Shipshewana, Indiana

Earl and I are taking a few very needed days off. Cooling our heels at a beautiful B&B just outside Shipshewana, Indiana.  Today was spent at some antique malls, small shops in Shipsie, including a much anticipated foray to the fabric emporium Lolly's. Earl was very patient. Very, very, patient. :>)

Below is the first course of our delicious breakfast. The second course photo was blurry, but trust me, it was a treat!

So now, here we are in Amish country and we have another day and a half to kill and, well, we've kind of seen it. I know, there is a lot to see, but we are realizing that the days of being happy tramping through antique shops has given way to a yearning for something a little more fun. We're stumped.  Anyone familiar with the northern Indiana area who has some non-tourist trap ideas?

What do you all do when you go on vacation? It's got to be cheap (there's the bugaboo!)

We plan on hitting the Shipshewana flea market in the morning, but the sidewalks seriously roll up here at 5 p.m. sharp! Any ideas?

Sneek Peek

Thanks for the kind words regarding my exam.  I could run along and pretend everything was hunky dorey but I would rather be true. Besides, we fall down and we pick ourselves back up again, that's what life is all about isn't it? Onward and upward, stiff upper lip, never, never, never give up, right Winston?

So here's a little sneek peek at some things I've been working on. I hope to get a lot of sewing done in the next few days, as much as possible.

 These are made from modern day feed sacks. Sturdy enough to hold 50 pounds of beans or horse feed and cute as the dickens for a trip to the farmers market, grocery store, a picnic, and big enough to fit a crock pot full of goodies for the next church picnic like I did.

Pure country girl. Oldest daughter has already scammed the first one off me.  But I love to make things she loves, so I let her:>) Coming soon to etsy.

Epic. Fail.

HTML final tonight. I blew it. No really, I don't just think I blew it, I blew it. I spent the entire day practicing at home, everything was working fine. I was confident and it was OPEN BOOK! Yeah. Just keepin it real, a genius I am not.

So, I'm working feverishly on the first page of four that we have to build, nothing is working. I can't get a stupid photo to show up. Simple stuff like that. I look up and realize I have been struggling with page one for an hour and a half. I laugh out loud, the desperate laugh of someone who has been racing to the docks only to find out her ship has sailed without her. It's still in sight, but really, it's gone. People are staring.  I have one hour left for the other three pages.

I decide to move on. The next page makes my eyes glaze over, something about tables. I try some stuff. Again, nothing works. The clock ticks loudly (not really, it just seems that way).

I watch as what is left of my mind slowly circles the drain.

With 20 minutes left and 3 pages undone, I finally decide to stop the torture. That's right, I gave  up.

 I. gave. up. 

I had an A in that class. Good-bye Deans list.

Photoshop exam tomorrow night. Lets hope that my brain returns before then. Either way, this wretched semester is history. I'm going to bed.  Hopeing for better luck tomorrow.

Roadside shopping

You have to love roadside shopping.

There you are, driving along, minding your own business...

                                         

When all of a sudden you see a sign. "Free."

So meet my "new" buffet. Book matched, dovetailed, solid oak drawers that slide like buttah!  Two of the original pulls were in the top drawer. Don't ask me what the owners were thinking with the monstrosities they replaced them with on the second drawer. It needs a little work.

I'm thinking creamy white on the bottom with a little antiquing to bring out the detail, and a beautiful dark stained top. Yes sis, I know what you're thinking. I'm painting it because it has some missing trim that just can't be fixed to match the existing trim, so paint it is. I think it will bring out the carved details nicely.

This little marble topped plant stand was right next to it, so I got greedy and took that too.

I want to work on the buffet this weekend, the sooner the better before things get really crazy again with school. You can be sure I will be showing the finished project:>)

*sigh* I love roadside shopping:>)

With a little help from my friends

I don't think I told you that one of my latest projects is a string quilt.  I think that is the right name for it? Anyways, it is something I can pick away at in between other projects, just a square at a time.  I was sharing that fact with a sweet blog friend, well, truth be told, she inspired me to make this quilt! I told her I was making it all in shades of red, white and blue and she dug through her scraps and sent me some to include, (and look at that cute crochet sachet holder!)

I love them. I love that kind, blog friends are so generous. I love that I can now include a large square that will remind me of Trish every time I use the quilt.

Here is the set of squares I made from Trish's scraps.

I have quite a few squares made but it will probably take me a few months to get all the squares that I need finished.

I can't wait to show you, I think it's going to look great:>) Bright and cheery and colorful.

I'm coming into the home stretch for this semester, (Yay!), the heat wave here has turned into soft breezy 80 degree weather and things are looking up in a lot of ways. The end of summer is going to beat the beginning of summer for good times, I think.  I'm thankful for the friendships that have survived my spotty blogging and for new friendships made.

I'm off to make dinner and finish mowing the lawn, which in this cool breeze, should be heavenly! And by the way, I'm working on some etsy projects to restock the store next month. I hope you are all enjoying the sweetness of life this fine summer day. I know I am:>)

In the Garden

Do you get tired of garden photos? I hope not, because that is all that is really happening around here in the dog days of summer. The garden has gone wild.  The David Austin rose is blooming again, the zinnias are still rioting and the butterflies are feasting on buddlia 'til they are quite drunk on nectar.

The photo on the right is the Kentucky wonder beans that Earl planted this spring. they must be 12 feet high and we had our first meal of them last night:>) They haven't done much as far as bearing, all those vines yielded a large handful of beans, but they are still blooming and I hope that means they are done growing up and will put their full energy into producing beans! Even if they don't they are lovely to look at and the morning glories that reseed themselves have stolen up the supports so we see their little purple heads peeking out in the morning.  The cinderella pumpkin has more than quadrupled in size this past week. Amazing! And the sunflowers tower over us with dinner plate sized blooms that the bees just can't get enough of.  It's summers finest effort before the fall.  I am working hard to finish this semester (two more weeks and then a couple weeks of total freedom!) Some projects are on the sewing machine and, I admit, I've done a fair bit of nothing when I could have been producing something. Ah well, summer doesn't last forever and sometimes a little vacation laziness is in order. I hope you are all getting your last days of summer fill of sunshine, warmth and flowers:>)

Thirty years ago today...

I married the dearest man in the world.  We had a wonderful weekend of celebration beginning with a party friday night with some friends, coffee together Saturday morning and dinner at our favorite steakhouse last night courtesy of our dear daughters. We can't celebrate tonight because my sweetie has class until 10 and I am in class tomorrow and Wednesday.  I am planning a little get away for the two of us when this semester is done in two weeks. Oh I can't wait. It has been a busy year and one with a lot of ups and downs.  Through it all he has been my rock, my support, my everything.  Just like he has been for the last 30 years.  I love you darling. Forever.