I Like #314

 Well I missed an I like post last week just from being so busy at work.  We're still crazy this week, but I hate to get too far behind so I thought I'd jump in and share a few things to like amid the chaos.

Of course first up is the pups, they're as snuggly as ever and pretty much want lots more playtime and walks!  I really love them so much. 

We had (finally) a big thunderstorm and though the rain was good, it damaged a bunch of the flowers in my garden.  They're so giant now, that even with the stakes they pull over with strong storms.  However, the jalapeno plant and tomatos are still hanging in there.  I picked a bunch of jalapenos and made my first batch of poppers. It was the first football weekend and even though I don't watch football, it seemed like a good time for poppers (football snack).  There are also still a bunch of jalapenos left so more will be forthcoming.

The week before last had a few cool days which made the flowers happy, so I cut a bunch more of them.

This past weekend I was able to spend a few hours quilting, so that was very exciting.  

And perhaps most exciting of all, the weekend before last I went down to my sister's.  My parents were out too, and it was a wonderful day hanging out with them all.  We played tons of games with the kids, went down to play and paddleboard in the lake, and just generally hang out.  My parents brought their dogs, and it was so much fun to watch Kubota (my sister's husky) play with my parent's pup Quark.

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I hope there are good things happening in your life!  For more things to like, click over to LeeAnna's

I Like #313

 Welcome to another week of things to like!

It's been very very hot here, and I had to work all weekend last weekend, so I don't have any particular exciting things to like.  

As always the pups are a lifesaver, so snuggly.  Spooky has been vigorously chewing on his favorite orange ball lately.

The garden is not happy.  The zuchinni is completely dead.  The tomatoes and jalapeños are still doing ok, but many of the flowers look like this.  Does anyone else have this problem?  By midsummer they burn up (or get brown/black) before they've even opened fully (or at all).  Any suggestions?

Was pleased to see this guy out there-  hope he eats lots of bugs!!

One funny story from this week.  We have a lovely new interim rector at our church, and come to find out she went to Sewanee (my alma mater).  In talking with her, we realized that she was there at the same time as I was, she was in the School of Theology while i was in the College of Arts and Sciences and we graduated the same year.  Not only that, but her daughter was at the College of Arts and Sciences (also in my year, also now with a PhD in science) and turns out was right next to me in our senior college yearbook!!  Crazy crazy!

And I've been on a locked room mystery kick lately, and I've just finished a couple of good audiobooks in that genre: Riley Sager's The Only One Left and Shari Lapena's An Unwanted Guest.  I liked the only one left a little more, I thought the twists and turns and clues were better, but both were fun. 

Hope there are some good things happening in your world!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

I Like #312

 Welcom to another week of things to like!

We're back into total semester chaos here now, but things are still happening to like.

First up, back in March I went out to Phoenix to film an episode of The Quilt Show with Ricky Tims, and the episode has now aired!  If you're a member of The Quilt Show you should be able to watch it now, and if you're not, they offer a seven day free trial membership (click "try Star Membership risk free for 7 days") during which time you can watch any full shows you want on the site.  It's a really great show, and I was thrilled to be on!

I did a little bit of work in my studio this week, including painting some more fabric for 3D quilts.    That top piece is actually the same one I used on my TQS demo (in the picture above).  It wound up being too overall green, so last weekend I picked out all the smocking in it I'd done in preparation for the quilt show and overpainted it further to give some color variety.

And I also overpainted some pieces of medium weight home dec canvas that my adopted mother-in-law (actually my sister's mother-in-law) kindly de-stashed into my care.  I'm going to use it for an origami sculpture.

The garden is going ok, it's been so hot and dry lately the flowers are just barely hanging on, 

but I saw some really great insects in the garden this week including some giant cicadas and a gorgeous clearwing moth.

Unfortunately I also have a horribly horrible invasion of squash bugs (again!) and they have pretty much completely killed my zuchinni.  I'm so mad.  I cut off all the leaves that were covered in eggs, and squashed as many juvenile and adult bugs as I could find, but they were everywhere.  Anyone with suggestions for eradication please share!

