whirlwind moments . . .

Well. That didn't go as planned!  I knew I wasn't going to be an every day blogger, but gosh, I sure hadn't planned on more than three weeks going by!  C'est la vie. Life has been so busy!  Lemme share . . .

I finished up my March 3-yard quilt.  Whoohoo!  Of course, I never got to the April quilt, so March and April are just going to share this one . . .

The girls immediately gave their seal (cat hair) of approval!

And while it doesn't look like a lot, I finished the waves and started on the ship on my Coming to America project . . .

Thursday, April 17th was a long day.  It was Todd's birthday, so Ezra and I made the trek out to the marina and had a picnic lunch.  Ezra sat in the captain's chair and informed me that since he was sitting there, it was now his boat.  Love that little guy!

From there, we met Joc and the girls (who'd spent the day at their homeschool cover) at the cemetery. 

I'd picked up Todd's favorite ice cream cake and we sang happy birthday to him and shared sweet "Pawpaw" memories.  

All in all it was a sweet (bittersweet) day. But it wasn't over.  While I'd have liked nothing more than to go home and sink into bed, our guild's speaker was Jan Davis, the first woman quilter in space.  

Mind you, she didn't actually quilt in space, but she did bring fabric with her (as one of her two personal items), including this beautiful block of her own design.

I'm glad I went ahead and went, but I slept until noon on Friday!

That Sunday was Easter. I celebrated with the Merkel crew at their house.  It was a beautiful day!

Filled with beautiful kiddos, all decked out matchy-matchy for the day!

Then I was on a road trip to Charleston, SC!  This summer is my 45th (can you believe it?!?) high school reunion, and they're taking a riduculously expensive cruise. I talked to a group of gals I've kept up with, to see if anyone was planning on going, and we decided to ditch the cruise and meet in SC for a long girl's weekend!

It was such fun!  We did the Charleston City Market, the Magnolia Plantation, and even took a haunted carriage tour!!  

We also ate a LOT of seafood; to my heart's content! It was our last night, eating out on the water, that I caught this gorgeous sunset . . .

And then this past weekend, it was ballet recitals . . .

Dinner with the darling Marie Bostwick, who was in town on tour, promoting her latest book, The Book Club for Troublesome Women.  Quilters who are also book readers may be familiar with her Cobbled Court Quilts series. She really is amazing!

And then Sunday evening my mom and I traveled to Gadsden to see the Gaither Vocal Band.  It was a great evening of music and praise and fun.  

Whew! I was actually glad it was Monday, and I didn't have any plans until late this afternoon! Happy month of May . . . summer is just around the corner!

:)

good things happen . . .

To those who wait? To those who do?  Randomly?  I dunno.  All of the above, I guess!  This month kicked off with Easter, and we celebrated with the Merkel family at my folks' house.

Assessing their plunder!

It was a lovely day . . . the weather couldn't have been more beautiful!  Or at least, so I thought.  We had Monday off, so Todd and I took the boat out.

That was pretty exquisite, too! 

We found our first hatchling in the turtle sanctuary and moved him/her over to the nursery.

They are always so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when they make their first appearance in the Spring!

I convinced Todd to do a thing for me.

I desperately needed working space in the Nook.  Desperately.

Now I have it!!  I'm so excited!  At some point, when the weather is a little warmer, I'll go back through the tubs and organize them a little better.  But I'm very, very pleased with both my storage *and* my new found working space in the Nook!  Plus, I have a lot more space for storage than I thought! *wink*

So immediately I had to do something fun to celebrate . . . 

These Moda blocks had been on my to-do list for a while.  And these colors are yummy.  The photo doesn't do them justice.  And I know I'm always saying that purple is my favorite color, but I really think it's blue.  Blues draw me every time.  I adore purple, but I want to quilt with blue.

I also got a new rotary cutter, which I LOVE!  It is a delight to wield.  Seriously.  If you've not used these, you should give them a try. It cuts like a dream.

I got some more 'spring' color to add to our yard!  

Usually we do hanging baskets for Mother's Day, but I was ready for some color NOW!  Heh.  I love impatiens ... and they last all the livelong summer!

Speaking of plants, usually Todd waits until after his birthday to plant our little vegetable garden, but this year, he went ahead and got it in a little early.  

I should get more pictures.  He's expanded our raised beds and it's looking so good! This is one of the new beds, in which he's planted three blueberry bushes.  Whoop, whoop!!  We love blueberries, for sure!

Finally (and I'll wrap this up), we got a load of supplies delivered for the construction of the bathhouse!  We are so, so excited about this!  

The completion of the bathhouse will complete the vision Todd was given for the camp when we first started out here as camp hosts, 12 years ago.  Two bunkhouses and a bathhouse; a place where churches could being kids and youth and enjoy God's creation. And God has been so faithful!!  Work won't start until May, but building materials are hard to come by and Todd wanted to get them early, instead of taking a chance he couldn't get them when he needed them.  Yeah, we're very excited!

:)

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!

:)