More projects than time

Are any of you like me, you always have things in your mind you want to make, do, research?  The wheels are always turning.  While the hubs has been gone, I've painted two lamps with milk/chalk paint (couple of coats of milk paint, but had it too thin, and didn't have more, so I then painted it with chalk paint).

Then, I enjoyed the chalk paint so much, I did a small table.  (I'm practicing for doing my whole dining room suite of mis-matched wood pieces, but shhhh, don't tell the hubs, jk he knows I want to paint it)

 And this pile of wood is going to be turned into a little tray table.  I have a plan, just need some old looking handles, sandpaper, and wood stain.

 In the midst of this, we finally are making some progress on digging the footers.

And I'm also working on a new one block wonder using some panels I bought at Hancock's in Paducah a few months ago.

 The panel was rather small so it will only make a lap quilt.  There wasn't really enough to put together much of a design, so I decided to just randomly put the pieces together trying to mix it up.

I think it will make a springy couch quilt.  I love chalk paint and distressing so much, I'm thinking of painting my black quilt ladder.....robin egg blue would look pretty?!

It's Project Time!!

When the hubs makes his annual trip up north to fish, this girl is busy!  I try to do some projects while he is gone, since I have the house (and garages) to myself.  If interested go here to see my king bed project I did in 2016.  That year I also put some bead board wall paper on top of our cultured marble tub surround.  However, because it is vinyl wallpaper, it was easy for the cat to scratch and mess up.  Hubby soaks in his 'office' aka tub, every morning and one of our cats liked to play around it (with the shoe string hubs uses to tease him).

Anyway, I loved the look and wanted to replace it at some point with real bead board.  So...that was my big 2018 project, while he is away.

Here is a before pic (excuse the mess):

And here is the interim bead board wallpaper pic:

And a pic of the 2018 re-do with real bead board and wood trim:

I think now I need to get a white rug for it.

I hope to have some more projects to show before the hubby arrives back home around June 9th.

News, berries, and old trucks

They aired the segment on my granddaughter meeting Prince Harry.  If you'd like to see it, here is a link.

Today was all about strawberries.  The hubs and I drove to Spring City to get some fresh picked.

All this plus two strawberry parfaits, two containers sliced with sugar, and three bags of cut up frozen berries -- all that from one flat of berries!

I also want to share/document this truck.  Interesting back story here.  My dad purchased this truck for my brother from a government surplus sale in Oak Ridge in 1973 for $300.  It was a 1962 model Dodge panel van.  Sometime later he sold it to the uncle of one of my brother's school mates.  The uncle lived in Ohio, took it there, and totally refurbished it. It won awards.  The uncle recently died at age 93, and his nephew, my brother's school mate, inherited it.  It has come full circle back to our little town.  But wow -- what a cool truck it is now!

I think it's so neat.  I actually hated this truck!  I had to drive it when I first learned to drive.  My dad and brother had painted it yellow!  Yes, yellow, painted with a brush!  So, you can imagine how embarrassed 16 year old me was to drive it.  Ha!

If any of you are old truck/history enthusiasts, enjoy!

Sunshine, running, quilts, and family.

Been loving the wonderful sunshine we've had the last few days.  We are waiting on the surveyor to give the go ahead to dig the footers.  The cut out is made for the crawl space floor. It looks so big!!

He dug between the house and the boat garage and that makes it even look bigger.

Had a bit of a scare today.  Was drying clothes.  Normally a 51 minute dry cycle doesn't always get them dry.  It had been running about 40 minutes and I decided to check them.  The clothes were so HOT I couldn't handle them.  The top of the dryer was so hot I couldn't touch it!  Ours isn't that old at 11 years, but I was hoping to get a new set for the new house.  I hate to spend a lot of money trying to fix the old one at that age.  So we may be drying on the clothes line for a while.  I am definitely afraid to use it now. I like line dried clothes anyway :)

Got in a decently long run today.  It felt great and my heart rate stayed pretty much where it should be for that exertion.

