Kids....

They each got a little sewing machine time over their week off. Not much.... I was sick with a terrible head cold (that is recurring today - fun stuff!) but they got a little time in.

Aidan made some 4 patches so he has all the parts for one block sewn. He just needs to sew them together. This is Twilight Hopscotch  pattern by Kim Diehl.

 He was busy all week working on his science fair project - they didn't have enough boards for the whole class.... so the top 5 by peer vote moved on to a big poster board. He was one of the 5. It is due tomorrow - he just has to glue things onto his board tonight but all the other writing is completed.

Emily helped lay out her blocks on Friday... we got 3 rows sewn of 12. Progress.
She is home from school today resting. I seem to have passed on the head cold and today is the feeling miserable day. She is relaxing with her iPad watching some shows.

Monday - On Ringo Lake Mystery progress Week 1

So far so good! I have the  9 patches done for clue 1. One week in and so far I am not behind! I do love how this is looking so far. So fun to work with teal, neutrals and browns this week. I wonder what colors will come out to play on Friday? Linking up with the Quiltville On Ringo Lake Mystery week 1.

Slow stitching Sunday...

 I have enjoyed the last hour or so slowly stitching on the orange peel doll quilt while watching Groundhog day with hubby. I moved the hoop about 3 times and have one last border to go. That might have to wait for later this evening though. It has been a nice relaxing and quiet morning.

 The kids will be returned soon from Grandma's. I'm thinking they will be helping me outside today to trim up the bushes so the Christmas lights can be put up at some point. I might let them loose in the garden to till it today as well. They both like doing it and I really need to plant some  beans and peas... and see what happens. I am a wee bit late on them but the worst that will happen is nothing comes up. I got some beets and carrots too... those have done well in the past. The lettuce and tomato's are in buckets and doing well. I added a new basil plant yesterday to the new parsley and chives. The thyme, rosemary and mint are still going strong from previous years. So nice to have mid 70's for weather after a very hot summer and fall. I might need to pop out to the store today - I'm thinking lunch is leftovers and for dinner I'll make a taco salad (Emily's favorite - recipe under the recipe tab) and maybe some taco meat. I think we are all a little sick of turkey!


Linking up with the other slow stitchers at Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday.

RSC Saturday....

I finally took a little time this morning and finished sewing up my black and grey BITA blocks. I only have 12 brown blocks left to make before I can start assembling them into a quilt top.

While I was in there... I started cutting for part 1 of the On Ringo Lake mystery over at quiltville.com. Hey, there was some brown involved so I'm including it!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge. Head on over and see how dark scraps or colorful quilt tops are coming along. I ordered a roll of warm and natural batting yesterday... so I should be able to finish a few more tops in the next few months! Surprisingly the price was cheaper through Amazon than from Joann's. It should arrive early next week!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thinking I should build a boat.... it has been raining since midnight and the moat is building in the front of the house.My in-laws are braving the rains and heading over for a Thanksgiving feast today. Hope all who are traveling are safe on this holiday weekend.

Trying to take it easy...

I decided to call in sick to work today. Kids are home (no school this week) and my lovely head cold needed some nursing (and doing nothing!) so hopefully it will go away. It started as a sore throat Saturday evening...was a clogged head Sunday and Monday... and since no fever I got a flu shot Monday morning at my annual doctor appt. Grandma had the kids Sunday and returned them Monday afternoon..... and last night I let them get out the Christmas stuff and decorate a bit while I had a rest in bed.

Today.... I am just relaxing with a few stitches in this doll quilt while resting in the recliner. The kids are keeping busy. I'm thinking it might be movie time for me.....

The good news... I took medicine (cough syrup DM ) at 6:15 this morning... and so far have not had to take it again today. The last two days.... I knew when it had been 4 hours. Progress.... or just need to drink more liquids! I think we are done with appointments this week, except for gymnastics tomorrow night. Aidan had a retainer check at 8:10 this morning. The turkey is thawing in the fridge for Thursday. I told the kids I had a pound of hamburger and asked how they wanted it cooked for dinner. I was thinking stroganoff or tater tot casserole but they said burgers! Easy.... I had some potato that needed cooking up so that got made into potato salad this morning, and Emily taste tested it for her breakfast. Half a cabbage will become coleslaw this afternoon.
Time for more stitching and then I'm thinking The Polar Express...as the kids heard thunder so will be coming inside after they pick up the things they left out in the woods. I know some rain is coming towards us so they will be inside for a bit until that passes.

