D.S.S.

I nearly fell on the floor laughing last night as I caught up on some blog reading. The post that initially tickled my fancy was E.I.T.T.T.S.  Jodie also links to her other posts on the subject and I nearly wet my pants before she was through.  :-D  Thanks Jodie, for the much needed pick-me-up!  Why do I need a pick-me-up?  Well you may ask.  I could so relate to Jodie's condition for I myself have been suffering from a similar condition....D.S.S.  Doing. Stupid. Stuff.

I thought I was over the latest bout of D.S.S. when I sorted out the problems with the row quilt.  I had taken the humble pie cure....but Oh How Easily We Forget the lessons learned!  Or not learned. (obviously)  Yesterday my doll club came over for some together time and I totally forgot to take any photos of the wonderful projects in progress.  Sheesh!  I did manage to get a bit done on the wyvern I'm making for The Tramp.  A UFO of long standing.  I got the legs made and one stuffed.  Still a long way to go though.

After the ladies left I put the wyvern away and got back to work on the big mystery quilt.  I was already aggravated with it because once you get to clue #47 you have to go back and remake clue #25....grumble.  The designer made a mistake, and that's ok.  I was just annoyed because I found out about it too late.  But that's the way the cookie crumbles, so I got out all my yellows last night and cut and sewed another set of clue #25 blocks.

Then the D.S.S. took over.  I quickly sewed the strips together to make the blocks then I very carefully cut the blocks in the right direction to get 48 yellow triangles with the strips going the right way.  (cutting in the wrong direction was the problem the first time)  Cool beans!  That's done.  I count out the number I need for the next clue and darn it!  They don't fit together.  I measured and remeasured, went back and looked at the clues for the blue, green and neutral sets.  Nope, they seem to be right.  What could be wrong???  Sigh.  The light finally dawned.  I was supposed to trim the yellow blocks to 3 7/8" before I cut them.  Arrrrggghhh!  So I took the humble pie cure again, gritted my teeth and cut down all 48 yellow triangles.  Not as easy as it sounds either because the angle of the cut across the block is wrong too.  It's not just a matter of lopping a bit off the sides.  (I'm not gonna tell you how long it took me to figure that out!)   This evening we'll see if I learned my lesson....namely....READ THE DIRECTIONS.

I took Ngaire for a walk today.  The sun is shining and the sky is so blue it almost hurts.  :-)  I'm still getting a kick out of opening my front door and finding ducks right there under the bird feeders.  

The whole pond at their disposal and she takes a drink at my scummy little bird bathy thing.

As we walked around the pond, smaller turtles plop, plop, plopped back into to the water as we walked by.

The big guys (gals?) hold their ground.

The canada geese have built a large nest from pine needles.

The geese swam over pretty quickly as soon as we got too close.  No eggs though.

The dogwoods are everywhere and are stunning.

Iris!  

Wisteria.

Love the colors.

Love her too.  Even though she's not pink.  :-)

The pollen scum isn't so attractive.

On our way back they still hadn't moved.

But about eight more geese had shown up and there was a great deal of splashing, honking and chasing.

The Lady Banks rose has a lovely delicate fragrance.    Mmmmmmm.

 
In my other adventure of the day I actually did something right for a change!  (maybe the D.S.S will stay in the sewing room!)  As I pulled into a parking space in the Kroger parking lot, the lady who was parked in front of me tripped and fell on the asphalt.  I hopped out to see what I could do.  She was kneeling on the ground and understandably upset because she thought she had broken her arm!  People offered to call 911 but she wouldn't hear of it.   I gathered her groceries, put them in her car and helped her up.  Then we realized she had gashed her leg and had been kneeling in pools of blood!  Yipes!  I always keep extra paper napkins in my car so I ran and grabbed and handful.  A gentleman carried over a bench from the front of the store so she could sit and I had a go at staunching the flow of blood.  She was bleeding quite profusely.  What a mess!

Despite her pain, the possibly broken arm wasn't visible, but the blood was attracting a lot of comment and concern.  The best though, was a lady who stopped just long enough to pat her on the shoulder and cheerfully say that the day could only get better.   We all got a smile out of that.

