Happy Day!!

I have a new nephew today!! Here is Grayson and he was 6 weeks early. Momma had preeclampsia and for everyone's safety, it was decided to take the baby early. He came in at 4 lbs. 1 oz and is 16 1/2 inches long. He's doing just fine. Momma is suffering from not being able to hold him yet, as she is still not allowed to sit up. Just a couple more days...

Also - Felix came home tonight! After galivanting for the last 8 days and 4 thunderstorms, he finally decided to come home. He promptly got a bath, as he no longer had any white parts - they were all different shades of gray! Let me just say he did not enjoy this homecoming at all! But, it appears as though there are no ear mites, no fleas and no new wounds from cat fights...all very good!

The Quilting is Finished!!

I just finished all the quilting on DNephew's quilt!! It's definitely time to celebrate - I hated that machine quilting!

Now to get the binding strips sewn together and then onto the quilt so I can get it done done! I'll post a picture when I hit that stage...Time to start thinking about the label :)

Update on the kitties - Tiger is doing pretty poorly now. She isn't eating much anymore - we expect to lose her any day now :(

Felix took off out the front door on Thursday afternoon and we haven't seen him since. I'm going to the animal shelter tomorrow, hoping somehow he ended up there. It's not been a good weekend around here on the animal front :(

My Outing to Goodwill

Apparently the day after a long weekend is the perfect day to wander through your local Goodwill. My theory is that everyone had yard sales over the long weekend and took the leftovers to Goodwill to get rid of them.

Anyway, I found a couple of things today that has me pretty happy. The first one had this on the bottom...

The front of it looked like this..

And the back like this..

I fell in love instantly. And for only $2.99! I did some research when I got home - as I had no idea if J. Mex meant anything and discovered this is a Tonala Mexican vase. There's quite a lot of this stuff out there, but it's all beautiful. I love the greens and browns and blues... I found a matching plate on Ebay for $29.99.....I think I'm going to have to let that one pass, though...I do believe I've begun another collection though..

I also found this great piece to hang in my living room or sewing room - I haven't decided which yet. The circles are game pieces that are hanging on a leather cord. Very fun! It's a dark green and cream - even though it looks black in the picture.

And last but not least, I realized I haven't introduced you to Nika yet. She's our lucky black cat. She's about 13 years old, we rescued her from the local animal shelter about 10 years ago. She has red highlights when you see her in the sun. As you can see in this picture, she's trying to keep the red-eye on my blog to a minimum - LOL!

That's all that's going on around here right now. DH is back to work after being off for a week. Boy, the house sure seems quiet with him gone! And, he's stopping at Mom's after work to fix her air conditioner, so it'll be a long day of quiet here. Maybe I'll get a lot done on Flower Power...

Happy Memorial Day

We've had a busy weekend already at our house. We just wrapped up a 2-day yard sale at DSister's house yesterday. We had a pretty good turnout, and made some $$ - enough to replenish the sock drawer, as well as get new flip flops and sunglasses for the summer. And even though we sold a lot of stuff, we still have a carload of things to take to Goodwill. I think I'll do that on Tuesday.

DH has been on vacation all week and has managed to keep himself busy with various projects. He is always working on some project - he's got to keep busy. He helped our elderly neighbor put beadboard on the inside of her potting shed this week. He now has a new best friend :) Right now he is making a kitty stand for The Insane Gardener to put in their Humane Society booth at the county fair this summer. They're planning to have a drawing for it.

This is the project I pulled out of the WIP bin this morning. A friend of mine recently pulled hers out and when I saw it, the bug bit me to get back to work on mine.
This is Flower Power by Crossed Wing. I love their designs and this one is my favorite. It's a huge design with lots of butterflies and hummingbirds mixed in. And there are even caterpillars and ladybugs and gnats, too! It's a wonderful piece.

I think I've been working on it for about 6 years, off and on....I started one on 12/31/99, but after getting the daylilies and daisies done, I realized I really didn't like the fabric I was using. It was a yellow 32 ct and I was going blind with the over one bits. So, I started over on something I did like. This is a soft grey fabric in 28 ct and I'm muuuuch happier with it now.

I finally found a picture of Tiger. This is our 15 year old cat that was recently diagnosed with cancer. Even though she's never had kittens, she's known as the mama cat of the house....she babies all the other kitties we have. I know everyone will miss her when it's her time.

