Thursday, June 18, 2015

More Busy Uneventful Days


As I mentioned previously, our days are filled with little random events, none of which are particularly noteworthy, but all of which add up to a pretty wonderful life.  And that’s certainly been true the last few days.

DD has classes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so that means some regular T-time.  Her Monday and Wednesday classes are evening classes, so my assignment is to get them to swim practice until DSIL gets off work.  Her Tuesday class is an afternoon class, so I usually stick around afterwards for some fun before we all  head off to the Tuesday evening swim meet. 

And speaking of Tuesday swim meets, this past Tuesday’s meet was certainly a memorable one.  Rain was in the forecast for the entire evening, but thankfully it held off – but only for about an hour.  After that, there was a steady rain, fairly heavy at times.  It didn’t matter to most of the swimmers as they were already plenty wet from their times in the pool … but there were still a few who insisted on carrying umbrellas as they waited between their events.  Eye rolling smile  It wasn’t until the relays (the last events of the meet) that we heard thunder, so they called off the rest of the meet.    T#1 won all his events and came within a second of breaking the swim team’s record for the 50 Fly (he is determined to break it, and I know he will).  He made the local newspaper again.  IMG_1709Forgive the quality … DD texted me the picture she took with her iPhone.  T#2 swam and did well, considering that she isn’t able to dive off the block and that her arm is in a cast.  I’ll throw another umbrella or two in my bag this evening as there’s rain in the forecast for tonight, too.

I did get some time spent with my needle and thread these last few days.  I have a total of 46 bow tie blocks finished and have been basting more pieces.  I finally calculated how many blocks I’d like to try to make … my goal is to make 121 blocks, setting them 11x11.  Since these are 4” blocks, the quilt will finish at 44” square – perfect for a wall quilt.  Today I plan to get back to the quilting on my Kiss quilt.  I confess to feeling a little overwhelmed by how slowly this is going … I know it’s a king-sized quilt, but I'm feeling like I’m getting nowhere fast.  It doesn’t help that there are no clearly defined blocks, once it’s put together so I can’t keep track of how many blocks I’ve got quilted or count down how many left to go. <sigh>

For those of you who quilt, do you have trouble with your ruler slipping and sliding when rotary cutting … even a little?  I do (of course, it doesn’t help that I’m short and have little arm strength), so I was thrilled when Pat Speth shared this tip with us at our guild’s retreat.  She recommended cutting a small piece of inexpensive shelf liner and inserting it between the fabric and the ruler.  It doesn’t take much to do the job … and if you place it to the side, it won’t interfere with lining the ruler up with the fabric.  The only small downside is that you can’t slide the ruler around as you line it up.  But it didn’t take me long to learn how to lift the ruler, ever so slightly, to get it positioned properly.  Pat gave us a small piece during her workshop, which worked fine when using our small rulers to trim up our blocks.  I bought a roll (at Walmart) so I could have some larger pieces for using with my larger rulers.  IMG_3419
I’ve learned, since then, that there are so many more uses for shelf liner … a small piece can be placed on the dash or console of your car to keep your cell phone from sliding around or you can use a piece to open jars when those lids are on too tight to name just a couple.  Maybe you all already knew this … but I didn’t and thought I’d share in case someone else was behind the times like me.  Winking smile

Yesterday, I got to spend my morning with my head inside the dryer.  Yes, you read that right … but it wasn’t with the dryer going, thankfully.  I confess that I’m not always as diligent about checking pockets when doing laundry, but then with just the two of us and both of us being adults, I didn’t think I’d have to.  But evidently I do as DH left a ballpoint pen in his shirt pocket … and that pen left a mess inside my dryer.  I tried several things to try to clean the dryer – hair spray, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, etc.  Finally I decided to Google how to remove ink from inside a dryer (how did we manage back in the day?) … and voila! nail polish remover!  Thankfully I had a nice big bottle of it, because it took almost all of it to get the ink removed.  I should  have taken a picture … you wouldn’t believe what a mess a single pen can make.  Surprised smile  And yes, I shared with DH what happens when he doesn’t empty his pockets before putting his clothes in the hamper.  ha! 

We are checking our garden every day … our baby cucumbers don’t seem to be growing much, and my tomato plants seem to be growing more horizontally than vertically. 

There are baby robins in the nest in our dogwood.  We see mama robin making multiple trips to/from the nest, we see her feeding her babies … and this morning we saw their little heads bobbing about while they were waiting for mama to bring them breakfast.  I tried to get a photo … the best vantage point would be looking out our kitchen window, but the babies blended in too much with the nest.  Maybe a more skilled photographer with a better-quality camera could have gotten good pictures, but alas I’m not that skilled, and my best camera is just a simple point and shoot.  Winking smile

I hope that whatever you have planned for today includes a little something that brings you joy ... have a great day!
Kathy

10 comments:

  1. we are getting off and on rain from the tropical depression and sounds like we might get a lot over the next two days, but right now we are between storms. I might need to go out and figure out a way to stand the corn in the garden back up as a lot of it is bending over to it's sides from the wind of last night :( should be able to pick green beans by Saturday and finally some of the Roma's are ripening and maybe picking some by mid-week? Now one question I have meant to ask for some time and keep forgetting LOL - why do you refer to your grandchildren as "T's" I have never heard that before

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  2. You are one busy lady! I'm tired just reading all you are doing! : )

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  3. No, I did not know about all the uses for shelf liner. Very interesting. Also, I did not know that fingernail polish remover would take care of pen stains in the dryer. Good to know.

    Glad you're getting time with the T's and congrats to them for doing so well in the swim meets. Hope the rain holds off for you tonight. Have a great day!

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  4. Hi my friend, Love the pic of your grand-wow that looks like a winning swim for sure. Loved the tip about the shelf liner-I would have never thought of that; thanks for sharing. I found a quilt store today-the owner was so sweet and we had a great talk. I didn't buy much, just 1/2 meter piece of fabric for my bff in Ca. It's Shamrock and was probably produced in Denmark, where she gets a lot of fabric. She also gets it from the UK and the U.S. I will post a photo soon.
    Hugs, Noreen

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  5. A bird planted a nest in our hanging plant... its killed our flower but I cant bear to take it down....

    So cool being in the paper :)

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  6. Lots of busyness at your end for sure. Ah, what a mess with the inkpen. I had that happen several years ago but wasn't as bad as what you are describing, but certainly bad enough. Have a good weekend!

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  7. Bill visited us last night but it wasn't bad. Breezy and 2.5 inches of rain! So amazed that your granddaughter can swim with a cast on. What a trooper!

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  8. Ball point pens in a dryer are a nightmare. I have used rubbing alcohol to clean that mess up. The other really yucky thing is when someone leaves Chapstix in a pocket!

    Glad the swimming is going well again .

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  9. I love reading about what you are doing. I like that little roll and what a good idea to try. I have so many things that I do and they slip. What department is that in at Wal Mart?
    I hope you have a lovely weekend.

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  10. My fave camera is my iPhone 6... what I take all my blog pics with just about.... sold all but a little camera my honey is attached to! lol
    We don't get a lot of rain on the east coast of Florida.. central Florida gets daily afternoon showers but we are pulled into this heat wave and haven't seen rain in days... plenty of lighting though.. and sharks from the warmer water temps too! I am glad you are not in Hilton Head currently!!!
    Keep up the work on the Kiss quilt... I try to think every stitch I get in a project when I am mucked down in the middle of it is one less stitch I have to take later! :) Have a blessed weekend Kathy!
    Kathi

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I am SO glad you stopped by! No proving that you're a robot here ... I want to hear what you have to say! ;-)