I want coffee---what about you?

Sitting here, taking a short break from my Jamestown Landing strings......and suddenly.....

I CRAVE coffee!!!!!

Mind you, if we didn't have AC, I would be singing a different song! I just stepped outside and bolted RIGHT BACK IN!!! Muggggggg-ggggg---ggggggggy! Holy poopers!!!

So, I'm going to make a pot and give Shadow some fresh water outside while it's brewing. Goodness---I hope I don't lose my craving during the short time I need to be outside with Shadow. Otherwise, maybe I WILL be enjoying a "bottomless" cup of coffee :0) No one is around....my closest neighbor is half mile away........okay, TMI again? ;0) **snicker**



Oh! And poor, poor Paul. He's staining with Scot today....oh, my poor dear. I'm sure the boat will be loaded and deployed shortly after his arrival home. He's been enjoying his evenings fishing lately.

{{20 minutes later}}
Alright, I AM enjoying a cup of coffee with 2 tsp honey and some french-vanilla creamer :0) Yummmmmm.
Shadow appreciated the water and the small dousing I gave him. It's warm today! Back to the 90's with my windowsill thermometer showing 107....**sigh**
I actually took a detour to the garden for a walk-through too. Oh boy----I predict next week to start the official "harvest time" for Farmer Amy-n-crew. Many bean plants have sprouts; one plant actually had some ready for picking (yummy snack for now.) Cucumbers are in full bloom and I harvested a small bowl full for (maybe) some cucumber salad; otherwise another yummy snack and for salads. Peas are ready for picking already! I'll see what Paul's plans for them are....are we freezing them before full ripeness to be used in stir fry and egg rolls? Sounds like a plan to me.
Tomatoes----whew! At least those won't be ready for quite some time yet! I can handle beans and cucumbers next week. Tomatoes would put me over the harvest-edge.

Alright---off to do some more strings. Maybe if I get all 168 sewn, I'll buddy along with Paul tonight on the boat and tear the paper off :0)

12 years today...

It's been 12 years since DH and I "officially" have been "together." July 11, 1998 was the date that "he settled".

But it's been 16 years since we both played on the same volleyball team when we first met, and our first "official" date (September 11, 1994).....



We don't celebrate many days except for Christmas, so...it's just another day for us. But still, worthy of note :0)

This -n- That day...

FIRST!!! To start the post; we are newly-made proud parents..... I really don't know if I ever informed any of you that my DH acquired yet another "Farmer Paul" animal. Last autumn, Cattle-ine joined our family, a pregnant heffer. This morning started with a new member. The picture is not the greatest, but I'm about 150 yards away, so....it'll do. Paul woke me up at 6:11 wondering if today was Monday or Sunday--UGH! Once I told him Sunday, he went "potty" and then snuggled back in. ME, on the other hand, shheeeesh---now I was wide awake, so....6:22 I finally rolled out of bed. Figured I might as well make use of the morning. Anyway---I peeked outside, and there she was, licking away. I got all excited and told Paul.....he didn't believe me! Come to find out that when he went to the bathroom, she was laying down with no calf, so she literally JUST calfed. The girls are still sleeping, but we both are up, eating muffins I made, drinking coffee, and are waiting patiently to share the news with the girls.

Okay---now to yesterday. I use this word a lot, but....it was a day of "putzing." It started out by working on the March quilt. All blocks were completed in the morning hours and were pieced into three sections. I think this will sit for a bit now while I decide how I want to quilt. I just purchased a new Machine Quilting book that takes me through the "practice" steps of accomplishing beautiful??? quilting.

After the sections were pieced, I came upstairs for a mid-morning snack and grabbed the book. Practicing my quilting sounded like a good plan, so I tore out a page of phone-book paper and traced a rather intriquite (sp?) design. I used an orphan Scrappy Basket block AND I grabbed the basting spray to finally try it out on a smaller-scale project. It worked rather slick! BUT, if you are going to use the "draw-motif-on-paper-and-sew-over-it-before-tearing-it-off method, I recommend to NOT spray the paper to the fabric. That was a PAIN to remove!!!

