Sunshine Award!

I got my first award!!!!!!

The lovely JoAnn at Sweet Pepper Rose nominated me for the Sunshine Award. I'm soooo excited. It's really nice to be noticed. :)

The Sunshine Award is: given to bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.

Thank you so much JoAnn for recognizing me. That's really sweet. You have no idea how much it means to me. Really!

I would like to ask everyone to head on over to JoAnn's blog and check it out. Also, there are some other really great blogs nominated along with me, please have a look at their blogs too, if you have a chance.

Now it's my turn to nominate some folks.

Here is how the award works:

First, thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

Second, answer the following ten questions about yourself.

Third, choose 10 of your favorite bloggers and link their blogs to your post.

Be sure to let them know you are nominating them for the award.

Last, copy and paste the award to your blog.

Here are my answers to the questions:

1. Favorite Color: Mainly purple, but red catches my eye as well.

2. Favorite Animal: I have a sweet spot for polar bears, but I think my main love is for dogs.

3. Favorite Number: 618 - don't ask.

4. Favorite Drink: Hot? tea - Cold? water (isn't that boring?)

5. Facebook or Twitter: Facebook - I keep in touch with my family near and far.

6. Good Book or Good Movie: Good book because it lasts longer than a movie.

7. My Passion: Photography, inherited from my mother.

8. Giving or Getting Gifts: Giving, especially something I made.

9. Favorite Day: Friday, end of the week and estate sales abound.

10. Favorite Flower: Peony - beautiful to look at and smells beautiful, a rare combination.

So now for my 10 nominations:

1. Danni at Silo Hill Farm

2. Fiona at Just Paint It White

3. Jennifer at Town and Country Living

4. Fifi at About Blogging Time

5. Shannon at Fox Hollow Cottage

6. Amanda at City Girl Gone Coastal

7. Kaitlin at Wunderbar

8. Sarah at Dumped and Discovered

9. Natalie at NorthShore Days

10. Melanie at My Rags To Riches

Check out their great blogs too!!

Finished Strip Quilt

I finished the strip quilt that I bought all that pretty rainbow colored fabric for.

This quilt is for Ron's cousin Nicole's baby shower.

I thought this type of quilt would be easier than the one I made for his niece, and it was in some respects, but washing and ironing small strips of fabric can change the nap so the ones with obvious patterns were a bit wonky. I had to try to re-iron them to get the pattern straight or trim them so it was straight, which made some of them thinner than I wanted.

 

Well, anyway, it was well received and I was very happy with the colors. I want to make one for myself now. Maybe over the winter. I really need to take a class and learn the correct way to do it all.

I am glad it is done because when I'm doing a project like that, I can't spend any time on anything else. Lord knows, I have so many other projects I need to do this summer and it's nice to move on. Plus it will be nice to have my dining room table back as that is also my sewing/cutting table. :)

The idea for this quilt actually was from one of my pins on Pinterest.
Here is my original pin:

 It was available from Garnet Hill.

I took a picture of this with my cell phone and then went to the fabric store and looked for fabrics that were comparable to the ones used in this quilt. I love doing that. I did it with the last quilt and it was satisfying to find comparable or matching fabrics to my inspiration.

I bought strips of the fabrics in varying widths. I washed and dried and ironed the fabrics so they would be preshrunk and not shrink when Nicole washes the quilt.  I stitched the strips together, stacked the quilt body on top of the batting and then the backing fabric, which was the navy you see in the top picture. Then I pinned all three layers and basted it in four directions. Then I hand tied it in several places with embroidery floss in colors that complemented the fabrics I used.
Once again I made my own bias tape for the edging and sewed that all the way around.

 Whew!

I'm off to Lowe's or Home Depot tomorrow to get some paint and things for my next projects. I'm excited to get started.

Have a good night!!!!


Linking up to:

Pinned It Made It Monday
at Country Girl at Home







Garden Walk

This weekend is the Garden Walk in my community.

I'm amazed at the energy of these talented people. I can only dream of having gardens such as these.

I am also intrigued by the everyday look of people's homes and then the backyard is such a pleasant surprise!

