Getting Caught Up.

I have been enjoying my summer vacation. Nothing really to take pictures of, I have been de-cluttering and deep cleaning. Its been six years since we moved here in July. I still had boxes that I had not unpacked. It was just too painful to look in them. I knew what was in them. Memories. I run from those.

Too many memories. I didn't have the strength to deal with them. My daughter made a comment of the things she dreaded to do if something happened to me. It made me start thinking. I knew it was time for me to deal with those boxes. I had to harden my heart and do it one box at a time. I have so many boxes of photographs. My goodness.
 

One of the things I did was go through the boxes of my I guess you would call my portfolio of past rugs.

My goodness, when I was selling all of my rugs, I sold some cute rugs. I thought it might be fun to go back and rehook those that I don't have anymore. I was surprised how many rugs were of my own design. I ended up thinking about why and when I stopped doing that. The only cupboard I haven't taken a good look at is my rug cupboard. I really need to deal with that one. I go through it every season when I change out rugs for the house. So I do get into it more than the other ones. I also am always checking to make sure moths don't find it. I have this fear that all of this work I have done will end up at Good Will.  I have boxes of counted cross stitch things I have never done anything with. Finished ones, except not framed or turned into cute things. If it means sewing. 

Not much else is going on, just me trying to get things cleaned and ordered. So far, this May has been just perfect weather. I am sure that it will change but its just been such a nice month. 

I used to do a Thankful Thursday post, in my ancient blogging days. I think on this Thursday I am thankful for JOY. I can't wait to wake up every morning to see what kind of special gifts are around every corner for me. 

~"My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:2

I hope your day is lovely too.

~Kim~
 

Back Home

 We are back home again. It was a lovely time, but always so wonderful to get back home. We did so much exploring this trip. We saw things that we have never saw before. The little town this was in is called Los Osos. This was a hike we were going to take, but the ticks were too bad and we didn't want to chance it with Polly, plus I hate ticks! This picture above is at Black Mountain.

We found this lovely little walk in a place called Elfin Forest. Its at the end of a neighborhood. If I lived there I would come here every day. 

It gets its name from these oak trees. They only grow here and they are so old but so interesting. So we walked and walked there and did this walk twice. It smelled like sagebrush. There are tidal marshes on the other side and its a bird sanctuary. 

I couldn't help but call it the dead marshes after Lord of The Rings. I could see in my mind all of those faces that Frodo sees in the movie. I had to turn off the video in my mind every time I looked down at it. On the other side is the ocean so it would be interesting to see what it does in a storm. 

As we were driving through the town, we ran across this adorable house. I love the fence.
 

All the way around it the fence had tulips. We drove around it to see it and we found this on one street. 

It had a windmill on the outside of the house. It was really very Dutch. I wished I could have walked around it. 

That was the cutest house I have ever seen before. The streets were all up and down hill. It was so fun to find it. 

Then we drove out to Montana De Oro. There was this lovely farm house, which like everything now is being owned by the park service. But at one time was a family owned farm. One of the first settlers in the area. Now its a gift shop.
 

I thought it was such a sweet little farm house. What an incredible place it must have been to grow up at.

But then the view from the other side of the house was incredible. Imagine waking up every day to see this.

It was lovely to stand there and see how pretty everything looked and maybe hasn't changed to much.

My brain feels so rested and so happy to be home. We planted flowers today and it was so nice to have work to do. I think that is the problem with me and vacation. I think I just enjoy work. It was nice though to have no work except walking Polly and seeing if I could try and sew and hook and read all of the stuff I brought to do. I couldn't. 

I hope if you celebrate Mother's Day its a lovely one. 

~Kim~
 

Let Summer Begin

 

Its official! My first day of summer vacation begins now. My goodness what a year! You know I have these thoughts, first I would just like to sleep late, then the thought comes, " but I love early morning before the sun comes up, the sky and it turns from dark blue to pink and the sun comes up over the mountains. To sit in my chair, listen to the birds and drink my first cup of coffee, has to be my very favorite time of morning. To miss that is just not something I ever want to do. I think its because I am nosy and I might miss something important. 

I have all kinds of projects that I have been putting off. I have patterns coming out my ears. 

I want to finish this rug. I feel like I have neglected it. Nothing should ever take as long as I have taken hooking this rug. Notice my very cute helper.

She is bored. She doesn't normally do this but I didn't feel like moving her. She is such a very nice dog and I don't have to leave her now. She gets so depressed. 

I thought I would do some embroidery. I am so rusty not having done it in a few years. I found this cute pattern and I am going to work on that a bit.

Isn't that cute? I just had to sit down and do a few stitches the other day. Its so nice to do what I learned to do as a little girl sitting next to my Mom. She was such a amazing woman. She made all of her clothes on the treadle sewing machine I have. I still remember the sound as she would sew on it. 

Now I have to talk about a book. Have you read or heard about The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower? They are on Kindle Unlimited for free right now. There are currently eight volumes.

" The year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian's But Emma's plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian's."

I am afraid I have become such a fan girl. My goodness, I have read them I think five times now. I don't know when I have read a book that I finish and I go back and start over. If that isn't bad enough I have it on Audible and I listen to it in the car. I keep pondering why this series has captured me so much other than its just a sweet story. I can't get anyone to read it so I decided I would write about it and see if I can get anyone interested just to see if I am off my rocker. Beth Brower posted this picture in her latest substack and I just yelled " Oh my gosh, Ron its Emma!" He just raised his eyebrow. He already knows I am around the bend. Other than my My Bible, if I was stranded on a desert island, If I had the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, I would be content. The ninth volume should be coming out this summer. 

The tablet works wonders. I was able to get current pictures on it so I will be in business. I hope this post finds you well and happy. 

I am currently making lists of all of the summer things I want to get done. Life is so nice right now. After the storm, comes that stillness that fills my heart with joy.

~Kim~

 

April Showers

 

This is a practice post

I got a new tablet so I wanted to see how easy it would be to write a post. I think it would be nice to blog when I am not home.

So far except for the keyboard.  It seems very compatible. 

This might be fun. I hope you have a lovely day. May is almost here. Two more days and it's summer for me.

Trial is now over, I can do this,

Kim