Week 29 - The Week Went Like the Wind

This past week went like the wind!  We drove to Tulsa to pick up one of our granddaughters who flew in from Salt Lake City for the week.  We'd been trying for a couple of years to get her out here for a visit.  This year we got lucky. 

I tried NOT to schedule stuff to do every single minute of her visit.  She had Sewing Camp from 9 am to noon on Monday thru Friday.  Mom and I took her to lunch on Tuesday and then the three of us went to paint pottery.

Mom painted a mug with daffodils on it....I'm looking forward to seeing it when it comes out of the kiln and I pick up our items Thursday.  

On Wednesday, C and I drove to Branson after her sewing camp.  We had lunch at Mel's Hard Luck Diner - the waitstaff take turns singing to the customers.  Here is our waiter, Chad, singing to us.

For dessert, Chad recommended a Single Scoop Sundae....you can see why he told me NOT to get a Double Scoop.

After lunch, we went to see the Acrobats of Shanghai.  Oh, goodness, they were excellent!  Both of us were mesmerized.  This is just a sample of what we saw.

Each segment began with a story to explain what the routine entailed.  They were so limber and talented.  The costumes were crazy colorful.  I highly recommend seeing them if you ever get to Branson.

We had promised C she could learn to drive John's mule - no, she didn't even need a saddle!  

She did so well.....so proud of her!

We were able to get a group picture before we left to take her back to the airport.

And this is what we had to drive thru on the way to Tulsa....scary dark clouds and wicked blinding rain.  

But, we got there and here is proof we sent her back.

We are already planning for next summer.  C and her brother, W, will both be coming to visit next year.  We can't wait!

Week 27 & 28 - A Visitor for the Week

This next week is going to be busy and super fun.  Our granddaughter, Charlotte, flew in yesterday to spend the week with us.  She is going to Sewing Camp.  We've talked about this for several years and finally her schedule synced with mine and with the Sewing Camp itself.  She will be learning basic sewing principals by making 4 different projects - this year they are doing several Christmas items.  A Santa pillow, a small tree skirt, a stocking, and an ornament shaped like a mitten.  At the end of the week, she will also receive a sewing machine valued at $299.00 to keep.  She's so excited.  We drove to Tulsa to pick her up at the airport - the closest airport that still afforded the least expensive ticket...so 3 hours to drive to the airport, and 3 hours home.  Here is our girl coming off the plane!

She's so excited to be here and we are excited to have her.  

And Kai is finally free of the dreaded Cone...She is so much happier...she even smiles more now.

And having gone to the groomer for the first time in 6 weeks, she even smells better!  

This past 2 weeks have involved cleaning and organizing and straightening the house for Charlotte's arrival.  And working on Row by Row kits, and going to embroidery workshops in town.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Week 25 & 26 - Summer Gardening

The weather has finally turned to normal for southwest Missouri - hot and incredibly humid.  The air is positively soupy! We've had pop up storms almost every day...not much rain, just a few drops; enough to make the air even more damp.  Tropical Storm Barry is slowly tracking north, toward us, but probably won't drop any rain by the time he gets here. 

John has taken the last two weekends to work on his vegetable garden AND put in a garden plot in front of the entryway porch.  

He has 6 raised beds but only planted in 3 of them. The other 3 all have asparagus that come up every year. The other three have tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers.  He put in an electric fence with fencing along the bottom 3 feet to prevent the critters from feasting on our veggies. So far, it's worked.  We will have tomatoes to harvest this year and several evenings after work will be spent canning those tomatoes.   

Here is the front garden plot.  John set those bricks almost 5 feet out from the foundation and I now need to get some flowers to plant there.   

There's a peony plant to the left, but everything else is blank right now.  I've got a bee balm plant for there, too.  Not sure what flowers to put there for the rest of the growing season...

Our Kai went in for some pretty serious surgery last week.  It was determined that the ulcer on her eye would never go away completely, rather it would continue to recur.  It was so painful for Kai....we made the decision to have them remove the eye.  While they had her asleep, they removed a broken tooth that was starting to ulcerate as well.  Poor thing has stitches on the right side of her face and stitches on the left of her mouth inside.  She came thru the surgery like a champ and we brought her home the day after.  She is wearing the Cone till this coming Friday when she gets her exterior stitches out.  Once the fur grows back, she will look as though she has a permanent wink!  She's such a sweet old lady and we are so blessed to have her spend the rest of her life with us. 

