(Backup) LAZY HAZY CRAZY DAYS OF SUMMER...WELL SORTA

I’m not sure if they were lazy or hazy but I do know they were crazy. 

Travel, and company kept us busy, but a few other things thrown in made it a little crazy some days. Moving to the beach each summer is always busy and there are always lots of jobs to be done. 

Because of the huge ice storm in the winter there was a ton of cleanup and burning to be done. Mr O was also working at consulting which included several trips away. He always tends to things to make things as easy for me as possible. We had a board on the deck that was quite weakened and I was concerned that it might break before he returned so he said he would replace it before leaving the next morning. 

While I was inside unpacking, dusting and setting things up, Mr O called me outside; naturally I just assumed he need a hand with something. He looked at me pointed to the gap where the faulty board was and smiled. Naturally I was puzzled..on closer inspection, I saw what ne wanted me to see. A litter of 4 tiny kittens! There are several ferral cats in the area and one of them chose to have her litter under our deck! 

Obviously they needed to be moved while the deck was being repaired. We gently placed them in a box. Mama was no where to be seen all day and we were a bit concerned as to our next move. A cat made a brief apperance but quickly disappeared, we tried setting out food but to no avail. With Mr O leaving the next morning for two weeks, we  decided to remove the new deck board and put them back under hoping mama would return.  After a day I lifted the board to see if all was well, and lo and behold they were gone. Mama had moved them. Not far though...they were hidden away under the guest house aka my quilting studio.

Mama was so thin and scrawny looking and she was feeding her babies, I caved and started feeding her a bit here and there...long story short; we had cats all summer long. They thought they owned the place!

By summer’s end I was concerned that they were not moving out and we would be moving home and the food bank was closing. They needed to learn to hunt and feed themselves before the snow came. I had to be brutal and stop feeding them and “encourage” them to leave home. My weapon was a water bottle. After many days of unwanted showers they finally moved on, but I have to tell you that I was getting pretty attached to them. It was harder on me than it was on them!

I worked several days at a local quilt shop which lead to a bigger project that was so much fun and in turn helped the shop owner make some great changes to the shop. Needless to say I was in my glory!

THANKS NADINE!

Throw in buying a new boat with our son,

Furniture painting class with friends,

berry picking, 

a Blue Jays game, 

 a very long bout of Whooping cough, and you can see why I say summer was more crazy than lazy. 

One for the books! I loved it and wouldn’t change a thing...well maybe just one thing!

IT AINT OVER TIL ITS OVER

I have a post title and I am all set up to write but excuse me for a minute...I need to go back and read my last post. It has been so long since I have been here, I need to go back and see what we were talking about when I said good bye.....

Ok! I’m back. Good thing I checked.. lots to catch up on. 

First of all, my bathrobe is done.

At first glance you might think..not too bad...I hate to say it but I should have listened to my friends. It is much too big! At first I thought it would be ok, but I had tried it on over my clothes, afterwards I tried it again and it is much too big! I had hurried to finish it even though I really was not feeling up to snuff only to be disappointed. So when I packed my suitcases yesterday, it did not make the cut, and my old faithful bathrobe has come along for the ride! Why didn’t I listen to my friends when they told me it was too big!

Alright..next.

Remember I told you about the challenge from Mr. O to get my quilt finished this year...well TADA!

DONE!

It feels so good to have it done I can overlook the inconsistencies in the stitching. I have to tell you though I really enjoy the hand stitching. I am working away on another quilt I started hand quilting many years ago. No rush, no pressure, just stitching. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the finish but just know that it is being worked on.

I made Mr. O a new quilt for his birthday. 

Not a difficult pattern, just paying attention to intensity of colour is what makes this quilt.

Don’t you just love the quilting?  I think it is awesome and I can say that because I did not do it. I had it done at a quilt shop in Orillia this summer. We were going to be in the area for a family reunion and it was a great opportunity for me to have it done like one I had seen earlier in the year at their shop. 

I made several gifts for games at the reunion and also did pillows for the remaining aunts and uncles of the Leach family. I printed a photo of Granny and Grandpa and just random pieced the fronts of the pillow covers. I was very pleased with the results and thankfully so were the recipients. I also did a pillow to match the quilt I made this spring for our son and daughter in law.

After the reunion our daughter and her husband came to New Brunswick for a visit. It has been a long while and Michelle has recently become interested obsessed in quilting. She made a quilt for her husband while visiting and started one for herself. I made a bag for my grand daughter as well as a few other small things. Not bad for a weeks visit!

