Omigosh!

I entered my only two actual quilt finishes this year in the North Carolina State Fair and omigosh I won ribbons!  Totally unexpected.  I entered mostly because it felt odd not to.  :-)  My Random Roses table runner was started in Karen Eckmeier's workshop at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium this year.  Karen is absolutely delightful and runs a fabulous class.  I'm very pleased with it and it looks so nice on my dining room table.

Omigosh! I got a third place ribbon for my small Chain Reaction quilt.  The designer, Cathy Kirk, The Quilting Cowgirl, is in my bee and gave us all a "class" in putting the chains together at our retreat back in April.  I really liked the quilt pictured on the pattern cover and was thrilled to have all the scraps on hand to make it.  Silly me.  I don't have a photo of it bound.  :-)

Omigosh a new sewing machine!  I traded in the trusty Juki TL98Q for the newest iteration.   A Juki TL-2200QVP Mini.  I couldn't be more pleased, it's even better than the old one.  I wasn't sure that was possible.

First job was to finish up these gifts for friends.

Stardust and MD.  Her dad captioned this photo, "Stadium Seating."  Too cute!

The Tramp and I voted early.  The Viking came along and stood in line with us.  He earned a badge from a local police officer and a future voter sticker.  We are so worried about the outcome of this election.  Definitely not an omigosh.  :-(

Omigosh it's a jack 'o lantern sandwich!

The boy was a minion for "Happy Halloween.".

It took a couple of days to get all of the yellow off of his face.  :-)

We went to a local park to trick or treat on the very warm Halloween afternoon.  My I look serious.  I think by this time I was hot and my feet hurt!

We also went out to trick or treat in the evening which he enjoyed very much, but the real highlight of the day was the "plumber duck" given out by a local plumbing company at the park.  Omigosh!

Five and Batman were Star Wars characters once again.

And Stardust looked like a lady on a mission as Judy Hopps from Zootopia.

Omigosh!!  We cleaned out the garage last weekend.  The weather has been so warm and pleasant there wasn't any excuse not to.

And when you are finished all that hard work you just can't ignore the call of the brownie mix.  :-)

About once a week I take The Viking to have lunch with Nanny and Papa.  I love this photo of an intense moment in their conversation.

Omigosh.  Poor Dad.  I caught him with his mouth full.

The Viking was delighted that he'd created the Hurricanes logo while dipping his carrots in his puddle of ketchup.

Omigosh!  It's November for goodness sakes!  The rhododendrum bloomed at least three times last winter and seems to be just as confused this year.

While we did yard work today, the dogs enjoyed the sunshine.  Here we have Piglet, happiness filled.

And finally, the real Omigosh.  I've brought the project back out of it's bin and am determined to get on with it.  I have 444 of these tiny four patches to put together (omigosh!).

Which are for these blocks.  Yep.  444 of them.  I must be insane.  But we knew that already.  :-)

Being thankful

We are very very fortunate.  Hurricane Matthew is one to remember, but not nearly so memorable for us as for those who are still suffering from major losses.  Lives, homes, crops, businesses, power, access to the outside world, clean water (or any water) are just some of the losses in North Carolina alone.  Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have lost much too.  And the Caribbean!  :-(  The major rivers in North Carolina have not yet crested and are way above flood stage already.  Dams are compromised and collective breaths are being held.  Not a good situation.....which is a masterful understatement.  

Though not even near hurricane force, the winds compounded by the rain made sure a large number of us were without power for hours or days.  Trees came down everywhere and flooding damaged power facilities.  Many don't have power yet.  

While keeping a wary eye on the rain and wind, I managed to get one and a half placemats quilted before the power went out Saturday afternoon.

The dogs were not happy with being sent out into the backyard in the driving rain to do their "business" so The Tramp took the uncooperative ones out on the leash each time he went out to check on the level of the pond.  I took photos from the safety of the front doorway and here it is starting to cover the road.

Now the road is completely covered at this end of the pond.  The house built below the water level, out of sight to the right, is the one that suffers the most.  A house should never have been built there.  The water flows under the house and on both sides of it down to the creek behind.  There is a "dip" in the road to guide the water down a swale, but volumes of water such as this can't be contained.

If you click on the photo to make it larger I'm sure you'll see the heron.  It's fishing on the road!

The day was very dark, and we sat in the semi-darkness with our phones to check the news and outage maps, and flashlights for reading, and watched the craziness out the front window.

A branch came down and porch chairs were blown around a bit.  I didn't bring anything inside as the forecast kept pushing Matthew further away from us.  I probably should have anyway.

