Peas In A Pod

Happy Easter!

HI Everyone!  Happy Easter!

I thought I had better check in with you all to let you know I am alive and well.  Sorry for the unexpected blog hiatus...things have just been so busy, I've barely had time to breathe.  And when I have had time to write a post, I didn't have the photos taken, or vice versa!  I have been busy doing some crafting in my downtime.  I'll try to catch you up sometime.  Besides, the weather has been so crappy here that when I do try to take photos, it's always cloudy...or it's so early in the morning or late in the evening, it's dark!  Argh.  I can't wait for spring.  We are still having so much cold weather, it's making me grouchy.  There is snow in the forecast for tomorrow.  Boo hoo!

Sweet Pea is on spring break.  She and her dad decided to go down to Florida and spend some time with my folks.  I couldn't go.  We only have 3 weeks of school left, so it's a bad time for me to disappear for a week!  They are having a nice time.  Here, she's getting ready for the Easter egg hung the next day.

My mom said their condo association "hid" something like 2500 eggs on the island behind the condo.

Papa Pea told Sweet Pea, "Don't just start picking up eggs where you're standing when it starts.  Run way down there and start.  You'll be all by yourself and be able to grab all you want."  You can see she heeded his advice.

Look how she got so far out there with no one else around her. Haha!  What a strategist!

Sweet Pea called me this morning and told me she filled her bucket with 10 eggs.  When she ran out of room, she started filling her hood in her sweatshirt.  Another 10 eggs!  She said the other kids hadn't even made it down by her yet.  She decided she had enough eggs and wanted to leave some for the smaller kids, so she stopped collecting them at this point.  I love this photo of her.

When she called me this morning, she said she had Maddi (the dog) on her lap.  I said, "I figured that.  I have seen her in your lap in photos Grandma and Dad are sending me.  I bet she's in your lap a lot!"  Sweet Pea said, "Yep!"  She loves that little dog.  Although we have a dog, it's not a lap dog.  Belle's too big to be a lap dog.  I think Sweet Pea yearns for a little lap dog!

I appreciate the photos my mom and Papa Pea send so I can see how much fun they are having.

Now you know I miss them a lot, but it's not bad having some quiet time around here.  I ran errands yesterday. This morning I did the deep clean in Sweet Pea's room.  I have plans for each day stuff I want to clean or get done.  It's nice to be able to get it done.  And I watch movies and knit at night.  Today, I will get some sewing done.  I'll be glad to have them home.  I do miss them!

Okay, I'll try to be back tomorrow with a post about a bag I made recently.  I don't have to worry about those photos. My mom took them for me.....Just like these!  LOL.  (I think Papa Pea took a couple of these, too.)  Thanks goodness for a little help now and then.

Hope the Easter Bunny has been good to you all and that you are enjoying a beautiful day with your families.

Until next time,

Really Kinda Random--Iowa Girls are Awesome

....but I already knew that.  After all, I'm an Iowa girl!  LOL

It's Really Random Thursday, and I'm linking up with Cindy of Live A Colorful Life.

(Not the greatest photo.  Sorry.)

Remember when I did the swap with Cindy, of Adventures of the Singing Quilter?  Recall, she's an Iowa girl.  Well, she sent me this for Christmas, knowing that I sometimes miss Iowa.  Do you see that the photos spell IOWA?  I LOVE these kinds of photos, and I LOVE this gift!  I was so touched that Cindy would do this for me!

She also sent me this beautiful card with a lovely note in side, and a Sweet Pea tag.  Isn't that cute?!

It just made my day.  I still smile and think of Cindy every time I look at these things.  Thank you, Cindy!  You are just great.  It makes me smile even just looking at the photos.

The blogosphere is just great, isn't it?

Well, gotta run.  Sorry for the short post today.  Having a hard time keeping up this week!

Until next time,

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Swapping with Cindy

Really Kinda Random

It's been a while since I've been able to generate a Really Random post.  But here it goes!

I'm linking up with Cindy at Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday.

My mom emailed me the other day that she finished making this shawl.  I think it's beautiful.  I want to do one.  I'm not sure I'm up to it.

Mom is so beautiful, isn't she?  :-)  This is a class on Craftsy.  There are three shawl patterns in the class.  I might cave and sign up for it, then work on it over Christmas.  Hmmmm.....

A little while back, my brother, who lives in Boston, called me one day at work.  It was about 11:30 in the morning. 

He said, "Hey, Steph.  Wanna go to lunch?" 

I was like, "What???!" 

He said, "I'm in Grand Rapids.  I'm a schmuck for not telling you I was coming earlier, but I'm going on a fishing trip with my inlaws.  They lost my luggage, so I have to wait for the 5:30 flight from Newark to get my bags.  I thought I might drive down to Kalamazoo and have lunch with you while I'm waiting." 

