It Must be Spring - The Birds are chirping outside my window

Today is a great morning.


May 2012 - The Entrance to Heritage Greens.

Wow it must be spring.  I opened my back door and the birds are chirping outside, the lawn is wet from a morning thunderstorm and the breeze is cool but mild.  I know I am stuck on spring but it has been a LONG winter her in the upper Midwest (Wisconsin), It is already the 21st of May but the daffodils and tulips are just starting to flourish and the trees are starting to leaf.  We are in April with all the showers & thunder storms this past week.  I woke several times last night to see lightening peek thru my bedroom blinds.  This time last year the flowering trees by my home were in full bloom, yesterday on my drive into town the tree by the entrance to Heritage Greens was just starting to bud.  Below is a picture of it last spring in May. 

Yesterday I got Wonderful news.  I'm a great Grandma again.  My Granddaughter Cindy had a baby girl -

Aaliyah Paige born May 13th at 1:28 pm 8.3 lbs 21 inches 5-15-13 — with Mom Cindy



Another Rainy Spring Day.

I'm here at my daughter Nan's house going over a book she wants me to illustrate.  wow lots of info and lots of inspiration - I am liking Google and Pintrest even more these days.  This morning started out very nice, a little cool and sunny with clouds.  Now here it is Raining cat's n dog's. 

CreativeLady's Enthusiastic Thoughts

CreativeLady's Enthusiastic Thoughts

Woke up Late today!

Another long sleepless night last night.  Wish I could figure out why; it's been several nights in a row now that I have not been sleeping well.  finally fell asleep about 4am last night - I try to go to bed by 10:30pm, took my night meds early (about 8:30pm) & got situated in bed with my CPAP on, feeling comfortable and sleepy, fell asleep right away but awoke about midnight and could not get back to sleep so I got up had some hot chocolate, ate a yogurt and watched some TV.  Feeling weary I went back to bed by 4:30am, put my CPAP back on then tossed and turned for a while but did fall back to sleep.  I awoke at 8:40am, did not hear my alarm go off at all @ 6:50am, to a dreary rainy, wet and cold morning (about 34 degrees out here in Hudson WI).  Brrrrr.  I am sadly disappointed by how my body has been behaving this past week.  I think this prolonged winter weather is getting to me.  I was sure that after a great sunny day yesterday spent out with friends and in the fresh air would have tired me out enough for sleep last night but no luck! another sleepless night in a row of 4 or 5.  I wanted to attend my little granddaughter's 1st communion this morning but I already was 20 minuets late since I was supposed to be there by 8:20am.   I turned on the TV to hear the weather and it is supposed to get up to the 50's later this afternoon but right I am sitting here waiting for my oatmeal to be done and feeling a bit chilled and disappointed with myself.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  I will dress up and eat my breakfast and see where this day leads me. 

Thankfully I was able to get up early enough yesterday to get down to meet my friends for out mystery bus trip yesterday.  It felt like early spring, we passes a lake full of ducks with their young, geese and even a swan.  I saw some robins out looking for food also.  Of course we passed a lot of snow covered fields and ice covered ponds.  On one pond there was a forlorn looking goose standing in the middle on the cold ice wondering were the water was.  Poor fellow, I guess he did not pass over the lake with no ice and many ducks swimming with their young.  

A Snowy Aprl Morn!

the snowflakes are blowing across my window
as I take this picture.

Well, Spring is taking a back seat today!  It is very Snowy Here in my part of the world, Hudson WI!  There is about 3-4 inches of very heavy, icy, and snowy snow in my driveway waiting to be plowed out today. So today I am here at home blogging instead of being with my ASG Group on my way to SR Harris fabric warehouse in Brooklyn Park MN.  I was looking forward to meeting my friends there to check out all the goodies they have, shop a little, laugh a lot, and lunch together today.  I think this will have to be postponed till another day.  Here is a view from my window.  Glad I am not outside it s snowing hard right now and the wind is blowing making it seem like a mini blizzard.  Yesterday when it was raining a mix of snow, ice and rain the poor birds were flying back and forth trying to keep the ice off their wings.  Today I hope they found shelter under the snowy branches of the pines that line my back yard.

Snow on the trees in my backyard





And I Thought it was Spring!

Spring 2012 at Heritage Greens

Here it is April 14th 2013 already - Where is Spring?  I woke up this morning feeling hopeful and energetic.  I looked out my window! Oh NO! snow flakes falling, snow on the ground.  Now looking out my window the sky is gray and a moderate rain/snow mix is coming down..... Spring is sure taking a back seat today.  I still feel hopeful, I think I have spring fever! LOL I'm online - Pintrest and I see some great photos and quilt blocks that remind me of spring.  Green grass, flowers, lovely gardens, then I look out my patio window and its GREY out there.  Inside I feel spring like, I think I will close my window shades and keep that spring like feeling going throughout my day.   So I will take another look on Pintrest for things that remind me of SPRING!  Hope you enjoy my SPRING picture from last year. 