Dogs were bored.

And evening meant eating and reading by candlelight and flashlight.

Sunday proved to be breezy and gorgeous and the first thing we did was rush out to buy another cooler and some bags of ice.

Once we had done all the chores we could, it was back to relaxing in front of the view.  :-)

Food was safe in bins.

And the little camp stove was ready for cooking and making tea and coffee.

After dinner I dug out the Scrabble for a quick game before the light faded.

Wasn't as quick a game as we thought!  lol

The Viking's family didn't have power either, and since they are on a well also no water!  Mom and Dad had been without power just on Sunday.  So Monday morning we gathered up all of the meat in our freezer and took it over to their apartment in the retirement community to stash it in their empty freezer.  We took hot showers (lovely!).  The Tramp was able to have some lunch and sit with his laptop and connect with his office and the outside world while the rest of us ate in the (non-gluten-free) cafe.  The Viking's hair was still damp.  :-)

I took The Vking to the park to run off some energy and there were many more people than we had ever encountered there before.  I think cabin fever had set in, as well as lack of power for some and the schools being closed.  I'll bet all the parks were just as busy.  (The Viking is to the left of center.)

Monday evening.....just after The Tramp returned home with another load of ice.....the power clicked on!  Yay!  So today The Viking and I went back to retrieve our food.

And spent the rest of the lovely autumn afternoon on wheels.  He is finally big enough to ride this bike.  With the smooth new road and nice cool weather there is no reason not to!

It was all about the brakes at first.  :-)  "I'm just practice-ting," he declared.  "I have to train myself."  He is too funny.

In this photo you can see the debris line across the road from the flooding.  The water was all the way around to the house opposite ours.  The channel for the overflow is just past that mailbox post.  My new worry is the bank of the pond continuing to wear away and our very expensive new road being undermined.  I guess that's a discussion for the next HOA meeing.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get back to sewing!!

Waving goodbye to Matthew

No power still. Hoping it comes back soon. Time to get my treadle machines working. Don't you think? 🤔

Waiting for Matthew

Lucky for us, Hurricane Matthew is taking a turn away from North Carolina.  There is still much worry about communities along the coast, in several states, but it is possibly not going to be as bad as it could be.  Fingers crossed that's true.  There has been too much devastation in the Caribbean already.  We have been experiencing rain all day today from a front ahead of the hurricane.  The rain from the actual storm should be here by morning and all through tomororw.

These past few days have featured migraine weather for me, but various pharmaceuticals have allowed me to get on with life, including a bit of sewing.  Today I managed to get a set of spiderweb placemats together, and tomorrow while it's raining cats and dogs I hope to get them quilted.  I'm just loving the autumn colors!

Yesterday was The Viking's fourth birthday.  The little bit of blue sky you see here didn't last long, (oh my headache) but he had the best time at this new-to-us park.  As he declared he would be, The Viking was indeed a pirate for his birthday.  What fun to find a "pirate ship" at the park!

There was a very large structure at the "Castle Park" to climb through and over and under, and he just loved it.  More like the parks of my youth, rather than the plastic, metal and cable structures of today.  I'm sure it's way too hot here in the summer as there is absolutely no shade, but on a cool autumn day it's just fabulous.

He made some friends and I enjoyed chatting with the other grandmothers.  (Often I'm the odd person  out wherever we are, so this was a treat.)  Bubbles were shared too.  Thank you other grandmother!  :-)

On the way home we stopped at the cupcake store so he could choose birthday cupcakes.  Well look at that!  I just happened to have a number 4 candle in the kitchen drawer.  He was delighted with it, and with us singing Happy Birthday.

And the spitting on blowing out of the candles was great fun too.

A gluten free cupcake for The Tramp.  "I got you a pink one Grumpy.  Because you like pink."

It makes my teeth hurt to look at all that frosting!  He took most of the cupcake home to finish later.  I'm not surprised.

I managed to catch the "WOW!" moments when he opened his gifts.

His parents and other family members had gotten together to present him with this John Deere tractor.  He is over the moon with it.

Coincidently, storytime this week featured the letter "C" and stories about construction!

So how could we not get him this outfit for his birthday!

We tested it out by strolling around the pond several times walking dogs and he stopped along the way to "fix things."  Much taking out of tools and then stowing them very carefully back in the correct pockets.

At first he walked very slowly and carefully, shuffling his feet.  "I have to walk slow Nini, because I have tools in my pockets."  Too funny!!

Didn't take long for him to relax and ask to be in charge of walking Piglet.  :-)

A very special day.  :-)