Thursday Busyness

Snow flurries and overcast skies greeted me at sunrise; pretty much a raw morning as the wind is whipping around, making it feel much, much colder. The high temperature today is supposed to be 24, so the daily pattern of “break ice, fill with warm water, repeat” will continue so the sheep and chickens will have something to drink. Meanwhile, Lily is tending the fire for me while I make a pot of tea, and by tending, I mean napping upright on her pillow.

On my agenda for today, along with a mountain of laundry: cleaning up the last of the decorations and messes from Christmas, like the one I made in my sewing room while wrapping presents a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been able to put off dealing with that by just staying out of that room, but yesterday I couldn’t find my scissors in the midst of all the clutter, so its time. I also want to finish binding a small lap quilt I made for myself. The fabric has a Christmas theme and colors, but I used some really nice warm batting between the layers so I’d still like to use it for a little while, at least until spring. 

I’d also like to warp up a couple of my rigid heddle looms today... I have some really pretty yarn I’ve been holding on to for too long~ time to make something with them. I love the way this yarn feels... soft and squishy. I’m thinking about making a small scarf with it. 

These colors are gorgeous, and I love how fine and delicate it is... even though it’s probably not as warm as the other, I’m thinking maybe a scarf from these as well.

Okay, time to get off the computer and get busy.... until next time~ stay warm, dear friends! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Birthday Suit

Wordless Wednesday: Gone Ridin' (Lily's new car)

Wordless Wednesday: 4-Letter Word (B-A-T-H)

Wordless Wednesday: Gone Ridin'

Wordless Wednesday: Staredown

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Ready to Ride

 Or, maybe not.

Slowly getting back to normal



Lily and Tiny passing along some barnyard gossip.

January is rolling along and I haven't posted anything in almost two weeks... I just can't seem to get caught up! Christmas and New Year came and went rather quickly for me this year... actually everything has been a blur to me lately. Once again, thanks so much for your prayers and well-wishes.... Hubby is doing very well since his surgery. He is still having some discomfort from the incision but hardly any pain in his leg or back at all now.

Hubby and I had been talking for some time about exercising more and getting back into shape, and since we live close to several state parks and trails we even talked about doing some fun things like hiking or riding bicycles.
I was very excited about this back in the fall and had big plans to surprise Hubby with two new bikes for Christmas, but the surprise was on me when we found out in early December that he would need surgery to repair the disc in his back.
By then it was too late to send the bikes back, so I had to go ahead and tell Hubby that there would be no presents under the tree other than my bonehead premature purchase.


 So, our shiny new Christmas presents are in the spare bedroom on their shiny new bike rack where they will have to stay until Hubby gets the O.K. from the doctor to be able to start riding.... we are walking a little bit each day and hopefully he will get the go-ahead soon.  I used to love to ride bikes but I haven't been on one in a long time and I'm a little scared- I have a feeling my leg muscles are in pretty sad shape right now.

However, Lily has already been enjoying her Christmas present-

she now has something to ride in right along with us when we start biking...

her very own "car"!

Actually it's a bike trailer for pets that doubles as a stroller -

Here she is checking it our for the first time....

(This is with the stroller wheel on the front.)

I think she liked it...

In fact, we brought her "car" back inside the house and a short time later I couldn't find Lily...

I looked everywhere and here's where I finally found her-

 Sitting in her new ride.

And she wouldn't come out...

not even for a treat.

Do you think she's trying to tell me something?

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Even though the chores around here have been keeping me busy,

I've found time to get some sewing done.....

it's been nice working at my machine while Hubby naps in his chair in the living room.

I'll be showing you in an upcoming post what I've been working on but right now

I wanted to share some pictures of the fabric I bought a few weeks ago.

This was my first online fabric purchase- I was very unsure about buying fabric sight-unseen because I like to put my hands on it (I know that sounds nutty...) but once it arrived I was very pleased, especially since I live a pretty good distance away from any place that sells fabric. Now I'm excited about the idea of being able to pick out fabric from home and have it delivered to my door, and I've been spending most of my computer time adding more fabric and notions to my online "wish list".

I'm not really a cat person, but when I saw this fabric called "Parlor Pets" I thought it was too cute not to buy to make an apron or something for a cat lover...

I just love the honeybees in this next fabric- see if you can spot them.

And of course I had to find something chickie".... *grin*

Well, I'm off to run errands today instead of Friday- snow is in the forecast for tonight and even though I don't think it will do anything, I want to be the first one in the grocery store.

