This and That

Have you heard of Freecycle? It's a great idea. It's a Yahoo group where you can send an email out if you want to get rid of something instead of sending it to the dump. You then get emails from people who want it, you decide who gets it and they come pick it up therefore saving it from the dump. Great thing. Or, if you are looking for something you can post that also.

Somone posted the fabric in the picture and I was lucky enough to get it! It is awesome! A Batik and a solid pink and that lighter blue is so neat...each patch has a different pattern along with a textured embroidery. It's so pretty! I can't wait to see what I am going to do with it! LOL

Not sure what happened to spring. The temperature dropped and we had snow this morning! I hope this isn't a sign of the rest of spring. Last year it was cool and wet and we ended up with no garden growing. We have put in a second garden this year in hopes to grow more of a variety so I hope that this year's weather is better!

I was bad the past week and didn't post! Bad me! But, tomorrow I am going to post about an angel! Stay tuned!

Time to find the nail brush!

What a beautiful day it turned out to be! It was 28 degrees when we woke up this morning but this afternoon was around 60ish and we had yard work to do! And, it's just the beginning lol.

Around fall time last year we acquired a pond and waterfall and all of the rocks you see above. It seems...over the winter....one of the kids....you know them....Not Me and I Don't Know...stepped on the pond and put a crack in it. One of these days I'm gonna find one of those kids...

So last week Jay and I found a pond on clearance at Lowe's! Woohoo! And what you see above is how spent our afternoon. It takes a very big hole. lol

But, we also were able to get 2 blue berry bushes planted, papers down on the herb garden, garlic bulbs planted and some other herb plant that I don't remember the name of lol.

Here is to Spring is here and good weather for yard work! Enjoy!

Shopping is so much fun!

Aren't those hankies beautiful?! We were supposed to work all weekend but the race was cancelled. Lucky us! Instead we went antique store shopping again and have been relaxing the rest of the weekend. We have very few relaxing weekends left so we are taking full advantage of it.

My friend Shari wanted me to blog about the hankies I found so she could give me hanky lessons lol. So here they are! The red hanky in the upper left corner had a piece of paper attached to it with a woman's name on it and a date of 1958. WOW. I keep telling myself it is ok to use it in CQ because I will be preserving it this way. On one of my Yahoo CQ groups, we will be doing a Garden themed swap. We are to include most everything to make a block. It was the first thing I thought of when I found these hankies. They are perfect. Now to decide which one to include!
I love all of these hankies. The top one in this picture is sheer. It reminds me of the sheer aprons women used to wear for dinner parties. Too bad there weren't more, I could have made an apron out of them. What is also neat about the sheer one is that the blue flowers are bumpy.
These two pieces are not hankies but, I hope to be able to fit them into something CQ. I love the hand embroidery and the lace on the table runner.
I love this piece, it seems to be a very thin linen with the delicate flowers hand embroidered.
And this piece was so neat I couldn't pass it up. I don't know if it was a baby blanket or a table cover. It is pretty stained in the middle so I'm going with baby blanket. lol

I hope you have had a nice and relaxing weekend also!

The Good List and....Spring has Sprung!

I believe that spring has arrived! Even though we might get snow on Sunday! Phoey on that! I was doing a little cleaning today (not as much as I should have) and ran across something I wanted to share. The pictures are from around our house.

theGoodlist
Little things that mean a lot

1. A firm handshake
2. Handwritten thank-you letters
3. A sense of humor in a bad situation
4. Turning off your cell phone at the movies
5. Sincere compliments
6. Vacuuming behind furniture
7. Clothes you never have to iron
8. A small gift for your hostess
9. Making sure the tooth fairy always arrives
10. letting the woman with just two items go ahead of you
11. Minty breath

12. Birthday cards
13. Closing your mouth when you chew
14. Finding unexpected cash in your jeans
15. Volunteering to help without being asked
16. And then following through
17. Saying "bless you" when a stranger sneezes
18. Fresh flowers for no reason
19. Finding time for a walk
20. Clipping a news story for a friend who'd be interested
21. Passing along a book you love

