I am not a knitter

Nope...I wouldn't consider myself a knitter. I dabble in knitting but I am not a hard core knitter. I don't dream about yarns or projects to make like I do with quilting! But there is something about this time of year. The color and textures of fibers.....lovely. I'm safe if I stay out of yarn stores. Kinda like staying out of the bakery department when you're trying to lay off doughnuts! :)

Anyhoo. Last week I went with my daughter-in-law, Faith, on a fabric shopping expedition. She wants to learn to quilt and asked me to come along to help. Any good quiltaholic worth her salt would jump at the chance....so I jumped......and danced....and clapped! As it turned out my daughter, Jennifer, was also able to go with us. Extra fun. We went to the Kingston shop but nothing caught her eye there so we headed to Bainbridge.

First we had to fuel up at the Blackbird Bakery....home made soup and bread....so nummy.

Here is Faith with her new lovelies. Gonna be a beautiful quilt.

What does this have to do with knitting, you ask? Well......just across the street from where the fabric lives is a very scrumptious yarn store. Bad move. See some of the lovelies that live here?

My eye caught a pattern for a cowl made with silk yarn blends....oh man, its so soft. And this non-knitter could actually do it cuz it was a super easy pattern. So I bought the stuff. Not too bad. But then I went back. And I saw a pattern for the cutest ruffly scarf....so feminine.....easy enough pattern. So I bought the stuff. And then I eyed come cute variegated yarn for a child's hat....a pattern I already conquered. So I bought the stuff. Whatever! I really need to stay away....I have ZERO self control.

And just cuz.....here are some pics of a few other things I love excessively!

We bought swords for the grandsons and Liam insisted he needed a helmet. Hubby made a couple of paper hats to be helmets.

The wild grandson, who as you can see, gets into everything! Literally! :)

Life is full.

Yummy for your tummy!

I was surfing blogs the other week and came across a recipe for homemade Snicker bars. Oh boy.....it looked so good! I copied down the recipe, bought all the ingredients and waited for the cooking mood to strike. Last night hubby decided he had waited long enough and just made them himself. Dang I love it when procrastinating pays off. Hee, hee.

I'm not sure exactly where this recipe originates. Some blogs were saying its a Taste of Home adapted recipe....most didn't say. All I know is you have to make some. The recipe makes a 13x9 pans worth.....perfect for sharing.

Yum, yum!

A New Passion

~ Passion requires focused direction, and that direction must come from three other areas: your purpose, your talents, and your needs. ~

Our son has a new passion.....it's Mixed martial arts fighting. Ya know, that fighting where pretty much everything goes? The fighting that makes a Moms heart skip a beat! He loves to tell us all about his training.....how he passed out cuz he didn't tap out in time.....oy vey! I do have to say that while it's a bit hard to hear stories and see bruises, I do *love* seeing him excited!

He hasn't had a fight yet but he did have a submission wrestling match. I couldn't bring myself to go watch (not ready yet....but some day) so I grabbed some photo's from the match he won to show ya.

That's what I get for putting him in Tae Kwondo! LOL! You go, Dan! I love ya.

Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting another online Quilt Festival. I always seem to stumble upon these things after the fact but this time I am in time to participate! Barely....today is the deadline. :)

We are suppose to blog about a quilt we've made. I decided to show a quilt from this year but they are all still just tops. Oh well....tops are all I've got.

This is the "Cowboy" quilt I made for Liam, our oldest grandson. We gave him all cowboy themed gifts last Christmas and I wanted to follow up with a cowboy quilt for his birthday.

This pattern is called Fresh Linens and is from the book, "Let the Good Times Roll". Fast and easy.

This is a close-up of the block:

I even found some dancing fabric!

There are over 600 entries in this online quilt festival. Lots of beautiful quilts to see and fun stories to read about. Go read a few.

My First Hat

I knitted my first hat! It's a child's hat that I made for my grandson. I figured I'd start small, in case it was too hard for me. :) The beginning part was easy peasy.....just knitting in the round.....no pattern, no thinking. But then it was decreasing and double pointed needles and things got smaller and smaller. I felt like my fingers were sausages! I used a chenille yarn so its super soft. Cute, huh?

The only "model" I could find around here with a small head. LOL!

Apple Fun

We have 6 apple trees and this year the apples are abundant. I don't make jelly or sauce or bake pies so there are lots of apples for giving away....no way eating an apple or two a day would ever come close to using them all up! :)
The grand kids were over last weekend and they love going out to pick apples. I think they'd eat them all day long if we let them.

Here they are enjoying the treat of fresh picked apples:

Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

"A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend." ~Author Unknown

Today is our daughters birthday. Our first born. The one who as she ages makes me feel old!

