Friday, June 26, 2009
One party and a funeral
I just feel like staying in bed today! I just got the car loaded up so I am making the first goodwill run. More later.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The aftermath of graduations!
Here are some of the cans from the fruit salad I made for my nephew's graduation on Saturday. I am taking them over to my sister's house for use as cigarette butt cans to keep the yard from being spoiled. The whipped topping containers will become slug dens of death! You cut little holes on the sides, place slug bait inside, then put the tops back on and place them in the yard where ever you think slugs are hanging out. Keeps pets out of the bait.
Here is my sewing machine just sitting because I had three graduations this week. Kindergarden, eighth-grade, and high school. Plus my own personal business, and Dr. appointment. My brother is coming to visit and spend the night for one more family party, so I am busy cleaning out the guest bedroom and just generally doing laundry and housecleaning. I had planned on having my second yard sale, but I guess it will be next weekend. Sigh!
Lucy is just tired from the heat and all the running around. We received our new blackout drapes for out bedroom, which has four windows at each end of the room. DH works nights so needs his beauty rest in the morning, besides the fact that there is a house across the street from us that was recently purchased. The new neighbors can see directly into our bedroom, so DH installed the hardware and hung the drapes Monday night. Then we are having new storm doors installed on the front and back door this Friday because I love to have all the doors and windows open this time of the year. And it does add another level of security and keeps the flies out. We picked out the ones that have a screen on the top half of the door so I can open the doors. We had two neighbor dogs come wandering in today when I opened the back door, so the new doors can't get here soon enough!
This coming up Sunday is also Father's Day, so I am still trying to decide what to get DH. Maybe a new recliner for the tv room...
Will post quilting updates next post...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
It's Already Thursday!
I had my body fat index done and it was so bad that I am seriously thinking that I should start my weight loss under the supervision of a doctor. I have borderline high blood pressure but as far as I know I am not a diabetic.
But I am not going to panic over my body fat index, because at the gym is where I need to be. No more red meat for me is all I can say at this point.
Not much sewing got done at this point. I had a family birthday party that lasted all day on Saturday, and every day I have been going somewhere. I had to go see about getting my last visit with the doctor who treated my broken ankle, get the hopefully final x-ray done and get his ok for physical therapy for the healed ankle. My regular doctor wrote the order for the physical therapy, but I just need to make sure that there are no problems and get the final ok. My family doctor told me that it would be ok to do low-impact workouts on the elliptical, stairmaster, and the treadmill. So I started Tuesday. Then Saturday we have a nephew graduating from high-school and a party after that for him. So another Saturday gone. I was watching Oprah a couple of weeks ago and Dr. Oz was talking about nutrition. He interviewed the participants in an experiment that was conducted in the UK. The participants stayed a zoo for ten days and ate like a gorilla. They had to eat eleven pounds of raw food a day to get their nutritional requirements! They all lost ten pounds, lost inches off their waistlines, and lowered their chloresterol readings by twenty-five percent. I guess I should eat like the gorillas and I wouldn't be in this mess!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Empty flower beds
After talking to various family members, I called our local Police dept. and they came and picked them up. After that I was paranoid about digging in the yard, then we decided to buy a metal detector after talking to my daughter's boyfriend. However, these are not easy just to go out and buy, so we rented one. We didn't find anymore bullets or shells, but we did find a lot of rusty old nails and pieces of fence posts. This house has been here for one hundred years, so who knows what you would find in the ground. The only money we found with the metal detector was an old penny, but it was only a 1968 penny. But I do feel safer about digging in the yard.
I have rose bushes along this back fence now and partly up the side coming back towards the house. Then at the corner of the garage and the fence there is a climbing rose that was here when we moved in. I planted two more rose bushes along the fence coming towards the gate. I planted Veteran's Honor and Welcome Home.
It took me so long to get the roses into the ground after I purchased them that I didn't prune any of them. I decided to just let them be for this year and perhaps do a minimal amount of pruning.
I had intended to have a garden in the back yard but when I started digging in this area I started finding chunks of cement. Somebody went cement happy in this yard. So my husband dug some of it out, but there is still places that need to have the chunks dug out. There is no way you could take a roto-tiller through that area until it is done. So next year I will have the garden.
On the quilt side, I have finished seven nine-patch blocks.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Trying to stage a rescue
At some point somebody had good sized dogs in the yard and there is going to major hole filling and leveling of the yard at some point. I don't think it will be this year. But at least we will have roses that were in for a year. We have some kind of tree outside the fence, but on our property that is pretty nice. It is at least as tall as our house, maybe taller. The tracks from dogs running along the fence is starting to grow grass, and the flower beds will eventually be part of that. I was determined not to pay someone to do it. So I will start to work on them again a little and I want to get some of the free compost that we can get from the County to start amending my flower beds.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
finished blocks
I purchased this wonderful civil war repro fabric from a beautiful quilt shop in Orting, Wa. The prints are rather dark in these photos but I am practicing taking pictures so my photos should improve! The shop has a whole wall of beautiful civil war reproduction fabrics and the quality of the fabric is very high. That was stash growth, but I am working on getting the stash down.