rabbit, rabbit

Trifecta day . . . not only is it the first of the month (hence the rabbit, rabbit), but its the end of daylight savings time!  Hurrah!  I look forward to falling back every year, and in fact, have turned all my clocks back already.  LOL!  That's only two things, but twofecta sounds dumb, so there's that.

It's been a fairly productive week.  I finished out three projects.  Two were the cute little nine-patch cross stitch designs that Ellie and I stitched in tandem . . .

Aren't these cute?  Ellie did such a fabulous job ... I had a really hard time differentiating between the two!

And the other project was one I stumbled across when I did all that organizing last week.  It was a sweet little pumpkin embroidery that Ellie had sketched out (I put it on fabric) and stitched on in 2022, finishing it up late that year.  I was supposed to construct a border and make a throw pillow slipcase with it.  Well, 2023 was a tough year, and 2024 wasn't much better, and so when I found it, I thought maybe it was time.  So cute!

Here's the back . . . 

Ellie was so pleased!  I brought it and her cross stitch pillow to her on the morning of Halloween, so at least she'd get a little use out of them this year before it's time to pull out all things Christmas!

Speaking of Halloween . . . more importantly, October 31 is June's birthday!

She turned THIRTEEN!  She's a beauty!  Three out of my seven grands are teenagers!!! How the heck??

Celeste agrees with me . . .

Starry let me know that she doesn't do costumes.  LOL!

All the sewing this past week made me realize I needed a way to keep a pair of snippers close to my machine, without getting lost in the shuffle.  A quick google search, and a text conversation with my son-in-law, and look what I had, less than four hours later . . .

 

Isn't that great?!  He made me a total of eight.  I used double-sided tape to mount it.  It's the perfect size!  Gotta love 3D printers and those who know how to make them! (Especially since this same thing was available on Etsy for $4 + s/h!)

What else? Oh yeah!  Another project I "found" during my re-org was a Thanksgiving wool project that I started in 2021. I had three of the five tops finished, but I guess lost momentum when I realized I'd not traced the words correctly.  Took care of that!

Mostly I worked on this today as I carefreely watched college football.  I say "carefreely" because Alabama had a bi- week. No stress! I got them re-traced, selected the wool, fused them, cut them out, and put them to fabric . . .

Whoohoo! 

I even had time to do a little stitching!

Speaking of which, Ellie decided to do some embroidered ornaments to sell for our Advent Market at the end of the month.  I told her I'd help, so she handed off the snowmen to me!

Between these and the wool project, I'll have plenty to keep me busy for a Slow Sunday Stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

Before I sign off, I wanted to see if anyone else had seen the Quilt Fusion online seminar happening November 13? 

I decided to go ahead and sign up for it; I'm really excited!!

Temps are dropping, the sun will be setting earlier . . . it's coming up on the most wonderful time of the year . . . 54 more days!!

:)

is it the thought that counts . . .

So I know it was just last week when I stated that Mondays were good for blogging days. I was doing so well with two Mondays in a row . . . and then this past Monday hit.  I had every intention of posting.  I even knew what pics I'd share and what I'd say . . . but life.  You feel me, right?  And then Tuesday was a chemo day.

Look at Todd smiling for the camera! Tuesday night was tough and Wednesday I stayed home with him, so here it is on Thursday and I'm playing catch-up. Harrumph. Thursdays just feel like a good time for a new post.  LOL!  :)

Last week started out fun. The Merkel crew came by work on Tuesday (during the week of National Afternoon Tea), and so we had a tea party!

It was baby brother's first tea party (with all the trimmings) with Neesey.  He did a great job of holding that tea cup, sitting in the chair, and was very polite at the table!

I'd stopped at Peggy Ann's Bakery on the way in, and picked up some suitable tea treats. Their petit fours are unarguably the best around! Everyone at our tea table agreed with me.

