Shop Hopping and a Crash

Wow, July was a busy month!  We've had hot, humid weather and plenty of rain.  Actually, the grass and trees look lush this year - many times it's very dry and starting to get brown by now.

I was lucky (crazy?) enough to go with Mom on a 2-day bus trip to 10 quilt shops.  We had a great time with the usual bus load of wild, silly women acting like naughty children half the time, and seriously looking for just the right fabric at each shop the other half of the time.  

This was the annual Quilt Minnesota shop hop, and we were visiting the shops in the Metro section.  (If you visit all shops in any section, you are eligible for great prizes.) There is a line of fabric designed specifically for Minnesota, and the shops only have a limited amount of the fabric.  You know what that means - women are crazy to get what they want of this fabric, and it goes fairly quickly.   

 I usually try to get the fabric because I do like it, and it's just fun to have specialty fabric that has limited availability.  Needless to say, I picked up a few yards.  And patterns.  And kits.  Well?  I'll make something.  Aprons, pot holders, table runners.  Probably after the wedding, but at least I have plenty of projects for winter!  Ha.  

I got a new vehicle last week too.  My car was beginning that nickel-dime activity, and we decided not to put any more hard earned nickels into it. So, I got a 2016 Chevy Trax.  It's a great little urban SUV that gets great gas mileage.  

I had the new Trax for a little less than 48 hours, and while tooling around with my Mom, got rear-ended.  Yep.  Brand new vehicle, heading out for lunch on my BIRTHDAY with my Mom, and bam. Rear-ended by a kid looking at his phone.  Mom heard some phrases she didn't expect out o.lf my mouth!  Fortunately, everyone is OK and the damage is minor.  I will get a new bumper, but ugh.  The inconvenience of it all is frustrating.  I hate seeing people on their phones in the car, and I see it so frequently, it's startling.  My new Trax has the standard Bluetooth capability, and I can answer my phone with buttons on the steering wheel,- woo hoo!  Not that I'm a big phone chatterer, but ...  My phone stays in my purse anyway, but this is new technology I haven't had before!  Very convenient, and amazing to me.  I think I'll like this new Trax.  I better - I'll have payments for awhile!  Haven't had to deal with that for several years, so it's a shock to the accounts, LOL.

AND, for our birthdays - which are only 4 days apart - we decided to get nice bicycles.  Good for our health to get some activity, and we really have beautiful biking trails and parks nearby.  Not crazy about too much healthy activity outside in the humidity lately, but we are enjoying nice rides when the weather is tolerable.  The goal is to ride the paths along the river into Minneapolis, where there are wonderful restaurants with outside patios for lunch, and plenty of sights to enjoy.  Hopefully we'll get to do that this fall, but we need a bike rack on the Trax first.  Have some research to do!

On with August.  This next week will be hot - close to 90 with more humidity.  I really hate it when my glasses fog up just stepping outside.  Ish!

Perfect Summer Weather!

Weell, I'm still playing with my new Zentangle hobby.  (And acquiring more supplies!)

Pens, pencils, erasers, blender and books.  And sketch pads.  Who knew there were so many types of paper?  I am happy with this latest try at making a blob look 3D:

So fun to feel successful!  I chuckle when I think of my dad's question when I showed him - "What are you going to do with that?"  Well.  Nothing but admire my own work, I guess ;)

Our sweet Ruby turned 10 last week.  I can't believe we've had her that long!  She's an amazing part of our lives - she has a huge personality and childlike quality about her.  (Not to mention neurotic and anxious.)

We had a pretty relaxing 4th of July weekend while everyone else headed to camping or cabins or boating.  (We enjoy our quiet neighborhood on these holiday weekends!) We dog-sat my daughter's dog, and a nice walk exhausted both Ruby and Rambo.  They are both older, so they don't wear us out too much, haha!  Rambo, however, is very social.  And fast when he wants to visit the neighbors.  I am not so fond of chatting with the neighbors in my bathrobe at 6 am.  That only happened once (whew!)

