It's good to be home...

only because there is a hurricane poised to hit the Outer Banks tomorrow. I hope everyone is prepared and the damage isn't bad....

 Otherwise, I'd be wishing I was still there...doing nothing but walking on the beach early in the morning

 and in the evening.

 Sitting in a beach chair watching little kids build sand castles...TOO CUTE

boogie boarding with Meghan until we couldn't boogie anymore.

 A little retail therapy in the evenings and a few delicious meals out here, here and here and some pretty good ones in our condo too.... and I was ahhhhhh so relaxed.

Meg and I worked another puzzle.

The sky on this one was soo difficult, we started to think we wouldn't get it done. But we did and it's been "Mod- Podged"

and now just needs to be framed.

My sister, her husband and my nephew (Sam- U- L)

"HI Sam!"

(he is one of my followers!)

 came down and we spent Friday and Saturday together at the beach!

On our way home, we stopped at The Mount and visited our oldest son Paul. We got a quick tour of the grounds (Beautiful) and the buildings (Beautiful) and met a few of the other seminarians. 

Since the university is 11 (yup eleven) miles from Gettysburg you know we had to go there!  We showed Meghan The PA monument, went up inside and from the top we could point out many of the other big monuments. 

We only stayed about 1/2 hour which was enough for Meg- it was hot as heck, we'd been on the road since our 5:35am departure and we still had about 3 1/2 hours driving to get home.

 But FIRST we ate an early dinner at the Lincoln Diner.

I kid you not, eating here and spending about 1/2 an hour at the battlefield in Gettysburg was the highlight of Paul's vacation. 

A beach bum he is not! 

And now we're home and between dogs getting groomed,

Mr. Otis

groceries, uploading photos, figuring out that my camera is not ka-put just the scan disk (whew!) a surprise bday dinner for my FIL (84!).....

....and I think I need another vacation

*wink*

I've thought about quilting, wistfully but all I've gotten finished is the binding on Debbie's Beau

32 x 38

and a Zentangle birthday card for my niece.

This morning I pieced (and a dog story)

Debby's Beau  and Seppy

As I was sewing the rows on "Debby's Beau" together I reverted to using little fabric leftovers for leader/enders.

It was bothering me.  I don't want to start anything new (we all know I don't need another project) until I see how much the basement deconstruction  construction is going to go. They say that I will still be able to use part of the area, but I'm thinking perhaps I won't want to be so close to all that noise and stuff.

ANYWAY,  I had a light bulb moment and started using the sashing and squares for "Seppy" as leader/enders. 

So now I have Debby's Beau together with the stop border, which I really wanted on because of all that outside bias and Seppy is oh I'd call it 1/2 together. My goal is to get it all done today and off the wall. 

*******

Yesterday I finished the yard work projects for this summer....over the last 2 days I bought, lugged and spread 18 bags of mulch.  Silly me I thought 6 bags would do it! 

3 bags of the big pine nuggets went here

and 15 bags of cypress went here.

Can you see the wire fence along the brick edger? 

If you click on it and enlarge you will also see that I ran out of bricks, so I'm not actually completely done with this...

What a major pain in the duppa that was.

A few weeks ago my dad gave me 2 extra tomato plants he couldn't fit in his garden.  

When I first made this bed after the white fence was installed, I put that weed block fabric down and planted a few perennials, but I didn't know what else to put in there: shrubs, maybe a small ornamental tree, an herb garden....so I just mulched and thought I'd get around to it eventually.  Otis saw this spot right off the deck steps as the perfect "marking" area.  He was diligent in watering anything vertical.  I marvel that he's not in a constant state of dehydration!  The only bad thing about Otis's vigilance is his need to scrape his little back legs for emphasis that he is "dominant dog of the mulch bed" and before I realized what was happening, he had in a matter of a few days ripped to shreds the landscape fabric under the mulch.  I tried to keep him out but animal instinct was stronger than my will to run up and down those steps every 5 minutes.  The spot was his and it looked like hell.

Then the 2 tomato plants arrived.  The perfect spot would be right along that fence.  If they were going to go there a fence would be needed and if I was going to do a fence then it was time to fix the shredded fabric disaster. 

It turns out the fence I bought; although high enough to keep Annie from jumping in- 18 inches,

(well she could jump in if she wanted but she would rather sit under the apple tree all day and wait for the squirrel who lives in one to venture out--she's obsessed) not too high that I can't straddle it and get in, had openings 3 3/4" wide.  Apparently Otis is about 3 5/8" wide! 

Seriously, does this stuff happen to anybody else?

I put the fence up and started raking the remaining old mulch out of the way so I could put down new fabric and in 2 minutes; OK  I might be exaggerating it may have been 45 seconds. Otis is beside me!  I chased him around not knowing HOW THE HECK he got in there and he squirted right through the fence. 

Agggghhhhh!

After trying to scare him out of going in there, which one time got Annie's attention and she saw him squirt in and she tried to follow....SHE is not 3 5/8 inches wide at her narrowest!

And going back and forth on whether I should take it back, get something else, throw the tomato plants over the hill, I ended up buying the same fence again and double it with the openings being off centered so he can't get his little nose through.

I think that means I win....