It's a Martha kinda day!

I found out this afternoon that Martha Stewart is on Hallmark channel almost all day now!

Why didn't someone tell me??

These are the old shows when I was just so in love with her!!!

I was able to catch a couple hours this afternoon, only after I had done a ton of work around the house...OK? I am not a couch potato!

I learned a lot today about seedlings. I thought I knew more than I did about seedlings but for some reason I am being tested this year!

My peppers and tomatoes are doing wonderfully so far but the onions, leeks and lavender are struggling along trying to die a long slow death.

I love daffodils but this is a double dose of daffodils!!

(their reflection)

My poor husband is stranded in the big rig in WV today with his truck shut down by the DOT for a mistake on his permit to haul a big piece of equipment from Ohio.

While he is eating well on the company (haha he has free rein to eat anything he wants tonight and he called me a little bit ago and said he was eating his leftover pinto beans and cornbread that he took with him. Said it was better than anything he could get in a restaurant .....he sure loves me) and sleeping in a cushy motel room I am all by myself.

I walked the treadmill today......woowoowooooooooooo!!!!

The last time I did that little number for 3 days straight, I couldn't walk for 3 weeks with back pain. This time I will start slowly and build up gradually, and get in the hottub afterwards. It is amazing how much the hottub really can soothe your overworked muscles and keep you from getting sore. I hope to be able to get my calisthenics started again soon too......gradual Becky!!
I have fed and put all the animals to bed, I am getting ready to hit the hottub and then I hope to squeeze a new haircut in before American Idol comes on and then I will lay back on the sofa and crochet. No I did not crochet hardly at all while I was under the weather, took too much energy!

OK my gardening friends......is this Cresse salad?

Watercress? We used to call it creesie salad!

I have been wanting some and I knew this was out there where it always comes up around my flowering quince. Danny says this is creesie but "It's the bitter creesie"!!

Can you tell? Do I have to just taste it?

Anybody?




Please let me know what you think. I have 10 bunches that should make a pretty good salad and I am feeling the need for something fresh!!!
It's springtime ya know!!!!!


FYI~ I will watch Martha tomorrow on the TV in my sewing room while working on something fruitful like a king size quilt!!

It's a brand new day....

a new week, a new season. There is color in my life again. I can enjoy it too. I am feeling so much better after my little weekend of R&R. It was just what the Dr ordered for my healing. I ordered the new season and color!! So nice after such a dreary winter of white. Too much white, too much illness and gloom. I am a new person today and I am going to enjoy it to it's fullest! Leslie just told me it is to be 80 degrees on Saturday!! Now that makes me happy and I like to be happy!!! That's why this illness has hurt so bad. I don't like to have my wings clipped. I want to do what I aspire to do, when I want to do it and it's hard for me to keep still. I did keep still and recoup this weekend so I have to gradually get back into the swing of things so I can hopefully be in full running order by Saturday. Cause I've got plans.....and a list!!

Lynn over at Wood Ridge has a post today about dandelion greens and she made them look so good. I have dandelions here if I have nothing else, so I went out in the sunshine to pick me some dandelions for our supper tonight. I thought that would be a great spring addition to the meal. Would you believe not nary a dandelion in sight???? Where are they? I know they are there but they only show theirselves when I don't want to see them!! They will be waving their little fuzzy tops at me soon enough and I will be too mad to even want to eat one of them at that time. I will be after them with a fork or knife but it will be to get them out of my lawn. Delicasy or weed? You decide!!

A guest for race weekend!

My man's hardworking hand is holding our weekend guest at The Fairy's Rest.

He was in town for the big race at the Martinsville Speedway. I understand he is a big Dale Jr fan. I just really wish he had went to the website and made his reservations instead of just showing up unannounced!

