BEST STORY EVER!

This is the funniest true story of the summer....


At my sister in law's cottage....Charlene


Visiting nephew....Colin. (3 1/2)


The scene is Char in her small bedroom, in walks Colin.


Aunt Charlene, what are you doing to your face?

I'm putting on moisturerizer to smooth out wrinkles......

Well Aunt Charlene did you get a receipt?

Why Colin?

Well......... you should get your money back....cause it's not workin!


We are all still laughing when we tell this story....BEST STORY EVER!

JUST ANOTHER COTTAGE DAY!

At the cottage there is always so much

activity going on with the wild life around

us.

We have a young hawk as seen in this photo

that I took yesterday. He has such a sad cry as he looks for his mother or nest mate. He has been crying for the past few days and we actually did see the mother on the first and second day just following her young but low in the trees and I don't think he saw her.

He is here again this morning. He is probably a red tail hawk which is not a large hawk at all and is usually a very good hunter. So he better get hunting as he will need food soon. It's hard to identify what he is but I did a bit of research and it could be a red tail.

On the other end of the wild life, we have our little brown duck who started out with about fifteen young and has now six and they seem to be doing very well. She is very friendly and has been around our dock for the past couple of years. She has no fear of our wonder dog and he actually stepped back a few steps on the dock when she came visiting yesterday.

Our hummers are going crazy with the feeding from the bee balm (monarda) and at times there are five hummers and about 25 little bees fighting over the flowers. Boy, those hummers sure have an attitude...I think that they even get mad at me when the feeder gets low. I was checking a feeder last week and a male actually landed on my hand! I froze as I couldn't believe that it hadn't realized it was a human hand. It stayed there probably two seconds, but man you can imagine my joy. Males are very timid, but the females are much calmer and don't mind me around their food source.

On calm mornings, the fish jump for the bugs that are on the water. We can see the rings on the water as they get larger and larger. When the lake is super calm these rings are seen in abundance.

The last wild life we have here is a beaver. Yes, forget that this beaver lives on open water, has a very deep lake to contend with, it's here. It has taken down all the service berry bushes, the young maples and I don't know what else around here. It does come at night on the east side of the cottage and of course that's where we sleep and the dog keeps watch over us.

I have a very wonderful and peaceful life here. I am very blessed.

HERE'S AN IDEA!

My neighbour at the cottage found some old golf clubs and cut off the shaft and made hooks out of the head of the clubs. Very clever recycling idea don't you think?

She used old barn boards for the four hooks of which only one is complete, so I took this photo.

She is putting hooks around the cottage in different areas so that people may put towels, life jackets, ski ropes, etc off the ground. Very clever.

Thank you so much for comments regarding making my small quilt large. I am going to do what Lindsey, (five healthy hearts) suggested. I am going home after the weekend and hitting the shops around my area with my top to find just the right fabric which I will use for the sashing and then use it for the back as well I think. Honestly, I need to find fabric...I don't have stashes of different colours and when I need something I must shop around. I'm not a good shopper and my sweetie has just said to go buy fabric as I will go nuts without projects to work on.

Our little bathroom in the cottage is being painted today. The ladies from next door are going to do it. It is repayment for the three doors hung by my sweetie in their bunkie. Yes, a bathroom door is essential! I have taken before photos and will let you see our very simple loo when it's painted. So in advance I thank the ladies....

I often wonder how we have become such good "friends" when we have never met....I visit all the blogs on my list and have a few in my favorites that I look at, comment and see if we connect at all. Micki, that I visit all the time is in my favorites list but for the life of me, everytime I try to add her to the blog list, it reverts to 2006. So she stays as a fav.

Others, I see what they do and how often they blog. I think 2-3 times a week is good to keep a current blog...I noticed that Crazy Mom Quilts...aka Amandajean, has hit the wall with so much pressure to produce more and more ideas has resulted in Amandajean just being very tired and has decided to take a bit of a break...Goodness if I had 200 hits a day with comments, I'm sure I'd be overwhelmed too! I wondered how she did it all and raised a family too. Her creative juices need replenishing...

