Thursday, December 31, 2015

Happy New Year!

I hope 2016 will be a great year for you...and me!
I bought myself a Christmas present the day after Christmas!  On sale and free shipping, and it arrived yesterday.  Mind you, the thing weighed 130 pounds, but I did manage to get it thru the front door, but then had to open it in the hallway, and carry each piece downstairs individually!  Started putting it together yesterday afternoon and had some problems.  Then had to quit and take another shower because I meet friends for dinner on Wednesday night and I sweat like a horse struggling with the thing!
I tried again this morning, and finally called my friend to help me -- took him very little time and thankfully he was already in Rockford, since he lives 30 minutes from me.  Thanks again, Bob.

I've had all this fabric donated and its been in bags and boxes and stacks all over the studio and I had no idea how much of what I had.  The four cubes on the bottom, and three on the next row are all filled with backing fabrics -- yardage enough for at least 1 quilt and in some cases for two, three or more.  I quilted two kids quilts while I was filling the cubes today and one of them was a shamrock quilt -- halfway thru the quilting I found a piece of shamrock fabric that would have been perfect for the backing!The second shelf from the top is smaller pieces to be used to make the fronts of the quilts, and the top row is scraps and orphan blocks and already cut strips and squares.  I still have a pile of scraps and cut squares to add to those cubes, but my back was killing me and I have some computer work to finish for church.  So, tomorrow I will be cleaning up my mess and getting the rest of the fabric in the cubes and sorted a little better.  I also have 11 bolts of fabric that was donated for backings, so I think we're good for both kids quilts and quilts for the homeless for awhile.  It is so much better being able to see what I have now - I'll have to have my piecers come over and pick out their own fabrics for the quilts!
I'm off to do my computer work.
Until next time.....blessings, and Happy New Year!

Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas!

Youngest grandson, Mikey, in his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles robe and slippers he got for Christmas today!  He's 5. Had a great Christmas with my kids and grandkids at my daughter's house, came home and took a nap!

Now it's time to start thinking about the new year, which 
I've actually been doing for the past month anyway.  I'm not doing new years resolutions this year, for the first time, but I am doing goals.  And some I've already started on.  Also trying to make new routines.

So, first goal is to lose 5 pounds a month.  Routine: make it a habit to exercise at least 3 days a week (I have a treadmill and weight bench in the basement - and hoping to make use of them in 2016!).  Also am going to make a new routine of making up menus every week, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and follow them!  They will be flexible enough that if I go out to breakfast or lunch, I will still be able to lose weight.  So, new routine is also to make it a lifestyle change and start eating much healthier than I do -- I'm not fond of cooking and cooking for one is not fun at all, so this will be a goal that I will really need to work at.

Another goal/routine, which I've already started and done the past few weeks, is to pick one spot that needs cleaning out and do it once a week.  I've done the cupboard in the kitchen that holds leftover plastics and cups (you know -- every time you open the cupboard door, the containers fall on your head!) - but not anymore at my house!  I've done my bathroom cabinet -- first week was just the two drawers and second week was the rest of the cabinet.  Found stuff I didn't know I had! Next week is the shelf unit in my closet that has cloth drawers in it that I stuffed with extra sheets, etc. because my linen closet barely holds the towels!  Week after that might be another shelf in that closet, or it might be something else that's bugging me!  Not making things overwhelming -- just one small area at a time.

I have quilting goals too. And for 2016 it's not just going to be quilts for the homeless and for kids.  I want to spend some time on my own projects.  I want to finish some ufo's, but I'm not going to put a number to how many - just finish some.  I'm forming a group with a couple of friends to get together once a month for show and tell, work on our own projects, including ufo's, and eat soup for lunch!  And maybe even work on a quilt together -- exchange blocks and each of us make our own version of the same quilt.  

And, of course, I'll still be working on homeless quilts and kids quilts -- I have 8 tops to be quilted right now for the homeless, and I think 8 for the kids too, but I'm going to try to not let them takeover all my quilting time.  

So, that's some of my goals for the new year, what are some of yours?
 
Until next time.....blessings.

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Been Awhile

So, this is some of what I've been up to:  today I finished piecing the 9-patches -- 235 of them to be exact.  And I can tell you I am putting them away for now, but hope to make them into a homeless quilt sometime next year.  Right now I'm sick of 9 patches!