We went down yesterday for me to have a little R&R which was going to include bird watching, I had my bird book and camera in hand. I didn't even have to leave the warm comfortable house to get to see one up close and personal!! Leslie and all the grandpunks were with us. As soon as we arrived, the living room looked exactly as it did in the last picture that I posted with the furniture still in the middle of the floor. The children all plopped down in the middle of all the chaos to play a game of Old Maid. Then it happened. Leslie just happened to spot the little race fan peeping out from under the sofa! Well the race began at that time. There was scurrying around the track like you have never seen before at The Fairy's Rest. Wait a minute here.....what happened to my R&R????? It turned into one of our hilarious bird in the house stories that will definitely go down in history like the great "Bat in the house story", only we got this one on video! Morgan had her video camera in her pocket and captured it all, well right up until he actually resurfaced and then all you can hear are girly screams and the camera is getting footage of anything but the bird capture!! She shows the ceilings then the floors then the ceilings. This was sooooo funny!!!!!! Well I got my birdwatching in anyway!! It was funny up until we found how many rooms he rented. Yep he left us a few souvenirs of his stay instead of him taking the souvenirs back home!!! (I had the washer and dryer pulled away from the wall and left the dryer vent hole wide open for non-paying guest!!) Lesson learned!



The landscaping crew showed up donning their Wellies and were ready to get to work on the problem area! Can you tell which one is the boss and

which one is the grunt man?

They had some great ideas for this area, which includes a red mud slide.
I have always wanted one of those!!

Some underbrush had to be removed.

They are a very photogenic crew tho!

This one is going to be on their business card!!

I have to share this blog with you guys!

I stumbled upon this blog yesterday while playing around. I don't know where I found her but I am glad I did. She is in the Shenandoah Valley of Va, North of me! She has a Gammil Long arm quilter and she made this quilt!! It's a king size quilt too!

She has the instructions for you to make your own lye on one of her posts. Danny just went out and emptied the ashes from our wood stove and filled the stove back up with hardwood to make us some lye. Got goats milk anyone? Of course my goats are dry right now. Bummer. I hope the lye will keep for a while!

She is a superb gardener and she looks like she would be a great person to have as a neighbor!
So go on over and check her out!

Somebody got my house dirty!

and that someone is going to have to clean it back up today! That is if she can muster up enough energy to do so. She has been sick again. Is there any end in sight for this bug? Please just tell me now. I can take it either way. I have a feeling that I know what the answer to that one is tho, NO!! So just go ahead and get a big ole sledge hammer and hit me really hard as to put me out of my misery!! Please!!



I know that you are as sick of hearing about this as I am of telling about it, but it's the current news in my life. I have nothing more to talk about other than my ill days, my dirty house and my wishing that I could fix both of those problems. I don't feel like sewing (takes a clear mind for inspiration), quilting (takes too much energy), gardening (raining outside too), reading (my eyes are so full of goop that my vision is blurred, probably allergies), watching TV (nothing on), cooking (takes energy), working at The Fairy's Rest (forget about it), eating (seems I have lost my taste for food today, probably allergies), etc etc etc.........so blogging is about the only fun that I can have today. I like blogging tho!!!!!



I know I did have a good day on Wednesday painting but I guess it sucked up every ounce of energy in my stores so yesterday I was a genuine thug/slug what ever you want to call me. I made it to the drug store to pick up Sambucol as my dear friend Sandra recommended to help boost my immune system. I can't wait for it to kick in. I came home and slept for 3 1/2 hours on the sofa. Then I slept for 11 1/2 hours last night. I am not going to work too hard at cleaning up my messy house today for fear of a relapse. I want to save my energy to be able to watch Danny work this weekend when he attempts to grade on the yard, if not too wet, or build the back deck all at The Fairy's Rest Retreat. I think I will go there for some R&R this weekend and watch him do all the work!! Maybe I can read that novel that I have been trying to get started. Do you think I can get by with that?

It's a start.....

I finally made it to The Fairy's Rest! Monday was a cleaning day, Tuesday was the dreaded day at the accountants office.......I did however, go shoe shopping afterwards!!!

Mama has new Easter shoes!

Then I finally got this dreaded job started today.

Do you notice the sunshine?

It was beautiful and 70 degrees, a perfect day for painting and cleaning.

The picture above is the living room before.

What a mess?? I had everything pulled to the center of the room and started to paint before I remembered to get a before picture.
The walls were a very drab beige and I had one more window to get cleaned and the inside of the window painted. The window to the left of the picture.