This was taken before she has her surgery. I won't shock you with the after pictures...will wait for the fur to grow back.  She's already back to smiling every day so we know she's on the mend.

Because of the weather here, I'm going to take advantage of the following:  

There's room here with me, if you want...just show up!  I've got popcorn!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Week 23 & 24 - Busy Girl

 The last couple of weeks I've been spending on Row by Row kits....I got these mostly done - just need to sew down the appliques.

I just got out the bin that is holding all the row by rows I've done so far....there are 32 rows, 22 of which need the appliques sewn down.  I just got my machine back from the mechanic (I send my machines in once a year just for maintenance) so now I can spend part of each day working on getting those rows completed.  

Mom and I took off yesterday and went Rowing in Branson and areas near there.  We went to the Quilted Cow and Quilts * Quilts in Branson and the Homestead Fabric & Woolens store in Hollister and then drove back up to Springfield to the Quilt Sampler.  This is the first time in a couple of years that I've personally gone out to collect rows.  It felt good! This year's theme is Taste the Experience and I truly thought there would be some knockout rows - it seems I was wrong. Sadly, more and more shops are opting out of the program this year and those that stayed designed fairly blah rows...that's my own opinion, of course.  I am going to do a small Dessert themed quilt with the rows I am getting.  And I'll add to my planned Arizona quilt with some of the ones from the area west of here.  Some of the rows will make nice table runners by themselves so there's always that possibility for using the rows.

I took a class using machine embroidery about 10 days ago....I sure do like machine embroidery!  Here are 2 of the three projects from that class.

The little banner was done in the hoop and is made to hang from a wrought iron table stand.  The mug rug was also done in the hoop.  The third project is a tote bag but I didn't complete it during the class; instead I brought everything home to do here, in my own time.  Hoping to get it done in the next day or so.  Photos to come.  

Made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce this afternoon.  And a pitcher of iced tea and a bowl of strawberries that will also have homemade fresh whipped cream.  Spaghetti and garlic toast for dinner with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.  Easy Peasy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 21 & 22 - Checking in Again

It's so easy for time to get away, isn't it?  Just a blink and it's already 2 weeks since the last update.  Sigh!

I've been sewing recently.  Making up a lot of the Row by Row kits that I've accrued over the last 4 years.  I'm nowhere near finishing them all. The other day, I decided to work on some of the guitar rows from last year. I have enough rows to make an entire quilt of guitars.  Here are 2 of them:

The one on the left is from a shop in North Carolina, the right side is from Arizona.  I have only ironed the elements onto the background so far.  My regular sewing machine is in the shop for periodic maintenance and I don't like using my other machine for applique-ing.  So I'll wait to get Miss Pfaff home and then spend a few days tacking down the items.  I have done 5 other ones in addition to this one (not for the guitar quilt) and I need to spend a day or so getting them also tacked down.  

Kai Bella has been with us for a month now.  She's such a sweetie - only one minor problem.  One that I think we can overcome.  She does not like cats.  She's attempted to catch the Skipper a couple of times and has him terrified of her.  He and Gilligan make a huge path between them and Kai.  We think it will just take time for them to all learn to live together.

I'm gearing up to finish cleaning out the guest bedroom.  Our Charlotte is coming for a week at the end of next month and she will need a place to sleep.  Currently, the bed is piled with boxes and quilts from the studio.  I need to get those things sorted and put away in the studio space and make it cozy for her visit.  

I'll finish this post with the following.  Just in case you didn't know:

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 19 & 20 - Spring keeps progressing

We are definitely into spring here in the Ozarks.  The trees are all leafed out and the flowers are blooming like crazy.  The temperatures are climbing and the humidity count is following suit.  It's taken some of the joy out of taking Kai for her daily 2 walks around the circle drive. At least for this human who does NOT care for humidity. 

We took Kai for her monthly checkup with the vet last week.  Evidently, on top of a thyroid condition, incontinence, weight issues, an eye ulcer, and chronic dry eye in both eyes she also has a horribly ear infection.  Poor thing.  Now, in addition to having her eyes cleaned out twice a day, we also have to rinse her ear out and put drops in - also twice a day.  The good news is she has lost 4.5 pounds since she's been with us and now only needs to lose another 15 pounds to put her at the top end of what Golden Retrievers should weigh.  She seems to be happy and loves going on our walks.  Until today, she was a bit loopy when walking - ear infections also affect one's balance if one is a dog I guess.  But she is slowly getting over that with the help of the daily rinsing and drops and an oral medicine.  

