Rain and rain today

I walked out into the yard this evening and the ground is absolutely soggy. A crepe myrtle we transplanted a couple weekends ago has fallen over on the ground. That should be fun to try and stake back up. The poor thing is dry and crunchy already and looks the worse for wear. I was just hoping it would go dormant and then Spring! to life in the spring. Only time will tell.



So are you getting ready for Thanksgiving? I talked to my older brother today and suggested to him that he fry a turkey this year! He has agreed to do it! I haven't had a fried turkey in several years. I bought a huge container of peanut oil at Costco and mom said she has a turkey in the freezer. We're set!




Here's a picture of both of the puppies. Delilah is the small fluffy dog (we're not really sure what kind of mix she is, but she's very soft and has an underbite) and Brady, introduced earlier, is on the right, a terrier, corgi mix. They're both good dogs and we enjoy their company immensely. We've had Brady one year now and Delilah for 10 months. We adopted each one from a pet-rescue group (two different ones). They are very sweet dogs and a fun addition to the family.

Tomorrow is the Rock Show! My husband loves rocks and minerals and the Dallas Gem and Mineral Society will have their show at the Resistol Arena in Mesquite. It's very kid-friendly and there are several games where the kids can win...what else?...rocks! The kids have been going since they were itty bitty and they enjoy it.

One of the attractions at the show is the Rock Table. Check out their website!



This isn't a picture of the whole exhibit. All the food items are actually stone, rocks or minerals. It's fun to see and the exhibitors are very nice and will answer any questions you may have. We've even donated rocks in the past (though we always forget to look for them).

It's fun to shop and meet the vendors. They are so friendly and offer lots of information on rocks and minerals.

I've received my swap partners (receivers?) for the two Christmas swaps I posted about earlier. I'll be working on projects this week. Some old stand-by crafts and perhaps a new one. I'll let you know how they turn out.

I Signed Up

I've signed up for Christmas Gift exchange #2! If you recognize this little guy you've been reading Death By Quilting. I've blog-hopped to there from Pat Sloan's website.

I've been following the Cross Country Quilters circle where 12 designers are posting all sorts of fun writings on Christmas topics: fav food, best memory, best gift, etc.... It has been absolutely charming reading how everyone remembers the Christmas from their childhoods.

My only regret is that it's rather hard to navigate.

Here's the list from Pam Kitty Morning:
Gudren
Sandy
Pat
Terry
Heather
Kari
Terri
Sherri
Carrie
Roseann
Linda

So take a tour, see delightful vintage photos and read about some lovely women and their wonderfully fond (and quite humorous) memories.

Trying to focus...

I pulled out these fabrics today and drafted a pattern.




I'm interested in putting this quilt together so I can take it to Whitesboro and have someone quilt it for me.

What's in Whitesboro?
1. Quilt Shop
2. Lovejoys
3. Franky, a beagle puppy.

But I emailed today and Franky has already been adopted. Hmm, will this derail the quilt project? No ulterior motive to get it finished! No puppy to visit, so no need to finish the quilt to take to quilter in Whitesboro. Nahhh, I'll work on it.

I went shopping for fabric today with Christy. She is looking for fabric to finish out some pre-made curtains. She'd like to add a contrasting band to the bottom to lengthen the ready-made curtains and I've offered to walk her thru it. I think we found a winner! And we saw some lovely curtain samples made with contrasting bands on the bottom. The visual was good because I can picture the end product now. I think Christy will be very pleased with the results!

So, there I was, in a fabric store and, yes, I didn't need more fabric. But... I purchased a yard of lovely, poison-green silk for $12. Yes, another project! The plan, make a long scarf to spruce up an outfit for the upcoming holidays. I love silk. It's so shimmery and has a lovely luminescence to it. And it was green.

Wait! There's more-- I've signed up for an ornament exchange. Make lovely items! Send them to people you don't know! Get a lovely ornament in return! Sounds like fun!


Click on the ad on the side and you can join! Add another project to your list!