Wallaaaaaa!!! White walls sure make me happy!

Yes the blue recliner will be tossed asap.

It has been a lifesaver to use while working down there tho!

Clean freshly painted windows make me very happy!!

I still have to paint the shelves that you see here.



I just can't even describe and the pictures do not depict how much better this day of painting this one room makes the entire house look. So much more finished and elegant.

Of course it's not finished and it's certainly not elegant .......yet!!

The big piece of dark wood furniture is an armiore sp? lol! that I found at a garage sale last fall and took it straight here but I have decided that I will probably use it at my house instead, painted white of course!






Folks may need to wear their sunglasses when they visit here!!






Check out this loooooooooooong white hallway!! So bright!!

How about the lavender room?

Do you think I should paint it white too?

It will be the last project so I should have my mind made up by then.



I was very happy with the progress today.

I had to prep/patch the walls and clean the window and paint it plus the walls

and this is the biggest room there, with no help!!!!

So I am patting myself on the back!!



I will go back tomorrow and maybe tackle the big bathroom.

The ceiling, walls and cabinets have to be painted in there.

One big bedroom and the laundry area of the hallway yet to paint.

A little trim work here and there and the painting will be finished.

We are going to replace both of the outside doors and they may need to be painted too.

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!!!!!!

I am sad that we have missed another deadline tho, the Nascar race at the Martinsville Speedway is this weekend and we probably could have had it rented out for the race.
Bummer!!

Housecleaning in reverse

I had a change of plans....sorry! I know that I said I had so much to do at the other house starting today but I decided that I was needed here at home more. For today anyway! Yesterday I suddenly got this huge burst of energy. The flu is finally over...I think. I started cleaning my house yesterday afternoon and I just couldn't stop. The house was so dusty from weeks of not being able to hardly brush my teeth let alone vacuum. I had to get rid of some dust or I would never be able to breathe. I started at the front door vacuuming and worked my way thru my entire house not missing a thing. A really good vacuuming. A long overdue vacuuming!!

When I got to the back of the house in the bathroom, I decided that I had enough energy left to go a bit deeper. I got a pail of hot soapy water and several rags and I started cleaning at the ceiling and I cleaned every where there could possibly be a dust bunny hiding or a "Germ"...or a "Cootie"......a "Flu Cootie" is what I was looking for. I was cleaning in a frenzy like never before. I am not sure if I really felt up to it or not but the addrenalin kicked in and I cleaned almost the entire house before bedtime. I tackled every door facing, top of all my cupboards, behind and underneath furniture. I cleaned all the bathrrom fixtures in both bathrooms, took out the trash and shook all the rugs throughout the house. I did not however, pick up and straighten very much of anything. I was mainly dusting or washing down dusty areas.

I could not believe what a difference a couple hours made in my house. The air was so clean and fresh with a clarity like the fresh air of Spring outside my window. I think I waste a lot of time trying to clean house. hahahahaha You guys are getting a good laugh on me here! What I mean is that when I usually clean a room I spend so much time picking up things and putting them in their place. Throwing things out etc, that by the time I actually get to the dusting part I am already tired and all I seem to do is hit the highlights only. I think I like my new way of cleaning that I stumbled upon yesterday. If I will spend more time with a soapy rag in my hand instead of a magazine returning it to it's proper place, or a pillow to be fluffed and put back on the proper end of the sofa, I think my house will be cleaner. As far as the clutter I feel this method will help in that department too. The more I move things around to get rid of the dust or kitchen grease, the more apt I will be to put the out of place items in their place.

I was so happy with my freshly cleaned house that I just had to stay here and get the rest of it clean today. I mean what's just one more day right? I now have the cleanest bedroom in the world!! HA!! I do not have a dust bunny in there anywhere. I have clean windows, inside and out. All my laundry is finished and my air is so clean in my house...........well not exactly....we had fried fish for supper! Now just tell me what I could have been thinking with that one? That's OK it was really really good too!

