ABC Wednesday

M is for Martial Arts

Our son took Taekwondo for several years when he was a teenager. He has always excelled at physical activities (unlike his Mom...I tried learning his white belt level stuff and was too uncoordinated....it's a miracle I can do Scottish dancing!) and martial arts was the perfect sport for him. He didn't need a team to practice. He wasn't reliant on others for advancing. It was just him and his own discipline and self-motivation. This picture is from his black belt testing. I love the determination in his face. :)

Remember to go visit some others who are participating in ABC Wednesdays!

Recent Swap Blocks

Last month I shared with you some swap blocks I made for an online group I'm in.    I thought I'd share some of the recent ones that others have made for me.   Below are the two from Joy last month and two from Kathy this month.   

And these two are the ones I made this month for Eileen:   

 Swapping is such a great way to get blocks made from fabrics that aren't in our own stashes!   :)

Feet Friday

Lazy feet....eating dinner while watching the tube! Lazy, yes...but oh so relaxing. :)

Another Petite Yaya Quilt

When my daughter Jennifer turned 18 many years ago, I wanted to give her a quilt made by the adult women in her life who were close to me & her. You've read about the Yaya's before and how special they are in my life...well, they also hold a special place in Jenn's heart. You can read her blog about her Yaya quilt here. I know she feels loved when she looks at her quilt and I also hope it reminds her about the value of friendship....we women need each other!

Well, another of the Yaya daughters had some significant milestones in the past year (marriage and moving away) that I thought would be great to celebrate with another sampler quilt made by us Ya's. This young lady loves that bright spring/lime green color and wanted something psychedelic. This is the fabric I found for our focus:

It's a Kaffe Fassett fabric called "Millefiore" and I thought it fit what she wanted nicely. Isn't it fun?

Here is top that I just finished yesterday:

Each Yaya made a block, Jennifer made one also and I made two. Tink helped me with finishing. It's a bright and happy quilt, don't you think? I can't wait to get it quilted and then on it's way to its new home to warm the heart of another daughter. We love you, S!

ABC Wednesday

L is for Leather

There are some amazing artists out there who work with leather. Just look at this beautiful water bottle by Paul Krause of PK Bootmaker:

I would love to have that water bottle!

We haven’t much experience with the hobby of leather working. The kids did a few odds-n-ends like knife sheaths when they were little. And we did learn how to tan our own hides during the years we raised rabbits and sheep. But we never did anything with them. One time Hubby and our daughter took a class at the local bead store on making small beaded leather bags. Here’s the one our daughter finished:

That’s it for “L”!

Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more blogs!

Convenient

Convenient: suited to personal comfort or to easy performance

I have two new conveniences in my life that fit that definition to a “t”.

First is my new Melitta individual coffee filter:

I love coffee. Normally you would find me drinking International House Orange Cappuccino coffee….like 3 cups a day! It all started nearly 30 years ago when hubby and I were engaged and we enjoyed our first cup after painting his first apartment. Anyhoo….this new Melitta filter allows me to make myself the perfect single cup of coffee. No wasted coffee from making a full pot….no guilt drinking of leftover coffee from said full pot. No upset tummy from French pressed coffee. And its fast…one needs fast with that first cup in the morning! Suited to my personal comfort? Check! Easy performance? Check!

Second is bread baking the “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” way! Yes, homemade yeast bread that is convenient. My son always brags that he gets homemade bread every day that Faith makes. Now I know her secret! ;) Tink learned the secret from a neighbor. She was pumping out fresh bread all the time too. She made some for us Yaya’s on our vacation…Melis went home and bought the book and is making fresh bread all the time too! I had to get in on the action. So I bought the book from Amazon and made my first batch the other day. The dough takes about 5 minutes…including measuring and mixing. There is no kneading. You let it rise a few hours and then goes into the frig. I used my Kitchen Aid to mix but you can just mix in the container you're gonna store the dough in and then you'd have no clean up! Score. I'm doing that next time.

Dough keeps for 14 days in the frig and when you want a loaf, you take off a hunk, let it rest for 40 minutes, and then bake it.





Voila! You’re done and can pig out like we did…eating the whole loaf at one meal.
Suited to my personal comfort? Check! Easy performance? Check!

I love convenience!

Feet Friday

This is what happens when one takes the baby outside without checking to see if he has socks on and all one has in her pockets is mittens and one is too lazy to walk back inside for socks! I know...how could you not see the boy was barefoot? It just happens. LOL!

Hello, Dolly!

