My 'sunny'flower prize.....

I won this beautiful sunflower pincushion from Linda of Stray Stitches and it arrived today.  I can't believe how lucky I was to win it.  I'm going to pack it in my 'waiting room project bag'.  I know it will bring a smile whenever I reach for a pin.

She also included a very pretty card, and some hexie papers with a cute selection of squares with which to make hexies.  fun, fun, fun.

Thank you Linda!!!!!!!!!

counting my blessings.......Sunny

Saturday - Plan B

Check out this beautiful mountain scenery from our drive today.  You might notice that there are no mountains in sight!

At our first stop, we tried to take pictures of wildflowers, but it was too breezy for macro photography.

Every time we got out of the car to take pictures, it started raining.  Our original plan for the day was to drive the entire length of Skyline Drive, from north to south.  We were going to spend the night somewhere near the sourthern end, and then kayak somewherre around there on Sunday.  Perhaps we should have looked at a map when we were making this plan?  The lake we had in mind was much further south than we realized, and had we gone there, we would have had a very long drive home on Sunday.  So we decided to cut short our drive, return home for the night, and then we'll kayak in PA on Sunday. 

As we decided to leave Skyline Drive, look what happened.  Ta da - the sun came out!

Here are   some more miscellaneous pics of the awesome skies.

We did enjoy our day, however.  Hubby took me to a little dive he's discovered, for breakfast.  And it was nice to get out of the house.  And I always prefer sleeping in my own bed. Speaking of which, that's where I should be right now.

  . . . . . . counting my blessings.......Sunny

Fantastic Mail Day!

O.M.G. - O.M.G.!!!  I received my May block today for Block Swap Adventure from Gina.  She was concerned that I hadn't received it yet, and I told her that when it arrived, I would blog about its beauty to the entire world.  So here it is world.  It's a beauty!  And it came wrapped in some of the leftover fabric.

I also received my Secret Santa Sack today.  My partner is Laura Q.  She was worried that I might not like My sack because she's  not a quilter.  I told her it didn't need to be quilted.  I know that she paints, so I suggested she might paint on a canvas bag.  And so she did.  Is this amazing or what?

It is so elegant with the fabric flowers, the painting, and the fringe.  Thank you Laura, I absolutely love it!  And it's filled with Christmas presents.  Instead of send 2 gifts each month until Christmas, i think she sent them all at one time.  And I'm not allowed to open them until Christmas, of course.  ooh, that will be very difficult for me.

In other news, dh and I are going away for the weekend, just to get out of the house.  On Saturday, we're driving down Skyline Drive, so I might take a picture or two to share.

Thank you all so much for your words of comfort and support.  We'll just be taking it one day at a time, trying to remain strong and positive.  Your prayers and good thoughts are very much appreciated.

. . . . . . . Sunny . . . . . . .



Not so Sunny news

I usually try to respond to all comments on my blog, but I have not done very well the last couple of weeks.  The truth is, I've been a bit distracted.  If you only like happy, cheery, quilty topics,  please feel free to move on to another blog today.

It's not always sunny in my life.  A few weeks ago, I was slipping back into depression, although not nearly as bad as this time last year.  And that's when life was good!  Last week, Mr. QD was diagnosed with cancer.  I won't regale you with all the details, but we now know that his type is typically very easily treated.  He'll be having surgery within the next couple of weeks, and we're hoping that's all that will be needed.  We live in a small town, so he'll be going to the very well known Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, so I'll be putting some miles on my car. 

I don't often share a lot of my personal like here, and I know that some people think blogs should always be happy.  But I've made some good friends through blogging, and I want my friends to know why I might not be commenting on your blogs,  and where I'll be if I disappear for a few days.  I'll always have my trusty laptop by my side, but I don't know if I'll have wifi access.  I use blogging as a distraction from the real world, so I'll probably still be reading blogs, and looking for inspiration.  But I've found that my attention span is about 12.5 seconds. 

If I owe you something for a swap or exchange, rest assured that I plan to fulfill all obligations.  I've asked one hostess to pass on a message that I may be a little late,

If you've made it this far, thank you my dear friends!

, , , , , , , , ,sunny . . . . . . . . . .

More Tinies!

I've now made 3 of these tiny little hexies.  I'm hoping this will be enough for my project, but I may need to make one more.  (I'm designing as I go)  These little guys are cute as can be, but I prefer to make them a little larger. 

I included a dime in the picture for scale. 

I tried to comment on blogs tonight, but blogger was being obstinate again.  Hopefully, we'll all be able to chat again tomorrow.

..........sunny..........

Testing 1...2...3.....

Blogger won't let me comment on anyone's blog tonight.  Will it let me post to my blog????

They're getting smaller......

Here's my newest hexie size.

And here it is again, compared with an 'inchie'.

The 'petals' on the new one are a little smaller than a dime.  I've already decided that they are not my favorite size to work with, but I wanted to try something for a special project.

I'll be making a couple more of the 'tinies' on One Flower Wednesday.

