Early evening

Dave needed to mow grass, so that meant an early evening in for me... no branches to move today!

At lunchtime yesterday, one of the high school boys asked if I made bookmarks. He was referring to the ones my mom made for the seniors last year. I told him that my mom had made them, but that I also made bookmarks. He told me that he's set a goal of reading all the Harry Potter books this year, and that he would like to have a nice bookmark. How could I resist?

I didn't have time to warp a loom or look for the exact colors, but I did find some red and yellow in my stash. I neglected everything I needed to do this morning and crocheted a bookmark for Luke. He loved it!

My on-the-go tatting today was a Doodle Ice Drop in one of Karey Solomon's hand-dyed threads. I've lost the tag, so I don't remember the name of it, but I do like the color! I love Veronica's large hand-made shuttles. They're perfect for holding a full skein of hand-dyed thread!

I managed to crochet a few more rows on my Mud Cloth Inspired Throw. I think I'm done for the night. I've just run out of steam!

Bit by bit

It seems like I'm doing everything in bits lately, and I'm okay with that. I like the variety that makes up my life right now.

My Mud Cloth Inspired Throw is growing. I seem to get so much more accomplished when I have a goal in mind, and my goal is to finish this by the end of September.

I did much better with my take-along tatting today. I actually finished this in one day!

Cleanup day

We still have lots of cleanup work to do after the storm last week. Today Dave harvested the onions. The plants were pretty much destroyed by hail, and he didn't want to lose the entire crop. This looks like a good amount of onions, but it's far less than we had last year.

We have two brush piles going, with a lot more left to clear out. Once all the branches are out of the way, Dave will be able to cut up the larger branches and tree trunks for firewood. I have a feeling we're going to be doing this for a while. I may even develop muscles!

I didn't take time out for crafting until after dinner. I think I'm making pretty good progress on my Mud Cloth Inspired Throw!

Just ducky

Dave brought in his first duck egg this morning! You should have seen the smile on his face. Guess what he's having for breakfast tomorrow?

I was doing a little straightening up this morning, and I found another Ice Drop in need of a ribbon. I guess I was careless about finishing while Joanne and the grandkids were here.

Today's Ice Drop is the basic pattern with three picots. I really do like tatting the basic Ice Drop.

When I got home from school today, I decided I needed to work on my Mud Cloth Inspired Throw, which is a free pattern from Red Heart. I hope to finish this in time for the annual Mean Green Goes Pink night in October. I should be able to if I work on it a little each day.

While I finished walking my 10,000 steps for the day, Dave worked on taking down the tree that was most likely to fall on the house if another storm should come through. The high branches are almost all down. There's one left to come down, but it got too dark for him to see. After that, the rest of the tree should be fairly easy to take down. I guess he'll need that duck egg for energy tomorrow!

Staying busy

Where does the time go? Daughter Joanne has already been here a week, and it feels like the time is just zipping by!

Yesterday was filled with little chores, a little shopping, and a little bit of organizing before my sister Janet came down for another visit with her grandchildren. The kids all get along so great, and it's fun watching them play off of each other's imaginations!

Today we chose to relax.

The only thing I had to do today was go to school to see off daughter Carol and her group of students and adults. Today was the start of a ten day trip to Europe... London, Paris, Florence, and Rome. Carol took this same trip ten years ago, and she was very excited to be able to plan the trip for her students. Their flight left at 4 this afternoon (Central Time), and they will arrive in London about 9 a.m. tomorrow. It will be fun to follow their adventures as pictures are posted in the group page that Carol has set up. Keeping in touch through the Internet just wasn't the same ten years ago!

While the kids enjoyed playing outside in the beautiful weather, Janet, Joanne, and I relaxed, talked, and worked on crafts. Well, Joanne and I worked on crafts. Janet sews beautifully, but her favorite hobby is gardening. I'm in need of some new dishcloths, and I decided to use a new-to-me yarn, Red Heart Scrubby Smoothie. It's knits up very nicely!

I also worked on an afghan I plan on donating to our local Mean Green Goes Pink night to benefit the Beverly K. Roberts Foundation. The Mud Cloth Inspired Throw is a free pattern at redheart.com. I'm using the recommend yarn, just not the colors used in the original. I'm enjoying crocheting it, but I'm not very good at working on it while talking. I gave up after ripping out three different rows because of mistakes!

Janet headed home about an hour ago. Joanne and the kids are off to bed. All were very tired after a day of playing outdoors. Dave and I are just sitting here enjoying the sounds of the birds while the sun goes down. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?