Camp Loopy

Camp Loopy started yesterday. This is where I am:

I just started the heel flap on these:

I could have put these aside and started the ones for Camp Loopy, but I decided I'd rather finish the pair I'm working on first.  This summer is Be Kind to Joanne Summer!  I'm trying to reduce the stress in my life, and having two pairs of socks going right now would just add to it.  And that takes all the fun out of knitting, or quilting, or pretty much anything else.  I don't need deadlines right now.  vbg

I've signed up for a Tai Chi class at the local community college for the same reason -- a little stress reduction, relaxation.  Also signed up for a Hatha Yoga class.  I need to lose at least 30 pounds and this is the summer to do that.  The pastor at my church has issued a weight loss challenge from June 1 to September 1 -- lose 10 pounds (or in the case of two people that signed on -- gain 10 pounds!).  He's planning on sending out encouraging emails every now and then and who knows what else -- on September 1, we'll announce how much we've lost -- he'll even issue certificates! LOL - and then he's organizing an Ice Cream Social after church that day! I had already planned on losing weight and have been walking on the treadmill most mornings -- soon hope to walk outside too.  My girlfriend and I have been texting back and forth in the mornings with our progress.  I'll have a starting point tomorrow - doctor's checkup with labs, so hoping along with the weight that the A1C goes down and the cholesterol and blood pressure.

I've been weeding and working in the yard this week.  My lawn guy is working up a price to mulch my flower beds, which will help a lot.  I did it myself last year, but only a small section and I had to make multiple trips because I bought bags of mulch and couldn't carry more than 6 at a time in my car!  Pretty sure it'll be worth it to have him bring it in bulk and spread it.  I have a big limb down in one of my flower beds that I'm going to have to hire a tree guy to remove also.  I hate having to spend the money for things Bill used to take care of, especially with the house on the market -- but I may be here a couple of years before it sells, so I will enjoy the result I think.  And if it does sell - well then it was worth spending the money!

I'm not taking on any more challenges quilt-wise this summer either -- only projects I plan to keep up to date is the quilts for Jo's little women club.  I finished the top of the last one, but haven't quilted it yet.  Goal is stress reduction this year, exercise, and spend as much time outside, when its not too hot and humid, as I can.

Until next time, Blessings.

My long weekend: spent Saturday doing some yarn winding, then about 3 pm found out someone wanted to see the house at 8:30 am Sunday, so ran around like a chicken with its head cut off cleaning, like I should have done earlier in the week! vbg Yesterday, we celebrated grandson Mikey's 3rd birthday (actual birthday isn't until June 5, but he doesn't care that we celebrated early.) So, today I spent in the sewing room, making 18 tiny shoo fly blocks. Maybe later this week I'll put them together -- it's the third quilt for Jo's Little Women Club.

All my plans for weeding and such have gone by the wayside because the weather turned colder and wetter. Maybe later this week I'll do some of that too. I did do a few days of knitting 5 rows, but I have to say my hands have been killing me. I have arthritis in my hands; they are not only sore, but ugly, too! I've had to wear my thumb braces every night to bed - real attractive that, too!

Until next time,, blessings.

Weeding

Today I managed to get out between the raindrops and get some much needed weeding done. The first picture is the part I finished -- this is my daylily bed and the weeds grow as tall as and look like the leaves of the daylilies, so you really need to get in there and try to pull them from the roots! I call them duck-weeds, because it doesn't matter how well I go over each area, there's always a weed that ducks down til I'm all done and then jumps up and says Here I Am!

This is the next section I hope to do tomorrow morning. It was sprinkling this morning and I went out when it stopped and then just as I finished, it started raining in earnest.

Feeling pretty accomplished - vbg. Now for a shower and time to knit my five rows on the socks! Until next time, blessings.

Playing

The Loopy Ewe has a Camp Loopy every summer.  I always thought it sounded like fun, even though I don't knit (I do crochet, but don't feel like it most times!).  Anyway, they are having another Camp this summer that starts June 1.  So, I bought a skein of fingering yarn, "Lorna's Laces" hand dyed in Denim and it arrived today (really good service from them, btw).  It's not that I don't have a shelf full of yarn already, but you have to buy from them to play, of course.  I do love the yarn.

I'm going to play along, although I doubt I'll enter the contest.  I think that if I knit five rounds most days, I might actually finish a pair of socks by June 30.  That said, I'm not making much progress on the socks I have on the needles!  So, today so far I've knit three rounds and have two to go.  If I can manage to do at least 5 rounds every day, I might have these finished before I start the new pair on June 1!

