Creativity Time and Completion

Got the quilt done for my honorary niece. LOL Long story but I claim her.  From her and Pamela's first meeting at one of my nephew's weddings in Missouri they became immediate buddies.  Hannah and Phil's little guy was born before they got the quilt. I was a tad slow but better late than never right.    The fabric is woodland creatures and so is the quilting theme. My friend Donna at Donna's Lavender Nest did the quilting.

If you look closely you can see the tree and below it is a bear. There's also a moose but I didn't capture it here. And I have started embroidering my labels so they won't disappear like they do after so many washings by using the marker pen.

 

This was funny. My quilter shipped me the finished quilt in this box and I passed it on to Hannah and Phil. They like me, questioning why they were receiving puppy pee pads.  LOL 

 

I got this picture from Hannah the other day... He's sew cute on his quilt. Look at that happy face. I hope that means he likes the quilt auntie Carla and Pamela made him.

How this silly sweet girl curls up on this tiny dog quilt amazes me.  Sadie can get in the smallest ball or upside down with no problem.

The 4th of July was family time. Kaleb, Pamela and Bri came up to have hamburgers and hot dogs. I even made a macaroni salad that I hadn't made in years. It has shell pasta, sharp cheddar cheese, onion, and red bell pepper. They didn't have the boys this weekend so we passed on having fireworks.  

It wasn't even planned but we all dressed in red, white and blue. It was a nice fun day.

I needed a case for my new airpods since the others died and the ones wouldn't fit in the case I had. I was going to get the one that matched my phone with silvery magnolia flowers on a clear case but it wasn't available anymore so I got the next best one. Books.. LOL.  I love to read and listen to audible books so it's appropriate. 

Thursday 7/10 As I drove down the road to exercise class I saw this crane. Sorry the shot isn't better but I tried. Anyway at first I couldn't figure out why it looked so big. 

It almost looked like it was standing on grass but I knew there was a pond there so when I pulled up I saw the tree stump. LOL. He kind of blended into the background of the trees. I moved up further to get a picture of the pond and him but he said photo shoot over "I'm outta here".  

That evening was the G3 book club meeting. This time we met at Maricela's in Rockdale. Food was good but instead of putting us in the back corner they put us smack dab in the middle of the restaurant. It was too loud to really have a meeting. For some reason the meeting went downhill quickly and we didn't discuss the book The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg. It was a book about family secrets, abuse, validation and healing. Most of the ladies said they did like the book.

Thanks to Jamie, the gal in foreground of the picture we have pictures

Friday 7/11. I put together two projects that I plan on taking to retreat at the end of July. I have two quilts I need to cut out so I can sew them up at retreat and hand over to my quilter Donna Lynn.  

But while sitting there getting stuff together I had to sew up some more strips but then I also had 2 other blocks I was working so I had a mess again behind my machine. I'd sew two strips together, then sew two pieces together of my disappearing four patch and then I'd sew 2 blocks for the Granny block. I was chain stitching away. I'd clip it all and sew more pieces together.  

I actually got all the strips I needed for the project going to retreat with me done and in a tub, 

also got 3 disappearing 4 patch blocks put together 

and  4 Granny squares put together. It's all scrappy. 

That evening we drove to Crossroads Tavern in Cat Springs to hang out with our friends Larry and Sylvia. It's been so long since we've been able to get together again.

It was nice catching up and having catfish for dinner. We got to talking and then it was time to leave and I forgot to take a picture of us but I did catch this picture of the rainbow just down the road. It looked brighter in person honest.

I also finished up my Wonky Star Bee challenge quilt. I really like the quilting theme for it. It turned out great. You can see the swirls and star in the second picture. Perfect for this quilt I think. 

On the label I listed the names of the ladies that made the various blocks in my quilt.

Well that's it for now.

