wishy washy weather . . .

Can you believe the above?  That was from Wednesday. The official high that day was 77 degrees.  The official low was 27 degrees. Today is March 6th and there is ice all over the place. Tomorrow our high is 55 degrees. Aye yi yi! How is it that this is the deep south??

Speaking of early in March . . . Tuesday was Bibliophile Files day and I missed it. I am doing some reading this month, along with my morning quiet time reading that's a yearly goal.  This month I'm reading a Bethany Publishers book for review.  Beverly Lewis's The Love Letters, to be specific.  I've actually started that one and so far it's quite intriguing!

I've also checked out a library book to read. It's the second novel of the Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series, Hollow City by Ransom Riggs.  The first book of the series was fascinating -- kind of fantasy/intrigue/historical fiction -- so I'm looking forward to reading the second.

And the third book is How Sweet the Sound, by Amy K. Sorrells.  I actually downloaded this as a freebie on Amazon for my kindle. It's free through today, I believe, if you want to check it out on Amazon.

UPDATED:  I just saw on my favorite tea blog, Tea with Friends that Amazon is offering another Kindle freebie:  Jesus, Me, & Afternoon Tea, by D. L. Stalnaker. I don't know how long it will be available, but *I'm* sure going to add it to my reading list for the month!! Doesn't the cover just appeal to you all that are tea drinkers?? I can't wait to download it and 'flip' through the pages. I think I've got a little bit of Earl Grey and lavender tea that would be the perfect brew accompaniment to an afternoon read.  :)

The positive side of ice storms in March is an unexpected day off . . . which meant I got in some more nook time!  I printed off the photo for the back of my Kentucky Crossroads block and got it bordered . . .

And then sandwiched the front and back together and choose a quilting design (at least for the center of the block). 

You probably can't quite make out the markings on the piece, so I'll make it easier . . .

I liked this design because the points traveled nicely up the length of the 'crossroads'.  I'll do something scrolly in the red portions, and then probably outline stitch all the way around in the light border, just off the red.  The binding will be the darker blue.  Should be a pretty little finish to put in the mini quilt stand!

So that's it for me. Tomorrow we're headed out to spend the evening with the collective families, celebrating the first of our family's March birthdays . . . my Jocey! Happy Friday, Happy weekend!!

:)

stuff and junk and things . . .

The weather this week has been absolutely gorgeous, so far.  I captured this beautiful sunrise on Monday . . . 

I already shared it on facebook, but I like to cover all my bases.  LOL!  Today's forecast is pretty lovely, too:

Hard to believe we had snow flurries and ice, this time last week!

I did get to spend a tidy amount of time in the Nook yesterday . . . aaaaaaaah! I finished up the last few stitches on the POTC block I was working on. And then promptly forgot to take a picture of it. So I guess you really didn't need to see a picture of it!

I then pulled out the pineapple quilt and got busy on it. There were aspects of it strewn all over the room . . .

But the most important thing was getting it here:

So now the entire center is stitched together and what I have to work on now is stitching down the covering sashes. While I was at it yesterday, I did go ahead and cut, stitch and press all of those, so they'll be ready to go when it's time to attach the borders.  It's already a pretty substantial quilt and the borders will add 10" to all four sides!

It was a quiet day, spent in the company of me, myself and I.  Oh, and this darling little gal . . .

Isn't she sweet??!  She's my Nook "companion".  She never argues or disagrees with me and is a terrific listener! She quiet listens and smiles at everything I say. Very affirming. My Stitcher's Etc. pal, Sarah, made her for me, so I wouldn't be without companionship whilst stitching the day away! She needs a name. Any thoughts??

Did you know that today is Squirrel Appreciation Day?! It is! And to celebrate I found a darling royalty-free drawing that would make a very cute stitchery . . .

credit

Perfect for my neck of the woods (quite literally)! Just right click and save. It beats trying to 'hug a squirrel'!

Linking up today to Esther Aliu's WOW (Wips On Wednesdays) post!

:)

cruising into august . . .

