Around the House – Page 4

The Weekend

28 Comments / August 12, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Around the House, Family

Well…did you all have a good weekend? We had a wonderful weekend — we headed south for three days to attend TheSecondChild’s MBA graduation. As he says, now he’s a Master. So, I should probably change his name to MasterSecondChild LOL. It was a fairly small graduation ceremony (compared to his undergrad event)– mostly advanced degrees, since it’s out-of-cycle for undergrad degrees.

Thursday night was the “Hooding Ceremony”. Each school held it’s own ceremony for the grads. The hoods are all different colors too, depending on the area of study. In MasterSecondChild’s case, the tan is for the business school and the red and blue are the university colors. It was funny to see everyone after the hooding ceremony, ’cause no one knew how to arrange the colors.

They were all fixed by graduation though and everyone was properly folded.

So, it was a great weekend with lots of good food and fun. We had fun fixing a few things that had to be fixed around his apartment and just being parents in general. It’s always exciting to see your child’s hard work pay off too, and we’re very proud of our littlest Thimble. Er, MasterThimble. All good things come to an end though, and after I accidentally locked the young Master out of his apartment — oops! — I think he was probably ready to see us on our way LOL.

And this is what we saw upon our return … the thief has been discovered. Caught in the Act! He’s a brazen little Chippy — sat and ate that whole tomato right in front of me. Luckily, we’re having a bumper crop of tomatoes, so there are plenty to go around!

Ooooh, before I go, I’ve been forgetting to mention the Aurifil block of the month! Run on over to the Aurifil page and see the fabulous August block — embroidered by the famous Bari J.! And don’t forget to check out the flickr group — there are lots of beautiful blocks being shared!

Ok, Peeps, have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

B-o-o-o-ring

37 Comments / July 21, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Around the House, Chat

Holy Schmokes! Another week has whizzed by. Time’s flying and I’m not even having that much fun! It scares me to think what it will be like when there is a lot of fun going on around here.

We did get some rain though. Woohoo! They say it’s no impact on the drought, but my flowers sure seemed happy. It seems like I’m wasting spending a lot of time watering this year. At least the garden is happy. If you remember, here it was a month ago…

And here it is now. It’s getting crowded in there.

And look at my pretty zinnias! I love zinnias, they’re SO happy and colorful!

It’s not all fun and games in the garden though. SOMEthing is still lurking about, despite my ugly fence attempt. This little bit of tomato evidence was on the retaining wall this morning. They could at least clean up after themselves. Pigs.

In other news, it’s festival time here in the Fort and we’ve made the trek to have the annual Funnel Cake. YUM! I think funnel cakes should be the next big breakfast fad.

Other than that, I spend my evenings in analysis paralysis. I’ve been trying to plan a new quilt project, but instead, I just spend my time surfing all the fab quilts on the internet. There are SO many quilts I want to make — (like this and this and this and this and….oh forget it, just everything on my quilt board on pinterest!) — where to start — it’s just so confusing! In the meantime, I have a new basket for my bike, so I’m hoping to entertain myself this weekend by making a new liner. Cause you know … if it can be lined, it must be lined!

Have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Wascally Wabbit

31 Comments / June 19, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Around the House, Sewing

How’s your week coming along? Lots of running around here. I did drag out a more recent UFO and managed a little piecing time over the weekend.

It’s my Children at Play quilt top – I’m making good progress and hopefully there will be a finished top pretty soon. In the meantime, I played with the scraps too.

And contemplated what to do with all of these leftover triangles. Still undecided – any ideas?

Hey! Want to see my little garden? We finally have a little sunny space in our yard – created when the retaining wall was put in last fall. I love a little garden. I don’t have much hope for the beets and carrots – I really just planted them because they look so pretty.

Good thing I’m not really counting on them ’cause someone else has other ideas. See that teeny leaf on the left down there?

Those are the remains of a beet. Ramn Dabbit!!! I tried putting used cat litter around the edge of the garden. It worked for awhile, but Peee-Eeeew! It was smelly. Now we have a little wire fence. Hopefully it will work.

Off to dream of Wabbits in cages!
XOXO,
Anna

Quack Quack

23 Comments / May 7, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Around the House, Quilting

Hidy Ho Neighbor! Thanks for all the May Basket love — you guys are the sweetest. Did you have a good weekend? It was beautiful here in ThimbleannaLand. And pretty busy — that’s what happens in the spring — lots of yardwork to do.

So, no real quilting to speak of. I’ve been hankering (yes Barb, that’s my inner Ellie Mae speaking LOL) to start a new quilt project. Something that will be portable and fun. But I can’t seem to make a decision. I finally decided this might not be a great time to decide — maybe I should wait and see if something strikes me at market. So, I dug out the old yoyos and figured out how many I’ll need to make a quilt. I’ve made about 750 so far and I’ll need about 810. Not too bad — I should be able to whip those out in no time — I just need to sneak into the dungeon and cut up some fabric.

I also managed to bake a batch of cookies for BigDaddy. This weeks choice was a recipe I found on Pinterest. They’re Biscoff Oatmeal Cookies. They’re sort of crunchy and dry like the original Biscoff cookies, but with oatmeal in them. They’re perfect with a cup of tea. Or Diet Pepsi. ;-D

And finally, our ducks are still hanging around this year. I love it when they show up every year ’cause I know spring has truly arrived. They’re usually only here for a week or two, but it’s been 5 or 6 weeks this time. About three weeks ago, we found a nest with broken eggs tucked up under the ugly tree. I think they’d been nesting in there and something got the eggs. Nasty Critters. I was really sad, ’cause we’ve never known them to nest here — they sort of hang out and then leave. So I’m wondering if they’re confused by our long spring or lost nest or something. Three days ago the hen was wandering around quacking like she’d lost the drake. Then, the last two days, he’s been wandering around quack quacking like he’s lost her. It’s kind of sad. I’m hoping there’s a nest somewhere and they really know where the other one is and they’re playing decoy.

So, now that I’ve psychoanalyzed the ducks, it’s back to work. Have a wonderful week!

XOXO,
Anna

Wherein SweetiePie and I are Strippers

48 Comments / January 28, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Around the House

Strippers for a day. Our entry hall had this wallpaper that I have Disliked since we moved here 12 years ago. The main paper really wasn’t too bad, it was the border that I didn’t like. I think the person who put this paper here was trying to convince herself that she lived in a tropical climate — not the freezing, landlocked midwestern US.

The problem has been that our entry hall is very tall. The ceiling is probably close to 20 feet from the floor. So, not an easy stripping job.

And maneuvering those ladders around that glass light fixture was delicate work. But, once we got our system in place, things went well. SweetiePie did all the really high stripping, while I worked mid-level and below. It took us about 8 hours with a little break for dinner.

SweetiePie is a trooper. We work well together and she made the job fun. We made a big mess too. There’s wallpaper and glue everywhere. Today’s job will be figuring out how to clean those ladders. The easy way would be to take them outside and hose them down, but there’s a dusting of snow on the ground, so that won’t work.

Ah well, the hard stuff is done — yipee! And we won’t be doing the painting. Paint everywhere just wouldn’t be pretty!

Have a good weekend!

XOXO,
Anna