I Like #238

 Welcome to another week of things to like!  There were some good things for me this week as I continued through a fairly chaotic period.  

My sister came up last Friday and helped me put all my furniture back and re-organize the house after they finished the tile.  It all looks so much nicer and less chaotic now.  It was such a blessing to have her help.

I have a nice office space now since Becky helped me bring in my Grandpa's old oak desk.  It used to be in the studio, but we re-arranged out there to have space for my new sewing machine, so it was great to make a place for it inside. 

These last few days I've been staying with Becky which has meant lots of fun time with her whole family, including the guinea pigs and her dogs.  

I loved this picture of her dog Auto.  He's such a snuggler.

I loved these cookies Becky and the kids decorated-  they're nutter butter snowmen!  Cookies dipped in white chocolate and decorated with Reese's cups and other candies.  Very delicious and very rich; one is plenty!

Becky also made homemade gingerbread and served it with her homemade pumpkin ice cream.  Delicious!

Bentley is doing well, lots of napping on sofas and dog poufs.

And, a family full of negative COVID tests right before we head to see some additional family!

I hope everyone is having a good week!  Click over to Lee Anna's for more things to like!

I like #237

 This was a hard week.  The tiling was ongoing which made home chaotic, and the graduate education challenges continued at work making work chaotic, and then to top it all off I got in a car accident over the weekend and my car will be out of commission for a couple months at least.  Luckily no one was injured, my wonderful mom is going to lend me a car, my wonderful sister is going to let me ride with her to my mom's and they finished the tile.  So bright spots abounded amid the chaos.

The tile is finished!  I think it's great.  We still have to seal the grout, but my sister and I will do that this weekend.

I made this dancing mu ornament for my friend Brett- he's a structural geologist and apparently mu is his variable of choice (for friction).

Our department hosted a holiday lunch at the restaurant Vast.  I'd never been there before, it's on the 49th floor of the biggest building in our downtown, so it was fun to go there.  We had a nice private room for our luncheon.

I fell in love with these dinosaur Christmas inflatables.  Inflatables aren't usually my favorite decorations, but I loved these.

Lots of love for Bentley this week.  He's been wandering around lost a lot, and I think he's lonely, but he's getting around pretty well and enjoying snuggles with me.

I hope you are having some good things in your lives in this run up to the end of the year!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more goodness!

I Like #236

 Things are in complete chaos here- they started the tiling project in my house this week, and so far it's going well but very very slowly.  Bentley is a little confused, we are without a kitchen (though hopefully that will be back by tomorrow), and mostly living out of the studio which is so crammed with things from the house that you can't really work out there.  But progress is ongoing, and it's a blessing that Spooky and Blue are at my mom's.  

Here is Spooky and Blue and Swatch napping with my dad.  The might not have needed a nap except that apparently Spooky and Blue have been getting my mom and dad up at 4AM.  Not good.

I loved the wrapped lights on this great tree!  Such a fun color combo!

We put up our Holiday decorations at work, this is just one, but it's such a fun tradition to every year get out the pretend hearth.  Everyone who works in the area has a stocking with their name.

My friend and I went to hear the Messiah this weekend and it was just glorious.  Really a wonderful outing, and we were on an aisle at the front row of the top balcony so we didn't feel too crammed in with people.

Bentley wanted some of my dinner.

Tiling in progress!

I love seeing him curled up on the poof.  He's been so confused by all this, but hanging in there just fine!!

I hope you're having some good things in your life (Bentley is always a good thing in mine), and to hear about more things to like, click over to LeeAnna's.

I Like #235

 It's been a really chaotic couple of weeks, but amid the work stress I fit in a quick trip to my family in New Mexico which was really wonderful and refreshing.  My parents are kindly keeping Spooky and Blue since my house will be re-tiled next week.  I miss them very much, the house is so calm with just Bentley, but I think he likes the peace.

As usual, we did lots of walking/hiking while I was there.  The dogs love it.

In Lincoln National Forest

Higher up in the mountains in the National Forest we went and hunted Christmas trees with my parents and cousins.  I didn't bring one back this year, but we got one for my parents and uncle.