One of those homes belongs to a man I used to be in Garden Club with.

Now, for small village lots, I thought this was a really nice garden.

But turn around, and follow a path through some fences...

...and you're in a beautiful Japanese garden.

He dug all this by hand!

This is actually the back of his garage.

Simply gorgeous, and so relaxing. I would love to go sit over there when the garden walk isn't going on so it would be quieter and have less people.

I've figured out what my garden is missing. Whimsy.

But it also needs trees. My husband doesn't like them so he took down every single one we had in our yard. I need to twist his arm and get some more trees out there!

Hope you enjoyed a little snapshot of our little town! :)



Relaxing Weekend Away

This past weekend we went to Saratoga to visit our friends.

It is such a beautiful town, with a lot of history.

The main drag downtown is always hopping.

My friend Annie is a great cook and delighted us with this awesome dish.

It was penne with shrimp and tomatoes with this lovely melted feta cheese over it. I hope I get it right if I make it because my husband is already asking me to.

The race track doesn't open until next weekend, but Sunday was family day so we took all the kids there for the festivities.

They had one race, a steeplechase.

It's such a beautiful old grandstand.

 We went out on Lake George on their boat.

Where I promptly moved into my new house.

The kids went tubing...

...and survived. Lol.

We had a great time and we are so blessed to have such sweet friends who took time out of their busy lives to spend with us. We wish Saratoga was closer to Buffalo so we could see more of them. My girls are already asking to go back!

Hope you had a great weekend. :)

A Worthy Cause

My friend Becki, who helped me set up this blog, asked if I could donate some hand made items to the Relay For Life Fundraiser in her town. She and her mom are very active in this cause which raises money for the fight against cancer.

Here are some things that I made for them to include in their basket raffles.

A few bracelets. Simple wire with a clasp.

A woven cuff bracelet. A bit harder than the first group.

A necklace and earrings set. This was pretty easy too. I like mixing vintage crystals with new.

Here's the whole lot. I forgot to take a separate picture of the purple chandelier earrings over on the left. I was happy to help Becki out because she helps me out when I need her.

In other news, I had a gorgeous swallowtail butterfly on my flowers out front.

I wish I knew what these flowers are called. I bought the plant at the farmers market last year and the man mentioned the name, but of course I didn't write it down so the name is gone. I can't seem to find it in my perennial book.

I like how butterflies mainly trust you and don't fly away when you are taking their picture. I suppose it also could be because they are so busy, they don't notice you.

Well, we are off to Saratoga Springs for the weekend so I will wish you a good one now.

Thank you for reading my blog, there are so few of you and I appreciate you all. :)

Dreaming of Cape Cod

This summer we are not going to Cape Cod. We usually go every other year, but we just went three years in a row. Also, Big V has Driver Ed so she can't miss that.
I will miss it sooooo much this year. I'm not really sure why it's calling to me so much.

Maybe these are some reasons...

Last year we went on a whale watch. It seemed like this fellow was waving us in. He kept rolling over and over.

Then he jumped out of the water!

We were so fortunate the water was like glass that day.

We always go to the Wellfleet flea market. It's one of the best flea markets in the country.

It is usually very hot there, but that doesn't stop me. Everyone else waits in the car and I keep looking through the antique vendors booths.

There are long days of wave riding...

...and walking the beach looking for glass and shells and interesting rocks.

We go down to the beach for sunsets.

We go to our favorite restaurant in Provincetown, The Patio. The white peach mojitos are to die for!

And every day includes a nice, hot, outdoor shower.

All the sand on your body washes off and stays outside. It's wonderful! :)

The other night we decided to have a "mock" Cape night. So we went to a local seafood restaurant that closely resembles a place called Arnold's that we love to go to. Then, after we came home and let our dinner digest, we decided to go out for ice cream. Ron drove over the curbs on the sides of our street to make it seem like the bumpy dirt road we stay on. Then we went to our local ice cream stand but we pretended it was Ben and Jerry's. LOL. It was fun.

Hope you are enjoying your summer!