Illustration Friday - Baby

"The Baby Bubbles were mostly pink, and often just floated thru the air"

Got some new Derwent Ink-pencils - I'm liking them so far, this is my first try with them.  Nice intense color.  

Just the way it is - random

Do you have those weeks where it seems that you wake up on Monday, and then suddenly it's Thursday night and you wonder where the week went?  What did I do this week?  I know that I did some gardening, and went to work but it is mostly a blur and I hope to slow down tomorrow to be able to enjoy the weekend.  But really, this weekend to weekend thing is for the birds.  I may take Friday's off this summer (I say that most summers, but this one might actually work)and get all my chores done so that the whole weekend is free, free, free. 

I'm reading a book called "Eat, Pray, Love".  I'm in the middle of "Pray".  I can already see quoting from this book which is not something that I often do.    The reviews are totally mixed, calling it a "heavyweight" book and a "self absorbed wallow".  So far I'm liking it,  we'll see how it goes.  I also just finished a great book called "Sermons in Stone"  - interesting to a New Englander.  

Some recent pictures from my garden, a jack in the pulpit, one of the remaining rhododendrons,  and trillium.  Again, a real new England garden. ( and the rest of the Rhody's are in the stomach of all the deer who ate them this past winter)

HAW to you all - I can't believe it's Wednesday

I love Monday Holidays but then am off by a day the rest of the week. It just struck me that it's Wednesday - just this minute!

Here is a picture of my best-pup-in-the-world - Samson Mr. Easy, with his litter mates. Picture taken in 1988, it was the most fun in the world going and picking out a pup from a litter of labradors. All those little black pups, jumping and running all over the place. I grinned for weeks.

Sunday Night

Sunday AM

I'm supposed to be getting ready to go up to Portsmouth to go kayaking but wanted a few minutes with my quilts. So I took pictures and figured - ah what the heck - I'll post the pictures ---quickly!!!

I finished the commissioned Monkey quilt and I think she will like it - it's cute and colorful and I like the binding now - orange is a great color.  But only I know what misery I sewed into the quilt and it seems like my sewing machine caught onto my vibes cause it was a total pain in the neck, catching on seams - breaking threads etc.  I have decided to get a new one and am leaning to Pfaff.  Anyway here's that little quilt.   Nephew Sean loved the sock monkeys - I do too!  I have some left over and also have banana fabric and spotted fabric to go with it.  

Now - I wanted to make something that I liked, and I had this great green and brown cotton fabric so followed a pattern for a quilt/wall hanging.  I totally love the look and colors of this combo - Tony doesn't think it works for a baby quilt - what do you think?  I took this picture in the basement so it is dark, I'll take another one in the sunlight and post it.  It's beautiful fabrics - but I agree - different from the typical baby look.  

  I'm getting slightly better at adding photo's to this blog - but it still isn't straightforward! 

And last but not least, my first Linus quilt -  a little Cinderella fabric (actually it's the princess fabric that I used for the other quilt that I made for a friend) - it's backed with a nice cozy fleece that I hope some child will get some comfort from.    

Wish me luck on the cold NH coast line - kayaking away! 

Start of a long weekend

After morning chores we went for a bike ride today - my first real "off road" experience on my new bike.  It took a bit of getting used to, but I liked it and the bike rode great in the dirt and gravel.  

Down one dirt road we found a cemetery  - Riverside Cemetery - with most graves from the 1800's or so. The usual sad looking stories, young children buried by their parents; one husband and two wives and so on.  

But strangely we found a marker stone that said "Jacob A Riis is buried in this cemetery".  Jacob Riis???  "How the other Half Lives"????  In Barre Massachusetts?  I was stunned and of course googled it as soon as I got home.   Yup...it was him!  I have all his books, and while he was a person of his times - his eye for the perfect photo was amazing.  The people in his photographs speak to you even after all these years.

You never know what you will find on those simple bike rides on a lovely Saturday afternoon  

Illustration Friday - Worry

"Things I worry about"

This is an easy one for me - I might post more than once!

Am I a worry wart? Yup - can't help myself.