"I went away from the lights of Fourteenth Street

And into my personal haze

But now that I'm back in the lights of l4th Street

Tomorrow will be brighter than the good old days"

-From Hello, Dolly

Hubby and I regularly go to Seattle to see musicals at the 5th Avenue Theatre. Seattle is, of course, famous for rain but we have never been rained on in the 7 years of going over for plays! That doesn't mean it hasn't rained...just that we don't get rained on. It rains during the play or during dinner but always has stopped during the times we are outside walking. True! That is until this time. It was miserable. Cold. Wet. Cold. Wet. Did I say cold & wet? Ugh!

Here we are on the ferry....smiling cuz it's early yet and maybe...just maybe the rain will stop on the way over!

Gray skies and more gray skies:

Once we got to the theatre the gloom of the day vanished. "Hello, Dolly!" is the perfect play to whisk away the gray! I had forgotten what fun this show is. And amidst the laughter it has a poignant message too......when tragedy enters our lives (for Dolly, her hubby dying) and we enter "our personal haze", eventually our "tomorrows will be brighter than the good old days." Yippy for our tomorrows.

We tried a new restaurant this trip. It's called Thao's and serves modern Vietnamese food. I loved our appetizer the best. It was soft shelled crab spring rolls. Oh boy, could have just eaten them all night.

Rain or no rain, it's always a good day when it's a play day. :)

ABC Wednesday

K is for Knitting

 

Knitting is a fairly new hobby for me.   Some where in my past I learned how to do it…but I can’t remember when or who taught me.  I was never good at it so stuck with crochet.  

A few years ago I started knitting scarves while watching TV at night.  I was wanting something mindless to keep my hands busy and hand quilting/appliqué was requiring too much of my brain!  The wonderful fuzzy yarns were so helpful in hiding any mistakes too! Love that.  I gave most of them away but here is a picture of one I kept:

Scarves were all I did until last October when I decided to try making myself a felted bag.  I’ve already blogged on that so if you want to see, just click here.  They were fun and easy and fast. 

Right now I’m trying my first hat.  I’ve only had to take it out once (I don’t know how to fix mistakes so have to take the whole thing apart if I mess up…..some day I should learn that skill, huh?).   I've not gotten very far...just a teeny bit past the brim edge.   Notice the cute button-up denim bag behind my knitting?  My friend Tink made that for my knitting from an old jumper she had.  It's so cute.

I doubt I'll ever make anything fancy but knitting has been a great tv hobby for me.

Check out other ABC blogs here.

I Never Knew

I never knew that apparently I am in need of much help in my daily activities. Thankfully, Mr. Finn is ever ready and present to give me all the "help" I need! :)

Here's my boy helping with the laundry:

Apparently I hadn't pin basted this quilt properly and some of the pins needed to come out:


Here he is acting as my stylist as I was getting ready for a party:

Not sure why he thinks I need help reading? Maybe by staying put he thinks he will keep me on task:


Of course, even a super fantastic helper needs to take some time for himself! A good nap is in order.

Thanks, Finn. You make my days much more fun!

Swap Blocks

I'm in a block swap with a small online group.   Each month we send directions for a block we want made plus a part of the fabric for making it to whoever is assigned that month.   This round we are actually making each person two blocks....normally two of the same pattern but with different fabrics.  That person makes the blocks then mails them back to us.   At the end of this swap I'll end up with 18 blocks.  I love doing this swap cuz its a great way to get a good scrappy look with many fabrics I don't have!

 The above blocks were made for a gal who is making a redwork quilt.  She requested any star blocks but to only use the the red fabric she sent or reds we had with white for the background.  In other words...one color.    That made it interesting when searching out star patterns.    Anyway, the two I decided on look pretty good.  Both are from Judy Martin's book called "Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts".  The one on the left is called "Fiery Star" and the one on the right is called "Virginia Star".   I hope she likes them and that they work well with the collection she receives.  

ABC Wednesday

J is for Jigsaw Puzzles

I have lots of memories of puzzle making. My Mom was a whiz at it. She could sit for hours and work on one. I’m more like my Dad…come in for a 5 minute stretch and then off to do something else. There was often a puzzle going at camp in NY when we’d go there in the summer. It’d be set up folks would stop by as they passed and put in a piece or two. By the time our vacation was over it’d be done.

Here’s a pic of my hubby and son-in-law seriously at work on a puzzle at our lake vacation this summer:

Even our cat likes to get in on the fun:

J is for Jewelry Making

This is something new I get to do. I have a friend (one of the Yaya’s) who has been making jewelry for a long time. She’s really good at it. Well, due to a conversation about earning badges we Yaya’s had, it was decided we’d make charm bracelets to commemorate certain events and to symbolize meaningful things to our friendship.
I’m so excited about this project! And I’m so glad I have a close friend who already is good at this hobby and can be our teacher.