The view from the Christmas tree hunting area.

My dad split wood and I helped haul it.  Hopefully they'll have enough for the winter, it's been so warm lately I think they will

Driving down into the surrounding desert to see my Grandma and more dog walking!

Mom and I made some cute baskets out of the wonderful artist postcards we collect.

I helped mom get her Christmas lights up (Dad hates that task)

And I got the lights up at my house.  I love the festive glow.

We had a hard freeze in OK over Thanksgiving (of course all this week it's been horribly warm, today is going to be 78!!).  The freeze killed everything except my beloved petunias.  So glad they were hearty enough to live through! I have some white ones that are still going too!

I'm not having an indoor tree this year because of the tiling project, but I set up this small tree that belonged to my grandmother on my back porch.  It provides some lovely sparkle on my porch.  I might move it inside after the tiling is done.  Makes me happy to see it, and think of my grandma!

Bentley is getting extra snuggles, he's really been struggling to get around lately.

Beautiful trees on the walk into work

It's such a blessing to have my family to support me while I struggle with things at work.  I'm so grateful for them.  For more things to like click over to LeeAnna's!

I Like #234

 This week has been a back-to-routine week, after some late October travel.  Mostly I've been desperately trying to catch up at work and in the evenings haven't had the energy to do anything except snuggle with the dogs.  But the dogs are such good snugglers, it makes everything feel better!

Cash and Brett came over last week, and Cash and Spooky rumpused for hours.

I've started sitting more on the armchair than the couch (since Spooky has unstuffed a bunch of the couch. However, that means both Spooky and Blue sit right on top of me.  

Bentley is good too, he's just hanging in there. 

I'm so pleased that after a dreadful summer in the garden and the loss of all my dahlias, the fall flowers are really nice.  All annuals, but so lovely.  I have zinnias and salvia and petunias and marigolds and begonias all just blooming away.  So nice.  I don't get to see them very often since it's dark when I get home and leave for work now, but today I'm working from home so its wonderful to look out the window at them!

There were two audiobooks I listened to this week and wanted to share.

One is Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism by Elsa Sjunneson  I learned so much from listening to to the author talk about her experiences in a society in which people with disabilities are still excluded from so much and ableism is so entrenched in our worldview.

And the other is The Light Ages, by Seb Falk.  I'm still in the middle of it but am really enjoying it.  It's about the history of science in the middle ages.  Super cool.

I recommend both of them!

I hope there are things to like in your weeks, and for more good things, click over to LeeAnna's!

I Like #233

 This past weekend was the Quilt Festival in Houston and my mom and went for a couple of days.  It was really wonderful to see some of our SAQA friends in person, see tons of beautiful quilts, and stock up on some supplies.  People in general were really good about wearing their masks, which was good.  

There were way too many great quilts to share them all, but here were a few favorites of mine:

I loved this exhibit of eyes put on by Sacred Threads, each pair of eyes was from a different artist, maybe about a hundred in all and all deliciously different. 

Artist Timna Tar had a solo exhibit of her wonderful animal quilts.  They were all wonderful, but my favorites were these two: 

The Hare Apparent, Timna Tarr

The Duchess of Dirt, Timna Tarr

Traditional Hand-drying Noodle Maker, Hsiu-Pei Hsieh


I absolutely loved this dimensional piece by Bob Mosier in SAQA's show Microscape.  

All the dimensional white is thread work.  So amazing.

Xylem Plant Cell, Bob Mosier

I was very pleased that my quilt that was hanging in Houston as part of SAQA's show Connections was sold!  It will travel around for three years with the show and then go to a new home.

My sister's kids wanted to be a washer and dryer for Halloween so she made them these super adorable costumes.  So fantastic!  It was wonderful to see them when I dropped off and picked up the dogs, even for just a few minutes.

Spooky loves being at my sister's, but he was also very snuggly with me when we got home.

And finally, I managed to blog about my recently finished SAQA trunk show piece this week.  See more about it here.

Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!