Orange Crush and Sand Cranes Again

I have come to the conclusion that other than laziness, what is holding me up on my OC is fear. I have never done a quilt on point, and part of me wants to finish out the OC as given, but I've been trying to chicken out. Last night, I put some blocks on the bed straight set, and asked my husband if he thought he would like the orange in our room. He gave it the seal of approval, so I decided to go for broke, and do it Bonnie's way. I'm going to suck it up and do the on point. Bonnie says she lays it out and then does half at a time, so as I only have a small space, and no design wall, I am going to try to lay out half and sew it and then lay out the other half and sew it. I hope I'm not getting into more than I can chew. I'm not doing the border she recommended, although, I may use the leftover blocks in some adaptation of it.

Also, a lone sand crane made it back to our yard yesterday, and since my last pictures were so bad, I took some more. This time I made sure that my camera was on the correct setting. They are about 36 inches high (my estimate), and that is the road in front of our house behind him. I am going to try to get a picture of the baby birds today if I can get my husband to get out the ladder. I saw that they are actually still there a day or two ago. Hopefully, I won't be too late.

Vintage Thingies Thursday

At Confessions of an Apron Queen there is a 'Vintage thingies Thursday', and these are mine. My new old featherweight, my grandmother's and then my mother's blue canning jar, a quilt that my grandmother started, and my mother finished, an egg plate that I bought my mother for Christmas when I was a child, and a little Fairmont Dairy creamer from Omaha, that my aunt gave me.

Iowa Trip

We are back from our trip to Iowa, and even though it was for a sad reason (my mother's memorial service), it was a good trip, and we enjoyed seeing everyone. Last Thursday we started out by picking up my son, which was about a 3 hour round trip, so he could spend the night and then we got up at 3:00 AM Friday morning, and went to the airport. Our flights were good, and we flew into Kansas City and then drove about 3 hours to my niece's in Diagonal, Iowa. She had it set up with 3 RV's (hers, her SIL's, and the neighbors, Iowa people are very helpful), one for my DH and I and our 2 children, one for my oldest brother (who is younger than me) and his son, and one for my youngest brother and his 2 kids. She had a party going on for her son who was graduating from 8th grade so there was a crowd already.

The picture above is one I thought that some of you ladies who have jeans parts around, and like the country style might be interested in. They made a real cute valence, and the loops were already there, just a matter of cutting and arranging. This picture is from my niece's living room.
My youngest brother's daughter is a horsewoman, and so while we were there my niece's husband decided to bring his horses from their winter pasture to their yard. They have 3.5 acres in town. I was teasing my niece telling her about the blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, and how she calls her husband the Marlboro Man, and telling her she had one of her own, but I was too late, as she said the guys at work already called him the Marlboro Man (he doesn't smoke either).
The dog is Gus. He is one of the best dogs I have been around, even I, who am afraid of most dogs felt comfortable around him. He seemed like a puppy, but is 5 years old. Nick, the Marlboro man says that he takes him bird hunting, and Gus is a natural. The hunters with well trained expensive bird dogs are jealous, as Gus usually is 1st to do whatever bird dogs do, and without training. The palamino, Nick raised from a colt, and I don't know if he is really not a smart horse or if the kids just don't give him credit for still being young, but his name is Blaze, and they call him blockhead. He was not happy at all to be kept from his pal. This is Nick and their 3 year old Logann, she is a fearless little girl.

The picture above is me, I usually don't do pictures, but this one wasn't as ugly as usual. Maybe because I have my hand in front of my face. The other picture is my DH. Kerri, my niece, has a beautiful yard, the little girl across the street says she is going to the park when she visits, and the weather was beautiful, so we spent a lot of time outdoors. It rained one time while we were there, a pretty windy storm, but their part of Iowa, so far has escaped the floods. There had been a small tornado a day or two before, outside of town, and we passed a little damage, but no one had been hurt.

This picture was on the way home. We passed a bunch of high tech looking windmills, and my daughter wanted me to take a picture.
It was a very nice trip, and we got home about 1:30 AM on Tuesday morning, took my son back home after we slept, and have been recupperating since then. I missed everybody, it's funny how attached you can get to people you haven't met.


P.S. My niece is pregnant, so I think she did very well with all that was going on. She had about 30 or more people at her house 2 days in a row. I gave my cousin the Crazy Big Block quilt, and she seemed to like it. I hope that she uses it a lot.
P.P.S. My daughter took the pictures of me, DH, and Gus. Also, when we got home it looked like the baby birds were gone. The nest is still there, so I hope that Mama Bird moved them.

Baby Birds and Poor Photography

No quilting today, we are getting ready for our short trip to Iowa. I decided to mow the yard again, and while I was out front the Trugreen guy came and did the bushes and trees. He asked me if I knew that I had some baby birds in the crepe myrtle by the driveway. I had no idea, and had just a few days ago been pulling the low branches off it, and would have gone up higher if I had had clippers on me. I'm glad I didn't, I probably would have hurt these babies. I had my husband bring me a ladder, so I could get above them and take pictures, but in my excitement, I guess I forgot the rule of halfway down for the macro and then pause. This is the best I can do until I get back though, as I don't want to disturb them anymore. I have seen mama, and I can't tell if she is a dove or a mockingbird, as she seems from a distance to be the color of a dove who has been around, but has a tail like a mockingbird. Sorry the pictures aren't better, I think there are 3 of them, and they seem to be hungry little critters. This kind of critter I don't mind, but the neighbor came by, and he said he had a black snake go in his house when he opened the door, and then luckily came back out and ran in the bushes. He thinks its a rat snake, so hopefully, he will get the rat I saw last weekend.

New Ironing Board and Giveaway

I finally got around to making my version of the 'big board' ironing board. Mine is 14x47 inches, and it is a big improvement over my little mini ironing board. I got a shelf from Ikea, and covered it with heavy duty foil, then covered that with a layer of cotton batting, which I stapled down so it would be permanent. Then I covered that with a layer of the silver ironing board cloth, which I taped down so that I could change it easily if necessary. I have also read that someone uses freezer paper, and then just keeps replacing that to keep the ironing board from getting nasty looking. I am going to try that as I have a box that I have had forever. I was going to use a 24x48 inch piece of pressed board, but that was very heavy, and this is pretty light so can be removed easily to cut big pieces of fabric. For small pieces, I have a small cutting board that I can just lay on top. At least, that is the plan.
The fat quarters below are a giveaway from Embroidery Treasures. Serena says you can sign up until June 16th by leaving a comment on her blog. It is only open to US residents.

Sand Cranes

I get very excited when we get lucky and the Sand Cranes visit our neighborhood. They are big birds probably at least up to my waist. They were here a couple of months ago with babies (probably about knee high), and my brother and I tried to get pictures but missed them. Today I was on my computer and looked out the window and there they were in my front yard. I grabbed my camera, and ran out, and got several pictures, but unfortunately when I came back in and loaded them on my computer they were all blurry. I had my camera on the wrong setting. Here is a link to see a good picture of a sand crane.

http://tinyurl.com/49lppx

You can click on him down at the bottom left.

Yard

The ridiculous is here, if you want to see the sublime, you have to go to Okperi's Place and see the pictures of her yard. We have been emailing back and forth, and she has requested pictures. Here are 2 of the emails:

From Me Your yard was the final straw. It looked so pretty, that I spent 3 hours working in mine today, and it is looking much better. I kept putting off weeding because I am afraid of critters, and I was waiting for help. It didn't come, and once I got started it wasn't too bad.
Although, the first thing I did was mow, and the first thing I saw near our garbage cans was a rat. Not an auspicious beginning for a chicken.

Here's hers Oh Candace, that is funny, lol. I know it really isn't but it is and I have to laugh. I think I would not work in the yard either if I saw a rat.
I am glad I gave you some inspiration, but if I were you, I would be unhappy that I felt like I had to do something, lol. I am still laughing, you have made my day!
Please post a picture so I can congratulate you on your blog lol.

There are also a couple of gratuitous flower pictures from after our rain today, so the crepe myrtles got a little beat up. And here is also another picture of a critter who stayed still long enough for his portrait to be taken. I pulled lots of weeds today, but there is still a lot of work to be done. It was a good start.

Giveaways

Angela of Soscrappy is having a giveaway for her 100th post. She had a great tutorial for reusable shopping bags, and her giveaway includes one specially made for the winner.
Another new giveawy is going on at Storybook Woods. Clarice is celebrating her 500th post with an altered note-book, and if you haven't visited her blog you are in for a treat, it is a delight to the eyes.

Chili and Inertia

I have been having three extremely lazy days. I get up with intentions of getting lots done, and then the inertia sets in, and I don't git-r-done. As you can see, I have good intentions of finishing my OC, and I have it all organized and ready to go, but there it sits. I am going to use the excuse that I haven't decided on the setting yet, but I think it is mainly a case of laziness. Today, about the only thing I accomplished was an 8 quart pot of chili. In my opinion there are two main things that all cooks who make them think that theirs is the very best. One is lasagna, and the other is chili. I of course think mine is at least one of the best, but I realize that others feel that way about theirs. If you don't already make the best chili in the world, here is how I make mine. Remember, it makes about 8 quarts, but it freezes well. I use ingredients in 'about' measurements, and you should make it to your taste too:
2.5 pounds of hamburger, 2 coursely chopped onions, 5 cloves of minced garlic, about 3 tbsp. of worcestershire sauce, basil fresh or dried to taste, salt, pepper, 5 or so tbsp. of chili powder, 1 small can tomato paste about 6 oz., 1 small can tomato sauce about 8 oz., 1 can stewed tomatoes about 16 oz., 1 large can diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup katsup, 3 large cans kidney beans, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 soup can water, 1 cup wheat berries (from the health food store)
Brown the beef with the onions and garlic, and add the spices to taste. We prefer ours on the milder side, so if you like spicy add some pepper flakes, and more chili powder. Mix in the mushroom soup, and then add all the other ingredients. Bring to a simmer stirring often, and simmer for about an hour.
I like to serve mine over al dente pasta. Tonight we had mini wagon wheels. The wheat probably sounds strange as an ingredient, but it gives it a nice little popping sort of crunch, and it's good for you. Just don't add it if you have ulcers, as it could be hard on your stomach. My family also thinks I make the best chili, but I trained them to my taste.

Playing with Camera on New Phone

Yesterday, we went to Target for odds and ends, and I played a little with the camera on my new phone. Then, I played a little with the free version of photoshop on my computer. Not up to the big cameras, but not too bad. The yellow flower was actually a pretty bright yellow.