So while people worriedly went to and fro getting help from the store, she called a friend to come rescue her, and I crouched there like a good Scout and applied pressure with my handful of napkins.  And it worked!  A store manager came out with a first aid kit and did a bit of bandaging, and her friend showed up to take her to the hospital...where she was still trying to convince us she didn't want to go!  I can certainly understand that...but geez.  All that blood and a broken arm?  I'm glad to say her friend didn't listen to her.  I gave her a hug and best wishes and sent her off to be stitched and xrayed.  :-) 

I left the poor store manager out there trying to sop up the puddles of blood with paper towel (he could really have used a hose!) and went in to wash my hands.  Thoroughly!  Of course I had a heck of a time remembering what I had originally come to shop for!!  But I can now report...that besides the first aid kit I totally forgot I have (duh!)...my car is fully stocked with paper towels, wet wipes, hand sanitizer and latex gloves.  You just never know!

Pentax moment during pollen season

Have I mentioned lately tea goes with everything?  The banana bread turned out very good.  The Tramp has requested another loaf with the addition of dates and nuts.  Since I have five more brown bananas I think I can accommodate him.  Though I told him he has to wrestle with the dates!  I hate chopping dates.  :-)

Today.....actually late this afternoon, I took the heavy duty camera and my three rows outside for a photo session.  I'm always impressed by the photos people take of their quilts laying over deck railings, rocking chairs and such, and thought I might find someplace like that in my yard.  (cue to start laughing now)

First of all it was a bit late in the day to be doing this.  But I ventured out into our back yard, braving snakes and pollen, and moved some sticks and pine cones to clear a patch for the quilt.  LOL  See my shadow?  I couldn't even get myself out of the way.

This is kind of the right shade of yellow but the brown....not so good.

This shows the brown, but the yellow?  Eh.  Sigh.

Then I got all arty and draped it over an azalea.  Cute....I guess.   Actually the photo kind of begs the question, "Why?"

So I took myself around the yard and snapped a few more without the quilt.  Better?  Not really.  My excuse is the wind kept blowing.  ;-)

The reason I mention snakes is because this is our back yard.  It goes off to a point on the left.

And this is off to the right.  The other corner is by in the middle of that wide garage.  Some of the neighbors have wood piles too.  Prime snake habitat.  *shudder*

The plan is to remove a few trees.

Not too many.  Maybe a dozen?  I want to be sure to keep our summer shade on the south side of the house.  And clear out some of the leaf litter for a bit of grass.  Then a fence so the dogs can run.

In the meantime....it's really hard to take a bad photo down by the pond.  It was too windy for a clear reflection today, but I like the Monet quality of this one.  Of course I didn't plan to channel Monet when I snapped the picture.   I couldn't have if I had tried to.  :-)

 

The Lady Banks rose by the mailbox is quite lovely.  And no thorns!  I messed with the camera settings and tried for a bokeh effect....sort of.  It would have been better if I'd waited for a non-windy day so at least the foreground would be nice and sharp!  Well now wait a minute.  The thirteenth "stunning" photo down on that bokeh link shows a Lady Banks rose.  Heh.  I guess mine is not so bad after all!

Still....I really need to dig out my photography books.  But I had fun. 

Humble pie

Today I'm eating humble pie.  Oh so humble pie.  Last night when I finished Row 3 of the Whistle Stop mystery quilt I discovered just how bad my piecing had been.  I guess I was feeling pretty invincible and I forgot to check and recheck my work.  Sigh.  The rows should have ended up 48 1/2 inches long.  HA.  They were all way too long.  Up to two inches too long.  Urg!

I had measured each of the first row blocks (bottom row) when they were finished but when I sewed them together I skimped on the seam allowances in order to not cut off any of my points.  Dumb move number one.  I was so happy with myself I merrily stitched through the basket blocks without stopping to check anything.  Each block was a 1/4 inch too big in both directions.  Clever, aren't I?  And we won't even discuss the checkerboard row.  All those seams...47 of them...all too scant.  What was I thinking???  Oh yeah.  I wasn't thinking.

So I reset my sewing machine to a more accurate seam allowance and resewed about half of the seams in the checkerboard row and got it down to the right size.  Cool!  Then I did the same with the bottom row.  I had to sacrifice some of my points (sob) but I got that one down to size too.