So that's what I call "Cleaning in Reverse". Do the cleaning first and then if there is enough time left you can straighten up. If the straightening doesn't get done and you have unexpected guests don't worry, your house is clean but it just looks lived in!!!! I feel like this will help with my severe allergies to dust too. Aaaahhhhh clean country air!!!!!

updated: I just found this link and they have a really good article about removing dust from your home....ah ha interesting!!! Go here for their site. I think I did everything on their
list besides flip my mattress. Hey I did vacuum it and put on fresh clean sheets but it's a king size mattress, ever tried to flip one of those babies by yourself??

In case you are wondering this is where I will be.....

The Fairy's Rest Retreat!!

I wish I could say I will be there for a little

R & R but it is more like a little W & W

work and more work!!!

I still have so much to do there to get it ready to rent.

My plans were to have all the inside work done when the weather

got warmer and get the yard graded, gravel the drive and do some basic

landscaping and start advertising.

That is still the plan but it has just been moved up a bit cause of the terrible winter weather we have had.

It's a dirty job but I have to do it anyway!

I think I have one house too many!!

Remember this is where we plan to retire and live out our days.

Until then we need to make some money with it if possible so I need to get on the ball.

We have decks to finish too.

I won't do a lot of landscaping but it has to be

spruced up some.

The area to the left of the above picture is the area that is going to get dolled up.

Between the house and the road.

I am thinking some Azaleas and maybe Rhododendron, Hostas and a dump truck load of mulch.

The area around the picnic table will probably have some railroad ties or timbers framing the area and there will be gravels under the table. He says he will incorporate that area into the circle drive way. There's some underbrush that will have to go too. Not too bad considering how thick it was when we first bought the place ;-)))



I talked him into leaving the strip of trees here. I did not want to have any lawn to mow, wanted it to be all wooded but Mr Bulldozer Man says....yada yada yada......which equals to I have to move so many trees to be able to work....yada yada yada....!!

He now likes the way it looks with just a little privacy, but I will still have a big yard to mow. Well "Another" big yard to mow. What were we thinking?





So this strip and the area at the front of the house on either side of the deck will be landscaped. I have a ton of perennials that need to be divided here at home and I will take some sun loving, low maintenance plants down there to put along side the house. The sun shines in there pretty much all day long and it does get pretty warm in there so I think the perennials will be good there. Some "Becky" daisy's, Rudbekiah brown eyed susans, Bee Balm, Wooley Lambs Ear,

Evening Primrose to name a few.
In the back yard I plan to plant several Flowering Crabapple Trees.

They are reasonably priced, beautiful in the spring when in bloom and in the fall the foliage is lovely, and the Eastern Bluebirds love the apples in the winter!!
Throw around some cutesy yard/garden items like benches and gazing balls and call it a garden!!
I think that is the plan, at least for now.

I really don't want to sink a pile of money into the garden.

And I surely do not want to have to spend a lot of time working in the garden either.

I do want to create a nice relaxing, welcoming get away for my guests when they actually come for a little R & R!!!!!!





I just love my kitchen!!!!!!



I plan to be there the biggest part of the week painting and making curtains and decorating etc etc etc etc....... (It won't be as much fun as it usually is because the sweet potato pie making neighbor is not going to be in this week) then on the weekend Danny is going to bring the dozer in for the grading and then gravels and mulch to come soon behind. So let the games begin.....again!!!

I just wish it was warm enough for a skinny dip in the lake after a long day of painting like Robin, Morgan and I did last summer!! Maybe all my hard work will be done by the time the water warms this year!!!!!!

Wish us luck!!!!

Spring has sprung!!!!

This is how we celebrated the first day of Spring down on the farm.

We had to throw a fishing party!

Here's Danny with his 14" Large Mouth Bass!

Poor thing is still sick...........me too. Yuck, when will this stuff ever end?

