A Walk Around the Garden!

We ended up getting quite a bit of rain during the night, so the plan to work in the garden today is put on hold. That is ok, though, we still have plenty of time to get the sweet potatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, and muskmelon planted. Of course, with all this rain we have had, the yard needs mowed again. All in good time. (grin) Anyway, I walked down to the garden this morning and got some pictures. This is probably boring to some of you, but I kind of want to keep a record of it, so I'm posting pictures of our garden.
This is the whole garden from the top of the hill. Our garden is located in a field, so it is surrounded by tall grass and weeds. We have a push mower, self-propelled mower, and weed eater. No rider, so we have to pick the areas to keep mowed. No way can we keep up with the whole 5 acres. It is times like this that I miss my goats. They did a great job of keeping weeds under control.

That is where the old rider gave up the ghost. I guess Kevin leaves it there as a landmark. LOL We planted 18 tomato plants this year. I hope to be able to make some salsa, sauce, etc.

I planted little short rows of sweet corn so it would pollinate better. The rows run north and south. We usually have a south wind during the summer.

This is the first year I have planted okra. I don't even know how to fix it. I guess I need to do some research.

I planted 3 rows of green beans back in the last week of April. It was so cold that they never came up, or so I thought. I almost tilled them out, but look at them now.

These are the sweet peppers, eggplants, and the onions and potatoes behind them.

These are the best looking potatoes we have had in years. I planted 4 rows of Pontiac and one row of Yukon Gold.

Isn't this potato bloom pretty? As you can see, I already have them hilled.

This year we decided to plant some pole beans. Now Kevin needs to get a fence up beside them so they can grow up it.

I planted cabbage as an afterthought. Kevin thought it was too late for them, but they are looking good.

The last two pictures are of our spaghetti squash....

...and zucchini. I just planted 2 hills each of these. That should give us gobs.

Kevin broke some new ground for us this year, so we could increase the garden. With groceries going up each week, I look forward to when we can eat out of the garden. I hope you all enjoyed a tour of our garden. I will be posting some updates of it as it grows. Thanks for visiting and please come again. Everyone have a wonderful day.


Winona

A Couple of Wins!

My blog reading, commenting, and posting has been pretty sporadic  this year, to say the least. I have had the good luck to win a couple of great giveaways, though. First I won this Connecting Threads kit from Billie. It is called Audrey's Sewing Accessories Kit. I think this will  really come in handy if I ever get the chance to make it. Thank you so much, Billie. It is great.

Here is the fabric for the kit.

Next I won this adorable little wall quilt kit from Paula. It is called Chicken Hearted. Isn't this just the cutest thing? I hope to start on it this week. I plan to do needle turn applique on it. I need the practice and this looks ideal for practice. Paula, I really love this little kit and can hardly wait to get started on it.

I have been doing some embroidery this week. I have all 5 of the Retro Nine Patch stitchery blocks done. I am now ready to begin block #6 of Birdie Stitches.  In between working on BOM's I did these two little stitcheries. The first one is called Apples and Blossoms.

This is called Bless Our Home. I love this design so much that this is at least the 3rd one I have done. I plan to turn these into little mini quilts. I love taking stitcheries and adding scraps around them to create a little mini. (grin)

I have been waiting for storms to get here all evening. I believe they must have gone south of us. All we have had are a few sprinkles and a couple of thunder boomers. We had a nice rain yesterday morning, so we are ok on moisture. Our garden is looking great. I'll share some pictures of it soon. Well, it is getting late, so I need to get this posted. Thank you for visiting. Please have a great night.

Finally, the Grandbabies!

I decided that I had better get these pictures posted before all the kids have changed again. (grin) These were taken on Easter. They are all growing up. Look at Madison, striding across the yard. Her hair is finally growing. Looks like she has some curls.

Ashton was digging in to the candy he found at the egg hunt. He is getting so tall and grown up.