So, we will all be here no matter how often we write, how often we need a break and how often we run out of ideas, and how often we run out of fabric....oh that's not you guys.....it's me. I am going to go shopping since all I have left is fabric to make shopping bags.

MODA JELLY ROLL ON THE MOVE!

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of Jelly Rolls !

One of them, Oh Cherry Oh! I am making nine patch with Crazy Mom Quilts, and the other.....

is what you see here. It's called Swanky Chez Moi...so very french don't you think? Anyway, here's what I did.

I sewed all 40 pieces of the Jelly together, well eight at a time. Then I cut these into 8" strips and joined all pieces together. I positioned them

so as not to have all the colours straight across by

taking two from one bottom, four from the next

and so on till I had them all lined up looking

good.

I then cut out 5" strips of white fabric and joined

the strips together. Now here is my "little"

problem.....I want to make it bigger than the

about 67" wide that I currently will have when it's finished with just white borders.

I want to add about 15" on each side. Do you think it would look like that's what I did? Of course I should have bought two Jellies, but I didn't. I am thinking of using one of the colours from the strips and adding that to the sides. What do you think?

I just love how this turned out and coins are such a quick and easy quilt to make. I couldn't believe how quickly it came together. I do have lots of white that I could use for more border, but that would be too much white. Help...suggestions please.

We had rain of course and today it's so very humid that my sweetie is having a hard time moving around. He really feels the humidity...Me? not too much. It's better than cold. So now it's Monday and it looks like another couple of days of high humidity and thunder storms...what else is new for us this summer heh? Then we are looking at next seven days of absolutely wonderful summer weather....it's still good because we are at the cottage dot calm!

RIDE AWAY WITH THIS BIKE....!!!!!!!!!!!

http://sharethelovelylist.com/share-the-lovely-listandwin.html

Now who would give this beauty away? Well it's there for the taking...go have a look and see the blog...it's really cute!

WHAT'S IN IT?

My friend Dawn and her husband came to visit for a few days. Dawn has done a panel baby quilt for a nephew and had 3 more babies born in her family so the request was for more baby quilts.

Since she doesn't quilt much....she can stipple and so we stippled these panels, labled them and they will be mailed to the children tomorrow.

Here she is with our birthday boy Wilson who was 4 years old yesterday...The child we never had says our daughter, don't you know... Dawn has had trouble with arthritis in her thumbs so I did some of the hand work and she was sewing the labels.

She brought the favorite appetizer recipe of all time! Sunshine.....this one's for you! Dawn's sister Monica is not known as a "cook" persay, however for years whenever there was a family do Monica would appear with a little casserole, and we would wait while it was baked and then this little gem would be devoured immediately! Now, she, being that this was about the only thing she could cook, well she could order chinese and add a few things to it and make it her own.....you know what I mean?

Dawn and I begged her for years for the "What's In It" recipe....finally after about 10 years and I mean 10 years she gave us the recipe as she was tired of bringing it all the time and it was time for someone else to "cook". Ok here it is...

WHAT'S IN IT-----AKA....MONICA'S RECIPE

1 CUP MINCED FRESH ONION

1 CUP HELLMAN'S MAYO

1 CUP GRATED CHEDDER CHEESE

MIX INGREDIENTS TOGETHER, SPRAY A SMALL DISH

TO FIT INGREDIENTS....BAKE 25 MINUTES @ 350

Serve with bagel chips or such.

ABSOLUTELY YUMMY!

I can tell you that no one will ever guess what you put in it and there will be nothing left over.

There will be a fight to lick the dish! Try it for your next little group of friends and let me know how everyone wanted the recipe....don't give it out...it's our secret!

Have a great weekend.

I LOVE THIS SEWING TABLE!

Yesterday, I cleaned up my little sewing area that I have in the corner of the sun room at the cottage
.

