Awwww.....isn't that sweet

I bought a bike recently and of course wanted to include the pups in my ventures . The baby cart works great and as long as I am in view they are fine....lol....Lynne and I took them to Presque Isle for a 4 1/2 mile ride. Can't wait to go back.

I celebrated Mother's Day with a trip to Rachel's for a very yummy lunch but unfortunately neglected to take any pictures. Since I was there on Sunday, Mom's Mother's Day was celebrated on Saturday. I have a barrel that was bought at the Hamilton Mansion auction many, many years ago and mom had mentioned it recently so I dug it out of the backyard and had a new bottom put in. Lynne and Dad had a great time planting geraniums, ivy and the other plants I bought (of course I can't recall the names) Mom and I had a great time watching and taking pictures. :)

And last, but certainly not least, the most recent "event" that I'll blog about was Lauren's birthday. It was a party fit for a princess and her entourage, complete with balloons, party hats, and a beautiful new birthday dress for her. Bob did the honors of grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and Bill, Aileen and Robyn provided all the extras to go with them.

Finally!

Well, it's been about 2 months since all I had left was the binding and hanging sleeves on the semi-wow quilt. So, here it is, finally. I should have had a deadline :) It would have gotten done in no time. Next project is a kaleidoscope quilt. I went to the Westfield quilt show last fall and loved a quilt there, bought some fabric for it some time ago and now plan on starting it. No telling how long that will take. :) The North East quilt show is this weekend so maybe I'll get even more ideas.

Home again....home again...jiggity jig

Well, it seems I've been on the road more than off lately. :) I hadn't been south to the party state and the crazies there for over a year, so it was high time I headed that direction. Their spring weather is what we would call summer here....high 70's to mid 80's and sun, sun, sun.....beautiful weather every day till the morning I headed home when it turned cold and rainy. We played golf...well actually they did, I rode around in the golf cart....visited a casino and mostly just hung out and enjoyed the company and weather. It was quite a houseful, what with Angel's 3 dogs and my 3....all in all they got along alright though. I recently got a Wii game system and we played that almost every night....it's quite addictive. I also made my annual trip to a Lafayette quilt shop to add to my stash of fabrics. I ran across a pattern I just love and figured I'd get the batiks it calls for while there. I took pictures of the pattern and fabric but I'm not so sure they are going to do justice.























I left Louisiana Thursday morning, got home Friday evening and left Saturday morning at 4am to head to Vermont to bring Trevor home for Spring break. It's nice having him home and Rachel and Rob will be here this coming weekend. It should be a great weekend of Wii even though Trevor says it's a game for 50 year olds...lol....

Maple Syrup

I'm doing as requested!! Paris is running a contest on her blog, the prize being maple syrup!! That is the only type of syrup we use around here so getting some free would be great. Anyway, part of the stipulation is mentioning the contest on your own blog....soooo....I hear and obey ;)

Here you go RRW :)

Well.....I've had one complaint about the fact that I haven't posted in ages......(she shall remain nameless) ;) I really haven't been doing anything post worthy....I decided to get out a couple of quilt projects that I started many many years ago and get them finished. One of which I believe was the second quilt I attempted...which would make it about 10 years old. It's the closest thing to a *wow* quilt I have ever made. There are quilts, then there are *wow* quilts. I have made numerous quilts but seldom are they works that I am completely and totally pleased with. I quite often have issues with color choice and/or placement and quilt style/pattern and it is seldom that I get them both just right...at least in my opinion. Even when I go to quilt shows I seldom see more than 2 or 3 of what I would call *wow* quilts...quilts that come so close to taking my breath away that I find myself going back to them many many times during my walk around the show.

Anyway, thats basically what I've been working on these days along with cleaning out my sewing room, making room to bring in the cabinet shown in the previous post to store my fabric stash in.

Once my so called *wow* quilt is done I'll post a picture. :)

Recent Projects

These are the most recent projects I've been working on. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures before they were started. :(
My picture placement is still iffy so hopefully my captions will make a little bit of sense.


This is a table that had layers of green and white paint mixed with many grease/oil/gas/diesel fuel stains. Lynne and I worked on this most of last summer and fall. We decided not to sand it till all the stains were gone since that adds character. :)


These are a couple of cabinets that were in the backroom of the shop. They were that ugly gray that you see lots of utility shelving/cabinets painted. Since it was way too cold to try and strip them we decided to attempt one of those fancy paint methods you see in Lowe's or Home Depot. They actually didn't turn out half bad considering it was a first try at anything of that nature.



Ted has been doing some logging in the woods and after seeing some of the items at a recent craft show I got the brainy idea to make a hat rack out of a slice of cherry log for Lynne's Christmas present.

When we were kids we spent a good amount of time at our next door neighbor Ruth's house. When her estate went up for auction I bought this cabinet, which she used in her cellar for storing canned goods. It was painted that ugly utility gray and had double paned glass in the doors. Much of the glass was cracked or broken so instead of replacing it I decided to do punched tin. The refinishing is done but I have not yet started the tin.

Firefox vs. Internet Explorer

Curious as to which you people use....firefox or internet explorer. I use firefox but for some reason signed into by blog the other day with internet explorer and saw that the layout changes. My picture captions are all messed up with IE whereas with firefox they look ok. I also still cannot align or readjust picture placement....all it will let me do is stretch them out of shape....any help??