so fast . . .

Can you believe that this young buck, who graced us with his presence just this morning:

Pictured above with his latest dining companion (who is pictured solo, below) . . .

Was this little guy, less than a year ago? I took this picture August 18, 2010.

They grow up so fast! The group of does that he's traveled with over the past year has finally kicked him out. He had too much antler for them. Hence his new dining companion.

I've got my fabrics laid out and ironed . . .

All ready to sew! The question I still have is which pattern?!? Can you believe I'm still undecided? Ugh.

One thing I did decide was that I actually liked my red better when it was wrong side up.

I like the more muted flower pattern, especially for this project. I'm headed back to the bunk room. I'm not coming out until I'm finished! (Or I have to use the restroom, whichever comes first.)

:)

friday, saturday, sawyer . . .

After missing the last two Mondays with Sawyer (one to snow, one to a holiday his mommy got to take), you can imagine how excited I was to get an invite to babysit on Friday night! I jumped on it! I headed over there right after work on Friday, and Sawyer and I had a big time. I'd share more pictures, but I think my son has taught Sawyer to scrunch his face all up when grandma is taking a picture. LOL!

I was amazed at how much my little grandguy has grown and matured in just TWO weeks! He's cruising furniture, he has FIVE teeth, his hair is growing, and he's very chatty. Just precious.

After an afternoon of playing and then a dinner of cereal, squash and corn, we headed to the tub.

This little guy loves playing in the water! His favorite (other than sucking on the washcloth or the rubber ducky) is to try and grab at the stream of water as I pour it from overhead. Too cute!

By the time we'd finished up in the tub, he was looking a little worn out. Baths are good for that.

Definitely another mirror shot -- funny thing is, he's looking at my reflection and I'm looking at his!

We got him dried off and into his big boy pajamas, and he demonstrated his new skills. Holding onto the crib rail and walking from one end to the other.

I almost hated to give him his bottle and put him to bed, but I held out as long as I could, without letting him get overtired. We had a fun night together!

Saturday afternoon, Todd & I were watching the deer in the back . . .

This is the big group -- a big doe (definitely the alpha doe), with a couple of smaller does, and then five fawns -- nine in total. They'd come through earlier, but Todd hadn't gotten out there with the corn yet, so they didn't stay long the first time. The second time, the five fawns came running up, but the does hung back, waiting. As soon as they saw that the fawns were eating and eating well, they hurried on in, too!

Todd had thrown bird seed on the long log for the birds, especially the doves. We had to laugh to see the deer out there licking up the seed from the log! Silly things.

Not long after this, we noticed the whole group of deer standing at alert, facing the RV. I thought they were sensing us, which is unusual, but it wasn't us, or the RV. A little feral cat had come walking out from the RV and the deer were fascinated! And a little anxious, too. They didn't take their eyes of this little cat, and they stood there, stomping their feet. The cat didn't pay the least bit of attention to them. It was eating cookies we'd left for the raccoons. But the deer couldn't go back to eating for that little cat. Finally, the alpha doe came up behind it (mind you, she was the closest to the RV we've ever seen her) stamping her feet all the way. It looked like she was going to charge the cat. The cat never looked up from it's cookies. The doe got closer and closer and just as I thought she was going to rear up, she got spooked and took off, spooking the rest of the deer in turn. They all went charging out of the area down the hill, all due to a tiny little pussycat. It was so hilarious to watch!

Our suet/seed feed that's situated right off our main window has been seeing a lot of activity. One of its regular visitors is this handsome fellow . . .

Not the greatest picture because the feed spins, but even so, you can miss the splash of red on the back of our downy woodpecker's head!

Then Saturday afternoon, a happy surprise!! Guess who came for a visit?

Yay! This is the first time he's been here in a while. Certainly the first time since he's been standing. James, Kim, Jocelyn, and Jason were out taking photos for Joc's maternity session. So Todd and I stayed and Sawyer kept us company! He and Todd talked back and for a long time. I have no idea what they were saying, but Sawyer seemed really excited that someone was speaking in his tongue!

He loved the back window! He kept climbing up to look out into the world.

I'm such a grandma. I'm in love with his little head!

I wish there had been some deer out there for him to watch!

I can't believe how big he's getting. I think he had fun with us here. Gracious, what a fine afternoon it was!

And tomorrow, nothing is keeping this Grandma from appointed rounds!!!

:)

and a few more . . .

No need for many words with this one . . . loved my snow day!

:)

the best laid schemes . . .

. . . o' mice an' men (and quilters), gang aft agley.

In other words, I didn't quilt last night.

Or today, even.