Last night while I should have been sleeping I lay there puzzling out what to do about the doggone basket blocks.  I really didn't want to have to make a whole nother set (whine).  But this afternoon I looked at the blocks again and realized what I needed to do was take off the large yellow triangle, slice about an 1/8 inch off the bottom and right sides, and put the triangle back on with the proper seam allowance.  And it worked!  PHEW!  Not too many mangled points either.  I added the 48 1/2 inch sashing strips and now I'm patting myself on the back.  Wow.  What a lesson.  (I really have to take it outside for a proper photo.  The colors are so off!)  Of course there are seven more rows to go.  Oops. I better stop the back patting!

Since I was in no rush to go into the sewing room this morning (I wonder why?), I hung out in the kitchen and made clouds with rice flour instead.  We have banana bread.

And carrot cake.

Which we took to Mom and Dad's for Sunday dinner.  :-)  It's a split cake because Dad doesn't do nuts.  Mmmmm.  Cream cheese frosting.  Sigh....gluten-free doesn't mean calorie free....

....or mess-free!

 Though a cup of tea just makes everything better.  :-)

The girls joined us for Sunday dinner.

Every moment is a training opportunity!

I think tonight I'll dream about my new book.  Much better than last night!  :-)

I can never ever win a Checkers game. Sigh.

The weather was lovely today.  Sunny and breezy.  The turtles seemed to be enjoying it.  I stopped the car to snap a photo as they all looked at me suspiciously.  I wish it was a better photo.  Look at the turtle on the left.

Yep.  It's Compass Turtle.  Relaxing in the sun with that leg pointing north.  Too funny.

This book arrived today.  I'm very excited about it.  I think the flower appliques (more than just the ones on the cover) will be perfect for the big mystery retreat quilt.  :-)

I also finished the checkerboard row three for the Whistle Stop mystery quilt.  I'm a bit discouraged.  Each of the rows is a different length.  :-(  My seam allowances are too scant.  I've fixed the checkerboard but it's going to be hard to fix the other blocks without cutting off points.   Each block is about 1/8" too big and it adds up.   Pardon me, but....  Bugger, bugger, bugger.

At least I like the color choice for the checkerboard row.  Sigh.  I think I need to sleep on it.

Checkers anyone?

Yesterday not much happened around here.  It was dull and rainy and a migraine day for both of us.  We did do a little gluten-free shopping but that's about it.  This morning however was bright and sunny, and after feeding the livestock....I got right down to some gluten-free baking.  An hour to rise and an hour to cook.  (tapping foot impatiently)

Well it looks like bread.

And it smells like bread.

It even slices like bread!  (heh)

Oh look! It toasts like bread.  (Can you feel the excitement?) 

And the Acid Test.  How is it with marmalade and a cup of tea? 

It tastes like bread!  (Phew!)

And Charlie thinks so too.  :-)   So day one down and 181 days to go.  (Right now this is a six-month trial.  It could be a lifetime to go!)

Yesterday we hit Whole Foods (disappointing), Earth Fare (much better!), WalMart (surprisingly good) and Lowes Foods (barely so-so).  Today I took a trip out to Kroger and was very pleased.  Nice store, good prices and helpful staff.  I'll be going back. :-)  I still need to check out Food Lion and Harris Teeter, but the pantry is full for now.

There was a stiff breeze today and it was much chillier than predicted.  The sun was nice though.   Typical for here, some people were out in wintery coats and some were out in t-shirts and sandals.  Each probably wondering how the other could stand how they were dressed.  Heh.

As I went down for the mail there was a bluebird sitting the bird house and checking it out.  There is most definitely a chickadee nest in there and a quick peek showed some tiny eggs!  Sorry bluebird, you were too slow.

Also today I stopped at Whistle Stop to pick up Row 3 instructions for the mystery quilt.  It's the checkerboard row.

I'm still liking my yellow/brown colorway and all those little florals.  Though I need to get out the heavy duty camera and see if I can get a photo with better color.  It looks so ugh in these pictures.

I finished row 2 and spent a happy hour auditioning fabrics for row 3.  I was thinking green but once I dragged out all my greens it just wasn't floating my boat.  Instead I added a whole lot more blues to that pile and I think my checkerboard is going to be blue and brown.  But not until tomorrow.  :-)