ides of march . . .

March came in like a lion and it's staying that way.  LOL!  We were glad to enjoy the time change ... or rather, we enjoyed the daylight that came at the end of the day. 

And we got a full moon, to boot.  A full moon on a clear night always makes me smile!

Along with the time change, spring flowers are popping up all over the place! These also make me smile!

Okay, no flowers, but a sweet view!

Something else popped up . . .

Whoohoo!!!  We're so unbelievably excited!!  And a little bit in shock!  Hahaha!! 

Todd and I had a lunch date at Sam & Greg's on the square, in Huntsville.

They have terrific pizza . . . and the best gelato!

It was lovely outing with my best friend! ♥

James and Kim took the kids to their first wedding . . . 

LOL!  Sawyer is dashing, but both the girls are a little overwhelmed!  They're coming to visit this summer.  I'm beside myself!  It will have been over eighteen months since we saw them last, when they finally get here.  

Mid-March also means it's time to change up the decor a little.  Merging seasons.  :)

A little Valentine's, a little St. Patrick's Day, a little Spring, and a little Easter (jelly beans)!  :)

The Nook is still a hot mess, which means I've gotten NOTHING done in there.  But I need to take care of it.  I can feel the need to create becoming a burden on my soul! Does anyone else get like that?  So watch out, Nook ... your time is coming!

:)

surviving the festivities . . .

Whew, what a weekend!  Two of my sisters came into town to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday.  It was a lot of fun and also a little (a lot) exhausting.  You know how that goes.

I gifted my sisters each with one of the Christmas table runners.  I hope they enjoy them! I picked them both up at the airport and we headed to Chicken Salad Chick for a sister lunch, before heading to my folk's house.

They're so beautiful! We had a good time celebrating the birthday girl . . .

Joc and her crew made the festivities, too!  Julia made manicotti and we got the most divine cake from Edgar's Bakery . . . 

Delish!

What would a sisters/mom weekend be without a crafty little project??!!! In keeping with the incoming season (spring/March/St. Patrick's Day), we put together cute little wool shamrock mug rugs . . .

All four finishes!  I drew up the pattern and kitted it before going, to make it as easy as possible.  They did great jobs, considering none of them have done a lot of wool work or embroidery before!  Here's mine which includes a peek of my new petite violet . . .

Did I mention jelly beans?  The perfect spring food.  LOL!

I continue to [slowly] move forward on Hospital Sketches . . .

Decided the this block needed a little "umph" to the stitching.  It's actually finished now and I've started blanket stitching the next one.  I like the pretty little Spanish feather stitch on the paired leaves.  It was the first time I've used it; it creates a lot of eye interest.

February 23 was Everett's day.  Joc and her family spent time at the cemetery, cleaning up his gravestone and talking about him.

They had a beautiful, clear and sunny day for their visit!  It's hard to believe Everett would be ten this year.

This is such a precious family.  I love them dearly. 

The days continue to break earlier, and end later.  In less than two weeks we'll be "spring"ing forward again.  I don't mind too much ... I love the light later in the day (and not driving to and from work in the dark) ... and making it home in time for the sunset!

Peace!  :)

winging its way . . .

Spring, that is.  To the interior of the RV, that is.

Besides all the crafty little projects that got my attention this past weekend, I also [finally] felt compelled to remove the reds and pinks and hearts and put out the "SPRING"! So, for your viewing pleasure (hahaha!), here are my little Spring vignettes . . .

I got the eggs ... they're multiplying ... and I'm losing control!
#truestory

Spring banner printable courtesy of On Sutton Place.

I adore that yellow fluted vase.  It was my Grandma Willie's (and it's older than me).

This may be one of my very favorite wool pieces, ever.

Those Easter eggs are REAL eggs that I blew and decorated 15 years ago!
I did a dozen and Joc did one.  There are five of mine and Joc's one, left. They're almost vintage.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Which is which?!

Wednesday I woke up feeling not-so-great. A quick trip to the doc revealed a case of bronchitis. Nice. Thank you spring allergies. Ah well, a dose of steroids and antibiotics and we'll clear it all up. Hopefully I'm miraculously all better tomorrow.  I'm watching these sweet girls on Friday and Saturday . . . 

Aren't they precious? This photo was taken during the family maternity shoot. Baby Merkel is due in the next three weeks or so! 

Isn't Baby Merkel's mommy just beautiful? She's glowingly gorgeous!

Time with the Merkel girls means time with the Merkel cat.

Oh Leia, how I've missed you! She almost looks sweet and cuddly in this photo, doesn't she? We'll see just how sweet and cuddly she is come Saturday afternoon.

And with that, I bid you happy Friday, happy weekend!  (and Happy Feline Friday!)

:)

excuses, excuses . . .

Do you remember me?

I was a little shocked to realize I hadn't posted since January 7th.  I mean, I knew it had been a while, I just hadn't realized it had been quite that LONG of a while!  And I do have a ton of good (and passable) excuses, but no point in putting you through all that, eh?

Weather here in North Alabama has been crazy.  After serving up record high temps (we're talking upper 70's, right at 80's) in January and February, we woke up this morning to snow.

By noon it was gone, but there's snow in the forecast for Tuesday, too.  Must be the "coming in a like a lion" deal.  I'm ready for the lamb. And boat weather.  :)

I was able, at practically the last minute, to get in on the annual quilting retreat our stitcher's group does at Grand Oak Retreat. Last year I'd been unable to go and so I lost my place. This year the gal who'd taken my spot found herself with a conflicting commitment and was unable to go to retreat. So two weeks prior, I got a call saying there was a spot available. Yay! 