Do you know how hard it is to get photos of a quilt on a windy day? It was a real circus. Mr. O tried  to help us out but...that didnt work either.

We finally tacked it to the back door of the guest house and called it a day! Whew!

Speaking of “ calling it a day” that is just what I am going to do, I have been at this post for 2 hours and I temporarily lost it and spent another hour trying to retrieve it...I have and I plan to publish it. I am not willing to take the chance that I will have to rewrite. With any luck I will add a little more tomorrow night. I have been awake since 5:30 and we have been on the road for 10hours. Enough is enough. So yes this post is over, but come back for more, cause this blog aint over yet.

TOO MANY IRONS IN THE FIRE

In the last couple of posts I have mentioned several projects we have going on. Somehow this week has disappeared with none of them being completed. I have had zero energy. So many projects to do and I can't wrap my head around any of them. My yellow chair is still waiting for it's second coat of paint. the bench cushion is still just in the idea stage; my French Lines quilt is still waiting for it's ruffled binding. frames need painting, and on and on it goes. If that is not enough jobs to be finished, I thought I might start a few more this week. 

On Thursday a few of us gals got together to make summer bathrobes. I mis-judged the size I needed and after cutting everything out in an XL some of the girls insisted that it would be much too large for me. 

 

To prove the point I tried on a Small one that one of the other girls was making and it was a close fit. They convinced me to recut to a Med. and I agreed but when it came time to cut, I just could not bring myself to cut a Med. I decided to go with a Large. I hope that I am not going to be sorry, but I do not like a skimpy bathrobe. One thing I do know is that I am going to like it...

 

 

This is the size Small (minus the sleeves). I'm guessing the XLarge may have been just a bit roomy!

My goal is to finish mine this week.

Speaking of goals; Mr O challenged me to finish a quilt that I started hand quilting over 10 years ago. A little something to mark the occasion of Canada's 150th.

I have been plugging away at it and all the blocks and sashings are now done. All I have left to do is the outer border and then it is ready for a binding. I might just pull this off!

 

 

Isn't it pretty? In spite of my very immature hand quilting. I'm told practice makes perfect and I have another quilt waiting in the wings that is about halfway done with the hand quilting as well, so time will tell. In my mind, "done" will be almost as good as perfect.

I know I am all over the map with my ramblings tonight, but here is a pic I took last week of my little rhubarb patch

It has grown enough this week with all the rain we have had that I was able to harvest my first crop yesterday while Mr O and I were out working at cleaning and burning brush from all the winter windfall. 

A lot of the leaves and broken branches have been put through a chipper to make mulch for around the raised beds. The other bed beside the rhubarb has tiny strawberry plants I purchased late last summer and they seem to have wintered well and are starting to show flower buds on a few plants. Hopefully next summer I will harvest the perfect combination for some yummy strawberry rhubarb pies.

In the meantime I made a rhubarb pudding today and I have to say it is pretty yummy. A friend had posted on her Facebook page and her blog about a recipe she found online for this pudding that makes it's own sauce, and I thought I would give it a try. It is quick and easy and very tasty.

 

I still have lots left to make a batch of muffins on Monday. 

The recipe can be found here    http://commonsensehome.com/rhubarb-pudding-cake/

I used about 1/4 cup less sugar in the cake batter and it was still plenty sweet. I imagine this would be absolutely scrumptious with a mix of rhubarb and strawberries.

Another thing I usually do with my rhubarb is make aslush mix that I keep in the freezer and whe we want a nice cold refreshing drink, just scrape out about 1/4 cup of the frozen (alcohol free) slush and top up the glass with either Perrier or 7Up. Yummy!

You might like it... http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/rhubarb-slush

 

 

You may have noticed a bit of a change to the side bar on my blog where I list blogs I read. I removed some that were inactive and will be adding others I have started reading. Not only have I been negligent at writing in my own blog but I have not been reading the one I used to keep up with all the time. It is so nice to catch up on all the activity of my fellow bloggers.

I leave you with a few pics of the "weeds" on our side lawn. Actually they are actually one of my favourite wild flowers. Mr O has cut the lawn already and still they show their happy faces. How forgiving they are. Much more so than any hothouse flower that has to be petted and babied into flowering. Behold the lowly wild woodland violet; our provincial flower here in New Brunswick.