Sundown in Bonetown

Mind if I share my sunset with you?

I played with the settings on my camera a bit while the sun was creeping down behind the hay bales in the back field.

"Warm" setting

"Cool" setting

I still couldn't capture the colors of the real thing.

"Sepia" setting


All of this happened in less than 5 minutes

It was BEAUTIFUL!

Dropping the ball

My son graduated from high school in May 2006...I know you can count - that was 4 years ago.

If you have children you know how hard it can be to get them to send out "thank you" cards for the things they receive from friends and family.  Jeff is a good example - being a young male, it's practically impossible to get him to do this.  I'm pretty sure I impressed on him, way back in 2006, that he most definitely needed to send out his thanks to family for the graduation gifts and monies he received from them.

Well, I was digging through my thank you cards, looking for a nice one to send my brother, and I stumbled upon these....

I kept reaching in and coming out with more....each card filled out and neatly tucked into a blank envelope.  I'm pretty sure he got as far as filling them out, didn't have the addresses and asked me to address them and mail them out for him....looks like I dropped the ball on this one!

BIG TIME!!!!

Family will still get their "thank you's" from Jeff's graduation.....4 years late!!!

Sunday Stroll

Bill and I headed to church this morning and arrived shortly before 11:00.  It seemed awful quiet in the church yard - no one was out front, no late stragglers, no smokers, etc....something seemed odd....
When we got up to the doors, an old man greeted us and told us we were a bit late.  What?  We were actually about 5 minutes early!  Turns out they changed the service time and they're trying out a 10:00 AM service.  Boy, we felt like fools!  We hadn't visited that church in a few months so that explains why we didn't know about the new time.  Anyway, it was too late to head to another church, since they are fairly spread out in the country so we just headed home.  I convinced Bill to take a walk with me before lunch, and he reluctantly agreed.
It was a beautiful day and I knew that I'd get lazy after lunch and wouldn't want to head out, so it had to be right now or never.

This is the road we walked down.  It's called Davis Road.

I like to go on this road because there's hardly any traffic and it is very quiet and peaceful.  I would have liked to have kept on walking, but he reminded me we had to turn back and start lunch....*sigh*....maybe another day I can venture further....and take more pictures!!

I thought this was quite an interesting tree.

Bill had to stop and wait while I took pictures and explored the side of the road.  He wanted to know why I was taking pictures...BECAUSE I CAN!!!!  :)  And, besides, I like pictures!  They make great desktop wallpapers!

I've sewn all my No Sew Swap pink and green blocks together, except for two.  Thank you, Kathleen, for hosting!  I enjoyed it and the lovely little gift you enclosed!
I had originally planned to make a quillow out of the 9 blocks, but the pinks and greens are much too different so I've got to figure out something else to do with them.  Here is one that I had a little piecing trouble with - I just turned it into a table topper!

I also did the Red White and Blue No Sew Swap and I think that those ones will probably match a bit better and maybe I can combine them to make a quillow.

I also finished Twiddletail's Pinwheel Party block #1 and am anxiously awaiting instructions for block #2!  It's not too late to join in!  Thanks, Anina, for leading this quilt-along!

I decided to go with the black background and bold colors instead of trying something different.  I already had everything for this color scheme in my stash and I just sold a black and jewel-toned quillow so this will be a great replacement.  Perhaps the next time I can try a different color scheme.

Bill has scheduled me for a construction material run to the big city first thing Monday morning which means I'll get to go shopping at a real fabric store while I'm there!!

So, now that my belly is full of pork chops, mashed potatoes, and sweet peas, and I've had a nice chat with my friends in blogland, I can't decide if I want to head back to the sewing room or take a nap......I actually think the nap is probably going to win!  If you're near Bonetown this afternoon, stop in and say hello - I'll be making an apple pie and homemade ice cream later today to have after dinner while we watch "Amazing Race"!

I love Sundays!!!!..don't you?

Anatomy Lesson and Saturday Sewing

This picture hangs above my computer in the room which used to be my sewing room...perhaps I need to move it into my current sewing room!  Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you!

After I left the jobsite yesterday afternoon, I sank into a nice hot bathtub ~ one of my most favoritest things to do!!  I definitely needed a bath because we burned up some scrap wood and I smelled like smoke.

The fire was nice and the smell of burning wood made me think of camping and how much I miss it.

 Bill has promised we can go camping at Myrtle Beach for a week after this house is finished!  I can't wait...

I've started a pot of venison vegetable soup for supper tonight and I've got a little bit of house cleaning to do today but then I plan to work on some sewing for my upcoming craft show in two weeks.  It will be our first craft show of the year and I'm anticipating it will be a good one!  I'll have all my aprons and baby outfits there, so if there was something you saw in my shop that you liked, you better get it now because it will probably be gone at the show!  :) (I'm being positive!!!)

