Friday Finish!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. My Easter was nice with the boys, not so much on the food. They only made one thing that I could eat, mashed potatoes, lol. They did make salmon, but he baked it in the oven and it was horrid, so I ate a few potatoes to hold me over till I got home. Next holiday, I will cook at my house.

I am not a big day time eater, I just snack, and they ate early, which was fine with me. We got to enjoy some time with the boys and an easter egg hunt. On the way home I saw the plant stand was open, so we also got some new plants for my garden.

Another thing I got over the weekend, two birdhouses. One if fun and the other is a bluebird house. Bill got some posts and they will go to the back sides of the garden.

And I hesitate to show you this, I have base coated a rock for my garden. Alex loves to turtle photo I have for inspiration so I know he will love it. I am thinking it will be fun to add some rock critters to the garden, fun things the boys can discover when they come to visit. I messed up a few things, my perception is always off, so it still has to be fixed and detail shading, so hopefully it will look better when I finish.  I like the idea of fun critter, compared to realistic, a happy garden space.

And for my finish this week, a pillow from a design by Kathy Schmitz. It was a free extra in the monthly club. Perfect for a spring time pillow. I am also working on finishing my hand quilting and stripping my old coat wools for braided rugs.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Halloween Fun!

This week I worked on finishing my candy corn rocks. I love the simple rocks with fun faces and this is a fun way to make something that fits with the season. I have decided on a group name so I could add it to the rocks. It will be called Smiles4miles! This way, anyone can join in, and no limitations on where you live.

I still have to work on the Facebook pages and I plan on doing up some tags that you can print out. They will have the group name and a saying, so all you have to do is print them and add them to your pieces. This is for any crafter or artist and you can also join in to learn and explore new ways to help others.

On the back of these rocks I put smiles4miles and since some were larger, I added, smile at the next person you see. I thought that would be fun and on the tags I usually add a similar saying for those who find the items, so they can pass along an act of kindness.

I still have to put on a few coats of finish, but I had to get the name and writing on tonight, then I let it dry a day, to be safe. It is windy and rainy today, so I will have to wait for better weather, to spray outside. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon, then I can drop a few on Sunday.

I will also be doing heart pillows, another way to join in, sewing offers lots of possibilities, especially with the holidays. If you want to join early, you can go to Smiles4miles on Facebook. I would also like to hear your thoughts and ideas. I want to keep it simple, fun and a compassionate group of artists and crafters. Hopefully I can get all the information and files done this weekend.

I also needed to make something new, every so often I like to try something that I can do in a day or two. I actually made this in an afternoon, and it does look it, lol. I was trying to follow directions on YouTube and they tend to talk a lot and I get impatient and start scrolling through fast and working on mine and the next thing I knew, I was off on my own in the wrong direction.

I wanted to do sculpting, but with their method of using yarn for the sections, my area was too small, so I just did a bit and made it goofy. I had fun making it and it does look better in person, I couldn't get an outdoor photo and flash really brings out the fuzziness, that isn't there. I learned what I did and didn't like, while making it, so I may just try another, or maybe a pumpkin head doll, we shall see where my mood takes me.

I definitely went whacky on the top, reminds me of Miss Piggy, lol.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Of course I will be outside as much as possible, some nice warm fall days and the antique barn is having their annual sale and raffle. We won last year, so maybe we will get lucky again.

Weekend Camping!

It seems we have had bad luck when camping at the state park lately. The first thing was, I spiked a fever the day we left, the good thing was, my doc had just given me meds so I had something to take so I could enjoy our weekend. The other thing is the weather, hot one week and it dropped to the low 70's over the weekend, but the good thing was, we could go for walks and ride the bikes and it wasn't too hot.

We had a nice site, right near the water. The photo is from the phone so it is a bit warped, but the camp is a straight line down and behind on the right is where the table and fire pit was, so lots of space.

