Fabulous weekend

The kids were here for the weekend, so I got a ton of snuggle time with my sweet baby girl Emma. She makes me heart sing! And.....I ran my first half marathon!!! That was one of those bucket list items....but I really enjoyed it and even though I am so sore I can hardly walk, I will probably do another some time. Enjoy some of my pictures...

Because I am pretty slow, I started in corral D, about three minutes behind the faster runners. There were 2487 half marathoners, 692 marathoners, and 1794 5k racers, all starting together.

I finished!

The hubby got up at five this morning to go with me. He's a sweetie.

My runner/quilter friend ran it too. Our goal was to finish upright. We made it!

The hubby even bought me this shirt and a 13.1 sticker.

Then home for some snuggle time....

I didn't want to put her down. We both chilled a bit....then she woke up, bright eyed.

Love how expressive she is with her eyebrows. Then one last smile for Mamaw.

Great weekend! how was yours?

 

Visit to Mamaw's house

 

Love this little fuzzy head....

 

Yes, those are dish towels. It was what I had handy, and I worried she might get cold during her little nap.

So bright eyed.

Absolutely nothing more precious than this.....

Eat, sleep, and be loved. She is 6 1/2 weeks old. We had a good little smiling session today. I think she loves her mamaw. Ahh, babies, God's most wonderful gift to us.

 

The beast

Just had to post this. Jim and his buddy caught a fish they estimated at 65 pounds! A striped bass. When they got home they looked up the state record and guess what it is??? 65 and 1/2 pounds! Too bad they didn't have a scale to weigh it. He might could have been a record holder!

 

Quilt show!

The hubby went with me to the quilt show in pigeon forge yesterday afternoon. Some really nice quilts were on display. I always think that I should enter some of mine......but never do.

Both of these are Bonnie Hunter patterns.

The show was almost closing and I really wanted Jim to get to see the quilts. The lady at the scooter rental gave us one for free for the last thirty minutes, until closing. Jim is a polio survivor, walks with a cane, and just can't walk for long periods or very far. He misses a lot because of this handicap.

He has never wanted to ride in a scooter or have me push him in a wheel chair (I wouldn't mind!). I think it is a pride thing.....but I talked him into the scooter. I think he really enjoyed it! He zoomed around looking at all the quilts, and saw what he had been missing. Hopefully this will be the start of him being a little more open to some "helps" occasionally when we go places.

...and hello to Elaine! A blog reader we saw at the show! Did anybody else go to the quilt show?

 

More maverick stars

Yay! After about three hours I finished nine more stars. Only 182 more to make! Yikes, that sounds bad, but I have to think long term, right? I really would like a bed sized quilt out of these, without a border. For a 84x90 quilt, I figured it would take 210 of these six inch blocks.

Piecing a quilt like this definitely teaches me patience. Slow and steady wins the race. Like the tortoise.

...speaking of the Tortoise and the Hare, I cleaned out a shelf for baby Emma's library at Mamaw's house. I just can't wait to get her in my lap and read some of those wonderful Little Golden books.

Katie the Kitten was my favorite from my son's childhood, along with When Dog was Little, Over in the Meadow, and many more. Such fun memories. Any other grandparents out there have a favorite book you read to your grandchildren?

 

Signs of Spring

Planted some more pansies.

I've always had a difficult time getting a 60" cushion for our swing. I found one online, but it was $112. Sheesh, that's expensive. I found a couple of chair pads that I think will work. I am going to hand sew them together. Yes, they fold up on the sides but I think it will still be ok, especially since they were less than half the cost of the other. I like the spring green color.

 

Recipes

I found some healthy recipes on our LiveWise website at work. I must have been hungry when I printed them off, or just wanting some kind of new challenge. I am now making the fourth new recipe this weekend. The first was a teriyaki chicken, rice, and broccoli dish. It was good, but I think it would be better without a couple of the ingredients -- chicken broth and brown sugar. The second was a beef stroganoff. It tasted too much like hamburger helper. It was ok, but used some canned mushroom soup and just didn't taste like a home cooked meal. The third was a bust -- breakfast in a jar. Nope, didn't like it. Prefer my steel cut oats or homemade bread toast for my breakfast.

This evening I am making a turkey cabbage stew recipe.

You layer cabbage, onion, green pepper, ground turkey, salt and pepper, and tomato sauce. I am hoping it will be a winner.

UPDATE: this dish was definitely a winner! Very good. I think even picky eaters might like this. Just enough flavor without being strong, but not bland either....and healthy to boot!

Bee-utiful Saturday

My oh my, such a beautiful day we've had today. I've forgotten how much I love to work outside. We have a young man who helps with our outdoor chores, which is great, but today I did some outdoor chores. Pulled all the dead flowers and vines out of the outdoor pots....got the herb garden and tomato buckets ready....even put out a few pansies

 

..and yes, that is the hubby's boots. He is resting after a hard day of fishing....

And I even had some time to work on my wonky stars.

I love that I can just take a bunch of scraps and worry about nothing but contrast and see what surprise I get.

I am so thankful for getting to enjoy this weather and be productive. Have you enjoyed this beautiful Saturday?

 

Spring is in the air!

Anyone who knows me knows I can be a bit...ahem...obsessive. Whatever my current interest is, that is what I am passionate about. Lately it has been running and more recently, my new granddaughter, Emma. Therefore, there hasn't been much quilting going on around here. However, I did hear the birds singing this morning, which got my spring fever acting up, so I do have a quilt picture to share this morning.

Time to put the spring and summer quilt on the bed! This is one of my favorites. Made from scraps, of course.

The running obsession will taper off after I do my first half marathon on March 30th. My obsession with Emma, will never taper. Love that little girlie so very much! I get to see her again in a few weeks. Maybe after my long run today (10 miles, yikes!) and the weekly grocery shopping and errands, I'll have time this weekend to get back on my wonky star scrap quilt. What are you doing in this tease of spring we are having?