In addition to buying the quilting book last week, I also bought a whole bolt (25 yards) of white muslin (very nicely woven!!!) for $1.00 a yard! Couldn't go wrong there. Pictured is also a roll of 10 yards of Warm & Natural batting that was on sale for $5.99/yard. I should be set now for awhile :0)



While waiting for lunch to cook, I browsed over some of my online quilting bookmarks, and came across this Cathedral Windows tutorial from some time ago. I was instantly inspired, so I headed downstairs after lunch to give it a try using the new muslin. SLICK! This is FUN! I can foresee this being a larger-scale project in the future, but I think I want some sort of "controlled scrappiness" with the window colors, so this is just a small wall-hanging as a visual reminder for "someday."

Then...I actually was bored with the quilting room. I didn't know what else to work on and really didn't feel like sewing.


Paul was outside with the girls, working on his own version of "putzing." He was preparing the garden for tilling; covering it with some old leaves and compost that has been "brewing" since last year. I joined in the fun......

















And this last picture was a surprise on the camera this morning. Last night, Candace and Caitlyn "borrowed" the camera again. Caitlyn snapped the pic of her and Candace; it turned out amazing.

Happy Sunday

*sigh* not feeling well.....

There are very few things that I would put on a "I hate most in the world...." list, but.....
last night (early this morning) around 1:00, I started tossing and turning, NOT feeling well---I might have dozed on and off, but it seemed that every 10 minutes or so I was looking at the clock again. Finally, at around 2:30, I got up and tried a drink of water------UGH! NOT GOOD! To put this nicely, I was "sick" within 10 minutes. I don't have a solid idea at what caused me to be ill, although I did double-up on my medicine yesterday because I didn't take it on Monday. Perhaps my stomach just couldn't handle it.

*sigh* So from then until I woke up at 6:30, I was sick almost every hour, and one last time at 7:00 this morning. After that episode, I tried some Diet Coke (yes----believe it or not----I once heard that Coke (not Diet coke) has a way of taming down the stomach and it has worked in the past for me, so.....); and thankfully I wasn't sick anymore after that. However, I had blood tests scheduled for 9:00 (a "fasting" bloodtest), so I called the clinic to see if the Diet soda would hinder the results.

Tidbit of information: DIET soda will not cause discrepancies in cholesterol/glucose tests, however NON-DIET soda will. I hadn't known that.

So, 9:00 came; blood drawn; and then Candace and I spent a couple of hours doing errands for DH. Pig food, chicken food, horse food, dog food, lawnmower belt, tiller parts, more horse fence; sounds like a true "farmer's" shopping list, huh? :0)

I'm debating if I want to head downstairs for some quilting, but I don't feel completely up to it. Rather, maybe I'll start designing out and planning a quilt for DH's boss's christmas quilt.

Thanks for tuning in to my wee-little world again.
Happy quilting

Progress-Cathy's Aunt Sukey

Once again---early rising: 6:15 am. Both Candace and Caitlyn crawled into bed sometime in the night, so at 1:30am, I hooved it up to Caitlyn's bed---there just wasn't enough room for DH, those two, AND myself. So...Caitlyn's room doesn't have a clock---the birds were singing, sun was blaring, I figured it was past 7:00 for sure! Oh well.....

Coffee, bagel, yada-yada. But I got basting Cathy's Aunt Sukey right away this morning before the sun realllly started blaring through our windows. Once 8:30 rolls around, we don't have a chance getting away from the sun upstairs until about 2:30, so those are the hours I usually like heading downstairs to sew or "hide" in our back bedroom. Verrrrry cool in those places. These are our windows that face South-East---VERY nice in the winter months though (on sunny days!). The heat that comes through these windows with the sun is amazing.....


Anway.....once I had the quilt (top corner piece #1) basted, the girls were getting a bit ancy (as I was using the kitchen floor), so I had them take up the tape while I fixed up some cereal and bagels for them. Wow---we really are a bagel family---Cailtyn loves bagels with cream cheese, and Candace any myself enjoy a strawberry cream cheese on ours.

