My final projects for my vacation week were getting my garden started, and getting a new quilt started.  I got seeds started in my greenhouse (peppers, cucumbers, beans, etc,) and started lettuce, kale, and snow peas from seed in the garden,  Here's my greenhouse - with the temps running into the 70's, the seeds should sprout quickly!

I also got the first two blocks (and most of the third...) done on my bloom-topia quilt.  I had a bit of help cutting....

I'm on vacation this week,and while most of the week has been a working vacation (yard work, house work, etc.) I took Wednesday off and picked up Kirby and went to Ronna's for the day.  It's a long drive, but sooo worth it!  It's great to have 'car time' with Kirby and Max, and nice to visit with Ronna (and have a great lunch, a walk on the beach....)  It's hard to find the time to get together while I'm working, so I really like the times I can make it over there.

Done!  Two years in the making (almost), but it's off to the quilter's today.  I had to put it on the floor to take a picture, and it's still too big for a full picture.  I even left a border row off!   (Not by choice, but I screwed up the cutting, and didn't have enough fabric to re-do it...)  I'm glad it's done - it was an experience, I'll say.  Working on a block-a-month quilt through the mail was different.  I don't know that I will do it again soon, either.  I'm still short on fabric for the border, and that is just one of the many problems I had with the company.  Oh well, it's done!!!

Spring is here!  (Disclaimer - in Redding, the flowers bloom all winter...)  AJ and I walked the doges yesterday, and a neighbor's daffodils caught my eye.... 

Chewie was hogging all the toys - and had about 15 of them in the computer room.  (He probably was the one that knocked the pillow off the couch too.....)

I got in before dark one day this week, and took the dogs for a walk - and I managed to get a nice sunset shot.....

I'm very happy that the days are getting longer - I'm not always leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark (though that still happens....)

Like I really needed it, but here's my next independent project....maybe.  By independent, I mean not through the monthly club at Sew Simple - which starts a new quilt in March, and by maybe I mean that I may have to bump it out to do a wedding quilt.  AJ just found out that his bestest friend secretly got married last year, and he requested a quilt for him.  Depending on how long it takes AJ to decide on a quilt, this is next!  This is a complete kit, ready to go, so I can fit it in between the other quilts.  (Like the baby quilt that I just finished quilting and am ready to put the binding on, and the club quilt that I just got back from the quilters and am ready to put the binding on, and the crochet baby hats I want to make to go along with the baby quilt, and so on and so on.......)

Alex and I walked the dogs yesterday - not quite so bright and pretty as Friday though.  

For the first time in a long time, work was very slow on the last day of the month....which also happened to be a bank-wide pot luck day (for Super Bowl - which means we started eating at 8:00.....) and the first gorgeous, sunny, warm day in a long time!  It felt like a holiday at work, and I actually left work early (by a whole 1/2 hour, but for me, that's huge!)  I even went to the gym on my way home!  And then, I took the dogs for a walk!   Woohoo!  I caught a couple of nice photos, but just had my cell phone with me.  I stopped taking my 'good' camera on my walks because the lighting was so bad, but I could have used it yesterday.  

I finished a quilt top for a baby quilt this weekend.  Jacky B is having a grandbaby in March (her first!) so I put this together.  I picked up the backing yesterday (a while flannel with blue and grey stars to stick with the star theme of the quilt top fabric) but didn't get it sandwiched yet.  I really love this quilt pattern, and it goes together very quickly.  The link to the pattern is here.

Finished!  Well, my part at least.  The quilt top is done, now to get it off to the quilter to get it quilted and bound.  As you can see, I had helpers while I was working, too.

For someone that feels busy all the time, I don't seem to have accomplished much lately!  I'm still working on putting my last quilt together (remember when I said I had it all done except for finishing?  I lied - I forgot I had to do the applique blocks!)  I'm still working on that quilt, and I picked up the next Quilt Club project (that I opened and put back in the package...)  I'm not sure where I put my motivation, but I need to find it fast!

That being said, I did finish up a project for book club.  I didn't finish reading the book (Nine Perfect Strangers) yet, and I decided to switch up the bookmark a bit.  I made lip balm holders instead - with a clip on them!  Pretty fancy!  

You know it's bad when I don't get any pictures of my family, but I did of our dogs.....this was the view at our 'family Christmas' dinner....

Everyone pretty much ate and ran after lunch because there was a storm coming in - Jeff was headed up to Susanville to fish Eagle Lake before it closed for the season, so he headed over the mountain too.  He sent me this photo with the caption "Maybe we should have left sooner..." (and he said he caught three small fish - no keepers...)

My amaryllis on Friday...

I didn't get a lot done around the house or yard this weekend, but I did get my club quilt caught up - almost....I have the center block to do, and finish the applique blocks.  To be fair, I didn't do the center block when it was scheduled because I was considering changing it.  I decided to leave it as-is, so....I'm almost done!  We start a new project next Saturday, so that's a good thing!

Happy 2020!  I always say I won't make any resolutions (because I know I'll fail within 2 weeks...) but I do have goals this year.  I don't expect to lose weight, exercise every day, become a better person over night, but goals are always good. Some of my goals (not in any particular order):

1)  Worry less (by planing more)

2)  Appreciate more (by documenting the good and bad things in photos or in writing)

3)  Writing that to-do list (and getting things done)

4)  Move more (go for walks/workouts with friends)

5)  Spend less (pay attention to what/where I spend)

6)  Eat better (pay attention to what I eat and why)

7)  Create more (learn new skills)

8)  Explore more (be brave!!!)