out in the country.

there's a little place out in conyers that i bet most people don't know about. the monastery of the holy spirit. our sunday school class took a field trip out here, what a beautiful day. i remember coming out here to field trips when i was in middle/high school. we enjoyed learning about the monastery, which was established in 1944, and a picnic lunch along with the ducks. what a true treasure. andrew and i enjoyed ourselves. i hope to make it out here again in the spring. there are extra photos on flickr.
no afternoon out would be complete without a stop at the quilt shop, returned to Sweet Home Quilt Co. it was only 10 minutes away, and on the way home!!! the quilt club stopped by here during the shop hop, this store has a great selection of reproduction fabrics. bought a couple pieces to include with my scrambled eggs class that kathy and i are taking tomorrow.

plans.

this is a rough sketch of what we're doing on one side of the craft area. the office, bathroom, and tv room will be just standard walls, fixtures, etc. but the BEST part will be what we do in this area-the photo below represents only about 1/2 of the space that will be finished, but you get the general idea.
details of what's going to happen here- a set of cabinets, drawers, "bar" fridge, small sink, and another set of drawers on the end, a total of 10'. a counter for work space, and a set of cabinets above complete with a WINE RACK!!!!! i may never leave my "area". will continue to update on the progress. so far the only thing that's been done is the studs that are necessary in order to put up the sheet rock. stay tuned.

lots to talk about

alot's been going on this last week for us, satuarday we had my birthday dinner, which was delicious, ina's asian grilled salmon , andrew's choice, very moist very easy. kathy and the girls came by for cupcakes and chocolate cake (courtesy of danielle), i had a few moles removed on wednesday (fun, fun), and we got mom scheduled for her pace-maker switch-out (friday 8/28), cross-country banquet (no photos,) and packing up the areas in the basement we plan to finish (starting tomorrow). i've uploaded tons of photos on flickr, before shots of the basement, which hopefully will be done in a couple weeks, and some knitting stuff. bought some new yarn last week at cast on cottage, and managed to find a pattern for some stashed yarn without having to purchase more. details on ravelry.

steve and i had a great time at the green egg-790 the zone event yesterday, me with kevin rathbun-iron chef winner (he and his brother beat bobby flay in 08 with secret ingredient "elk", after meeting this guy i can easily believe that!) this event was a fundraiser for the gold shield organization in atlanta, and even though it was hot we had a good time sampling the goodies from buckhead beef, and sweetwater brewery. if they host this event again next year, i might participate in the cooking competition. whew, a lot packed into 7 days, but have been loving the rain and the cool temps today. too bad monday is just around the corner.

have you had yours?

don't put it off, got mine done on friday. also, i'd like to promote karen and mary's atlanta 2 day walk that's coming up. the money raised stays in atlanta which i love-i want to do my part to spread the word, and help them meet their goal.

farm fresh.

linda m (from church) invited us to come pick "stuff", so kathy mom and i headed over to linda's homestead-it was amazing.
our harvest
another shot- purple "green" beans, mini bell peppers, yellow tomatoes, egg plant, jalapenos, and regular tomatoes- yum, glad i had plans for veggie lasagna this weekend. more farm shots on flickr.

i did a little quilt shopping too!

many thanks.

to those who sent me birhtday greetings. big thanks to mary for posting about our celebration on saturday. it was a wonderful time (as always), and the special birthday post on her blog today. greetings from near and far- chester-uk, watford-uk, amsterdam, kennesaw, acworth, leesburg, roswell, and new york, and in many forms- in person, cards (2 beautiful homemade ones), text messages, emails, e-cards, and facebook postings. it warms my heart to be loved by so many. ♥

moving right along

the last week of summer vacation is now over, where did the summer go? went to orientation with pj and andrew (hard to believe andrew's in the 9th grade). wish i had taken a few photos. added this book to my craft library (can actually see myself doing some of this stuff, and with a 40% off coupon-who can resist?!) friday was quilt club, and we agreed on our official meeting day (3rd friday night of each month), and finalized plans for hilton head-we are so excited about this trip. my photos from quilt night didn't come out 'cause for some reason, the memory card was not all the way into the camera, so the cute photo of me in my london t-shirt and janey in her union jack didn't come out :-(. i finally got the buttons sewed onto the two baby sweaters, and made some progress on the miniature square from sunday's class. it's going much faster now since i'm not stopping for instruction. i'm really liking the paper piecing concept (supposed to be one of the easiest ways to get crisp points, it think the difficulty lies in the size of the pieces) , but don't anticipate doing anything this small again unless i have granddaughters or grand nieces, and they need a quilt for their doll bed! looking forward to checking out the marietta farmers market this morning (mary and sara have inspired me to make the treck down, hope i find good stuff), and this afternoon's birthday gathering will be loads of fun. what a great way to end summer vacation.

i've laid out the pieces as they'll be in the square, kind of hard to really tell what the finished square will look like, maybe by sunday i'll have it done.

sweater details on ravelry.

ratatouille and quilting.

hmmm. what do those things have in common, and i thought this blog was "life and yarn". okay well hopefully there will be more of that this week. saturday morning after the "31" event (i'm having one in september), headed off to do a couple errands, then home for a quick lunch, sliced tomatoes w/feta cheese, and fruit salad-so simple and sooooo good.

ratatouille- lots of chopping, but very very good, looking forward to leftovers.
today's quilt class was a lot of fun, didn't realize the quilt square was going to be a miniature, tons of tiny pieces, but am glad to learn the paper piecing concept, and look forward to using it on other projects. this is the teacher's sample, i used the nickel to give you an idea of scale.

here are my bits, my block includes a variety of pinks, and butterflies, hopefully by the end of the week i will have a photo worthy wip for this block. got a couple nifty tools also, one kathy and i have joint custody of!
kathy is doing her paper cutting, she's such a good girl-she helped me out on more than one occasion during class. you can just see the hot pink i'm using which will be where the black squares are at on the teacher's blocks- oh yea, we did go to harry's before hand and get biscotti, bread and a few other "yummies" before class.
this is the next class we want to take, it's called "scrambled eggs" it is done with 15 fat quarters, using a 10" block, supposed to be super super easy. we'll see.
a great day, now that i've done the hoa financials for july, cleaned up the kitchen, gotten my lunch together for next week, i think i'll take my shower, do some knitting and get ready to see the next food network star, then again, not until i' refill wine glass-i need it after all those little pieces!