I Like Thursdays

Lee Anna of Not Afraid of Color does an I like Thursdays.  I know.... I bet you are wondering how can she (me) even have anything to like lately?  Yes it has been a pretty nasty year.  But I have so much to be thankful for....I will admit as of late I have really struggled to think of anything to be thankful for though.  I told my grief counselor and was given a writing task---I have kind of regressed on my grief journey. 

First thing every morning grab a notebook and pen and start to write.  First 5 minutes is kind of free form.  Random, thoughts running through my head at that time....memories of any dreams, feelings, my to do list for the day.  Then I am to write down 10 things I am thankful for.  Man I have had a tough time with that one.  But it is a good exercise.  Then I am supposed to kind of write whatever is on my mind, what has been bugging me.  I will admit I have been struggling with it.  But I thought I should join LeeAnna and post what I am thankful for.  Here is the question did she find 10 items to post about that she likes? 

I love quilt shows.  While the big AQS shows are neat, I love the local ones.  I had the good fortune to see a quilt show notice for this past weekend in Dearborn at the 1st United Methodist Church.  Wow!  What a blessing. I will just show a couple of pictures because I have been working on a post or multiple posts for this show for a week now transferring pictures from my phone to my computer. 

 Quilts were laid out over the pews.  Neat way to display, but hard to get a good look at them.  Also very difficult to get good pictures of them. What I absolutely adored though were the two wall hangings on each side of the Chancel. 

A storm at sea with a person casting a net.  Made me think of the verse in the book of Matthew 4:19 

"And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."  

On the opposite side was this quit which reminded me of a basket and the stories of the loaves and fishes. 

The transept pews were full of quilts also, but above the southern portion was this gorgeous rose window.

You can see the pipes for the organ and the angel carvings.  What a gorgeous old church.

I love my garden.  Jeff used to call it my hippy garden.  I plant perennials and let them go.  I love that my butterfly bush yesterday was full of butterflies.

There are only 2 in this picture.  One at the top, and one at the bottom, you can see his wings in an L shape.  When I first walked out the door there were about 10, of course by the time I got my camera, and got it focused in they were gone. 

I love the geranium on my porch that continues to bloom even though I have abused it with no water, or plant food.  I pop off the dead flower heads occasionally.  The gorgeous peachy pink flowers. 

I like that I have the wall down in my great room.  The temporary bedroom that Jeff and I built for the great aunt is  no more.  I have moved some furniture back in, and spread my sewing stuff around.  I need to move the great uncle's desk out into the barn and I can then move my TV/entertainment center into the main house off of the sun porch for the winter.

Nope I am not going to paint or anything yet.  I am just going to be.  Yes it is still a mess with a ladder (need to fix the ceiling fan), a shop vac, and another vac.  But it will do for now, and I clean up a bit each day.  I would love to put new flooring throughout the great room and into the kitchen, even though it is highly unlikely my kitchen will every be fully remodeled.  Hey don't judge, the ladder makes an awesome end table for books, a candle, jar of water....

I have been doing a lot of cross stitch lately.  I discovered HAED (Heaven and Earth Designs) which is like cross stitch on steroids.  I have a floor stand,  2 hooped pieces which are regular cross stitch, and a Q snap frame piece going right now (another HAED).  The Q snap frame piece I bought this garter to keep from getting the edges dirty.  The little foxes are just too cute.

This piece is called Quilt Barn by Kay Lamb Shannon.

There will be almost 325,000 stitches in this when it is done.

Along with the frame garter I like my needle nanny.

It is a magnetic piece which almost looks like a cameo that will hold your needle when you aren't sewing.  It is great because a certain feline cannot pick the needle off of it.  This one looks like an old hand crank machine.  The lady I ordered the garter from included a needle minder that matched. 

I like to watch the Turkey Buzzard migration.  It is amazing to watch them as they make these huge circles each one as they complete it getting further and further south.  I tried to take a pictures the other day, but the sun was just too bright, and I could not get a good one.  I found this one though.

 They make me smile, because last year Gabe would lay in the lot and dare the Turkey Buzzards to land.  They would get closer and closer to the ground.  Obviously he was not very interesting though, probably didn't smell bad enough yet, that they never landed.

One of the problems I have been having lately is that I have always been a caregiver of sorts.  I cared for my brother and sister growing up, and my parents home and small farm.  I always had a cat, a dog, and other animals around.  Then I got married and had my husband and his buddies around all the time to care for, transitioning to our daughters.  Even after we were divorced I still had my daughters and a couple of long term boyfriends along the way.  The grandsons came along, and then came Jeff.  While I cared for him, he cared for me also it was much different.  Last year I had also taken on the responsibility of caring for the great aunt and uncle full time.  Imagine after 40 years of caring for someone or something to have it all snatched away from you.  You feel kind of rudderless floating adrift on the sea.  Don't get me wrong, the grandsons are around, and I inherited Lucy the cat.  But it was much different.  I felt like I had all this love pent up with no where to go.  Lucy is an older cat and very aloof, not into being held or even petted.  I know you are asking yourself where is this going.....Last week on my way to therapy, I saw a pet store that had puppies advertised, chihuahua puppies.  I love dogs, but I like small dogs, they don't eat as much, they are much more portable, and they make just as much noise as a big dog if you need protection--lets just say that I have had some bad experiences with big dogs when it comes to protection in the past.  I considered it for a moment and thought no.  I don't need a dog.  I feel like I can barely take care of myself. 

I got home and was looking for firewood to be delivered through an online app.  I saw one advertisement and messaged the guy.  While I was waiting to see if he answered my query, I scrolled down and saw the most adorable little faces.  A lady had chihuahua puppies for sale.  One girl and 4 boys.  There seemed to be a lot of interest for the girl, but not so much for the boys.  But they were all so sweet. 

The next day the man answered me about the firewood asking me how much I wanted.  I told him 4 cords.  He said he would have to get back to me that was a lot of wood to deliver.  I scrolled down and saw the puppies again. 

Two days later (Saturday) I am in quilt class and a man messages me.  Not the one I had asked about the firewood, but another.  He has firewood, he lives nearer to me and he will deliver it.  I still have to stack it but he could deliver it this week.  I told him sure since the other man had not got back to me.  I got home and looked at the original firewood post, and to see if the original guy I had been talking to had answered any of the other people.  He hadn't.   Of course I scrolled down to see the puppies.  Not one of them was gone yet, even the female was still available, and they had dropped the price.  I messaged the lady and asked how big the parents were.  She answered me right away.  It was after 7 in the evening, and she asked me if I would like to see the puppies?  I told her I would be interested in the girl if she was still available.  When did she have time to meet? The girl was still available, and the lady would meet me at PetSmart in Monroe in 15 minutes if I was truly interested.  Let's just say it was love at first sight.  This little lady hopped up, covered me in kisses and the tail did not stop wagging. 

Meet Bobbin.  My quart jar is a good reference to Bobbin's size. 

She is a little ball of energy.  Thanks Nancy of Pug Mom Quilts for the name suggestion.  She is like a Bobbin too.  She spins in circles all the time, when she is not sleeping.

My daughter's SO says he has not seen me smile or laugh in a long time and it does his heart good to see me with her.  (He insists her name should have been Cujo). 

Wow I made it through with some things to like.  I will be linking up with LeeAnna's I like Thursdays post.