August 31, 2010

Summer Is Over......

Although I no longer have kids in school, public, private or even collage for that matter... I am always touched by the fact that the neighborhood streets and yards are so much quieter when the kids go back to school. Summer for the most part (at least for the kids) is over and now it's back to the matter of learning and taking in knowledge. I hate to be the one to break it to them, but that is one thing that never ends! Learning or the work of learning to me is always there. There is still so much for me to learn... I didn't go to collage, but it seems I learn something new all the time... so just going to the college of life is important to me! I get a bit nostalgic about things this time of the year... thinking on how quickly our family grew and learned so many important things of life. And now, our grand kids are moving quickly down these paths also. Sometimes it's hard to see this happen, others.... well I get excited to see and to share with our grand kids some of the very things that excited me when I was their ages.

Alright... I know it's been quite a while since I took the time to post anything so I will try to do a better job the rest of the year. I ended up going on the Pioneer Trek.... to help with the cooking. I didn't actually do any trekking... but it was a wonderful experience anyway. Cooking, packing lunches for around 200 people a meal was well.... busy, exhilarating, hot, hard at times, silly, tiring, and at times we had to be just down right inventive! But well worth the hard work and the company was wonderful! I sooo do appreciate my dear husband and missed him very much. I was glad that I DID NOT SEE ANY OF THE RATTLE SNAKES THAT SOME PEOPLE SAW..... apparently a couple were seen but they just waited for them to slither away off the path and onto other travels..... YUCK!!!!! And there was one that managed to go into the girls bathroom..... (because someone didn't close the door..... like the signs said!!!!) but it was taken care of and is now viewing us from.... let us say.... more Heavenly Aspects.... ahem, get yourself into the bathroom and that's what you get I suppose! I came back with a bit of a different aspect on the wearing of pioneer clothing.... Those women were Wonder Women..... wearing dresses all the time, hot, cold.... with the breezes whipping in and out and well.... I do have a whole new light on how I feel about all those women.
I put together a quilt top/and the quilt it's self for another one of our Primary to hand tye. The only thing was..... 2 yep that's right..... only two girls showed up to help tye it! They were here early (which worked out fine) and had to leave after an hour to go to their soccor games. They were a big help though by helping me to get the quilt put onto the quilt frames. Sorry no pictures of that action.... but I do have a couple of the quilt.







Front: just a 9 patch


Back: a cute flannel that I had... and a little pink to finish it off. Nice to be able to grab something out of the fabric stash!








And last but not least: The Helper Dog!





She seemed to think that I couldn't do what I was doing without her help! She is right of course. After taking several shots this one seemed to say, don't you think that your done now! She is our sweet girl!


Our grandson..... the youngest, turned 2 a couple of weeks back and we had some family fun right here.
He is a pro already....

He is a "pro" already... he was hitting the ball and setting it back on the "T" all by himself.... (which is nice for mom because we know who would really be doing it if he couldn't do it for himself!).







Our granddaughter and her "Papa", were having a little of fun!









I've also been working on more of my "string quilt blocks" not sure how many I have now... but it's getting up there! Also I have been doing some alterations for moi!!! Wonder of wonders! I know, I don't think to sew for myself sometimes.... it's just that there is always something else to be done! My friend Karma if you will remember let me "shop" in her daughter's closet (Karma's daughter passed away 2 years ago and a while after she was gone I was invited to look at and try on and take home any clothing that I wanted. Her daughter had wonderful taste and since having died of cancer her weight went down rather quickly and she had all sorts of sized clothing. Some brand new, some not... but most all were in such good shape that her family felt that it would be nice to share. After all was said and done, I went home (feeling rather guilty really) with several large boxes of clothes. And come to find 14 people had shopped at "Diane's Closet" as we called her place and each went home with a huge amount of clothing. Diane was a wonderfully warm and caring and sharing person in life and in death. Her family misses her very much. I want to thank her family for being so generous to me and to all those that these clothes helped along the way! I have another story to tell concerning some of the clothes or at least one coat that came from "Diane's Closet" please see below*) and I brought home a number of dresses that I needed to take "in" and take "up" for that matter. Some of these dresses had never been worn before. They are so pretty and Summerish..... I should have finished them lonnnnnng ago... but, such is life! I have one more to do.... and I will have a complete new summer wardrobe! Some of them can be worn other times of the year (I'm not one who "has" to wear certain dresses during certain seasons.... some of them need to be worn... just Spring/Summer/very early Fall but I will decide as the seasons come.)

I do need to work on some up coming Christmas presents too..... we all realize that Christmas is coming......only 4 months away! Dear Hubby and I found one sweet present for the grand kids, and it will be an "early" Christmas present they will receive around Thanks Giving. I can't show a picture of it right now because our oldest DD just can't stand it when she doesn't know "the secret"..... so this is mostly just to tease her!!! LoL.... Bet I get a call as soon as she reads this!


Well, I hope all of you lovely people are sewing, crafting, and enjoying this beautiful day and the season to come. There won't be too many Summer days left I think... live each day to the fullest!

Our Heavenly Father Loves you all... Don't forget that!

Oh, and when your done sewing; don't forget to turn off the lights! Until the next post!
* I mentioned a coat that I received from Karma's daughters closet; telling about this closet of clothes made this story come to mind. I don't think that I've shared it... if I have and I know that I have to some, please just skip it and have a great day! If not.... please read on; A coat that I had seen in "Diane's Closet" went to one of Karma's sisters... it was a lovely green wool coat, a long dress coat to be exact! I had tried it on and it fit like a glove and then my hands went automatically into the pockets (I guess I'm just a pocket person at times). Inside the pocket were a pair of somewhat longer knit green gloves to match the coat!
After trying it on Karma mentioned that she thought that it might fit her sister and she really ought to have her try it on! Can't say that I wasn't disappointed, one I love green and although I really didn't need this coat (because I have a nice navy blue one) I would not have minded owning this one! Karma took the coat to her sister saying if it didn't fit her she would bring it back to me. I didn't really give it much thought after that. A few months later ( we were "shopping" in Diane's closet some time in March I think or April) Karma and I were working on a project together and she mentioned that the green wool coat didn't fit her sister and she pulled it out of the closet and gave it to me! Such a pretty coat and all I was very pleased. Fast forward to last December..... I had a meeting at Church and it was a very cold day and one of the ladies of our group and I were waiting outside the office of our Bishop for the meeting to start (in the hallway) and I had on a sweater over my dress and the green coat! The lady..... named Peggy (named has been changed to keep from embarrassing her) was sitting and shivering! She didn't have a coat on! I asked where her coat was and she said that she had left it at home, because she didn't like to wear her parka like coat with dresses! I asked her if she wanted the one I was wearing? She just looked at me, I think maybe she thought I meant just to get her warmed up! I told her the situation of how and where I got the coat and that I had another dress coat at home and I was more than comfortable to give it to her! I think she was pretty surprised.... maybe even shocked really. She didn't really know what to say I think. So she basically said no.... that's o.k. I will be fine. Later after our meeting, I confronted her again, (when no one was around and I had taken the coat off during our meeting) this time I asked her to please take the coat, that really I had another at home and to please use it with my pleasure. I had put my scarf into a bag I was carrying and gave that to her later too. (it was a scarf that I had also gotten with the coat!) She was sooo excited! She told me that green was her favorite color! I told her see..... it was meant to be! And then I told her that there were gloves in the pockets to match! She was all smiles as was Karma when I relayed the story to her.... with the name of the actual person. So, that's the story. I wasn't really supposed to have that coat after all. I was just to hold it for a little while. Love...... pass it on!