Cabin Fever Reliever

I'm back after a much needed break from winter and our routines.   Talk about a cabin fever reliever, it was wonderful.

 

Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, FL
photo edited through Waterloque, a new app that treats your photos as if they are water colored.

Where did I go you ask,  DH and I went to the Sunshine state to visit  Mom.  The weather was perfect.  70 going towards 80  degree weather with sunshine.  Oh you forgot what that looked like.  We did too with all this polar vortex and really bitter cold temperatures it seems like the whole nation is experiencing this year.   Besides reconnecting with Mom, we were laying in sunshine, swimming, shopping, sightseeing and did a whole lot of eating.    All wonderful. 

 

 Each day Mom would use her bed as a design wall for a quilt she's been working on and I felt like I had my own personal viewing to a quilt show. 

This quilt Mom made from her scrap bin and the photo treated also with Waterloque.  This quilt  is her normal decor there.
She also made a ragged fringed pillow that sat on the chair to the right of her bed with yellow, blue and a few other scraps and it turned out cute !
I still have over 100 hundred photos of our trip, but need to find out how to export those onto my computer quicker than sending each one via email on the phone.  Perhaps later this week I can make/find the time. 

 

We're back to our routine already transporting grandchildren to preschool and speech, and my days are already a blur.

As for my own projects, I did finish a book, When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde.  What a nice story and without giving a spoiler, near the end I had tears steaming down my face.  Of course it was at 11 pm in bed when I woke  DH up with my sniffles.  He couldn't believe I was crying while reading my kindle and seemed a tad exasperated as he rolled over.   LOL,   but I did get it done. 

The other project I worked on was some embroidery.  That Valentine Wool kit I made up near the 11th was worked on and I was able to get some of the stitching done but not all, perhaps this week I can finish the embroidery. 

 

Mom and I had a day to spend by ourselves and went to a beautiful quilt shop in Temple Florida.  The Suwannee Quilt shop was in a complex of other shops containing stained glass, cross stitch, antiques and a tea house all owned by the same woman.  Can you cay incredible and how nice they all were.  We both shopped but would you believe neither of us bought any fabric!  That was a first, oh.... I take that back, Mom did buy 3 fat quarters for refrigerator magnets she's making but neither of us bought any yardage.  If you know us you'd know how remarkable that statement really is.  We both are trying to use what we have and have made a pact to chart our fabric stash, both with usage and with gains so I'll be joining Judy Laquidera with her stash reports for the remainder of the year.    I fell in love with 2 different fabric lines while there and did actually photograph one of the selvage edges so I can acquire it later at some point if it's still haunting me and I'm thinking now that I should have bought it.  It was "Rio" by Paintbrush Studio 120-685.  What colors and how gorgeous. 

 

 

 

 

Looking at it still, I just might order it and have them ship it to me.  Perhaps I could use it as an incentive to get 2 projects done then reward myself.  Mom helped me out by saying if you buy it are you going to have to find a place to store it or are you going to use it?   Hanging my head, I admitted I have several UFOs started that I want/NEED  to finish first and won't allow myself anything until some of these are done.  I'll wrestle with myself further with this and come up with something shortly.

 

While at The Villages we also enjoyed a quilt show in a neighboring town, a Vintage Car Rally at one of the Public Squares, the Harmonicats, another night at the Square for their 241 specials besides a trip to The World of Beers (DH became an honorary member), The Eisenhower Rec Center sharing many war memorials and service memorabilia, and a day trip to St.Augustine where we drank from Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth. The Trolley Tour  that we enjoyed in other cities (Boston, Philadelphia, London, etc...) wasn't as good as we thought it would be. Seemed really touristy and had to circle the same blocks over and over again seeing the same sights to be pointed out but to a different building.  All the points of interest were very close together and interesting but could have been shone better without all that repetition I think.    It may have been a timing issue to spread at that many trolleys.  We also enjoyed a great lunch at Columbia, a Cuban restaurant with that 1905 dressing, Yum! 

 

It's nice to be home and back to routines but I surely could use some more of that 70 degree weather. 

Jacque aka "Snoodles" at Lily pad quilting is hosting a sweet giveaway for a Winter time Cabin Fever reliever.  Go check it out via this link and join in on the fun. 

 

Will share more on another day, got to run.  

Jane

 

Valentine project

 

 

Just making the kit for the Valentine wall hanging kit I recently received from My Yellow Farmhouse. I really love her photos and the projects she shares as well as recipes.  One I recently tried, the cheesy chicken casserole was  pure comfort food and perfect with our sick granddaughter fighting her flu-going on now into  2 1/2 weeks.   

Other bits happening and I'm thrilled to share is that one more block is done for the Lil Miss Shabby  BOM from two years ago is stitched.  This block is my own  design with a birdbath and a few early summer flowers about it.  That makes only one left to stitch.  Am thinking of designing this last block too.  Time will tell.

 

 

 

Another happy note is the Santa with reindeer cross stitch stitched several months ago is also totally done.   I vacillated on how to finish this and then remembered "finished is better than perfect" so I stopped procrastinating and finished it with what I had on hand. 

