At Last

I remembered to take my camera down to the studio!  

Tanya's Black and Gold quilt is coming along.

It's been a slow go.

And of course I have run out of the gold in the sashing!

Luckily, I

1) remembered where I bought it and

2) the store still had some!

So more is on the way

and should be here by the end of the week.

Whew, I got lucky there!

I'll keep on sewing the rows together until I run out of the sashing strips.

Anyway,

maybe next weekend will see the top finished.

I've really been a slacker when it comes to posting. 

so sorry I'll try to do better.

This month seems to have been filled with days away from home, 

and a lack of energy caused by not enough sleep.

I finally turned the air conditioning down more at night and am sleeping much better.

The weather so far this year has been weird.

Cold and snowy late.

Finally warmed up enough to turn off the heat.

Four days after that I had to turn on the air conditioning.

I'm wanting to get out on a trip somewhere, anywhere!

The trailer is finally out of the shop.

Had to have a new axle and a new tire but that's done.

Today, the battery was dead and didn't charge so will need to get that replaced

and the propane tanks filled or changed.

I'm planning a little camping next week at a local park to clean it-filthy!

I have plans to change some things inside and if I park locally I can go home to use my saws etc or sleep in my bed!

My bed, that's where I'm headed next!

Intentions review for April

It's horrible.

It takes me a LONG time to get back on track after I break.

(Maybe breaks are not that good?)

It's been cold.

Snowy.

Nothing like Spring here should be,

sigh.

Anyway, whatever the reason 

the number of check marks on my tracking sheets is way down from March.

May seems to be starting out better.

I can only hope.

As far as stitching goes I managed to do four things from the list.

Jeez.

I have spent most of my stitching time working on Nora's stocking.

I did take one thing off the list (and one more off the gigantic list.)

I got out the book for the Civil War Letters,

intending to foundation piece them.

Had to read up on how to do that first.

I've had the fabric for forever.

Then I realized 

they are 6" blocks

some have 30-40 individual pieces.

No way do I want to do that!

So, the fabric was added to the drawers to be used, 

and the book returned to the cases.

The same is true of the Farmer's Wife quilt.

I sometimes think,

maybe someday.

NOT!

The house is still a work in progress,

a friend heard that I was giving away my Town of Kansas Research

and wanted it

badly.

So as I clean my horridly messy office

I will box it up for him.

Basically, I'm kind of depressed at how little I managed to DO in April.

The stitching list for May:

Tanya's Black and Gold quilt. 

(Which will only get finished if I actually work on it!)

Civil War Sampler blocks

an old UFO

2 Granny blocks in pink

8 sheets of tumbler blocks in pink

A bag for my kindle

9 patches as leaders and enders

Begin Steve's Dragon

Table runner kit

Nora's sock

15's Missouri puzzle 

Hexies.

As for other stuff

Finish a deep clean/purge of the house

Wash the windows and blinds

Design and begin gardens.

Oh, and take Ceili out for a spin at a campground!

Zoo Day!

Ryan "riding" a polar bear.  They have animals placed throughout the zoo to climb on.

 This past Sunday I laid out my plans for the day.

Then I got a Text message from Scott- Did I want to go to the Zoo with Ryan and him?
Well, it only took about two seconds for me to type YES back to him.
I have a motto-people before projects!

The Kansas City Zoo is home to two polar bears, two species of Penguins, river otters and kangaroos!  It's a big place (200Acres) and has many more animals than those I listed (including a baby chimpanzee and a baby giraffe.)

We saw the otters first, the one that was out really wanted back inside! But came to check out the people quite close to the glass.  I love to watch them swim but this one was just hanging out, people watching.

We saw the polar bears next, only one was out but it was swimming and the enclosure is designed (as are the enclosures for the otters and penguins) so that you can look both above the water and below.  Ryan enjoyed looking at the bears.

Ryan used Granna's big camera to take this one!  We won't talk about the ones  he missed!

 Once he got accustomed to the place he was off and running (literally) a small hurricane that Scott and I could barely keep up with!

The Orangutans were quite busy as well.  The youngest climbing the poles higher and higher.  While Scott and I admired his skill I think we were both glad that Ryan couldn't use his feet to climb so high.

Next up was snakes.  Nuf said.

There is a narrow gauge train that takes a big loop around the upper part of the zoo.  I knew from bringing the other boys that we would need to ride THAT!  Under the tunnels, through the Australia exhibit and back to the beginning.

Then we were off to see the kangaroos!  You just walk through the enclosure for the kangaroos. They were too busy eating, lying about and jumping off to notice a small google-eyed boy!

I know the zoo fairly well and closing time was fast approaching so we avoided the monster play ground and headed back the way we'd come to ride the carousal-Ryan picked a kangaroo! His eyes were SO big going around, and a bit anxious that Daddy might have moved!

Then we were off and running to the Penguins! And the jelly fish - a Ryan favorite-and the"Dory" fish and the "Nemo" fish.  After making our way through that exhibit, at least twice it was time to call it a day.

Next visit maybe we'll head to the African plains.

Ryan and the Penguins play rock.

Starvation had set in and we were off to dinner followed by ice cream.

So glad I choose people over projects, look what I'd have missed!