Almost July

 How can it be the last time I wrote a blog it was April??? Where have I been? What have I been doing? I think even moving and all of that jazz last year, I still wrote more than I have this year. 

We got back from Tucson and watching the kids while, Kessie and her family moved to a new house. That was the mountain we saw when we looked out the back of the house we rented. Tucson is nice, but really hot. This was the first time we flew. I like driving better I think, but it was nice to get home after an hour and half flight. 

That was the other mountain we could see. How I would love to get closer to it. I have been sewing a little since I got back and hooking a little. But mostly I have been reading. In 2020 I stopped going to the library. Mainly because my branch was closed for remodeling. I could go to a different branch, but for awhile it wasn't opened and then it was for pickup only. I just didn't want to do that so I got a Kindle. 

I went back to the library to my newly remodeled branch the beginning of June. When I walked in I was greeted like a old friend, by the building as well as the wonderful staff. It was like finally I got to come home. I do love the touch and feel of books. With my Kindle I was introduced to new authors and new genres that  I have never read before. I also read more books on the Kindle but never the same type of enjoyment reading from a real book.  

I picked up books, by Elisabeth Goudge, Rumor Godden, M.M. Kaye and Dick Francis. Books that I haven't read in awhile. When  I woke up this morning, my first thought was, I have an empty calendar. I don't have a single thing on it. It is like finding a whole box of the yummiest box of chocolates and having the job of choosing which one I want. That is how it feels today. After a very, very busy spring and now summer. I have an empty calendar. 

  My grandson texted me this morning, and said, " We are sending pictures for rugs for our new house." 

I will enjoy making rugs for them in their new house. Soon. Because I do love everything about rug hooking too. 

Now though, I am enjoying reading and going to the library. When I think of summer, it reminds me of the smell of the chlorine in the  swimming pool, the hot toasty smell of the flowers and the grass in the yard. The sound of the trees in the summer breeze and the idea of sitting in a tree with a book and living in different worlds. When I read books I am reminded how you are sharing a brain with someone. You are reading their thoughts and incorporating their world view in to your own. I still believe that reading is one of the powerful things a person can do. As I am older now, I am much more careful of what I read. I can go back to books I read as a child or young woman and I am so surprised that thoughts I have claimed as my own are really not but another persons thoughts. So I realize that I am not really me, but lots of people who have influenced me and have been my role model. All because of having a library to spend time in during the summer.

I always had our children in summer reading programs. I don't know if they loved it as much as I did, but what I loved on hot summer afternoons when we would all be in the living room sitting quietly reading our books from the library. My library here is much smaller now. I really need to go through it again and clean out the weeds that seem to crop up here from time to time. While in Tucson, helping to pack up books, I ran across the books that had come from our house and now live in the library of our grandchildren. How happy it makes me to know that the books our children read are now being read again. Every book I picked up and asked the kids, " Have you read this? Did you like it? Tell me what you thought?" They had read them all and they had a opinion of that book and they could quote a line from it that they liked. I was quite astounded and very blessed. Knowing that this is the third generation to meet the friends and acquaintances that I met so long ago. I loved that one of my grand daughters loved Ramona Quimbly. She said she has read all of those books over and over. I loved that they don't realize that already they just love books and there is no reading level they just read because they like it. 

I have just written this post, only about books and my love for them. Not really much else. I am glad that on the first day of my summer vacation, I could write a blog. 

I hope you are all enjoying your summer too. Its nice to be back.

~Kim~

"Grownups! Everyone remembers them. How strange and even sad it is that we never became what they were: beings noble, infallible, and free. We never became them. One of the things we discover as we live is that we never become anything different from what we are. We are no less ourselves at forty than we were at four, and because of this we know grownups as Grownups only once in life: during our own childhood. We never meet them in our lives again, and we will miss them always."

Elisabeth Enright.

Now Sweet April

 Happy April!

We planted Lilacs after we took out a do nothing hedge. If I can keep them alive, I will have a very nice group of flowers. These are Persian Lilacs, so hopefully they will like the weather better than the Eastern kind. They smell wonderful. Isn't spring lovely? I have loved watching this new neighborhood wake up this year. I admit to thinking about things I looked forward to each year at the old house, but I grab myself by the scruff of the neck and don't let me go there. Look forward, never back. How on earth would I get so many projects finished if I was Kim Hula-hoe hand I ask you? 

I have one side to finish binding to finish Mr. Whiskers from Star Rug Company. 

 This is such a fun little pattern. I just enjoyed it so much. I love whimsical rugs. I hope to finish his binding today. Binding is so hard on my hands, I don't know why, but they just get so sore, I can't even open a door. I guess I should stick to the hula hoe... Not!

I got that cute little book from With Thy Needle and Thread, Jelly Bean Jubilee. So many cute patterns. 

The hardest thing was picking which ones to do first. Such fun colors too. 

The big rabbit pinkeep is from Scattered Seed Samplers. The chick is from the Jelly Bean book. 

It was so much fun to do these spring things. I had made a goal for myself from January to March. I have accomplished them. Now I have to plan some goals for April-June. I know planting my teeny-tiny garden is in the works so I might slow down on the sewing and hooking front. Its such a different year from last year. We put the house on the market a year ago today. So glad to be here this year. 

