hodgepodge . . .

Really I have just a strange collection of odds and ends from my life to share today. All of them are important to me in one way or another, so I just piled 'em up together. There's no wonder I don't have a design wall per se . . . I've been too busy buying fabrics and running the video on my camera . . .

First, a nod back to Knoxville and the AQS show. One of the most poignant exhibits there was the traveling Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative exhibit. Unfortunately, in order to preserve the quilts, no photography was allowed, but you can see photos of it HERE at their website and some HERE if you "like" them on facebook. (Photo from the website.)

I had actually had an opportunity earlier in the year to put the name of a dear friend and mentor on one of the squares. I was so excited and touched to find her name -- my handwriting -- on the exhibit (yes; that's the thing I had a part in that was hanging at the AQS show) . It's a very beautiful and moving display and would have been worth the AQS entrance fee if that had been all I'd seen. If you have the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend it.

Next? I got not one, but TWO happy packages in the mail! The first was this wonderful collection of books - and you can see, there are some great titles (and a cute little notepad which is perfect for list-making and/or doodling)!

This came from Peggy at The Simple Woman's Day Book.

The second package came from Karen over at Lisnaweary Quilts. She picked my names, "Cactus Kid & Bo" for her little guys on her Wild West Quilt.

Aren't these fun and pretty? Perfect for the little cowgirl in my life (and I do have one or two).

Saturday I got to spend a couple of hours with my favorite little man, Sawyer Graham. I cannot believe how busy and chatty he is!

Just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

See that frown? That's what happens when you try and read your books upside down!

Great profile shot, non?

Just so HAPPY!

I managed to whittle this little clip down from the eleven minute mini-movie it originally was. It's still entertaining to me -- and I've already watched it a dozen times!

Remind me to share why the pig says, "La la la!" I love being a grandmaaaaaa. :)

Then finally, from today, we have new visitors at the camp!

Mama Raccoon and her sweet little babies! They were the first raccoon babies I've ever seen. We saw the first fawn of the season up here last week -- but it was very timid and wouldn't come out for a camera shot. With the baby raccoons I had no such problems.

They were so cute -- and they didn't get too far from mama at first.

Todd commented how amazing it is that we're seeing them in the daylight like this.

Something startled them (another raccoon -- a big male -- came out to eat) and they went dashing up the tree!

After they'd been in the clearing for a while, they got a little braver and let mom get more than six feet away. But my favorite part of their visit I managed to catch on video . . .

Isn't that fun?!?!

All right, I've got a busy, busy (but fun) week in store. Tomorrow I'm off to a church finances seminar and then we've got Community Groups in the evening. I've got a dear, quilty friend coming for lunch and iced tea on Wednesday followed by an evening with the Ignite ladies at the movies (Winnie the Pooh), then Thursday I've got some book-keeping to do before I head off to my guild meeting. Friday I've got lunch at Emma's with a sweet young lady from church, and then a Friday evening ladies' conference at Lighthouse Baptist, and then Saturday morning is the Sulky Thread workshop. Whew! I'm out of breath just typing all that! Good thing the list Todd gave me for the week was such that I finished everything but one item today!

:)

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knock, knock . . .

Hi Neesey, c'mon in!

Hey my darling Sawyer! What are you doing today?

I'm playing house -- you want to play with me? Come play!

Sawyer, I can't imagine anything I'd rather be doing than playing with you!

Neesey, this is my panda. I love him a lot. Mmmmwah!

Sawyer, I can see indeed that your panda is well-loved!

What's for lunch, Neesey?

How about sharing my zucchini and tortellini, and a piece of pizza for you?

Yum! That sounds really good, Neesey.

Sawyer, you have such big blue eyes!

First you see 'em, now you don't, Neesey!

Sawyer, you are so silly! I love you!

Nee--seeeeeeey . . .

Yes, Sawyer dear?

My lunch is that-a-way!

Okay, darling boy, here it comes.

Mmmm mmmm yummmmy!

Tortellini must be good?

And so are the bread sticks, Neesey!

I see that, Sawyer!

Now that I'm done and all cleaned up, will you read to me?

Of course I will, sweet boy! Let's find a book with bigger print, okay?

What about this one, Neesey? I like this one!

God Knows All About Me -- that's a good choice, Sawyer!

Does God really know all about me, Neesey?

Yes, darling boy, He certainly does.

At least, that's how I imagine his part of our conversation went yesterday! He's quite the chatterbox -- he talks nonstop! It's not his fault I can understand but a word, here and there. And it won't be long before his words will be clear and intelligible, either. He's grown a little (lot) more every time I see him. And he's so bright! I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with him yesterday. He's such a cuddly, loving little boy.

