Rainy Day Saturday!

We certainly have had our fair share of rain in Charlotte, NC this winter. One can expect a day of sunshine followed with 2 or more days of rain. This morning it appeared as though it was going to be another rainy day when about noon the sun came out. When it did, it encouraged me to go out and enjoy it while it lasted. Of course, it needs to be productive, such as a trip to Michael’s to pick up 4 more skeins of yarn.

My next stop was at Target looking for a pair of garden boots. My garden is full of weeds and with all the rain it is quite muddy too! There I found a pair of pretty ones.  Mud here I come!  They are heavy duty vinyl with some leather and can be easily hosed! Aren’t I going to be quite the fashionista while working in my garden?

But since this morning was looking like it was going to be another day of rain and being Saturday, I grabbed my knitting needles and worked on David’s afghan. It is so heavy that I decided to sit on my bed so I could handle the weight of it. While knitting away I watched a couple of documentaries on PureFlix, one was about Tim Tebow and the other about Zig Ziglar. Both were about very upbeat, determined, and positive Christian men. Very inspiring!

As the sun began to shine and after watching the documentaries my mood lifted and I felt energized, thus the reason for deciding to go shop. Once I returned home, I made a couple of dishes so I would have something quick to fix to eat for my upcoming busy week.

Another bright star day this past week was when I received a yard of gingerbread men fabric in the mail from a friend. It was a nice surprise! Now I need to think of something to make for her. Pinterest had a cute table runner. There were a couple of patterns of gingerbread houses too. Decisions!

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

Craftsy BOM, Garden Pics & More

Craftsy Block of the Month

Finally done! The second Craftsy Block of the Month for March. Yep! I am working to catch up!

It was so wonderful to turn on my sewing machine again. It has been several weeks - seems longer than that.

I love how this block turned out! 

It is a broken spider web block that is foundation pieced - well in the initial stages it is since the only pieces that had a foundation are the strips along the star edge. After the first strip was sewn to the foundation I sewed the remaining strips matching seams together right sides together until the foundation pieced is covered. After covering the foundation piece I trimmed the edges along the lines of the foundation and then trimmed the foundation to reduce bulk.

Modern Quilt Blocks from Members of the 

Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild

These wonderful and amazing blocks are for the Quiltcon Challenge. Check out their website to see some WOW! quilts.  I missed the April CLTMQG meeting and missed out on the opportunity to participate.

An Afternoon in the Garden

I was looking out my sliding glass doors and noticed how the birds were lining up to take a bath. I had filled the bird bath to full yesterday morning and the birds came. I ran upstairs to grab my camera to grab a picture of what looked like an airport with with flights waiting to land. I opened the door and they all flew away. So I thought I would sit on the garden bench to see if they would return so I could get a picture of them. One did!

While sitting on my bench I looked up and noticed my sweet Cassie staring out at the door wanting to come out and sit with me on the bench, something she loves doing. She was getting quite persistent about wanting to come out, barking and pawing at the door. I ran to let her out as I was concerned she would awaken my napping hubby. 

Aren't you glad I came out to help make your flower look pretty?

As we sat on the bench Cassie was talkng in all the critters. There is a new bird that has been visiting us. I'm not sure what it is but it has a beautiful song. While Cassie looks for the critters I was looking for pretty things in the garden. I love my garden bunny. I picked it up on the way home from vacation one summer.

 The gardenias are blooming and giving off their wonderful scent.

A potted plant brimmed full with color!

It has been a good day! It ended a bit different than usual though. Hubby and I made a difficult decision to move his autistic son to another group home after having lived there for 14 years. In the last year we took measures to wean Jason from high power medications that was causing him to be listless, not enjoying life, and sleeping all the time. He was so drugged! We wanted Jason back! Well Jason is back! Now that he has returned he doesn't fit in with the other residents because they are satisfied with doing nothing. Not only that staff had been instructed not to talk to them. All the residents are not able to speak, but that doesn't mean that don't want people to talk to them. They used to be an active group home going bowling, skating, swimming, beach trips, outings in the community and etc. This is no more or so reduced that Jason is bored out of his mind. 

