A New Quilt for the Birthday Boy

I know that a quilt can't compete with a tractor, but it will come in handy at bedtime:)

  I wanted to make something special for our little grandson's 3rd birthday. When I saw this book by the author of the Pretty By Hand blog, I knew exactly what to make.

I  love this quilt! I was able to combine my love of embroidery and quilting.  Kristyne has come up with the cutest designs that can used in quilts and other projects.There is a set for girls and one for boys, but I used some of each to make it work for Tad.

And I remembered to make a label this time! I almost always forget to do this and we all need to put our names and a date on our quilts. Hopefully this quilt will be around for awhile. Or maybe it will get loved to death. That's OK too:)

It's a Jungle Out Here!

 That's what we said when we returned home from our vacation and saw the yard. We couldn't believe how much things had grown in only 8 days. But with all the rain and warm weather, everything (especially the weeds:) had rocketed up. I have spent the last week getting caught up and still haven't finished all the gardens. It has turned very hot and humid and I just can't handle working in it too long at a time.

So this was where we spent our little holiday - Siesta Key, Florida. Really the most beautiful beach we have ever been to. Add to that the perfect weather, condo, and food and we were in heaven!

The water was so clear and warm.

One of our favorite things about Florida (or anywhere, really) is the wildlife. We went to a state park and also to another island to see alligators, birds and sea creatures.

We waded into a tidal mudflat to see horseshoe crabs and other cool things.

I had to bring along a little something to work on while relaxing in the evenings. Can't have idle hands, you know! So I prepared a stitchery project. I'm not sure what I will do with it. Maybe a pillow? We'll see.

Saying goodby to our beach :(

We will add the memories of this trip to the all the others taken over the years. I wonder where we will go next. Mmmm....

New Vegetable Beds and Irises

I'm sure it's not surprising that I'm obsessed with gardening right now. If I'm not working in the yard, I'm going out every so often just to admire it and see what's blooming. Everything is changing so fast and I'm afraid I'll miss a lovely peony or iris. I can't wait until school is out so I can be home in the mornings, when it's cool and the birds are singing. Heaven!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember our strawberry bed. It was quite large and prolific, but very hard to take care of. Because of that and the fact that we lost a lot of plants over the winter, I decided to remake that part of the garden. Rick made ten more raised beds similar to the ones in the front veggie garden, just a different size.

A lot of work for my husband, but he knew it would end up being less work for me in the long run. He filled each bed with soil and several wheelbarrow loads of compost. Then we covered the paths with mulch. I love how it looks!

The front beds have tomatoes, three types of heirlooms and others. There are sweet peas and parsley under the trellis.

Two beds have strawberries. They are doing well already, but won't produce until next year.

Another two beds of asparagus. Can you see it?

These are the older front beds.

Sugar peas and two varieties of lettuce.

Broccoli started from seed.

Spinach, chard, radishes, and carrots.

Bush beans.

Now is the time for irises to bloom here in Indiana. I love them and have had many colors over the years. But for some reason the purple/blue irises are the ones that stick around. But this year we got a pretty yellow to bloom. And the Japanese iris are always dependable and beautiful.

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed my garden pictures. Believe it or not, I have been doing some crafting and I will post about it soon. Take care, everyone!

Mother's Day Hike

For most of Mother's Day we were on our own. Eric was in Seattle at a convention and Justin (in the Midwest from DC) was in Chicago seeing his grad school friends. We got together with Andrew, Alison and Tad for a picnic at city park later in the evening. But it was such a pretty day we decided to go for our traditional MD hike. We have been doing this since our boys were toddlers. (Father's Day is canoeing.) We went to Shades State Park, about 45 minutes away. 

 

We went on our favorite trail down the canyon to Sugar Creek. It hadn't rained in awhile so there wasn't a lot of water in the little creek. It has since rained a bunch! I'm sure it's quite different this weekend:)  

The way down was full of ferns and wildflowers. Everything was so green and pretty.

We finally got to the creek. Isn't it pretty?  I'm sure this beach is covered in water now. But it was perfect for searching for crinoids and geodes. And little toads.

After an hour or so we headed back. We decided to go up out of the creek valley by a different trail - millions of steps! I was worn out by the time we got to the top. But not too tired to enjoy more flowers.

To top off a great day we got to see this sweetie:

I missed our other boys, but it was a wonderful Mother's Day!

So Busy

 

Early May is probably the busiest time for me. I work like a crazy person to get the gardens planted and weeded and looking like I want. There is also my job, house work, and meals to prepare. And this year I added a medical emergency and trip to the ER, and sons traveling here and there. Sheesh! Luckily, this is a quiet weekend. Of course, I still worked in the garden all day, but Rick and I went out to dinner last night and spent a lot of time relaxing on the deck today. 

I hope everyone has a very special Mother's Day. I am going to sleep late and hopefully I'll wake up to a wonderful breakfast cooked by my sweetie. If the weather holds we are going to have a picnic with Andrew, Alison, and Tad, and maybe a little hike. No matter what, I'm going to take it easy:)