Happy July

 Happy July! Summer is here! I wanted to show you this picture. A few years ago we brought this cactus back from one of our trips to Tucson. It blooms in June for one day. Then the blooms fall off and it waits for another year to bloom. Some years I feel just like that. I hope this year, I can bloom a bit longer. 

This is going to be a brag post of sorts. I took pictures of my projects. I was surprised how many I have accomplished as I went around taking pictures. First though, last night my daughter in Tucson had her first monsoon in her new house. So much water and the seasonal creek next door to her house turned into a lake and a raging river. But after the storm came the frogs. Where did they come from I keep wondering. 

Her children were catching them of course. One of my grand daughters said to her Mom. " I love frogs more than you, Mom!" I woke up laughing about that still. 

Then Ron brought in a baby toad he found in the flowerbed this morning. I understand completely, baby frogs are just so cute. 

Okay, here is my Maggie Bonomini patterns I bought from Blackberry Primitives:

Of course you can see why I did that top picture. It was all for the chicken. I have had such fun working with wool. I have used my pieces of my wool that are too small to cut into strips so it has been a great way to use those up. 

My current rug. Its from Old Tattered Flag. I am having issues, because of the colors I have chosen. I find its so hard to hook when I don't like the colors. I am going to keep plugging along. Have you rug hookers ever found, once you start reverse hooking a pattern, then like me I  seem to keep doing it over and over. I have made a rule to myself to really watch how much I reverse hook. I  just put the rug away I can go on after a little while without it driving me crazy. I need to get it finished as I have two lovely patterns coming from Saundra.

I made the little flags this week. Such a fun little project. You know how I just have to play with that mantel that I have now. That top board was out in our wood pile and the square smaller boards for the fireworks. I just painted, and glues and I thought it turned out pretty good for just an idea I had. 

See my tiny squash? I was so excited when I found this the other day, I am sure its bigger now. A couple flowers in my garden area. From where it was last year to this year, I really like how its turned out now. 

I always love before and after pictures. We spend so much time outside now. I think a year ago when we moved in I just kept the blinds closed. Its just right I think. 

I finished and made a pincushion out of the pattern by Brenda Gervais, Collector. 

 

Its from Stacy Nash, The Rose Cottage, Sampler Pinkeep. I have been working on it a long time. I think I got it in May. 

When we were in Tucson, we like to visit garden shops, just to see the different kinds of plants they have. While we were there we saw a Madagascar Palm. Because this time we took a plane, we of course couldn't buy one and bring it back. The other day when I went to Home Depot to get sticks for my flags, I went through the garden shop, slowly. I looked in every crook and cranny. I was looking for a Pony Tail Palm for Ron's Bonsai collection and what did my little eyes spy? This, I was so excited. See those tiny thorns coming from the trunk? That is what the tribesmen use in the Amazon and Peru to make blow darts. Isn't that cool? Well we thought it was. So I brought him home. This time of year, the garden shops get such weird stuff. It isn't our zone so they have to spend the winter inside. This is when we always find Desert Rose too. 

I am kind of all over the place today. I was surprised when I decided to take pictures how much stuff I had made. I have really felt like a lazy slacker so I was glad to find that I had been doing something. I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July. Thank you so much for stopping by today,

~Kim~

“Like ghosts the children walked across the lawn on their bare feet. The moon was full. Above the damp grass hung a veil of mist, luminous with moonlight and spangled with fireflies. There was no wind, and the sound of the brook was very distinct, tinkling, splashing, running softly. 

---Elisabeth Enright, The Four Story Mistake.