Day 571

More coughing, phone calls, and NASCAR watching. A rainstorm, a long nap, and another quilt top for the Alaska kids.

 No thanks to the kitty who plopped herself on the ironing board just when I needed it.

Day 570

I set out to make today a sewing day and I did it.

Luckily I had some motivation after I visited a quilter today, and it was another quilter who took me over there to visit. Having never seen another quilter's space it was quite the exciting morning for me. I got to see all her beautiful work - beautiful fabrics, beautiful stitching, beautiful patterns - and ask lots of questions of both of them. It made me think about maybe making a quilt (or two) for myself.

But not today. I picked out the fabric on Day 561 for those Alaska kids' quilts and they've just been waiting for me. So today between the trip to the quilter's house, a variety of phone calls, a coughing attack that lasted hours, a little bit of NASCAR TV watching, an even little bittier nap, and a power outage, I managed to get two tops together.

I may still add some borders, but otherwise I'll be ready to sandwich them together and get them headed out the door. (Faces have been blurred for obvious reasons.)

Day 569

She found the praying mantis on Day 553 and just the other day when we were cleaning the front flower bed we found him again.

But today's picture is of the dragonfly she found in the backyard. Such lacy looking wings! But I regret to say the dragonfly in the picture has expired. I don't know what it was that took its life before we got to it, but one possible explanation is the horrible air quality. Too many forest fires for too long have created terrible breathing conditions.

They have created a colorful daytime sun, though.

Day 568

She complained about having too many fabric pictures and she complained about too many food pictures on the blog. But guess who wanted me to take a picture of the chocolate chip cookies she made?

Here ya go kiddo, here are your cookies. They were so delicious! But no more complaining about my pictures, okay?

Day 567

My daughter helped get today's picture.

My back and body have been bugging me so I've been having trouble getting anything done around the yard. I've needed to tackle the front bed for quite some time but knowing the additional aches it would produce I've been putting it off.

No more. Today we deadheaded, cut back out of control plants, and pulled up wayward grasses. Now all we see is what we need at this time of year. Thanks to my daughter's help, mums, Lady's Mantle, and some foliage from fall bulbs as they make their way through the soil are all that are left.

Day 566

We gave our daughter our old car when we bought the new one a few months back. We knew then that it wouldn't be long before the car hit 100,000 miles. Not that 100,000 is bad, but it was what kind of service came with that 100,000 miles that hit her pocketbook hard.

She has a boyfriend who is a car guy so he makes sure she takes care of her vehicle properly. They took it in for a tune up, which turned into a replacement of a timing belt, which turned into replacing other belts, which turned into flushing coolants, which turned into replacing filters, which turned into two days of service, which turned into a huge bill.

$1,525. Poor kiddo.

Thank goodness the holiday season is coming soon and she can get lots of hours to help replenish her savings account.

She'll probably have to work as hard as these two spiders hanging out at our house.

Day 565

I sure like it when I find a picture first thing in the morning. Even better, I didn't have to even get dressed or step outside to get this view out my dining room window.

What appears to be the sun touching the ground is actually the sun's reflection in the Snake River. The actual sun is higher up in the tree.