I Like #132

Hello blog friends and welcome to another week of things to like!  I missed last week; a dear dear friend died unexpectedly and I didn't have the energy to pull out the positives.  But I'm back on a more even keel this week and ready to share some of the good things around. 

1.  The sinkhole in my backyard came back.  That's not actually a good thing, but luckily due to some pressuring from Mike they were able to come out and fix it again the same day!  Hooray!  (and THANKS to Mike).  And very kindly Mike also mowed my lawn and took pictures of my two finished quilts.  What a great great friend.  Hopefully this also means I'll get blog posts up about the new quilts sometime soon.  They're very different and I can't wait to share them.

2.  My pink dahlias are blooming away.  This was a bunch I cut to bring into the house.  So lovely.  Worth the painstaking watering all summer!

3. The pups are doing good!  Bentley's back end seems to be doing better than it had been so we've been able to go back to our normal walks.  And I managed to snap a picture of Blue at his most Dobby-like.  Those ear flops just bring to mind the funny little house elf!

Blue was pouting because I wanted to sit in his chair.

Bentley thought there was space to come around that side of the chair.  There was not. Poor guy, I unstuck him promptly.

4.  I love my new work table!  Part of the reason I re-did my big work table was so I'd have a large ironing and painting surface.  This week I got to test both out and really enjoyed having the great space.  I painted and then quilted two sets of fabrics for new abstract quilts,  the one below started as white crushed velvet.  I alwasys love seeing how different things take up paint.  And always shout out to Georgia whose fabric stash I will be enjoying forever!!  I painted this one while the fabric was sort of intentionally crumpled, and I love the little undersea volcano patterns that emerged.  Not sure where these pieces will go, but somewhere interesting I hope!

5.  While the paint was drying and I couldn't really sew,  I took the opportunity to work a bunch on my complicated shawl knitting.  I'm making slow but steady progress on it, helped along by my trusty cable needle and cable needle minder (thanks Melody!)  I also started a quicky idiot crochet project.  My friend Melody had what I thought was a fairly clever way to make a potholder; evidently it's pretty common but I'd never seen it so thought I'd give it a try.  More about that later!

 5.  I saw this cool large spider while walking the dogs!  It was quite big- his body was probably about 1.5 inches?  I was actually glad he was so big because his web was between the tree branch and fence where we were walking and if I hadn't seen the big spider I'd have walked face first through the web and that's always gross.

6.  I got a new car this week!  My trusty old prius (there below) has served me well for a long long time, but has reached that age where things have started to go wrong.  I had a really hard time letting go of it; I've driven it since 2007 and was very wrong, but my new car (a subaru outback) is lovely and hopefully will facilitate some of my long term plans.  Of course car technology has changed in the years I've been out of the market so I'm still trying to get used to the new whizz bang features!

I hope you're all having good weeks!  For more good stuff to like, check out Lee Anna's!

I Like #131

Just a quick update today-  we're running crazy at work, but there's always time to grab a few positive things to share. 

1.  My dahlias are doing really well right now.  At the moment the bright pink fuschia ones are perking up.  Unfortunately I also have a ton of white fuzzy caterpillars too and they're eating the leaves.  Oh well!  The zinnias are still blooming too (and even some early fall petunias!), in spite of the leaf fungus!

2.  We had a great crowd at knitting last week!  Those two hours of fellowship every couple of weeks with my church friends are so valuable to me, and it's always great when lots of people turn up.  I loved the coffee cup pyramid too-  we were setting up for a funeral reception the same night as knitting.  We were very sorry that our good friend Trish wasn't there-  she's back in the hospital, but will hopefully be home later this week.

3.  I got to quilt some on Sunday (yay!).  I was having some problems with my sewing machine, but I got through it.  I love how this is turning out.  Hopefully I'll finish it this weekend so Mike can take pictures of both new quilts this coming week.

4.  The dogs are being great snugglers as usual.  The city came by this week and fixed my sewer-pipe associated sinkhole (YAY!!!) so now there's not a giant dangerous hole in my backyard.  It's made playing ball more fun this week!

I hope you all had good things to be grateful for this week.  For more goodness, click over to LeeAnna's!

I Like #130

I'm behind again today.  Sometime I'll get back on writing these posts ahead of time so they post early, but not just now.  It's been a crazy week, starting with a wonderful trip to my parents' place for the holiday weekend and culminating with my car dying, expense to fix it, expense to get around without it, and expense to buy a new one. 

That's ok, lots of good stuff anyway.

1.  I love my plants!  The dahlias weirdly went through a great period of blossoming while I was gone and I have several in bloom (ignore the horrifying yard, I desperately have to mow).  Also I'm going to try growing begonias again (hope springs eternal).  My friend started a cutting for me, and currently it has a really cute furry spider living in it.  I've decided to call him Harry.  I had a hard time getting a good picture of him, but he has cute yellow spots on his back.  I wish he'd eat moths, they have entirely overrun my house and I'm getting really aggravated.

2.  I love my parents' and their home.  My mom is having back problems, but my dad and I got to hike a bit and I did lots of cooking and hanging out with my mom.

baking shortbread cookies

My mom in front of her house.  Everything is so green and all the flowers are blooming.

Making tomato sauce with garden tomatoes.

3.  I love the pups!  Blue and Bentley had a blast visiting.  I was so proud they both stayed with us on the hike (off leash).  They got along well with everyone, even the yappy long-haired chihuahua Sirius my mom is babysitting.

Sirius rules the bed when he visits.

I love seeing the brown dogs.

Happy dog on the hike!

I went over to pet Bentley, and Blue immediately came to sit on him.

4.  Finally!  No pictures, but I really like that the Great British Baking Show is back with a new season!  It's coming out weekly on Netflix and I watched the first episode the other day.  Hooray!!



I hope you guys have a good week!  Click through to LeeAnna's for more stuff to like!