So its all good. All of the babies born in 2020 are growing and are perfect. Crawling, trying to walk and rolling over. Sweet, sweet things to think about. I feel very, very blessed and happy. 

I wish you a wonderful Easter, full of blessings,

Kim

… the two men asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ ”…

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

 

 Spring is around the corner. The blowy days of March are here. I do love March. We get all kinds of weather in March and I love all of the changing clouds and bright blue skies. I love the wind and I love the rain. Then every so often a 70 degree day is thrown in for good measure. 

I have been happily hooking, sewing and gardening. We have a nursery just down the street from us and when I have to get out of the house for a bit, I can go down there and explore. Its a big nursery and I have yet to reach the end of the property. Ron is going to take the day off tomorrow and we are going to buy some Lilacs, Oklahoma Redbud and whatever else we can plant in our front yard. Ron has taken out the bushes, boring bushes that were here and replaced them with his Japanese Maples. We had a tree company come take out the diseased cherry tree and the Oleanders last week. 

That is the empty flowerbed we had everything taken out of. That tree and bushes are the neighbor next door. I had to be fast because I was still in my pajamas and when you have neighbors it feels pretty weird being outside in public. Even though, I am surprised that the neighbors do come outside in P.J.s 

I finished Windy Day, which is the reason for the post. Last year when Saundra did a post on her adorable rug, I bought it. Then we moved. I finally got to hook it a year later. Its a very lovely rug.

Its called Windy Day. By Primitive Grace.--- W. Cushing and Company. I love whimsical rugs and designs so much. 

My next rug is called Mr. Whiskers by Star Rug company. I love bunny rugs. Hooking is just so much fun that I don't have a million things to get done each day. In my other house, I woke up every morning so sore I just couldn't move. I thought that it must be because I was getting old. Then we moved. I haven't been that sore in six months. I wake up every day excited to be alive and some kind of fun list to accomplish which involves lots of creative things. It might be gardening or hooking or needle punch or working with wool. All of it is amazing to me. Ron has started working on his Bonsai again, He has grown these trees for years and now to see him finally get to create again is just just an huge incredible blessing. 

I hope you have the best day! I love Wednesdays. Well, every morning now, I love whatever day it happens to be. 

Blessings today from me to you.

~Kim~

Saint Patrick's Breastplate...

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger

 

 

Its is March; Yay!

 Happy March! 

It feels like spring around here. We have been busy making this house ours. Its so much more fun fixing this house rather than trying to get one ready to sell and then move. 

In February it was a busy month. We finally had the hot tub hauled off. I was so happy to see that thing go and the next day, Ron and Peter put this in.

Our yard faces south. There is no shade at all in the back yard. We have plans to add a bigger patio at some point, but this helps so much. 

That is it for a back porch. We have so much solar that I would rather be tree less in the back yard, after years of crazy power bills, I am so thankful to be here where PG&E is not who I support each month. 

The next project is making raised beds in what flowerbeds I do have. It really makes me crazy not having any food growing. I have never been without a place to grow food before. I was out in the back yard the other day, and I could hear a hen singing that she needed to lay a egg. So someone here has some hens. It made me happy. 

I do have a few finished projects that I did in February. Only three. I didn't get as much finished as I thought I would. It starts getting warm and I have to go outside and just look at things. 

This little rug by Theresa Kogut. I have wanted to do this rug from the first time I saw it. It was nice to hook after that big rug I finished in January. 

 This sweet bunny pattern from Scattered Seed Samplers called Spring Gathering. I have had it forever and it was all kitted and ready to go, it just took me so long to get to it. I am going to make it into a pen keep I think. 

This is by Maggie Bonami. I bought the pattern from Blackberry Primitives. Its called Autumn Blooms. 

Its really big, much bigger than I thought it would be, I was thinking quilt block and its more like a table topper. 

So pretty productive for February I think. I am finally getting to the place in my mind where gardening is beginning to sound like fun again. I was really worried about myself, because it seemed like for so long, gardening was just to big in my mind. Ron has been taking out bushes and putting in all of his Japanese Maples. Its going to look so pretty when they leaf out all red. So far I think he has planted nine or ten. He has some more to plant. They won't get that big and they are ones he had grafted and grew himself. I am so glad they are finally in the ground.

I am writing my post and Max takes a flying leap to my desk. He thinks he has to be in the same place as I am, I think I would get more sewing finished if he didn't try to steal everything. Pens, scissors, wool. He is quite a thief. 

I am currently working on Windy Day.

It just makes me happy to hook it. Its a great pattern for March. 

I hope you have the best weekend. Its going to be perfect here. 80 degrees. But like typical March, it will be raining and cold next week. 

Thank you so much for stopping by,

~Kim~

*The Wonderful Things You Will Be

by Emily Winfield Martin

“I know you’ll be kind… and clever… and bold. And the bigger your heart, the more it will hold. When nights are black and when days are gray—you’ll be brave and be bright so no shadows can stay. And become anybody that you’d like to be. And then I’ll look at you and you’ll look at me and I’ll love you, whoever you’ve grown up to be.”

***You know who you are. ;)