A day off

Yesterday I had the day off. 

I had so many things on 'the to do list' it was crazy.

I started doing gardening stuff in the morning and in a patch of myrtle along the AC unit at the side of the house I found the Poison Ivy that started my itching a couple weeks ago.  YIKES!

So into the house all clothes in washer-me in shower.  No new itchies so I guess I got it in time.  

I do believe all the ground cover in this area will be removed and mulch will take it's place.  I will not be doing this again!

*****

The weather was so lovely that I didn't want to be cooped up doing binding in the house.

I found that I hadn't finished sewing the binding to the back of this quilt when I had to move it out of the closet for the carpet install.

The label says finished Sept 2011!

oops!

I also spent some time practicing a new to me E2E quilting design. It's a free panto from Stone House quilting called raindrops. I already had it downloaded on my computer but forgot about it until I saw this post from Kathy over at Tamarack Shack.

Since I haven't taken the time to learn how to do pantos yet and I won't have the time for a while...I'm just going to freehand this one.  

It was fun to practice this and I should be ready to quilt with it this evening after work.

and here is the latest Libby quilt I forgot to post a picture with all the biking fun last week.

It's her Dr. Seuss quilt.  I did a meander with a squiggily ribbon candy type thing-y here and there.  

I found the idea in my Pajama quilter reloaded book. 

and another customer table runner

*****

although I don't like to blog about it (afraid of jinxing ya'know) I need to document a little on my walking routine.

I'm still walking.

that's all. 

ha ha

No seriously, 

I am still walking 3-4 miles most days.  I've also (I'm embarrassed to say) adding a little jogging to the walks.  I'm embarrassed because I was so adamant  that I would 'never run again' and walking was enough. But I'm now in pretty good walking shape and don't feel like I'm getting my heart rate up enough so I jog a little and then walk again.  

And dang it, I like it.  

I bought running shoes...well they were cute and on sale for $16-seriously Asics for $16. I just spied them and they fit and are comfy...sigh, I love a good bargain and I had really no intention of actually running in them.

You see a long, long time ago in a land far, far away (the 80's) I was a runner. I even ran in Pittsburgh's "10K Great Race"- ran the whole thing, which was my goal actually.

Then we moved and I could give you a whole slew of excuses but I twisted my ankle and got out of the habit and that was that.

I have no intention of becoming a runner again. My sister runs half marathons, not me. My other sister ice climbs mountains DEFINITELY not me.

I'm the walker who jogs a bit who has finally got her BMI well into the normal range for her height and is comfortable in her clothes and skin again. 

It's been over a year of walking and eating as healthy as I can without being crazy.

Changing the lifestyle has worked--who'd of thunk it!

Now just to maintain for the rest of my life...

always a catch isn't there.

Fun times, fun times.

Life is Good.  

taking a walk and birds

I've been wanting to do this for a while but would forget to take my camera. 

Today I remembered.

I leave my house and walk about 1/10 of a mile up the road I live on, which has a lot of traffic, to this dead end street.

I start at the stop sign. It's too my left out of this picture.  

(if I back up for a wider shot I'd risk being run over.)

I walk up this little hill and then down a dip.

 Where you can't see the road in this picture, it starts going up again.

up, up to the top of the hill where it levels off for about 50 yards 

and then down, down, down to where the pavement ends.

There is a house on the right at the end of the road and I wave at the front window.

The lady who lives there told me to.  She told me that she sees me walking every day but I never look her way-just straight ahead.  (Ha!)  She said to just wave, even though we both know I can't see into her living room from where I am.  

So I do.

She told me to do  this a few months ago, when I came down the hill and found her shoveling her driveway after we had a few inches of snow.  I  offered to help her-I love to shovel snow, but she said no it helps keeps her young.  

She's in her 80's!

This is the view of the woods and valley across from her house.

If I stand there, and wait, I will hear it.

Nothing.

It's wonderful.

Then a car or truck goes by on the road over the hill back there and ruins it.
I'm not in a secluded quiet place,  like where I grew up...I'm in suburbia.
A little sheltered piece of it but suburbia for sure.

Then back up the hill I go to the beginning. 

8/10th of a mile for each lap.

I do four.

Three if my schedule is crazy and I haven't planned well enough.

Five if I have time, it's not freezing or I ate something really good bad the day before.

I only stop for these.

