seaside wall hanging finished

Mark a project finished!  I got the binding on earlier this week, and it's on the wall.  That's probably a record time for me to start-to-finish a project...somewhere around 4 weeks.

I also made a couple of lanyards and credit card key chains for my upcoming trip to Alaska.  I'm going with Tammy, so I've sent her one of the passport size holders, as well as the credit card size.  The other passport size is mine, and I already have the credit card size that I made several months ago.  These were from one of the Friday nite pj party tutorials that they have over on the HGTV message boards, generally in the Fall and Winter.

Guess that's it for now.  Try to stay cool!

birthday(s) time again

Yesterday we celebrated birthdays for Ashlynn and Lily.  Their birthdays are one day apart, and they did their main celebration last weekend, but yesterday was cake and ice cream at Grams house.  Happy birthday girls!

Lily turned 9, and Ashlynn turned 5.  Since they both like Hello Kitty,  I made each of them a cake so they could blow out their own candles.  The cakes turned out cute.  I did a google search for pictures of cakes, and they were a big help.

 Of course, Rhett and Elise were here too, so let's get a look at them.  Rhett enjoyed playing with the Ipad, and Elise was a big help in feeding her mom.

How quickly time goes by.  Next one up?  Elise turns 2 in September.  :)

Have a good week, and stay cool.

Tap, swish, wiggle

After toying with the idea of getting an IPad 2, I finally got it Monday. I guess I was spurred on because Nolene got one, so by golly I had to as well!  I never had the original IPad, just was exposed to it at Elizabeth's house, but I sure do like it for playing Scrabble.

So Nolene and I have gotten together a couple of times now in this learning process. "How do I get rid of this page when I'm finished with it", or "how did you get it to do that", along with "hey, look at this!"

We've asked Elizabeth quite a few questions, and she's been shaking her head more than a few times. She realizes now why Apple has so many tutorials, and that there are those who actually benefit from them.

Did I need it? No. Will I play games on it? Yes. Am I glad I got it? Yes. Elizabeth gets to share her knowledge, David has played a game of Scrabble with me over the Internet connection (through a sheer fluke of luck he won because he came up with a 7-letter word right off the bat, and I seemed to be dealt a ton of vowels which we all know are one pointers), and I'm opening new learning passages in my brain, which I'm sure is a good thing. I'll probably only touch on a small bit of what it's capable of doing (the IPad, not my brain), but I'll enjoy the music, books, podcasts, games, access to internet, and whatever else I discover.

Here and there I've met a little confusion. In particular I was trying to do something on my laptop by tapping on the screen, or swooshing my finger across it. Nolene set me straight though, and reminded me I have to use the keyboard, not on-screen tapping. Sigh.

And, yes, this posting was done on my IPad. Well, most of it. Haven't figured out how to get pictures from the IPad photos to the blog without emailing to myself....but if there's a way maybe someone will be kind enough to share. :)

Happy trails everybody.

10-minute blocks

Back in the 90's Mom sent me a sample block that was a three dimensional bow tie.  I came across it in my sewing cabinet a couple of months ago, and thought I still might do something with it someday.  I even thought about showing it on the HGTV quilting boards, and telling them how it was made...if I could ever figure out the directions since it's been so long since I made one.

I'm glad I held off on showing it on the message boards.  I read a post about ten-minute blocks that has apparently been on quite awhile, but I hadn't gotten around to opening it.  Lo and behold, it's the same block, just on a much larger scale.  This new version uses 10" square blocks, and the earlier version used 4" squares.  I liked the larger version, and after seeing the video explaining how they go together, I ordered the book by Suzanne McNeil.

 I decided to make mine as a wall hanging for my beach themed bathroom.  It might have turned out bigger but I only bought 1 1/2 yards of the main fabric not knowing what I'd do with it, and the Joann's where I bought it didn't have any more.  I could have traipsed around town to find it, but it's hot out there, and I just want to get something finished.    I picked up some backing fabric today, and it's now pinned together, so I've made some progress.   The room's rather small, so I didn't add borders.  The binding will be in one of the featured colors, and that should make it "pop" a bit.   With that said, here's my latest...the pieced top!

parade on the 4th

We moved to Burleson in 1986, and the kids were probably about 7 and 13.  One of the draws was the small town atmosphere.  The population then may have been in the 12,000-15,000 range, and the "old town" section was where they held parades.  Within a couple of years we had met up with the Carvers, good friends who had horses.  We had a couple ourselves, and there were several years that Robert and Reggie rode in the parade along with Sam, Janet, Debra, and Kristie. A few more years went by, and Reggie and Robert were involved in the Briaroaks Volunteer Fire Department.  They still rode in the parade, but by then it was on the fire truck. 

I had hoped at this point to insert pictures from those early years, but couldn't get my scanner to work.  Sigh.

Things haven't changed a whole lot over the years.  In the parade today, there were still the bands, emergency vehicles, politicians, military vehicles, and horses.  The population has grown quite a bit, maybe 40,000?  But the parade still travels through "old town", and while there's not as much candy thrown from the participants to the kids on the curb, Rhett and Ashlynn still managed to snag some.

Here are a few pics from today. 

Briaroaks Fire Trucks









Some of the old military vehicles

This truck has no particular meaning to me other than I've always liked the style.  If I had mechanical skills and abilities, I'd love to have an old truck like this one.  I wouldn't even mind if it was orange!

I always like to see the kids who have decorated their bikes or wagons and walk in the parade.  I told Angela that I think it would be fun for Rhett and Ashlynn next year to give it a try. 

The kids had a good time, and a front row seat on the curb.

And of course a parade isn't complete without the horses.  They were the last ones to come through, but always fun to see.

A nice way to observe Independence Day. 

(Next post I hope to get a picture of my latest quilt project.  Stay tuned!)

oh my goodness

Have you ever wondered how far a gallon of milk can splatter, say when dropped from the height of a dining room table to the floor below?  Wonder no more, I'm here to tell you it can go clear across the room, all the way up the front of the refrigerator, onto the upper cabinets, and to the sink.  This wasn't an experiment I conducted just because I was curious.  No, I'm not inclined that way.  I came in from the grocery store about 9:20 p.m., set the milk on the table, and as I turned around, ka-blam!  The milk's on it's way to the floor.  Good ol' Pollyanna that I am, I'm grateful that the cap hadn't been opened, but that really didn't matter too much since the plastic split upon impact.  Sigh.  At least the floor got mopped.

And no, there are no pictures of this enlightening event.  I was too busy grabbing towels to grab the camera.  I do have to say though that I'm surprised the neighbors sitting on their back patio didn't come knocking on my door about the commotion.  It's not often I let out a stream of blankety-blank-blanks, but there were a few that hit the air.

No cereal in the morning for me.