WHAT’S UP

Well spring is certainly trying to burst forth, early I might add. I love Spring and the newness it brings, the wonder of planning the garden. Each year I say I’m going to plant more flowers, get that arbor for  pink climbing roses, more trellises , mentally I plan an English garden living on a high plain dessert. Seeing the problem I’m having, called water!  But every spring I plan it out in my mind.
Hopefully this year the laws will change out here regarding collecting rain water from ones' roof. yes, here that is illegal. However, being the renegade I am, I have been collecting rain water in buckets to water porch plants for years. But a rain barrel!, to water a vegetable garden, a dream hopefully to be fullfilled.
The pink bubble gum quilt has been sitting in a closet for….well years, I had children in grade school when I pieced this quilt. I put real cotton wadding for batting, started hand quilting and realized this was going to take longer than I had to live. I needed a small hammer to get the needle through that dang batting. I found the bubble gum pink quilt recently and thought I’m machine quilting this, not going to remove any of the hand quilting I completed either.
To my great surprise it is turning out beautifully.
I giggle thinking that this pink bubble gum quilt in 150 years will show up at some quilt guild show and the presenter will show it explaining this is an example of a quilter that just didn’t have the stamina for hand quilting! And why should she have, she had a machine right there, so she moved her chair over and went to work!
The baby sweater is Baby Kina, a great easy fun knit.
Our Longest Days, an amazing read. WOW, I am grateful that my life has been easy!
The Old Women knitting, just liked the picture….I can Identify with her,{ I may even have a certain likeness to her}.
Have a great week. Hope to post more often, but good intentions is just that….good intentions ;-}

QUILTING MACHINES and COMPUTERS

The computer is back! And I am taking a few classes to learn more what this bad boy can do.
yeah for me!
Today I tried a long arm quilting machine and I love it for basting quilts but not in love with it for quilting  quilts. First, I am not a fan of all over quilting, but most of all my back hurts too much leaning ever so over that machine. I like to take a break every 30 minutes or so when sewing to stretch out this  pitiful back of mine, when renting a machine by the hour, no breaks to be taken! Also from years of working in operating rooms my knees get really stiff from standing in place. So, the good news for my husband is, I have removed this from my "someday I would like to own a"……
I will send quilts down to be basted, for sure, for sure.

No new photos, I have to go and update iPhoto now, and yes I know how to do that, thank you Josh! 

Be back soon.

Spring is trying to break forward here in Colorado.

POSSIBILITIES

it's friday..........and i'm off! oh the possibilities for today, knitting, quilting, rug hooking, trader joes, buying fabric,  buying yarn, walking, picture taking and of course my big dilemma , " should i buy that new vacuum today?' I know my life has truly become boring, and i love it! to start off my day, i am watching the virginian, yes you read that correctly. My dad loved westerns and the virginian was at the top of his favorite list, being trumped only by gunsmoke and bonanza. when ever i can, i watch a western remembering my father and as a child the hours i would spend watching these shows with dad. oh sweet, sweet memories, how to articulate those simple memories that are so close to my heart.

it has been snowing this past week and the week before, cold, very cold too. but hope is eternal and i heard in the hallway at work that the temps will be climbing up to 60's over the next several days.

in colorado, hallway weather reports can be just as accurate as tv weather reports, so no matter where i pick up the weather report, each  has as much of chance at being accurate.

the quilt is a "scrap- use it up" quilt that i am over the moon with. i just get a good giggle out of ugly scrap quilts! weird, i know.

the brownies were delish!

OH DEAR

Oh dear, I have really goofed up this blog. For some reason I can only get on through chrome...what's that about? So much has been happening too! I think my poor lap top is overloaded and no longer follows my simple commands. And password changes has not help the situation. What to do, any helpful hints is most welcome.

Oh, and it is snowing great guns over here on my side of town.

SIMPLICITY

my second red and white quilt that i started 2-3 years ago. i got as far as cutting out all the tiny squares, (strip cutting and piecing), but then it sat in a bag, one of the many project bags!

since i love "running fabric through a machine", i set up the sweet feather weight sewing machine and began "running" fabric. i find mindless sewing very relaxing. at the end, if i'm lucky, it all works together and wha-laa i have a quilt top. 

the simplicity of two color quilts speak's to me, nothing fancy, what you see is it. nothing for the mind to figure out, just two colors and one shape, in three different sizes. simplicity!

YARN ALONG {and some organizing..cleaning}

Yahoo, it's yarn along wednesday!

a full week here at little house, more spinning getting done. i figure maybe 3 more spools and i will be done with this color way...;)

at a snails pace i continue to sew together my red and white quilt #2.

and i'm on a roll getting corners organized here at home! the above pics is the table next to my chair {before pics}, i totally cleaned it out: meaning it either found a place to live or the items were removed from the house. 

reading: 

an old fashion girl

the winter of red snow

IT’S LIFE

before

after

not proud of my house keeping skills of late, but it's life, my life.

over the past month my husband and i have started doing a lot of DEEP cleaning.

each week we are pulling apart a closet, a storage area, or just a corner that has been collecting “stuff”.

so when down--to--earth put up the challenge to organize the food pantry, i jumped in with mr.p.

so these pictures are my before and after pictures. 

mr.p. and i stand before our pantry and glow with proud now, leaving the pantry door open so a glance can be thrown in it’s direction as we pass by the shelves. oh, i know the shelving is in great need of fresh paint, but baby steps here please, for us two full time workers.

not only was the upstairs pantry organized but the downstairs one as well. we cleaned out the food side and the storage side of that big room. Christmas boxes were gone through and several boxes of unwanted decorations discarded to repurpose facilities. it took all day it did, but at night, we retired with such a sense of accomplishment.

a side note about down---to---earth, i think rhonda’s blog was the first blog i ever followed regularly, and continue to read daily. she and i have the same philosophy of learning to do for one’s self, not falling prey to commercialism. it’s not a comparison thing since we both lead very different life’s, but more an attitude thing. i’m proud of all the daily needs of my house hold i can make myself with better results than the store bought items. i believe strongly. that many of the things i enjoy doing that cost a wee bit of cash, i am able to do because of all the areas i am careful with my cash, of course never creating any debt. thank you rhonda for your supportive blog, you are my number one resource for this life style i have chosen.