I have a thing for these birds. I don't remember seeing them ever growing up. 

And I grew up in the country and rode horses in the woods year round with my dad.  We saw lots a wildlife-could get really close to deer before they'd spook. Well, as long as me or my sister weren't yakking away about something.  I loved to talk to my horse, Velvet, she was the best listener. :)

So I always thought woodpeckers were rare.  And the first time I saw a Pileated

woodpecker I was thrilled.  

Sometimes  Hairy or Downy woodpeckers come to up to the back deck and the bird feeder w/suet.  But they are so quick I can't get my camera in time.  I see and hear them on almost every walk and it just makes me smile.

*****

OH
Lest I forget.
Happy Valentine's Day.

Good Morning Day!

Let's see where to start.

I finished the binding AND the hanging sleeve on the Evening Shadows quilt. It's good to go for the show in November. 

I do need to put a proper show sleeve on Stargazing but I'm going to let that go until Monday.

Since Wednesday this is the progress on the little jack-o-tops.

The checkerboard on the left I pieced L/E style while sewing the little jacks together :) It's from a free pattern I got on the shop hop in June, for a E Reader Cover.  I DON"T HAVE AN E READER.

But I saw the pattern and thought it would be cute and fun and quick and easy-- and it was and it satisfied my compulsive need to make something, to keep pecking away at the binder of  "Quilts I'd Like to Make"  and it used 66 two inch squares that I already had cut out. 

The fact that I don't have a Kindle or Nook and have no plans to get one or the other seems irrelevant.

The deconstruction, construction has started up again (yeah).  New plumbing in the ceiling so that a drop ceiling can eventually be put in.  Since this old house was built with no thoughts that the basement would ever be used for living space the original pipes were put in way below the joists.

  CRAZY.  But now it's all fixed and hooked back up. (Yes, they're still below the joists but now they're up enough that a bulk head can be built and blah, blah, blah.....it will look nice) Sorry I sorta zone out when they start explaining this stuff to me....JUST so it looks nice and works!

 Today they're working on wiring-this is the hardest thing for me to tell them where I want outlets, switches etc. I want to just say EVERYWHERE!!

Yesterday I worked on these:

I traced the appliques for the 3 patterns in the front there (all are from old Fons & Porter magazines) and I haven't subscribed to that one for a while. 

The batik quilt to the back right; I figured out fabrics for a baby quilt. 

 I made a baby one with that pattern in '09 but of course, didn't write down the fabric adjustments. I never thought I'd be making another... but still would have been nice.

I'm not going to really consider the 3 appliques "real projects" until I fuse the fabrics, these could just languish and I'd be guilt ridden over 3 more UFOs (ha!) 

Well, I need to get moving here.  It's not raining so my walk is next.  I've been very good

( am really afraid to put this in writing and jinx it)

and have been walking every day since we came home from vacation in August, and most days twice a day; about 2.5 miles in morning and again in the evening. 

**well I did miss 2 days because of rain or some other really good reason excuse that I can't remember now**

As it's getting dark earlier, I think one 3.5-4 mile in the morning will be good.  I've lost 11 pounds.  I'm real happy to be back to my ''normal- all my adult life- after having kids 10-15 pounds- overweight self".

10 pounds according to the doctor charts

15 pounds according to my inner self who would like to be "thin" just for once and it NOT be the result of stress cuz my son was in boot camp. (yah, I got real skinny that summer but it wasn't worth it!)

  If I lose the rest, that will be a woo-hoo, but if not well hell that's OK too. I feel a lot better. 

It's been so difficult to get into the habit of walking...changing the routine is soooo hard.  And I still think it's too new to be a really cemented habit in my life.  I'd so rather stay in my jammies and sew, quilt, blog, drink coffee, daydream, not think about what's for dinner...

I'm not talking about this anymore, I think I'm gaining weight just typing about it. 

*****

And now a picture that made us laugh.

  Paul comes home from work everyday and goes to the sofa and reads the paper and within 2 seconds Otis is on his lap.  Meg and I happened to sit down and were talking with Paul. (this is unusual-we leave him alone to unwind for a bit) all of a sudden we realized Otis was sleeping ... 

...begs the question: who had the rougher day?   HA!
couldn't be our boring conversation, right?
don't answer that. :)
Good weekend to y'all


fun times, fun times, Life is Good!