Thursday was the annual MBA Clerk's Conference. I host this event annually for all the church clerks in our association. The MBA provides lunch and I always spend (too much) time picking out goodies for favor bags for them. This year I decided to do a "My Favorites" favor bag, and had a lot of fun collecting my favorite things to share . . .

So if you've known me for any length of time, you aren't surprised to find that there's a pumpkin front and center.  HA! These cute little pumpkins were a $1 at Dollar General!  I'm going to go back and get one for each grandchild and fill it will treats-no-tricks! In case you're wondering, those Moser Roth wrapped bars are chocolate. It's made exclusively for Aldi grocery stores, and it's marvelous.  The dark chocolate with orange and almond bits is heavenly! And you'll notice the leopard print pen.  It's a TŪL pen, and they are my very favorite writing utensils, whether it's pens, pencils, highlighters, markers, whatever.  And y'all ... my love language is paper and pens, so my opinion is strong! 

Friday, Joc had a babysitting emergency, so I headed over there for the afternoon/evening. We had a fun time. I love it when I get there, and all four kids spill out the door hollering, Neesey! Neesey! Such love! Joc had made arrangements for pizza to be delivered and we did pizza and a movie.  I was so tickled to see the girls pull out the picnic quilt!

This is *exactly* what this quilt was created for! 

After dinner we went upstairs and got baby brother into bed (and I did it, first try!), and played and talked and giggled until it was time for the girls to go to bed.  

Love these kiddos and so thankful they're close by so I can run over there when there's a need!

Saturday morning I had a church brunch with our ladies . . .

Isn't that a beautiful spread??  It was lovely.  From there I spent time with my mom, then on to my part-time bookkeeping job, then home for some down time and slow stitching. Phew. I'd completed the stitching part of my Mason jar sunflowers, but it still needed to be *finished*.

I'd wanted a mug rug, but didn't want the sunflowers to compete with a print. I had the brilliant idea to blanket stitch the Aida to wool!

Y'all ... I'm so pleased with how this turned out!  Aida is perfect for stitching, because you can be SO precise with the height and width of your blanket stitches!  And the wool I used is just delicious.  If you can enlarge the photo and look at it closely, you'll see what I mean.  It was the perfect pairing!

So, now I'm mostly caught up and will try again on Monday to get my blogging on. We're hoping, even though Todd had chemo on Tuesday (and will just get his pump out today), that he'll feel up to fishing tomorrow.  We've had a break in the high heat/humidity, and the weather is supposed to be glorious!  Then Ellie is coming over on Saturday to spend the rest of the weekend with us, so I should have things to share!

Toodles!

:)

all the things . . .

What a great weekend! Thursday evening kicked it off (I am so grateful that our office is closed on Fridays) with our monthly guild meeting.  We had a good turnout.

Our program featured our Comfy Quilts Committee, along with one of the services that receives our quilts.  There was also a nicely stocked free to a good home table.  I dropped off a stack of magazines and grabbed some pretty fabrics that caught my eye!

Speaking of fabric, Diann of Little Penguin Quilts had shared a cute stitchery she was working on, and it was framed with the cutest pumpkin print!  She shared with me the info on the selvage, so I could hunt it down.  Consequently, look what was in my mailbox on Friday . . .

I mean, it's so cute, right??  Pumpkins *and* acorns.  It doesn't get more me. <grin>

We had several different groups visiting the camp.  They had beautiful, crisp weather for it!  I took some foliage shots . . .

I'm so thankful I am able to live out here!

I prepped another (finally ... I've been so lazy with any kind of stitching this week) Thanksgiving bowl filler.  This one is the turkey:

He's so cute!  I've got three of the five done (or will have done before the end of the day). 

The turkey will be my slow Sunday stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts!

Saturday was game day!  Snacks were all about sausage today.

Sausage balls and Rotel dip!  And when I say snacks ... I mean our meal!  LOL! Roll Tide for the win and for a guarantee in the SEC Championship game!

And I'm just going to leave this here . . .

You're welcome.  Happy Sunday! 

:)

grand ol' time . . .