It's quite amazing that so much mess can be made in such a small area. I am always leaving pieces of this and that on the sewing table. I also never put the cover on the machine and I think that I should as the room is usually open to the elements and can be dusty. I wonder if people take their machines in for cleaning annually. I was told to bring it to the shop for spring cleanings as a good care program for my Janome. I haven't decided yet.


I must say the sewing table is the best thing since sliced bread as far as I am concerned. It is always a hit for anyone who sews and does a bit of work here at the table. I can't imagine that I actually worked without this smooth gliding surface to piece my blocks till last fall. I am alway thankful that my sweetie included it in his birthday surprise for me!



I had a lot of little pieces of this and that left over from the winter and don't remember why I shoved them in the container to bring here to the cottage, but am glad I did. I am almost out of fabric here for projects. I have fabric, but not enough to complete any project. This is sort of a coin quilt top which I added the whites to it to make it really pop. I use the old suitcase that it is propped on to keep current projects, sewing supplies etc here. I found this little gem at Goodwill years ago. I actually have four of them, one is full of lego, but the others are empty and I keep thinking of painting them or covering them to look like quilts.


I think these suitcases cost about $3.00 each and were probably used for overnight bags when first made. I also had a couple of makeup bags like these but the grandkids took them for cars and barbie doll suitcases. When the kids were little, there was always a suitcase for crafts, one for dolls, one for cars, and one for the lego.. Now the lego one has been refilled a few times, all using second hand lego from goodwill or garage sales. It's the colours that the kids liked that were different and so they were "borrowed"


The suitcases are becoming a rare find these days as it seems that people are collecting them for whatever reason. I always look for them everytime I am shopping secondhand. So handy for different uses.


We are having a great beginning to the weather this morning, other than having to put the spaceheater on because it is chilly here in the sunroom. It's lovely on the deck and I am taking my coffee out there while the lake is calm, the fish are jumping at bugs, and the hummers are happy for the warmth, as I am. We are expecting rain of course and yesterday about 30 miles south there was a small tornado that touched down and did some minor damage. What a summer! I just heard on the news that by Christmas it is supposed to warm up! Honest!

DO YOU THINK WE HAD FUN?

What a weekend! As you can see from the photo on the right, the boys were in for a big big dumping. The three of them went flying just as they were coming in to give the girls a ride!


If you look carefully, the blue lifejacket is just over Jeremy who went first into the water....it looks more dangerous than it actually was as they were not going too fast....Lots of screaming going on I tell you.


The girls who are now 17 plus just thought that diving from the raft was the most fun. It's just
what happens when raised for the past ten years
coming to the cottage and making the best of the
weather, no matter what.

The lake was very rough and so the tubing was a wild ride for those that ventured out on the lake. We did have calm weather on Saturday morning so we had the ski lessons done and both the new skiers got up on the first try. It happens when kids are used to coaches giving directions to the sprint canoers...Ryan, who was a friend of our grandson, got up on the first try and looked like a pro, while Brianne, Courtney's friend and her kayak partner was like an old pro. There was huge cheering as they both skied so well.

But that was it.. the wind was too wild for trying
doubles as we had hoped for Sunday morning.



The last photo is of the boys being brave as
boys will be. They just were cheering the wild
ride they had had!


Bob and Mary who had been here for the week left at noon hour with Alex because she lives just
around the corner from them. Kelly took the rest of them home around 5 pm. They ate an early dinner here and were looking forward to an even later bbq at home....Yeah you can't imagine the food we went through over 3 days....the fridge is empty!

My sweetie and I went to bed at 8:30 pm and didn't get up till 8:30 this morning....It was an exhausting weekend I tell you. But memories were made for all the kids.

I had fun!

ANOTHER STORM COMING THROUGH!

I just never get over the terrible weather we are having this summer. The first photo is the storm coming in from the west. It was like a white blanket was being pulled over the lake.







The water turned dark dark blue, the sky was this white sheet and the wind was fierce as you can imagine. It rained for about 4 hours, with the eaves troughs so full the water was overflowing them. Unbelievable rain.