I also have been quilting kids quilts to be given away.  We've given away 12 to the kids at church, and aiming for 50 more to give to the Motherhouse Crisis Nursery in Rockford, IL.
It takes about twice as long to load these little quilts as it does for the Statler to quilt them!  I quilted 3 this afternoon, and loaded another one to start with next time.  They are only 36" square, but the kids at church loved theirs.

I'm done with therapy on my hand.  Still have some fine motor skills to get back, but I'm right handed and I don't have fine motor skills there either! (smile).  I have tried to knit a little and as long as I don't try to use tiny needles (like I was using for knitting socks), I think it's going to work.  I don't knit fast, or for very long, but so far I don't have pain - and that was the point! And if the fabric isn't too thin, I can hold pieces together for appliqueing too.

Last week I was down with a cold, so that put me out of commission for a week -- just couldn't even drag myself downstairs to sew or quilt.  I did read a lot.  I'm now half way through book 7 of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  One more after this one.  Sometimes the story gets a little bogged down, but I've been pretty good about perservering!

I'm making a list of projects/things I want to accomplish next year. It'll be a general list -- probably not any hard deadlines to finish, but I have so many things that are half done, or almost finished and a lot that have a long way to go yet, so I want to at least get them a little organized in my mind!  There will be a few things that will have deadlines on them too. 

Until next time....blessings.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Sttching Up a Storm - Snow that is

We are in the path of the snow coming from the west -- supposed to start this evening -- 5"-8" when all is said and done.  Of course I have family coming over Sunday for Thanksgiving, but pretty sure the roads will be cleared by then -- and my driveway!

So, I've been working on the 9-patches to clean off my table top.  Have all the strips sewn together:
And as of today, I have all the 3-patches cut.  Have you ever used this ruler:  It's called a Shape Cut by June Tailor.  It made short work of cutting all the 3-patches, although there were so many that I took a break yesterday from standing at the cutting table so long and finished up this morning.  You can cut in one inch and one half inch increments, so I could trim, cut 1-1/2, 3, 4-1/2, 6, etc. increments all the way across the strip up to 12" before I have to move ruler or fabric.
So this is what the 3-patches look like:  doesn't look like much, but let me tell you it's a lot!
I started sewing them together this morning and got so bored I thought I'd fall asleep at the machine.  So, I had this little kids quilt cut out already, so started piecing it together between the 6-patches!  The rows are altogether, but it was taking up too much space on the sewing table, so I'll piece the rows together into a top before I start the 9- patches again.
And finally, these are all the 6-patches done -- another day's worth of sewing to make them 9-patches and I'm really, really tired of sewing them together.  They will get set aside when they are done for another time to make into a quilt!
Since I need to bake pies and prep the turkey and stuffing tomorrow, I probably won't get back to the sewing room til Monday or Tuesday.

Until next time.....blessings.
 

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Catching Up

I have been doing a little sewing:  These are 1-1/2 inch strips that were already cut and donated to make homeless quilts.  I have already pieced two homeless quilts from these and now I want to be done with them!  So, these will become 9-patches and eventually made into another homeless quilt.
These are 2-1/2" strips also leftover from donated fabric and they will eventually become 16 patches.  My goal is to get all of these strips sewn together and off my table! Really, really tired of looking at them.
I have been quilting kids quilts also - did two today and loaded a third to start tomorrow.  We already have 14 finished, so will be giving some away to the kids at church the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm in prep mode this week as we have our Thanksgiving this Sunday, so the kids don't have to go to lots of different family places on the day.  And our church has a free Thanksgiving dinner from 11-1 on Thanksgiving Day, so I'll be volunteering to help out there that day. Win-win for everyone involved!

And today I have another therapy session.  They'll be doing their measurements to see how far I've come first.  Then I see the doctor next Monday, and hopefully last therapy session next Tuesday! Thumb doesn't hurt, but not sure it will come back far enough to applique again.  I have been able to hand stitch bindings down, so that's a good sign.

Until next time....blessings.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Veterans Day

In honor of Veterans Day, my favorite Vet:
This was the crew of the Liberator plane known as Touche.  Bill is third from the right.
They served in the South Pacific, mapping the invasion beaches of Japan.  Bill was a mechanic, and the Belly Gunner!  He was just 18.

Always on my heart, forever on my mind.

Until next time.....blessings.

Tuesday, November 03, 2015

I've Been Sewing!!!!

