A Slight Ripple

 Wednesday I developed a migraine-the worst one I have ever endured.   The kind where you curl up and just ride the pain!  Matthew is out of town this week so Ashley called to ask if she and Will could come for a few days-needless to say, she nursed me through the day and it was wonderful to have the help!  I awoke a big slow on Thursday but much better and got to enjoy my grandson and daughter-in-law in a better frame of mind!

 Bill is finally cutting down the large Camphor tree in the front yard.   It has been a long and tedious project.

 He notched the big half of the tree so it would fall in the driveway and not hit any of the flowers!

 Then he climbed up to the other side for the final cut!

 It made a big boom and Will was duly impressed!

 After Bill cut up the fallen wood,

 Will got to help carry them away!

 When he wasn't on the tractor or in the pool, he was busy playing.  He is finally entertaining himself which is lovely for everyone!

Ashley took to the new glass projects quite well!   She was fearless and had lots of ideas.   She would find something she liked from Pintrest and make it happen!   We had a fun few days-she is off to meet Matthew as he is due home tonight!

Normal Days

 Bill is busy trimming branches that are blocking the citrus trees.   He cuts down a bunch of branches and then hauls them away with his tractor.

 We enjoy this big cluster of blooms-I have always wanted one of these and now I have one! (A Blue Allium for those inquiring minds!)

 There is a new quilt on the frame-it is for a friend who did the piecing!   And has a deadline to get it finished in time for  a wedding when I am done with my part!   Fun to be included in the process!

 I am enjoying the swirly quilting lines-I am pacing myself so I can make my deadline-it is very enjoyable to have a big quilt on the frame again!

When I am too tired to stand and quilt, I putter at more glass work-I am enjoying the lessons!

Time is Rushing by........

 If I wasn't at the doctor's, I was piecing this quilt top.

 That is, when I wasn't sorting glass!  I was determined to get each of the jumbled boxes of glass into some kind of order.

 I sorted into rainbow order in case you wondered, daughter!

 I worked a little each morning and emptied each of these boxes!

Now I can find just the right piece !

 To make things like this`!  I am still working on my know how experience-each piece is still a complete surprise!   See how the orange glass crackled in these-it looks like the other glass that doesn't do this so I don't know why but I am learning!   Also-the contrast in the striped piece disappeared when the two colors fused-another surprise.   That glass cracked when cooling.   I have all the glass to experiment forever-my bins are full!

Isn't this a cute little bit-it  happens when I fuse a milliflori piece on top of a plain one.  Simple and pretty results!

 When I run out of upright energy, I work on this shawl!   Garter stitch takes so much longer to show length but I am plugging away.  The knitting is very squishy which is pleasing so I will keep working at it!

 I managed to reach one of the magnolia blooms so I could bring it into the house-wow!  The whole dining room smelled delicious!  The bloom only lasts for 36 hours and then it looks like this...

 Thank goodness I have more to pick and bring in the house!

Start and Finish Lines

 I finished the socks from Marsel's local yarn shop.   The skeins were labeled the same dye lot but they had variations that were a bit random and I had to make myself relax over the differences! (The main differences were the variations in the length of each stripe!) The yarn feels delicious on the feet and that is a wonderful outcome!  (Classic Elite Liberty machine wash wool)

 I cut out some patriotic fabrics.   I have quite a stack of red/white and blue fabrics that I hope to get done by July 4th .

 I made a pair of wrist warmers while I decide what I am going to knit next.

I began to piece the apple core pieces I cut out in April.  And so my week begins.......

Another Hobby

Bill and I had the pleasure of a long car ride to Gainesville to visit the neurosurgeon who will be evaluating my health and how the bulging disc is affecting me and the MS treatment.  The appointment was jeopardized by the Imaging center who was supposed to have my MRI records ready for me to pick up but instead closed a few hours earlier than they had told me for their  Memorial Day weekend without letting me know!  The doctor was a trooper to still see me but he was limited in his evaluation without this information. 

 (Bill and I will have to pick up the records and drive them to the doctor on Tuesday!)

FYI-Incompetence is rampant but unfortunately, not terminal.