As I searched for photos to use in this blog I discovered that I rarely, if ever, took a picture of her alone on her birthday. I got shots of the cake and shots of presents and shots of friends but rarely just her. Oh well. Here's a small trip down birthday memory lane.

This was the day she turned one. The dress she is wearing was crocheted by my Grandma Dickerson. But the best part of this photo to me is how young my hubby looks. Good golly he looks like a child....no wonder the "older" folk thought we were too young! LOL!

I love you sweety.

Random 365

271 days ago I started a project that I can't believe I'm still doing! Taking a photo a day for a whole year. One a day. Every day. Pretty hard for this gal. I thought I'd share some of the photo's I took recently.....just for fun.....and since I couldn't think of anything else to blog about! LOL!

This is Lars. He was a "customer" at the quilt shop this week when I was working. It has become a challenge for me taking pictures at work. I'm not too good at being creative so I end up taking pics of quilts or fabric. But once Lars rambled in and I saw those green eyes, I knew he'd be my pic of the day. Mr. Cutie-Pie.

At a tea shop buying tea for my daughters birthday party. She's gonna be 28 this year. Can hardly believe it. I'll be giving her a shout out later when it's her real birthday day.

Hubby and I went to see Wicked in Seattle. Couldn't get a pic of the marquee cuz it was raining so I had to take it of the program. It was our first trip to the Paramount Theatre. Such a beautiful place. I tried taking pics of the theatre but nothing I took did the place justice.




And finally a picture of the season. These are "liberty" apples from our tree. The tree is loaded this year. Not sure if I can even give away this many. :)

That's it for now. Only 94 days to go! :)

Little Owl

Isn't this a cute little owl block? We got some new patterns by Barbara Brandeburg in the shop and I had to have them! I made this little guy up as a sample for the store but had to share him with you. Can you say 1970? :)

Now I can't wait to try the Birdie Big Blocks pattern...that one was my favorite.

A Walk About Town

We have been having fabulous fall weather here in the Pacific Northwest. And since we all know the rains aren't far behind, we are taking advantage of this sunshine. Today after church hubby and I took a walk around town. It was perfect walking weather.....which for me means no sweating. :)

We were up on the hill as the ferry was pulling in.

Even though we have walked through town many many times, we discovered a short public trail that cut across many backyards. Better than the road.

Decided to grab lunch here. We've heard good things about this restaurant but had never stopped in. They make all kinds of burgers and yes, they were great. We'll definitely be eating here again. Though we'll need to triple the distance of our walks to burn off the burger and fries! LOL!




And I couldn't resit sharing a picture of a couple of sauces they had inside. Be sure to read all the print....you man need to click on the pic to enlarge it so you can read it all. I cracked up big time!

What does a good walk and good food equal? Napping. :)

Fall Fun

I love fall! The leaves haven't fallen much yet but its the thing I remember most about fall. As a kid I used to make forts with my friends at school with the leaves on the playground. Also it was fun to try to burn them with a magnifying glass.....safely, of course.

Jennifer and Daniel liked their leaf playing too......as you can see in the picture above.

Nowadays what I see in the yard full of leaves is WORK. Our big leaf maple puts down a ton and it takes quite a while for hubby and I to rake them all. Isn't it funny how many childhood things we loved are work for us now as adults? :)

Extra Love

Yesterday we went to Starbucks for lattes. When we are out doing errands and notice our sons car (he works at Starbucks) we like to go in for drinks so we can bug him. :) I ordered my normal drink (short latte) and hubby his (tall vanilla) but this time hubby yells out "I want mine made with EXTRA LOVE"! Our son was on the bar....hubby got the appropriate eye roll and smile from him......and the sweet girl taking our order even wrote our custom order on the cup......and that made me smile! Oh the little things in life.

Feet Friday

I have recently seen ads for this group in a couple of magazines I get. Looks like a neat charity.....and perfect for Feet Friday! You can check out what they do, where they do it and how you can help at their web site: Shoes for Orphan Souls.

Eye Candy

Uh huh. :)

But wait....that's not what I meant.

This is more like it:

Tink brought me back this nummy collection of fat quarters as a thank you for watching her dog. They are from The Stitchin' Post quilt store and are a Valorie Wells line....don't know the name of the line, though. Can't wait till for the perfect project to use them in......until then I'll just fondle them. Hee, hee.

Feet Friday

Oh to be flexible again! :)

Mary in a bathtub

“M in a B” - that’s what it’s known as to our family.