I finished piecing another quilt for the homeless today:
This was made from some donated fabric 
 and a partially put together quilt kit.  I've already made one quilt from the parts and I finished the 9-patches on this one, then put the borders around them and now used some blacks from my stash to alternate them.  I did piece the binding today, and hope to piece the backing tomorrow, but don't know when I'll be able to quilt it.
I took the hard splint off yesterday and have spent two days sewing without it.  I have therapy again tomorrow, so don't know what they're going to say about that, but the splint was rubbing on the incision on the thumb and pinching my arm - I still can't pinch my index finger with my thumb, but I at least do my therapy exercises a few times a day and I am being real careful not to jam my thumb!

Until next time....blessings.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Cutting

Not much happening here today.  I did manage to put the church bulletin into the program for projecting to the screens on Sunday morning -- took most of the morning!

But I also spent 30 minutes cutting fabric for our kids quilts we'll be sewing on tomorrow at our monthly sew-in.


 All ready to go out the door in the morning!

Until next time....blessings.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Some Progress

I finished piecing the 9 patches - only because I was tired of doing them!  I still have strips of fabric that I will sew together to make more 9 patches and maybe 4 patches, but I decided to stop putting the borders around them now, and go ahead and start piecing another homeless quilt.  These quilts need to be 60" x 80" or thereabouts, so, I cut some black prints to fill in between the 9 patches. And of course I didn't have enough of one to do the whole quilt, so pulled and cut two.

I sewed the top two rows and placed the third row on my design board.  The busier black print will be in the center and the less-busy one will be alternating in the outer rows only.
All of the 9 patches need to be squared up, so they are now on the cutting table waiting for me tomorrow!  I found cutting is a little easier with this splint than the cast, but still not great, so it's slow going, but that's ok - no hurry, right?!

Until next time...blessings.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Cast is off

And now I have a hard splint to wear for 4 weeks.
They did take the stitches out. And I am scheduled for therapy starting Wednesday.
But, I'm a bit disappointed in that I still can't load a quilt on the longarm, I still can't move my thumb much and there will be no lifting whatsoever for the next 4 weeks - it is still healing.  I was hoping to be able to cut fabric better and I won't be able to do that either and definitely no hand work.  I can still piece on the machine though, so guess I'll have to settle for that.  And, wonder of wonders, I can at least take a shower and wash my hands without the splint on and no bag over my hand!

Until next time.....blessings.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

More Sewing and Planning!

Of all the steps in quilting, my second least favorite is cutting fabric!  This is my cutting table -- I have to shove things around in order to cut anything, of course.  The fabric on the front corner is yardage I'm using from stash to make the hexagons for the background on the Lucy Boston quilt.  I cut some today, but I can't do a lot of cutting with the cast on.  The fabric piled under the square cutting mat is for kids quilts that we're doing this year with the church group.  And under the table is another huge stack of donated fabrics that I need to cut into squares for more homeless quilts.  In other words, I have a ton of cutting to do.  So, every day that I go downstairs to sew, I plan to spend at least 15 minutes cutting - something!

I did cut some hexagons today and glued some of the background ones together -- I'm using at least 3 different background fabrics for these from stash!
I mentioned my second least favorite thing to do, but my very least favorite thing is piecing batting!  Batting is expensive - I buy Warm & Natural at JoAnn's during their half price sales and the last two times actually got free shipping too, but it's still expensive.  The last time I pieced batting, I spent days at it and actually came out with a dozen batts for homeless quilts (which are 60"x80").  Today I pieced batts and got two more for the big homeless quilts and 3 for kids quilts, and one piece that's 36" x 42".  I'm going to try to stitch up the leftover batting once a week, so it doesn't take a day or longer to do it!  All part of the Plan!

Until next time....blessings.

The Plan

I think for the past few years I've been overwhelmed - not just by life, but by the sheer magnitude of fabric and projects I have started, or planned to start, etc.  You all know how it is - so much fabric and still you buy more- enough that we all say we'll never use it all.  For awhile I quit buying fabric except for specific quilts or projects.  I also stopped buying books and patterns and kits.  I had so much of everything, I couldn't make a decision what to work on.  And then my friend Kris thinks its fun to challenge everyone to do a certain block, or quilt or whatever.  And that's all well and good, but I never got the chance to work on my own projects.  So I finally started ignoring her challenges, but I also got involved with my church group making homeless quilts, so my own things stayed hidden away!