April Already?

Brrrr it sure doesn't feel like April, I do hope everyone had a lovely Easter, I enjoyed my Easter Day with Friends and Family.  Church with Breakfast before and then to dinner with my Family, Good Food, Great Company and Good conversation, who could beat a day like that.  It was so nice to see the Family and I enjoyed the Easter Celebrations all weekend.  I was up late both Friday and Saturday Eve and still made it to Easter Breakfast before Church.  All is Good,  I feel so blessed to have My Friends and Family in my life. 
Today is sunny but COLD out and I am not looking forward to going outside but I want to attend the 1st Tuesday meeting at my LQS "Sew Little Time" Quilt Shop here in downtown Hudson.  I am working on my MeadowLark Row Quilt top today so I do hope I will be ready to bring it with me for show and tell...
 
Blessings and Enjoy your Day, Diane S

Photos of Yesterday's Snowy Beauty

the view from my Bedroom Window

Looking out my East Window - note the car on Hwy 35 going North
 

Branches Heavy with Snow!

Here are some pictures Looking out my windows yesterday as it snowed.  I got about 6-8 inches here at my home and could not resist using my camera to capture it.

I sit her laughing at myself

It is now Monday the 25th, still sick, got myself to the Dr. on Sat., ended up having a burst eardrum last Thursday morn, turned into a raging ear infection and a sinus infection.  But No pneumonia tho. LOL - I took decongestants all last week and now I'm on ear drops and a Z-pack  I thought I felt better today, a little dizzy but OK, that was till I bent down to do some cleaning.  got so dizzy that I nearly fell.  Grateful that I could hold on to something till the dizziness passed and was able to get over to a chair to sit down.  Boy I am wondering what am I doing wrong?  my immune system seems to be so down that I just go from one infection to the other.... 1st the bad UTI that the new Dr. I saw ordered such an expensive  antibiotic I couldn't afford it.  So I had to ride that one out.  Now this burst eardrum and an ear and sinus infection that hopefully will abate soon with the ear drops and Zithromax.  I did not count on this dizziness.  I certainly don't want to fall and break something!  I will have to look and see if I can somehow get my immune system up to par.  Get Healthy and get moving!  for now I will use my 4 pronged cane to maneuver in my home and probably get to bed to rest for a bit.  I am not enjoying being sick at all and want to get to my sewing machine to finish up my mug rugs before the 28th.  I want to send them off by next Monday at the latest.
I was looking at the cutest fabric from Christa Quilts.  I think it will go nicely with the bags I am looking at creating for Christmas for my little George, William, Nathan, James, Ethan, Mason & ?  The bags will be a good size to hold cars, baby toys and such. easy for them to carry and just boyish enough.  I only need 1/2 fat quarter for each bag and a zipper....
Feeling less dizzy this Eve.  Happy Monday to all.  Blessings. from this Dizzy Dame here at Creative Lady's Enthusiastic Thoughts.

a crazy end to a great week

I am sitting here at my computer - it's 2am - I have a roaring head cold, sneezing, coughing ect.  went to bed early but woke in a cold sweat.. showered but still sneezing away!  I do hope this doesn't turn into pneumonia....Oh my - I will try to go back to bed now - Medicine down and hopefully I will away a new woman in the am.  Missed Church Sunday, did not get much sewing/quilting done....Oh My!  Tomorrow my Granddaughter Caroline is going to pick out her wedding dress,,,I wanted to be there but don't want to share this crud with her - at least my daughter Beth will be able to be there. Hope they will share pics with me via my phone.

My Amazing Week!

The past 2 weeks have been amazing for me.  Starting with Tuesday the 5th of Feb., usually I would go to my quilting down at the point with my quilting buddies Frank and Gwen, but we decided not to meet since Frank is moving and Gwen was busy. I did go to the 1st Tuesday club meeting down at the quilt shop that day, I signed up to go to the "Ladies Night Out" quilt retreat Mon - Wed. 2/11- 2/13 and choose to sleep over since it was supposed to snow each night.  I left Thursday Morn after cleaning off 3 inches of snow.   I was able to get a lot of quilting done and had an awesome time.  I met some great ladies and the conversation was great.  I loved networking with my new friends.  Tomorrow I am going to attend the Hudson Heritage Quilters at Bethel Lutheran Church.  Carol K who was at the retreat belongs to it as well as other quilters.  I also love Civil War Quilts and plan to attend the Civil War Club at Sew Little Time Quilt Shop that meets every 2nd and 4th Thursday.  They are in the middle of a project but I can bring a project to work on...I know just the one.  a pattern bought last year? (or was it in 2011) at the shop when it was over at exit 4 off of 94.   I am so excited.  Below is the quilt top I worked on at the retreat.  I completed rows 2 - 5 - Yeah! now to square them up. piece them together and get them ready for quilting.