But finally, around 8:30, I was able to head downstairs to put my first quilting stitches in the sandwich! Yeah.......
after half an hour of simple stitching in the ditch, it was time to move to an "outline" about 1/4 inch in from the seams on the light gold/yellow pieces. However, a simple straight stitch seemed to boring-----playtime with the different stitches followed for about 15 minutes. I decided on stictch #146. BOY---was that PUTZY once I finally started stitching the blocks. I had one block completely done and needed to take a break---girls were getting a little bored and ancy. So.....hmmmmmmm, an "outing" was needed; more thread was needed; PERFECT OPPORTUNIY! I'll be killing two birds with one stone. So, at 10:45 we rolled out the door for a "drive" and ended up the the LQS with beginning quilt in hand. Of course, the lady (who helped me pick out the mauve and light gold/yellow fabric) wanted the show-n-tell session and she helped me pick out some yellow, green, and mauve threads I needed to complete the quilting. It was a short visit, ONLY thread was bought. We stopped of at good ol' McD's for some lunch, and headed home.

Once the girls were settled after eating lunch, I was back downstairs to finish up the other three blocks with stitch #146 before getting to the FUN part of the yellow fabric flowers. WOW--that went so much slicker than I expected---I am VERY PLEASED with how well the flowers turned out! I FMQ inside the "center-piece" blocks (black/flowered fabric).

And....my first oiling was requested! I told my FIL (father-in-law) about the "oil" light and he chuckled! (He's a driver education instructor) So of course he joked about having a machine that was smart enough to remind the driver that it was time for an oil change!

Just LOOK at that lint! It's amazing, really, at what can get built up within a week's time.

By 4:30, I wrapped up most of the marked quilting, then headed upstairs to mark the green sashing. I had completely forgot about those yesterday, so......
I was only able to get a few marked before needing to throw together some supper and get ready for Volleyball. DH and I play on a league every Wednedsay---what FUN! I coached vball for my first 7 years of teaching; referee'd in college; played in HS---love the sport! DH never really played, but has REALLY turned into a great player----tsch! How could he NOT???? He's 6'6" for crying out loud! All he has to do is stand with arms straight up and he's towering over the net! :0)

But.....FINALLY------they arrived!

Of ALLLLL the nights to come home with the pigs, he would HAVE to choose a VBall night!!! He was already running late, so we hustled WARP SPEED to get them settled before bolting off to Vball---we were only a few minutes late.

Champion and Eddie were a hoot to watch once they realized they had new "farm mates." They pranced about; flared their nostrils; winnied like little spoiled brats; and just down-right didn't know what to think of them.

Grandma and Grandpa came for a short visit tonight on their way to the "Farm" up north. So, they packed up Cassie and took her with since we'll be coming up on Friday anyway. The two little ones weren't too keen on not being able to go with G-MA/G-PA, but we tried to be "smarter psychologically" and told them they needed to be sure the new pigs get settled and told them they had the responsibility of naming them (and not Cassie) :0) *wink* It worked. Amazing sometimes!

Looking forward to a quieter house tomorrow---#2 and #3 should play nicely together and I should be able to get some more quality time in quilting. I should be wrapping up piece #1 and hopefully start on piece #2 tomorrow (same size and shape for bottom corner.)

Happy Quilting!

You might be a redneck if.....

*chuckling at Angela's comment a few posts ago*

Ummm...no farm here...just LOTS of land to use. The horses were DH's idea for the girls; and I didn't mind one bit. I always wanted a horse as a little girl. We get the girls out on them when we can. This picture was taken in 2005; the first time we saddled up Eddie, the smaller of the two. Now, Cassie (oldest) rides Champion while Caitlyn rides Eddie. Champion is QUITE a bit more "spunky" and sometimes wants to go where HE wants..... This is NOT my favorite picture....Eddie is doing a great job hiding my belly that was pregnant with Candace. My algeries are so bad in the Fall, so I rarely wear my contacts in August!

Okay...back to being a "redneck".....
I told DH that I put a picture up showing the start of his Chicken Coop (which is now complete, but no chickens yet. Time ran short today!) And I told him about Angela's comment. He looked as me COMPLETELY serious, and said...."well, you know we're getting two pigs in a couple of weeks, right??"

OMG! He's nuts!!! But I think he's dead serious!

So....Farmer Amy I am becoming!