We are so enjoying these lovely fall days.  Ummm...only it's summer.  Trust me, I am NOT complaining!! We had some of the most beautiful weather ever this past month . . . hard to believe it was July in Alabama. In fact, we set a record low temp this week . . . the record -- 61° -- was set in 1914.  One hundred years ago.  And the low that broke the record?  A whopping 57°!  C-R-A-Z-Y!

More of the same here.  Enjoying family and grands.  

I think . . . in this picture . . . Sawyer's telling the two girls about giants in the camp. June paid absolutely NO attention to him. Ellie rode around the camp for the rest of the evening with her hands over her eyes because she didn't want to see scary giants.

Look how big Miss Olivia has gotten!  And she's just started smiling on purpose -- it's such fun!!  She is definitely a Sawyer/June sibling, too . . . they all look very similar at this age!

Also studying lessons and preparing for discipleship classes. Keeping up with turtles and other camp-related things.  

July is usually the slowest month of the camp, because generally it's so hot, humid and mosquito-ridden, that no one wants to be up here.  Not the case this year!  

I have been working on a couple of little things. And one big *surprise* kind of thing that I need to wait a while to share. I think I've decided that the space in the new RV is actually better workspace than what I had in the old RV:

I love the counter top space in the kitchen ... perfect for rotary cutting!  Haha!   took up a challenge to make some bookmarks.  Good way to use up scraps!

They were easy and whipped up really quick.  The tutorial for the book mark is HERE and the tutorial for the fabric flower at the top is HERE.

Joc called me on Tuesday of this week from Hancock's (fabric store).  She was looking for material to make curtains for Ellie's "big girl" room.  Yes, that's happening . . . Everley is due in a MONTH.  Anyway, Joc is talking to me on the phone and realizes she's lost track of Ellie.  Where does she find her??

Girlfriend had found the fat quarter wall!  She is my granddaughter, there's no denying it!  Joc said her little hands were so full of fat quarters that Ellie was dropping them.  Too cute!  And Ellie didn't want to put any of them back, either!

I told Joc to tell Ellie that if she would just pick her favorite TWO fat quarters, Neesey would make her a little purse with them.  It was tough, but we finally managed to come up with these two.

And don't you know, Ellie has reminded me every time she's seen me and every time we've talked on the phone, that I'm making her a purse.  Joc even mentioned that it was the first thing out of her mouth the other morning.  I gotta make good on this purse!

So, here it is -- not too bad, eh?  Just a simple origami-folded drawstring purse . . .

With secret pockets for treasures (and things you might want to hide from a baby sister) . . .

And coordinating accent pieces . . .

With a pearl for the center.  For Miss Eleanor Pearl.

It's how this Neesey rolls.  Happy Friday, y'all!

:)

g'morning, monday . . .

Looking for the Declutter Now! book review and giveaway?!  Check HERE.  

Where do I begin?!  How about this pretty sight from Saturday morning . . . 

It rained down furiously for about thirty minutes.  Long enough to give us the illusion of a winter wonderland, anyway!

The birds all came in like crazy when it finally stopped.  They acted like they hadn't been able to get to birdseed in ages!  It's funny to watch them when they're in that 'mode' -- the confrontations on the platform feeder are the best!  

All the birds make their moves, but the cardinals hold the ground.  There's no bluffing the buff ol' male cardinal!

Saturday afternoon I brainstormed an idea for a gift.  One that had to be made and ready to give Sunday morning!  After a few discreet texts with one of her daughters and some online searching, I took this S stitchery pattern from Mary Corbet's site, Needle 'n Thread . . . 

Used the crayon tinting to fill it in. . .

Outlined it in a variety of stitches (compliments of my recent Redwork course) . . . 

And turned it into a pretty cute little mug rug, if I say so myself.  

I love how this turned out -- I think I'll probably use it as a gift standard!  I'll just go ahead and start stitching up letters now.  LOL!  Seriously, though ... Mary makes available several different fonts for monogram stitching. These could make nice gifts for both gals and guys.  Linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching!

My stash report isn't too bad.  I added the Buzz Lightyear fabric that Kate sent, but I finished the top and back of June's quilt and a couple of little projects (and put two fat quarters in the mail) so . . . 

