So Many Good Things

One of the good things to happen to me is receiving this:

From Mama Pea.   Thank you so much Mama Pea!!  She has an interesting blog.  Please go check it out. You just have to see the cutest little HHalloween bags she's made. It' Oct. 28's post. She always has something of interest going on over there.  Besides with a name like Mama Pea how can you resist? 

Another good thing to happen to me is:

I'm the winner of this Aurifil Thread Pack from Pat Sloan! I'm really excited about this too because I want to use a better grade of thread.  I think for applique and for Free Motion Quilting it will make a difference.  Thank you Pat!!  Pat's been blogging about UFO busting tips.  (Good tips!)  I really want to get in there and do this UFO thing with Pat.  But I just haven't had time.  Which is why UFO get started in the first place! 

And finally my last good thing is I went away on vacation with my two sisters and my two daughters.  We went to Monterey, Calif.   We laughed and shopped, laughed and ate, laughed and played games.  It was GREAT.  Just the thing for reconnecting with family.  The only problem is I can't get my cell phone camera to upload any of the pictures!  How terrible! 

Monterey, Calif.  Just not one of the pictures I took.

And lastly last - which as you can see comes after last, I've been working and I do mean working since I stayed up until midnight last night on quilting my tablecloth.  I'm 3/4 of the way done!  Can you believe it?  My goal is to finish it this weekend.  I'll post pictures of it later.

So those are all the good things that I have to tell for now.  What about you - what good things do you have to tell?

First Quilt Quilted - Finished

I'm happy enough with my quilting. I like doing free motion quilting and lucky me I have a bunch of finished tops to practice on!  The day I finished it a co-worker's daughter gave birth to a little girl.  I wrapped it up with a little baby book and send it her way.  I hope she likes it.



Close up of quilting, not the best, not the worse! LOL!!



More Home Improvements

We used to have wrought iron like this one on our front porch.

It's okay but not really my style. And since hubby does wrought iron fences for a living don't you think we should have a custom one? Well I thought you would agree with me.

Check out this one!

Isn't it pretty?  This is our view from the front porch.  Hubby asked "What to you want Ivy?"  I said sure, I didn't really know and this is what he made.  I really love it!!!  I think he did a great job.


Here's another view looking at the porch.  This design is so much better than that other one.

And other home improvements include this olive tree and the boulders.  Those rocks weigh 250 lbs each!  and if you wanted to see something funny you should have watched us unloading them from the truck bed.  When the first rock fell - Hubby said "Well that much be where God wants it!"  LOL!! Because he wasn't going to try to move it. 

You can see a bit of the columns that he built - but they are not finished yet. He's going to put stone around them. So that will be a picture for another day. (After he gets the stone on!)  We also plan to paint or stain the concrete to match the walkway.

Our new neighbor

Maybe he's an old neighbor but I just met him last night.  My doggies barked at 11:00pm so I went out to see what was up.  At least this fellow is not as stinky as our skunk neighbors.  Doesn't he look a bit scary?  Well, maybe he doesn't, but it was eerie that he just sat there staring and wouldn't move.  He sat there long enough for me to run back into the house for the camera, take several pictures that were too dark, fiddle with the settings and snap a better one.  That's a long time.  Then as I was walking back into the house beside the pool a frog jumped into the pool causing a big splash and scared me silly!! 

Oh my good news is:  I have another paper written!  (I'm doing the happy dance!) The paper wasn't that bad, but I had to watch a foreign film and I really didn't like the it.  So it's nice to move on.  And I am. Right to getting my tablecloth pinned to be quilted. Yea!

Haunted Hotel Maid

This is what I picked up from the haunted house last Friday.  I'm so scared to go through haunted houses, but since my daughter is volunteering there I was forced to go through.  Yep. I screamed a  LOT.  But it was so much fun.   


She is one of the first people you encounter in the haunted house. She is dressed as a maid complete with a feather duster.

The people running it really put on a great experience.   So many rooms and twisted hallways, it was quite a maze. They have a bridge over water that is rigged to break - I got a bit wet, a ceiling that comes down and plenty of scary rooms filled with scary and sometimes funny actors.  To get out you have to pass by a man with a chainsaw (and the chainsaw is running!!)  and he chases you out. And sometimes he chases way pass the haunted house and into the park. Later I found out they take the blade out.  Whew! That's good to know, but I wish I knew before I had to pass him.  All the money goes to a children's charity - but I can't remember which on it is.

A fabulous Win From Sew Picture Perfect and home improvements

Jodi from Sew Picture Perfect had a give-a-way: the cutest potholder, a little notebook (perfect for keeping track of quilting designs and notes) and some apple scented soap and lotion.

Of course I was so thrilled to find out I WON!! And now I have to show you all how perfect these potholders look in my kitchen. I've never had a desire to put anything above my store, until I saw these. Look how beautiful they are!  Wouldn't you agree they were just meant to be placed there?

Thanks so much Jodi! This is the best home improvement of the week!

Here's our next project.  Is this an eye sore or what?  Pool pumps really can be.  And now that the block wall is up, it's super noticeable.

So hubby is now bringing out the supplies we will need to enclose this eye sore with some nice white fencing.  YEA!

As you can see the inspectors are out making sure these are the correct supplies. 

Linda

Home Improvements

Last Friday we had a fence like this. 

And everything in our life seemed normal.  And then our neighbor said she was ready to put up a block wall.  We (as neighbors) had talked about this two years ago.  So Hubby being the fast kind of guy he is scheduled for this to happen the NEXT day!

Those blocks you see in the yard used to be against the wood fence to keep the dogs from going under the fence.  Little Darling Daughter and I moved them ALL.  Hubby was not available.  Hmmm...that was convenient.  So we had us a nice little work out.

And the next day they trenched.  So weird to have the fence gone and see our neighbor's yard.

And the day after that, it was half way done and  looking good!   I could let the doggies out side without a leash.  That's a big relief.  (hehehe - get it? relief?)

And here's hubby deciding that we need one more row of blocks making the wall 6 1/2 feet high.

Ta Da!  The finished wall.

And that's not all we had done.  We thought it was time to place a sidewalk with steps up to our front porch. These guys and the block guys work so hard and in that terrible heat wave that we were having. I talked to them about it and they just said it didn't bother them.  They added some color to the concrete to match our house.  (It is suppose to dry lighter) and then stamped it.  It turned out pretty cool.

After all that hard work Kitkat had to jump in the pool and cool off.

Linda

Pumpkin Biscuits

Oh remember those sweet potato biscuits of Judy's from Patchwork Times?  They were so yummy!   I decided to try Pumpkin Biscuits.  Now these were really good!  I used canned pumpkin and a pinch of cloves and nutmeg and a couple shakes of Cinnamon. I also made them as rolled out biscuits. 

Whew!  Were they ever more work than dropped biscuits! The drop biscuits were more moist (because of my error of adding a bit too much milk) and I liked that better. But I like the pumpkin better.  However the  rest of the family liked the sweet potato biscuits better.  So the Contest of the Biscuits is on!  So I'm going to remake these Pumpkin Biscuits as drop biscuits and see which ones win.