I told you in my last post that my desktop PC had serious problems and crashed and burned. Upon further inspection my husband-computer-greek-fix-it-man found that a connection had been dislodged and tangled up in the cooling fan. Ahhhh! An easy fix! Fortunately no files were lost. Whew!
Since I can't find my garden under all that snow to work on, I decided to work on my houseplants. The shelves were cleaned and the plants revitalized. I have a small tabletop fountain that we found was leaking and needed repair so it didn't make it into the following photos.
This is a nice spot in my kitchen to drink coffee and admire the greenery in the morning.
I closed the curtains so you wouldn't see the snow!
A shelf of succulant plants.
And finally, I', thinking about seed starting for the coming gardening season. I'm giving my veggie garden a rest this year but plan on growing a few tasty things in pots. And since I won't be fussing with the veggies this year I can catch up with the weeds and revitalize my perennial beds.
Finally I'm back ! I remember this song from when I was a little girl and I kept humming it all week while contemplating returning to my first blog. I was big on cowboy TV shows when I was in my 'little girl' stage of life. You know...Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Sky King, etc. I even had a cowgirl outfit I dressed up in.
I admit I've been very neglectful here since my last post in July. So what have I been doing with my time since then?
1. Somewhat tending a dismal garden... awful weather this year, not much of a harvest. However, I was successful with growing garlic and I managed to can 14 pints of carrots again this year.
2. I took some free online art classes and made a new friend from those classes who lives about 5 miles from me. We meet for coffee every week and share our new artwork with each other. I'm working on a piece I will show you in my next posting.
3, I'm still quilting and managing our quilt guild's blog, twilightstitchers92.blogspot.com
Here are three of the blocks I made for this years guild project. Each member has chosen a block pattern to share with the others and when the quilt is completed members will have a treasure to remember our quilting sisters by.
4. I blog once a week on my other blog asweetsavor.blogspot.com
5. I did get a chance to do a little hiking on a local trail, Great Bear Springs.
In the coming days I will be back to posting on a regular basis, hopefully every week. It's all a matter of getting my priorities in proper order. I'll be back soon!
Sometimes you have to change what is emphasized in your creative endeavors and that is what I have been doing recently. Mind you, I still love quilting along with other crafts but it was time to re-prioritize what I put my creative efforts into...at least for the summer. And so I decided to take an online art journal workshop with Roxanne Evans Stout at http://rivergardenstudio.typepad.com/
This is the first page I completed from the workshop. Our teacher Roxanne suggested we work on our journals outside. That was precisely the nudge I needed to be motivated to act instead of just think about it. It feels so good to stretch my arty wings again.
And here is the inside of the back cover of my journal. All decorated with a rejected watercolor painting for the back ground and a decorated envelope to keep treasures in.
And lastly, here are a couple of pictures of the garden where I worked on my journal.
Red and white columbine portrayed on the first page of my nature journal.
I've been getting out in this wonderful sunshine to garden. It's been too long coming this year. To add to my garden I've made a new garden flag. I loved the old one but the dye on it was faded from last year. this is only the start of my flag making adventures. Who knows where it will take me. May be I'll become the flag queen. LOL
Yes, I'm briefly visiting this blog to post more spring blooms from the garden. I'm spending more time in preparing projects for my other blog asweetsavor.blogspot.com so I'm not posting as much on this blog as I have in the past. I'm trying to post here at least once a week. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't but I'll keep plugging away. It's so sad...even my quilting has suffered. And now I have to find time to work in the garden. I worked at cleaning up the front perennial bed...no more weeds. But that won't last long so I'll be piling on the mulch this weekend to defeat the little rascals.
You know how they say "The older you get, the faster time passes"? Well,I must be getting old because I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by. I bet you wonder what I've been doing since the last time I posted on my blog.
1. Watering and weeding the vegetable garden and trying to stay ahead of the hot and dry weather.
2. Working on my Stay-At-Home-Robin
3. Picking blueberries with my daughter.
4. Enjoying not having to share my car with my husband anymore because he replaced his
non-working vehicle with one that does work.
5. Attending the yearly family barbeque.
6. Reading the book The New Work of Our Hands Contemporary Jewish Needlework and
Quilts by Mae Rockland Tupa .
