End of August

Yes, friends, I'm still alive and kickin'.  I took the month off from the computer, with just occasional peeks at favorite blogs and FB.  Sometimes it's good to just disconnect and get on with other things.

We planted a small garden this year and I'm overjoyed to report that our summer squash and zucchini have produced!!  It's been years since I've been able to make such a report.  Piles of squash have appeared on my counter on almost a daily basis:

I've made numerous pans of my summer squash skillet and so far we still enjoy each mouthful.  I've made multiple bakings of zucchini bread and with each batch I can't resist breathing in the wonderful aroma of the cinnamon and nutmeg as I set them on the cooling racks.

I also stumbled on a wonderful recipe for a side dish featuring the yellow squash.  I got a catalog last week from a company called Through the Country Door.  I ordered a couple of things and got a welcoming email from them.  At the bottom was a picture of a casserole with a link.  I checked it out and decided to make it Saturday.  I can highly recommend Gunter Family Squash Casserole!  A little bit of work, but definitely worth it.  

I've been stitching in the sewing room making baby blankets for a local ministry.  I've stitched satin binding to fleece for cozy blankies and embroidered flannel to make receiving blankets for the tiny ones.  I love making baby things!  

August has been hot and our area has been thick with smoke from the many forest fires in the west. It rained a little yesterday and today is cool and the air is clear. Hopefully firefighters will be able to use this time to whip all the infernos blazing away.  A cousin lost her home and all her possessions in one fire several weeks ago.  I can't even imagine.  I come from a family of forest-fire fighters, with my dad, my brother and my husband all having spent many days on the fire lines. I am grateful that none of them do it any more.  

So, here we are at the end of August.  I turned another year older and fall is about to arrive.  ♥

Summertime, and the Livin' Is . . . Busy!

For a couple of hermits, the last few weeks have been busy and social for us.  We enjoyed the rehearsal dinner and wedding of our long-time friends' son on the 17th and 18th.  Both were in a nearby town, so some driving was involved and we even sneaked in a trip to Costco before the rehearsal dinner.  We had a great time at both events and the tablecloths were perfect on the tables Friday night.  

The following Monday was a big birthday for Dan, and Ann and Eric convinced me that we really must do a party.  I'm not good at parties, but they both helped and we did it.  Dan wasn't really looking forward to this birthday, but he really enjoyed his party and I'm glad we did it.  A good number of local friends came and we enjoyed a beautiful evening in a local park, eating and gabbing the evening away.

Today a friend from college days and her husband were in town and we thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely lunch with them a local restaurant.  Lois and I lived in the same dorm forty-five (!!!!) years ago and hadn't seen each other since just after Dan and I married, so that's over forty-three years.  I don't think the guys had ever met, or if they did, it was briefly, but they had a good time visiting, too.  

Meanwhile, things are stirring back to life here at the resort in the remodeling department,  Dan's busy season with his consulting work is winding down for a while, so we're working on bathrooms.  Several weeks ago Eric, Cam and Keat came over on a Saturday and along with Dan, they pulled out the old shower stall in the bath adjoining our bedroom. (Should I say, "our en suite?" a la HGTV?) We've debated possibilities for the new shower, and as much as I'd like to go all tile, I don't think it's worth the effort it would take to do it, so I think we'll just go with a new white (the old was harvest gold) stall and call it good.  Hey, it'll get me clean just fine.  :-)  Meanwhile, new light fixtures, shower rods, etc, have made their way into the main upstairs and downstairs baths.  Each new piece makes me smile!

Here's a picture of the gaping hole that's in our bath right now:

  

Having access to the plumbing for the tub in the main bathroom will enable Dan to do some upgrades there, too,  Our well water has worked a number on the pipes and fixtures.  

Meanwhile, the flower pots on our deck are in bloom and I just love the wonderfully bright flowers. We bought the plants at Costco last year and Dan was able to keep them alive over the winter in our sunroom.  (Truth:  if plants depended on me to live, they wouldn't.)

♥

Quilting Ponderings

My longtime readers know that I became a lover of quilts at an early age because I slept under wonderfully heavy quilts made by my paternal great-grandmothers. All hand-stitched, they tied me to a generation I never met, but often heard about.  My dad's father was killed in an automobile accident when my dad was just fifteen months old and these women had helped raise him while his mother worked as many as three jobs at a time to keep her family afloat.  

The quilts were worn when I was little, and by the time I was grown they were worn out and gone. But that's why they had been made--to be used.  I was somewhat of a romantic growing up and I viewed things from the past through rose-colored glasses, not realizing at the time that the making of the quilts came from thrift and many evening hours of plying the needle.  These ladies did not own even a treadle sewing machine although both were accomplished sewers.  At any rate, I wanted to make quilts.  It was a way of tying myself to these women who were a part of me.  

And so, about thirty years ago I finally began to really quilt. I'd made a pillow or two, tried a cushion for a rocking chair, but they were mostly sad affairs, done without proper fabric or batting.  Now I lived in a town with a quilt shop and I made a friend of a real live quilter.  I subscribed to quilting magazines and slowly became more adept.  Even though I taught school most of the intervening years, quilting was a refuge from the stress and work that teaching is.  

