My Batik Quilt...

FINISHED!  Finally - everything is DONE!  YAY!

I love it!  And I feel so accomplished - esp since it took somewhat less than 25 years!

We can grow cucumbers!!  LOOK at this HUGE one!  Because everyone compares it to money, I had to as well. 

And just for fun, against Megan!

Love that our garden is coming in... we loving going out and checking things out every day.  :-)

Busy, busy, but I had to say hi and share my quilt.  My first ever, from material to patches to sewing them together, making a pattern and putting it all together again - with friends blocks added to mine and so very special.  Beginning to end, I DID IT!

*dancing*

Garden Update

 Update on our garden!  :-)

It is doing SUPER!  I love the straw that we laid out - it makes my life so much easier.  Very few grasses and weeds grow in it and when they do they are really easy to pull.  It also holds the moisture in so that we are only watering once a week right now - and we do know that, of course, will change as the world heats us.  Overall, it is fantastic!  That was a great idea someone had!  Thank you, thank you!

I went digging around the plants and really trying to find our veggies coming in.  I know you probably don't need to see them all, but I still want to show you anyway.   Please bear with me!  We have not had a garden in years and I am so stinking proud of how this one is doing!

We have the cutest acorn squash which we love to bake:

And more coming in:  

 

Tomatoes:

Cabbages - and I think I finally got the cabbage worms taken care of:

Cucumbers - they are the cutest things ever:

Even our bell peppers are doing great!

This is a pickling cucumber - yes they are different than a slicing cucumber, although you can slice them:

That is what I have found so far.  Everything is doing super except our melon patch.  We didn't tend to that dirt so much before we tossed the seeds in, so I guess that is why it is slow coming around.  It IS coming around, but very slowly.

We have to check on our cats every day because we have so many owls, hawks and coyotes around here - and cubby holes to wander and get caught in.  Steve saw three of them this morning and since we had been in the shop last night, he went to see if Scare-dy Cat was there. Scanning the shop, he saw something unusual on the old door we got at Rod's:

He thought he had set something up there, so he went to get it down. Upon getting a closer look at it...

He decided not to:

It is just a Black Rat Snake, but it is a nice sized one:

I hope it caught a mouse or two while it was in the shop - but his new home is going to be by the pond now!  Lol... We need help with the huge amount of frogs and critters out there - wonder if he eats turtles?

Good thing I am not afraid of snakes!  If they are poisonous, we get rid of them; if not, I would much rather have a snake than the mice they eat!  I don't think this one has missed many meals either... lol...

That is my catch up for today.  Gonna finish my batik quilt today and do some chores around here.  Did I hear you say you thought I had finished it already?

Well, there is a reason I hadn't - but itsa coming!

More on that tomorrow.  

Bittersweet Quilts - near Joplin Missouri

Reality check...

A place like this:

Could get me and several people I know in serious trouble - with their bolts and bolts of material; every design, color and era you could ask for.

Just looking and drooling over all the material and pretty quilts make you want to buy everything in the store.

I really need to go here again... 

Wanna go? 

Wanna know where it is?

And what to look for?

Bittersweet Quilt Store outside of Joplin, Missiouri.

Really amazing!  

Love it!

Really scary for my budget.

Talkin' About Old Stuff...

 I have this idea to make a coat tree to go in our entry way similar to this:

 

Well, not so similar, but you get the idea.  It won't be exactly like this - I don't like the arms on it and I want it taller so it will be just the right height for us to sit on, the bottom to go all the way to the floor, and doors under it to store shoes in...

Well, I was telling my father-in-law aboout it and said that I had been watching at old stores and garage sales (*gulp* yes, I still go and they are SOooooo good here!) for an old door or two.  Rod got this look in his eyes and said he thought he had some in one of his barns.   

We went digging!

Boy did we find doors!!  And dust!  Lol...

Megan and Steve dusted them off and got them to where we could see them.  They will work perfectly!  Steve can use the small doors for the front of the coat tree to put shoes in!

I even love the old hardware on them!

Gonna be a treasure!  These doors are special because they came off of the old house Rod was born in!  I am honored to be able to us 'repurpose' them for something in our house. 

I also found this on the Oh So Shabby (facebook) site that I like... not too sure how practical (or comfortable) it would be, but it is neat:

While we were digging, we came across some steel (?) doors with beveled glass windows:

More dusting and gentle cleaning brought these doors out:

Wowsers!  I love them!  Don't know what we will do with them yet, but I am thinking, we will figure it out.  :-)

And finally... digging and digging is fun at Rod's place - you never know what treasures you will end up with.  He has several barns so it would take days to really see what he has!  While we were digging, we found an old transom that went above the doors between rooms - in pefect shape!

That will be gorgeous all cleaned up!

Yep, I was born in the wrong generation, but I am so glad I have the pride of being able to enjoy what my ancestors had.  I am in awe that I have been entrusted with so many wonderful treasures from our past - not only from Rod, but from everyone else in my family.

Ahhh, and today, my friends, is my 1,000th post!  One THOUSAND.  I guess I am more dedicated than I thought!  Go me!

Remember the 'Old Days'?

I love old things.  I love old ways.  I think I was born in the wrong generation, but I make the most of it.  I stopped by a garage sale that had an entire set of brand new dishes that I loved.  Of course, they were old.

I noticed this box first:

When I opened to box to see the dishes, they had a sweet old timey charm about them:

 They were a dollar a box - how could I leave them?  

I brought them home, wondering how Steve would react to more 'stuff'.  When he came in and saw them, he actually liked them as well.  As it turned out, one box had been opened and resealed.  As we were unpacking them, we had a blast looking at the newspaper ads:

And the best one yet!  A new Volkswagen for only $1710!!

 

Little stuffs makes me smile!

My dishes are in my china cabinet looking at me every day.  Yes, I love them, and I don't know why - and the papers made he happy too.

Remember the old days?  Do you smile thinking of them?