A Contemplative Life

A mini charm pack coaster from Jen Hewitt's Reimagined line. Going to be one I use after the Christmas linens are put away.   Happy Christmas indeed! I meant to write this on Christmas Day, but the hours slipped away. Then on Boxing Day, and again time sped like a swift river (more on that perhaps in this post, but if not certainly within impending entries). Then there was yesterday.... In which nothing monumental occurred, other than finding three eggs in the rice hulls bag. Did I mention how hens were roosting in it, alongside the shelf? And that I went through said depleted bag and found nothing, then I removed it, but Cami Chicken SQUAWKED, so I put it back, then my husband took it out, and then yesterday afternoon, while refreshing the dustbathing box, while scooping up rice hulls I came across three eggs? Well, that latter bit is new, and maybe the whole story wasn't mentioned. Bless this henny-penny's heart! But stay outta the rice hulls, you hear chicken? It's p...

  Said quilt top prior to basting; hopefully it will be better featured once it's done. But only a few; I never did get around to snapping pics of the latest quilt top on the laundry line. Now it's basted and well.... Hopefully tomorrow I'll get it under the machine for some quilting, then sit with it on the sofa for some hand-stitching. That's the plan, but certainly subject to change. I am taking seriously this semi-retirement gig, in the letting things languish department, or not getting quilt tops photographed as I would previously have done. What's more, I am not at all bothered about it; regret might be just a little strong to describe my feelings. Other activities have emerged, like making playlists for my music player on my phone, reading through Alvin's Farm books and making small edits, then uploading those revised versions onto Smashwords. I cooked a pork roast for lunch today, after yesterday griping at my husband how I don't like to cook. I...

  Bright pretty quilt-to-be! Okay, so yes I have a new shiny waiting to be sewn together via my machine, which, ahem, has been under cover since the beginning of March! There has never been a time, when I've been home, that my sewing machine has sat so silently, but at least it's not gathering dust. Not sure when I'll remove the cover, might not be today, although if the Warriors play poorly this afternoon, I'll hide out upstairs while my husband witnesses the carnage. It's the last day of basketball season, not that we have high hopes for Golden State going far into the playoffs. More is this a time of transition, one sport leading to another as spring drips from the sky in precipitation that is good in the overall sense of rainfall, but WOW we are ready for warm, sunny days. This morning I made a fairly comprehensive list of all my novel WIPs, even a couple that might never be completed. Or started, lol. But they're accounted for, for better or worse. And yeah...

Another quilt top is DONE! However, I leave for a little holiday on Friday and want to bring a completed quilt with me. I sewed the binding together before snapping the picture above, yet that strip requires pressing. And a back needs to be acquired, then a sandwich made, basting to follow, then machine quilting. Said binding then will require attachment, the whole kit'n'kaboodle tossed in the laundry. I'm flying east after lunch on the fourteenth, hopefully I can pull it off before then! The last few weeks have been a marvelous whirlwind of visitors, familial and friendly. I faffed around with this quilt, help coming from my grandson in the designing. When time was available, I sewed rows, then stitched those together, and after a couple of cloudy days spent gabbing with an old buddy from my junior high days, there lies many squares little and large alongside rectangles aching for total completion.  Currently I'm seated outside on a gloriously sunny afternoon so striki...

The trampoline dismantled, waiting on our front lawn to be packed for America; March 2007. Sixteen years ago today my family flew from England to San Francisco; we had left our home in Yorkshire for.... Not exactly our California home, although three of the five of us were born in the Golden State. We came back after eleven years as ex-pats, yet we all felt (and still do to small degrees) that Britain was home. It was a complicated return to America that was for the best, however any of us would give our eyeteeth to go back for varying lengths of stays. Alterations like this could be termed as fixed points within our lives, but seeing that my WIP is definitely going in a sci-fi direction, I've borrowed the Doctor Who phrase for today's title, lol. When flying east, one gains hours, and when going from England to the West Coast of the United States, it's a LONG DAY not merely of travel but of swapping timelines, lifestyles, accents, and temperatures. We changed up SO MANY ...

Hand-quilting DONE! Now to start the finishing touches. I arrived home yesterday afternoon, grateful for the time spent with family and equally relieved to be off the road. I do enjoy a journey spent behind the wheel and it goes without saying how much I love being with my children and grandkids. However I am not the spry gal of years before, and I didn't do much once stepping into my house other than eating dinner fixed by my hubby, then managing a little hand-sewing. I plopped into bed shortly after eight p.m. and slept hard all night. Rising early, as is my usual custom, I drank my coffee and tea while chatting with my spouse; darkness enveloped the landscape not only due to when I woke, but that the sun has moved further along the horizon, the middle of September fast approaching. I'd had a grand plan to start a novel this month, but I was kidding myself; not only have I yet to choose an idea, but quilts are muscling their way onto the docket, as well as a much anticipated ...

Baby coleus I started from seed and over which I am greatly pleased! I'm watching the French Open final between Rafael Nadal and Caspar Ruud. A tennis fan since Boris Becker won his first Wimbledon, I have a fondness for Grand Slam events, especially when one of the finalists is newly thirty-six years old and coming back from injury. Nadal took initial set, has just broken Ruud's serve to bring this second set back to even. A long morning sits in front of me as I savor amazingly played points, typing here and there, muting commercials then peering back at the TV as history is made. Yet within the enormity of worldwide sport, there is the intimacy of right now. It rained much of yesterday, but all my potted plants are in the ground along with five hills of various pumpkins. Three woeful spider plants and a pot of four nasturtiums got me outside before the storm hit, and I didn't even water them after getting them planted, aware the rain would take that task for me. Right now...

A gobsmacking amount of slug/snail deterrent to keep safe this assortment of zinnias, marigolds, nastutiums, etc... After days of rain, a little sun is prevailing, but not as much as was forecast for yesterday. Cloud cover is natural here in Humboldt County, so I took the opportunity to spend much of the day pouring over my novel (because being inside when it's sunny outside feels extremely wrong). Having rearranged it from four parts to three went fine, but we'll see how I like it upon another round of revisions, although at this point revision is a little heavy-handed. Few typos were found, yay! Several commas were excised, ha ha, (I do love me some commas when writing) then they are deleted as I make my way through various rounds of edits. But there remains at least two more read-throughs, mostly for my own personal edification. Then.... We'll see what happens next! Prepping a novel (or series) for publication is an involved process; covers to design, blurbs to conjure, ...