I had plenty of time to finish another book while enjoying the absolutely perfect weather we had too!  

This week was back to the regular work routine - and today is starting out to be another beautiful day.  Gotta love the perfect weather on weekends!

Strawberry Season!

Strawberry season always gets summer started!  My girls and I made 2 batches of  Strawberry-Rhubarb jam today - 24 half pints.  It's the hottest day of the year so far (ugh) 96 and humid!  Tomorrow my plan is a batch of plain strawberry jam. One daughter has huge rhubarb plants, and my coworker gave me beautiful berries from her home garden.  Enough for LOTS of jam - I will share :)

I can't believe it's already July 4th next weekend!  Wedding plans are getting serious now - lots of planning getting accomplished!

New Grand-Dog

Meet Capone, our new Grand-Dog!  Isn't he cute?  As soft and cuddly as he looks, too.  The engaged couple decided to add him to their "zoo" - he has 2 sister cats who are not too sure they like him. Capone is Boxer/Bulldog and maybe something else.  In any case, he is well-loved.

A little drawing this week - not nearly enough, but it's that time thing again. This is a tangle that reminded everyone of mummies.  Baby mummies in this case, LOL. It was suggested I use this as a Halloween card and add a little orange. 

Still reading, not much time left for tangling or tatting or sewing this week. 

It's great to have options!

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Slow Year of Blogging?!

Well!  It's been a loooong time since a blog post - almost 3 months!

Originally, I started blogging just to keep a record for myself of my progress with various hobbies, and it was a bonus to meet and get to know others. It's so enjoyable to interact with others that have the same interests! It turned into so much time reading everyone else's blogs and wanting to try absolutely EVERYTHING I saw, that I really spent more time browsing the web than actually working on the hobbies. But honestly, I just don't think my life is interesting enough to blog about too many details.  And there are times when I feel like every blogger or Facebook friend is trying to sell me something.  (Yes, I tried that too - not my bag.)

Truthfully, I miss keeping the sort of journal it creates of my own life - to look back and be able to say "wow, I really did that and it's really nice!" is so gratifying.  But, it does take some time, and leads me to other unnecessary surfing (ha ha!)  So, I guess I will keep on blogging, but will keep it more journal-like.  Maybe I will figure out a system for just posting pictures and not trying to write so much.  (But I need to explain!!)  

So, for the past few months, I have been doing a little of everything.  I've done a little tatting of cross bookmarks to have on hand - they are so handy to have to pop in a card to someone I know that will truly appreciate it. Our Twin Cities Tatters will meet tomorrow - that always inspires me, though I can't seem to tat and talk at the same time, so I make many mistakes. I have so many patterns I want to tat, but . . .

I've been doing a LOT of drawing, (not to mention gathering pens, pencils, blenders, sketchbooks, and spending time in art supply stores!)  I really do love the "zen" in zentangle.  Check out what ZENTANGLE is - anyone can do it! Even us perfectionists, with a little practice :)

I go through stretches where I read alot, and then I don't read for a few months.  I'm on my 3rd book in about month right now - another stretch of reading underway.

I'm still having some fun with photography, though I've stopped the photo challenge I started.  It was getting to be too many staged photos that I just don't either have the time, the equipment, or the location to get the assigned photo.  I don't want to take photos just to fulfill the assignment, I want the photos to be good ones, and ones I can be proud of or maybe hang on the wall.  But, the challenge did give me some other perspectives to think about when taking photos, so not all is lost.  So, I just enjoy looking back at some of the fun photos I've taken in the past, and just try to snap a few more when the opportunity arises.

Wedding plans are moving right along, and the next 4 months are going to go FAST.  I will be cutting into my wedding dress soon to work on a hair piece/veil. Yikes.

And, did I mention I'll be going on a quilt shop "shop hop" with my mom the end of July?  Imagine the inspiration.  I haven't been sewing much lately, but I'm sure I'll find some irresistible fabric.  Or pattern.  Hee hee!

More another day.  Maybe just a picture or two.  Enjoy the weekend!