The other photos are what the lake usually looks like on a clear day.










Of course it all happened just before we had dinner planned for a barbeque and our friend Bob had finished putting a stain on the front of the cottage. Change of plans and the stain stayed put on the siding.





We have a generator at the cottage. A most useful tool when the power goes out. Now this storm lasted a long time and we were amazed that we didn't lose power...called Hydro here in Ontario....and with the wind howling, the docks rocking, the rain coming sideways at times, that's
when we usually lose power...


So around 9:30 the lake is calm, the rain is calm compared to about an hour before when the rain was so heavy it was overflowing the eavestroughs. That's when the power went out....and I had no idea where the flashlights were, the candles were somewhere and the matches, when I found the candles wouldn't light because it's so damp right now....or they don't make wooden matches like they used to.



Anyway, we decided that it was late and the generator could be used in the morning for coffee, flushing toilets and water to sustain us. So we sat by candlelight, watching the lightning across the southern sky till it was decided to go to bed.


So this is another day, and we are expecting the gang of teens tonight with the weather for the weekend to be quite warm and clear skies for at least Saturday night. That's when the two marinas on this lake put on a spectacular fireworks display!


There is usually about 400 boats sitting in the dark of the night till the fireworks start. It is quite a scene, as we sit in the water, periodically pushing off each other as we continue to drift a bit in the waters. Everyone is usually quite quiet till the first display! Quite the night for all.



Then, after about an hour, it is over, the boat lights come on, the whole lake is red and green from the lights and all one can see is a huge line of boats coming down the lake to their cottages.


This year, with the gang we are having we will be two boats full of people with even the neighbours loaded in because of their own numbers.


Doesn't this sound like a fun weekend?

I'M HAPPY, I'M OVER THE MOON HAPPY!

Ok, I know that we were supposed to do only one patch a week, but since I am at the cottage don't you know, I only have so much fabric here!


So I started cutting and sewing and with the help of Alex, my granddaughter who is visiting, we put together a whole lot of nine patch squares.


The weather needless to say is wet....It seems that for a change we can blame the weather coming to us from the southern States. And you know that CNN ALWAYS says weather comes from Canada so this is a change .


Everything is so wet to the point that we must
off the feet of the dogs when they come in.


So what is a girl to do but sew! I even had a
cottager from down the way walk over in a
rain storm just to do something to do. We had
a lesson in free motion quilting. She was very
very happy and since her machine is a 6200
Janome she can do all the same steps as I do.


This is the first time I've purchased a Jelly Roll and I must say it was very exciting to be using Oh Cherry Oh! as it is very colourful and so easy to put together. I am definitely going to order from the Fat Quarter Shop again as the service was excellent and the delivery within a week to Canada.


Our daughter is coming and bringing kids! What can be better for the weekend that is supposed to be perfect weather than to have water skiers in residence! I expect a lot of food to be consummed so Mary (my neighbour from Whitby is here) and I are heading to Huntsville to shop for the gang that is arriving Friday night with instructions for homemade Pizza. I can do that and will probably double the recipe to accommodate 4 big really big eaters!


On a happy note for Mary, my sweetie is installing a 2 piece bath in the bunkie that they sleep in. You know when we get older we need the facilities during the night so we have made room in the bunkie and it is looking really really good. There will be beadboard on the walls and the sink is a small corner sink, just big enough to brush teeth, wash face etc. Photos will be forthcoming as I think this will be very cute and useful too of course. Mary has already brought the towels.


To finish on a happy note...the hummers seem to have multiplied to six. The males make the feeders very interesting and there is lots of swooping and diving....I'm happy!

SEWING LIKE CRAZY TO CATCH UP!

I joined Crazy Mom Quilts online nine patch group
to make the second nine patch. I'm a bit behind
as usual. I didn't really want to even open the
Jelly Roll because it looked so neat. I mean neat
in the literal sense. All those colours wound in
a little roll, tied with the ribbon. I looked at it
for about 4 days till the ribbon was untied!