Fall in Progress

This tree is quite lovely in the fall.





It turns bright yellow and then immediately turns to this:



Same tree, three days later. Look at all the leaves on the ground!

And the best thing is...it's not my tree, it's the neighbor's.



But these are in my yard...



I've never had a clematis in November. October was very cool and mild. And you can see the little blue morning glory behind. They are such a lovely shade of blue this year. They kinda cross-pollinate and I end up with purple, light blue, purpley blue, and bluey purple.

These seem really BLUE. With purple-pink centers.

But no wide-angle shot of the garden. The morning glories, though pretty, are very aggressive and have TAKEN OVER the garden. But they're growing, they're pretty, and the color makes me really happy.

And another note of happy--DS finally let me cut his hair. No more busy mop-top. Now it's a choppy, stylish, head of hair. He is a wild man no more!

And Happy Birthday Brady! It's not really his birthday but we adopted him a year ago. And he celebrated by making a huge mess in his crate--at 4:00 this morning. Ugh! So today I got to give him a celebratory cold shower out in the back yard. I got to scrub the floor, scrub the kitchen walls (he did a doggie shake on the way to the backyard), scrub his crate, scrub the crate's plastic insert, and scrub the doggie bed. Eeeeew! And we'll celebrate again tomorrow when he gets to visit the vet for a yearly checkup! Happy adoption Brady!

Getting Started

Getting started--that's a really difficult thing for me to do. I have fabric, I have some free time, and the two just don't seem to meet with any results.

Occasionally I get results. My friend, Mrs. D, and I recently went to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX and purchased copious amounts of fabric and projects. I have completed one project since then, a wool-felt, pumpkin applique. Very cute! Just 10 more projects to do! Well, I don't know how many, I didn't necessarily keep track! But I do daydream about the 2-3 quilt projects I have lined up, the 2 felt projects, 2 redwork projects, 3+ shibori ribbon projects, and 2 cross-stitch projects. Okay, that's more than 10l But I do THINK of them often (and fondly).

I am currently prepping one of the felt projects from Plum Creek Collectibles. You have to preshrink all the wool/rayon felt for the applique. Bummer. Not hard but not fun. But soon they will look like this:


Super cute! Mrs. D has a kit too--we're shrinking together!


Today, Mrs. D and I delivered some COMPLETED sewn hats to the Pediatric Hospital at Medical City Dallas. The Girl Scout troop that I'm leader of made hats for kids with cancer. We used polar fleece and sewed some darling caps. The girls originally wanted to crochet the caps, but our skills didn't advance quite that far. I crocheted some hats during the learning process and donated those along with the polar fleece hats. Good job, girls! It's great to help others and to be "considerate and caring" and "friendly and helpful"!

While we were in the Medical City area, I pointed out to Mrs. D that we were close to North Haven Gardens--one of my favorite nurseries! I wanted to show Mrs. D their vegetable gardens and see what they had growing for fall. We saw some Malabar Spinach, which resembled a Hyacinth Bean vine. It was lovely, with purple vines and glossy, edible green leaves. We got to try a sample (with assistance from an employee, of course) and it was spinachy, lemony, and had a bit more "tooth" than baby spinach--more of a succulent plant. But very tasty. The veggie beds were inspiring--maybe, maybe next spring, we'll get those raised beds installed.

The roses were on sale! The roses in the fiber, biodegradable pots were half off. Ten bucks for roses. So I purchase a Pink Promise, a Hot Cocoa, and a Kimberlina. They are not in the best of shape, but I have planted worse! I also purchased some pansies for the fall/winter season. I found some lovely orange ones and I also purchase some Johnny-Jump-Ups for some containers.

Do you know that Johnny-Jump-Ups are native to Spain and the Pyrenees Mountains? I wonder how you say or pronounce their original name?

And to celebrate my first blog posting, I now leave you with one of my favorite photos. It just absolutely makes me laugh every time I see it. And after 14 years, they both still exhibit this same relationship! Boy, it starts early doesn't it?