 Finished up the convex quilt and got some ideas on how to quilt it from a long armer at the quilt shop in Knoxville. I hope to get started on the quilting tomorrow.

My DIL sent this picture of their adventures today.  Her best childhood friend is visiting. They are having some fun times.

And speaking of my little granddaughter.......WBIR, the Knoxville (local to us) television station came to our house to interview me last Monday about Emma's meeting prince Harry.  Too bad they couldn't interview her, but time and distance barriers were too much.  It is going to air on the Live at Five at Four show on Monday, May 14th.  I guess that is going to be the Royal week due to Prince Harry's wedding. Honestly I dread hearing myself......I'm sure I'll sound like a country bumpkin!

It Has Started! and other updates....

We broke ground today!

It's very exciting.  We met the surveyor there this morning, then the excavator came and got right to work.

So far, not too much rock.  We are looking at 8-10 months on the construction, but we've got a great contractor who uses quality crafts people.  Can't wait to see it all come together.

Think we have another coyote roaming around here.  This was on our trail cam last night.

....and I received my quilt back already from the show.  Included in the box was this for a memento.

 I hope to get started on this kit tomorrow.  Isn't it a cool design?  I bought it at the Paducah quilt show in the Kwiltart booth.  Go to her website to see more of her awesome designs.  Kwiltart.com

Oh, and have to share some grandkid pics.  They had a ball today playing with friends.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

Grandbabies and quilting

Grandbabies first.....Oh, how I love these two.  The pictures were taken at the beach in North Berwick, outside of Edinburgh, Scotland, where they currently live.

So, so thankful my daughter in law sends me pictures of them.

The hubby and I just got back from a short two day trip to the spring Paducah quilt show. Talk about crowded!  The inspiration was incredible.  We were excited to see my quilt.

If you'd like to see more about the show, head on over to my website and click on the latest blog post.  www.rachelmhayes.com

Life is Good

Just a note to status what is going on around here.  This morning I made one of my favorite, easy, gluten free breakfast items.

 Breakfast muffins.  Gluten free and so yummy.  I usually make some of these on the weekend for us to eat in the coming week. I will use 5-6 eggs, 5-6 pieces of bacon (Costco pre-cooked in their freezer section), a handful of fresh spinach, a handful of chopped mushrooms, a handful of shredded mozzarella, a little milk splashed in, salt and pepper.  Bake in muffin tins for 20 minutes at 350.  Then store in fridge.  Microwave for 20 seconds when ready to eat.  These last all week.

You can pair them with some fresh fruit or a piece of gluten free toast with butter and honey.  We like blueberries or a cutie orange. Makes a healthy, quick, gluten free breakfast.

My son and his family are in Paris this week.  Although they had a rough first night (the landlord of the Airbnb didn't leave the key where it was supposed to be and they had to go searching for a hotel at midnight with two crying children!), they are happily enjoying a mini-holiday.  My son had an appointment to see "his" manuscript the first day of their arrival, but after that -- fun. Oh, and they did get into the Airbnb the next day.

My granddaughter's favorite book is Madeline, and she was SO EXCITED to be in Paris. I am anxiously awaiting the adventures they are having and so happy they are getting to experience Paris.  They walked about 11 miles their first adventure day, seeing the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Julia Child's Paris home, and other sites.

On the quilting front, I finished my king sized Christmas quilt.

This pattern is called Felicity by Kate Spain.  I changed it up some to make it king size, and arranged the ornaments a little differently.  I should have mitered the borders, but was determined to not buy any more fabric, so I didn't have enough.  I think it will be fine for our bed.  It won't go in any shows. :)  I plan to custom quilt it, when I receive the backing.  I ordered some 2-ply red flannel.  It is supposed to be super soft.  The hubby loves a thick, warm quilt.

The next adventure for the hubby and I will be to go to the Paducah Quilt show in a little less than two weeks.  My Corona quilt is in the show and we are going to meet up with some friends for a day. Looking forward to that.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!