Fast forward to this past weekend:  A couple of friends from the homeless quilt group dropped off the latest bunch of quilts (49 - for a total of 62) we made this year for the homeless.  And then we went to a little quilt show put on by the local quilt guild.  Vendor mall was fun, even though, as usual, I didn't need anything!  And one of my favorite quilt stores, Quilters General Store, which is only about 2 minutes from my house, was vending.  My friend, Nancy has been talking about doing the Lucy Boston quilt for awhile and I listened, but didn't get caught up by it, until QGS had a few little kits for this quilt.  Nancy suckered me right in!  This is a completely hand made elongated hexagon quilt.  And no, I don't need another hand project, especially since I'm still in a cast!  But QGS showed us a new technique using a glue stick instead of English Paper Piecing:

It actually hurts my hand because I have to turn it to hold the pieces while I glue, and it rubs the cast which doesn't turn, but I have managed to glue a couple of these blocks.  I'll stitch them together when I finally get the cast off.  There are 24 pieces to each block, and 24 background hexes around each block and there are 56 blocks, not counting the pieced squares of cornerstones!  I think I'm crazy, but I'm going to attempt to work on one of these blocks every chance I get.

Until next time...blessings.  

Friday, October 23, 2015

It's Back!

It's Back!  It's Back!  My Quilting MoJo is back!

Yes, my hand is still in a cast, and I'm typing this with one hand, but for the first time in years (really), I feel like sewing/quilting.  I feel like I've been going thru the motions for years and as I think back on it, I think the trauma of losing Bill and Steve and then spending 3 years trying to sell the house, buying another, moving and remodeling took away my desire to sew/quilt.  I even bought the Statler for my longarm trying to get back the urge to spend all my waking hours quilting!
With my hand in a cast and unable to do much, I have done a lot of thinking and planning.  The cast comes off Monday along with the stitches being removed.  But for the past few days, I've actually been doing a little sewing.  I've had this pile of 1-1/2" strips piled on the table for at least 2 years.  They were donated by a former shop owner for the homeless quilts.  I made one quilt from the partially finished blocks she gave and this was what was leftover.  I made a bunch more 9-patches and still didn't make a dent.

 So now I'm taking the 9-patches and adding borders to them.  The goal is to use up all the fabric strips and make at least one more quilt for the homeless.
I'm going to clean off the table this year!  

Until next time...blessings.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Gross pictures!

I had to go in this morning to get the splint off and a cast put on.  so, I took some not very good pictures with my phone:
Above is the thumb where they pinned it and are waiting for it to fuse.
 This is the base of the thumb where they removed the arthritic joint and replaced it with tendon.
 The stitches on top and bottom left is where they took the tendon to put into the thumb.  The rest is just one big bruise! They did not remove any of the stitches today, but did cast it:
I go back in 4 weeks for more xrays and to have the cast and stitches removed - and depending on how it's healing, may have another cast or not.  I still have pain, but not taking pain pills.

Until next time.... blessings.

Friday, September 18, 2015

After Surgery

I had surgery yesterday.  At the facility at 6 am; surgery before 7; Left the facility about 10:30! Best surgical experience and facility I've ever had - Rockford Orthopedic Surgical Center.  I'd recommend them to anyone.
And I have the use of my fingers which surely helped me get dressed this morning.  The numbness wore off about 10:30 last night, but I don't have a lot of pain.  
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.
I'm obviously typing with one hand, so will keep this short!

Until next time....Blessings.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Another update

So, been missing in action for a few days for a fairly good reason!  I'm having surgery tomorrow on my ugly hand.  
 I have degenerative osteoarthritis in my hands and my thumbs have been giving me more trouble than usual.  It's making doing any hand work very difficult, so it's time to take care of it.  The surgeon will be cutting the arthritis out of that huge thumb joint, put in a couple of pins and a screw and fuse the thumb and then at the joint that joins the wrist, he will cut out the arthritis and replace it with tendon, so it will no longer be bone on bone.  
Two weeks in a bandage, and then 6 to 10 weeks in a cast followed by therapy.  Realistically we're looking at 3-6 months of not having a left thumb!  I am right handed, but you'd be surprised how much you use your "other" hand.  Dressing should be fun!
So, if I don't post for awhile, it's because it's a pain in the butt to type with one hand!  
I've had to be off my anti-inflammatory meds for the past week, so I'm in a bit of pain, so not so worried about the surgery, but want it over with so I can get back on my meds!

Until next time....blessings. (And I'm blessed that they can actually do something for me to eliminate the need for cortisone injections - so happy about that!)

