal height.


I allowed myself a few times of distraction. I made this toy today.


I made these chocolate chip cookies today (a new recipe that I don't recommend... why mess with perfection?).

We had a sudden and heavy downpour. Afterwards the sun came out again.

Today I'm thankful for:
1) my mom calling me "honey" yesterday on the phone

2) a lovely downpour without hail or lightning (and being inside, dry)
3) naps
4) good results from hard work
5) yummy salad that Charles made

Wednesday Women II

Yesterday was Wednesday, and I had the lucky opportunity to eat lunch with Megan. It was weird, though, because the restaurant was so quick with the food, that it felt like we were there for five minutes. We ordered, the food came, we ate, we got the check, we stood up to leave... wait! It has only been five minutes! We didn't get time to talk!! It's weird when the service is too good.

The restaurant was super busy, so I felt funny about taking a picture of us with 4 million people sitting around. I only got a picture of my food. But here is Megan, in the red long sleeves, part of the crowd who is studying my quilt top.

Bea and I are teaching a beginning quilting class at church. I wanted them to see the top I made. It's all 4-patches and HSTs. Easy, peasy. Now that they have learned most of the quilting units, they can see how it went together. So they are studying that baby!

Here is the food I ate while dining with Megan. Last week was Greek. This week was Mexican. What will it be next week, and with whom??

Here are a couple of blocks I made this week.

And another toy.

And I got some flowers at 50% off. They'll add to the decor for the backyard wedding that is coming up. Have I said yet that I'm getting excited?? I'm getting excited!!

Today I'm thankful for:

1) sitting with Charles on our new patio, enjoying the gorgeous summer day

2) butterflies in the flowers, chirping birds, and little ants nimbly carrying big loads across our patio

3) helping others learn quilt making

4) nice chat I had with Marjorie this week

5) great discussion at book group Tuesday night