We enjoyed relaxing, took a swim and a short bike ride to test Bean out and that night we went to Quonochontaug pond to watch the sunset. We wanted to go to the ocean, but the beaches on this side do not face the sunset, so this was the perfect place to watch it. Bean got to play with Bill while I took photos, a nice end to the day.

On Sunday the kids came down. It really made my day and was wonderful to spend time with all of them and share new memories with the kids. Alex was happy to just sit and watch everyone have fun, he is such a happy baby.

Since the camp was mostly deserted, we had the little beach, all to ourselves. Everyone else sat and relaxed. My son was making faces at me.

Nick and Bean had a blast playing in the water.

And since no one took one of the rocks I left hidden in the rock, Nick found it and was thrilled to have something fun to take to school for show and tell on the first day. Someone actually found them, and took the whale, but left the alligator in the tree. I was worried someone might walk under it and get knocked in the head, lol. So I put it back and it was still there when Nick came to the beach.

After dinner, Nick and I went for a paddle.

Then we all went for a walk around camp, while Nick rode his bike. He loved being able to ride on the roads.

To end the night, we watched the sunset. Love this photo of Ivy kissing Alex. I had to lighten it since they were so dark. I would like to play with it more in photoshop and maybe do a framed photo for her.

On Sunday we went and got coffee, then enjoyed it at Quonochontaug beach. It was more crowded than I expected, but with low tide, we walked down to the point and had a nice spot for Bean to play. I had planned on paddling but it was windy and I had my play boat, which is too hard to paddle in wind when I am not up to par.

Since it was too cool to swim and too windy to paddle, we enjoyed biking around the campground. Bean is ok in the carriage, but not thrilled with being stuck inside. I think we need to make a more padded bottom, the bumps can be a bit rough. We rested and let Bean play in the water and he made some friends who were happy to play with him, so it was a nice end to our long weekend. Today I crashed, the meds are really kicking in, so mostly resting today. Now to get the rest of the rocks painted and get ready for our next trip. So far it looks like it is going back into the 80's, perfect weather for the ocean and perfect time after the crowds are gone.

Sailboat quilt in Progress!

I started working on a new project this week and still working on it. The pattern is from a book by Sarah Sporrer called, One Summer at the Shore. I thought this would be a fun one to do for summer and I liked the scrappy look.

I used scraps for mine and went a little wild with the pattern choices. The tea stained background will be sewn onto the blue background, using the raw edge of the muslin. I am not sure how it looks together, what do you think? It is a dark blue with circles that have a star in them.

Once I get that on, then I will do some primitive quilting designs and use a red edge for the binding.
I also think I need to add a little stitchery for some detail on the lighthouse, will mull it over and we shall see how it turns out;)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Mother's Day! I am planning on an outing in Connecticut so hopefully the weather is nice and we can get out for the day.

Whacky Wednesday!

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful weather we are getting on the east coast. We got out for a walk today and the seals were back. They were all huddled on two rocks that were quickly being covered with the rising tide, so we watched as one by one, they pushed each other off and then a line of seals swam and played as they headed down the bay. Of course all my shots were on high zoom so they came out blurry.

I did get some fun shots from our walk this weekend. I am working on some christmas pieces and the gifts for the giveaway I had.

I think this is a literal version of being, " Flipped the bird".

Seagulls can be fun to watch, and they seemed to be putting on a show for me.

Saturday Drive!

It was a nice day, and with a storm going by in the atlantic, it was the perfect day to go to the lighthouse and watch the waves.

These first two things are what I call, dumb things to do during a storm.

Does this look like a good way to fish?

There were lots of people sailing, perfect winds for that, but ski doing in the waves around the rocks, not my idea of smart.

But it did look fun and great way to catch some air.

Speaking of catching some air, the seagulls were loving it. 

We decided to drive to the other side of the island. The cove here is a bit quieter and a lot of divers come to explore the coves.

We walked up a path to the top of the old forts and got a beautiful view of Newport Harbor.

Then it was home for a cookout with my son. My DIL had to work, but Billy bought over photos and a CD for us, of the wedding.

Here is one of the professional photos, beautiful shot of them both.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.