And here is one more shot of our clown, Felix. This is his favorite way to sleep - especially since it's gotten so hot here lately. He did manage to open his eyes for the photo shoot, though :)

Antiqueing..

Is that how you spell it? Hmmm, hope so..LOL

I spent some time this weekend roaming around the antique mall in my hometown. I started on Friday with my Mom. The dime store has converted half of its space into antique booths, so we explored those while out and about. I found 2 wood spindles that are working great as Nostepinnes. I didn't know what a nostepinne was until I saw one on a knitting show on PBS last week. When I saw these 2 things in a bowl in one of the booths - for $1 each - I snatched them up. They work just like a nostepinne should work. However, now that I've researched them online a bit, I realize they are wooden spindles - probably for an industrial loom, as they have metal pieces on the ends....oh well, I'm repurposing them well and they look great in amongst my things in my sewing room :)

Mom and I also checked out the new yarn shop, as well as the new quilt shop in town. Both shops are great and I expect we'll both be spending some time in each one. I even sold a few pincushions to the quilt shop for them to sell on consignment for me. Win win :)

Well, apparently the antique bug wasn't satisfied, so on Sunday I went back to town and roamed the large antique mall for a few hours. It took me 2 1/2 hours to poke my nose into every booth they have - this place is huge. It has 2 upstairs and 2 basements....whew! Anyway, I found a neat windchime of glazed pottery for $1.25 and a glass flower frog for $2.50. Then, as I was at the 2nd to last booth in the place, I noticed all these planks of wood stacked up against the wall. The tags on them identified them as cherry, hard maple and walnut! They were huge pieces of wood, and none of them over $11.00 a piece! So, a quick call to DH and I was lugging one of the pieces down the stairs for him. Then, I learned that everything in the mall is 10% off if it doesn't say "firm" on the tag! Whoa! All told, I got to shoot the antique bug in me for a while for $9.23! Not bad :)

Oh, I finished the crochet bag this weekend. Mom likes my variation much better than her version of the pattern. She followed the pattern faithfully and got a very floppy bag out of it. I followed the pattern and got a circle - it wouldn't turn 3-D for me at all. I finally ripped the whole thing out and revised the bottom - now I have a very nice bag to hold my odds and ends of yarn bits. I'm liking it :)

We're having a yard sale at my sister's house next weekend - so the house is in an uproar as DH and I are pulling things to get rid of. The criteria for this sale: if it hasn't been touched in more than 3 years, it's going. There are a lot of things I love, but I'm not using, and since we need the money, it's time to get rid of them.

Some Good News Today

Finally, some good news in our house. I received a letter today saying that my unemployment benefits are guaranteed - the contest the company was asking for was denied. Thank God. That's one less worry on my shoulders.

It's Been a Rough Weekend...

I'm already counting the days until winter. The lovely snow, the concept of no bugs makes me absolutely giddy.

I spent some time yesterday digging out dandelions in our back yard. You see, we finally got some rain Friday night and the dandelions were popping out a little strong. Also, our older neighbor has been making comments about the yards down the street being overrun with dandelions, so I took my hint and dutifully began digging them out yesterday morning. It was a gorgeous day, the sun was shining, it was warm, there was a bit of a breeze...enough of one that I didn't bother worrying about mosquitoes....my mistake.

Apparently, they were out on sneak attacks yesterday. I currently have 6 mosquito bites on my legs, 5 of them around my ankles. I also have 3 spots where I bled and now have a rash - I can only think I bumped up against something that isn't agreeing with me. We have no poison ivy in the yard, so I really don't think it's that....but I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow for other matters, so I'll be sure to ask him about them...

I so absolutely despise mosquitoes. We live in a bowl with large hills surrounding our town and a river running through it. It's basically a swamp that breeds mosquitoes from April until October. Since the wind only swirls around down here, none of them ever leave. We love to have fires in the backyard in the evenings, but I have to bathe in mosquito spray in order to enjoy them, which means I'm sticky and uncomfortable all evening, so I'm not really enjoying much....oh well, DH still likes doing them.....it's just so weird, though. Those mosquitoes never bother DH, just me. Oh, and the Insane Gardener next door....I thought it was the perfume I was wearing, but I'm not working now, so no perfume.....when does the snow come back??