Thread Spool

 

 

Why is it that when ever I empty a spool of thread I feel a sense of accomplishment?

 

Years ago I use to save the empty spools and one day Kelsey's fourth grade class teacher ask for empty spools of thread for a project and Kelsey got extra credit and then some.

 

I emptied this spool of black working on an Abbey Lane Quilts Beatle Bag

 

 I fell in love with this bag when I saw it at market in October 2013 in Houston.

This is the second Beatle Bag I've made so I am on the higher end of the learning curve.

One thing I did differently this time is instead of using soft and stable for the inner pockets I used Décor Bond.

The pattern does come with the plastic inserts and more inserts can be purchased for multiple bags.

 

The next Beatle Bag is going to be for ME!!

Just need to figure out what fabric I want.

Do you think there is purple involved?

 

Harvest Days

Thankfully I am not dependent on fresh vegetables from our garden each evening for our dinner.

We live in California and we take full advantage of the myriad of farmers markets.

We are harvesting plenty of lemon cucumbers (they look like lemons but they taste like cucumbers) and banana peppers which I've been making into tasty cucumber salad.

And also zesty lemon cucumber pickles.

Our green bean bushes, which we have 6, are not really producing.

 

Pictured are the first handful of green beans I've picked which pretty much was all that was growing.

This is my first year growing green beans and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

We have flowers that do not then become beans.

 

I am willing to trade pickles for advice.

 

Airports

I recently spent an unexpected 6 1/2 hours at the Seattle airport.  I must say if you're going to get stuck at an airport it's not a bad place. There is free Wi-Fi along with plentiful free charging power outlets for your mobile devices.

 

Sadly there is no cupcake/cookie outlet but there is a kiosk selling all sorts of chocolate.

 

There is also a wonderful cheese shop making very tasty grilled cheese sandwiches,Beechers Handmade Cheese.  They also have cheeses and salami to purchase and take home or to your next destination.

 

In my search for cupcakes I stumbled upon Metsker Maps.

 

Last post was about rubber bands, this post is  about maps.

 

I LOVE maps.

 

Yes my geekiness comes out again.

 

I am now the proud owner of a Rand McNally 2015 Road Atlas.

 

 

I have added southern Oregon to my territory to rep and now I have a map to show me the way.

 

It makes me happy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rubber Band Ball

I moved to California in November 2009. 

Yes I've been here that long.

 

We have been getting the Sacramento Bee, our local newspaper, delivered every day since I moved here.  And pretty much every day there is a rubber band on the newspaper. 

I have been collecting them and creating rubber band balls.

Currently they are a little bigger than a tennis ball.

My question to you is does anyone recycle rubber bands and to whom can I give these to as they don't fit in the drawer and I'm now going to be starting another rubber band ball.

 



10,000 Steps

For my birthday this year Jim presented me with a Fitbit Flex that tracks how many steps you walk in a day.

 He now knows that anything that has to do with fitness or is techy is not meant to be a present for any occasion for me ... ever.... again.

 

  He did at least get the purple one. 

The Fitbit tracks how many steps you take each day and  a good goal is to walk 10,000 steps which equals roughly 5 miles.

I have now become fixated about getting 10,000 steps in my day.

In the mornings I have been doing my normal walk which is just under 3 miles.

And then the rest of my day begins which consists of  driving to sales appointments, sewing or knitting.  There is NOT a lot of steps involved in those activities so I've had to find other avenues for walking.

That means Jake and Millie are now going for walks in the evening to round out my steps. 

 We have the long route for very sedentary knitting and sewing days and the shorter 3/4 mile for slightly more active days.

Millie is loving these walks and is always out front.  Our backyard has no grass and she just loves running through the front yard grass.

Old man Jake is always trailing but he so loves to go and I don't have the heart to leave him at home.



And of course our poop bags match our leash and fingernail polish.

 

Next month we might be aiming for 15,000 steps - saints preserve us.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks...

 

The other day Jim bought himself a bag of Cracker Jack. 

Who doesn't like caramel coated popcorn and peanuts? And there's a "fun prize inside".

I was out of town when he enjoyed this snack but I came home to find this affixed to Jake's dog treats.

A Texas Rangers baseball sticker.  That's right - one stamp size sticker.

Those fun prizes are sure pretty skimpy these days.

 

But he got a sticker for the best team, right Rachel?

Sunflowers

One of the great perks of the job is the scenery.

 

I found these acres and acres of sunflowers driving through Glenn, California today.