Ava looking through her goodies. Notice Ava used her mom's Bow Tuck's bag that I made her for Christmas. Glad it is seeing some use. (grin)

Izabella and Noah decided to share Carolyn's chair. How cute are they?

Izzie's hair is growing out after the hair cut Noah gave her last spring. Her 3rd birthday was last week. Hard to believe that it was 3 years ago when we were so worried that we might lose her. She is perfectly healthy and growing fine now.

Speaking of health.... I had blood work done last week. All of my results turned out great. My cholesterol is borderline, but no where near me needing meds for it. My doctor was very pleased with my healthier life style. I have lost 17 pounds now. I eat healthy (with a few splurges now and again) and exercise 5 days a week. I take the weekends off, but try to get a good walk in at least once. I am starting to feel better. I told my doc that I have 3 great trainers....Richard Simmons, Leslie Sansone, and Jillian Michaels. LOL She thought they were doing a great job. (grin)  I am still taking my meds, but hope to one day be able to get off them. If not, I am ok with that too. I just want to be healthy again, so I am working on it.

I have won a couple of giveaways in the past month. I will share about them next time. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Everyone have a wonderful Memorial weekend.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I made a couple of gifts for mom, so I thought I'd post about them. Mom is as crazy about cats as I am, so I found the perfect fabric to make her an apron. This is Debbie Mumm fabric.

I think she will like it. Last week when I was visiting her, she asked if I could make her another toaster cover. My grandma made this one for her over 40 years ago. So I brought it home for a pattern.  As you can see, it is about worn out.

If I ever make another toaster cover, I will come up with my own pattern. Ick! I did not like working with the bias tape and the curve at the top. I am so glad to get this done.

Here is a closeup of the front.

So happy birthday Mom! I hope you had a good one. Since I just talked to you, I know you did. LOL 

I had planned to visit mom today, but she had other plans. I will go see her either tomorrow or Saturday. I also have to get my grocery list ready. I will need to shop Saturday. I haven't forgotten about posting pictures of the grandkids, but wanted to get mom's post in first.

My heart is breaking for all those affected by the tornadoes in our state. Please pray for these people and if you can help, I know they would really appreciate it.

Thanks for visiting. Please come again. Have a wonderful evening.

Happy Mother's Day!

One of the best joys in my life has been becoming a mom. I love all five of our kids so much. Of course none of them are alike. Carolyn is our oldest, the leader, the boss. LOL  She and Bob held our Easter celebration. They had an awesome BBQ and a fun egg hunt. Here she is hiding some eggs. We had so many that we had to start grouping them. LOL

Cathryn is our second child. She wanted to be a mom from the time she was a girl. She does a wonderful job with Ashton and Ava. She has one more year of college till she can teach elementary children. That has been a dream of hers for a long time. Here she is hiding eggs also. We had some small children present, so lots of eggs were hidden in plain sight on the lawn.

Isaiah is our middle child and first boy. He has quite a temper, but a good heart. He is such a good daddy to Madison. She clings to him at every get together.

Hazel loves her babes so much. She and I have developed a very close relationship since she has become a woman. She is quiet, hardworking, and always there for her family. Here she is looking for eggs with Izzie and Noah.

Jon is our baby, but has become such a good man. He has beautiful curly hair, but you can see what he does to it. Mama doesn't control the clippers any more. LOL

I took over a hundred pictures at Easter, but  half of them are the backs of heads. If you ever need a picture of the back of your head, call me. I am the one to take it for you. LOL  I didn't even find any pictures of Ivan. I guess he was hiding out. LOL I did catch Jeremy, just as he looked up.

Here are Bob and Jonny.

Here are some random pictures of the egg hunt.

In this final one, Ashton about flattened Carolyn's iris in hunt for some eggs. LOL

Next time I will share some pictures of the grandkids. I wanted to dedicate today's post to my own babies. LOL 

I had a lovely day on Saturday. I drove down to Carolyn's town and we went garage saling. It was an awesome day, but the worst garage sales I have ever been to. I did not find one thing to buy. LOL That's ok. I got to spend time with our oldest. That was the fun. She even took me out for lunch. We both had chef salads, so I didn't even stray from my diet. (grin) Well, I need to get this posted. All of you mom's out there, have a wonderful Mother's Day. Thanks for visiting and please come again.

