Living with a cat!

Simba approves of the new office arrangement.  He especially approves of the easy chair I brought in.

He's less happy when I make him move so I can actually sit in it!

Catching up, again. Sigh.

I seem to keep myself so busy that I just can't think!  Truth is, I've been doing too much and have exhausted myself so I'm taking some down time.  Thought I'd use that to play catch up again.

I've been spending most of my days out in the yard.  How can there be SO much to do?  It's not like I started from scratch.  On the plus side it looks like it's going to be a good year for tomatoes!  I'm down to the last three hard scape jobs-a short run of edging, a very short wall (like 3 bricks) and the redo of the firepit so it's flat.  The redo of the air conditioner pavers is done, praise be to all the Gods!  It's not perfect but it's much better than before.  I have begun the weed, water, weed cycle but that I break up into small pieces which is good because we went from the 70's to the 90's.  The air conditioning is on and will remain on now unless we are forecast several days in a row of the 70's again.  It takes so long to cool the house and get rid of the humidity that I won't be turning it off and on (I do open the back door until it kicks on in the mornings.)

In the midst of all this yard stuff I decided to re-organize my office/sewing room.  What can I say, there was just too much in this tiny room, a whole lot of it had to go!  I took all the big boxes of fabric, along with the shelving unit they live on, to the garage.  Really how often do I get into those boxes?  The garage is not that far away.  Then I took down the ironing board which seemed to have become a permanent fixture, and the cutting table (again, how often to I cut fabric?)  The table and the lifts to make it taller are in the closet with the ironing board and the two, four drawer file cabinets.  This gives me room for a comfortable chair to sit in while I watch a movie and stitch.  Something I have really been missing since I turned the extra bedroom into a guest room (not that that project is finished.) Almost all the book shelves were re-arranged, the tv having it's own shelf as does the printer.  Most everything has been put away now and I have much more "elbow room!"

Today, I made lemon bars and from scratch lemonade with some lemons I bought a couple of weeks ago (needed using up) I don't much care for the lemon bar recipe, and it is so sweet it gave me a sugar headache!  The lemonade is really good, and not too much work, so I'll likely keep that recipe.  I also whipped up some "Gardener's Hand Scrub"  from a tutorial I found on the Tip Junkie's site (see my sidebar)  just sugar and dawn dish detergent with Olay in it.  I really like it, super simple to make up and really gets the ground in dirt out of this gardener's fingers!

The Doctor's attempted to drain the Baker's cyst in my right knee last Friday but the filling was too thick for the needle.  They did inject the cyst with cortisone hoping it re-absorbs on it's own.  Most days it's better, I think.

That's the news.  I'm off to make some Hill Country Spring blocks next!

Hill Country Spring!

On the design wall.

Twelve out of 90ish! Only 20 more days and all the blocks will be done, Ha, Ha!  I think I like it.

I've also been back stitching on Bri's stocking, nearly done with that.  I have to add her name and sew it together then I'll be down to only 3 more stockings!   (Unless some more children make their way into our lives and that's doubtful.)  I'm going to take a breather for a month after this one is done before I begin Kolby's.  Just too many projects going at the moment.

I managed to clear off the kitchen table so I can add the binding to the three quilts I had machine quilted.  My little 4 footer in the sewing room just isn't big enough.  Maybe I can get that done on at least one of them tomorrow.  Heaven knows it's still too wet to do much of anything outside.  I am headed to Beth's tomorrow to hang a "flagpole" in Brayden's room with his MIZZOU flag on it.  I'll take pictures!

More Rain!

Yesterday it rained nearly all day, this morning before dawn the thunder storms moved in and it began raining, again.  Rained most of the morning.  You know that hole in the ground where the pavers go, full of water again!  The ground is so saturated it's not soaking in, sigh.  I took the snow shovel and pulled water towards me onto the drive but there's still an inch or so.  Tomorrow I'll get out the small fountain pump and pump it out in the fond hopes that it will dry enough to work on it, if I can just get the dirt level and the sand in then the pavers can go in even if it rains.

I have blocks up on my design wall again!  I intended to include a photo but the battery's dead and the memory card is somewhere on this desk!  It's another Irish chain, it's been cut out for at least two years so it's time to get it finished.

Well, I'm going to go get Miss Quinn and shower off her belly and feet now so she'll dry before bedtime!  There's so much mud on her it looks like chocolate syrup going down the drain!  Then I'll put a movie on downstairs and at least look at my projects down there!

Let's catch up!