So I am off on a spree of cutting and making nine patch squares to at least keep up with the group.
80 squares to make the quilt is what she is asking for and I will have lots of fabric left over from the Oh Cherry Oh! I had a hard time deciding whether to just cut and do random squares or to take two pieces and make the nine patch. I am
doing the latter. I need symetry. I will have a few
with a bit of variation but all in all I love this quilt
so far.



My neighbours....(the ones with the mouse) have
this old quilt on a bed in their cottage. It was made
about 45 years ago and is still in excellent condition.
the binding needs replacing and has been repaired
a few times, but so far it's not bad. Machined
pieced, and hand quilted by Kent's grandmother.



I actually would have shown some of my nine patch squares but my granddaughter is here, has taken over my camera for a bit. I couldn't go through 100 photos to get a few of my stuff, so
another day.



See the golf driver at the right? Well my neighbour is making this into a clothes/towel hook for the cottage. She found the clubs in her barn when they bought the farm and always wondered what to do with them. She has four of them with wood handles. I don't know much about golf so don't laugh at my description of this stuff. She cut the handles off as best she could and has put a screw in the back of a piece of barnboard. She had a problem with one of the pieces so has put wood glue in the end of the place where the screw goes and if all else fails, she will see my sweetie to give her an idea about attaching the last hook to the board. Isn't it clever?



My middle son has come for a visit. He has been fed well, given his own room to sleep to his heart's content and to read his book. We had great weather for the past two days, but of course this being the summer from.......well the weather isn't going to co operate today and rain and thunder are coming.


Martin is heading home and leaving me a Alex to eat us out of house and home. Lots of food will be consummed in the next few days I tell you. It's what life is about if you are a kid at Nana's.

THE JELLY ROLLS HAVE ARRIVED!

I couldn't believe that when we arrived at the city house on Friday that the Jelly Rolls that I had ordered from The Fat Quarter Club had arrived!

It took less than a week for the shipment from Texas to Ontario

I have Oh Cherry Oh and Swanky Chez Moi. Amandajean at crazy mom quilts is having another nine patch group. So since this is where I saw her Oh Cherry Oh quilt and loved it, the nine patch will be made of this one.

The other is still in the admiring mode. I have collected so much white to work with as another colour to the next few quilts that I may have to shop for white fabric soon. I like white as it's such an easy colour to add to any quilt that I make.

We have had rain (of course) even here yesterday although we sat under a sun umbrella and waited for it to pass. It is 59 degrees this morning. I am hoping that upon our return to the cottage we will finally have summer weather.

Walter Cronkite passed away yesterday. You know whenever I would hear his name mentioned, I always remembered him taking off his glasses as he was reporting the death of JFK. In our house when I was growing up, we finished dinner and my dad would listen to Walter Cronkite every night. We had our Canadian news later in the evening, but Walter Cronkite was always there each evening telling us the news in such a way as if he was talking just to us. A great influence on many lives I am sure. A man who had a good life.

THE WORKSHOP....

Here's the shop. As I said he is a bit of a neat kind of guy and it is organized and looks amazing with everything in its place after the large project that my guy finished. The lift is finished with only the small deck needing staining.

I must tell you that there is a much larger shop at our home in the city...Yes he is a tool guy and does amazing work as you have noted with the cottage stuff that has been built here.

I did tell you that the screwdrivers were lined up in their places too. Won't work for me though...I usually pick up 4 or 5 for my needs. One of them should work....that's my theory....

Because there has been major building going

on for the past number of years, we have used

everything (note the word we) that is here.

There is a bit left over of stuff, but always keep

spare parts on an island that is 2 hours from a

local home Depot.

Just thought you'd know I wasn't exagerating when I said...it's a workshop.

I stored a lot of quilting stuff there last year when guests came and I just didn't have room for them and my quilting boxes too.

So I know how lucky we are here in this family to have someone like him who is such a craftsman and actually loves doing projects.

We even have a generator here in case the power goes out so we can at least have coffee and hot showers in the morning....what more can one ask for?

