Busy Day

I have a busy day, today. I took a 12 mile bike trip on the Little Miami River bike trail http://www.lovelandbiketrail.com/. It was a beautiful morning for a bike ride. Saw a lot of squirrels and a few chipmunks but no deer today. I was curious about wind damage as this trail runs along the river and is heavily wooded. Some trees had come down and branches of trees were snapped off. I took a few pictures so you could see.

After my bike ride, I stopped at the The Quilt Cabin - Home to pick out a fat quarter for my secret stitcher's Christmas ornament. It will be a scissor keep and I needed fabric for the backing and lining. It is the fabric on the far left. It was cheaper if you bought 5 so....... That pink is a wild card isn't it?

I need to stitch for a while on my letter Z for the sampler guild's quilt Queen City Sampler Guild. Thought you might like to see how that is going. This afternoon I am picking up my daughter after work and we are going to Kentucky. Our first stop will be the GAP outlet in Hebron, KY. Then a little something to eat and down the road to a co-workers house for a Stampin' Up 'Stamp a Stack'. We will be making 12 cards at her workshop. She had one in the spring and it was lots of fun. It's nice walking away with 12 cards all made and ready to use.

Now to show you Rich's brand new, just completed garage. It needs a little more dirt around it to level it off with the yard. It is really nice. It has 2 skylights, a garage door opener, and at least one window on each side. We really like it. He's going to paint the floor with an epoxy paint and then we can start putting stuff in it. Lucky we had the trees trimmed beside it before the storm came through.

Sept. 27th;

Thought you'd like to see the cards Dana and I made last night. There were 6 stations set up and we made two of each of these cards. The pop-ups aren't showing up in the picture.

A Mighty Wind

Last Sunday, hurricane Ike and a cold front collided west of us and created a monster wind storm. 40 - 84 MPH winds blew through for over 4 hours. It was amazing. While I was at the fabric store, the electricity started going off and on which meant the computerized cash register was having to constantly boot up. I decided I didn't need what I had in hand and high tailed it home. Our street already had a tree hanging in the wires that I needed to skirt. I knew our power was going to be out. Sure enough I had to dig for house keys that I never use since I always come in through the garage with the automatic opener. As the afternoon drew to a close, I gathered the necessary candles, matches and lantern. Raked off the driveway and patio of sticks, leaves and branches, got a good portion of 'Eat, Pray, Love' read for our next book club, opened the windows and went to bed.














Mon. we still did not have power. Well, what a lovely way to spend the day stitching on Hands to Work 'Harvest Blooms'. Evening came and my daughter's employer came by with ice and a radio to keep me company since my DH was in Miami missing the fun. Put some thought into 'what if....' the power was not on by Tues. It wasn't. By afternoon the freezer food would be done for. So, I got out the canning equipment and fired up our propane stove (thank goodness I insisted on a gas stove when we built this house). A friend had supplied me with pounds and pounds of concord grapes that I had stemmed and frozen for future use. The future was NOW. They were beginning to defrost. I spent the day canning 20 pints of grape jam. At one point, there was a foray for more sugar, ice and batteries. A ten minute trip was now a half hour avoiding all the road blocks from downed trees and power lines and finding stores that were open and supplied. It was a long day. The last batch was done by lantern light.


Wed. morning and still no power. What was left in the freezer - cherries that could be made into jam also. Got started on those and cleaning out the refrigerator and the rest of the perishable things from the freezer. 12 pints later and two garbage cans full a weird sound filled the air. ELECTRICITY! Whoo Hoo! What a sweet sound. DH and son managed to clean up the rest of the yard over the weekend and things are back to normal in our house. There are still some people without power. Piles of wood and brush are stacked in almost every yard. What a reminder of the power of nature. God bless the people in Texas that felt this hurricane full strength.

Mum shopping

Clark and I went mum shopping on Friday and Greenfield Plant Farm was just beautiful. Thought you'd like to see.

Bag Arrival!

Today I received my swap bag from Marc Daisy Jayne and it was her 50th birthday! I was so excited to open my package from OZ. I tried to wait until my DH came home but it was useless. I can't describe how excited I was to open my 'present.' What lovely treasures awaited me.

A lovely apron with my name embroidered on it in my favorite colors. Two handy notebooks to slip inside my new bag and a lovely letter from Marc. Daisy Jayne Here's my apron unfolded:

Now here is the sweetest, prettiest, most practical sewing bag ever. When opened it's like a cube so I'm showing all four sides. And to top it off, there were sewing 'smalls' embellished by Marc on the inside.

This is a pin cushion, a tape measure and a scissor keeper. Aren't they great?!?!

Have I said how happy I am with my new sewing bag. Thank you so much Marc. I just love it.

Corn Festival

Today, Rich and I went to Wilmington, Ohio's Corn Festival. The food is really good so Weight Watchers is not going to go so well this week. Pulled pork sandwiches, fresh made french fries, apple dumplings with ice cream, sweet tea - oh my! They have a animal petting area for the little kids but I always have to visit and pet the pony, piglets, baby ducks, goats, calf and bunnies. One barn is filled with antique dealers, one with crafts and one with flea market items. Then there's the building with a quilt show. Today I got to see quilts layered off of a bed while each was explained. Very nice. My favorite quilt was an applique quilt of chickens.

We ended the afternoon watching the tractor parade. There are tractors winning tractor pulls that are older than I am.

We said goodbye to Adam and Lauren on Thursday. It was sad to see them go but we're still happy for them. They spent Friday night at my sister's house in Denver so, they were making very good time.