If you know anything about autism you know that they do not like changes!! I should add more exclamation points because changes are big adjustments that can set them off. The plan was to keep him in the same work shelter to keep something in place that is familiar. Well that is not to be because the organization that owns the group home also owns the work shelter and they are forcing Jason out of it because of our decision to pull him out of the group home. We have found a wonderful work shelter for him! We feel as though God handed us an amazing blessing as we didn't know that we would find something that offers so many choices and flexibility. It is operated with smiling staff members who love what they do. The facility is bright and cheerful in the Uptown area of Charlotte. 

In an effort for transitioning Jason, Jason spent an afternoon with the guys from his new group home. Jason will officially be a part of them on May 31st. They went out to dinner. Jason had such a good time that when the van from his current group home came to pick him up he wouldn't get on it! No! No! No! he proclaimed and no bribing him with food that usually works would work to change his mind. Mike had to go and pick him up which is clear across town and let me tell you Charlotte is a sprawling town. When Mike drove up to the group home Jason refused. After a couple of hours Jason finally cooperated. Though this may sound like a frustrating event we actually are rejoicing because we are so thrilled that Jason is going to love his new life. We don't know what adjustments he will endure but we are hopeful that it will go beyond our wildest dreams for him.

Wishing all a Happy Memorial Day!

A Spring Day in Pictures

Today began first with a cup a coffee and my Bible. By 6:30 a.m. I was out working in the yard. Six hours later I took snapshots of all the blooming shrubbery. 

Aren't the hydrangeas beautiful?

 This is a close up a Lantana bush that has been re blooming for at least the past 5 years. It was supposed to be an annual. Every Spring and Summer I have to trim it back  at least 4 times during a season as it will overtake the steps to the front door. 

Humming birds love it! 

And we love watching them come and visit while sitting in our living room.

 I love this Oakleaf Hydrangea in my tree covered area in my backyard.

 

Oh my gosh! My Granny Smith Apple tree is going to bear more than 1 apple this year. The tree is laden with mini apples. 

 Miss Cassie loves playing outside with me while I am gardening! She loves sniffing and watching all the critters. I think it is time to go to the groomers. Last evening I gave her a top knot piggy tail but she decided she wasn't going to have any part of it!

The garden shed.

 The past two days I have been reworking my mini garden around the mailbox. It was beginning to look like a jungle. I replanted all the Irises along the perimeter of the border. The former area where the Irises were once planted now hosts pretty bright pink Vincas that really brighten up the garden. At Lowe's I purchased a couple bags of cow manure and 3 bags of organic matter that has mini wood chips in it. I treated the soil with the cow manure and mulched around the plants with the organic matter. I can't wait until the Irises are standing tall again and the Vincas grow giving more color.

After working around the mailbox I placed wavy brick border along the side walk and trimmed the shrubbery. I also planted Begonias along the brick border corners. All the planting was done and now I had to find the energy to clean up all the debris from trimming the shrubbery. I have a blower that also works like a sweeper and mulcher. It throws off a lot of dust which covered me in a a haze of North Carolina red clay dirt! So after all of this I was dirty, hungry, thirsty, tired and back was aching. By early afternoon I made it to my shower before Mike came home from work. He found Cassie and I out on the patio reading the newspaper and eating lunch. 

While reading the paper I kept wanting to nod off.

 Here is a collection of sticks that I am planning to use to make a bottle tree. 

Another day, not today I am too tired!

After a day outside on a absolutely beautiful and magnificent Spring day I crawled into my recliner with a good book, even though it is a good read, I finally fell off to sleep until it was time to make dinner. I really had planned to do a bit of quilting today. Well maybe I will get an hour in before going to bed. 

Where did this day go?

Happy Saturday,