*moving on is hard to do

Newly married twenty some odd years ago, my husband and I moved to the great state of North Carolina with orders in the US Army. The move was hard on our families, as we had the first grandchild in tow and we were packing up to drive 365 miles north. This move was the beginning of our family, it was what would shape and form who we are today.   We were unlike most military, not all, but most military families.  We would end up staying in Fayetteville for 22 (ish) years. We grew up there. We have roots there. We developed into the people we are today based on our lives there.   I mean, yes our parents had something to do with our upbringing which has a lot to do with who we are as well. 

I found a church fairly soon after moving to Fayetteville. I attended, loved it, but wasn't really involved for a number of years. This mostly due to my immaturity in many things, some of which are too personal to share.  I grew up "in" church, so none of what I was exposed to was new to me.  None of it was questioned in my thinking.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't operate in most of it as a mature Christian would, because I was not.  I am so very grateful to the people who will likely always look back on Manna Church as a place where special relationships were formed, developed and nurtured. For it was out of Manna that I met some of the best people on this side of Heaven.

I have dear friends who were only 5 miles away, who are now anywhere from 500 to 1000 to 1500 miles in different directions.  It makes getting together for tea a bit difficult.  I have to choose often to count my blessings, because I miss these ladies, their families and the community therein more than I can express. I have watched friends move over the years and since God showered me with so many great meaningful relationships, I always had someone there to help me grow, to help me straighten up a bit in the areas I was crooked, to - you know rub iron against iron.  I was so very blessed to have come in contact with some very special people who through God's leading helped shape and form me and my family into who we are today.  I want to say thanks to each of you, if you are reading you know who you are. Thanks. For in accepting my friendship, you chose to accept my good, bad and ugly and because of that I have become better in all my ways.  I miss you deeply, terribly, so much so that it hurts.

I totally understand why people who are hurting for one reason or another, saved or unsaved, throw themselves into a project of sorts. I mean all in!  It consumes idle time. It keeps your mind busy so your soul cannot rest. By default I have been busy with moving in, repairing things while Eric was in NC waiting, tilling and planting a huge garden and then the move of the reminder of our things plus Eric, harvesting the garden among a list of other things - whew! I did live through all of that!

The hard part about all of this is that I would love to have all my dearest friends here with me in this place. Sharing this life we are now privileged to be living. I love it here. I love that when you meet someone it is an assumption that you attend one of the churches nearby.  Its small town feel, its going to be great. One of my closest friends' daughter gave some wise words recently: you cannot replace the friendships from NC that you so dearly cherish  and treasure with new ladies. So true! Those relationships were for a time. They were predestined to help shape and form me into who I am now. You wont need those same kinds of friendships or relationships. I am not saying that I don't believe that we will not need close, deep friendships  because we will. But I grew up with and alongside women and shared things I will not share with people at this point in my life. I just wish we could go back to the times when the roads weren't even trails that had been blazed yet. Perhaps even a time when we still had, well I was gonna say horse and wagon because you can't get too far in those to fast and moving so far away might have been frowned against. I , however, do not want to do without my air conditioner because I am spoiled.  

Moving on is hard to do and sometimes I put my heels down when I shouldn't. I am pulling my heels up because I know that I am still with flaws, I am still in need of some sharpening, some refining and I know that God has some of His special Floridians picked out to be a part of this chapter in my story. I also believe that God wants me to be a blessing to those in my community as well, I will have a part in some other people's stories here too.  While moving on is hard, I will continue to grow in my NC born friendships and start to germinate some new ones here for now. 

*of windows and yards

This space is just wonderful and I am so grateful to have it!  Up until this past week the room had curtains on only 4 of the 11 windows that make this space so wonderful. I was finally able to get in there and get the curtains changed out and finished up.  I was short one curtain and to be quite honest with you, was too cheap to buy another pack of curtains and have one left over because I only needed one, so with that being the case I set out for a creative remedy.  This is what I came up with. I am not a great decorator, though I dream to be, but I love this look.  I rearranged the room while I was at it, since I felt like I could make it more user friendly.

 Here you see a 2 yard cut of this interior decorating fabric that I chose as my new window 'treatment'.  I simply cut 2 inch strips out of the length of the fabric and looped it around the curtain rod.  I really like the softness of the colors in this fabric.

Just today I was listening to a teaching and one of the things that was said that resenated in me was this: If you are creative, which I believe we all are, your soul has to be quite to create. I have had many times over the last few months where I wanted so desperately to sew and create, but just couldn't make it happen. I would go in the sewing room, pull things out but simply didn't have the whatever it took to make anything at all happen. For me it is so true, I have come to a quieter place in my life, my soul has slowed down a bit. I know this week a new quilt will be cut out, which is exciting!

Flutterby by Tulia Pink!

Cotton Blossoms by Moda & American Primer by Moda

Aviary by Three Sisters for Moda!

These are a few of the wonderful fabrics that I pulled down off the shelves today. I am not sure which of it I will us next, but I can assure you that something will be getting sliced up this week!  I am off to look through some quilting magazines and my quilting folder of ideas to find just the perfect pattern to use in my next quilting project.

*a good thing coming to an end..