Finally, I can say that all the plants are in the ground!  A lot of weeding (gotta pull out the Creeping Jenny and over-large violets as well as plantain, dandylions, wild strawberry, etc) and some hardscaping to do.  I began the redo of the air conditioner pavers-not level, held water, weeds etc- and then the heavens opened up and forgot to turn off the spicket!  It rained most of the day on Monday and began again last night and didn't stop until about 4pm today!  It may have rained in between-I forget.  That's a LOT of rain.  So the space now empty of pavers is full of water for the second time, as there is no way for the water to get out I have to wait for it to soak into the ground and dry out.  That may take days and there is rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow then next week, sigh.  Oh well, at least I'm not having to water!  I'll take new photos on Sunday as that will be just at two weeks since the last, there's been a great deal of growing going on!

All the rain today did give me the chance to clean house-oh joy.  It looks better even if I didn't finish.  It's hard to keep clean when I have all the windows open and the breeze (read wind) carries in dust!  Not to mention the dirt Quinn and I bring in-Simba too now that I think of it as he's taken to going out in the yard daily rolling about in the grass and dirt!

It also let me finish cutting the strip sets for Hill Country Spring!  I've been cutting them a little at a time but I finished up today.  I may even sew a block or two together this evening!  What a shocker.  It'll be too wet to do anything in the yard tomorrow even if it doesn't rain anymore so I'll finish up in the house and sew some more.

I went with Tanya today to put deposits in for the venues for the big wedding next May.  They finally found something reasonable and relatively close together, now we have to brain storm the decor!  So the really big things are done!  Dress-check, Venues-check, Guys suits-check.  There's a long list yet but we're working on it!  She is understandably excited!  I have more to do on this wedding than any of the others.  Even though I am technically the Mother of the Groom (no 3) this Bride is really an adult orphan and has lived with me for 7 years and calls me Mom (thinks of me as Mom too) so I'm doing some of the Mother of the Bride things.  (Beth and Lucas met us all at a Bed and breakfast where everything was provided, so the most I did was pick out a dress for me!)  It will be fun, I think!

The Vegetable gardens!

It feels like all I've done since I've been home from Denver is work in the yard and gardens!  The oh so late spring really set me back so I've been trying to catch up on two months of gardening in May!  There is, finally, some light showing at the end of the tunnel.  The Dandylions are under control-mostly.  The veggies and flowers are planted-at least the ones I've bought.  On top of that I took everything out of the garage on Saturday, last, and hosed it out returning things in a more orderly fashion.  While that was in progress I also cleaned out my yard storage shed as I discovered things in the garage that went to the shed and vice versa! The garage isn't quite back in order but I'm making a bit of progress each day.

I'm not finished in the garden but here are some photos:

The vegetable beds.  The one you can barely see is tomatoes, peppers and marigolds.  The near one is peas, lettuce and bush beans.  I have 10 tomato plants total-maybe I over did it?

The sunflower bed.  There are four varieties of sunflowers, heights from 4 feet to 12 feet!  As well as some pole beans.  They are barely up-look close!

The flower and herb bed!

I'm not finished, sigh.  There is some hardscaping to be done, short walls, edging and a walk to be built.  The rest of the vegetable gardens need fenced as Quinn likes to take short cuts through them!  Also, the little Skinks (lizards) like to hide in the rocks and they drive her nuts! The pad in the front that I built in 2009 for the bench Larry made for me is being taken out.  Sadly, the bench has deteriorated to the point that it must be retired and rather than replace it I've decided to take out the pavers and reuse them elsewhere.  Then that area I'll fill with plants-which I must first go buy.

 Now, I'll have to get caught up on the house work and the million and one things that need to be repaired!

I'm so tired at night I don't dare stitch for fear of just having to pull it all out!  Soon though, it will be really hot and Quinn and I will be inside in the air conditioning.  Right now we are both enjoying the nice weather and being outside.

A great day.

I had a fabulous Mother's Day!  I spent most of the day Saturday working in the yard but Mother's Day flowers arrived from Steve-such lovely pink and red roses, sigh.  I could just sit and look at them!  Then Sunday the Missouri family (that's everyone but Steve, Candice and Nora, 10 people and 4 dogs) came here for dinner.  Which I cooked.  Because I wanted to.  They offered and even had the menu worked out (steak and shrimp-or surf and turf as we like to call it.)  I made Mexican instead, because I rarely have the opportunity to cook a "real" meal these days and I like to cook. Anyway, I  received some lovely new beads for my Pandora bracelet and the best gift ever---two dirty, nasty ashtrays and a partial pack of Malboros!  Why would that be the best gift ever?  Because it means that Rob and Tanya have quit smoking!  I've said for years that the best gift they could give me was to quit smoking and this year they have!  I'm so proud of them, so very pleased I can't even express it!

I'm off to clean myself up.  I really hope the big push of yard work is finished by this weekend, but. . . I don't have a single full day at home until Saturday!  I'm a busy girl.  I did get the garden spot for the tomatoes and peppers tilled and planted tonight,  everyday I make progress I just can't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet!