Garden ready....

I have a wonderful winter garden going this year. We had a couple of low temps at night for a few days and it  made me get a head start on getting the garden ready for winter.

I have 3 short beds, spring mix, baby carrots, kale, broccoli, 3 types of lettuce, cucumbers, butternut squash, spinach and strawberries with a dwarf pomegranate tree at end. All of this is on this side.


This side has 2 tomatoes and yellow onions and then in the back bed, which I don’t have a picture has 6 different peppers, a different/another type of broccoli and  2 ‘visitor’ tomatoes. 

I used PVC pipe and this plastic drop cloths, which are a little heavier and all the clamps I could find to hold them on.

I still need to find something to cover my Manderine Orange tree until it gets accustomed to the weather out here. Most likely just for this winter. 

I have the greenhouse all ready to go just have to put the heater in when needed. So pretty much all plants have been taken care of. They are all loving this cooler weather for sure.

Retreat time...

Found a retreat here in Texas and talked a friend into going with me. They cut the # of people in attendance in half.  We were seated every other booth and had to wear our masks if we got up and walked around. They went above and beyond to keep us safe.  

First off... look at this iron! It’s a heavy duty sucker... works awesome... AND.... it has my maiden name on it! ‘KNAPP’.... and Monarch... when I went to High School... I was a Monarch! They had these at every ironing station... they are not cheap either!

View out the back patio.

Fourth of July quilt done.

Christmas quilt finished.

This one with the X’s...I picked up at an estate sale.. I finished it up. 



Finished the little one up and gave it away to Charity group. Out sewing bee has been extra busy the last couple months. We have finished over 50 quilts. We have done walker bags, bibs, marble mazes, baby quilts, 35 pillowcases  just to name a few things. Sandy and I  distribute these to various places on each Wednesday. Busy, busy.. we only started keeping track of these since around September. 

Halloween...

Tried some Pinterest ideas this year. Spider web pillows. 

Little Frankenstein pillows... this was actually a Pinterest fail.. turned out nothing like the picture.

Little Halloween quilts made just for the swing... with a little spider sewn on. 

Take a look at this dinosaur. Found him in someone’s front yard.. I really LIKE him!


Then we took my nephews family to pumpkin patch. 

So much fun!

They just moved here to Texas a couple weeks ago... it is just so exciting to have Family here.... just need more of them to follow!

Well.....

It has been a long time....

I have been quite busy here in Texas... I am just going to jump back into October. There is a lot that i will skip over but Here are some more QOV. I will try to get you caught up. I am up to 50 now that I have either sewn up and or quilted for QOV. 

There are a couple more I didn’t show you, but it could take a while. We were told at our last meeting that are area is all caught up on honorings. Which is wonderful news. There was a long list of people on the waiting list, but our area is all caught up. We are working on helping surrounding areas up now. Still over 500 people waiting in the state of Texas. 

I was also the lucky recipient to Kim Diehl’s cleaning of the closet. I am honored to be the lucky person to receive it. 2 huge boxes came in the mail a couple weeks ago with like 45 yards of fabric! This is going to help out tremendously. She also got in touch with Henry Glass and they are sending me 2 bolts of 108” backing. Can you yell YAHOO with me!

So this is all for today, I will try to post tomm and get you caught up some more. 

QOV.....

Sandy and I delivered 6 Quilts of Valor quilts to PHD fabric store on Tuesday. While we were there, Stacy was honoring 2 Veterans. It is so emotional to watch the recipient’s get these awards.

Today’s ceremony involved 2 of my quilts. She put me on the spot and made me get up there and get in the picture. I would have done my hair or dressed a little nicer... oh well..

There were 6 of us quilt makers there today so it was really kinda neat.  

Busier than ever...

I thought things were suppose to slow down when retired. I am just as busy, and not even working.

Here is #41/#42 QOV 

Same pattern, just using up scraps I had. It’s a great pattern for that idea. I can whip 15 flags up in 1 night and the next sew them together and then quilt it up.

Here is a donation quilt Sandy and I made up and I quilted.

One of the guilds I am in asked for 13 quilts for girls that were being taken out of their homes for various reasons. Isiah’s House I believe is the group. This is 1/13. I am not making all of them, but we just made a donation of this one.

I quilted all these up for the other guild I am in, these are going to several different care homes in the area. I sewed 3 of them up, all others were sewed up by other members. The ones with all the bandana fabric are the ones I did. 

This again is just a smidgen of what I’ve been up to. These were the last pictures in my album. 

Tomorrow (actually today, it’s after midnight and i can’t sleep)I pick up BOTH grandkids and will have them till Sunday. This is the 1st time we have had both and the 1st time for Sloan here without his Momma. It will be fun!

Towels...

There has been a million and one things going on.... so busy I can’t even keep up. 

Found these in my photos.

JohnJohn was here for a week, last week... being summer time... I thought he and his brother needed some pool towels.

 

That’s just a smidgen of things... 

Another day....

Having the best time enjoying life here in Texas....

Garden is still growing strong, we just fertilized last night hoping to get another bumper crop for the fall.

I made like 10 bags of spaghetti sauce and froze them all. 

Kelly and I tried Spaghetti Pie last night. We had a recipe but were short a few items, so we substituted.

Mmm.mmmmm. Homemade spaghetti sauce.

And finally...

Yum, yum! With fresh basil on top from garden....

Also made some refreshing beverages..

For some reason.... I can’t load it... grrr.. anyways... great lemonade with mint from garden....

Fishin’......

We were invited to a friends piece of land to go fishin’.... it was just herself and her husband there.... oh, and their 13 cows and Crumley.... their llama.

It was fun...

They wouldn’t come come close, they stayed away... I just zoomed way in.

Gampy and John John, reeling a fish in.

Amazing sunset on the way home.

Another fun day in the books!

This and that....

Finished 2 table runners just in time for the 4th of July.

Super cute....love them. Delivered the 2nd one to Kelly yesterday.

Then I put the binding on QOV #32 last night.

Ready to deliver on Tuesday. Have 4 all together to donate this month. 

Have another busy day scheduled. I have to go get paint to finish my new cabinet door. Need to put some stepping stones into the ground so I don’t have to keep moving them every time we mow.  Also,  need to finish moving rocks to make a planter...not sure this is gonna happen because of outside temps today. I may be sewing inside by the end of the day. I cut out a quilt yesterday and it needs to be sewn up. 
Yes, another QOV. 

Spaghetti sauce...

My fridge was overflowing with veggies of all kinds and I didn’t want anything to go bad. Garden is coming to an end soon and I’m cleaning it all up. 

So spaghetti sauce it was...

I took all the veggies out of fridge and roasted them all up. There was 5 trays all together. 

Cut them all up, seasoned, roasted @400 for about 15 minutes. Did that 5 times for all the trays.... put each one in the blender and made sauce. Prego sells spaghetti sauce with vegetables right??

Put in zip loc baggies and in the freezer they went. 

Just add some Italian sausages and they are ready for dinner!

Made a table runner in between all the goings on.... 1done, 1 more to go. Trying to finish them up for the 4th of July.  Then I will quilt them up.

Quilted this baby up.... I started it, machine went out of timing.... had to take her in.... finished her up the other day. It is QOV # 31 or #32 I think...

Luckily I was able to continue right where I left off with no problem what so ever. 

Going in a field trip today to look at some old windows for sale. I am thinking a lot of re making my greenhouse these days and it might be coming to light soon. 

New cabinets...

Went to a quilters estate sale and boy did she have every gadget possible. She loved her gadgets. 

I picked up fabric. Rulers I was too cheap to buy to begin with... things like that. My friend got a Janine machine, a 2nd one that is smaller. This way she can use it for community service meetings & retreats... and all her machine parts and bobbins can be interchangeable with the ‘mama’ machine and she now does not have to disconnect her main machine to leave.  

I did get ideas for storage while there so I went home and looked in my room.

Fun things we bought, so fun, we ended up going back 3 more times since then, 

The cabinet on right, there were 2 identical ones next to each other but I forgot a before picture. I bought left one at hobby lobby.

It’s so stinking cute, I bought another..

And after....
Love my new little space! All because I went and saw someone else’s room and got ideas!

New windows....

They finally decided to show up to install the windows. 

They look awesome.we went with grids on the front of the house and no grids on the back.


There is still a couple of touch ups they have to do, they ordered wrong style window for one of the bedrooms and 2 screens have holes. And other than tracking mud throughout my house on my carpet, everything looks good. I’m calling today to see if they will pay to have my carpet cleaned. 

Of course we can’t do a project without an injury and this time it was me... taking the blinds down, Mark unlocked the top, then decided to pull the shades up... whoops.... the whole unit cam flying at my nose like a bullet.

This looks BE-YOU-T-FUL.... I now have 2 blacks eyes that are a pretty shade of blue and purple, can’t wear my glasses, there is a cut right wear they sit..  oooiiii.  

Anyways... after all installed, I sanded ALL 29 window sills, Mark and I painted them and I started  on doorways. You just can’t stop at 1 doorway, so they ALL got a touch up throughout the WHOLE house. 

It’s Father’s Day...

So happy Father’s Day to all the men out there...

I don’t think I have one of Steven and Mark... I’m sure if I looked hard enough through all the THOUSANDS of pictures, I’d find one... Oh well. That’s a lot of pictures.

We’ve still been busy here... made an arbor... I didn’t have the stain they used on rest of the fence, I used up what we had (got rid of 2 more cans, like 20 more to go) it’s going to be sun faded and covered up by the end of summer... so. I went with it. If I bought it online, it would come in a different color also...

Had left over wood and something was needed. Really can’t see it in this picture, but we have come out numerous times and the neighbors are standing in their garbage, looking at us in our yard. I know we have a really cute back yard, and it’s not finished but still...

So I’m going to plant a Passion flower vine all along here... hopefully it will take out some of there view. It’s not like we have 6’ in between our houses like in CA, it’s a good distance... I just want to cover it up. They are really nice people and all, but I guess I’m weird. 

Then I tried my hand at canning... oh boy... this is a whole new world and could be a costly hobby.

Last year my neighbor gave me this jam.... OH MY GOSH.... I fell in love. Have eaten like 4 jars this year and then we decided to make another batch up. It’s scrumptious!!!! Now I have my own 4 jars. Super easy also. 



Then since my tomatoes are going crazy... I made tomato soup. My friend made some in CA and it was good, so i tried it. I used my jars and tomatoes and her canning items. It’s good, but sweet. I even cut down on the sugar it called for, so I’ll decrease it again if I make more. I cut the recipe in half so maybe I screwed up on my part. 

It is very time consuming. Not sure I’ll do it again. 

That’s it for now... doing odds and ends getting ready for bath re model.... gathering all parts and pieces for that.