22. Dancing at wedding-even just a little
23. Wiping the bathroom sink every morning
24. Babysitting for new parents
25. Goody bags at kids' parties
26. Clean fingernails
27. Calling your mom just to say hi
28. Paying back borrowed money-fast
29. Wet napkins when you serve BBQ
30. Fresh towels in the guest bathroom
31. "Please" and "thank you"

32. Edging your lawn after mowing
33. Mowing for the older lady next door
34. Surprise notes tucked in lunch boxes and suitcases
35. Bringing muffins to the office
36. Turning off the lights when you leave a room
37. Sharing your umbrella
38. A sparkling-clean fridge
39. Knowing one good joke
40. Letting someone else have the parking space
41. No wait at the doctor's office
42. Hugging your kids every day
43. Replacing the TP roll when only a few squares are left

Hope you've had a great spring day like I have.

Done!

I did it!! Yahoo! Not only did I get the pin keep done in time to mail for the swap, and not only did I actually do a CQ pin keep....I actually finished a project! LOL That's one thing I like about these here swaps....keeps me on my toes.
I took 3 different pictures, different lighting and different backrounds. I couldn't decide which pictures was best so I posted all 3 of them. So, it's not like I'm bragging. Really.
This took a lot longer than I expected. Probably because it's the first one I have ever done. It's far from perfect but ya know what? I don't care because I did it!

Shari had suggested using the flat lids from canning jars. I was going to do that and then when it came time, I totally spaced it out. I will be using those next time though. They are supposed to be finished off on the edges with a blanket stitch. I used to do those all the time back in the day when I was doing crafts. For the life of me! I couldn't figure out how to do it on this thing. Ah well. It all worked out ok.

As a matter of fact....when I showed it to my husband, he said "oh! that is one of those things that they sent you?" HA! No! I made it! Gotta love that man.

This morning, me and my youngest son went to the animal shelter for the first time to volunteer. He has been wanting to do this for a while and we were finally able to get there. We really enjoyed it. Well, except for the poop cleaning part. Which I ended up doing while he gave lovin' to the puppies. I told him we were switching jobs next time. :)

A great day. quality time with the kid and some lonely doggies and got my first project completed and getting it ready to get in the mail.

Hope you all have enjoyed your Sunday also.

Pin Keep Swap

On the Yahoo group CQFornewbies, we are having a pin keep/scissors fob/needle book swap. You can make as many as you want or just one, send them to the hostess and get, in return a similar item that someone else made! What fun! So I decided to jump in. I'll never learn this if I don't have the incentive lol.

I chose to do one pin keep. The picture above is where I am at in the process. LOL I need to get moving. It has to be in the mail by Saturday!

All of the materials are vintage from my antique store find. I am pretty sure I know what treatments I am going to do on it, I just need to do it. Unfortunately, paper work has been getting in the way.

This picture is of the back. I just love that material. Wish me luck on this lol. I will post pictures of the finished product!

I Won!

This is the beautiful pin keep I won this month. Lyn from Quilting Lion (http://quiltinglion.blogspot.com/)has a monthly blog teaser and give away. There are several questions and a bonus question. If you are the first to answer all of the questions, you win a pin keep and a silkie. If you get the bonus question right, you get a squishy also! I think I have that right. It's in some kind of order like that lol.

I won this month!

I couldn't believe it! I never win anything! I can't say that now can I?! LOL
Lyn's generosity completely overwhelmed me. I was expecting a few beautiful fabrics. Not only did she send that but she sent thread, buttons, beads...
and these gorgeous laces....
and these gorgeous laces....
and these gorgeous laces!
and hankies, lace panel and silkies....
and more silkies! I have ideas for these!
And all of this beautiful fabric. I am in heaven! I can't stop looking and touching all of it LOL! Does this make me weird or just a stash junkie?!

I highly recommend trying out her monthly blog teaser! Obviously, it's well worth your time!

Thank you so very much Lyn!