happy independence day!

Happy 241st birthday to the good ol' US of A!!

Hoping that all of you that celebrate have fun and safe celebrations!!

:)
#imstillaround

lots of goodness . . .

Super busy week at work . . . my poor coworker thought she had an ear infection, but it turned out she had shingles in her ear canal. Ugh. Needless to say, she went home and stayed home. I was very glad when 5:00 p.m. on Thursday rolled around!  On Friday, Todd and I launched the boat and took our last 'date day' for a couple of weeks.  

I never, ever get tired of this view.  Gosh, what a beautiful day we had! Not quite as fishy as the last outing, but Todd did pretty good. I opted to pick up my book instead of the fishing rod. LOL!  We've got Campers on Mission coming to the camp for the next two weeks, and they'll keep us quite occupied!  Our next opportunity to take the boat out will be mid-May, when we head to Tim's Ford for a bit.

Baby Edie and her family continue to do well as they make adjustments! They had a newborn photo shot and gosh, it makes me {happy} cry, how beautiful this family is!

Edith "Edie" Rose - isn't she precious?

Evey & Ellie - I adore this picture of them!

The Family - my hearts bursts with love for these guys!

Jason was home from work last week and a couple days this week, so I've not intruded.  But Friday I'll find my way over there to do some serious Neesey/Edie bonding (if Ellie will let me -- I'll have to fight her for holding time with Edie)!!

Yesterday I joined 45 other ladies and got on the bus our guild charters, bound for Paducah!

This was my 'hang out' group!  :)

It was a great day. I didn't take as many quilts photos; I should have brought the camera for this one. I'm so used to just using my iPhone, but the photo taking eats the battery big time, and I didn't want to kill my phone.  My absolute favorite quilt in both the large and mini categories was Christmas-themed (the mini quilt was under glass and I couldn't get a good photo due to the glare):

Interestingly, both of them won second place in their divisions.

I loved this one, too . . .

It was really fascinating to me! There were a lot of beautiful quilts. One trend I noticed this year was the number of whole cloth quilts with ribbons.  In the mini quilt section, four of the six entries were whole-cloth. A lot of Japanese winners, too.  

And then there were the vendors. Let's just say I did my part to help keep quilt vendors thriving.

No need to stop and look . . . keep moving . . . there's nothing to see here folks.

Actually, I'm really pleased with my purchases, which is 50/50/50 wool, hexie items, and fabric. LOL! And since I'm back at work, I'll count this toward retirement stash. Teeheehee!  Would it surprise you to know that I visited both the physical shop Paper Pieces has in Paducah *and* their booth at the show? No?

And of course I purchased something(s) at both locations, too! Another thing I noticed this year was the lighting. The strong overhead lighting really washed out the top of the quilts and photos of them. It may have always been this way, but I really took notice of it this year.

As we left the convention center and loaded the bus, I was so tickled to hear all the happy chatter as ladies got settled in and had impromptu show and tell . . . 

The long bus ride to and fro (about 4.5 hours each way) enabled me to both sleep and stitch.  I got some nice work done on my wool card trick . . .

Now on to the borders for it. And I *finally* finished that second EPP flower . . .

I really love the looks of this . . .

I've pressed it so it's time to remove the papers and applique the flowers onto the background. I hope to have this piece on my table come June! I have a really cute "orange" Yankee Candle that I'll use with it! Anyway, lots of slow stitching still to go.

Okay.  Enough for me. We have another major storm front pushing its way in, and it's given me a headache beyond belief. I hate being a natural weather barometer! Besides, I think we'll probably need to unplug all our gadgets in the not too distant future!

Linking up to Kathy's Quilts and hoping I'm not slow stitching in the dark this afternoon!

:)

introducing edith rose . . .

The past week has been crazy! Wednesday night I headed to Joc's house to stay with the girls, so Joc and Jason could head to the hospital.  It was time for a new baby!

Edith Rose was born on Thursday, April 20, at 3:31 a.m.  And she's so beautiful!

The girls took to their new sister right away . . .

So did Neesey!

Gosh, what a beautiful bunch of sweet babies this family has!! Ellie is going to be a *terrific* little helper/mama.  :)

Leia, on the other hand, is not real taken . . .

Her attitude screams, "What? Another baby???"

There weren't many other pics taken. That Evey is a handful!  I managed to capture this one . . .

And this one . . . 

And the easiest pic of the long weekend . . .

Hahaha!  I think that's what they call "ninety to nothing"!

We have babies at the camp, too . . .

Fifteen to be exact (so far)!  Todd's building a special "nursery sanctuary" for them . . .

We do love our turtles.  

Ummmm, especially Evey!

Needless to say, not a ton of work done on any of my projects.  In fact, I think these two look exactly the same as they did when I shared them last week!

Maybe this evening?

Linking up my slow stitching with Kathy's Quilts and with sarah did it! for Feline Friday. Have a great rest of the weekend!

:)

revealing an exchange . . .

Last fall I participated, for the first time, in a Tea Cup Exchange, hosted by Stephanie, of The Enchanting Rose blog.  It was such a lot of fun and I shared about my experience (and revealed my pretty little gifts) here.  I also asked to be reminded when another such swap began, which it did in March, and I signed up for that one, too!!  Today is the big "tea party" reveal!

My gifter was darling Shellie who blogs at Footsteps of Grace. Her package arrived *early* and really caught me by surprise! 

Oooooh!  I love brown paper packages addressed to me!

It was almost like Christmas in March! LOL! Or an early birthday present . . . or something . . . 

It was exciting, I know that!

What a spread! Shellie was so very generous in her package, with teas, a journal, a terrific devotional (Angela Thomas's A Beautiful Offering), a fun pen, a darling tea bag rest . . . 