Ah well. On the bright side, Todd and I had a lovely Chinese dinner last night, had a wonderful visit with old friends, and did our grocery shopping for the week.

Today, I made two gallons of potato salad (from his fire captain's recipe, which is AWESOME!) and a gallon of 'nana puddin'. It's one thing to make quantities of these two delights in the RV kitchen; it's quite another to put them in the RV fridge. Especially after we've just gone grocery shopping!

Ummm, can you say no room at the inn?! Luckily, we're close to the pavilion kitchen, and I was able to store my goodies in the regular sized fridge until tomorrow!

I also watched five hummingbirds battle it out over the feeder, I finally saw a blue jay at our new site, and the does and their fawns have been very active (and quite bold) today.

The winner of the hummingbird battles!

He (she?) almost reached up and got a drink!

Plenty of corn on the ground.

These guys are less than fifteen feet away!

Mom's giving the call.

Evidently, this is better than corn. She gives the secret signal and they come RUNNING! What's funny is, when this doe was done, another of the does gave the same signal, and all three of the fawns went running to her, too! Kinda bizarre.

I've had five cups of coffee and two cups of tea. And I polished my fingernails. Not *put* polish on them, but used the buffer and actually polished them!

I've also got this waiting for me . . .

But fiddle-dee-dee . . . there's time for this later!

:)

design wall monday, prepping for friday night sew in!

Wow! It's been ages since I've had the ability, desire, wherewithal, whatever, to do a design wall Monday post! But I woke up this morning thinking about this quilt and the fabrics I'd use, so I took that as a sign to get going!

Since I've finished all the redwork blocks for my "Overall Sawyer" quilt, it's time to put the nine patch blocks together that flesh out the quilt top.

The pattern shows it with a solid red, and a red and white fabric. I've always visualized my final product with blues in it -- a bluesy, denim blue -- so I pulled out my stash this morning and pulled out blues, blues & whites, and reds that I thought might work.

These are what I found:

I thought about doing the blue & white with a more solid navy like this . . .

Or this. I really love the blue in the fabric above; it's got that washed denim look to it. I love it! But the blue and the blue & white just didn't cut it. Hmmm.

So I tried pairing the blue & white with the red . . . I really like that red, and it's perfect with the color of the embroidery thread I used! But, nope, I didn't really like that pairing either.

Now mind you, I'm not going to use the sailboat fabric, but I did decide I like the combination of the red, white & blue with the blue solid. It ties the red in nicely from the redwork blocks and still gives me the blues I want. These blocks are relatively small -- 7-1/4" finished -- so I'll want to find a red, white & blue fabric that's a smaller print, but I don't mind doing a little fabric shopping!

To see what's on the rest of the quilting world's design walls this morning, check out Judy's blog, Patchwork Times.

If I'm able to get the fabric in time, it's probably what I'll work on for the August Friday Night Sew-in!! If you've not participated in this before, you should really check this out. It'll be my first (I really wanted to participate last month, but wasn't able). You can sign up on Heidi's Handmade by Heidi blog. Click on the button to go directly to the signups! It's this Friday, August the 20th.

There's been a flurry of activity out the back window this morning. Deer have been in and out all night, from the looks of the corn -- there ain't none left! LOL! It was still pretty dark when I first lifted the shade, but I could make out two does. A little later on I looked and there was nothing. Then I looked again and there was one doe, then two does, then nothing, then a doe with three fawns! One of the fawns headed out early, though, so I'm assuming it belonged to a different doe. Especially since the doe and the other two fawns headed out in the opposite direction! As I sit here, another lone fawn is crossing the camp road, heading out of the woods behind the pavilion, over for a bite to eat. It hasn't taken them long to figure out where the good stuff is! Not that there's much left this morning. LOL!

It's also light enough now that the birds have come in for breakfast -- they do carry on so! We put a fountain/bird bath out this weekend, but so far nothing's come in for a drink or a splash. Of course, we've had a bit of rain both days - let it get dry enough and they'll be lining up.

Have a great day!!

:)

glad to be home . . .

This has been an exhausting week, but not without some pretty terrific highlights.

First the exhaustion:

For some reason, early on, I had this idea that the twelve week healing process would end, they'd take the cast off, and I'd walk out of the doctor's office. Yeah, yeah, I knew I'd have physical therapy to build back muscles and strengthen tendons and whatnot, but I really thought I'd be able to walk when the twelve weeks was up. As time passed, I understood that was not to be the case, and actually, as it got closer to the twelve week mark, I was really *glad* that there was going to be transition time. What I was *not* prepared for was that (for the most part) the most pain I've had, in this entire process, would be NOW! Physical therapy is WORK!

