Air show this weekend!!  The Canadian Snow Birds are here this year.

And I got my quilt to done!!!!  I'm pretty happy with it.  Now to pick out the backing and quilt it,

I finished the blocks last night for my baby quilt!  Good thing - when I talked to my co-worker, she is actually getting her baby October 7th - I don't the month I thought I did to get this done.  Not that it has to be done when they first get their baby, but.....

I'm liking how it turned out.  I hope to get the rest of it put together today, and then go pick out the backing material tomorrow, but we'll see.

Either the recent rainfall (3 1/2 inches!) triggered some major allergies, or Alli brought us home a cold.  I did pretty good yesterday with a 12 hour decongestant, but I took at at 5:00 am, so at 4:00 pm - I noticed that it wasn't working anymore.  It was a tough week at work already - I was definitely pooped by 5:00 (take-out pizza for dinner!).  I'm taking Dayquil now, and I dosed Alli too - not so much sneezing now from both of us.  Better living through science!

One more item Mom brought me this weekend when she visited - she brought me a new orchid - very unusual!  I took it in to work, and everyone that has visited my office has admired it.

It is finally raining in Redding!  It isn't supposed to last too long, but it sure is nice while it's here.  We've gotten over an inch of rain according to one website, and almost 1.5 according to our weather gauge - but I don't know how for to trust it - it is flashing a low battery warning.

Mom came visiting for the weekend, and came bearing presents!   She brought me a crochet set that she picked at Walmart.  Wow!  This goes from size 00 down to size 14 in the steel hooks, and from size D to K in the others.

She originally came for an Eastern Star meeting, but we were all dressed up and ready to go, but no one was at the Grange Hall when I thought they were meeting.  I've sent in a request to Grand Chapter to see if they've changed their times (that's what you get for not going regularly!)  Since she was here, we've been busy this weekend anyway! 

We did our normal grocery shopping Saturday morning, and then ran into Joann's to look for a jelly roll in baby pink colors.  A friend from work announced last week they are adopting a baby girl in a month, so I thought I'd surprise her with a baby quilt.  This will be the first quilt that I put together by myself (with lots of help from Mom).  The others have been kits, where someone else picked out the colors and pattern.  I thought I could cheat a bit by picking up a jelly roll that would have at least coordinating fabric for me, but....no such luck.  We had to pick out the colors ourselves (which became a real challenge with Allison with us - she was ready to go long before we were.)

I've been admiring the look of the log cabin quilts - the way a look is obtained by changing how the blocks are arranged is very intriguing, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I have an old quilting book that has the basics in it (and I do mean the basics!).  I didn't pay enough attention when I was looking at it, or I might have found another source for my pattern.  This only tells me the width of the strips to cut.  I had to make a block and measure how long to cut each strip myself.  I think I got it, and here's the first block:

 Now to make 11 more, and get it turned into a quilt in less than a month!

Autumn is coming!!!!  The leaves are beginning to change on some of the trees.  These are at Daycare's house - pretty!

We had some nice, cool, cloudy weather yesterday - so nice!!!  I think our high was in the mid 80's.  We didn't get rain, but I hear that some areas did - and I hope that the fires did.  The Weed fire was devastating.  A couple of ladies from work used to live in Weed, and they started a donation drive.  They were originally planning to take up just their pickups with stuff donated by bank staff, but....Facebook posts alerted the media, who announced we were a drop off spot, and they ended up with U-haul donating a 20 foot truck, and several other people driving up trucks and cars packed to the gills with stuff.  The organizer had specified that they needed non-food items, so the loads were water (lots and lots!!!), diapers, TP, etc.  I guess the town is overwhelmed with donations now.  (One local business donated $5,000 in new Carhardt clothing - specifically for the first responders that had lost their homes while fighting the fire.

A look at the clouds on the way to work yesterday.

What happens when an interesting concept meets reality?  Nothing to write about (not that that is stopping me!)  I spied some 'interesting' yarn at Walmart the other day - Fettuccine by Lion's Brand.  The 'yarn' is made from textile remnants, and feels like t-shirt material.  I picked up a skein and thought it might make an interesting shopping bag - using recycled material for a reusable shopping bag sounded like a good idea.  The skein looked like there was a lot more yarn than there was.  One skein did the bottom (which I made too big, thinking I had lots of yarn) and one skein did the middle, and the yarn was two different thicknesses.  The yarn cannot be ordered by color - you just get what ever color they choose to send you, so, since Walmart seemed to only have one skein of each color, I had to improvise.  Two skeins of yarn made one tote, and it is bulky and heavy.  I wouldn't want to carry much in the bag if I did use it.  It might be good to carry a casserole dish or something - it is definitely substantial!

This is how much was left of two skeins of yarn.