I went to the grocery store today and I thought I was going to have to sit down half way thru the store. He said he is just incredibly drained too. Of course he cut wood this morning and hauled a huge dump truck load in before he went fishing with us.
Now if you have ever talked to any of my family they would surely have already told you some of the funny funny stories about the happenings around our fish pond. If it involves a critter that can habitat around or in water we have a story to tell about it.......well no alligators YET!!
Shown above is Morgan's minnow trap that she kept set last year beside the dock and she would go down every day to see if she had anything in it. Of course we would always tell her that she would pull it up with a snake in it one day............oh yeah they like our pond too! Funniest story ever involved a snake and a poll vaulter!!!!! hahahaha
So today Colton ran over as soon as he got to the pond and grabbed the trap up out of the water and said "it's something in there."
Leslie walked up behind him and said "Let me see is it a snake?" "Oh yes it is a snake!!!!!" well not so calmly I might add here......
Of course this was going to be a Nikon moment and I sure as heck wasn't going to be caught on the dock this time!!...........Remember the poll vaulting story...yep that was me caught on the other end of the dock from the snake and I was just about to go swimming!!!




Oh yuck yuck double yucky yuck!!!!!!
The trap was full of lizards!!! I mean full of lizards!!!!
Of course we were all kinda excited because that meant some big bass would be on our hooks shortly...since we had our hook baiter with us today!! I can do worms but no lizards!!
Wrong!!! The pond is full
of lizards and the fish didn't want them today.
Danny caught his bass on a rubber worm.
The only fish caught today.
~
While I have been so sick for sooooooooooo long I have watched a lot of Food Network. I have really fell in love with the Neely's.
This morning they were making Chinese and boy it "Flung a craving on me"......ever heard that saying? It's Jerry Clower at his best!!
So I had to go to the grocery store and get the fixings for some down home southern style chinese food!!! Oh boy I am glad I did too!!


Well not exactly a Chinese dish here, but we had Tiramisu for dessert!
That was really good and soothing on my sore scratchy throat. Shoulda made that weeks ago!


The best part of the meal.........Pulled Pork BBQ and Cole Slaw Egg Rolls.....well smack your mama!! Dipped in a homemade Spicy Peach Dipping Sauce....could you imagine?? Well I thought I could imagine how good they would be but I was oh so wrong.............they were so much better than I could have ever dreamed they could be!!!!!! Those kids were on to something here!!!


I made Cashew Chicken and the Neely's version of Fried Rice with ham.....
Super duper yummy way to celebrate the first day of Spring!!!!!!!!
Sunshine, good food and good family times!!!
Happy Spring to all!!

Question.......

the question is .....are you guys having trouble with blogger doing this? I download my pictures and while I am posting it just shows them as a bunch of letters and scrambled words in one big paragraph and I can't write in between them. This has been happening to me for about a week now. What have I done? What has blogger done? How can I fix it? Help!!!

Well I guess you can read the pictures....afterall it isn't rocket science to understand that I painted a few things and I have posted before and afters. A cute picture of some baby goats!! They look hungry in these pictures but trust me that they are healthy! Then the last picture is of my beautiful snowball bush from last Spring. I was wondering if you guys know whether it should be trimmed/pruned and how much to trim it back if any. I have had it for maybe 4 years now and year before last it got caught in a Spring freeze but then the next year it was gorgeous! I am almost scared to mess it up if I start to trim it back now. It is rather bushy/dense right now. What ya think??

I did get a few things scratched off my list today!!!! woowooo now I am off to take a nice hot bath to soothe these aching muscles.....Spring will kill ya!!!!!

I won an award!!

My sweet friend Linda over at Prairie Flower Farm picked me for this Sunshine Award!! It truely bought a little more sunshine to my day too. Thank You Linda you are the best!!

I sure hope my blog adds a little sunshine to my readers day!
I know it's impossible to impart a sunshiney attitude upon my readers when all I have spoke of lately is my suffering from the flu (now with a sinus infection belecky!!!) but be patient I will be back to normal (well my normal that is) soon. I found a totally unsuspecting Dr friend of the family who was kind enough to call me in an antibiotic today all the way from his family vacation in Las Vegas!!! Now it pays to have friends like that doesn't it??? He may just be surprised with a Homemade Blueberry Pie one day this summer!! Ssshhhh don't tell him my little secret!!