And now, here I am.  Retired. With time and a roomful of sewing machines including a quilting machine.  How blessed I am!  Whatever would those great-grandmothers have thought of such a room as mine?  I think they would have marveled and wanted to try everything!  I think they would have sparkled and laughed as they tried rotary cutting, cheered over the many rulers available, and thrilled over the sewing machines that had self threaders! And the quilting machine?  Unimaginable.

And so, as I finished my little table runner, I communed with Sarah Jane and Carrie as I turned the binding to the back and hand stitched it down.  That process they would have known well.  

Here's to you, Little Mama (short and stout) and Big Mama (tall and spare)!  ♥

Potatoes

Huh?  Potatoes?  

Well, anyone in my family can tell you that I love potatoes.  In fact, one of my mottos is that I never met a potato I didn't like.  I'm even briefly mentioned in an old video of a dinner my brother's family was having when he speared a baby red one from the serving bowl, said, "This one's for you, sister," and popped it into his mouth.  Yeah, I'm famous like that.  :-)

Recently I was cruising the produce department at one of our local supermarkets and spied a small bag of potatoes.  Intrigued, I looked more closely and discovered this:

The potatoes are grown and packaged by The Little Potato Company.  They have several bags to choose from and I chose the Terrific Trio which has tiny red, yellow and blue potatoes.  Yup, blue ones.  I've always loved the tiny reds, so I just had to buy the bag and see what was up.  Well, I'll tell you:  much yummy-ness! Boiled, with just butter and a sprinkling of dried basil, and I was in heaven.  And Dan loves them, too!

Here's a peek inside the bag which holds three pounds:

The family that started this company is Dutch and in Europe they're called creamer potatoes.  You can buy bags of just the red or yellow, but those blue ones make me smile.  And yes, they taste just like the other ones.  

Potatoes get a bad rap nutritionally, but really, they are quite good for us.  It's all the stuff we do to them that add the fat and calories.  Here's the nutritional stats from the bag:

See, look at all the potassium and fiber. And carbs are just eight percent. My poor potatoes get a bad rap!  ♥

There Is Life in the Sewing Room!

Yes, dear readers, there has been activity of late in my sewing room.  I am working on the last of the Laundry Basket Quilts (Edyta Sitar's designs) Trio tablerunners. (Click here to see the pattern and here to see pictures of the first two.)

This one has the same one hundred fifty-six pieces in the border, but thankfully the center is just a cut of a border fabric.  

All the sections are ready now to be joined to the center piece.  I just have to cut it and then stitch the sections on.  If I get myself jolted into action today I could have it done in an hour or so.  

There was also much action last Thursday when long-time friend and former neighbor, Cyndie, joined me and we spent the afternoon making ten big round tablecloths for her son's wedding rehearsal dinner this week.  Cyndie used my serger to stitch fabric sections together; I pressed, folded, and using a newspaper template we made, cut the rounded edge which Cyndie then hemmed, again using the serger.  We had quite the assembly line going, along with much fun jabbering.  We finished in under four hours and were quite pleased with ourselves.  :-)

Cyndie insisted on a picture of me stitching, so I did do one hem.  Some of the completed tableclothes are seen heaped on my not yet quilted Through the Winter Woods quilt.  

Well, that runner isn't going to finish itself, so I think I'll take myself downstairs and see if I can get some work done on it.  ♥

Bloggy Woes, Bears, and Little Boys

I logged onto my blog last night and was dismayed to see my background had gone missing.  I checked back several times and, yup, still missing.  I tried going the the website of The Cutest Blog on the Block, which was my source, but it was inaccessible.  I feared it had gone out of business.

When I checked this morning, I still had a stark white background so I tried another google search and found they had a page on Facebook.  There I discovered that the site seemed to be alive and well (a post by the owner the day before) and several messages by others who had also lost their backgrounds. A later check showed that the owner had been unaware her website was down and a message that her techs were working on the problem.  Since you can see that my background is back, you know they were successful!  Yay!  

And so, on to the bears and little boys.  Sunday we entertained our three local grandsons while their parents attended a wedding in Coeur d'Alene.  Cameron tuned right in to the Women's World Cup Soccer tournament, Keaton kept busy with Papa in the shop, and Daniel and I watched a little Curious George, played in the pea gravel and checked out the garden.  While I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, a laughing Daniel called me into the living room and presented me with this scene, of which he was quite proud:

"Look at the bears!" he giggled.  And don't you know they're still like that--it will be a while before this grammy will be able to right them.  ♥

A Memorable Breakfast

As mentioned in a recent post, breakfast is one of my favorite meals to cook.  Yesterday was Tuesday, Choose Day, and since I don't exercise that day (I'm a MWF girl), I decided it was time for eggs Benedict.  Mmmm.

They were every bit as delicious as I anticipated and worth every moment of the clean-up.  As I washed the pans and utensils, I realized I was taking a trip down memory lane and each stop led to people I loved.

The egg poaching pan was purchased in Boise on a trip to visit our son Matt and family.  The whole idea of being able to fix eggs Benedict at home was inspired by my sister-in-law, Karen. The cute little whisk and spatula were part of my Christmas presents from Ann and her family several years ago and were picked out by Daniel when he was just two.  

How can I go wrong with a delicious meal and happy memories?  ♥