Friday, September 11, 2015

Quilted!

This is the back of the Minions quilt - hope you can see the goggles pattern - was cute to stitch!
I also cut more fabrics while I was in the basement this morning.  I have a lot more to cut before next Thursday, so I may be spending a lot of time in the basement the rest of this week and first of next.
 
I ran a couple of errands this afternoon and then took my happy butt over to Baumann Park in Cherry Valley and walked the path around the lake.  I tend to walk fairly fast, so it was a good workout for me - and yes, I needed that!
 
I've been traveling in De-Nile for awhile and finally decided to face facts - I've gone from pre-diabetic to full blown diabetes and I need to get my numbers back down to normal.  So, there will be more walking going on here and I am counting my carbs again, like I should have been all along.  Hopefully along with the 30 pounds I need to lose, I'll also lose the higher blood sugar numbers.
 
Until next time...blessings.
 

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Some piecing going on here

 We're going to be shifting gears and piecing kids quilts for a change for the church.  First group will go to the kids in our church and then we'll donate them to Motherhouse Crisis Nursery in Rockford, I think.  So, I've been buying kids fabrics this summer and started piecing this Minions quilt the other day and finished putting it together this morning.
 I have the cutest pattern for quilting it, called Goggles by Kim Diamond.  I'll quilt it tomorrow.
I've been working on my to-do list today, so every time I spend a few minutes in the basement, I try to cut more squares of the kids fabrics.
We're meeting again at the end of the month for a sewing day at church, so I need plenty of squares for the group to start sewing together.  Probably the Minion quilt will be the only one I piece, since I will be doing the quilting of most of them.

Until next time....blessings.

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

My church does a clothing giveaway at least twice a year and the next one will be in a couple of weeks, so it was time to clean out the closet.  I tried on everything in my closet this morning and all of these clothes are going to the church!  A lot of this stuff I haven't worn or couldn't wear and some stuff was only worn once and some not at all.  I hate to shop, so when I do go shopping for clothes, more often than not I'll buy two or three pairs of pants and 4 or more shirts - just so I don't have to go again for 6 months or a year!
And now I have a lot more room in my closet and a lot more hangers available too!  I now have two pairs of black slacks and one pair of brown slacks, and no blue slacks! I have more mid to long sleeve tops that short sleeved and a few tops only for wearing around the house, and a couple that I can wear to run to the store, but not wear to lunch!
Thank God for stretch jeans, but whoever invented stretchy tops should have their head examined.  I often wonder if I ever looked in the mirror wearing some of that stuff!

The upshot of all this is that I have started yet another diet/lifestyle change.  I need to lose 30 pounds, but it's okay if it takes me a week to lose 1 pound, so it's a long-term goal.  I've joined SparkPeople.com again to log my food and exercise and to keep me honest!  And that is usually how long it takes me to lose a pound, too - my fat and I have become very good friends -- we won't be saying goodbye quickly by any means!

And now I'm off to tackle the rest of my to-do list today.
Until next time....blessings.

Monday, September 07, 2015

Updated Picture

My niece came from Colorado last week for a short visit.  We went to Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford -- a pretty famous garden walk that's been here for many, many years.  I was born and raised in Rockford, and lived here or in the area all my life and it was the first time I've ever been there!
Beautiful, and very peaceful.  My niece took this picture of me, which for once, isn't too bad!
We had lunch in the dining room there and then went to the Nicholas Conservatory, which has only been here a few years, but it was the first time I'd been there too.  Beautiful plants.  We did the Sinnissippi path walk to see the roses and the flower clock too.
This is a pic of the dining room/registration center at Anderson Gardens.  I got some great pics with my new camera -- which I love, btw!  Now I have a home screen full of photos which I need to edit and organize with my Photoshop Elements program, thanks to the classes I took last month!

Today is Labor Day, which means its a normal Monday for me and I need to get busy cleaning house and doing laundry so I can have the rest of the week to play in the sewing room and organize photos on the computer!

Until next time....blessings.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

1st Day of School

First day of school for the grandkids:

Briana, senior in high school
AJ, 6th grade
Will, 3rd grade
Mikey - 1st day of all day kindergarten

Until next time.... (and obviously, these are my blessings!)

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Dog Days of Summer

Definitely the dog days of summer this week. Today it's supposed to hit 93 degrees and very, very humid. I will be spending the day indoors. This is one of the new plants - a hibiscus. So very beautiful, but each bloom only lasts one day!
They are huge, though - about the size of a dinner plate!