Nothing happening on the house - could probably have another open house, but I'm afraid the only people that go to open houses just want to see what the inside of my house looks like, or want to get decorating ideas! vbg  So, I'm taking a very large patience pill, and going about my days rather calmly.  I've finally hired someone to mow and weed eat -- he uses his own zero turn mower and his own gas and he's really rather cheap -- which just makes me wonder why it takes me so long to finally check out the prices!  Now I can spend my outside time weeding the flower beds - and I hope to get out there the next four mornings to do that. 
I have done a little quilting -- finished quilt #2 of Jo's Little Women's Club #12. It's called AbbyGayle's Scraps.  I do like this one-already put it on an end table in the living room!

Until next time, blessings.

Spring!

Fall used to be my favorite season - for the colors and the weather that starts to cool down after a hot summer, but now I think I love spring the best. I love the idea of re-birth, the beautiful flowers that spring up after even the harshest winter. Here's a couple of shots of my daffodils - they spread more and more each year and I love to see the masses of them.

And then my favorite spring flower - for the fragrance alone - the hyacinth. They don't spread like the daffodils and I only have one or two in different areas, except for these pink ones in the front bed.

And these Virginia Bluebells came from the family homestead -- literally -- outside of Polo, IL. My husband's aunt and uncle homesteaded 80 acres there and when we visited his aunt once, when she was in her 90's, she gave me a clump of these bluebells and I planted them and they come up every spring. I have peonies from his mother's house, too. It's like having a treasured heirloom I think.

And finally, my pink tulips that I planted just a couple of years ago. Tulips come back every year, but around here they don't increase, and very often decrease and you need to plant more.

Update on the house sale: We had a good open house a few weeks ago, the biggest one my realtor has had in about 5 years (so the housing market around here is on it's way back). We've had three separate showings and one guy came back a second time, but no offers have been tendered, so I'm getting on with life and not getting my hopes up. I did decide once I have an offer in hand that I would buy another house north of Rockford, where the taxes are less. I won't be buying a condo -- too many rules I don't want people to make for me! A smaller house with a tiny yard will work fine.  It just has to have a finished basement big enough for my longarm and my antique table!

I've been doing some outside work these past few days - burning brush, picking up sticks and mowing.  But today it's a bit chilly and supposed to rain, and I have a cold, so today I'm getting back into the sewing room and work on project two of Jo's Little Women Club #12 - AbbyGayles' Scraps.  Hopefully I'll have some quilt pictures soon!
Until then - have a good one!

First project is finished

This was the first project from Jo's Little Women Club 12 class I'm taking. I stitched down the binding today even though I really just wanted to knit!

Mitered the corners of that great striped fabric and then cut the binding on the bias so it would stripe that way.  Not a big quilt, but fun to make.  I started hand quilting it, but it's been so long since I hand quilted anything that I just couldn't get a consistent stitch, so I ripped it out and threw it on the longarm and practiced using the rulers to do diagonal lines through the blocks.

I did spend a couple of hours knitting on my next pair of socks, too.  Now I'm going to head outside for a little fresh air -- kinda windy out, but in the 60's and dry for the first time in over a week..  We have another week worth of rain heading our way too.

Pass the Waffles Please

I thought I'd have a picture, but it's raining today, so pictures will be taken on Saturday. Waffles? I'm done waffling and just signed a contract with a couple of realtors to sell the house.  This is my final decision!  I will be moving to the big city of Rockford once my house sells and I will buy a condo -- no more yard work or shoveling for me.  And, hopefully, I'll eventually be able to do some traveling after I get settled.  I signed with the realtor that sold our house in Rockford 19 years ago when we built this house, and she brought another realtor along that works out of their Byron office, so I get two realtors for the price of one -- pretty good deal.  That's my big news of the month!

While I was waiting for them to come out this afternoon, I started my next pair of socks -- this time I'm trying the two at a time on circular needles and managed to get the first row of ribbing done today.  The needles are metal and very slippery so I'm not used to that -- the double pointed ones I used were wood.  I'll continue with these and maybe get used to them, or I'll go buy wooden circulars!  Either way, I'm having fun and looking forward to having a whole pair done at once! And I'm glad I did the double pointed for the first ones, but I think I'm going to like this technique too.