My niece, Kierstyn was here for a couple of weeks and we had a delightful time making memories filled with laughter and a few tears along the way. I shall miss her greatly, I have missed having a young mind in our home. Young minds are so refreshing aren't they?

Years ago when she was with us I braided her hair so she could have "crinkled hair". Then it seems we did it one other year so she could take it down when she got back to her house and then sport it at school or church the following day.  Since her hair is now a bit shorter than it was those two times, she wasn't that "jazzed" about the whole end result.

Kierstyn has one of those personalities that will not allow her to be a stranger to anyone, my Henry is just like that. I love it!  She made friends throughout the day at the beach with three different young girls. Every time one left, she scanned the close by area and found some one she could befriend. One of them even told her no. But, she tried again after a short while. She did win her over and they played nicely together until we packed up and left for the day.

She learned to make yo-yo's while she was here using the Clover Yo-Yo product.   These are really a great tool for making yo-yo's the cheater way!  I have a small collection of several sizes and shapes.  She started working with the large round and obtained success right away.  She, however, wasn't as successful ask keeping Frayja off her lap.  Kierstyn said that Frayja knew she was getting ready to go home and she didn't want her to go.  This is her reasoning for why Fray kept sitting on her lap.

I am so blessed to have my niece love me so that she is torn as to whether she wants to stay or go when she is missing her mom.  She decided that two weeks was long enough, even though she had initially planned to stay three weeks.  These pictures were all taken the morning she started her travels back to NE Florida.  She took her time telling each animal good bye. She has been a great devoted helper in the barn the past two weeks. Surely our little goats will miss her as well as the chickens that were captured each day.

The chickens are providing us with about 7 eggs per day right now. Our chicks that we added to the flock in  mid-Feb are getting ready to start producing too, so we will be kicking that number up a few notches. We are currently keeping up with production (I sent Lori home with almost two dozen), but soon I  suspect that we shall be selling some of our fresh eggs.

The baby rabbits are growing like weeds near a septic tank!  Whew!  This very week we will be taking all the babies from the momma's and putting them in their very own hutch.  The girls will go in one and the boys in the other (we don't want the sisters and brothers practicing any hanky panky).  Our butcher date is a little over a month away.

The garden is ker-plunk. Today Eric and I worked in the garden spots, removing tomato cages, mowing down and pulling up dead vines and mulching the areas.  We have the calendar marked with an August planting date for some Fall harvest crops. I can't say that I am super excited about it, but I know I will be when the plants start producing. I suppose I am just enjoying the down time. 

*lovebirds

Today we went to the zoo in Gulf Breeze, Fl.  It is a rather small, but charming zoo and I am so glad we went.  I think my favorite spot in the zoo was this little aviary of Lovebirds. There must have been hundreds of them. 

Before I say what I am gonna say and make all of you sick, let me just preface this by saying this: I do not have a perfect life, I do not have a perfect marriage and we, like many of you have our own set of troubles in and out of time. Eric and I, like any healthy couple, have had some rough patches, but it is in those rough spots that we have drawn closer together. Or should I rephrase that and say, out of those times or though those times that we have grown closer. We are normal. (Well in a word, we are normal.)

As I was about to say, while we were at the zoo today, inside this little aviary, all I could think of was my beloved. Several lovebird couples sat on branches all about the area, kissing, adoring, doting on each other.  He is my beloved and I, his. I adore him and he, me. We are one flesh, when he hurts I hurt. When he is full of joy, so am I. As I studied the birds today it made me acutely aware of how each bird was so focused on its "mate". 

Lovebirds we were at the age of 18, lovebirds we are at the age of 40 something, lovebirds we shall be! Let your love know how much you adore, cherish, enjoy, appreciate, love and kiss him/her today!

*did you guess..

So, did you guess? Did you guess that I was mopping the floor? Perhaps, did you guess that I was getting ready for a party, or that I was making room for more fabric?  Franziska hit the nail on the head! Yes I am setting in a quilt!!

What does it mean when you see this basket on one of my post? A quilt is getting set in!!!! Oh yeah!!

Things have started to settled down a bit here as far as the gardens go. Our okra and herbs are still putting on, but the demand is low for these things, so I have found a bit of time to do some sewing! WOOT!

I was able to get Henry's quilt set in this wonderful weekend! This is the quilt that Henry started several years ago. He chose a couple borders for the quilt. He decided that the greens all mixed up would make a nice inner border and I gave him a choice of fabrics to choose among for the outer border. I think he did a fantastic job. These two colors are popping and now pulling things together in Henry's Favorite Fat's quilt.

He is in Colorado right now, visiting his "brother", Summit. I hope to have his quilt finished for him when he gets home in a couple of weeks. Although he pieced most of this quilt, he and Robby will be even as far as quilts go. This will make number two for Henry, which catches him up with his brother.

I searched the tasty stacks of fabrics for a backing that would work for this colorful quilt. As I reached and unfolded yard after yard of fabric I ended up using this particular fabric. It is somewhat masculine and quite timely for the date that I set the quilt in. This Turning Twenty quilt of MANY COLORS has 'turned' out just beautiful! 

Happy Independence Day to each of you!

*pushing back the furniture

I am pushing back the furniture in my sewing studio... does anyone know what this means?!?!

(answer coming soon)