One of my favorite places in the area, our little man made lake and park outside of town. My Father In Law named the park Birch Lake :) seems appropriate since there are Birch Trees all over the park area. Lots of people love to travel, I do too, down to the local lake :) Hubby always used to say (And I never really understood it at the time) "why would you want to travel any distance, you go 30 miles west and you hit the Rivers (Wisconsin and Mississippi) you go 30 miles East and you hit Madison, you go 30 miles north and you hit the Baraboo Bluffs, and you go 30 miles south and you hit the rolling hills of Green County" Now I understand, wish it hadn't taken me quite this long to figure it out. :)  I think it is a lesson worth learning :) 

One of my Online Quilty Girlfriends and I decided between the 2 of us we are going to do a Round Robin quilt each. FUN FUN FUN. I think I have my center figured out, it is a Quilt Retreat Challenge from a few years ago and I haven't done anything with it yet and I LOVE IT so I am thinking this is the time to get it done, can't show you a photo of it because we are going to surprise each other with the center block, but once she gets it I will definitely share a photo. Can[t wait to get started on it. 

Lots of projects and my new MOTTO~~~~~NO BUYING~~~~using up my stash, the only thing I will be buying is if I need something to go with what I am working on, it seems like even with all the fabric I have when I work on an ongoing project (UFO) I am always missing something, the perfect fabric, or interfacing, or embroidery floss, or the perfect color thread, and the list goes on and on, so hopefully not much buying going on. :) WISH ME LUCK!!! Right now I am working on my string blocks for a swap I am in, I have over 1/2 of them done, hoping to finish this week some time. Finished a journal for a Girlfriend who is helping me out with another project, have to get that in the mail to her this week also. Have oodles and oodles of awesome vintage sheets to do something with too. Also got some homespuns from a friend and contemplating what I am going to make with them. Any suggestions or ideas on the sheets and or the homespuns????? 

Cleaning and Organizing

Spent most of the day cleaning and organizing my 2nd "Craft" room. My 1st one is a big room down in the basement that I use for my sewing room, it is my "little piece of heaven" down there except for the fact that one of my dogs won't walk down the steps so he sits upstairs barking and whining the whole time I am down there, so that makes it hard to relax and enjoy my time down there. Anyway back to cleaning and organizing. I took the 3rd bedroom (I live in this house by myself) downstairs for my 2nd craft room, I put in some wire shelving like they use for restaurant storage, 3 of them, 2 big ones I bought at Target on sale for $35.00 each and a smaller one that I bought for $20.00. They hold most of my big stuff. What a PITA setting them up tho. It is really not a 1 person job putting those big things up, especially when you are left handed and Norwegian :) but I managed. Now I need a table that I can use for a card and journal making table, preferably with straight legs so I can get a couple of those plastic rolling storage units underneath them and I should be good to go. DD Kelsey came by tonight and I took her down to look at it, she said "It looks really nice Mom but you have way too much crap" LOL.

I know she is right so that is the next thing on the agenda, downsizing my stash of stuff. First I have to decide what I can part with. Hard decisions to make for me. I know I will feel better when I have enough room to store EVERYTHING I HAVE WITH OUT IT LOOKING CROWDED and still have stuff there isn't any room for.

I should take some pics actually I should have done some before (Altho it was pretty bad) and after :) NEXT TIME MAYBE!!!!!!!!! Or maybe after I get my table set up in there.

Recently I have gotten alot of card making supplies that take up alot of space so hoping the table will hold all my new finds. :)

LIFE GOES ON

I have neglected my blog WAY TOO LONG, I have been busy with "life" as the saying goes.

I have been off work for over a year now and have settled into my quiet corner of Southwestern Wisconsin.I am pretty much a home body so that is where I spend most of my time. I am stitching and lots of other new endeavors. Seems like I am so busy now I don't know how I ever worked 50 hours a week. I know that is what everyone says but it is true. In the past couple of months I have gotten back in touch with 2 Girlfriends I went to High School with. How cool is that. Great to see old friends, you get together and it seems like you just talked yesterday and went to the high school football game. :) FUN FUN FUN

I try to stitch at least 1-2 times a week when I have time. I babysit my Grandson (New Man in my Life) 1-2 days a week and am loving being "Grandma". We have LOTS OF FUN together. He is 18 months old now, the age my oldest Daughter was when I had my Twin Girls. how different it is taking care of a little boy. He wears me out chasing after him. He has his Grandpa's sense of humor, EVERYTHING IS FUNNY and HE IS THE CENTER OF ATTENTION. Gotta love it. Just wish Roger was here to enjoy him with me :(

All the Girls have homes of their own now. Lesley and Josh bought a farmette just north of the town I live in and are planning a Wedding in June of next year, Kelsey and Kolbi (Jace's Mom and Dad) bought a farmette about 20 miles from me and our horses are there. Kendra and Jimmy bought a house in suburb of Chicago and are the farthest away (about 3 hours).

Jace loves the horses and he has a favorite "BurBur" or as he is usually known, Wilbur. All the horses love Jace, but he calls BurBur and he comes over to the fence to get a kiss from Jace, here is this 1,200# horse leaning over the fence for a little boy to kiss him and Wilbur gives "kisses" back, Nothing much better than a little boy and a horse :) Next time I am over there I will get some pics of Jace and Wilbur.

Right now I am working on Jenny of Elefantz "Daisy Days' Embroidery and Loving it. Fun colors, lots of stitching and some quilting (best of both worlds)

http://daisydays-elefantz.blogspot.com.au/

I bought the Honey Honey Line of fabric by Kate Spain to do this little quilt and am loving the look of it, not really my colors but this is such a cheery little quilt I wanted some cool fabrics to work with.

Fall is coming fast to the Midwest and I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR, trips to the Apple Orchard, candle tarts in the tart warmer and evenings on the front porch enjoying what is left of the "front Porch sitting" season. that season is getting shorter and shorter but I am still enjoying it.

I have to miss my fall quilt retreat this year, no one can come and stay with my "Critters" 2 dogs and 3 cats. I will miss everyone but at the same time I will enjoy being home enjoying my "little nest"

So I think that has me all caught up for a few days til I can get back and chat with everyone some more.

Thanks for stopping by and definitely come back often because I PROMISE I WILL TRY TO BE MORE DILIGENT about blogging :)  AND P.S. LEAVE ME A NOTE :)