7. Cruising the internet (can ya tell?).
8. And the best activity... Enjoying a visit from two great grandchildren
Jamming with Great Grampa at the keyboard...it can't get better than this!
I haven't posted in two weeks. My excuse? Too many distractions. First I backed into someone else's car. No damage to my car but major distraction to my rattled brain. Then there was the return of the two woodchucks. Major destruction under our house. Trap came today. Sorry for you animal lovers but these animals are of the unclean sort and it's either them or our house. We opt to keep the house. And the bank will probably appreciate that there is something left to pay the mortgage on. Then last night there was a propane leak in the furnace (hubby was at work and miles from home) and I had to call the repair service. $$$ later and a dent in the income tax return. Sigh! And I'm a few hours behind on my sleep from last night.However, the veggie garden was tilled this weekend and ready to plant as soon as the woodchucks have met their fate.
No new quilting to share this time. I have finished the blocks for the Underground Railroad quilt that our quilt guild members are working on and I think I have decided to set the blocks with muslin sashing to make them stand out more. For the time being I think I'm quilted out. Maybe it's the anticipation of being outside gardening again. That's a good kind of distraction.
I've been taking more online art classes. I've got a whole lot of sketching going on! Check out my art page and see what I've been doing. It's not too fancy, just a chance to get the old art muscle back in shape. And don't forget to look at my garden page. My tomato seedlings have gone nuclear!
Here are a couple of pictures of my old garden before it got too old.
One day it snows and the next day it melts. We are on a roller coaster ride with the weather this winter. Yesterday was beautiful, sunny and a bit cool but promising. This morning a little snowfall that melted already. On Friday I saw a red winged blackbird at the feeder and a Flicker (woodpecker) in the front yard. Both are birds that migrate out of our area for the winter. But yesterday was a sure sign spring is just around the corner. I saw something yellow in the front garden. Yes! The winter aconites have made their appearance.
I've been adding other pages to my blog: 'Gardening' and 'My Art'. Be sure to click on the subject tabs as I will also be adding links you might be interested in. I've been taking free online art classes and participation is still open. Look for the links on my art page if you are interested in joining in with us.
Now that garden has been prepared for fall and the garlic is safely planted I can get back to my blog. I promised that I would share more photos from the local quilt show my daughter and I attended so here goes:
A little eye candy can be very inspirational. I have a few more to share but you'll have to wait until I post again! Tootles!
It's beautiful out this morning and I was planning to get out to clean up more of the garden but I needed to start dinner so it's ready for my husband when he gets home from work. The garden will have to wait until this afternoon. What to do while I'm waiting for the stew to cook and the man to come home? Can't go outside while the stove is on...not a safe idea. Got my email, read the news on the internet, cut out some fabric for my SAHR and I'm sitting here writing this blog. I promised to share photos I took at a local quilt show the weekend before last so here goes:
Weren't these awesome? All this eye candy makes me want to live in a quilt store!
These last two pictures are for my quilting friends at Zahava Quilters in Israel. This quilt is made of mens silk neckties. Recycling never looked so good!
I have more photos to share but I have to get back to the stew and add the potatoes. And then the garden awaits my attention.
I really enjoy keeping up with One Flower Wednesdays. Check out all our gardens at http://journeyofaquilter.blogspot.com/ I've decided to probably only make one flower a week for the summer instead of the two I usually do. I'm going to start adding the path to my garden, maybe one section a week until I've caught up with all the flowers I've done so far. Here are my flowers for this week.
I'm also starting to get back into making some art. I've been so into quilting lately that that area of my creativity has been neglected. This morning I made a gift tag to go along with a birthday gift for my 29 year old (again...hahaha!) oldest daughter. I can't see spending a ridiculous amount on a card when it is better spent on a gift and adults may think that a card from the dollar store gives the impression that the giver doesn't care enough. So my alternative is to start making cards for each occasion. I think it's so much more personal. And the receiver may even want to save the memento. Here's my tag.
Tomorrow I'll be out in the garden. It's been so wet that the weeds are growing faster than the veggies and there are plenty of them. In fact, the poison ivy had gotten a head start with the latest heat wave. Here are a couple of pictures of my front perennial garden. Two years in the making. Hopefully this year, the third, will be the grand finale.
It's been so hot for the last three days that I haven't been venturing out much. Imagine my surprise when I went out this morning and found my Irises had broken out in bloom. Whoohoo!