Until nest post..  Many faces, many smiles/ Remember me across the miles  May this quilt warm your body and comfort your soul

Just hanging with Friends and Being Silly

 

Sunday (6/22) It was time to pick up wine at The Rising Sun Winery in McDade. The other Kennedy's joined the wine club too so we went together. This pick up the members were served pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, macaroni salad and a complimentary glass of wine or beer. Pretty darn tasty. And there was live music.  While the guys went in and grabbed our boxes of wine Kelli and I took a picture for my memories. Kelli loves it when I pull out my camera. Not! LOL

This past Friday I had a doctor appointment and a nail appointment. My right knee the one that has been replaced started popping. It wasn't really painful but was more uncomfortable and annoying plus for almost a year my biceps have been hurting. The pain would make it difficult to get my t shirts off, get a glass out of the cabinet and reach in general.  Finally got an orthopedic in College Station instead of driving to the Spring area which was a 2 hour drive. Anyway the knee looks fine and he stays artificial knees can and do pop sometimes but when it becomes painful I need to have it re-evaluated. For the biceps the doctor said it was my rotator cuffs on both arms. They are inflamed but why who knows so I could get shots or take a steroid pack.  I hate shots and if the pack relieves the pain that's even better.  Today is my last day of pills and I can lift my arms to reach and stretch.  Let's see how long the relief will last.  I go to exercise class Tuesday and Thursday and that will be the test.  

Now since it's the official beginning of summer I got silly with my nails. They remind Pamela and I of watermelons. What better way to welcome summer, right?  Something silly and fun what can I say.

The sunflowers in the raised flower bed have started blooming. They bright and cheery out there. They are all facing east. I don't know is that what they all do, face east? So pretty.

Some how they all but 2-3 ended up on the one end of the flower bed.

David needed help with the gates so he could feed the cows some cubes and keep the cows at bay while he poured the cubes in the troughs.  Here comes the stampede.... click on the word. Cows are crazy for crack.

This is Momma cow of the baby that was born 6/23. And since I was out in the pasture and the cows were happily eating I was able to snap a close up of the baby.

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I want to pet the baby but not gonna happen. Momma is gonna protect that baby and those horns are sharp. Just saying. But it's so cute.

David set up the big fan outside for the pups when they're outside and they know what it's for. Right this minute now just Sadie is using it to cool off. It's her aha moment.

This is said I started this post in June and still haven't finished or posted. Today I'll finish or July will be over before I know it. LOL

One of my friends name Donna left me a message on my Getting Healthy post but it came through anonymous and I don't know which of the 5 Donna's I know to email and say Thank you too. And yes we are both enjoying retirement.

I'll end this post with some nature. Aren't these eggs pretty? They belong to a Mockingbird and she never attacked me while I took this picture. I kept waiting for her to show up and start dive bombing but she didn't.

Until next post..Don’t let someone who doesn’t know your value tell you how much you’re worth

Getting Healthy? New Life, Reading and Old Friends

 Thursday (6/12) The day started with an exercise class taught by Sheri one of the book club memebers. We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays. She's kicking our butts but hopefully it'll make us more fit and stronger. Right Sheri? She hears lots of groaning and moaning when she says 30 more seconds and we think it's the longest minute ever already.  I wonder if she's rigged the timer. Just kidding.

I get home and start picking things up and when I look out the back door something catches my attention. A cow! Imagine that but she has a tiny cow with her! Oh wow we have a new baby calf and it's Momma's first one. 

Momma seems to be taking good care of baby. Yay she's going to be a good Momma. 

I run outside and holler at David  'Did you know we have a new calf?'   He didn't. We had no clue she was pregnant. New calves are fun to watch especially when they get the zoomies.

Book club time. . This month G3 met at Pony Express in Hearne to discuss our latest read "The Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles. It was a rough discussion this month. LOL. People were busy, in a funk whatever but I ended up being the only one who read the entire book so the discussion was one sided but that's okay because the 9 of us present had a great time. The food and the service was great.