The pups are doing well, Spooky is in a bossy phase where he barks very shrilly and loudly at me until I find his ball for him, but I'll survive.

Hope you all have some good stuff happening!!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

I Like #311

 Welcome to another week of things to like.  Lots going on at work right now so mostly just liking home things.  Pups and flowers. 

Lots of good smaller animals this week, I found this delightful fuzzy jumping spider living in my studio.

This mantis was on my zinnias, so cool looking!

And I have lots of butterflies!  This was the only one thta stood still long enough to photograph.

The flowers are all still blooming, some are taller than I am now.  And I picked 3 more jalapeños!

I accidentally hit this geranium pot with my weedeater,  I think it looks like a velociraptor claw print!

No jelly making or fruit processing this week but I made some thumbprint cookies with the crabapple jelly and they are soooooo good.

And of course the pups are just as snuggly as ever.  

I hope there are some good things happening in your neck of the woods!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like. 

I Like 310

 Welcome to another week of things to like!  I missed last week, not for any particularly major reason, just because I got to Thursday and completely forgot it was Thursday.  So here's a double sum up of good things!

Weekend before last, I spent hours and hours and hours prepping and cleaning and cooking the crabapples.  Don't worry, I cut out all the worms.  This one looked to me just like the illustrations of worms in apples in Richard Scarry's books.

The kitchen was very hot and very sticky, but I got all the fruit processed, and then this week/weekend I made apple butter, jelly, syrup, and fruit leather (and some delicious dried tomatoes),   I wound up with 170 canned jars of jelly/syrup/apple butter.  It's a lot of work, but so delicious, and I look forward to sharing it with people here.

This is the fruit leather, all rolled up.

On Saturday, my good friend Melody and I took our annual trip to the Kellyville Fiber festival.  We had a lovely time and of course I bought some yarn.  I actually think I'm going to knit it up and use it in a quilt.

In spite of the relentless heat, the garden is staying alive.  Some dahlia varieties seem to do better than others when it gets his hot. I need to get some notes taken down so I know which ones to grown next year.  I also have a couple varieties that don't really make good stems so they're hard for cutting gardens.

The pups are doing fine,  Spooky was trying to help me in the studio as I've been working on this other yarn-based project which involves subtle color shifting pom poms.

I hope there are some good things in your week this week.  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like.

I Like #309

 Welcome to another week of things to like!

I definitely like seeing good friends!  My friends Betty Busby and Gale Oppenheimer were here last week, Betty has a solo show at a local gallery and it was super fun to hang out with them at the opening last Thursday.  The whole show looks great, I may try to do a post of it.

The rain has stopped and now it's very very hot and dry, but that did mean I could get out into the garden last weekend.  I cleaned up the garden and picked all the crabapples (they were very ripe) but that took all my available yardwork time so this weekend I absolutely must mow, the yard is a complete jungle.

I picked a bunch of tomatos, they're very tasty.  There were a bunch that were really a bit over-ripe already so I cooked them into tomato sauce which I then promptly forgot about when I went outside to pick crabapples.  It burned up completely, with a giant thick layer of hard crunchy sludge on the bottom of the pot and the whole house smelled terrible.  Alas.

I did pick 5 boxes of crabapples off my tree, lots of them are wormy, but I'll cut the worms out. I'm hoping to start processing them this weekend, so we'll see.

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The tree is definitely much happier now though!

The flowers are still growing too, but I'm seeing more of the buds that are burned up and brown before they can open, it's just that time of the year I think.

I saw this beautiful but battered butterfly in the garden the other day, I wonder what happened to him!

I also liked getting to spend some time quilting this week, the pups definitely helped and I got another baby quilt finished for a baby shower this week.

And finally, no week is complete without the pups. They especially love "helping" with the clean laundry and the quilting

I hope everyone is hanging in there.  Click over to LeeAnna's to see more folks sharing good things.