UPDATES: Rainbow Scrap '25 (DEL); Emme Groomed; Old Town; and SMART goal

Meet Emme, the sweetest cockapoo ever!  Her owner struck up a conversation with me at Friday evening' basketball game, which led to me spending some JOYFUL time bathing, fluffing and grooming her yesterday morning. Seriously, JOYFUL!

There are some dogs who are cute, and then there's EMME! Her demeanor is top-notch; happy puppy. 

And once all dolled up, she and my Bailee played outside in the fresh 4+ inches of snow that fell overnight.  This is the first real snowfall we've had up here in Wisconsin this winter.

My goodness - seriously!  This much cuteness should be illegal!  She's sooooooooo soft, and huggable, and LOVEABLE!

After she departed, and a quick lunch... and the snowfall keeping me from running outside...
... the afternoon was left wide open to simply putz-putz-putz.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge was 100% in mind.  So, two-birds-with-one-stone:

The Dawn's Early Light red-star piles have been growing as my leader-ender.  However, with those units nearing completion, time was spent organizing the next unit.

PERFECT TIMING!  Blue strings!!!💙

Years and years ago, Bonnie's scrap system was implemented in the quilting space, so grabbing the bag of blue strings allowed me to get cookin' on these units straight-away once the papers were cut.

About an hour of late afternoon time was also devoted to assembling a few more Old Town quilt blocks;  half of them from the reveal step have been checked off the list.

What a gloriously 'putzy' afternoon in the loft!

And theeeeeeeeeen, the tiny voice in my head started saying, "just get on the treadmill.  C'mon, you have a streak underway of hitting those 10K steps daily; don't let this weather (and a small groin-muscle annoyance) break the streak!"

7:30 PM reality:

SMART Goal achieved:  8:15 PM

I'm nursing a small strain from a run earlier this week with Bailee.  Old age... what'cha gonna do?!?!  So this was nothing fancy; no running... but a good powerwalk for about 40 minutes on the ol' treadmill helped me check off Day #27 of 10,050 steps (cuz 10K would simply be too boring). 

#SmartGoals - you've got this!

Today's plan:  putzing, and an attempt at a 5K, groin-permitting.

Happy sunshiny Sunday morning.  

Linking up with SoScrappy '25 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Dawn's Early Light progress; a perfectly groomed pooch; some gardening and a cherry pie

Lots of little putterings these past few days...

Since much of my time has been dedicated to Dawn's Early Light, it makes sense to post my finished neutral strings first off.  Whoooowieeee, a dent actually WAS made in the bin!

Then, when I peered at the directions for the next part... Oh that Bonnie!

Laughing and shaking my head even now.  

Imma be here for a while with these considering I'm not even halfway done yet...

...so the big guns were pulled for the duration.  

Good ol' classic VHS movies where every line and song could be recited

-- perfect, mindless background noise --

This morning, however --> gardening!  These FREE plants from the local hardware store's clearance rack needed to find their home in the garden.  With yet again some glorious morning weather, all my tomatoes were trimmed, tied and some bare spots were filled with the free goodies.  By quick math calculation, 4 rows of 12, additional bonus row of 5 (or 7???, I can't remember and too tired to head down to verify), plus the tomatillo row that also houses 6 volunteers = 59-61ish.   OH YAH, and the bonus plant that sprouted at the end of the bean trellis, so... 60-62ish, give or take.

We haven't had a strawberry patch for a good strong handful of years, however, I spied a few isolated plants along the edge of the garden weeds.  Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!  We all know the saying: when there's a will, there will definitely be a way.  The three were dug up and moved to an empty spot.  Gardening patience has certainly struck in recent years, so I'm actually looking forward, excitedly, to see what these three lil' plants may result in a couple of years down the line.

Ugh!  Let them GO already, Amy... 
I reached out one final time to local friends and family to see if anyone is interested in some well-rooted rescue tomatillos.  I'm sure I could rig up some simple trellising for some potted plants if they go unclaimed (??).

Last night, Paul had mentioned that the birds were enjoying the cherries, and sure shootin'!  There were cherry pits strewn all over the garden.  There aren't any plans to complete a full picking, unless Paul says otherwise, but enough were harvested for a pie; this afternoon's project.

By far the FUNNEST project I had planned for the mid-morning was to
meet Peaches and give her a little sprucing up.

Oh.
My.
Preciousness!
Seriously!

Peaches is 10 years old, and lemme say -- she was SO well behaved!!! 

Her grooming lasted roughly an hour and a half; the easiest customer to date!