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving in the US on Thursday. I'm hosting and cooking.... so I need to be over this cold!

On Ringo Lake.....

So, this happened today. I had a little bit of time after bowling so stopped at Joann's Fabrics to see what they had in the coral color for fabrics. I got 1/2 yard cuts of these for a starting point. I'll pull from the stash for the rest of it. They were all 50% off! I also got some insulbright to make some pot holders Mom. It might happen this weekend....we will see.

Running around day....

After logging into work to let them know I was taking the day off, it was time to evaluate what we needed in the house for food. Looking in the pantry - I counted 9 open bags of potato chips! 9! Really? I guess I know what they ate while I was gone......

After hitting the dollar store to get headbands for the girls scouts - parade attire to attach snowflakes to ... somehow..... I went to Aldi's and got my fresh fruit and veggies. Note to self - go early Monday morning 10ish and you get a great selection! Then home to put things away. Off to Publix to pick up deli meat and a few other things. Home to put away..... a quick lunch and then.... 1 hour until the kids were out of school. Hmmmm. I decided to find the sewing room and pulled out some black and grey 2.5 inch strips and cream/white ones to cut some half square triangles for the BITA (birds in the air) blocks. It is the dark month at the RSC Challenge after all.

I need 13 black and 12 brown blocks this month to finish off the last ones needed for this quilt. Hopefully I can find some time this week to actually sew them!

For now.... I suppose the house needs some attention - dusting and vacuuming and sweeping and mopping. Amazing how none of that seems to happen while I am away. I'll deal with the bathrooms tomorrow..... Somehow dinner needs to get made early and then the boy delivered to his last soccer practice this season and Em and I head to girl scouts to see where we are on the banner for the Light up Ocala parade on Saturday.  At least I have things for 3 meals in house... just need to decide what I am having which day! Tonight will probably be baked chicken with asparagus, tomorrow Emily's favorite - Roasted veggie and sausage penne pasta, then Aidan's favorite on Wednesday - corned beef with tons of carrots in the crock pot. Clear out the fridge on Thursday leftover night before the last soccer game and who knows... maybe I'll get my belated birthday dinner at Yamato's on Friday or Saturday night. We will see.

Sunday....

What a busy week with not a single hand stitch with needle and thread. I did crochet a top to a kitchen towel for my Mom... but that was it!

I forgot my handy dandy neck light while traveling.... so ended up reading books on my kindle (ok, playing games too on there!) instead.

I pulled out my hand work for the flights home...but seem to be missing my little scissors. Hmmmm, I just unpacked (See later in the blog post) and don't remember seeing them. Must go through more things to see if I can find them.... found them! Right next to the hand quilting thread.

Tonight... relaxing will be some hand work. I am not up to doing much so I think I will pull out the little orange peel doll quilt, mark a quilting design on the border and sit and relax with that and a movie until the kids are returned home.

I have my handy dandy floor Ott light right next to my recliner with the flex so I can position it just how I want it.

What will you be relaxing with? Linking up with Kathy's Quilts who reminds us to slow down (I really do need that reminder each week even if I don't do it!).

Feel free to stop reading here if you want.... but here is a low down of my week and the end of my run of smooth traveling. If something happens when people travel in my family - they say they have the Debbie curse! I tended to get bumped and have bags go missing or flights delayed/cancelled all the time. I learned life is so much easier when you ' go with the flow'! It is a good lesson and I still try to remember that... especially on Friday night. Completely out of my hands and you just have to make the best of your situation. Less stress that way!  I had a good 2 years of uneventful traveling.... maybe the next flight will start the smooth travel spell again!