The book wasn't bad and it did get better about half way through. The book is about the life of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov. He wrote a poem back in his college days and now years later it was offensive to Stalin and the government so the Count was put under house arrest in a luxury hotel for almost 3 decades. The Count accepted his predicament and during this time he found friendship, love, and purpose. 

Friday(6/13) Samara got a group of us from CFISD technology together. Some of us retired, some moved on and some still with Cyfair. I hadn't seen most of them since I left in 2018. Hard to imagine it's been almost 7 years. We met up at Lupe Tortilla's in Cypress. Lots of fun, good food, great company, good service and lots of catching up. Thanks Samara for getting us together. It was fun seeing everyone and catching up.  Even Barb joined us. 

 

Hopefully we can get together again before summer is over.

On Saturday (6/14) David and I did a road trip. We left here and our first stop is a country quilt shop outside Hearne but it's address is Bryan. Bryan reaches way out here. Anyway I went to a shop called The Railroad Cotton Exchange.  

Now they are currently only open the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month but they are working on setting more hours. The first picture is one of theirs taken of some of the fabric and this next picture of my purchase. Small cute shop and the ladies are super friendly.  

Our next destination was the Waco Winery but first I told David I'd buy lunch but he had to pick. I already knew what he would pick... BBQ. But I didn't know where so I was surprised when we drove to Mart and we tried a new place called Victorian BBQ on Main in Mart. It's sold by the pound so you get as much or little as you want. I almost got a smile out David. LOL. He claims he was worried about food stuck in his teeth. I call BS on that.

We had Brisket, ribs, Cajun corn, cucumber n onion salad.  It was all really tasty good.  I think my fav was the ribs but I'm with David I want to go back and try the tri-tips and chicken next. And I want to try the mac n cheese if he has it when we go back.  Joey Victorian is the pitmaster.  He's on Pitmaster Season 2. I saw some of the clips and now I can't find them to share. I know it's on Netflix. 

The decor on the walls was pretty cool too.

  

We definitely have to go back to this place.

After getting 

From here we headed to the Waco Winery on Hwy 6. I didn't get any pictures but I'll say that the wine was tasty. We both got a bottle of wine we liked. The inside was nice but the outside area needed to be more inviting with some much needed shade and the entrance needed to be more announced. Driving down Hwy 6 you have never know there was a winery there. The only indication is if you google wineries near me and once you find the driveway, there were a 1 1/2' wooden wine bottle cut outs on each side of the gate. Not really big enough to see if driving 70mph going south on hwy 6. They need a flag sign or bigger sign closer to the highway.  The ladies there were super nice and like I said the wine was tasty. Both dry and semi sweet.  Currently they don't have any vines so purchase their grapes from High Plains I believe. They lost their vines in the freeze. We enjoyed our time there chatting with the ladies but it was time to head home.

On the way up we noticed plenty water along Hwy 6 from flooding creeks. From the Mart area and further north the creeks were covering lots of the pastures. This area has gotten lots more rain than our area has. Dang it.

We celebrated Father's Day at the farm. Kaleb, Pamela, Braxton, Killian and Bri came up. We had lasagna, garlic bread, salad, apple crumble pie with blue bell ice cream.  It was a great day.  David and Kaleb were the stars of the day even if they were both ornery. LOL. Bri got to play with her cousins Bruno and Sadie. Our fur babies are family.

The raised flower bed is thriving. A new color pops up ever so often.  

It's a tradition that when the boys have to go feed Jerry carrots. That definitely makes Jerry a happy boy.  Fat and sassy especially since the grass is still green since we have had just enough rain to keep things green.

As you can see  Killian eats at least a bit of every carrot before passing it on to Jerry. LOL

Then it was time for a game of toss and tug of war.  I'm not sure who was more tired,,,, the boys or Bruno but I know they all had fun.

That's it for now.

Hope everyone is staying cool and healthy.

Until next Blog post...The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." ~ Mark Twain