Meadow Lark row Quilt
 

Im going to follow alogn with these gals as they do some crazy quilt stitching this year.

my 1st crazy block...

This morning after checking my emails I traveled over to Debra's Design Studio and Oh My! what a lusciously delicious Crazy Quilt did she make.  Oh - gave me incentive to do more with my patchwork blocks that I have been making... Then I traveled over to the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2013 inspirational Home Page and more beautiful crazy quilting from so many talented ladies.  I am definitely going to follow along with them as they do a block a month since I am too late to sign up this year.  Oh' well maybe next. Wow! - eye candy for the soul so check them out.  Here are some of the blocks that I did last year, tho not a match to what these ladies have done.  Now I know what I want to do with them... Add more embroidery and embellishments and make mini quilts with them...or?????  The Possibilities are endless.

Scrapbooking, another challange for this year!

Scrapbooking Project 2013 January

Wow it is already the 12th of Jan and I am just getting to checking out this email from Connie Prince.  I have been so caught up with quilting that I am ignoring other fun stuff I love to do.   I think my 1st project I had planned was to scrapbook those family photos & cards that arrive at Christmas time.  and I like these little prompts so I think I will try to fit this into my life.  at least to gather the pictures etc.. and do some digital scrapbooking.... 

Mmmmm So. # 1 this year I want to accomplish Lovely finishes for 2013 with my quilting projects. and I have started to catalog them and have joined an online group to help with it. 
Jan - my Piano Runner  - I have been taking many pictures to place on my Blog and flickr so why not a page of photos that would let me see visably just what I have to do....! 

Photos of Pillows on my Bed

The Brown Pillow in the back are from a Set - I kept

 I kept the large Silky Brown Pillow Shams and gave away the comforter, The smaller brown pillow was from a thrift store and the Pink Pillow is a pink pillowcase with a great border embroidery that I pinned over a pillow form to showcase the edge.

These are some of the pillows on my Bed

I call this one Lace, Ribbon and Rose's  It is a pillowcase from Penny's with a fancy lace edge folded
over a sofa pillow and tied with Ribbon and a silk rose added.  

This Rose Pillow was bought at Goodwill Thrift Store 

I couldn't resist this cross stitched Pillow "Home Sweet Home"

bought several years ago for $25 at Target.  A splurge I know

but I love its lacy sweetness

 

This is the Yummy lace on my Lace, Ribbon & Rose's

Pillow above - I am so glad I bought 2 sets of this pillow case. 

Pillows on my Bed!

I'd like to share a thought with you today.  I love pillows and have many on my bed.  Pillows of all sizes and shapes.  I know my children wonder what's up with mamma - Well nothing really.  My love of pillows has always been strong and in my younger years I decorated my living room with pillows on the sofa, chairs and sometimes large ones on the floors.  I loved to change the look by pining on fabric, tying with bows or sewing new pillow covers.  So pillows have always played a part in my Décor.  They really didn't show up in my bedroom much but I did have 2 sizes on my bed the large king size and the standard pillow, these were used by hubby and me and I did enjoy changing the colors with my sheets but nothing spectacular.  So how did such a varied and large amount  end up on my Bed?

It all started back in 2005 after my hubby had a stroke and had to be in a nursing home.  I found that  I was uncomfortable with the empty space on his side of the bed. (I was unaware of these feelings till much later).  I found that Stuff seemed to gravitate towards my bed to fill that empty space, laundry, books, even the occasional box of things that needed to be put away in other areas of the house.  I seemed comfortable with this chaos but didn't understand it.  I'm sure the kids thought Mom was loosing it and becoming more of a messy housekeeper.  Especially since my bedroom was now down in the Dining area of my home and very viewable from both the kitchen and living room.  (This came about when my hubby couldn't go upstairs due to his medical  problems, sometime in 2002.) This continued several years even after I let go of the house and moved to a smaller home.  All this time my husband was in the nursing home.  It wasn't until I moved to my present home in 2011 that the pillows Became the focal point of my home.  Hubby had died in 2009 and I did not seem to need the comfort of "Stuff" on my bed.
When I had moved from my home in the Twin Cities to a small house in a lovely little town in Wisconsin I decided to dress up my bed and ordered a lovely set from Macy's in rich brown tones to go with my "Pink" Bedroom. I emphasize "pink" because in my older home my walls were either off white or wallpapered.  The set came with these gorgeous large pillows with shams,  the set was too dark for my room so I gave one of the kids my comforter ect. - keeping the large pillows for my bed. I started adding more pillows to the mix, all the while still dealing with the chaos of clothing ect on my bed. 
After my move in 2011 to a cottage with lots of sunshine and light I found myself not wanting extra stuff on my bed and was comfortable with just my array of Pillows.  I still do find stuff gravitating towards that empty space to take up residence but am more able to clear that away and just have my bed be graced with just the pillows.  With knowing why I let "Stuff" gather I find it easier to clear it away and just let those Pillows Shine! 
Wow, I certainly have said a lot so now I will make my bed, clear off the excess stuff (like the curtains that have made their way from my lined closet and have not been put away and some clothing?????  :)  I will clear the clutter and take a photo of my bed as it should look.  See you later.
 