So, I rearranged my schedule and had lunch with him.  What a nice surprise.  Then, on Sunday, before he flew home, Sweet Pea and I drove up to Grand Rapids and had brunch with him before he flew home.  Sweet Pea was really excited to see her uncle.  Here, they are looking at a video of the salmon fishing they were doing.  My brother said he caught salmon on 7 of 8 casts one day.  One of them was 22 pounds!  I guess I didn't realize there was so much good salmon fishing in Michigan!  (Hope he doesn't mind me posting this photo.  I usually ask and didn't this time.)

I wanted to make this cowboy boot stocking for someone for Christmas.  So I ordered this pattern and kit from Shelly at Prairie Moon Quilts.  She sent it wrapped up in this red bandanna.  How awesome is that?  I don't want to open it.

Happiness is a new pair of Smartwool socks for the season.  I usually buy the plain black or brown ones.  I decided to get daring and get some patterned ones.  Love them.

And a new pair of cool red clogs.  LOVE them!  These were my purchases when I was on quilt retreat a couple of weekends ago (and I still need to blog it).

My rose bushes just won't quit!  Probably because it was 75 degrees yesterday, and it's going to be just as nice today!  This is the climbing rose bush in front of my garage.  (I never showed you all the landscaping I did out there this spring.  Too busy.  Maybe next spring!  Plus, it's not done yet.)  Isn't this a pretty one?

Here's the other bush, the one that had the pretty flower with the dew on it a while back.  There are new buds on this bush, too.  But I think the hard freeze we had a while back got them.  I doubt they will open.  I have been too nervous to do any cutting back for fear I'd encourage even more growth just before the snow hits....

Sweet Pea is pretty excited, because her dad bought her a basketball hoop.  We got it from a friend who is moving away.  Good price.  Papa Pea had to build a flat spot to keep it on.  He did a great job.  Sweet Pea will have a lot of fun with this.  This photo was taken a few weeks ago, when there were more leaves on the trees.  She's got pretty good form.  If she practices, she could be pretty good!

I have more random stuff, but I have been too lazy to download the photos from my phone and other camera.  Another day!  LOL

What's your Random Act of Kindness going to be today?  I gave my students an extension until Monday on their paper that is due today.  They were pretty happy.  One said I should have a wand and say, "Your wish is granted!"  So, I'm bringing Sweet Pea's wand to school today to use in class.  Ha!

Have a good one!

Until next time,

 

What a Weekend! (Long/Photo Heavy)

I hope you all had a great weekend!  We had a wonderful time celebrating our anniversary.  It wasn't a highly planned weekend, but it all sort of just "happened" nicely....

We got up at 6:00 am and met our neighbors Tim and Leanne at 7:00 am for our motorcycle ride. 

We thought about stopping in this little town, Lawton, for breakfast, but we had just started riding.  So, we kept going.

We stopped at a little restaurant somewhere along the way and had breakfast.  The whole time we were riding, I kept telling myself, "You're going to be good and order oatmeal."  That was the healthy choice.  And it was quite chilly.  I thought oatmeal would warm me up a lot.

But then we walked in and the special was Cranberry Walnut French Toast.  My willpower did not hold fast.

We started just south of Kalamazoo and rode up to Tippy Dam, where the purple pin is in this map.  The darker green you see on this map in that area is all the Manistee National Forest.  So, it was a really nice ride.

This map shows you where we were once we got to the dam.  We were on the western edge of the reservoir.

Here you can see the roof of the dam and the reservoir behind it.

At the top, where we parked, were all these power lines.  The dam was constructed by Consumers Energy, which provides a lot of power to Michiganders.

The best part of visiting the dam was we hiked down this trail to the area below the dam.

As we neared the bottom, we saw this sign.  I had never seen a sign like this before, but if I heard that siren, I think I'd get the heck out of there!

Here is the area below the dam.

There were salmon fishermen everwhere you looked.  Apparently, the salmon were running.  They run up the river you saw in that second map.  Then, they get to this pool below the dam and are sort of trapped.  So, I guess it's a really good fishing spot.

Here is a fish one guy caught.  I put my foot by it for scale.  That is a good-sized fish, huh?  Papa Pea said it was a salmon.  I wouldn't know....

The rapids were pretty cool.

There was quite a bit of beauty around the river's edge.

We rode on after visiting the dam and stopped here for lunch.

I had to laugh at what was on the menu.  No, I didn't order the frog legs, in case you were wondering.  I had a burger and a beer!

After lunch, we rode around some more and headed back toward home, through the national forest again.  This was my view for much of the day.  Can't complain about that!

On the way home, we drove through Allegan.  We had heard there was a one-lane bridge there, so we tried to find it.  Here it is!

That was fun!

And when we returned home it was dusk, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset.  The day was wonderful.  A little long, but good.  It was chilly early and late in the day, but warm in the middle.  We got rained on a couple of times, but not bad.  A nice way to spend the day.

On Sunday, we decided to go to the beach.  I had been wanting to visit South Haven, so that's where we went.  I had some schoolwork to accomplish in the morning, which I did.  Then, we went to South Haven (if you look on the first map I posted, it's on the shore of Lake Michigan, south of Holland quite a ways....almost directly west of Kalamazoo) and found this cute outdoor spot for lunch.  The day was warm in the sun, a little chilly in the shade.  Had a glass of wine with my lunch.  The day was starting off great.