I had listed earlier my huge list of outdoor chores and I have been thinking about that list and added a slew of things to it. I am not so sure if that was a good idea or not. I am historically not a list maker. That got me into a lot of hotwater in a position as a Director Of Nursing one time too. My boss, the Director of the facility was a list maker and expected me to be also. He made list of his lists!!! I never could get the hang of it tho. I have over the years used lists to accomplish several tasks and to help me stay focused on accomplishing those tasks. So I thought it may be a good idea for me to make a list of outdoor chores that I could get crossed off and out of the way this year cause it seems like I got "Nothing" accomplished last year. I am now thinking that I have listed too many things, maybe all this doesn't need to be done this Spring/Summer. I am afraid that this big ole list may intimidate me and cause me to run the other way. I will give it a try with the list and hope that I can see some things being crossed off of it soon, if not I will tear the list up and go about my summer as usual.....jumping from one thing to the other!! Like gardening....I will start weeding in this one section and before it's finished I will be tilling or replanting on the complete opposite side of the garden!!! Never fails!! My gardening friends tell me they do the same thing!! Do you guys do that?

After making this list this morning I went to hunt my new pruners that Danny bought me last year and Lo and Behold I could not find them. How was I to do any trimming or pruning without pruners? So off to Lowes I went and bought a pair...swung by the pharmacy for good drugs, came home and opened the package of my new pruners, stepped into the garage and there were my other pruners!!!!!!!! Now I have 2 pair to help me with that list!!!!!!! Maybe I need a new eye Dr???????

This is what farm girls do.....

They go fishing when they want to be outside enjoying the new sunshine but they are not feeling up to pruning blueberry bushes, hanging laundry on the line, cleaning off the porches, cleaning up the flower beds, cleaning around the pond, painting the outdoor furniture, tearing down the pergola,cleaning out the root cellar, cleaning out the garage, making curtains for garage, cleaning out the chicken coop, cleaning out 2 goat barns, painting a goat barn, building a new goat barn (oops that's on his list) cleaning up all the broken trees and limbs in the yard from the bad winter storms, cleaning out the boat, deciding whether or not I can spray paint my stainless steel gazing ball, painting the concrete yard art, trimming goat hoofs, worming goats, cleaning the gravels out of the flower beds that the state highway dept pushed in there trying to clear my roads this winter, picking out new roses for the new pergola, (building the new pergola is at the very top of his list), wash the cars and the list goes on and on and on and on .................see why I went fishing this morning instead of working on this list. There is no end in sight!! Don't be jealous of me I didn't get a single bite!! I did see a lot of great big fish though!! I'll be back to get you soon!!

It's amazing.....

how good you can feel when you still feel so bad! You know the feeling after you have hit rock bottom but are suddenly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday was my rock bottom day and it was truly rock bottom for me. One other time have I been in a situation where I really wasn't sure that I would live to see the next day or not, and that was the day that Leslie was born. I had no idea that I would live thru labor with her nor did I feel that I was going to live thru day gazillionteen of this flu. I had chest pain so bad, I couldn't breath in or out, I had zero energy and I was making funeral arrangements!! I mean it's to be my party and I want it how I want it!!

Well Thank goodness I made it thru that horrible 24 hours and today was a lot better. Not perfect by any stretch but I have a feeling I will not be needing that red casket with white roses and carnations....for a little while longer!!

Yesterday was spent on the couch or in the bathroom but in my mind I really wanted to work on my quilt. I went to the bottom of the stairs and I would look up towards the sewing room and get dizzy and go straight back to the sofa. It felt like it was a million miles away and up hill all the way. I did make it up those, what 13 steps?? tonight and when I got to the top I needed a breathing treatment but I just sat in front of my sewing machine until I gained my composure and then I was able to find the strength to work on my quilt a little bit. I think it was in my plans to finish this up ....like ..maybe ...."soon" was the word that I used......ha! The jokes on me! This baby will take a while. Well if I ever get to set things like I had mentioned in assembly line fashion it should go together really quick.

I did a lot more cutting out and quilted a few more blocks tonight. I just had to put a few blocks together so I could see if this was going to work after all....good idea? I am very happy with they way the blocks go together.....whew! burden lifted off my shoulders here!!!! I have decided to use the rose fabric on the back and I am sashing the back with coordinates of pinks, cream and roses fabric. The front is being sashed with the Alexander Henry pear and apple fabric. I love love love this fabric. It may not be the most desirable print for a bedroom but you know I don't care! I always color outside the lines. If you come to my house and you don't like my quilt made with apple and pear fabrics just flip it over and you will have roses!!!!