And do you see that fun tea cup?

What great, bold, cheery colors . . . perfect for a sip of tea!

And then, of course, as I so frequently do - I forgot to take pics of the goodies I tucked away for my giftee, which was Dee of Traditional Simplicity.  I don't think she's posting to her blog, but she sent a photo of her goodies to Stephanie, so I took the liberty of sharing it here, too.

I had such a fun time putting together a box of tea happiness for Dee!  :)

And yes ... I'll probably definitely sign up for the next one!!

Linking up to the 10th Tea Cup and Mug Exchange Reveal linkie party at The Enchanting Rose!

:)

happy sighs . . .

What a great weekend we enjoyed! On Friday, Todd and I were able to take the boat out. The weather was just absolutely perfect for it! We launched at Honeycomb, which is a state campground . . .

Which was full for Easter weekend!

After a bit of cruising around, we finally (aka, Todd finally) found a spot that was very fishy! To the point that I put down my handwork and picked up the fishing rod!

Yup ... that's *my* first catch (to keep) of the day! We ended up catching about 75.  WOW! Yes, a very productive day!

And the ride back to the docks was pretty spectacular, too.

Easter Sunday, after church, my folks and Joc's crew came up to the camp for dinner and baskets and an Easter egg hunt . . .

The girls were both so cute and had a marvelous time. The camp is the perfect place to 'hide' eggs in plain sight.

Both Ellie and Evey were quite happy to sit with Neesey and Pawpaw to check out their haul!

And I even managed to do some slow stitching this weekend, too. I've done all the blanket stitching on my 'card tricks' -- now it's on to the decorative stitching.

I love all these colors!

And I worked on my pretty little orange hexie flowers, too . . .

In fact, I'm nearly finished putting together this second flower -- just six and a half more pieces to stitch down . . .

And I'll be ready to applique these to the runner! I haven't even thought about how I'll quilt this project. But I know where I'll put it!  Linking this up to HeLP at sarah did it!

I've had several folks show interest in our RV living space. I've taken some pictures and uploaded them to the RV Living page on my blog. You can take a little tour of our home, sweet home!

I'm on baby watch for the next week or so . . . so if things are quite here for an extended period of time, I haven't gotten lazy (again) . . . I'm engulfed in Neesey-ness!!

:)

mercy tree . . .

On a hill called Calvary
Stands an endless mercy tree
Every broke and weary soul
Find your rest and be made whole

Stripes of blood that stain its frame
Shed to wash away our shame
From the scars pure love released
Salvation brought the mercy tree

In the sky, between two thieves
Hung the blameless Prince of Peace
Bruised and battered, scarred and scorned
Sacred Hands pierced by our thorns

It is finished was his cry
The perfect Lamb was crucified
The sacrifice, our victory.
Our Savior chose the mercy tree

Hope went dark that violent day
The whole earth 'quaked at love’s display
Three days silence in the ground
This body born for Heaven’s crown

On that bright and glorious day
Heaven opened up the grave
He’s alive and risen indeed
Praise him for the mercy tree

Death has died. Love has won!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome.
He has risen from the dead.

One day soon we’ll see His face
And every tear, He’ll wipe a way
No more pain or suffering
Oh, praise him for the mercy tree

Death has died. Love has won!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome.
He has risen from the dead.

On a hill called Calvary
Stands an endless mercy tree

Lyrics written by Krissy Nordhoff and Michael Neale.

Happy Resurrection Sunday!! 

:)

into art . . .

It was a different week.  One that mostly, I didn't chronicle with pictures, which is rather unusual for me.  Todd and I spoke about our multiple ministries, to the Women on Mission at Whitesburg Baptist. I really enjoy speaking to women's groups ... and this introvert knows it's really a God-thing! Tuesday evening we had an associational VBS team meeting. So it was a long day.  But Wednesday was an unexpected day off, due to the impending threat of severe weather, so there's that. Thursday was long just because it's the last day of my work week, and I had several things that needed to get finished (that I didn't get to work on Wednesday -- gotta pay the piper), and after work Thursday, I headed to the contractor's shop for whom I keep books ... it was tax prep night. The good news is that I *did* have time off and on to work on my hexie project . . .

I got the first flower completely whipped together; now I'm working on the second flower. That may need some Slow Sunday stitching!  :)

Needless to say, when Friday morning broke fair and pretty, I was anxious to get my craft on. My craft of quilting, that is. I've been wanting to do a mini that had palm fronds in it, ever since I saw this post on Debbie Kratovil's blog. 

But I got out in the Nook and decided I didn't want to foundation piece a frond. So I went back inside and google searched "palm frond template" hoping to come up with something I could maybe fuse.

That was when I got saw Julia Graber had a new blog post.  Have you ever visited her blog?  Life as a Quilter -- Julia Graber. She creates some beautiful quilts. Anyway, a look at this post and I realized that was kinda the *look* I wanted . . . only with a palm frond and the word, "Hosanna!".  Her prior post had loosely walked through the steps for creating this pretty thing, so I got busy! Mind you, this is definitely an art quilt and definitely out of my comfort zone and it was definitely a lot of FUN!

Tah-dah!  I'm so, so pleased with how this turned out! And I really enjoyed the process, which makes the finish all the sweeter!

Saturday I spent the day with Jocelyn, helping her prepare freezer meals for after the baby was born. We got over 35 meals put up!  It was a looooooong day, but well worth it.  

Less than two weeks before Baby E is due!  And I can say that because both the boy and girl names they've picked begins with E.  :)

Whew! Glad it's Sunday . . . a day of rest. A day of stitching. A happy day!

:)