Pay It Forward

Yesterday I received this "Pay It Forward" gift from Christina Cameli -- a quilted potholder, some vintage #8 needles, and a lovely pair of earrings. Isn't that a splendid surprise to get in the mail! Thanks a bunch Christina!

"Pay It Forward" means that now I get to make a little gift for the first three of you readers who comment on this post. [ I do get a whole year to make my creations, if I need that long.] So go ahead and make a comment!

One photo from the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus concert last Saturday. I am at the extreme left, announcing the next song, "The Peace of Wild Things". We had a hilarious change of costumes after the intermission, but Charlie said that the camera battery died right at the crucial moment!

My sewing room is slowly migrating to other spaces and compacting into one half of the room so that our laundry can be moved into the closet there while we are away in Cornwall. I am trying to do some purging at the same time, but I only have one day left to finish the move. Must give the construction guys an area for their work!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Going to Cornwall for 17 days

Lots of wild phlox on the hillside

Getting other plants in the ground before I leave

Garlic mustard again

I've been out to Cascade Peace Park twice this month to help PULL Garlic mustard. This is a pernicious plant that sends out enormous numbers of seeds and then shades out our native wild flowers. It has white flowers the second year and these triangular leaves. As Charlie and I take our walks along our own street, we see it growing on the roadside. So yesterday we each took a plastic grocery bag and pulled until the bag was full. {This plant cannot be composted because it still sets and disperses seed after being pulled. It has to be bagged tightly and put in the garbage.]

Where the pavement ends on Quiggle Ave., the property owner has been logging. So sad, too bad. This dirt road used to be just a woodland path. The logging trucks are wearing it wide.

But there are also native dogwoods among the pines -- so something good to look for yet!

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I am doing some quilting work, but I can't show it to you. It will be fore my Secret Sister.

Also I am spending time rearranging the sewing room. We are having the closet enlarged so we can have a first floor laundry. This was the reasonable places since it backs up to the bathroom plumbing. That I have to empty half of the room for the workmen's convenience is not so reasonable.

However, I am doing a good deal of PURGING the saved magazines and other papers. Maybe the fabric will even get re-folded as the shelving is moved into our bedroom for the duration.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Dianne's dreadful thighbone break makes me remember that I am glad to have two working legs

Laundry work will be done while we are in Cornwall, UK

Lost the few pounds I had gained back

Holland Tulip Festival

DIL Lynne invited me to share a "Girls day out" at the Holland Tulip Festival.

In the center of a park, surrounded by tulips, there is a statue of the founder of both the city of Holland and Hope College: Mr. van Raalte.

We found the John Wayne remembrances were available in the Craft Show!

Lynne and I caught one of the Dutch dancing performances. [High school kids get to take time out from school to learn these dances and they call it Physical Education!]

There was also a small Quilt Show, and here are two of my favorites:

"A Winter Walk in the Woods"

"Flying Over Kansas"

Thanks for inviting me Lynne, I had a good time!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Rain stopped as we drove west to Holland

Lunch with Bob Miller

Pedometer shows over 6000 steps today