halfway through…

How is it July already?!

But here it is, four days in, celebrating Independence Day, here in the good ol’ USA! Weather permitting, we (as in me and the Merkel crew) plan on taking the boat out for an afternoon of swimming and an evening of fireworks on the lake. Boom!

I’ve done some fun things this year. After signing on to be the 2nd VP of Programs for my guild, I decided it wasn’t as bad as I’d worried it would be. In fact, I really enjoyed getting speakers, managing programs, and writing blurbs for the newsletter and introductions. I was actually all set to volunteer to do it again for the next guild year, but the incoming president (who’s currently the 1st VP—a position which automatically rolls into President the following year) told me no. Or rather, she said she’d rather have me as her 1st VP. 😳 Needless to say, I sat on that for a hot minute, but in the end, I agreed. So here I am.  LOL! The position starts with close of our August meeting.

 

I took a very fun wool appliqué workshop with one very darling Vicki McCarty, of Calico Patch Designs. Each day we received four of the first sixteen blocks and worked on one block in particular. There were lots of goodies and door prizes, too—it was like going on retreat, but sleeping in my own bed! Loads of fun!

Our May program at guild was MJ Kinman. Our workshops coordinator was out of town, so I had the privilege of not only escorting MJ through the program, but the workshops as well. 

          

She was a fabulous speaker and teacher. Her classes were full both days and the inspiration level was high! I had planned on paying for both workshops, but since I had to coordinate, I didn’t have to pay…but it also means I had other duties that didn’t allow me to be fully present in her teaching. I did go home and make my topaz jewel!

Nine year old Edith (local granddaughter number three) decided she wanted to make a quilt. By hand. With my help.  She brought me a 5” charm pack of purples and asked. What could I say? I picked up a second pack and she laid them out the way she wanted. Six of the nine rows are stitched. 

 

She’s stitching the squares together and then I’ll machine stitch the rows together and add borders, to make it big enough for it to be a nice lap quilt for her. I’m thinking it would be the perfect quilt for hand tied quilting. We could do that together! With purple yarn, of course!

 

Twelve year old Olivia (California granddaughter number two) flew out with her mama for a wedding. It also happened to be Olivia’s birthday weekend and we were so pleased to be able to celebrate with her! 

Later in June I took a traveled north east to spend a long weekend with my sister and her local family, and then went on to Annapolis for a mini reunion with friend from high school. 

Same group I traveled to Charleston with last year. We had a really lovely time. It was so nostalgic and sweet, plus Annapolis is a hotbed of historical significance, which made being there in our country’s 250th year all the more exciting! And it was Plebe Week, which just added to the fun! I felt 16 again! Plus I got my fill of Maryland blue crabs:  steamed, crabcakes, cream of crab soup, crab puffs . . . ALL THE CRAB! We’re already making plans for next year. Quebec is at the top of our list!

My girls are doing great! 

 

 

They are definitely divas—but such fun and a complete comfort. I love them so much! Even when they are so bad.  LOL! And thank goodness they’re around—they save me from talking to myself! ;)

Happy 4th!!  :)

starting july off right . . .

We enjoyed a terrific long Independence Day weekend! On Thursday, we had 'staff enrichment', which means we went to lunch together at a nice restaurant and then went home afterwards. Hip, hip! On Friday, Todd and I did our usual boating trip where he fished and I mostly read. I never get tired of the scenery!

On Saturday, we hit the lake again, this time with the Merkel crew.  

 

We spent the day swimming and splashing (and eating), and then we headed towards the shoreline at dark to watch fireworks.  It was fabulous!  

All the big shows had coronacancelled, but there were enough private fireworks being set off that we had a 360-degree viewing field! 

Early on Sunday morning, Joc, Ellie, Evey and I loaded up in the car for the five and a half hour trip to Indiana, for a baby shower for my nephew's wife (they live in Alaska, but her family is in Indiana).

It was a fun trip with the "big girls" and I got to see my sister (from Virginia) and both of her daughters (and her oldest daughter came with her husband and family, and I got to see her youngest for the first time). 

It was a sort of mini reunion!

On Monday, before hitting the road seriously, Joc saw an underground river tour she thought would be fun, so we detoured over to Bluespring Caverns. It was amazing! It's the longest stretch of underground river in the United States.  The cavern (cave) is a balmy 54° (air and water), year around, which made it a lovely stop on a 90° day!

The girls mined for gems and fossils and that was fun, too!

I didn't get a lick of stitching done in the last week, but I *did* finish up the 2018-19 HQH mystery quilt a couple of weeks ago!

Really pleased with the quilting on this, which was done by my longarmer friend, Melissa.  She does such beautiful work!

My sweet little helpers enhance the look, too!

I hope y'all are all doing well and staying safe and healthy! 

:)

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

happy bastille day . . .

How does one make excuses when one has faltered at the blogging wheel, so to speak?  One doesn't (at least this one doesn't) . . . one just marches blithely on and picks up where she left off.  Haha!

Why I feel compelled to post *today* . . . with the first night of VBS just hours away . . . I have NO idea! Haha!  It's how I roll.  I'm so excited about our VBS (Vacation Bible School), though.  We've got a great week of fun and songs and food and good teaching ahead! We spent yesterday evening decorating up the church for this year's theme:

AgencyD3:  Discover! Decide! Defend!

We'll be picking up Sawyer each night to go with us -- and even Ellie will stop by on Thursday night -- which will all make for an even funner week!

I've had a little time to get my quilting on, too.  Got this festive little banner finished just in time for the 4th:

And whipped this cheery little mug rug up for a dear one:

Sawyer's been over to go creekin'.  We had a marvelous day and made some fabulous memories.  Let me share one:

We had brought the minnow net and a bucket, but Sawyer was having no luck "fishing", so he passed the net to me and asked if I'd catch some fish for him. It just so happened that I had spied some tiny minnows, so I swooped the net down, brought it back up, and lo, there were about three 1-1/2" long 'fish' in the net. I exclaimed to Sawyer that I'd caught some, and he was so excited! "I love fish!" he kept saying. So I brought the net over to him and pushed it up from the bottom so he could get a good look. He again exclaimed how much he 'loved' fish and reached down into the net. I was really pleased to see he wasn't squeamish about touching them or handling them as he picked one up. Then, before I could say a word, he popped the little minnow into his mouth! AAaaaAAhh!! No Sawyer, we only eat *cooked* fish!!!!! I think he spit it out then, but I'm not quite positive. Oh well.  Boys will be boys and Sawyer will be Sawyer!

Just so you know, in the top left pic he's eating blackberries we picked . . . NOT fish.

I spent several days with Ellie, as well, while her mommy and daddy celebrated their fifth anniversary in Mexico! We had a fun time, as always!

She's such a dear little dolly!

And we've been tooling around the camp, working on the sanctuary and playing with turtles (I call Todd the 'turtle whisperer' now -- see the turtle coming up to inspect the cricket cage?!).

The bottom left are pumpkin plants -- volunteers from last year's pumpkins! 

And of course the Panter family makes frequent trips up here to visit and play!

Bringing with them the newest Panter ... Olivia Mae!

Isn't she precious?! Already going on six weeks old! 

Better get off here and get busy making "wanted" posters. For VBS, of course!

:)

salutations and . . .

:)