I added a new job to my resume yesterday.  For the first time, I mowed my lawn.  (Technically, I mowed my lawn when I lived is Susanville, but I used a hand push mower and it was very, very small.  Usually, Dad took pity on me and brought the lawnmower in and mowed it for me.)  Ralph has just not been able to do much in the yard, and since AJ left, it had gotten out of hand.  So.....I powered up the mower and mowed the front and back yesterday while Alli slept and watched TV.  I had to wait until after I got in from shopping to have Ralph show me how to run the mower, so it was already hot when I started.  Next time, I'll mow much earlier and it will be much better!  This is a job I prefer to leave to AJ and Ralph, but.....then next new job on my list is sprinklers.  We have one that is broken our front and is watering just one strip.

Comfy kitty!  Picot found a spot in the sun last weekend.

We've decided to stop mowing and just wait - in a few weeks we can harvest our own corn from the back yard.

This is where some of the bird seed has fallen - but it looks like a good crop, don't you think?

You know you're getting old when you don't bounce back anymore.  Yesterday, Dawn and I went tot he Honey Bee Festival and wandered around.  I bought a couple of scarves.  Then we went shopping for a new chair for Alli's classroom.  Ralph, Alli and I had looked on Saturday, but one of the consignment shops is closed an Saturdays, so Dawn and I went there yesterday.  We found a chair there in really good condition, and then I tripped and fell flat on my face.  Well, not really 'flat' - I barely grazed my chin.  Saved by my boobs, I think.  I asked Dawn as I was brushing myself off if I had dirt on my boobs, and she laughed and said that that was once question she had never had to ask before, but she did usually hit her chin.

I felt okay yesterday - just being careful of the bruising on my left pinky, but this morning.....ouch!  My left wrist (actually, my whole left arm) is very sore - and I found out how much I use it.  My neck is also a bit stiff from keeping my chin off the ground (it is worth it!!)  Here's my pinky ring - and I had to unflatten it a bit to get it off.

Here are the scarves I got at the Festival!

After I brought the chair home and cleaned myself up a bit, I went down to the Dress Barn - they had sent me some coupons, and.....I found several things to follow me home.  A dress, a sweater, a top and a necklace.  All together, with my coupons, just at $80.00.  Not bad, considering the dress was $48.00 and the necklace $20.00 (before my coupons).

I had a lovely birthday - it started early even!  The ladies at work had a potluck lunch for me on Friday - the day before my birthday (spaghetti, cheesy pasta, salad, and mini cupcakes (they are so small you can eat more than one or two, right?)  The also got me the cutest sun/garden hat.  It has wire in the rim so it is positionable - love it!  The plaque is cute as well - I know Malorie - who does the birthday shopping - has seen my 'box-o-wine' before.  I confess - I'm not a wine snob.

When I was doing my grocery shopping (all by myself because I am calendar-challenged.  I thought my quilt club meeting was this weekend, so Ralph watched Alli for me.  I got to the quilt shop, and no one was there....odd.  Then I realized that I had the wrong weekend.) I bought myself a present from Trader Joe's.  Isn't this the prettiest zinnia you've seen?

Ralph got me another dragon for my collection:

AJ even remembered my birthday!  (of course, as he said, he had two days to remember it - he's 16 hours ahead of us.)  He's not having such a great time right now.  They went to Seoul for the weekend - a big holiday weekend in Korea no less.  He is less than thrilled with Seoul and with the people he is with.  They have to stay as a group, and I don't think he has a good 'stay with the group' mentality.  Add that to the millions of people in Seoul, and the cultural difference of personal space and manners, and he sounded pretty miserable.  I think he'll be much happier back at the college (and he may even appreciate it a bit more).

Last night before I went to bed, it was cool enough outside so it wouldn't trigger the air conditioner, so I opened up the windows.  Usually, it is still warm outside when I go to bed, and I've missed the fresh air.  Rufus was very happy I opened the window just for him!

When I finished my last crocheted baby hat, I ran out of projects - at least ones that I had a definite plan for.  Since I always do better with projects for someone else, I felt just a bit adrift.  I fixed that pretty quickly - while I was shopping with Dawn, she got one of her purchases in a small brown bag - perfect for lunches, she said.  Aha!!!  A lunch bag is needed!  I had given her the "large" shopping bag project I had made already, so....I improvised a lunch bag out of the same yarn.  I really like the pattern that the yarn made as it worked up, and I have no idea why my photo rotated itself.

I had no pattern for this, I just 'winged it' and I'm pretty happy with it!  (And if Dawn doesn't like it, she's too polite to say so :) She was kind enough to go Thrift Store shopping with me - she was probably too polite to say no to that as well!)

We sent Marie home yesterday - her parents came home form the wedding and picked her (and their two dogs) up so we are back to our new normal - just Ralph, Alli and I.  Ralph was under the weather yesterday - he had low blood sugar in the morning and it took him most of the day to catch up.  Alli and Marie spent the day watching TV (thank you Alex for setting up Netflicks for me!) and some swimming.  I even got some quilting done - a nice relaxing day.  I don't even have a plan for today - maybe some more quilting and a bit of outside work??? (the pool needs to be scrubbed, the garden needs to be cleaned out, the roses need to be trimmed up.....wait - that sounds like a LOT of outdoor work!  Maybe I'll just sew.)