Spring Turns Into Summer

There was a bird trying to build a nest in my front door wreath for three days in a row in early spring. I succeeded in chasing her away, but now it kind of makes me sad. Spring is quickly turning into the longer and warmer days of summer. Don't get me wrong! I'm not complaining, it's just that Spring seems so fleeting.

I am trying to enjoy these flowers for as long as I can. The Hyacinths and tulips and daffodils, etc. do not last long enough! I am hoping these Lily's will last much longer. We have cool nights here in Idaho, so that helps. But it also requires a few extra precautions, like putting my tomato plants in these cool greenhouses Terry made for us:

My summer is already booked with gardening galore and several trips off and on, so not much quilting getting done around here. This is my latest project:

Don't judge! At least it's cut out, right?! It's going to be a Downton Abbey-inspired lap size quilt for a niece...someday!

FINALLY! New Living Room Furniture

It took many weeks of shopping and research to decide what I wanted for my living room. I am so pleased with my choice. Now I need to find the perfect area rug.

Bee my Honey

Finally, a finish! I have several more quilts in the planning stages right now, so I will be posting more this year. We have officially moved across the country (a permanent move, I hope) and sold our businesses in the Midwest.

Come in from the Cold

A quilt for Christmas for daughter Jessica.

Updates

To anyone who really cares, I have been working really loooong hours since the holidays and have done very little sewing. That quilt for our bed is the last one I did. I have been building up my stash this winter and have started making plans for some projects again someday.

Ended up ordering fabric to make slipcovers for my sofa pillows. Because I know some people may ask, I ordered this fabric through Warehousefabrics.com. It is called "Shoogie" and the color is Sky. The background is a cream with blue, grey, gold/tan print. I love the birds and the more modern look of this fabric, and that it has a touch of whimsy to it. It is a medium-weight (nice drape) upholstery fabric. Perfect for covering these pillows. I plan to re-cover the seats on my dining room chairs with this same fabric (as soon as I can find that darn staple gun).

I am hoping to order new blinds for the rest of the windows in our house. Long past due. I took down most of the old ones, so need to get the new one's in soon before it gets hot here in the Midwest. The blinds will likely be the last renovation project for the year. I have plans to be too busy with kids and grand-kids. We are in the process of selling a business, so that takes up a large amount of my time too. No simple endeavor, that's for sure.

I have been trying to catch up on reading some of your blogs out there. I can see many of you have been having very busy winter's as well. All those snow storms, work, illness in the family, etc. Life can just be so overwhelming at times.

Happy Spring everyone!

A Snow Storm for My Birthday

A snow storm and lots of quiet time to finish up a quilt!

There's a lot of machine quilting in this one.

I hope everyone is staying safe and warm !

Happy 2014!

Trying to get back into the groove of things. To start off the year...okay, so it's wasn't a very good start. I was planning to have a finish to show! So much for plans. I will soon though.
I am going to participate in the Chat on the Farmhouse Porch this week and linking up over at Everyday Ruralty: 

Here are the questions for this week:

1. Did you make any New Year's Resolutions?
2. Are your decorations still up?
3. What did Santa bring you? Okay, maybe not Santa...
4. Do you have any special plans for 2014?
5. Have you had any snow yet?

Now for my answers:

     1.  I seldom make New Year's resolutions on paper. In my head I think about the things I would like to improve on or do. This year I will write them down for the whole world to see (or those two people who might read this).  I want to complete more quilting this year.  2013 just completely got away from me. I've been planning to make quilts for nieces and nephews, so I think this will be the year. I want to spend more quality time with the kids and grandkids. i would like to take more meaningful trips/vacations.  Go camping more than once this summer.  Finish more renovations on our Missouri home.  Continue my journey toward a healthier lifestyle/eating healthy.

     2.  We didn't put up very many Christmas decorations this year because our kids were mostly with their in-laws this year.  No big housefull of company so, yes, I have put them away. I purchased a few green and red storage tubs on clearance at Target and everything is perfectly stored away on shelves in the basement.

     3.  Yah, about that Santa thing. Well, he only makes it to our house if we have little one's around. The spouse bought me a Ott lite for the sewing room and i got some really sweet gifts from kids; an apron, gift card, gold and diamond bracelet, photo album, some other cute pieces of jewelry. My birthday is this weekend, so close enough to Christmas that the gifts are usually Christmas/birthday gifts :)

     4.  I think I pretty much summed up the plans for 2014 under #1. It's going to be a very busy year.

     5.  Yes. I am in Missouri for the winter and we've had snow a couple of times now. The ice storms are no fun. A couple of nights ago we got around 3" of snow. It's pretty, but hope it goes away soon!

Happy New Year to everyone!