A BUSY BUSY DAY. THURSDAY

I tell you, when the energy level is high, I just don't know when to stop.



I received this lovely fabric from Jane and just didn't know what to do with it till now. Since I am in love with nine patch quilts these days, this will make a lovely quilt. I am going to use white sashings for these squares.




Jane sent this along with a very pretty little quilt that sits on the table in the kitchen here at the cottage. It is very admired I tell you.



I will have a variation of these colours in the

quilt as I go along and maybe can find some

white with little dots or flowers to just set

it off.



I am on a roll I tell you.



I also made a couple of bags in about an hour, cut and finished too. I lined them as the first ones I made didn't have the thickness I wanted. They are sturdy, but don't have the stability look of these one. So easy and the second one even got a pocket....See the photo with the staging of said bag.



It will probably be given away this weekend as

I am taking them home to get an opinion of what

can be done to them to enhance their use.



I actually think I will put side pockets in them

too. That would be good for shopping etc.

I found the straps at Fabricland for $.23 per metre....I took everything they had and have it in blue and beige...This is fun. The strapping was about $1.99 regular...so it was a great find.

I think I may make some deeper ones next, but using the same style as this. The will make great gifts when we go to dinner at friends..

Since I was on a roll today, I pieced all the remaining blocks I had left over of the black quilt I made. Oh and speaking of the quilt. I got two rows reversed, so I must take it apart. I hope it isn't going to be too much work.. I am an expert at picking, but it's not my favorite thing you know. I didn't know of the error,didn't see it as it's so busy until I looked at the blog photo...You don't want to know what I said....

I am writing this in the evening awaiting my sweetie to come in from the workshop...He has lots of energy too these days...a good thing we are going home for a few days to learn to relax again.

ANOTHER DAY AT THE COTTAGE

Yesterday was a sunny warm day at the cottage.

My sweetie is running out of big jobs to do so he has been cleaning out his workshop. Yeah that's it there and it is so tidy! I can't believe he has all the screwdrivers all lined up in sizes and what kind they are! Oh, yeah my family can as he is very organized...right Kelly? Anyway, we had this umbrella that we bought when we first came to the cottage...It was useless at the dock as if a little breeze came up and I mean little breeze, the thing would do what umbrellas do and we'd have to take it down. It was quite expensive and we could not discard it at all. We also had to replace one of the base parts in the first monthe we had

it because of the wind....So, it's been under the

cottage for about 9 years. It looked mouldy and

at first my sweetie just thought it might not be

feasible to fix it.

Well, we took the fabric part off and put it in the

wash and it came out perfect. A bit of cleaning

a new rope to raise it and now he has shade at

the workshop....I think he's going to move in

there as he loves the fact that it's a clean shop,

it has a view of the lake and the flowers.

Speaking of....did you note the way I moved

on to the next topic? Well the bee balm is

out in bloom and the hummingbirds should

be able to find them anytime now. I have

not see one at the flowers, but I did see a

few yellow finches there yesterday at the

daisies...

The hummingbirds love the feeders and with the cool weathers we have been having they are quite vigorous eaters of the necter in the feeders.

This is what I put together yesterday. I am out of white fabric to complete a small quilt. Since we are heading home for a few days, I'll replenish my white and see if I can do something regarding the back of this quilt. I love the bright orange in the pieces. Orange is such a happy colour don't you think?

Yesterday was such a productive day.. I cleaned the cottage, even the floors got done and I still had energy to do the squares...I have been suffering a bit of arthritis and have started taking apple cyder vinegar...It tastes absolutely awful by the way....and I am for now pain free!

I hve no idea why it works like this, but I read on the web about it's benefits and so thought to try it. My girlfriend Dawn is going to try it too to see if it's a fluke that I'm without pain, also my daughter is going to test it too for her little aches and pains. It's a research program in progress.

Am off for a few days I think.

I had a bit of a problem with the blogger, so it's a bit wonky now. The post looked good before I started to fix it....