I Made It Back Again!

Can you believe that I am here two days in a row? I have been on the computer more today. It is sunny and warm outside but the wind is really blowing. I am glad I got a lot of outside work done yesterday. I had planned to do some mowing today, but mowing is miserable when the wind is blowing this strong.

I have been working on my BOM's. I am caught up with the Retro Nine Patch and ready to start this month's Birdie Stitches. I am just waiting to drag out my light box till tomorrow when the next Henrietta Whiskers should be available. I kept putting off working on the HW because I couldn't decide how I wanted to do the applique. I finally decided to fuse it on instead of doing needle turn. (I'm just not very good at needle turn.) Then I put off stitching around the pieces because I couldn't decide whether to do machine or hand blanket stitch. I decided today to do hand blanket stitch. So with the wind blowing so hard, it gave me an excuse to stay in and work on a project.  I have the first 4 blocks put together and the appliques fused on. I am working on the first block today. Here it is.

I have the stems done. I'm just starting on the blanket stitch. I hope to get this block done today. I can hardly wait for the next block to be given. I love this BOM. It has a squirrel, birds, pumpkins, leaves.... all things I love. (grin)

Last fall I started on a little wall quilt for one of my nieces. I never did get it finished. So a couple of weeks ago I drug it back out and got 'er done. Now I will be ready for my niece's birthday this fall. (grin)  This is all machine done except the binding. It was really quick to do, so I don't know what the hesitation was. LOL

Another view...

I know this is short, but I have decided that short is better than none. I am off now to do my exercises. My coaches are Leslie Sansone, Richard Simmons, and Jillian Michaels. LOL I have some good ones, huh? LOL Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a great day.

Spring Flowers and Time for Tea Finished!

Hello everyone. I took an extended break from my blog. I have been dealing with some health issues and just needed to concentrate on that. I haven't even done a lot of quilting. I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and things are looking better. I did not want to go on any medications, but just could not get my blood pressure down. I am now taking a BP pill once a day and 2 diabetes pills daily. I am doing better, but still have a ways to go. I go back to the doctor in a couple of weeks for a complete blood workup. I am hoping my healthy eating and exercising for the past couple of months will help with the results. I have also lost about 13 lbs. I'm just taking things one day at a time. Well, enough of that.

I did manage to get a couple of projects completed. First I finished the Spring Flowers table topper. I think it turned out pretty good and was made completely from scraps. (Most sent to me from Cyndi.)

Here is a closeup of one of the flowers.

The back is pieced from some scraps too.

I also finished the little Time for Tea mini quilt. I had lots of fun with this one.

A closeup of the center....

The back....

I have been working on my BOM's too, but I will share them with you later. (grin) Now that I am feeling better, I hope to get back to blogging regularly.

I have also been working in the yard and the garden. We have 5 rows of potatoes and a row of onions all looking very good. They like the cold wet spring we have been having. This past weekend I planted 8 cabbage plants. They looked good this morning when I checked on them. I got the whole garden hoed earlier. I also have 3 rows of green beans planted, but not up yet. I have my tomato, eggplant, and pepper plants, but decided to wait to plant them. We had frost warnings out for the past couple of nights. I am hoping to get them planted this weekend.

I put this Thimbleberries mini quilt together very quickly. I will quilt it when I can get it sandwiched.

One final view of it....

I always seem to come back to fall colors and patterns. (grin) That is all for me today. I will try to start posting a few times a week again. (That is if I can come up with something to post about.LOL) I have lots of updated pictures of the grandkids to share too. We all got together at Carolyn's and Bob's on Easter for a BBQ. It was really good. I even followed my diet. (grin) Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful day.