Rain!

It began raining last night about 11 and it has rained off and on since!  Thank goodness.  I've been out working in the yard and gardens and it's rough when you have to water BEFORE you dig!  It can rain all day as far as I'm concerned.  James Mitchner wrote in Centennial that when it rained on the plains the drops "bounced,"  sometimes it does and I watch it out of my kitchen window.  (Rob says that it's a physics thing and very rare, who knew.  I've seen it pretty often.)  My Granna called it a "gully washer" when it rained that hard--as it washes out fields etc into gullies--but today is what my Dad calls a "soaker" and a soaker is just what we need.  It's pretty amusing to watch a sheltie running around the deck growling and sometimes barking at raindrops, which reminds me I need to let her in!  She has a double coat, designed to shed water (A fact which makes giving her a bath very difficult!) so she won't be really wet and will dry quickly.  She's probably hanging out under the table or the eaves anyway, out of most of it.

Since gardening is out for today, I think I'll stitch and work on the Town Company (project that ate my life.)

The State of. . . .

First, the state of the flannel scrap basket:

 Empty!  I don't think I'll use this basket this way any longer as I don't have any new flannel projects going, in fact it already has pastel leader and enders filling it up!   The cotton scrap basket is empty of scraps but not empty.  It has leftover blocks from the gifts bags and some muslin pieces I haven't decided what to do with.  I have all the flannel log cabin blocks for the second rag quilt finished and will begin to quilt as I go them as soon as I finish with this round of little houses.  I'm a bit stuck there as I have no more cotton scraps to cut houses from--the next ones will have to come off fat quarters or pieces in the boxes!  I've run into a few issues with this batch--I'm always tweaking the process for making these.

The state of the knee:  I had a second shot of cortisone about 10 days ago, at first it was totally wonderful!  For about 5 days.  Then it started screaming at me again, it has calmed down some and I'm giving it the full two weeks the doc said it might take before committing but I think the next step is going to be the Euflexxa shots.  I can live with a great deal of pain (one pain pill for 2 carpal tunnel surgeries, one pain pill for a c-section) but long term pain is hard on your general health and the limp I just can't always stop causes other places to hurt.  The big kicker though is that I have caught myself thinking-"I don't want to walk Quinn tonight, my knee will hurt."  And that is just wrong on so many levels!  The shots are once a week for three weeks and are supposed to bulk up the fluid under the knee cap.  We'll see.

And Quinn.  Here she is gnawing on a marrow bone!  She's been at it for over an hour.  After I took the photos, she turned her back on me so I couldn't see the bone!  Guess she didn't want to pose any longer!

Finally finished!

A couple of years ago I decided I was tired of buying wrapping paper at Christmas!  I decided to make some quilted bags to reuse each year.  I cut squares, sewed disappearing nine patches, quilted the bodies and added canvas handles and bottoms.  Today I finished up the little hand work on all ELEVEN.  I made one for each member of my family, however I think I might have been a little over zealous in my desire to  have the bags large enough!  Here they are:

Had to move Simba off of them, he apparently approves!  About the over-sizing, I folded ten of them and put them into one bag--

I think these should hold any and all gifts!  But I probably need to make some smaller (and less involved) bags as well.  If I ever need extra laundry bags or bags to hold king size quilts these should do the trick!

Big To Do off the list!

Sunday Evenings.

Thought you might enjoy a pic of my lovely Quinn! She's still a bit damp from her bath yesterday in this photo-she is much fluffier now that she's dry and brushed.  I think I'm finished with glueing her ears down, unless the tips begin to straighten up.   She's such fun!

Today we took the ladder to Beth so they could use it while building the boy's play set - and so that Quinn could play with Zoe!  In all but the winter there are softball tournaments in the park every weekend, that means too many people and cars for Quinn to run off leash so a play date in Zoe's fenced in back yard was just the ticket!

In keeping with my current theory of deciding what I want to finish next, I have nearly finished the holiday bags, perhaps tomorrow evening I'll be able to post a finish!  My theory is to work on the one thing that will make the most visual impact on my list. These bags are big! And will soon be packed away until Christmas, removing one huge pile from my sewing room.  Seems like I'm doing a lot of Christmas things, hum, and I'm not finished either.  Still, a few things are being finished so it's all good.

Where have I been? I have no idea!