Used/donated this week: 3.25 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 4.0 yards

Purchased/added this week: 2.5 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 19.25 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -15.25 yards

I'll take that!!  I'll also go ahead and link up to Judy's Week #5 report over at Patchwork Times.

Yesterday afternoon I picked Sawyer up and we had our own movie night / Super Bowl XLVII / sleepover party.  Sawyer is a very enthusiastic football game watcher and matched me cheer for cheer (both in enthusiasm *and* volume)!! But he did finally decide that he'd rather see 101 Dalmatians so we put it in the player and enjoyed it until bedtime.  After I tucked him in and came back down (to finish watching the game, of course) I noted this:

He had told me earlier he wanted to take his shoes off, but it wasn't until later that I realized he'd very carefully set them right next to mine.  So sweet!!

Speaking of football ... how about them RAVENS??!!  I'm a Baltimore (Bal'mer) girl -- and the owner of the team graduated two classes ahead of me at Severna Park High School.  I was *thrilled* with the end result of last night's game, albeit on the edge of my seat for the entire last half, practically!  That's good football! The Raven's win inspired my color choices for this week:

Yeah ... I'm in mood to play with purple!!  I'm not sure what though.  Perhaps this cute little Butter Churn Variation I mocked up in EQ?

Maybe I'll darken up the purple and change out the blue for silver . . . !!!  Haha!! Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times! 

I also have June's quilt still to be quilted.  I need to get that finished, finished!

But before I do *anything* ... my quilt room looks like a small explosion took place. Yeah, that's top of the order.

It's worse than you thought it would be, isn't it??  Guess I'd better go get busy!!  Que sera ... first the dentist, a trip to WalMart and the post office.  *Then* I'll wade through my creative genius mess.

:)

fickleness thy name is weather . . .

In trying to gauge a good pattern for posting, I've looked at several options . . . pick set days and post (whether I've got something to share or not) . . . set a number of times per week . . . or, perhaps, I could just post every time our weather changes!  That would have me posting consistently about every forty-eight hours, at least.  Sheesh!  When I last posted we had 70's and daffodils ... this morning we had frigid temps and snow flurries.  In between we had tornado watches ... and we've had flash food warnings *every*day* for the past two weeks.  Gracious. Anyway, I posted seven times in January, which wasn't bad for an overall number (maybe a little on the low side) ... it's just that they were clumped up and not distributed nicely.  I'll try and avoid that in February.  No promises!

Right now we have a wide variety of birds hitting the feeders ... cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, tufted titmouse, nuthatches, and green finches.  And before you go running for your bird books trying to figure out what the heck a green finch is, it's how Todd and I lovingly refer to our wintering gold finches. 

They turn rather olive colored.  Even the cardinal did a double-take.

(That's a very 'fluffy' cardinal, by the way).

It's hard to believe that our brilliantly yellow-colored summer birds are this drab in the winter!  Of course, the cardinals look much better in January than they do in May.  I guess it all evens out!

I spent the day with Joc and Ellie yesterday.  It was Ellie's second library visit. We spent an hour or so in the pre-school section.  

We didn't do a whole lot of reading . . . why read books when there are so many other things to occupy oneself?!?  Besides, the books come home to be read. That's what I did.  I figured I might as well check out the embroidery and quilting books since I was already there and all.

I got a nice stack to peruse (at home)!  Just to flip through and get ideas.  :)

Back at Joc's, Leia was waiting for us.

That's okay, Leia.  Don't get up.

Ellie's hair is getting long enough that she can sport the "Pebble's" look:

I know, I know ... the plant behind her makes it really hard to see, but I promise that there are at least 20 or so strands of hair standing straight up!  She's such a dear little dolly!

And I thought I'd share my Lesson Four finishes from the redwork course. . .

I loved, loved working the bonsai tree ... the stacked French knots are such fun!  At first I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but as I built the rows, I could see it taking shape and it was very cool.

Super Bowl Sunday is in sight!  Go Baltimore Ravens!  (Or, as the natives say it, Go Bal'mer Ravens!)  Sawyer is spending the night with me that night -- we're going to have our own super bowl party.  Anyone else have special plans?!

And don't forget -- book review -- Declutter Now! -- posted tomorrow with a giveaway!

:)