Another rainy morning!

Gray skies,and a wet world! Our deck this morning, ( not complaining, as at least we are not flooded out like parts of Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas!)

I have been sewing this week....

Finished a blouse I started last summer....and found buttons from the 1940s in the drawer of buttons from my mom! Wore this to work yesterday!

Also finished this romantic, patriotic quilt,

thinking that I would take it to our guild's "airing of the quilts" at a home in Rogers. An annual event.

It rained before and after the event....and I am sorry to say, I was too low energy to go, even though the sun came out and even with my new quilt!

Summer is almost here, the quilt was my Memorial Day celebration! [We were having friends over, then found a plumbing problem AND my car refused to start...so we cancelled that event. So, I was home sewing for several days with no car, as the new ignition parts had to be ordered.]

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Summer is always time to realize how much the grandchildren are growing! Her my daughter's children on the beach at Tybee Island...

 

loving the sand, sea, sky and waves....

Being awed by the size of the water!

And watching a "big boat"!

Meanwhile in Idaho, this little guy is growing....

while his big brother is definitely enjoying the water too! ...it's still a bit nippy though! Mind over matter!

We can't wait to spend some time with these little guys soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home again!

I hugged my grandchildren goodbye....here at his school cafeteria.

It took me 2 days of flying standby to get home, I finally switched to Tulsa as my destination! We got home at 2:30 a.m. Sunday. After going by our local airport to fetch my luggage which had been there since Friday with a note saying "passenger stuck in Atlanta, still trying to get a flight"!

Here is a photo of the storm which happened while I was flying home. This photo is from Siloam Springs. beautiful!

 

 

Home to the prettiest time of year here!

Peonies and iris in full bloom, roses too!

Enjoyed making wonderful cottage cheese pancakes for our breakfast!

With local strawberries fresh from the farmer's market!

Celebrating a special birthday with friend Karen, fish and chips at the Apple Blossom brewery!

Then a stroll over to lake Fayetteville and a peaceful bench on the overlook of the weir! swimming ducks!

Next adventure was Saturday night. Local contra dance society event. In the auditorium of our VA hospital.

Lots of fun! We are rank beginners!

That was my first week home!

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This Sunday, a real treat!

My friend Paula and her partner, Jeanne, have a native plants business on a mountainside near the White River. It is in Madison County, Arkansas, about an hour from our home.....

 

 

 

They had open house this Sunday, and I took my camera!

My first time to see Lady's Slipper, above. These are larger and puffer than I had pictured them! seeing them was such a treat! Deer love to eat them, but these are inside the fenced area!

Below, "Autumn Fern" which has the rusty color on the new foliage. (Not every plant I am posting is Native!)

 

A huge "s" shaped grape vine!

A nested rock, within a rock, within a rock!

An amazing dish of hollow rocks, ready to be vases! Or flasks?

One of Paula's potting tables with my reflection in the mirror!

More potting goodies...

 

 

 

 

...AND the star off the month....foxgloves. Self-seeding and happy growing here, deer won't eat them....

FOXGLOVES!!! Maybe 300 plants....

Everywhere you look! Lining paths and rock walls, popping up in the terraced garden too!

 

 

Here near the house, with a charming birdhouse!

 

Next on my travel agenda....visiting the newest grandbaby. Born April 27!

Life is good!

 

 

More from Georgia

Kids playing with bubble guns on the deck....

We can wash the windows, right?

Our favorite diotomaceous earth man!

Cool soccer player!

 

A Sophie wearing a t-shirt dress which I made for her.

Off to nursery school soon!

Our Nina was down with Strep! Hope the others don't get it!

Here is a photo by her mom, of the little girl sick in bed.....a couple of nights ago...

Now she is up and around, playing peacefully with the bubbles while her siblings are at school! On the mend for sure!

Bubbles again while wearing her "Frozen" dress...sparkly!

I knew she was better when she began chasing her pink balloon around the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday girl gets her quilt.

Life is VERY hectic here at Laura's but she finally sat down to open a present or two on her birthday yesterday evening! Here she is enjoying her new quilt from me, the "Lorna Doone" quilt from a kit of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. [The kit was purchased from the Glorious Color website after Kaffe had been in our area, teaching and lecturing!]

3 of her 4 children were here too! (They are not too happy as we are about to go out to dinner and leave them with the sitter!)

The quilt is Queen size and the colors are perfect for our May Day birthday daughter!

It was beautifully and creatively long arm machine quilted by Sonja Koch of Fayetteville, AR!

You can read about Sonja's work here---- http://sosews.com!

 

This is the only quilt I ever made from a kit, and I still had to change out the border and binding! Kaffe's fabrics are SO colorful and beautiful, and with the soft aqua dot they become my preferred palette of light bright pastel colors!

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More from Laura's....

We were playing around in her bedroom doing yoga poses and she caught it with her camera.....then she put it on Facebook...not bad for "old folks"!

Little Sophie is a "travel agent in training".....taking over her mother's desk.

Nina is the "artist in training", using a water brush and showing me how to make polka dots!

Then, I had a peaceful moment on the deck, doing my own watercolor sketch of the lake.

 

This afternoon we get to see our 7 year- old grandson, Bindley, play in a soccer match! Photos to follow, I'm sure!