I've been doing a little quilting lately. Quilted the last homeless quilt for the year -- we made 62 of them this year and I quilted every one of them.  The people at church pieced all of them, and friend, Nancy bound all of them!  Whew!
Next month - we're switching gears and making kids quilts for awhile.  We will eventually go back to making the bigger ones - we still have tons of scraps to use up!
Our group did a shop hop day to Bloomington, IL - big sale at The Treadle, and I bought another bunch of kids fabrics.  We also stopped at a new to us shop that puts together 5 yard quilt kits.  I think the name of the place was Boline's - it was in a warehouse, and their fabric was only about $8 a yard.

I've also been working on baby quilts -- one for a family friend and one for my new grand nephew due in December. I found some Mickey Mouse fabric at The Treadle, so that's what I'm using for the new nephew's quilt. I'll post pics when it's finished.
Until next time....blessings.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

After the Landscaping

So, what have I been doing since the landscaping is done?  I've been taking classes!  And not quilt classes!  I took a beginner's class on digital photography.  I have a Nikon point and shoot that I use, and it does a great job - if you know how to take photographs - which I don't!  So I took this class and ended up buying myself a DSL Nikon on sale.  The class was lots of fun, and I learned a lot (well, I have a lot of information inside my head, but still trying to sort it all out.)  The upshot of the class is practice, practice, practice!  But I love my new camera too!
The class lasted 3 weeks - one night a week and finished last Tuesday.  So, then I signed up for the Photoshop Elements class which started last night and also lasts for 3 weeks.  Now that was a fun class - I love learning how to do things on the computer.  Used to be when you bought a new program, you'd get a 1000 page handbook on how to use it, but nowadays you get maybe a quick video of the basics.  So, the class is showing us how to edit our photos, take out spots, straighten, lighten, darken, etc. and also has an organizing element to it so that you can actually organize all your photos.  I like this part of it - I have tons of photos on discs and on the computer - many of which just need to be deleted! LOL, but now I can go back and actually put them into some type of organization, and at the same time, I can have some printed.  I never take the time to have photos printed anymore, so I'm going to pick a few and have them printed also.  
So, until next time....blessings.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Last of the Landscaping!

Okay -last of the landscaping pictures, I promise!
Back corner below the kitchen window at the sink. 
After, with the 3 french lilacs.
Hosta bed that was there before.
After, they dug out around it, replaced the edging with a cut edge and filled in with mulch.  Also transplanted a few of the hostas that were in the corner bed, right on the edge.
Nasty spot in the corner of the drive.  The guys saved all the dianthus plants and added them around the house.
After, there is a mugo pine, which won't get any bigger than it is, and a few catmint and the rest are red/wine colored daylilies, which are at this time blooming!.  Eventually, they will fill the space.
And the final picture:  The guys are planting 3 flowering crab between my 6 evergreens across the back of the lot.  They will block the view from the house behind me, and be pretty to look at in the spring.  The birds are already very happy with the trees in the yard!

Until next time....blessings.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Backtracking

So, missed a couple of days blogging.  Friday would have been our 34th anniversary, and even though it's been 5 years since I lost Bill, it was a bad day for me.  Sometimes grief just comes around the corner and smacks you in the face when you least expect it. So, I pretty much did nothing all day!
Saturday was #2 grandson's birthday party.  He turned 8 on Thursday!  And of course, the kids were planning on swimming (they have an above ground pool), and of course, a 2 hour thunderstorm came through!  They finally did get to swim, but I left right after the storm was done! 

More before and after landscaping pics.  This is the back of the house and the north corner of the house.  I did just plant those pink tulips last year, so hope they come up again, after they saved them.
 Also had the guys remove that post that holds the hanging baskets and I replaced it with a double shepherd's hook that hopefully looks a little better.  The peony was there already, so they just added some shrubs, black eyed susans, salvia, and catmint.



 This is the north corner of the house, it had a huge hosta that was just getting ready to bloom, but they had to take it out.  There was lots of gravel around the air conditioner, too.  Also had a vinca vine and lily of the valley in that corner - but they had to take all of it out of there.
In place of the ground cover, there are 3 French lilacs and shrubs and perennials.  The window that is open above them is above the kitchen sink, so when the lilacs bloom, their scent should fill the kitchen!

Just a couple more pics of the landscaping to go....in case you're getting bored!

Until next time.....blessings.