Until then................Sunny

FNSI results, and the Power of Nature

On Friday night, I completed two cross stitch projects that I've been working on, but they're both for secret swaps, so I can't show them yet.  Tomorrow, I have to turn them into something purty, so they're presentable as gifts.  One is for the Once a Season Swap, and the other is for the Secret Santa Sack Swap.  I went to bed when I was so sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open, but when I got into bed, I couldn't sleep.  So naturally, I thought about sewing!  I think I figured out the design of my Santa Sack.  I can't wait to get started on it.

Today hubby and I went shopping for flowers and herbs.  We'll be planting tomorrow.  We also had to go to his dad's local house, (the 90 year old dad from the Kansas trip last week), to take pictures of a tree that had fallen over in a recent storm.

I took a drive after lunch, because I just needed to get out and clear my head.  I may have stopped at the quilt store for a small piece of fabric to finish one of my swap projects.  Whew!  $38 and all I needed was a quarter yard of fabric.  My car then pulled into a yard sale where I picked up a couple of cheap baskets that I want to put some of my flowers in on the deck.  Then I headed down to the river, because I'm always attracted to water when I'm troubled.  My first stop was Dam #5, and I  was amazed at how high the water was.  We've had a lot of rain, and I knew the river wasn't safe to kayak on, but I was shocked by what I saw.  Here is a picture of the dam that I had on my camera from October.

And here it is today.

After seeing this, I went to a couple of our other favorite places for kayaking, to see how they were faring from the high water.

This is a parking lot, that has obviously been under water, and has about 2-3" of mud now.

More mud, and you can't even see the boat ramp where we put in.

Another muddy, lack of boat ramp area.

This tree is blocking what should be another boat ramp, and I'm guessing it was deposited here by the river.

Not quite sure how this guy got here.  I think he/she may belong in the city park, several miles away.

If you've made it all the way through this, remember that I use this blog as my scrapbook, and although these pictures probably weren't terribly exciting to you, I'm easily amused!

Counting my many blessings.............Sunny

Wordless Wednesday

Counting my many blessings....Sunny

I love free WiFi!

Sitting in the Kansas City Airport, awaiting our flight to Baltimore.  I decided to see if there might be free WiFi, and there is!  I'm too cheap to pay for it for just an hour or so.  We've had a good trip.  Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, then did a little shopping and some geocaching.  Although we don't geocache much very often anymore, we do like to find a few when we go to a new state.  So now we can add Kansas to our list.  We should have found a couple in Missouri this morning, but our timing didn't work out quite right.

Guess what I bought while we were shopping?  Books, of course.

We also stopped at a Border's Book store, but they were closing down the following day, so there wasn't much to choose from.  I did walk out with a novel and another book for under $10.00.

Then off to the birthday party we went.  There was birthday cake and hors d'oeuvres.

Here's the birthday boy with his wife, followed by a pic of his big sis and little sis, and then all of the family who make the trip.

Flying home today, I got some awesome cloud pictures, from the topside!

And a not-so-great picture of the Chesapeake Bay bridge.

I worked on my cross stitch projects some more, and hope to get to some sewing on Tuesday.  And don't forget that Friday Night Sew In is this Friday.  Click on the button on my sidebar if you'd like more info.  everyone is welcome to join!

Counting my blessings.       Sunny

We're in Kansas, Toto!

On Saturday morning, we got up long, long before the crack of dawn to drive an hour and a half to the nearest major airport, to catch a flight to Kansas City.  We're here for a birthday party.  A 90th birthday party for my fil.  As you may know, flight plans do not make a lot of sense, so we flew from Baltimore to Atlanta on the first leg of our journey.  I don't quite 'get it' when I look at a map of the US.  Atlanta is NOT on the way to Kansas.  However, I had a large credit to use on Delta, so we did what we had to do.  We rewarded ourselves with this during our layover in Atlanta.

What an awesome reward!  if you've never had pralines in Georgia, you should immediately schedule a visit.  Or a layover in Atlanta.  Better yet, if you can get to the riverfront in Savannah to try the pralines, you will think you're in heaven.

Then another flight to Kansas City.  I hate flying - but it is a necessary evil.  I did some cross stitching to pass the time, so it's not a total waste.  First stop when we got to Kansas was a barbecue joint.  We asked for advice at the car rental place, and were advised to try Oklahoma Joe's.  It turns out Oklahoma Joe's grew out of the back of a gas station, which is still operating today in the front corner of the building and property.  We waited in line for over an hour, and it was soooo worth the wait!

We each ordered something different, and then split it all to get a taste of everything.  The brisket was my favorite.

Lest you think I only blog about food when I travel, after eating, hubby wanted to check into the hotel and take a short nap, but I prevailed, and we stopped at a Quilt Store on the way.  Would you believe I walked out of there with NO fabric?  They had a lot of batiks, which I don't care for, and a wonderful selection of reproductions, but I don't currently have a project in mind so couldn't decide on anything.  Their fat quarters were outrageously priced so I wasn't even tempted by them.  However, they did have a large book selection so I walked out with these.  After all, I didn't want hubby to think it was a wasted trip!

Blogger is being very obstinate today, so you'll have to stand on your head to see the second book.  But at least Blogger is here, so I won't get too upset.

The rest of the day was spent napping, stitching, and several hours of family time.  Today is the big party and more family time.  But if I don't get off here, we'll miss it all, so until later.........

Counting my many blessings....Sunny