Years ago when we traveled to upstate New York to take our kids to the family camp for the first time, they encountered their first sight of shrines to Mary in people’s front yards. There were several on our drive. Some elaborate, some plain and simple. But our favorites were when Mary was in a bathtub! Folks would take a cast iron tub, bury it part way and place Mary inside. Clever.

After seeing the first one the kids and hubby stayed busy looking for more. It was fun and not something they had seen here in WA. I have fond memories of seeing the shrines as a child growing up back East.

We returned to NY two more times in the following years and found that many of the Mary’s were gone and only a couple of “M in a B’s” were left. So disappointing. Then two summers ago, when hubby and I went to NY (no kids) we saw only one shrine and only one “M in a B”…..the one in Owls Head that has been there each and every time but is now in dire need of a makeover!

These Mary's have a following besides our family! :) Check out this blog: "Bathtub Mary" or read more on Wikipedia. You can google "bathtub Mary" images and see all kinds.

Patting Myself on the Back

I did it.....I've blogged for a whole year! Woo hoo! Today is my blogs birthday. And I have to say it's just as fun today as it was at the beginning.

Pat, pat, pat! :)

Devils Spit

Today was lunch with my fellow Red Hatters at Famous Daves. Love my lunches as I usually get to try out new restaurants and today was no exception.

This bottle was on the table. Appropriate name for a hot sauce but I couldn't get passed the "disgusto" factor that the name implies. Who wants spit on their food? Ewww!

I chose one called Rich & Sassy....better mental picture! LOL!

Oh...the lunch was nummy. Smoked meat...this girl loves her smoked meats.

Bacon

I love bacon. It's just a fact. I'd eat it every day if I could. I love the stuff.
I have always joked that everything is good with bacon. The sentiment was even confirmed in an episode of "Best Thing I Ever Ate - Bacon" on the food network. One item from the episode even combined bacon with another of my favorite eats - doughnuts! It was a Bacon Apple Maple Donut from Dynamo Donuts in San Francisco. I am so going to San Fran, now. :)

Sooooo...imagine my surprise today at Central Market while Tink and I were shopping for some nummies for our afternoon pool party with the Yaya's.....when I spotted this:

Oh yeah....a chocolate bar with BACON! No kidding. And this was no ordinary Hershey's chocolate. Oh no, its an $8 chocolate bar.....very upscale, indeed. Luckily they had little sample bars......half an ounce....for a little better price.

I *had* to buy one.

I had to know -- is everything better with BACON????

Well, is it??????

NO! It is not. Bleck, ick, yuck. Thank the good Lord above I didn't buy the bigger bar.

So, maybe I don't need to go to San Francisco after all.

Feet Friday and Happy Anniversary to Us!

Last day at the lake and our 29th wedding anniversary!

Packaging Funny

While out doing last minute shopping for our lake vacation we decided to pick up some cheap beach balls at Target for the grandsons. Just a buck...why not.

One look at the packaging and I knew I'd be blogging. ;)

Say what?

Ha, ha, ha.......so cracked us up!

Feet Friday

Just for fun!

Sickness Steals Surprise

I have this cute church birdhouse that Tink gave me years ago that I keep on a small table in my dining room area. It's one item I don't remove anymore when I child proof before the grand kids come over. Not because I don't care if it gets ruined....but because of what it contained after one visit a couple of years ago when I forgot to put it up.

There is a little door on the back......and we discovered this:

Such a fun surprise! Liam is consistent each and every visit to park his cars in here......only this last weekend my little jewel was sick during his visit and stayed in bed. Boo hoo. We missed our surprise........that's not so surprising anymore. :)
Next time.

Wedding Bells

You know the old saying, "A daughter's a daughter all of her life, a son's a son until he takes him a wife"? It's one I believe is true most of the time. I used to hope (and even pray on occasion) that Dan would marry an orphan so she'd not have a family to pull him away to! ;) As it turns out, I needn't have worried. Yesterday our son got married and we have not lost a son but gained another daughter.....and no, she's not an orphan! :)

Here's Hubby with Dan on his cell wondering where the bride was and what was holding things up. He was anxious to get things moving!

Me with the groom.

The beautiful bride, Faith, walking down to the gazebo with her dear friend Colette. You can see the smile on her face as she spots her man.

Dan wanted a private ceremony....he would have preferred no one be there but we managed to shame him into a couple of people. Poor boy gets nervous having to speak in front of anyone! Sigh.

Here are the happy couple listening to Joe....right before the vows.

Faith is getting ready to put Dan's ring on. The picture of Dan putting her ring on didn't turn out very well.

I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Jandt.

Love this shot of them. So sweet.

Happy day!

P.S. You can read a funny blog here by a very determined best friend who decided she wasn't gonna miss this event even if Dan wanted it private!