The Day after Christmas.

My Back Yard Winter 2011 -  N. Hudson WI

Here it is the day after Christmas already.  Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas Day with you family.  I enjoyed baking sugar cookies with my Grandson and his fiancé and baby James, then dinner at my daughter Nan's, playing trivia with all my kids and grandkids made it so fun.  It was nice to see most of my kids together and the conversation and laughter, movies and playfulness of the gk was so fun to watch. 
Now here it is the day after. no running around shopping for all those deals out there.  Just looking thru my emails and all the deals on line one could take advantage of.  Of course I did get some great deals on my favorite hand and body creams and hand soap from my favorite Bath and Body.  Also all the deals on fabric and notions was great too.  Made window shopping so simple :)

I love window shopping, I learned at an early age that I get most of my ideas from window shopping and it is easy on my budget because I don't really need to spend a lot of money and get great ideas that I can use at any time  of the year.  Now to get back into my studio and work on another project.


Wishes for a Blessed New Year to all my family and friends.  

My Pintrest Morning

I awoke early this am and was checking my e-mails on my tablet as I usually do before getting out of bed.  I pursued over to my Pintrest emails of new people following my boards an repining from them and came across some cleaning ideas for my home.  Intriguing  as it was, cleaning my home with green products - making febreze, windex and orange spray for cleaning.  Wow TOTALY cool and inexpensive.  So my next trip to the store will have some new ingredients on it for helping me keep my home clean and smelling fresh and keeping some $ in my pocket doing it.  Saving $ is always a bonus for me since I am now retired and on a limited budget.  I pinned some of these Ideas on my Pintrest Board, "For The Home" to share with my readers and especially with my grown kids.  Boy where was Pintrest when I was a young housewife. 

OK now I am going grab some cereal and coffee to start my day.  Maybe do a little Christmas Decorating or fixing Cookies for the Holidays. and then to quilt and finish up some blocks I have been working on.
 
My Shopping List:
Baking Soda, White Vinegar - (I already keep a gallon on hand), White Ammonia, Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol, Hydrogen Peroxide, Biz, Borax, Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, ect.

I also came across some nifty blogs all about cleaning;

• The Quick and the Hungry
• Fake it Frugal
• Apartment Therapy 

These are just a few so if you head over to my Pintrest board you can find more.  Enjoy!

I Had A Very Nice Saturday!

Today it was a rainy December day here in Wisconsin.  I was invited to breakfast at Perkin's for my daughter Nan's Birthday, went Christmas shopping afterwards with Nan and GD Zuri.  We had a nice time and I was able to complete my Christmas shopping, enjoyed Peppermint Latte's at Starbuck's, then returned home just in time for the 5 O'clock news.... It did seem a bit strange tho to be out and about in the rain in Mid December.  I enjoyed it tho - winter will be here full force soon enough.  I hope everyone had as nice a day.

Up early to work on my About Me Page for EBay

This Morning I thought I would work on my About Me Page for my Etsy, ArtFire & EBay Stores.  I begin by gathering all the about me's from my blogs, Stores and Facebook pages to I can make them into one cohesive About Me Page.  I do think I bit off more than I can Chew - lol  but I will try. 

My blogs:
Quilting And Sewing Arts
My Studio at Quilting and Sewing Arts
Creative Lady's Enthusiastic Thoughts

Today I plan on working on a table runner for Christmas.  It is from Legacy Patterns, called "Very Braidy Christmas it even has a pattern for a stocking.  Check out my My Studio at Quilting and Sewing Arts for Pictures

Finish Up Friday is Here.

Today I will work on a project that is simple to do for a gift I need on Sunday.  So far this week I have finished up knitting baby hats for my "3rd Monday Crafting Group" I am starting on a Christmas Runner I am making at my quilting group "the Quilters at 3rd & Vine".  I started cutting out my 2 1/2" strips then cutting them into 4" segments, then I will sew them together.  I also need to quilt my other runner.  Wow I think I have planned a busy day today.  "Lovin it" :}