Anne of Bunny Hill has challenged us to take more pictures of our pets.  This is my favorite shot of Maggie, taken a few years ago at the Painted Desert.   Doesn't she look all sophisticated?  She's really not.  She's a silly dog that lives to chase bunnies.  As soon as I can, I'll take a picture of her and post it.  She stands in the kitchen with her head out of the pet door - waiting---watching---hoping!  It looks hilarious.  Also, like I said, we have a pet door.  Dogs can come and go out of a pet door, right?  Not Maggie.  She stands in the kitchen  and lets me know she wants out.  I have to get up and go to the door.  Then she starts this sllloooooowwww motion walk/crawl to the door.  When she gets right up to it she won't go out until I "click" the latch - then she's off like a shot!  She's really well trained.  Oh, yea, I think I'm the one who is trained!

We have basements here so therefore we have basement window wells that are four or five foot deep.  The guys are here now measuring so we can have custom covers made.  They are really good for security.  Don't want any robbers breaking in now, do we?  Mostly I'm having them made for Maggie and the animals.  Last year we had a raccoon in one of the window wells.  It fell down somehow and couldn't get out.  Animal control wouldn't come out so we put a big branch and a ladder down and it managed to crawl out.  Then earlier this summer we had a little cute baby bunny down in one of the wells.  Aaahhhh!  I had to go in the basement and capture it with a box to get it out.  I was afraid it would get loose in the basement which would have been a catastrophe.  While rescuing him/her I found a couple dead rabbits as well.  YUCK!!!  My theory is that Maggie chases them around the corner of the house and wooohhhhooo, down they go!  My real fear is Maggie will fall down as well.  The window wells can hold 500 pounds, are powder coated steel and have quick release latches so you can open them from the basement in case of an emergency.  AND they were cheaper than the ones I looked at at the big box stores.  You can check them out here.

Anything to make my dog safe and happy, right?  Right!!!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Have a safe and Happy Fourth of July!!!!

from Miss Jean and Maggie!

Is that GREEN I see?

This is what Maggie is doing this morning.  She loves to sit by the front door and watch.  Watch for what?  Oh, cats, rabbits, anything that moves.

Do you notice the green grass?  Monday night we had a Winter Weather Advisory.  Snow, ice, wind, the whole nine yards!  Today the snow is gone, the sun is shining and I can hear birds chirping outside.  I'm sure they are happy little campers today, too.  If you look close at the wet spot on the porch you can still see the remnants of some ice.  That'll be gone later as well.  We need more rain so that's fine.  Just can we be done with the snow!?!

Today I have a few errands to run and then I need to finish some housework.  After that I have to work on my daughter's quilt.  I was ready to put the strips together last night.  Then all I would have left to do is sew on the borders and take it down and quilt it at the new quilt shop in town that rents time on their fabulous long arm.  Sadly, I had sewn one of the blocks together wrong (as in upside down and backwards wrong) so I had to do some Frog Sewing last night.  You know, rip-it, rip-it, rip-it!

What wonderful things are ya'll up to today?

P.S.  Maggie just came in the room to say hi!

A little bit of sewing going on...

I went to a friend's house yesterday for a sew-in.  Her hubs was out of town and it was the perfect time to get together with friends and have some fun.  Rather than working on quilts, we made these bags.  Aren't they the cutest?  Can you guess what they are made out of?

If you guessed expensive decorator fabric you would be wrong.  They are made out of place mats!! Mine is the one on the right.  The hardest part was actually finding the place mats without spending too much money.  I found mine at Big Lots for $1.50 each.  Besides two place mats you just need to have some cotton duck fabric which is a heavy fabric that can be found at Joann's and some cotton fabric for the liner.  Finish it off with a covered piece of foam board to reinforce the bottom and voila!  You're done!  How cute is that?  Mine is a gift for a friend and I hope she loves it.

I'm basically a quilter but I love these quick projects.  They help perfect your sewing skills like top stitching and give you instant gratification because they are fast and you don't have to be quite as precise as with quilting.