Lovelies to choose from:

Some of our homemade charms and objects to add:


I'll have to remember to post a pic of our finished charm bracelets once their done.

Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more J blogs!

Feet Friday

I'm tired of being cold!!!

Wishing for flip-flop weather. :)

ABC Wednesday

I is for Ice Skating

I couldn’t think of any hobbies other than things to do with ice….ice sculpture….ice hockey….ice climbing…that sort of thing. I chose ice skating since it’s the only one I’ve had any experience with. Can anyone else think of hobbies that start with “I”?

When I was little I loved watching ice skating when the Olympics came on. I dreamed of being those girls in the pretty outfits…twirling away on the ice. My parents even signed me up for lessons! I loved the pom-poms on my white skates and my cute little skirt. I was sure I was the prettiest little girl ever. It was a short lived hobby. Like everything else I tried growing up…I’d take a class, love it, but want to move on to the next thing. I’m such a dabbler!

I’ve skated on and off since I was little. Mostly outdoors when I lived in upstate New York and in Montana. There’s an indoor rink here and I’ve gone a few times. We took our kiddo’s skating too, mostly when we lived in Montana….unfortunately I have no pictures.

They had the cutest little double bladed skates and I do have a picture of Jenn’s:

Check out other "I"s this week at the ABC blog main site. See you next time.

Rest

This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men.

-Captain J.A. Hadfield

This was my theme for today. To rest. It’s not that I’ve been particularly busy. I know what busy looks like and I don’t think I can consider my week to be like that. Ya know how some times you need to come home from vacation and rest? Well, it’s more like that! I did lots of fun things and I visited with friends more than usual. So I took a day to just be quietly with myself. It was a books, magazine, tv and knitting kind of day!

And soon I will cap it off with a good nights sleep! Here's to rest...be sure to get yours!

ABC Wednesday

H is for Hiking

We have always loved hiking. We hiked even when the kids were little….short ones, but still the mountains called! It was easy when we lived in Montana cuz the mountains were so close…20 minutes of driving and you’d be somewhere beautiful. Here in Washington there is a lot of wonderful hiking too…but it’s always a drive. Which has made it become more of an event than a spontaneous “what’cha want to do” sort of thing.

All my pics of hikes are fairly recent ones. I looked all over for some from the backpack trip hubby and the kids took over the Olympic Mountain range….their longest hike…but couldn’t find a single one. Shoot!

Anyway. Here are some others to peek at:

Hubby and kids camped at Lake Ozette and hiked out to the beach. Miles of boardwalks.

Hubby and I at Glacier National Park. This was a beautiful 5 mile or so hike that ended at that half frozen lake. Gorgeous!

Saguaro National Park in Tucson. My first look at the desert and those amazing cacti! And my first non-mountain hiking experience.

Hiking in Mesa Verde, Colorado.

Hiking in Scotland. On this particular day we were hiking along a bay to get to that little castle in the distance...in the middle of the picture. Its the castle ruins on the land that belongs to the MacLean of Lochbuie clan....my Scottish heritage.

Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more blogs!

Feet Friday

Catching a movie with a little one snuggled on your lap. Priceless. :)

ABC Wednesday

I thought of a few hobbies that start with “G”: gardening, golf, graphology and genealogy. Since we’ve only done one, it was a no-brainer on which I’d choose.

G is for Gardening

Our early gardening experience was a small bed in the back of the house we rented when we first moved to WA. Our landlords were wonderful people who even let us have chickens on the property! We grew the basics and our kids had their first tastes of home grown vegetables…nothing like it. When we bought our first home (on acreage) we could expand our gardening vision. So the little bed became a plowed up spot. We tried many more types of vegetables….success with some (green beans and peas grow well in the Northwest) and not so much with others (our asparagus bed never did take off). For me, my favorite gardening method was the “square foot” way. A plowed up field was too big to take care of. I’m so visual that all I saw was this HUGE job of weeding. I couldn’t break it down into small portions in my head. Square foot gardening allowed me to concentrate on one little bed…which never seemed like too much work.

Hubby and I haven’t done much gardening since the kids left home. We talk about it every spring. One little four foot bed. Just one. Maybe this year?

Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more blogs!

Quilters Dream

I've made a lot of quilts and I have to say this is a picture of joy to this quilters heart. Someone enjoying one of my creations. I love the fabric search, I love ironing, I love cutting fabric up into all those little pieces, I love sewing it all back together again.....I love it all. But I love this more.
Snuggle up, my sweet jewel and know Nana is hugging you via fabric and thread!
xxxooo