We walked out on the pier to the lighthouse.  Nice views of Lake Michigan.

We checked out the north and south beaches.  They looked pretty empty.  It was windy and about 70 degrees.  Too chilly for most people to be on the beach!

Poor Sweet Pea jumped off this pipe, just having fun.  She fell toward me and wopped her forehead into the camera lens!  Ouch!  She had some tears and a bruised forehead to show for that one.

After the tears were dried off, Papa Pea said, "Let's go check out the sand dunes!"  And Sweet Pea wanted to play in the sand.  So, we went to Van Buren State Park and hiked up the hill.

We were rewarded with a spectacular view of Lake Michigan at the top.

 
And beautiful sand dunes, too.

It was way too cold for me to get in, but not for these two.  Sweet Pea is a rock hound, and this beach was a great place to go rock hunting.

She also discovered that if you dig a hole in the sand, it starts to fill with water.  She thought that was pretty awesome, so she decided to dig a big hole.

Papa Pea came over to help.  I helped a little, too, but mostly I sat and warmed up on the towel!  When we came over to help her, Sweet Pea said, "That's it!  Now you're getting into the spirit of things!"  That really cracked us both up.  I'm still chuckling over it today.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  We had a general plan, but nothing too specific.  It was lazy, yet we got to do a lot of things.  Best weekend I've had in a long, long time.

But I didn't sew a thing.  I have nothing to show for myself this weekend (not even the laundry got done!).  I have no idea what I'll blog about this week, so it might be a little thin!  Maybe I can catch up on some older stuff!  Haha!

Hope you had a great weekend, too.

Until next time,

 

Exciting News and AQS

Good morning everyone!  Sorry about my little tantrum yesterday.  I think when I'm in a funk like that I should just Step.  Away.  From.  The.  Computer!  ;-)  Thanks for all the virtual hugs and encouragement.  I went to see the Odd Life of Timothy Green with Sweet Pea.  We enjoyed it.  I had a good cry.  That helped.  Oh, yeah.  And a couple glasses of wine when I got home.  LOL.

And then this morning, I had a text message from Shelly, telling me I was a finalist.  For what?  I had to think for a minute.  I then realized she must be talking about the Texting While Quilting Challenge.  I couldn't believe it.  I had to go look for myself.  But there it was.  I really am.  I can't believe it.  I'm so honored to be amongst the 10 finalists.  There are some pretty amazing blocks in there!  Go check it out!  This news this morning went a LONG WAY to cheering me up!

Last weekend, the AQS show was held in Grand Rapids.  I went.  It was pretty awesome.  I took a lot of great photos to show you.  But when I was reading the book I bought when I came in the door, it said that you could take photos, but only for personal use.  You weren't supposed to put any photos on the Internet unless you got express permission from AQS and the quilt maker.  Well, that sorta messes up my plans!  So, I'm sorry I don't have more photos to share.  I'll share a few, and I'll show you what Sweet Pea and I worked on as a result of our visit!

I did stop by the Primitive Gatherings booth to visit with Linda, The Quilted Pineapple.  She was helping them at their booth.  She has become such a rock star quilter, quilting for Lisa Bongean, the owner of Primitive Gatherings.  Very exciting.  I haven't seen Linda in so long.  It was really good to see her again.  We need to get together when we can actually talk, Linda!

I went by the Come Quilt With Me booth and saw my Lincoln's Watch quilt on display.  Pat told me it was a hit, and she had to tell people to quilt touching my quilt.  Haha.  She said some of my friends came by and took photos.  Thanks, guys!

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was meeting my friend Maggie in real life.  I have "known" Maggie for at least 4 years now, maybe more, via the Internet.  But we have never met in real life.  I told Maggie I credit her for me having a blog.  I met her through The Quilt Show website.  I put up some show and tells on a block-of-the-month program, and Maggie was kind enough to comment.  I did the same for her work.  We would strike up conversations, and just got along well.  (Before I joined The Quilt Show, I never would have believed I would have virtual friends.  But Maggie changed all that for me.  But that's a whole other post.)  When I moved away from Idaho to Michigan, I was so lonely for quilting friends that I really relied on my "virtual friends" to give me that social outlet.  Maggie was just a wonderful support for me.  So, I was really happy to meet her.  She is an amazing quilter, too, by the way.  She had a quilt accepted in Paducah last year!  Maggie, thank you for your friendship over the years!  I had a blast meeting you and having dinner with you and your husband!

I actually had a bunch more to show you...some pictures of a project Sweet Pea and I did together.  I had it all written up, with photos and everything.  But Sweet Pea forbade me from posting it.  She said, "Mom, that's private.  Just between you and me."  So, there you have it.  Sorry!

Well, I sure hope you're having a good day.  I'm having a better day today.  ;-)  Have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time,