hodgepodge . . .

Really I have just a strange collection of odds and ends from my life to share today. All of them are important to me in one way or another, so I just piled 'em up together. There's no wonder I don't have a design wall per se . . . I've been too busy buying fabrics and running the video on my camera . . .

First, a nod back to Knoxville and the AQS show. One of the most poignant exhibits there was the traveling Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative exhibit. Unfortunately, in order to preserve the quilts, no photography was allowed, but you can see photos of it HERE at their website and some HERE if you "like" them on facebook. (Photo from the website.)

I had actually had an opportunity earlier in the year to put the name of a dear friend and mentor on one of the squares. I was so excited and touched to find her name -- my handwriting -- on the exhibit (yes; that's the thing I had a part in that was hanging at the AQS show) . It's a very beautiful and moving display and would have been worth the AQS entrance fee if that had been all I'd seen. If you have the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend it.

Next? I got not one, but TWO happy packages in the mail! The first was this wonderful collection of books - and you can see, there are some great titles (and a cute little notepad which is perfect for list-making and/or doodling)!

This came from Peggy at The Simple Woman's Day Book.

The second package came from Karen over at Lisnaweary Quilts. She picked my names, "Cactus Kid & Bo" for her little guys on her Wild West Quilt.

Aren't these fun and pretty? Perfect for the little cowgirl in my life (and I do have one or two).

Saturday I got to spend a couple of hours with my favorite little man, Sawyer Graham. I cannot believe how busy and chatty he is!

Just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

See that frown? That's what happens when you try and read your books upside down!

Great profile shot, non?

Just so HAPPY!

I managed to whittle this little clip down from the eleven minute mini-movie it originally was. It's still entertaining to me -- and I've already watched it a dozen times!

Remind me to share why the pig says, "La la la!" I love being a grandmaaaaaa. :)

Then finally, from today, we have new visitors at the camp!

Mama Raccoon and her sweet little babies! They were the first raccoon babies I've ever seen. We saw the first fawn of the season up here last week -- but it was very timid and wouldn't come out for a camera shot. With the baby raccoons I had no such problems.

They were so cute -- and they didn't get too far from mama at first.

Todd commented how amazing it is that we're seeing them in the daylight like this.

Something startled them (another raccoon -- a big male -- came out to eat) and they went dashing up the tree!

After they'd been in the clearing for a while, they got a little braver and let mom get more than six feet away. But my favorite part of their visit I managed to catch on video . . .

Isn't that fun?!?!

All right, I've got a busy, busy (but fun) week in store. Tomorrow I'm off to a church finances seminar and then we've got Community Groups in the evening. I've got a dear, quilty friend coming for lunch and iced tea on Wednesday followed by an evening with the Ignite ladies at the movies (Winnie the Pooh), then Thursday I've got some book-keeping to do before I head off to my guild meeting. Friday I've got lunch at Emma's with a sweet young lady from church, and then a Friday evening ladies' conference at Lighthouse Baptist, and then Saturday morning is the Sulky Thread workshop. Whew! I'm out of breath just typing all that! Good thing the list Todd gave me for the week was such that I finished everything but one item today!

:)

in the company of friends . . .

I enjoyed a wonderful Wednesday in the company of some very dear friends and their children today. The kids had a blast playing, finding "critters", and playing some more. What a fun day!

The kids forging upstream!


Baby snapping turtle we found on one of the trails.
He was *well* loved by the day's end.

What darling guys!


You've heard of singing in the rain? They were "swinging" in the rain!

Ribbit!
(Hint: on top of her head--click on the picture for the full effect.)

:)

rainy day happies . . .

Luckily, the rain held off this morning, for the most part. I went down early and opened the gate for a VBS crew we had coming into the camp today. It did rain just a little on my trip down -- just enough to make everything smell clean and earthy. I love summer showers!

The VBS group came in and did their thing. I finished up my Community Group lesson and then Todd & I headed over to chat with them before they left. It's a good thing we left when we did -- they'd packed up early because of the impending thunder storms and were loading the kids up! They'll be back up here for the next four Tuesdays, so I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to play!

Speaking of playing . . . raccoons barely get along with each other. So it's no shock that they don't get along with . . .

Cats! The raccoon walked up behind the [feral] cat (who was laying down there ready to pounce on the next unsuspecting bird). When the cat finally turned around and saw the coon, he JUMPED up and *very* warily backed away.

Yup -- the coon reigns in the clearing! The birds and squirrels don't mind the coons and were probably happy to see him chase the cat out!

Storms did finally move in, and the rainy afternoon lent itself to another of my favorite past times -- reading! I'd recently had a hankering to go back through the Little House series. I'm reading Farmer Boy right now. These are such charming stories.

And so well written. I find myself laughing out loud all through them! I wish, I wish, I *wish* that they were available for the Kindle. I wonder why they aren't?

It was also the perfect afternoon to brew a pot of Chocolate Orange tea and settle in with my latest issue of Tea Time!

Lot's of fun articles and tea parties and recipes in the July/August issue. I read it cover-to-cover! I did see on the tea calendar that there's a Sweet Tea Festival nearby in Thompson's Station, Tennessee, on August 27. There's a website and facebook page for it and everything. Sounds like something I may need to investigate!

i ♥ rainy afternoons!

:)

a full, fun father's day weekend . . .

It started out Friday evening with a surprise call from Kim, wanting to know if I wanted to get in some "Sawyer time" that night. Are you kidding me?! Of course! I suggested they bring Sawyer over for a sleepover, so they did! I love Sawyer sleepovers!

