Summer fun

Summer is here, no doubt about it!

This is just a random post of pics…and some of my favorite people!

Coonskin caps are back in style…did you realize that? 

My SIL Roxanne and her two girls Molly and Maggie came up with mom for the weekend.  Jess and Kate and my great nephew Brady and Josh and Liz and my two great nieces came for a nice long visit.

Brady is 1 and he is learning to walk…

He has a great fake cry…doesn’t work to get him what he wants though!

He’s a busy little guy!

Happy boy who just goes with the flow…

Elena and her stuffed hippo…

The sparkler sisters!!

Uncle Charlie with his first nephew! 

And what post would be complete without a Puggles picture?

Brady and Kate and Jess came to my house one afternoon and we let Brady splash around in Milo’s pool.  Milo was curious, but he was courteous.  I was afraid he would try to get in there with Brady, but he maintained his cool.

He did keep a close eye on Brady though…just in case!

Me and Brady boy…he is the cutest boy!

Here’s Brady and his mama Jess.

Milo checking out Kate or Kate checking out Milo, not sure which…

Frogs…one in a flower, the other one on the window, picture taken from inside!  Sure sign of summer!

Milo playing in his pool…

Happy dog!

And this is me after I finished a taped interview with Paul Pepper along with the MD I work with.  Not my thing, but it wasn’t too bad!

What to do next…

This blogging thing has been weighing heavily on my mind.  I create things all the time, but with the blog I feel like all that creating is under pressure, gotta get this done, gotta get this blogged, gotta get four more projects started so I will have some posts coming out about them too.  Staging and taking photos is sooo time consuming too!

At any given moment I have a minimum of three or four things underway.  Now I have about four quilts to bind, they are done except for that, and my Aunt Marge has another one for me that she just got done quilting.  I have four quilt tops cut out waiting for me to sew them together.  I am redoing a bench that goes on the deck, I am in the middle of creating a frame wall.  All the frames are purchased and all except one have been painted.  I have the empty wall to hang them on.   I am in the middle of creating a fabric hoop wall in my sewing/craft room.  My son is moving out in  a few weeks and I have a few projects I am finishing up for him.

I have a stack of towels to be made into washcloths, I have rugs to weave from a giant stack of discarded fabric.  I have a pillow cover to make, a lamp to strip and repaint. A lamp shade to cover.  Then a room to furnish into a guest bedroom.  A bench to finish painting, a newly purchased thrift store hexagon table to refinish, a birdbath to paint and mosaic. 

Throw in a family, a new job as of last Monday, and a new boyfriend (he’s no longer in the picture) and sometimes it all gets to be too much.  I keep thinking that maybe I need to stop the blogging part of my life….but here’s the deal—I really enjoy blogging, I love to see how many folks visit my blog every day, even if just to pop in for a quick visit.  I love to see how many of my projects are pinned. I like that part of it all very much and I like to create. 

I have been creating since I was a kid…I made a dollhouse fireplace from a Jell-O box with my cousin Twyla, I sewed, I knitted socks in high school (I still have them), made 6 foot knitted snakes for my brothers for Christmas, I embroideried a tablecloth for my grandparents, I painted, I made some of my own clothes, I made flannel gowns, I hand sewed baby layettes for new babies (including kimonos,  gowns, hats, diaper covers, knitted booties, crocheted bibs, stuffed mouse toys, crib sheets, with matching quilts and blankets).  I was doing all these things when I was still a kid and continued into adulthood.  I made teddy bears from old quilts.  I hung a child’s chair on the wall of my sunroom for a plant to sit on, I used all sorts of containers for my outdoor garden. 

Mom and I had a talk a few weeks ago, she said that she had made the cute cake stands from pretty plates and candlestick holders.  That none of these ideas were really new, it’s just that now we have the blogging thing to showcase them. 

Any way, I think I’m going to be around the old blog for a while longer!  I appreciate all you great folks out there who read and comment and pin and feature my projects!

Have a great week!

Beachy Driftwood and Seashell Wreath

I whipped this wreath up today…

My inspiration came from this Home Goods wreath I found on clearance for $30!  Too much for me…

Plus I had a box full of seashells and driftwood that I had collected over the last several years. 

The flat pieces of wood were from Jo-Ann Fabrics, I bought them to use for something else, they worked well for the base.  I cut out a circle (or a shape we’ll call a circle) wreath from some particle board scraps I had in the garage.

And then just started hot gluing on the layers of driftwood…and just kept going until I could no longer see the particle board.

This driftwood was collected by me in Maine and Connecticut and some of it came from Scotland (from etsy for this project) and some was sent to me by my Facebook friend Danielle from California. 

Here’s what the back looks like. I realized I forgot to add a hanger, so I need to figure that out.

The seashells are all special too, they have been saved for years, I hot glued them right on to the driftwood.

And here it is…

I chose not to paint some of the wood, so mine more than a little different from the Home Goods version.

I’m definitely liking mine more!

A wreath full of fun memories from the beach…doesn’t get any better than that!

And how great does it look on my new table/bench?

I am linking to these great parties!

Random things…

Last September the big hail storm we had destroyed my homemade umbrella, there were multiple holes and tears in it so I drug it up to the sewing room and mended it.  Probably a dozen holes in it and a big three corner tear.  I zig zagged it back together and added two rows of gross grain ribbon to help hold it together another year.

I made it from a drop cloth last summer, you can go here to see that post!  I washed it and bleached it after I patched it and it washed very well and is brighter.

Several years ago I taught a quilting class at church.  Fred was the only guy at both the classes and he took it all very seriously!  Most of the participants finished theirs slowly, and just a few weeks ago Fred brought his to me to send to my Aunt Marge to be quilted.

  Marge even commented on what a nice job he had done! Fred made a queen size quilt and a wall hanging from the leftovers!  It needs binding now and he will be done with it!

I bought this hernia-inducing concrete birdbath at an auction a few weeks ago.  $10!  I have always wanted one, but wanted one that wouldn’t tip over or be as likely to break.  This one fits the bill perfectly!

I’m steadily taking off the mosaic pieces and am planning to do something with flat marbles in shades of blues and greens.  Probably will keep the base white, but thinking about a turquoise color for the bowl part.  Any ideas on how that would look??

This container on my deck had all perennials planted last year and they survived and it is a beautiful collection of dianthus, and mums and some ornamental grass and creeping jenny.  Love that it didn’t cost anything!

I can identify, what can I say?  (found this on instagram)

Love this too!  (also found on instagram, not sure how to credit it there)

I was in Boonville with my boyfriend this past weekend  (yes, it is so exciting to say I have a boyfriend… for the past 3 months we have been hanging out and it has been a blast!) and we were wandering the downtown area and found this great little shop. 

Tons of neat planters, and all things recycled, upcycled but in a great way!

Ladders hanging from the ceiling holding all sorts of things, planters made from old metal washpans and dishes, ladders with old enamel dishes attached to each step to plant with flowers.  I asked the lady if I could take some pictures and she said yes, but then I saw a sign saying, no pictures! I put the phone away and stopped but this place is jammed with great things and reasonably priced too!  Stop by if you are ever there in Boonville, she makes all the furniture herself from upcycled wood. 

I might be linking up to some of these great parties!