Musings at Wal-mart

The stars aligned for me today. I was at Wal-mart. I had my camera in my purse (thanks again, Em!). And, I had to use the bathroom. I appreciate a clean bathroom, and one that smells clean, as well. Some time ago my local W-mart 'redecorated' their bathrooms. I don't know why. So- here is one of those 'new' plastic de-cals on the wall. Looks good. NBD* (no big deal, right?) 

Not content with this simple style statement, they added inspirational messages:

 I'd have been ok with something that said, " throw your towels in the garbage can" or "don't be a slob" 

but the person that was hired to decorate THIS Wal-mart bathroom had other ideas: "Life is about making memories." Admittedly, the sign is stylin'. Love the font. but... hmm. odd message for the bathroom, I'd say.

 This is the one that really cracks me up, though: "Love is the beauty of the soul"???? whaaa?

That doesn't really make any sense. I am imagining the manufacturer just decided to use the words: 'love,' 'beauty,' and 'soul' to make a nice looking sign. We could mix it up and it would make just as much sense. Try it with me, now:

"Beauty is the soul of love"... "Love is the soul of beauty?" .. you get the idea. Give me a few of your less meaningful sayings. Maybe we can sell them to Wal-mart!!! 

"Mystery Squash" - are you ready for your mystery squash?

Maybe the heat is doing funny things to my brain, but I've been watching a volunteer squash plant grow and develop for a month or so,  now. What will it be? Will it be worth the time and effort? 

The tune that advertised a popular game when I was young (I know!) came to my mind: "Mystery squash, am I ready for my mystery squash?" 

Maybe  I should have ripped it out and thrown it in the compost pile when I first saw it sprout? I'm hoping it's not a dud!  It's growing very fast, and has almost covered my Cherokee Purple Tomato plant. 

Hmm.......... time will tell.

.Maybe it's a pumpkin? Let me know if you have a guess. 

Top o' the morning!

I don't know that quilting will ever be a great hobby of mine.

Yesterday I shared my 'oops' moment. I realized I should've used a quilting frame or embroidery frame to hold the quilt and border tight.

But who wants to tear everything apart and start over? Not me!

I did tear out the 'stitch in the ditch' basting stitches, and then opened up the bottom of the piece and stuffed in some batting.

I also used embroidery thread to 'tie' my quilt.

It is still not perfect, but much less lumpy looking. I'll take it for a first effort!

Still have to fix the stick and hanging tabs. They are too red neck even for me.

And next time I'll put my mini quilt in a frame of some sort. Next time?

Yes, I think I'll try again. :)

Crocus in March -hurrah!

I thought about the fact that this is the 15th, and thus, Garden Blogger's bloom day.

I had little hope that I had anything blooming yet.

I have been out, raking up the pine needles (there seem to be SO MANY this year!)

We stack the needles on one of our walking paths. And, then I noticed (look on the left, up the path) that we really DID have flowers already! Every year spring is such a wonderful surprise.

Although it shouldn't be a surprise. I see last year in March, my crocuses were blooming.

Saint Patrick's day decorations, or will the luck o' the Irish hold?

I bought some small remnants with shamrocks on them several years ago and then didn't know what to do with them. It didn't seem right to make a bag out of them. Finally I decided to try to make a wall hanging. This seemed like a small enough project that I just might be able to finish it.

Step one, find some fabrics in my stash that would look good with the two shamrock fabrics.

A shamrock template off of the internet was easy enough, and then..........

cutting out the squares and sewing them together went along very quickly.

I appliquéd the shamrock and added tabs............

Things started going wonky when I put the border on and then the backing, though.

You can see from this picture that the squares are not flat and tight. bah.

I hung it up for a few days to think about what to do next. I didn't want to take the whole thing apart again. (I'd already tried to make it look smooth by sewing basting stitches across the quilted pieces. I'll show you what I did to fix it tomorrow.

Snow day in March

We got about 5 inches of snow last night

not much fun to drive in, but beautiful to look at!

I love how lacey these snow covered branches look.

Another Flicker sighting

I saw the flicker again!

This time it looks like he/she is wondering where the tree went -

we lost the tree in a bad windstorm in December.

Here's a great shot of its wings. I wish I remembered if the bird was taking off or landing.

Fall Flicker ?

From my kitchen window, I've been enjoying the color of the Virginia creeper.

Then I heard some rustling, and saw a bird eating the berries....

I'm guessing it's a flicker of some type. But I don't know a lot about birds!