So with a crew far away in California, and a crew kinda doing their own thing this year, Todd and I just chilled (on the boat on the lake) and let the pictures of the good times roll in! First, I had delivered the placemats for the local crew . . .

I got a good one of the girls (well, two of them ... Evey had a headache that evening, poor dear) and a good one of the placemats.  So you get to see them both. 

Before I get too far into the Halloween antics, let me also remark that first and foremostly, Sunday was also June Madelyn's birthday!!  No tricks — she's our *treat*!!

Here she is carving her pumpkin!  Sweet girl -- hard to believe she's NINE! Thankfully, a quick trip into San Diego last week saw an end to her cast—after a good MRI! Yay and Happy Birthday, Junie June!

The California crew agreed to themed costuming this year.  They went as characters from Adventure Time.

Marlene, Finn, and Princess Bubblegum.  Too cool for school!

They appeared to have done very well in the trick or treating department!

For the local crew, Halloween is a family affair.  This year the girls and Jocelyn read through the entire series of The Little House on the Prairie.  May I introduce to you Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Jack the brindle bull dog . . .

Isn't that fun?  Ma and Jack the brindle bull dog actually stayed home and manned the door, while Pa and the girls hit the trail . . .

They've got their trick or treat bags! It tickles me ... the bags work quite well with the costumes (which again, I didn't make ... though I did hem three of the four dresses!)

And just to make sure you didn't miss this trick . . .

The little treat "Laura" is holding here is Jack the brindle bull dog!  How precious is that ... Ezra's first Halloween!

The local girls also did well in the trick or treating department . . .

It appears those bags were plenty big enough!

So ... good times all around.  Even for us . . .

Perfect sunset for the day; glowing and a soft, pumpkin orange.

And just like that, it's November. *blink*

:)

finally caught up . . .

What a weekend! Friday afternoon we headed out to make things ready for the 5th annual Pastor & Wife Appreciation banquet and retreat.We had about 36 pastors and their wives.  It was a great evening with fabulous food, worship and fellowship—not to mention a terrific speaker who spoke great words of encouragement.  We had about nine couples who were able to spend the night.  There was a fabulous breakfast that morning, and then we broke out into groups, for some more encouragement.  I think it was a success!

But I was itching to get home, because I knew what I wanted to get done . . .

Jack-o-lantern placemats! Yay! They aren't quilted and the faces are just arranged, not permanent, so there's still work to be done. But they're so cute ... I'll finish them up this week so the girls can enjoy them over Halloween weekend!

I also got my little pumpkin & sheep piece finished.  I think I forgot to share.  I also forgot to put it on display!  I rectified that . . .

It makes me feel all happy and fallish.  Todd doesn't think sheep and pumpkins go together.  I'm not listening.

And of course it's a football Saturday!  Todd challenged me to up my football snacking game, so here's what we enjoyed . . .

I adore this cool charcuterie/cheese board! Isn't it so fancy?! James gave it to me for Mother's Day, and this is the first time I've used it! ♥ Needless to say, I think I rose to the challenge.  Alabama also rose to the challenge and beat Tennessee.  Roll Tide!

The weather was looking fine for Sunday, so Todd and I decided to go ahead and go from church to the lake.  As we drove to church, I noted that the future quilt fabric was looking good!

They're harvesting it now ... so I was happy to get a nice shot of a field ready to be picked!

It was a tad windy, but still a beautiful day on the water.

We're stylin! In the live version of this photo, Todd's beard is just a'blowing in the wind!  There was enough of a breeze that a number of sailboats were on the water.

I counted seven that I could see (though they wouldn't all fit in one photo).  I've never seen that many out at one time!

We fished a couple of coves and around the boathouses.  Fall is *finally* starting to make an appearance in the trees.  

The seasonal color has really come in a lot later than is typical!

We stayed out until after sunset (and it was a glorious sunset . . .

. . . don't you think?) and then headed in.  It was a cool ride back!  But it was totally worth it!

Have a happy week ... this might help get it off to a good start!!

:)