*haha*

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Wordless Wednesday: Lily's first Christmas card

Like I need an excuse to eat cake...

I didn't feel any different when I woke up this morning, but according to the calender I'm now 42.

*Sigh*

Funny..... this one kinda crept up on me. Do birthdays get sneakier the more you have of them? Hmmm...
Oh well, there aren't any wrinkles a little piece of cake won't smooth over.   :)

I'll be spending the day drying some apples and cleaning up my sewing room... as for a celebration, that will have to wait until tomorrow- Hubby is taking off from work and we're taking a little day trip with Lily to enjoy the fall colors and do some shopping along the way.

Speaking of Lily, I think she's finally recovered from her Birthday celebration a couple of weekends ago... Here is a picture of her right before her big night began-

The tiara didn't even make it to the car, but once we got into town she had a couple of chicken nuggets from Chik-Fil-A, her favorite restaurant.... (okay, actually it's mine but I'm pretty sure she likes it too...)
And gots lots of love and affection from everybody in the pet store plus two new toys, so it was a pretty big night for a 1-year-old.

I'll be back next week- have a great weekend, everybody!

Friday Funny: Waking up is hard to do, Part III

Lily doesn't do mornings.... can you tell?

In case you missed them, Parts I and II can be found here and here.

We've had some heavy rains for most of this week which made it impossible to do anything outside- so it seemed like a good time to get my fall decorations out and get them ready to put up when the weather improved. I decided that since I was in the closet moving things around I would go ahead and clean it out and donate some unused items.
Well, you know how that goes.... one closet leads to another.... then another....
I'll be back in a few days, providing I'm not buried under by a closet avalanche- until then, I'll be catching up with all my blog friends to see what I've missed this week.
Happy Friday, everyone!

Lily wants to ride

Which do you think Lily would rather do-

eat or ride in the car?

Taking it easy

I've been out of commission for a couple of days this week after receiving some kind of nasty insect bite- I'm not sure what it was since I didn't see the culprit but I'm thinking possibly a spider.

The grass needs cutting and the chicken coops need cleaning, but I still don't feel like being outside much right now... so I'll be taking it easy like Lily is in the picture above and visiting my blog friends today.

Happy Wednesday, everyone...

A finished project (Finally!)

"Rollin',  rollin', rollin',

Keep those feed dogs rollin'...."

A few months ago (March, to be exact...) I shared a really cute pattern I found online for a reversible bag. Here is the picture from the website- 

(If you missed that post and would like the pattern you can find it here.)


I've tried to stay out of the heat as much as possible lately, so while indoors I got busy sewing and finally finished my bag:

Although it looks navy blue in the picture, it's actually black.

But the lining/ reverse side?

Hang on to your hats:

Here is the close-up:

Is this not the custest fabric you've ever seen?

*squeeeal*

It makes me smile every time I look at it.

As for the plain black side, I dressed it up with some sunny yellow topstitching.

I've always been intimidated by topstitching although I love the way it looks when it's done right... my topstitch seams always wound up crooked and I had to tear them out and redo them 5 or 6 times before I usually just gave up. Last year I bought a topstitch foot with my birthday money... I never knew this beautiful thing existed but I will never attempt to topstitch without it again. Some of you sewers may already have one of these and know how they work- if not, you can see the little stitch guide to one side that actually fits over the edge of the fabric and guides you while you sew.

Whoever thought of this brilliant idea- I love you.

I also put a snap on my bag to close the top.

I can still reverse it, though- the snap doesn't really show up much on the chickie side.

My chickie bag is done!

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I received some handmade goodies in the mail last week from my good friend Vickie from the blog The Virginia Purl-  she made a bunch of knitted dishcloths for me in blue to match my kitchen colors! And they are so soft, too.

Thanks, Vickie- they're perfect!

Wait- Lily has to inspect them.....

They are now "Lily-tested" and "Lily-approved"!

Happy Tuesday, everybody!

Too much fun in the sun

Lily loves to lay in the sunshine... but the 90-degree temperatures we're having (not to mention the 100% humidity)are making her outside trips a whole lot shorter these days, much to her dismay.

1:05 p.m.
"I don't need no stinkin' sunscreen..."

1:07 p.m.

"Ahhh... this is the life."

1:10 p.m.

"Whew, the sun sure is bright... should have worn my shades."

1:12 p.m.

"....wish my water dish wasn't so far away..."

1:15 p.m.
"Okay, this isn't fun anymore... can we go back inside now?"

Happy Tuesday, everybody- hope you're staying cool!