staying up late...

...with a little girl who can't sleep.  She asked me to snuggle her and requested to use the quilt made by mamalia.  My little girl said she can feel the love wrapped around her with the quilt.  I am thankful for the time alone with my girl and a wonderful friend and her gift.

moon

My littelest wanted to share some pictures of the moon that she took.

it...

                         ...rained for more than 15 minutes this evening. 

I hope the dry spell has lifted!

outdoor monday ~ park

My oldest didn't get his portrait taken with his brother and sisters because he was off taking some pictures of his own.   He would like to share some of the pictures that he took today at the park.

228 down

3378 to go.

This quilt has sat on my sewing table for over a month without any progress. I could feel it there, haunting me, needing to be done before new projects are started. Does anyone else feel haunted by unfinished projects?

My excuse this time? (avoidance) The perfect binding fabric never showed itself. (avoidance) I could probably wait and look for a year and the perfect binding fabric wouldn’t show up. (avoidance) What was I avoiding? Making a decision? Perhaps the hand sewing?...the decision.

Something had to be done. No more avoidance! Taking a bit of “the dog that bit it" cut into smaller squares and sewn together I made the binding... finally.

I see several long familiar movies in my week: Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Cranford, North & South.  And an estimated 3600 hand sewn stitches to finish off this quilt.

grabbing a snack

Womp Rat  just stopped by to grab a quick snack and say hello before dashing back into his storm drain home.

We went to HogHaven today and saw the King of Rock and Roll, Jake and Elwood, and  Fred and Ginger.

lunchtime visit

I looked out our front window around lunch to find our friend in the flower bed.  It looked like he was eating the morning glory leaves.  Morning glory leaves are edible?

Apparently so for groundhogs; he has a leaf in his mouth.

We have been researching groundhogs since he started visiting us and some of the facts we have found are more entertaining for my littles.
         
Groundhogs are also called:
land beavers  ("I told you it was a beaver."  They never seem to miss a chance for an "I told you so.")

woodchucks (guess what I've been listening to lately?)
"How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"
"A woodchuck would chuck all he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!"

large ground squirrel (with random shouts of "It's mocking me with its tail.")

I don't mind him eating the morning glory leaves but that doesn't sound too yummy to me.  Tonight we left him a cucumber and some tomatoes from the garden.  We are all excited to see if he comes back and eats them.

V and Co. fat quarter shop giveaway

Not that we need a giveaway to get us to go over to Vanessa's blog.  She is amazing!




Vanessa is holding a giveaway with the Fat Quarter Shop that I know many of my sewing friends will drool over like I am.



Go over to V and Co. and see how to enter. 

outdoor monday ~ birthday

We had a birthday request of going to the beach and woke up to a gray overcast day.  By 7:30 this morning the skies opened up and the rain was pouring down.  I am so happy for my lawn and garden that we finally got some rain.  But my little birthday girl looked like she was going to pour down tears and asked if we could still go to the beach.  My boys didn't even wait for me to answer they piped in with "as long as there is no lightning and thunder."  They know that you can't let some rain stop you from having some fun!

They started to dig.

And dig,

The digging started to take shape.

After a couple hours of digging, they made a canal connecting two coves.

After a little boy was stung my girls went looking for sea jellies to catch and throw back into the sea by the rocks. They got a couple stings themselves, but they said it really didn't hurt; at least not enough to stop them from having fun.

another womp rat sighting

Yesterday, he came out to eat some of the clover that is surviving our dry spell.

on my needles

I got some yummy new yarns from The Knitting Sisters the other day.  One of the skeins that I got went almost instantly on my needles.  This one is silk/merino extrafine wool from Manos del Uruguay a non-profit organization that helps bring rural women economic and social opportunities.  I think I will be getting some more; it glides through my fingers and will keep the wearer quite warm this winter.

The hat and one of the fingerless gloves are finished and I have started on the other glove.  My girlie is so use to me asking her to try things on that she didn't even need to stop her drawing to help me out.

outdoor monday challenge ~ beach

dragonfly

This dragonfly seems to like attention.  It let us get within inches of it and kept following us around the garden.