We've had some horrible weather the last week or so.  Right where we are, it's not been so bad.  But on both the west and east sides of us there have been tornadic activity and loss of  property.  We've had the wind and the rain but nothing worse.  Mom and I were coming home from town last week when the sirens went off...I tuned in the radio and found that the tornado had touched down about 4 miles west of town and was headed northeast.  That meant it would miss us.  I got a call from one of John's sisters asking if we were ok...told her yes, the tornado touched down west of us and then bounced right over us to hit on the east side of our area.  We've been incredibly fortunate this season.  Lots and lots of tornadoes but no particular damage where we are.  I thought I'd share one of the items I keep seeing on FaceBook regarding tornadoes:

We were told today during a newscast that there have been over 500 tornadoes in the last 30 days across the US.  Tonight we are expecting more 'severe' weather - wind, rain, and maybe a tornado or two.  We're pretty safe where we are but there's never a guarantee.  I guess I'll plan on some mindless knitting while the winds rage! 

I've been working on Row by Row kits from previous years.  Here are the three rows I working on this past weekend - all from 2015.  The theme was water that year.  

I have several other rows with fishes on them from that year already done.  It only takes 8 or 10 to make a twin sized quilt.  I probably have that many - some done and some not done.  I think the next ones I'm going to work on is my Beatles collection of blocks from last year - the theme was Music.  

This year's theme for Row by Row is Food (really it's Taste of Home).  I have seen some preliminary rows from all over the US and I think I may concentrate on Ice Cream rows....or maybe Meat.....or fruits and veggies....I'll figure it out soon enough.

I'm feeling the urge to sew. So I'd better finish this and get the machine fired up!  

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 17 & 18 - A Show and a New Famly Member

Last October, I saw a post on FaceBook about Red Green coming to Springfield.  Red Green is a Canadian comedian who we've followed via his television show, "The Red Green Show" on PBS.  Irreverent, clean, and down-to-earth comedy.  We bought tickets back then and the time of waiting came on May 2nd.  

Our seats were about 6 rows from the front in the old Gillioz Theater in downtown Springfield.  

And, there he is, in person, Red Green himself.  

Mom, John and I had a wonderful time that evening.  I highly recommend seeing this show if you get the chance.  You will smile and laugh and come out feeling so happy.

We've had several weeks of rain and severe weather around here.  While we haven't had any tornadoes really near us, there have been some that hit all around us.  Here is a Public Service Announcement that our local yarn shop sent around....just sayin'!

So, remember, when you hear a tornado is near you, grab your wieners!

Our little family grew a bit this last weekend.  When our last golden retriever crossed the rainbow bridge, we took some time to heal and wait till we were ready to welcome more fur people.  Last weekend, we heard of a rescue event at a local pet supply store and John and I dropped what we were doing and went over there when we found out they had a golden retriever looking for a new home.  Kai Bella is an 11-year-old golden retriever female.  She has quite a few medical issues - thyroid problems leading to an enormous weight (almost 100 pounds right now when a normal golden weighs between 65 and 75 pounds), incontinence, pain, chronic dry eye in both eyes,  and a cyst on her right eye that is threatening her eyesight....given all that, she is the sweetest, most even-tempered lady.  She allows us to treat her eyes a couple of times a day.  She takes her meds without complaint.  We go on a walk around the circle drive at least twice a day, sometimes three times.  That's about all she can do at her current weight but we are hoping that, with time, we can lengthen her walks.  She's able to go down the back stairs to get to the dog run.  She's housetrained.  Evidently, she has decided that she is MY dog...she follows me around like my shadow and sleeps on the floor beside my side of the bed.  If I'm in the studio, that's where she is.  We are only allowed to foster her at this time.  The Rescue folks will not allow us to adopt her till the veterinarian releases her; until then, they pay for all her medications and tests, etc.  That's fine with us...we can transfer all her records to our own vet once they release her and we get to adopt her.  She's a sweet, loving old lady.  Meet Kai Bella.

Thanks for stopping by.