And though I came to realize that twelve weeks wasn't really my magic moment mark, it's been full of firsts (some actual firsts, some firsts in a long time) . . .

We're back in the RV, full-time. There are advantages -- the space is smaller, so it's easier to get from here-to-there on the crutches. The living area is not carpeted, which also makes it easier on crutches. The kitchen area is very compact, so I am able to do more in the kitchen these days. There are also disadvantages -- the gate, namely, but never mind that for now. I'm also not really at a point where I can do a whole lot (moving boxes, rearranging low cabinets, etc.), so I'm not able to organize or put things away the way I'd like them. But that will come in time.

I'm driving. Todd rode with me as I drove to work on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday and Friday, I drove alone. It's gonna be okay. It's a bit of a pain (and I have to allow myself the extra time) to get the boot off and on, so I can drive, but que sera, that too will not be for long. It's mentally exhausting, because I'm hyper-vigilant, and physically exhausting because it is working that healing foot. I'm not really ready to drive much more than to work and back.

I'm back to my four-day work week schedule. Except for physical therapy, which I try to schedule for late in the afternoon, I shouldn't have to miss much work in the future. This too, is pretty tiring, but I'll overcome that in no time.

My physical therapy, for all that it's tough, is also very wonderful. I opted to use the satellite location, so it's between work and home (which is lovely) and it's much smaller and less busy (which means less waiting to get in). And the folks that work there are GREAT! After a week, I'm on a first name basis with all (four) of the staff there. The atmosphere is very light-hearted and easy going, and I get at least one good belly laugh every time I'm there! And since God Himself tells us that a cheerful heart is good medicine, laughing while I'm doing physical therapy has got to be very beneficial! :)

Okay, so PT is exhausting, but it's also been very rewarding. After just one week I can already tell I've got much improved range of motion in my foot, and my foot and leg are getting stronger. My calf muscle, which was pretty much non-existent a week ago, is back and already has some definition. Plus, I really *really* like the icy electro machine, I get to put my foot in at the end of every session. I'd like one of those for home, please!

Some of my best rewards, though, have come from looking out my back window. I have the BEST view! Last night I sat here and watched this chubby little squirrel just plop himself down in a little puddle of corn Todd had thrown out, and eat to his heart's content. He was so funny!

And the deer have been incredible. Five fawns, so far -- two sets of twins and then a single fawn. One set of twins is still nursing pretty regularly and when their mama gives them the go ahead (which she's done twice, right here in my backyard), they HOP TO IT! And watching them nurse is hilarious! They are so frantic to get while the getting is good. And I'm serious, because she gives them about a minute, and then she hops on over their heads and leaves them wondering what happened! This morning they were so close, I could still see drops of milk on one of the fawn's mouth whiskers!

I've seen almost every bird we had at the old site, here at the new site. The flicker and the red-headed woodpeckers have both made appearances, so I know they're about. The only thing we haven't seen is the blue jays. I hope we can lure them in, because they're such clowns and so pretty to look at! We're putting a little water fountain in this weekend, and I'm sure that will lure some new critters/birds in and be a focal point for activity!

I am making Todd a strawberry glace pie today (sugar free, of course). I probably need to get going on the crust! Enjoy the weekend!!

Adieu!

:)

finally . . . a finish!!!

What a happy day today was! At some point I was sitting here playing on my laptop, and I turned around and saw this . . .

Yay! A doe and her twin fawns! They are so darling. I wish I could pet them! The fawns are a lot more jittery than the mom. They'd all of a sudden take off running, and then run back. Mom didn't even lift her head!

This sweet little goldfinch has been hitting the feeders off and on all day. He makes his rounds to the four feeders, and then flies off, so the female can come in and get a bite.

This solo doe came up through the camp this afternoon. It had rained briefly and cooled the temps, so I guess the deer were moving around a bit more. I happened to look out the side window and thought I saw a chipmunk in the woodpile. Then I started, as I saw a pair of legs through the hedges, walking down the paved road. Then I realized it was a set of legs . . . a set of four! The doe peaked her head in through the short cut I'd trimmed into the hedge, and tentatively stepped on into the site. She'd been here before, I'll bet, because she walked straight to the corn! The doe with the two fawns came back through a couple of hours later.

In the meantime, I squared this up this afternoon . . .

Since the back of the pillow top will be hidden, I wanted to get plenty of pictures of it. LOL!

And then I pulled out the ol' sewing machine and worked that thang! It felt really good. Really, really good. I'm so tickled with the end result!

The back is simple and I did a fold-over flap, so that I could pull the pillow form out and wash the cover, if I needed to.

Today, this . . .

Tomorrow, this . . .

This is a week of big things for me!

:)