I can't believe I've been silent here for so long, lucky you.  Really haven't done anything exciting.  Made some little houses (ongoing count on side bar), cut scraps until I hit the bottom of the basket!  Nearly finished one set of gift bags for the holidays--only a bit of handwork on these four red ones, then four green and 3 blue ones-the blue are up for this week.  I've worked a bit in the yard, but real spring weather has arrived, unlike those two days of 90F when I seriously considered the air conditioning it is down in the 50-60sF and the heat is back on.  We need some rain and the weather guesses say we should get some, add in the dreary gray skies and perhaps some will fall.  I have been reading even more than usual-mostly novels, very light stuff.  I go on binges with that sort of thing! I did manage to get some work in on the Town of Kansas-mitacles do happen!  Anyway, nothing really going on--the usual most boring person in the world stuff!  ( I said that to a couple of my sons, they both argued that THEY were the most boring person in the world! )

I've been cutting the walls for more little houses, I am WAY behind on the one per day thing so I just hope to have all 366 done by year end.

This morning makes the second Thursday in a row that our Tanya has found one of her elderly cats dead.  One was expected, the other a total shock.  It is very hard on her as she had had them for 16 years and they are the last living link to her Mom who passed in 2005 (I think).  She bounces back better as time passes but the one lonely guy left will get lots of attention!

I'm off to work on the taxes--leaving it a bit late this year, sigh.

Of Skinny Jeans and shirts that button

I've been dieting for a while (haven't we all) just changing the way I eat, what I eat and how much, nothing formal I just called it the "enough diet" when I've had enough I quit eating!  I'd been losing a couple of pounds a week until the February doldrums hit when that stopped.  I'm grateful I didn't pack on all the weight I'd lost!  I signed up for Weight Watchers, boy is that a ton of work!  I'm not really following it but am back to watching the portion size again and I've lost a few pounds again, yeah me!  Not really exciting except that yesterday I put on a shirt that I have never been able to wear alone because it wouldn't button--yesterday it did!  With room to spare!  Inspired by that sucsess I tried on a really old pair of jeans, one I haven't been able to wear for at least a couple of years.  (I've been trying them every so often just to see.)  They snapped! They zipped!  And I could still move!  Oh happy day!

I don't know if it's just the weight,  I really doubt it.  I think it's Quinn.  Or rather the two plus miles she and I walk each day.  I know from past experience that walking takes the inches off your middle and I think that's what's happened!  It's a real incentive that's for sure.  I'll be ever so excited when my skinny jeans are too big!

Another project off the list!

Today I get to mark another UFO off my "TO DO" list!  These 16 hexie ornaments:

A closer look ( had to hunt for a ruler with both English and Metric on it!)

Again, some of these will go on my sewing room tree and some will be gifted!  I think they would be cute as a"bow" on a package.

Jilly, asked for a photo of my lilac bush so here it is:

When we moved into this house in 2000 this bush was a sadly neglected thing that I really thought would have to be taken out but after I trimmed it and lavished some love on it I think it will survive!  It has bloomed each year for the past 8 years and every year there are more blossoms.  I wish I could send along the smell it creates, I think it's my favorite flower smell!

Kolby was here for several days this week, well three-does that constitute several?  He was sent home Monday with pink eye.  Along with the misery of that his allergies are horrid, so his nose is stuffy and running and his asthma is acting up.  Adding insult to all of that he developed a contact rash!  Three trips to Urgent care, three different sets of medication the last being steroids.  I hope that fixes him up!  (It usually does me!)

Quinn is at Camp today which makes for a very quiet day for me.  I took myself off to the Genealogy library for a little while, I really have to get back to work on the Town of Kansas.  After taking two years off while Larry was sick it has been really hard to get back into!  After that I walked around the antique mall for a bit, until the knee said "owee" too many times.  Since I've been home I have worked on the Town of Kansas, well printed some newer versions of spreadsheets I developed out-have to go get ink so I can finish that. and finished up the ornaments.  I have many more things on the "TO DO" list I just have to pick one.

On the Knee front, I have an appointment with the knee surgeon on Monday to talk about options.  Those seem to be:  orthoscopic  surgery to repair a possible torn miniscus (doubt that's spelled properly), a partial knee replacement or a full knee replacement.  Different shots were mentioned but I would need assurances that they would help the pain.  In the meantime I am learning to live with the various levels of pain.

Much work in the garden tomorrow!  Maybe after I have weeded them I'll post some more photos.  This is the best time for blooms,  I intend to plants more flowering plants in empty spots this year and to plant more hydrangeas.