Middle June

This month is half over and going so slowly.  We started out with a sad thing...John's youngest sister suddenly passed away.  Well, she'd been in ill health for many years.  Kay evidently had a heart attack or another stroke sometime that day.  We as a family cleared out her apartment the following Saturday and have planned a small private family service at the lake in mid-July.  We will scatter her ashes at the lake and then have a family picnic to celebrate her life.  We are so grateful for the time we had with her...she was 61 years old and would constantly remind us the she was the baby of the family!  Sweet Kay, RIP.

Our outside temperatures are rising, as they do in June.  We have hit 90 degrees several times already.  The humidity is rising as well.  Another miserable summer.  Sigh!

We just received word that our oldest granddaughter is getting married in early September.  The ceremony and reception will be held at the family cabin near Sundance, Utah.  It would be a really hard trip for mom so we are taking her to Phoenix to visit with my brothers while we drive up to Utah for the wedding. After the wedding, we will drive back down to Phoenix to pick mom up and then fly home.  Not a lot of time to prepare for a wedding but since it will be a small, intimate one, they can get it done.  Emily and Trent will begin their new life in Pocatello, Idaho where he has started a new job with the U.S. Forest Service.  

Shiloh turned 6 months old in mid-May.  Last Friday he went in for a small procedure to turn him into a gentleman.  They wanted us to keep him quiet for 7-10 days - no going down the stairs to the dog run, only going outside on a lead and then coming back in after he's done his business.  Keep an eye on his incision to make sure it doesn't swell or get infected.  Well, the day of his surgery, we brouht him home about 3:00 and he was pretty loopy.  He probably was a bit sore, too.  He spent a lot of time laying on one or the other of his pads (there are 3 pads throughout the house for his reclingin pleasure - our bedroom, the great room, and my studio). He didn't really let me or John out of his sight. On Saturday, he was a bit friskier and by Sunday he was back to being his old self.  Sunday afternoon I let him out the doggy door to go down the stairs to the dog run...he never runs down anyway, always carefully making his way down and back up.  His incision is doing really well - no swelling or infection at all.  That 7-10 days restriction just didn't work for our energetic puppy - he's mostly healed already and full of 'piss and vinegar' again!   Although, sometimes he just falls asleep where he stops....

Thanks for stopping by!

June is Bustin' Out - Maybe Not All Over Yet

Our rain has finally stopped.  As of June 1st, we are 14+ inches above our annual average.  We are fortunate where we live that we don't need to worry much about flooding.  Our fields are a bit mushy but they are green and lush. The trees in our grove are starting to sprout beautiful green leaves - all the colors of green there are!  Out temperatures are finally starting to warm a bit - not too much yet.  And the humidity is still low so going outside isn't uncomfortable.  Give us another couple of weeks and we will definitely be living in the Ozarks in summer!  The humidity will skyrocket and it won't be worth it to go outside for any length of time until mid-September.  

Once we installed the storm door with the doggy door, it was clear that the cat was going to get outside.  Skipper goes outside as soon as I open it up in the morning.  He heads out to the barn to see the chickens and then sits in the sun all day till dinner time.  However, John called me out to the front porch on Sunday - it appears Skipper wanted to be higher than sitting on the front step or out in the garden....He climbed up in the elm tree in front of my studio window.  

He really likes being up high...and he seems to be able to get down all by himself as well.

My friend, Lynnie, lives in Arizona.  I met her thru the annual Row by Row event. While the event has been going on since 2011, I only started participating in 2014.  Quilt shops all over the country design a quilt row measuring either 9 x 36 or 18 inches square, or 12 x27 inches and make the pattern available for free to anyone who walks into their store and asks for it.  They make up kits for their patterns that are available for purchase as well.  From the middle of June to the first week in September, people can collect these patterns and kits and then make quilts from them.  Lynnie was part of a group on Facebook where people who were traveling would offer to pick up kits for perfect strangers and mail them to them.  The folks who wanted a kit from a specific shop would send money thru PayPal so that the buyers weren't buying out of their own pockets.  Lynnie was in Florida and was going to pick up at a specific shop that had a kit I wanted....the rest is history.  She and her husband spend each summer traveling the country, visiting family and camping in their RV.   They usually stop for a few days at a campground near us and we get together for lunch.  Last week, in spite of the pandemic, I got to meet up with her for lunch. 

Quiche, salad, fruit salad, and texas sheet cake with peanut butter frosting.  Add on some iced tea and you have a banquet.  

I've spent most of the pandemic lockdown working on machine embroidery items that I have wanted to do for a while.  Here is a little set of seasonal hangings - they only measure about 6 inches by 10 inches.  What fun to make. 

There were seasonal button that I added to each hanging.  I have a little wrought iron table hanger that these go on....

More machine embroidery - Last winter, my favorite designer came out with what they call the Bella Box.  You bought it not knowing what was inside.  It was jam packed with exclusive projects and included all you needed to complete each project.  The cost was close to $100.00 and we had to wait for almost 2 months after we ordered it before we got it.  Once it arrived, it was worth the money and the wait.  There was a small pillow, an embroidered apron, some coasters, and one other item that I can't remember now.  Along with the projects, there was a coffee mug (or hot chocolate) and a pretty little zipper bag. They put together a limited number of kits and once they were sold out, they were gone!  The announced in March that they were doing a Spring Bella Box and I jumped at the chance to get another one.  This one would be shipped in mid-May.  Mine arrived right on time and I had agreed not to open mine right away.  There were 6 of us from my favorite shop who ordered it and we agreen to all meet at the shop and open at the same time.  Mine arrived on Thursday and on Friday we all met at Shawn's Sewing Center.  We all wore our masks and sat 6 feet apart and on the count of 3 we all opened out boxes.  

Wow!  is all I can say.  They outdid themselves.  There were 7 projects with all the wherewithall to make them except for thread.   They introduced some new products that haven't even hit the stores yet....and showcased some items that are already in the product line.  I decided to work on one right away...and boy did it come out cute!  

The project itself is the little pen holder made from embroidery leather.  Made in the hoop except for actually constructing the bow.  It has elastic that goes around the journal cover so you always have a pen handy.  So Stink' Cute!  I've said before and I'll say it again, Kimberbell never disappoints!  

Thanks for stopping by!