Of course I didn't have a lot of prep time, and I ended up not taking my machine, instead taking a lot of hand work projects I wanted to either wrap up or spend some time on. I finished up this cute hexie snowman runner . . . 

I really love this fun little piece! And I did some much overdue work on the wool strawberry mat I started in ... July.

It's coming along, though I still have some work to do on it. I hadn't figured out Steam-A-Seam when I first drafted this/cut it out, which has made it kind of tricky to work with. ;)

In my last post we had just celebrated Ellie's 5th birthday. In February we celebrated my mom's birthday (her first birthday in Alabama). 

And then we turned around and celebrated Joc's birthday!

Yesterday was Kim's birthday and today is Sawyer's, and I hate having to celebrate those from a distance. But we did get to sing happy birthday via FaceTime (again, technology for which I'm oh-so-grateful)!

You probably don't realize this, but as a little experiment, last year Todd and I left Christmas (from 2015) up in the RV for the entire year.  Ellie and Evey just loved it (and so did Todd and I), but I have to admit that by the year's end, I was ready to take it all down.  I missed putting up my *other* seasonal things during the year.  Like Valentine's . . .

And it gave me an excuse to whip up this sweet little Valentine hearts candle mat in wool:

Hahaha! Last weekend I was thinking about putting out Spring/Easter decor, but I'm so hard pressed to do that when it reverts back to cold and grey.  So this was as far as I got . . .

It's there and ready, when the weather cooperates a tad! I also went through my quilt pieces and was surprised to realize I don't have ANYthing springish for the mini stand.  Hmmmm.

So yesterday I finally made it out to the Nook. It was in desperate need of 'organization/cleaning' and I spent the morning doing just that. After lunch it was respectable and I was ready to roll and put together a quick and easy piece that makes me smile . . .

The applique was one I'd done as a sample for my faux applique lecture at our guild's applique round robin a couple of years ago. I whipped up some pinwheels, bordered it, quilted it, and put the binding on it.  Easy peasy! And Spring-y!

I've been enjoying this season of Lent, walking through a new devotion, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast, by Alicia Britt Chole.  So far it's been absolutely marvelous and I'm really enjoying it. I hope to have some concrete news on where we've been re-assigned, soon, too!  And that about catches y'all up with me!  Have a splendiferous week ahead!

:)

whirlwind weekends . . .

Y'all . . . whirlwind doesn't half describe the past two weeks! I was completely absent last weekend . . . but for very good reason!  Joc, Ellie and I traveled to the Northern Neck of Virginia for my niece Cecilia's wedding!

She was a beautiful bride and she had a very handsome groom, too!

The whole affair wore Miss Eleanor out.

LOL! This is post-wedding/pre-reception, while we waited for all the family pics to be taken. She perked up for the "party". . . she was very interested in the wedding cake. Her mommy was interested in the cream cheese mints we carried to Virginia for the party . . .

Poor Joc.  she had to travel 750 miles to get some more cream cheese mints!

We drove up on Friday, the wedding was on Saturday, and we drove back on Sunday. I'm telling you -- whirlwind. Monday was my baby girl's 30th birthday!

She is such a beautiful young woman -- I'm so proud of her! Speaking of which, I've been a little remiss in sharing something here. Joc has started up her own business called Pearl's Pegs.

Aren't these just darling? She does incredible work.

Ellie and Evey love them -- and already she's 4-6 weeks out on orders!  Yes, very proud of my girl!

Yesterday, Todd and I headed down to Shocco Springs -- the Baptist Retreat Center outside of Talladega, Alabama, for our annual Mission Service Corps Missionary Retreat and Training.  

We enjoy the beautiful grounds of the center *and* the great fellowship! Yesterday was also Kim's birthday . . .

She celebrated waaaaay far away in California -- the first of their birthdays to be celebrated out there! But Sawyer was not far behind . . .

He turned SIX years old today. Gosh, look how grown up he looks! Sweet fellow! Todd and I sang happy birthday to him and enjoyed some FaceTime. It was a bittersweet day . . . as much as I'm happy he's six and happy it's his birthday, it was sad to me that for the first time since he was born, I didn't get to at least give him a hug or kiss on his birthday.  *sniffle, sniffle* :)

I chased my blues away by doing a little shopping with Todd at Bass Pro Shops on our way home from Talladega. I got my first pair of Crocs!

LOL! These are so comfortable--why did I not know that?? Plus, they don't hit the scars on either side of my right foot, which are still (even after six years) very sensitive. Aaaand, these Crocs are really CUTE!  I may have to invest in a couple of more pairs. Haha!

I haven't done anything quilty in I don't know how long . . . and my stash report shows it, too.

Aaaah well . . . sometime in the next month or so I may get a free weekend to do something of significance!

I did manage to sneak enough time to cut out some Christmas fabric for another yo-yo ornament. I loved the tree so much, I'm going to do another one of those. I have the charms all ready to go, too.

This will make for the perfect slow Sunday stitching project!

Spring is finally making its way into the camp. As we drove up the drive today, I was happy to see that the daffodils were out in full force.

They have such sunny, sweet faces! We have one rogue yellow flower in the midst of the paler variety . . .

The little purple flowers are blooming all over the turtle sanctuary . . .

And the Lamb's Ear is starting to make sporadic appearances, as well:

And I do believe that about does it for me. A lot of pics and a lot of words...that's what happens when I don't blog for two weeks. I'll link up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts tomorrow! Don't forget to change your clocks tonight . . . Spring Forward!

:)