Today I'll be making some more pocketbooks - both my own design...

and some more of Rae Hokstra's Buttercup Bag - these are a lot of fun and go together fairly quickly!

Have a great weekend!!

The After-Birthday Glow

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes!  It was a very nice day, full of surprises and sweet things.

Aunt Judy came over early in the day bearing a bag full of goodies that made me cry!

Judy is always thinking of others and always has a bunch of goodies stashed somewhere to throw together a very thoughtful gift.  The house we're building is for Judy's son, Jason, and future daughter-in-law, Amanda.  She's been bringing us snacks at 3:30 when we take our afternoon work break, as the jobsite is pretty much in her back yard!

My hubby got rained out on the jobsite and came home to take me out to lunch at Chili's ~ that was probably the best part of the whole day...just spending time with him and getting to eat out!  We both had mini burgers and split a chocolate chip molten cake for dessert.

Since it was a rainy day at the jobsite, I got to work on a new patchwork quillow in the afternoon.

I'm sticking to my goal of trying to make at least one patchwork quillow every two months (total of 26 for 2010) to sell in my shop.  So far, I've made 11 and I'm actually ahead of myself - perhaps I need to raise my goal!!  I sold two last week so I need to get on the ball and fill the void!  This one was done with amanda jean's zig zag quilt instructions.  I really miss her blog!

My husband made me a nice dinner. I really wish I would've taken a picture of the spread - it was very thoughtful and delicious-looking.  He made Chili Salad, which is basically just like Taco Salad only you use chili instead of taco meat and Fritos instead of tortilla chips.

After dinner, we headed to the living room and our daughter, Jennifer, had some nice gifts for me!  She, too, is a very thoughtful gift-giver and I love the things she chose for me!

I can't wait to wear the fleece vest and brown is my favorite color.  I'm pretty sure birthday celebrations will become a thing of the past once she moves out!  She's the only one keeping them alive!

So, I'm just sitting here...relaxing in the living room...don't you just love all the little hitch-hiker threads on my socks!  I can't seem to get away from them!!  :)

When, suddenly, a procession arrives...

They sang to me!!!

...and brought me this....

Ahhh.....CHOCOLATE!!!

...and coffee!  A great pairing in my book!

I have a lovely family, doncha think??  :)

I wanted to show you all my latest finish for amylouwho's Sew-n-Tell Friday....

Yep - you guessed it ~ another quillow!!!

It also happens to be my finished project for Loft Creations String Challenge - Two birds with one stone!

Well, I'm off to the jobsite - thank God it's Friday!!!!

Fröliches Geburtstag....to me!!!

I just love this little kitty, don't you?!  Makes me wish I still had a kitty.  I had a cat that looks a lot like this one, only she had longer hair.  Her name was Maggie and she was my girl for 14 years.

 

Me and Maggie when she was less than a year old....I was about 24 or 25, I think

  

She was born March 6th, 1992 and died March 7th, 2006.

I still miss her a lot sometimes.

Anyway, today is my birthday, and her birthday would've been this coming Saturday so I can't help but think of her at this time of year.

On a happier note...

. . . my husband baked me a cake!

I usually love a white-on-white cake but I requested chocolate this year.  You can tell he's a bit of a construction head in all he does!

He has to take the entire baking rack out of the oven and prop it up on forks to cool the cake!  What a goofball!  But, he's my sweet goofball!  :)

You can also tell he's a Southerner...they like to say "I'm going to cook a cake for you" or "cook some cookies"... no matter how many times you tell them that when you use the oven you are baking!  Cooking happens on the stovetop!!  He just gets mad when I correct him so I try not to do it anymore.

He definitely bought plenty of frosting, though!

He's fixing me dinner tonight, too...something real simple, of course!  :)

Today is supposed to be a rain day at the jobsite, so luckily, I don't have to go to work.  I definitely hope to get some sewing time in, admist sitting around in my pjs and robe, drinking coffee and reading blogs!  I might even squeeze in a trip to Wal-mart!  Boy, the time can pass quickly when you're having fun!

Hey - remember these and how I asked your opinion in the color border on this quillow?

Well, the blues won!

Thank you for your help in picking the color - I think it turned out great!

So great, in fact, that less than a week after I finished the handquilting, it sold in my online shop! SWEET!

If you've got an online shop, either on Etsy or elsewhere, you know how important it is to post quality pictures of your handmade goods.  Well, my camera is on it's last legs and I'm in the market for a new and better one.  All I really want is a camera that takes true color, quality pictures and allows me some control over the settings, so I would really love to hear your suggestions or advice if you have any.

 I hope you all have a great day, today...I'm sure I will as I've already had a few wonderful surprises!  Talk to you later...