It was a nice relaxing flight up to Vermont (no kids in tow) , a busy but good week working and visiting friends and family while up there (I lived there my first 39 years before moving to Florida 6 years ago). Friday I attended the company's annual meeting in the morning and then headed to the airport with another co-worker who works remotely from California. We had a nice leisurely lunch at The Skinny Pancake past security in the Burlington Airport. I highly recommend the crepe Veggie Monster. It was yummy... and a good thing I had a good lunch! My flight landed in JFK and took off fine... other than having to gate check one of my bags due to a packed flight and people being let on with huge bags that took up the overhead space for those boarding last. I opted to move my kindle and purse into my computer bag and kept that with me and gate checked the roll on. Good move on my part. We were in the air flying to Orlando when the pilot came on about half way through indicating there was an incident at Orlando and we were being diverted to Jacksonville to refuel and wait for corporate to make decisions. Turns out there was a camera battery in a bag that started smoking, the person handed it to TSA and ran when it exploded. Utter panic and chaos ensued - as you would expect. People ran past security which caused the airport to be evacuated  and  be sent through screening again once they figured out what happened and things had calmed down. This happened around 5:30 and My flight was diverted around 8PM... with them still evacuating at that point. With not knowing how long it will take and everything being closed at Jacksonville airport it was decision time. (I was to land at 840 in Orlando - get my bags, truck in long term parking and head home for the 1 hour 15 minute drive).  Do I stay and wait it out.... or rent a vehicle and drive 2 hours and 15 minutes to get home and deal with the baggage later (they were not going to unload anything - again - no one was there to work and they called in 3 workers to at least let us get off the plane and the other ones diverted there, thank goodness). I checked with hubby, and he said get a car and drive. I did - and got home at Midnight. Saturday was busy - kids bowling in the morning, Grandpa A visiting in the early afternoon and then I called to check on my bags and let them know I would pick up Sunday... after 1 hour and 20 minutes on hold but.... they did find the second one! We rescheduled my birthday dinner out with the kids as Emily really wanted to go to a friends birthday party that night - which I had to go to with her as they played and then watched a movie outside with a projector on the house. Today - kids were dropped to Grandma H (45 minute drive) and then Greg and I headed to Orlando (1.5 hour drive) to drop off the rental car, pick up my bags and then get the truck. Good news - the ping in the windshield is still just a ping. It didn't crack like mine did a few weeks ago! I let Greg drive home and we had a very late lunch out at Cracker Barrel - I really wanted their Sunday fried chicken dinner =). Then home to empty the bags and start laundry. Prep for girl scout meeting tomorrow and I am contemplating taking tomorrow off for a day of rest from all the travel issues. We will see.... I might just have to find the sewing machine and relax a bit.

Slow Stitching in Vermont.....

It was a travel day for me yesterday. An early drive to the airport (other than the chip in the windshield - sorry hubby), it was  a beautiful drive in as the sun was coming up with the fog making a wonderful display.

The flights were on time and uneventful - and instead of slow stitching on the flights as I had planned - I decided to read. So relaxing to travel by yourself without having to keep 2 kids entertained! I landed in Vermont and was welcomed by the green mountains... and the hanger of 'The Green Mountain Boys' as we rolled by on the runway. It always feels like home when I see that!  It was a pretty drive to my parents house with some color still in the trees hanging on up in the Burlington area despite the wind storm last weekend. It is stick season in central Vermont.  A nice meal out for my birthday with my parents and sister Joanne last night topped off the day. The kids called twice last night... just because! We will see how their week goes but they are in Daddy's capable hands. Grandma is helping out with pick up from school the first three days and Dad gets the last two.

Today, most of my siblings (all but one who called last night) will be coming over today for a ham dinner and visiting before I head to the hotel tonight for my week of work. This is a business trip after all! I'm looking forward to settling in with some slow stitching on my lemoyne stars....

Inklingo free diamond shape set printing onto fabric - cut and sewing lines.

or maybe I'll actually do some hand quilting on the red dresden plate block.

Only the purple block is done at this point - time to start working on these again.

I did finish off the last edge of the 2 inch trip around the world quilt this past week (finishing at just over 60 inches square) - allowing me to move onto another UFO - the dresden blocks! They have been patiently waiting for their individual hand quilting as a portable project and then will be sewn together into a top with a white sashing.

Linking up with the other slow stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

Halloween....

These were my kiddo's last night before heading out trick or treating. Boy do those bushes need trimming! Not going to happen by me in the next two days... we will see if they are trimmed when I get home on the 10th.  My ninja and greek goddess.