 

Used both silver and gold colored jingle bells for that festive touch with cords & trims to match. 

Not perfect but not bad either.  I'm happy it's done. 

As for quilting, not a lot going on in that domain lately.  Only time I've been at the machine is to make a BOM for the guild I belong too or necessary mending.  That little bit of time reminding me how much I like to sew, that I want to get in there more to get in my zen mode while stitching. 

Of another happy note, DH was notified that he can get his driver's license back  after his heart issues from almost 3 years ago.  So I'm grateful he can get to his own needs and removes the chauffeur cap from my head for that.  But I am concerned as well as he is with the possible risks if he has another episode while driving.  No pressure from me for him to embrace in either direction, I know I won't be riding with him and PGD#1 said she doesn't want to ride with him either.  So I will protect her and keep us safe.  But we  also need to discuss concerns with my children and what their level of comfort  is about it.    Here too, time will tell.


 

Friday night with friends then slipped more into Saturday

Hello -  Yes, I'm still alive but have been really getting stretched to "my MAX" more than ever lately.  Then on top of it I've been suffering with another bout of Bronchitis.  So here I go again with another round of drugs with those dang steroid kickers which makes me all jittery and even more edgy than my usual self!  UGH!!!!  Just what I need!    Now I'm not mentioning all the other side affects either that the latter has on my sugar levels, hunger issues....  blah.... blah....... blah.
So, I was eager to reconnect with some friends for our very late Christmas Holiday gathering last night  at a local restaurant with some of my circle of friends quilting group who could attend.  Seems like it's getting harder for all of us to have free time available on the same days and or evenings with everybodies' life schedules, so I was glad at least some could make it but missed those that couldn't. 
It's been ages since I've  connected with a couple of them and I do miss them, so it was an enjoyable evening despite being quick on my part due to another commitment already scheduled for another  friend's retirement party that I couldn't ignore.  Would you believe I made both functions and was back home by 9pm.  Talk about feeling like Cinderella with a time clock  deadline looming ever closer, I just wasn't wearing any glass slippers, TG!  
Both gatherings were enjoyable and seemed like the best possible medicine for me.   After getting home, while finishing packing up what was needed for the Guild's Saturday Meetig/AM trip, I watched the Olympics and managed to get my Block of the month done too.  Boy, that's when I remembered how nice it is to sit and sew, to  sit and eat, to actually just sit and drink, ahhhhhh making the time,  pure Heaven. 

 It so enjoyable to watch many of the races and events of the Olympics but I really love seeing the opening ceremonies for the Olympics with all the pomp and circumstance.  Wonderful to see the parade of nations with all of these talented and very focused atheletes shown with such  Joy, Pride and Hopefull Expectations etched on their faces.  (See how I used my theme word of FOCUS in there, lol).  This year's Olympics regalia seemed like one of  the best done yet.  Each year the sponsoring country always impresses me with their hospitality and pride of their nation.   Did you see the technology used while Russia presented their history.  It was so beautifully done and I was just awestruck.   

 

Which brings me to this AM and arising at 4:15 (uh-hum,  I still am not a morning person so it takes me awhile to wake up) that way I'd be ready to ride at 6:15 with a friend driving so we could travel to Glens Falls for our quilt guild meeting.  That's where I connected with even some more friends.  Another slot of time spent nicely and was enjoyable.  

After the meeting we stayed for a community service sewathon where with the neutrals Gina provided and the the guild had colorful sets of 2 1/2"wide  strips WOF in subsets of 36 strips to make our quilts we all worked as teams to construct some community project quilts.   Here's the link at All People quilt with the pattern, Skinny Strips that we used.    I've had that pattern printed out to actually make myself at some point so today's QAL was a win win for me, helping out and giving while tryng a pattern I've wanted to make for awhile now.    Great day.

Since it's a little over 2 hours to get there we headed out early enough to get back home at a reasonable hour.    DH fixed an enjoyable meal of Caprese Chicken with a spinach side dish, then we got settled in to watch more of the Olympics this evening.    So that's a snap shot of a 24 hour time slot, and I wonder why I feeling so stretched???    NO WONDER!  Slow down Janey, just breath or is it those reeving up steroids pumping me up again?     Yee gads, I'll be glad when my normal returns.

A big Congratulatioins goes out to Sage Kotsenburg for a great run!  Yippee!!

 

 

Now as for my creativity, that really slid into a corner somewhere.  I need to find which corner it's hidden in as well as my creativity Mojo to start getting some projects worked on.  I did just place an order through Red Rock Threads for some necessary thread to finish quilting those quilts from the quilt show that haven't been finished yet and will be venturing forth after they arrive.

Hopefully, as I get more energy, I'll be back to share what I'll be doing on a more regular basis.  (I have been such a huge slacker lately.)

 

 

As always, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment or two.  My apologies for not replying induividually to you as I like to do, beside time and commitment issues, my computer has had some issues as well  and I truly can only manage one thing at a time lately.  Nice to be back.

 

Jane