I Like Thursdays

Oof- first post since APRIL. Ye gods.
Linking to Not Afraid of Color, who is a much better blogger than I am :)

I like looking at old photos - this one is from summer 2013. This kid is taller than I am now.

And that'll be it for photos- I need to go through and clean up what's on the computer so I can install updates!

Hopefully- will blog more later. But it's a start, y'all.

OMG for April DONE

Linking up to Elm Creek Quilts!

April's goal was modest- to get a crumb block quilt sandwiched and basted.

I did that AND got it DONE done.

My youngest is now the happy owner of a requested summer quilt :)

I like Thursdays- 2018 Week #17

Linking up to LeeAnna at  Not Afraid of Color. 

I like finished objects. This is a summer quilt for my youngest, using crumb blocks.

I like hanging with my kids. I'll get to hang with the oldest over the weekend :) She's in the process of buying a car, and I'm heading down to lend moral support. I'll get to see my brother and sister-in-law as well. I also like the HEAT and will enjoy a lot of that in Florida :)

I like Thursdays - 2018, week #16

Linking up to LeeAnna at  Not Afraid of Color. 

Oops, almost missed AGAIN.

Last week I was out of town, but there'd be no excuse this week!I

I was at a business meeting...and so the whole post is pretty much about how much I miss the South. I miss being hot and sweaty and sticky eleven-and-a-half months of the year. I miss it being SO GREEN all the time. I miss being able to eat seafood that was swimming in the Gulf yesterday, and not having to worry that it's been tainted with Old Bay. I miss the food in general. I miss the music.

I'm not completely naive; there will be some things I'll miss about Maryland- I doubt the variety of ethnic food we have here will be available, but it's a trade-off I'm willing to make. Nine more years, if the stock market recovers, and I'm retired and moving.

Anyway.

I like New Orleans. It was a treat when we lived in Mobile to head over for a day trip, and I haven't been back since we moved to Maryland nearly enough.

I like fried shrimp.
But only wild gulf shrimp. Farmed shrimp is disgusting. I had a shrimp po-boy for lunch one day, and shrimp and mac & cheese for dinner one night. The French Quarter Festival was going on the same time as my meeting.

I like snowballs. And thanks to a friend in the area, I was "in the know" about the Mango Freeze. It was SO GOOD.

I like zydeco.  There was a lot of different kind of music at FQF, but I sought out the zydeco. (I did actually attend all the meeting sessions- but I could walk to the French Quarter for lunch and dinner.)

Sean Ardoin:

Zachary Richard:

I like seeing people dancing in the street:

I like festivals. They seem to be more common down South, and are more likely to be free

I like walking along the river. And only in New Orleans are you likely to see Porta-Potties heading upriver in a john-boat.

I like beignets. A box of beignet mix came home with me- I wound up having to go through security twice at the airport, and both times the box of mix got taken out and wanded

And Maryland isn't all bad- things are blooming here now, but we had frost warnings last night!!! Crazy weather.

I like Thursdays - 2018, week #14

Linking up to LeeAnna at  Not Afraid of Color. 

I like Easter egg hunts. My two teens indulged me in a marathon egg hunt/taekwondo practice this past weekend.

I like spring flowers. Alliums are good because the deer don't eat them.

The bleeding heart is starting to come up. The previous owners planted it - ONE thing at least they did right!! It was one clump at the base of the cedar tree for many years, and then last year it just EXPLODED.

These daffodils were planted just over 14 years ago.

I like our cedar trees. I'm not so happy when one of them succumbs to high winds :(  At least the half-a-tree didn't fall on the house.

I like buzzards. They're such cool birds.

 I like this boy. In the first photo, he's telling me how he doesn't approve of me being around the front of the house where he can't see me. In the second, he has eyes  only for my hotdog.

I like dinners around the firepit. Hot dogs and s'mores, yum.

One Monthly Goal - April

Linking up to OMG at Elm Street Quilts.

Last month's goal was to get this top finished, sandwiched, and basted. I at least got it finished!!!

April's goal is to sandwich and baste it.