We had pizza for dinner. As you can plainly see, Sawyer likes pizza . . .

I know it looks bad, but he cleaned up very nicely! He sure can cram some pizza into his little mouth.

After dinner, Sawyer and I went out for a ride on the golf cart. He *loves* to ride around the camp. We went down the low road and saw this . . .

At first I was very startled, but then I remembered that we had the Christian Southern Archers coming out on Saturday for an event, and they'd already set up their targets. Sawyer didn't know the difference, though, and for the rest of our sixty-minute ride, he growled at every animal we came upon.

Especially this big ol' guy, up in the upper meadow. Even when we got close enough to touch it, Sawyer just growled and growled. It's very funny to listen to and even funnier when you know that he's actually mimicking his Aunt Jocelyn's cat, Leia (who growls at most everyone).

Sawyer even growled at this fellow . . .

Can you see the little Frog Prince in the center of the photo? Every time he jumped, so did Sawyer.

And I couldn't get a smile out of him for the life of me -- he was too intent on all the animals. He was hard-pressed to look away from them long enough for him to look at me!

Back at the RV, I turned on our happy lights and he amused himself walking up and down the stairs about a million times.

And once we were cleaned up and in our "escape proof" pj's, he still wanted to go outside!

We had a good night's sleep and his mommy and daddy picked him up early, to go visit Kim's dad. After checking on the archery group that was already up at the camp, I headed to the grocery store. It was a relatively quiet day, with Todd working down on the dock, and me doing domestic things and working on the ministry's newsletter, when a violent storm popped up and passed through the camp.

It took with it a couple of trees, including this one which came down over the main road *and* the road into the main camping area.

And yes, if you look closely enough, those are power lines and we were (once again) without power. I've never been so thankful for my husband's foresight than when he purchased that generator!

Saturday night we went to sleep lulled by the sounds of the cranked generator. We got up Sunday morning for a happy Father's Day breakfast of french toast and bacon -- Todd's favorite!

A quick call to Huntsville Utilities confirmed they did still have our repair ticket and that they'd get to us when they could. *sigh*

Sunday was a hot, hot day. Our raccoon visitor stopped by and took a little dip.

He really is very cute!

Later that afternoon, everyone came up for a little Father's Day get-together. We celebrated with Todd's favorite; a Carvel ice cream cake. I think it may be Sawyer's too.

Just take a look at the blue from the ice cream frosting, around his mouth!

Then Todd got down to business and opened presents!

He was very pleased and surprised by the Kindle! Yay!

And I couldn't post it on my blog on Friday, but this was actually the first Kindle holder I made! One for my dear man's new toy. :)

Sawyer makes himself right at home. I found my old cell phone for him to play with. He loves to carry around cell phones and remotes!

And here are the hers and his Kindle cases! We'll always be able to tell our Kindles apart.

And this morning, I played around just a little bit with quilted postcards.

This is definitely something I'm going to need to play around with more and get in lots of practice. I did two different techniques for securing them (mainly because I wasn't real pleased with how the first one turned out), but the second one did better. This will be a fun past time when I feel the urgent need to create. I even got them in today's mail!

Whew. I need a week to rest from the weekend!

:)

whatever works . . .

These are all photos of food or drink . . .

Taken with my phone . . .

And then texted to my daughter . . .

No matter how small . . .

Or time of day . . .

If I put it in my mouth (and subsequently swallow it) . . .

I send a picture of it to Joc.

Pretty odd, huh? Well, I can't knock it! She suggested instead of writing down everything I eat, to take a PICTURE of everything I eat instead. I suggested that I needed a lot of accountability and encouragement, and asked if she were up to it. She said as long as I sent her *everything* she would be there for me, so I did. Don't knock it, though . . . I've lost 10.8 pounds this first week! Isn't technology fun? And fyi...the pink glass with the 8 oz. marked on it is my water glass. Yes, I even send her a photo every time I get a new glass of water. Haha--good thing we have an unlimited text plan!

On a much more primitive level, here's a couple of fun things we've pulled out of the creek recently:

This old snapping turtle did NOT want to let go of the cage. Mind you, he wasn't stuck, he was hanging on! He was trying dearly to get to the minnows and crawdads that were on the inside! Do you see his tail? It's wicked long.


And speaking of crawdads, this is about the biggest I'll fool with 'em. Any bigger than that and Todd can deal with 'em! I can't wait until Sawyer is big enough to go down to the creek and do a little crawdad catching!

:)

ch-ch-ch-changes . . .

In our landscape looking out our picture window. Overnight. Like magic. Or maybe a small tornado.

Before.

At about midnight, Todd and I were jolted awake when the RV "shook" a little and what sounded like hail was hitting fast & furiously. Moments later, the power went out.

This morning, we were able to see that what we thought was hail, was more likely acorns and limbs from this massive oak that fell . . .

After.

Todd took a trip around the camp this morning. We do have quite a few trees down -- maybe as many as there were when the tornadoes moved through the county on April 27th. Some are blown over from the roots, but some are twisted and broken off mid-trunk. Whew! If that oak tree had been another ten feet taller . . . today would look a whole lot differently!

This morning we're still without power, but the generator is working, and we're comfortable. It's supposed to be on again, off again thunderstorms moving through today, so it'll just be a quiet day in the RV, waiting on the power. Sounds like the perfect setting for reading and quilting, don't you think?? And maybe a NAP!

:)