I have no pictures to show you tonight because blogger doesn't feel they are worthy of being shown!! Maybe tomorrow! Thanks for all the well wishes from you guys! I don't think I would have made it thru this with you!!

I am about to get desperate here.....

I am about to get tired of this being sick ordeal.

I have been relying on store bought meds until today.

I am still eating the acetaminophen and guiafenisen sp?

with very little relief.

I have been wanting cold fluids on my sore throat.

Enough Already!!!!

So today I have resorted to the web for homemade

cold and flu remedies. Watch out! I watched The Good Witch and The Good Witches garden on Hallmark last night!! Too cute!

Yes I am a nurse but this sorta stuff always is supposed to happen to others

not me!!

I have started a witches cauldron of Vicks Vapo Rub

in my big yellow pressure cooker pot simmering on the stove.

I stood over it for a while, now I go by and take a deep breathe occasionally.

I have steeped Herbs de Provence in boiling water............yucky!!

It has lavender, garlic, lemon peel, and sea salt that I know of. I added rosemary to this brew.

We were fighting over sniffing on this stuff for a while!!!!

Good stuff!!

I became very aware of the bases of my lungs!!!!!!!! woowoooo!!!!

That's a really good feeling!

I also felt the outer layer of my brain at one time because I took such a good sniff!

Talk about a head rush.

I have sipped on hot tea all day too.

I have got to whip this stuff before it whips me.

I have a quilt to finish.

Not too much done in that dept yet today, I have done some more cutting and I have several blocks quilted.

I need to get me an assembly line of sorts started in order to whip these blocks out.

I hate to say it but this flu has stepped in and hindered my plans for that happening yet.

I am armed and ready though.

I will be gargling with the concoction that I have brewed up.

We may never have to worry about being kissed again due to bad breath but it will all be worth it to get rid of the cooties around here.

I also can't wait for a warm dry day to be able to open the windows and fumigate the home.

I always have to do that after we have been sick.

Out with the old stagnant air and in with the fresh new air!

What sort of advise do you guys have for us?

Please don't tell me to use this Onion Syrup!!

Please stay well!!

I had a vision..........

I wish I could say that I feel better but I can't lie about that. I feel horrible today. We both have had our worse day yet. While my SIL Eric is out winning bike races, and I am sure he rode for about 8 gazillion miles too. Also my dear friend and neighbor Amanda of Lovin Country Livin ran her first 5K today!!! My hats off to both of you!!!! I have to say that I won the "Who can take the most cold medicine in 24 hours" and the "Who can take the most cat naps in 24 hours" contests!! Yep that's me number 1!!!!! There were some other things I was very very good at today but this is a semi not gross blog and so I'll leave those snotty things behind closed doors and off the world wide web. OK?

I did however get into enough state of confusion due to the hypoxia I am sure, to start yet another project! Hey don't start talking bad about me yet. I really got a lot of it done today!! You see I was hyped up on cold meds and I had a vision, an epiphany of sorts! As you know I have been wanting a king sized quilt for my bed.............well his bed, cause I have been in the guest bedroom for almost 2 weeks now cause I can't sleep with him snoring or coughing and he can't sleep with my coughing either...........so anyway for "That king size bed we own". I decided today that I would make a Crazy Quilt As You Go Quilt. I googled it and found out that I didn't come up with this idea first!!!! Imagine that.....someone else was high on her cough meds a few years back and came up with this idea and wrote a book about it and has a blog and has tutorials on youtube.......unless I dreamed all that up in my cat naps today that were medically induced!!

