Cleaning, Not My Favorite

I have finally decided to do spring cleaning, now that it's almost fall. Hey, better late than never, huh? Well I've been working two days in the same room, and I'm sure I'll be in there tomorrow too. I have gotten rid of a lot, not enough, but a lot. I'm working in the laundry room, it is the catch-all room at our house. Maybe I should have chosen an easier place to start. Maybe I'll have something a little more fun to share latter on this week.

An Early Afternoon Sky, and an Late Afternoon Stroll

The clouds are always changing. These were massive, building and beautiful! Of course a storm followed.

These are so beautiful, but word to the wise, don't pick them if they've eaten. The smell is, well, it smells of death. I guess digesting bugs don't put off the aroma of flowers.

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

If you have a crafty mind, or even if you haven't this would be an amazing machine to have!

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Girl's Getaway and Quilts

I had a wonderful girl's getaway with at my sister-in-law's this past weekend. Our plan was to cut out and sew a quilt top. She, and our friend, who I call Jae in blogland, and I all used the same pattern and different fabrics and each made a quilt top. Our niece was supposed to get to come too, but work kept her away, and we missed her greatly.

Our tops all looked so different. Fabric choices really make a difference. Looking at my top now I wish I had used some white or solid to break up the design a little and give more weight to the fabrics individually. However, I still love it, maybe because it's my first quilt from a pattern, but also because of the vintage looking fabrics. It so reminds me of the quilts I grew up sleeping under at home, and the ones I slept under at both of my grandparent's houses.

We took some little side trips to break up our sewing time. We first attempted to tour the Georgia governor's mansion, but very important guest prevented any tours from being given that day. We were a little disappointed, but went on to our next scheduled stop, lunch. We ate lunch at the Swan House on Thursday. It was a lovely place with great food, and they brought us the most wonderful mousse like dessert shaped like a swan. I probably shouldn't confess to this, but in lieu of the governor's mansion we headed to the Salvation Army store. Maybe not as tastefully decorated, but still a whole lot of fun.

We went into wild quilting mode on Friday, and it was really exciting to me seeing all of the different quilts come together.

Saturday we took a break from sewing and went to lunch at Cloie's. A darling gift shop where the most wonderful lunch was catered for us. Us consisting of Lucy, Jae, one of Lucy's daughter-in-laws and myself. Our plates were piled with fresh fruit, chicken salad, pimento and cheese, pasta salad, potato salad, ham and cheese croissants, homemade pickles

and pickled asparagus, some of us also had potato soup. The punch was excellent, and dessert was... well, the lemon cake was one of the best I've ever tasted, and the homemade banana split ice cream was over the top! We had to go somewhere and

walk it all off.

So, I finagled a trip to IKEA, because you could spend all day in that store every day for a week and still not see everything, and I was looking for some chairs to go with a kid's table recently purchased at an auction. No luck on the chairs, but I didn't leave empty handed.

It was a great trip, except for the car trouble coming home. I won't wast time describing that little scene. I enjoyed lots of Poor Mindy

goodies, which I would show, but they are mostly in hiding because some certain

male in this house thinks I have too much stuff (never mind the fact that he might be right.) I just don't want to advertise the fact that I smuggled more stuff in by placing pictures that he might see. I don't think he would take time to read this whole post so if you don't tell I think my secret is safe.

Sweet Summer

Summer is fun, and so busy with:

sweet faces to kiss,

ball games to attend where funny faces are made at camera holders through plates of glass,

hay bales to explore,

visits to enjoy with those we love,

stairs to try and creep up when grown-ups aren't watching closely enough,

tea parties to attend both real and imaginary,

and goodies to bake,

water gun wars, and garden romps.

So that's some of what we've been up to this summer. What about you, what's been keeping you busy?

CSN KitchenAid Tea Kettle Review