Flowers!

Hey there! Are you staying cool? Here it's been miserable...I am not a summer person, I tend to wilt when it gets about 80 degrees. I braved the heat and took some photos of our flowers. Let's start in front of the house, shall we?

I have two of these pots, one on each side of the sitting wall. They're a bit past-peak here.

Two of these as well, on either side of the front door. They've really filled out nicely!

A variety of coleuses (colei?)

Going around the side...

The two white hydrangeas are the "Annabelle" variety. Of course we had to plant those! They do really well on the north side of our house. The middle purple hydrangea was a gift from my mother-in-law a few years ago and he's happy as well.

 

Now in the back...

I just thought this sunflower was funny...it sprang up from a dropped seed from the bird feeder.

In the fairy garden...

This is one of three oak-leaf hydrangeas. The deer love these and eat them down to nubs in the winter. We tried protecting them with burlap but it was too late last fall.  This year we'll start earlier, so hopefully we'll have blooms next year!

That's as far as I got...I can't stay out for long, as you know! Anyway thanks for taking this little tour with me!

♥ Jen

Teeny update

Why hello! We meet again! Sorry for not posting much lately. The past two weeks have been pretty crazy, with the kids off, activities, and visitors. But I am very happy that for the next couple of weeks, we have very little scheduled. Today I slept until 8:15 (woo hoo!), then we went to the mall for a few hours. Got a cute couple of shirts for Mason at Old Navy, including this one...

And new pjs for Annabelle from Justice (her favorite store!)...

We had lunch and ice cream and did some various shopping and window-shopping. I got a Java Chip Frappucino from Starbucks...have you ever tried one? Mmmm, so yummy! I got it a tad bit lighter by ordering 2% milk...but still got the whipped cream, ha!

Sewing-wise, I'm working on a new project but I can only give sneaky-peeks for now...isn't this fabric beautiful??

I also need to do some more stitchery. I just need to. I have some iron-on transfers that I have to get going on...have you ever used Aunt Martha's transfers? They have some really cute patterns out now. Cheap too! This is one of the ones I have that I want to start on...

Ok well Mason's waiting for me to play poker with him so I better go. I will check in again soon! Hope everyone's doing well!

♥ Jen

Cute little stitchery

One of the things I look forward to most about completing a quilt is doing some handwork right after. It's so nice and relaxing, don't you think? I love embroidery. Recently I got a sweet stitchery pattern from Sharon at Daisy Cottage Quilting, so I worked on that...

It was simple as could be...the stamped muslin even came with it, so no tracing! I backed the stitching with a piece of cotton batting (a tip I got from Di). When I was done and trying to figure out what to do with it, I realized that I hadn't made Mason a pillow cover to match the new quilt. So I added a few leftover fabrics from his quilt and put together this 15" square pillow.

This is the backing fabric. It's one of my all-time favorites from Darlene Zimmerman. I didn't have enough of it to use in the quilt but it worked out perfectly for the pillow back.

You may have already noticed from the pictures...but I learned with this project that not all embroidery floss is colorfast. The brownish-black I used for the sheeps' faces and legs is a non-DMC brand; it says it's colorfast but it is NOT. I found this out when pressing it with a damp press cloth. I tried lots of things to get the dye off the muslin, short of bleach (which scared me), so I colored in the big sheep's face a bit with some pink crayon, to make it look like blush. It really annoyed me but now I guess I know for next time! Oh well. Sheep aren't known for being the cleanest animals, right?

Anyway, talk to you all later!

♥ Jen

All done

Mason's quilt is d-o-n-e DONE! I finished the binding, stitched up a label, and washed it with a few color catchers...very little dye on them, by the way! Here it is spread out on the couch...

And here is the backing.

Mason just got home from swimming and now he's cuddled up on the floor with his new quilt. Perfect timing! Now onto the next project...???

♥ Jen

The home stretch

I am nearing completion on Mason's quilt!

I'm working on stitching the binding down now...although I must admit I haven't had much time lately to knock it out. School is ending this week...and that means picnics, chaperoning, plays, teacher gifts, etc. So needless to say, I've been sorta busy. Anyway here's a sneak peek of the quilting...

I used a Gutterman cotton variegated thread, in shades of yellow. I like it, it seems to work well. Once it's all done, labelled and all, I will post pics of the entire quilt.

I got a few cute new things I thought I'd share. Check out these placemats, aren't they adorable?

They're from Kohl's. I got them on sale, then 30% off, then free shipping. Can't beat that! I love the cherry appliques.

Then I found this painted wooden tray at Christmas Tree Shops this morning. I have a thing for trays! Seriously, if you put all the stuff that's on your counter or dresser on a tray, it looks so much more organized...give it a try!

 

Annabelle's teacher gave me this set of baskets as a thank-you for being the Room Mom. I love them!

Baskets are another thing of mine (for the same reason as above). She also included a thank you note that all the kids in the class signed, it was so sweet. When I was there yesterday, a bunch of the kids even asked me to sign their yearbooks. I was very touched! They're a sweet bunch.

I have a bunch of stuff to do this afternoon...it is the last day the kids have a full day of school so I need to take advantage of it. Although Willow does have a good idea...

Well, maybe later! Anyway have a  great day!

♥ Jen

New fabrics and other fun stuff

We're getting ready for another hot few days, how about you? Ugh! I'm prepared to turn on the A/C, and I am grateful to have it...but still, there's nothing like a day in the 70s with nights in the 50s. That's the perfect summer weather to me! Anyway stay cool to all my hot friends!

My Desperate Quilters order arrived today, yaay!

Hol likes them too!

These are all fabrics for Mason's Wee Folks quilt. I've been wanting to sew for the past couple of days really bad, but everything's on hold. So I'm going to wash these quick, press them and get to cutting!

I've been  really into wax tarts lately. Of course I started with Yankee Candle's, for many years they were the gold standard for me. But then I discovered an entire world of small-batch, highly-scented, cheaper and stronger tarts online. It's so fun to pick out a new tart or two to melt each day. Check these out!

Yes, these are wax! And they smell sooooo good. These particular ones are from Koko Botanica, but I get tarts (mostly in cups/scallops) from many other places. Anyway just wanted to share my latest obsession with you! If you want more info or want to chat about tarts, let me know!

I've got the famous Pulled Pork in the crockpot today, and I'm going to make Cucumber Tomato Salad to go with it. Seems like a good day to keep the oven off! Have a good one folks!

♥ Jen

Sweet blooms and happy quilts

Hey there peeps! Are you having a good day? I took the cats in to the Vet to get checkups this morning...always an adventure! Luckily they were good and charmed everyone. Still they were glad to get home! They're both healthy, weigh 8.5 lbs each, and got overall good reports.

We got a lot of gardening done over the weekend. I'll have to take pictures of my front planters, once they fill in a little bit. I did cut a peony from the bush that we have...oh how I love these!

They are so fragrant...I can smell this one as soon as I come downstairs in the morning!

I finished Mason's quilt top...

...but now I'm going to add a border to beef it up a little bit. I placed an order with Desperate Quilters this morning...all Lakehouse. This is going to be a 6-inch all-around border.

Then I got this for the backing (on sale!)...

...and this for the binding.

I'm planning to quilt it with stippling. Pro: Goes quickly...Con: Uses lots of thread!

Has the heat let up where you are? It was brutal over the weekend, and up until today...now it's in the 60s and breezy. Ah! That's my kind of weather! I am cranky and tired when it's hot out. Sad but true.

Talk to you later!

♥ Jen