On a side note, do you see how sunny it was?  Well, things can change on a dime here.  It's snowing, schools are closed, businesses are closed, roads are dangerous.  In other words, it's a SNOW DAY!  In my terminology, that means PAJAMA DAY!  I'm staying in and reading, sewing, and catching up on watching the NCIS shows I have taped.

Have fun wherever you are!

Blessings....

Nuf said......

What a Beautiful Day!

We had such a beautiful day today!  The first thing I did, as with most Wednesdays, was to go to my weekly Sew and Tell meeting at Above and Beyond Sewing and Vacuum. We always have so much fun.  If for some reason I have to miss a meeting I feel like I should bring an excuse note from home. 

After the meeting I was going to run down to a local kitchenware shop to pick up something for my daughter, but thought I'd run back home first and pick up the hubs.  It was such a beautiful day out.  In the 50's with blue sky and it made me feel guilty to leave him home on such a nice day.  

After we stopped at the shop, we were trying to think of somewhere to go eat lunch.  After driving a bit I remembered someone at a quilt class mentioned a good restaurant in Castle Rock which is not far from where we were.  I thought, wrongly, that Castle Rock was just a new area of businesses between Denver and Colorado Springs.  Turns out there is quite the historical downtown area.  We ate lunch at The Castle Cafe which is located in a historical building downtown.  We had a great lunch and then I discovered a couple antique stores.  Yipee!  

This is all I bought.  Isn't it cute!?!  I have it hanging in my laundry room with my other Scottie linens.

We did some more exploring east of Castle Rock but finally turned around as the sun was going down and I didn't want to end up in Kansas.

Our son is coming home to visit the end of the month!  That's a big YAY! As you know, he's in the Navy and we don't see him often.  While he's home I'm going to have him hook up our wifi so I can use my laptop and not my husbands Mac and then I'll be able to load pictures that I've take on my camera so I'll be able to post more of them on my blog.....whew!

Aaron sent me a note telling me when he was going to be coming home and asked me to de-feminize the guest room.  HAHAHAH!  My husband gets Sports Illustrated magazine so I'm putting the swimsuit edition on the bed and calling it good!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Snow Day

Just how am I supposed to get anything done when I can sit and look out at this?

And this? 

(sorry for the poor quality of pictures - they are from my phone)

It's just not going to be my fault if nothing gets done today.......

Birthday Angels

Firsts are always difficult when you are in new situations especially when you have moved far away from familiar things like family, friends, restaurants (tee hee), etc.!  Yesterday was my first birthday since we have moved so it was rather bittersweet.  Not because I am getting older, just that it made me miss everyone.  I never celebrate my birthday, so I went to a Sunday sew  at a friend's like I had planned.  I knew some of the gals there and was able to meet some others.  All in all a great group and we had a wonderful time sewing, chatting, and eating a wonderful potluck. 

One of the ladies brought her darling little granddaughters who are learning to sew.  For privacy sake, I'm calling them the little Sparkly Girls!  They were so sweet, so serious, and such good little sewers.  When her machine thread broke the youngest one would say, "I'm so good, that's why it broke!"

Aren't they the cutest?  Sparkly Girl #2 is making a doll quilt and her big sister made a notions holder that fits over a clear frame and stands next to your machine to hold all of your notions.  I just loved it and casually mentioned that I wanted one.  She went back and whispered to Grandma, "Can I make that  lady one?"   So she got busy and made one for me.  She seemed to be happy when I told her it was my birthday and was a wonderful birthday present.  Grandma and I were moved to tears.

 Here's the front.  She did everything on her own, cutting with a rotary cutter, quilting, everything.

Here's the back.  This is really a useful and awesome little holder.  I'll use it every time I sew and thank God for sending me Sparkly Birthday Angels!

Have a great week!

Happy Birthday, Maggie!!!!

Even though she thinks she owns the house....
Even though she thinks she runs the house....
Even though she thinks we are here to wait on her hand and foot....
Even though she thinks she can jump on the guest bed....
Even though she thinks she can sleep on the pillows and wrinkle the vintage pillowcases and get dog hairs all over them.....

She's quirky, silly and, most of all, loving.  We can't imagine life without her!

HAPPY FIFTH BIRTHDAY, MAGGIE!!!!  We love you more than you can imagine!!!