I did a bit of knitting in the car on the way and back but car riding is so uncomfortable, I mostly just lean back and fight the pain.  (These are from the souvenir yarn I bought in Georgia.)

 Bill had a surprise for me on the way home-lunch on the deck at Corky Bells.  It went a long way to restoring my being!

 I was fascinated with the pine cones on the Cypress tree!

They looked like little fruit on the branches.........well, I guess they are, right?!

Home..........Work

 Wednesday and Thursday I had to adjust from travel and missing family but as usual I do a bunch of cleaning to distract myself-this is the first time that I can say-there was nothing to clean!  Bill had done a stellar job of keeping up to things and so I could do a bunch of resting when I got home!

 In between recliner time, I am learning about glass work.   These are bits of glass I have cut for jewelry.   I fuse them in the little microwave kiln I bought.  (The round thing in the background.)

 Sometimes things go well and sometimes I get a surprise like this.  It is all a part of the learning process!

 But mostly it goes like this!   It is just very satisfying and since there is quite a bit of waiting time, it is a perfect creative outlet for me right now!  (Waiting for the glass to cool to do the next piece!)

When we bought this house, we found boxes and boxes of glass here-from neighbors we learned the Mrs was a stained glass worker.   She left me enough to work for a few years!   I am also going to tackle stained glass work soon!  This is the year!

 Bill had his own fun project when I got home, the bathroom plumbing had sprung a leak when I was gone and it ruined the flooring in our closet and bedroom.   He had to pull up the closet and our bedroom will be tackled on another week.......the good news is that he was able to find the leak right at the base of this pipe and fix it without having to jack hammer miles of our slab cement to find it!  (Horrible to even think about!)  We do have more flooring for our bedroom also and that is a relief!

 I missed these guys!   This is something new Bill started when I was gone-a morning catnip party!
The girls do not all get along well out in the yard but during this party, everyone is nice and does their own thing!   It is a riot to watch!  (Two of our cats are missing-Bling doesn't react to catnip and JD doesn't play with the others-no matter what!)

 It was nice to see what is blooming in my yard, too.  This is the tail end of the cactus blooms.

 In the Christmas cactus by my main doorway, I am always fighting the wrens who want to build a condo here!  Since I was gone and there was no one to tear it down every morning, they made great progress!   I will have to leave it now in case there are eggs inside!  The creeps!

It was nice to spend my afternoon here-listening to a knitting podcast and knitting and dozing!  The pool is just right for my aches and pains right now!!!

Updates

The tie dyed t-shirts turned out great, didn't they!

The pattern for the amazing summer dress we made uses Simplicity 2217 for those inquiring minds.
(Sad news-it says it is out of print.   Look for similar pattern using the Amazing Fit line of patterns)

Final Days Projects

 I saw a cool tutorial to make a cat tent on Craft: Daily and I gave the kids a list and we accumulated our ingredients!  A fun project and the cats cooperated and enjoyed it, too!

 While the project is titled Cat Tent, I think it is a bit small for a cat and is a good project for kittens!  When Marsel is tired of moving it around, she can donate it to her local cat shelter!

 Abigail and I planned a kitchen project-even though that is not my favorite room, she is and so we made a dessert for dinner.

 A recent Facebook recipe, tweaked by me.   It was delicious!

 Then we wrapped up our frenzy with some t-shirt dyeing.  We bought a kit from Hobby Lobby for the dyes and then had fun picking our scrunching up designs for the shirts!

 We found this cool wasp nest in the corner of the garage, too.  You can see inside it!

 From the front, it looks strange now-like a balloon!

 The results were amazing and I have convinced them to save up and buy some more dye to do some more of this kind of project with friends!  This is Marsel's shirt.

 Abigail's shirt.

 David's shirt.

 Abigail's .

 And David's.   I will show you the finished surprise project tomorrow.

 Since I am on a colored glass hunt, we found this beer bottle of black glass!  I was cleaned and wrapped and brought home for a near-future project in the glass lab!

These two skeins are from the annual LYS trip, superwash Liberty wool from Classic Elite.

For the record, we learned that no matter how much time you are together (and this was a record one, at 26 days together counting the days watching Will at my house, too!) it is still painful to say goodbye! But it was wonderful to have Bill meet me at the airport.