Sunday Stash and Daily Stitching Reports - April 1

Linking up  to quiltpaintcreate for the Sunday stash report. and Life in Pieces for daily sewing report,.

"This week" actually means since my last post for stash/cash reports :) 


Used this week:           `  0.0 yards

Used year to date:       17.10 yards

Added this week:              0.0 yards

Added year to date:      34.00 yards

______________________________

Balance:                     16.9 yards ADDED

Spent this week:       $    6.00

Spent this year:        $ 191.69

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Days with stitching this week:  6 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this month:  31 out of 31 days 9March) 1 out of 30 days (April)

Days with stitching this year:  89 out of 91 days

Blocks this week:  11

Blocks for March:  31
Blocks for April:      3

Blocks this year:  202

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Starting something new this month: At least 5 minutes sewing time per day - and I'm counting sewing-related activities (cutting, fabric management, etc.) as well. 

Spending was on books from the thrift store (not counting $$ on the fluffy mysteries: 

Not all the sewing went well this week. Nobody needs TWO seams to join two blocks :) 

I like Thursdays - 2018, week#13

Linking up to LeeAnna at  Not Afraid of Color. 

I like used bookstores - the one I normally go to is run by The Friends of the Library. Today at lunch I took a few bags of books to donate, and left with fewer than I came in with :)

I also like thrift stores! There's one in the same little shopping center as the bookstore, and today I lucked out with two folding chairs - because I also like lawn concerts in the summer. We already have tickets for the Outlaw music festival (Willie Nelson, Sturgill Simpson, Elvis Costello - others TBA) and are planning on a couple of others.

I like the warmer weather- although today it brought me a migraine.

Sunday Stash and Daily Stitching Reports - March 25

Linking up  to quiltpaintcreate for the Sunday stash report. and Life in Pieces for daily sewing report,.

"This week" actually means since my last post for stash/cash reports :) 


Used this week:           `  1.0 yards

Used year to date:       17.10 yards

Added this week:              0.3 yards

Added year to date:      34.00 yards

______________________________

Balance:                     16.9 yards ADDED

Spent this week:       $    5.00

Spent this year:        $ 186.69

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Days with stitching this week:  7 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this month:  25 out of 31 days

Days with stitching this year:  83 out of 84 days

Blocks this week:  17

Blocks for March:  23

Blocks this year:  193

"Used" this week was either donated or trashed.


I spent a grand total of $5 at the Southern Comforters quilt show. $3 for the Cat in the Hat FQ, and $2 for all the other goodies. I think I accumulated about another .05 yards from bits picked up at small group meetings.

I Like Thursdays 2018, Week #11

Linking up to Not Afraid of Color. Jump over there for more Thursday likes.

I like pie! Yesterday was pi day (which is easily translated to Pie day) so I made a strawberry pie. It was delicious.

I like quilt shows. Last weekend we went to the Southern Comforters' show, in Bowie.

SO MANY beautiful quilts. Here's a little eye candy.

I like stash enhancement, but managed to control myself :) Needles,one book, and other oddities at the guild's yardsale section, and one fat quarter of Dr. Seuss.

The day before that was Mulch Day for the boy scouts. I like that the Small Man is getting $$ for his scout account, and it was actually satisfying to know we'd delivered a  huge mountain of mulch- but my shoulders are still killing me!!

Both boys started the day- but the karate kid went home with a nosebleed after a few hours.

Loading the delivery trucks.

The "big truck." I was one of the chase cars for this truck, following it around so we could all pile out and carry the bags of mulch up to the houses for delivery.

Just chillin' between deliveries.

And this one is weird- but I like hornet's nests. The Small Man noticed this one over the weekend- we didn't know it was there last summer, when it would've been active. 

I posted a photo on Facebook, and got lots of questions about calling exterminators.

Well, no.

We have a live-and-let-live attitude here for stinging insects - as long as they're not right by the house so we can't avoid them, we leave them alone. I did notice we had a lot of hornets around the compost pile last year, but they really aren't aggressive and didn't bother me.

The architecture in those nests is amazing.