Saw this the other day and chuckled.  Working on it!  Always a work in progress.

Our quaint little town celebrates with fireworks on the 3rd annually, and with the evening looming, I'm not quite sure where it'll lead us.  We aren't ones to travel the 5 miles into town to catch the fireworks; we enjoy the quiet, people-free tiny little show we can view from our deck.  

Happy Independence Day, one day early.

 

Finished Friday - 2011 RSC Squares; and a lil' tree-trimming, wood-stacking, and dog-grooming

After Tuesday's organization of flimsies and UFOs, Wednesday found me dusting off the Q'nique and refreshing my skills with the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge top.

I'll say again, all these skills are truly coming back just like riding a bike!  There is only one quilt I remember where I sewed the binding to the front and actually hand-stitched on the back.  Psht.  I really don't have the patience for the hand-sewing; I hope that doesn't make me a bad person.  Since I've pretty much mastered machine-sewing the binding, that's the ticket I'm sticking with.  

A scrappy binding was attached from digging in the 2.5" strip bin, and v'iola!  My first full-quilt finish in a few years.  Although not 100% certain, but she will most likely be packaged up and sent off to
Quilts for Kids

Speaking of riding a bike...
Last summer, a couple coworkers and myself started meeting up weekly for a 'bike around the lake.'  This year, we've grown to five ladies in our group, and yesterday was our first meetup of the summer.  The ride is just shy of 9.25 miles and mostly flat, and it was a BEAUTIFUL mid-60s low-humidity morning.

Feeling great and energetic following the ride, motivation was kicking for some outdoorsy tasks that have been on my todo list when time (and weather) allowed.
We have a 20-year old apple tree as a sole-survivor from a half-dozen or so that were planted when we first bought the land, AND remarkably has been producing apples in recent years.  The apples haven't been the best, but I'm hoping that a good (first-ever) heavy pruning will kickstart some legitimate production...  eventually... even if it's definitely the WRONG time of the year for pruning.

The saying is, "if it acts like a shade-tree, it needs a prunin'!"

Bailee girl was most definitely enjoying her time in the shade!  LOL.
(Before)

Although I didn't have any ladders, I dare say that a good pruning commenced.
(After)

POV after cleaning up and clearing many of the middle branches... and YES!  The thought(s) did cross my mind: what if I fell? you're no spring chicken anymore. no one is home.  are these branches strong enough? is your knee really okay to handle this?

We can now see SKY from ground-level.

What a happy lil' tree - Love, Love, Love.
Much of the top is still quite full, however we'll see how she behaves moving forward.

Last summer, the sole-surviving cherry tree was also heavily pruned, its first ever also.  And I mean, HEAVY pruning!

And she's LOADED with cherries this year, all beginning to ripen.  Montmorency cherries; they are a bit on the tart side, but make a MEAN cherry pie and some great wine!

THEN, ...this pile.  I mean, who needs to pay for a gym membership when you have outside physical hobbies too?  Hm, maybe we shouldn't actually call this a 'hobby.'  Perhaps 'homesteading life' is a better description, but all the same... this load of logs was processed and dumped into a pile last summer, so it was given my attention for the next couple of hours.

No, no no... the entire pile hasn't been finished!  LOL.  Good golly, THAT'd be impressive!  But an additional 'dent' was made and a pallet added and stacked while being spoiled with absolutely PERFECT afternoon weather;  still upper 60s/maybe lows 70; partly sunny.  The pile is my ongoing 'little bit at a time' past-time this summer when I'm in need of some physical activity.

Some soapin' has been happening these past couple of days as well

THEN, today... oy! Bailee girl was well overdo for a bath and grooming!  Goodness, I was a bit shocked at the passing of time when I checked the calendar.  Today marks a day shy of 10 weeks since her last groom!  

Bailee's our 6 and a half year old Golden Doodle.  She has the absolute BEST demeanor!  Her fur has the natural poodle curl when she's wet...

but once fully dried, it relaxes a bit more like the golden retriever in her.
My goodness!  What a poofball.  LOL. 
I wasn't the least bit tempted at keeping her hair long; she's due for a nice summer cut.

Look at those furry paws... the water was FILTHY from them due to all the rain (and mud) this past week

Peek-a-boo!  (couldn't resist)

No WONDER she's been slip-sliding on the hard wood floors lately...
(before)

(after)

Seriously, 10 weeks?!?!? THAT won't happen again.
So one full garbage bin later...

Our Bailee is back!

... and of course it rained all morning... LOL.