I checked out her style and decided it was close enough to what I was thinking about and got started. I knew it was a far fetched idea for me to get a king size quilt quilted in my frames and I sure wasn't going to attempt it by machine with out frames so a quilt as you go method was the only way to turn. I have quite a stash of fabric that I thought too lovely to cut for a long time now. If I love it enough to buy it without a project in mind to get started immediately on I tend to do that and never want to cut it. I bit the bullet and whacked right into some great fabrics today. I hope I remember what I was doing when I am out of my stupor!! I have used some Alexander Henry, Amy Butler, Moda and Heide Grace fabrics to name a few! They are all so summery too. It does my heart good to see these fabrics coming together.

I think I will need 81 blocks maybe more to cover my bed really good and hang down just right over my long white cotton dust ruffle. I made that ruffle last year and it has something like 36 yards of ruffle around only 3 sides of the bed! It sure does cost to have such a roomy bed .....for one little man to be sleeping in all by himself. I have 64 blocks done..tops only. I will have to cut a backing and batting and quilt them together before putting them together with the sashing that holds all the layers together. I also have a slew of shabby pink fabrics that are mostly rose patterns and I am contemplating backing the blocks with a variety of the rose fabric so the quilt will then be reversible. No harder to make 2 quilts than it is one!!!!! I can then have 2 very different looks out of one quilt! What ya think? Let me know soon cause I plan to still be on a roll tomorrow and get this baby finished in no time. I can't wait to see it on my big cherry 4 poster bed. I have had this bed for over 10 years now and planned to make a quilt for it as long. So I am pumped about this epiphany!!!!!!!! Good cold medicine huh?

This made me feel goooooood.......

see this computer screen and all these buttons?

quilting in progress....


moving right along....
rather nice stitches.......

pretty even stitches......right?.........

and just as pretty on the back!!

Well girls there is a story behind this post..............

Where do I begin? OK....remember I drove all the way across the state to get this machine that I thought was such a good bargain, that I found on Craigslist?

I played with it at the ladies home that I bought it from and when I got her home she sewed beautifully!! I was so looking forward to getting a quilt ready for my frames and give her a try in there. So several weeks ago I slapped a layer cake (40 ~ 10" squares of fabrics)
together that I have had for a while. I am using a thrift store sheet that has some special detail that you can't see in the pictures yet, for the backing. I wrestled with my frames and getting this quilt in the frames for almost half a day that day.

I was so excited to see how my baby would do. She has a longer arm than my other machines but she is still not a long arm. I was hoping the difference in the length would be tolerable and make the job a little easier on me.

I played with the machine on the table first, wound all my bobbins and stippled on some scraps and it was just lovely.

When I got her in the frames it was "Katie Bar The Door" all you know what broke loose in my sewing room!!!! Not kidding! Everything that could go wrong went wrong with this machine.

The needle just fell out! I broke needles, I broke threads, The stitching was absolutely horrible.

I took the machine out of the frames and worked with her for at least 3 hours that afternoon and I couldn't get her to hardly sew a stitch. Robin was sitting beside me with the manual and we tried everything in our power to get her sewing. Nothing worked.

So I just got up and walked away from the sewing room and I have not been back until today.

I told no one except for Terri of this ordeal because it was too painful to talk about.

I was ready to give up quilting and throw everything out the window into the fish pond.

I left it all out of sight and out of mind for all these weeks now.

When I went up there today......I didn't feel like doing much of anything, so I thought I would just sit down and see if I could make her sew one final time.

It worked!!

It was sewing beautifully again in no time.

I said a big prayer asking the Lord for patience as I put her back in the frame to not lose my temper and shoot her.

God is good!!

I have over half of the quilt finished and I am so pleased with the results!

Apparently I did not know how to change the thread tension and save it in the computer. For some reason it just fell into place today. I did not even pick up the manual either!

Maybe I can think clearer with a foggy stuffy brain???

So I am not ready to throw her in the pond yet. Danny was happy and came upstairs and watched me quilt for a while and told me several things he can do to the frames to make them a litlle easier for me to work with....woowooooo!!!!!! Now just getting him to do that!!!!

Yes this really made me forget for a while that I was so sick.....then the Excedrin wore off again!!!! I am going to finish this quilt, that is just for me...maybe for the midnight boatrides that we have every now and again. Then I have to get to work on some other UFO's and some new projects that I have in mind....like a log cabin quilt like Terri's!!!