Tomorrow morning I'm getting up very early, grabbing my suitcase, and headed out with my friends, Kathy and Kari, on a road trip to Knoxville, Tennessee! We're going to take in the first day of the AQS show, spend the night, and do a little shopping. I'm thrilled to be able to go! I'll be sure to take my camera and my battery charger. Lots of fun pics when I return. And maybe a purchase or two?! Hahaha!

Toodles!

:)

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family, food & fun . . .

We had a marvelous Independence Day celebration up at the camp! Guess who came to visit?!?

Yes! My darling Sawyer! Look how grown up he looks! He was just a kid at the camp yesterday. He brought his mommy and daddy, too. And Jocelyn and Jason came as well, to make the family circle complete!

Todd was the grill master for the event. Every family brought their own meat to grill and a side to share. It was a good plan!

I decked out a picnic table so it looked rather 4th-ish. I'd purchased some citronella candles for the table, to help keep bugs away. They actually did a pretty good job!

None of us just brought "one dish" to share, so the buffet table was full! It was almost like Thanksgiving!! It was funny -- once the meat was all ready and the lids taken off the serving dishes, someone remarked, "What are we waiting for, let's eat!"

Sawyer knew what that meant -- he ran for his chair. He was ready to eat too!

Such a charmer. He held up his end of the dinner conversation quite well. No one could understand all that he was saying, but his tone was cheery!

There was plenty for everyone. Joc made a yummy, not-your-typical coleslaw and a tomato and corn salad that was *wonderful*! Kim made roasted potatoes and a sugar-free apple pie (which was delish)! Jason even tossed in a pan of brownies he made just for the event! Add to that the prerequisite baked beans and watermelon . . .

And as you can see, plates were full!!

Sawyer particularly enjoyed the watermelon! (Never tell a young child to say, "Cheese!" when they have a mouthful of watermelon. LOL!)

Sawyer had three or four rides in the golf cart. He just loves riding around in that thing and he sits so nicely and quietly while it's moving. Early in the evening, I asked Sawyer if he wanted to go for a ride. He didn't answer me, he just took off running for the golf cart. Oh, I guess he *did* answer me!

Jason was the camera master for the evening!

He used an 8-second exposure to help create these fun effects! I can write my name with a sparkler!

And the star was fun, too.

James, who was having more fun with the sparklers than anyone, was our fireworks master for the evening. Jason had purchased a bunch of fireworks a year ago and brought them. He was having fun filming, so James agreed to light the fuses.

We had some rockets red glare.

And bombs bursting in air.

Giving proof through the night, that time with family is the best.

:)

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a full, fun father's day weekend . . .

It started out Friday evening with a surprise call from Kim, wanting to know if I wanted to get in some "Sawyer time" that night. Are you kidding me?! Of course! I suggested they bring Sawyer over for a sleepover, so they did! I love Sawyer sleepovers!

We had pizza for dinner. As you can plainly see, Sawyer likes pizza . . .

I know it looks bad, but he cleaned up very nicely! He sure can cram some pizza into his little mouth.

After dinner, Sawyer and I went out for a ride on the golf cart. He *loves* to ride around the camp. We went down the low road and saw this . . .

At first I was very startled, but then I remembered that we had the Christian Southern Archers coming out on Saturday for an event, and they'd already set up their targets. Sawyer didn't know the difference, though, and for the rest of our sixty-minute ride, he growled at every animal we came upon.

Especially this big ol' guy, up in the upper meadow. Even when we got close enough to touch it, Sawyer just growled and growled. It's very funny to listen to and even funnier when you know that he's actually mimicking his Aunt Jocelyn's cat, Leia (who growls at most everyone).

Sawyer even growled at this fellow . . .

Can you see the little Frog Prince in the center of the photo? Every time he jumped, so did Sawyer.

And I couldn't get a smile out of him for the life of me -- he was too intent on all the animals. He was hard-pressed to look away from them long enough for him to look at me!

Back at the RV, I turned on our happy lights and he amused himself walking up and down the stairs about a million times.

And once we were cleaned up and in our "escape proof" pj's, he still wanted to go outside!

We had a good night's sleep and his mommy and daddy picked him up early, to go visit Kim's dad. After checking on the archery group that was already up at the camp, I headed to the grocery store. It was a relatively quiet day, with Todd working down on the dock, and me doing domestic things and working on the ministry's newsletter, when a violent storm popped up and passed through the camp.

It took with it a couple of trees, including this one which came down over the main road *and* the road into the main camping area.

And yes, if you look closely enough, those are power lines and we were (once again) without power. I've never been so thankful for my husband's foresight than when he purchased that generator!

Saturday night we went to sleep lulled by the sounds of the cranked generator. We got up Sunday morning for a happy Father's Day breakfast of french toast and bacon -- Todd's favorite!

A quick call to Huntsville Utilities confirmed they did still have our repair ticket and that they'd get to us when they could. *sigh*

Sunday was a hot, hot day. Our raccoon visitor stopped by and took a little dip.

He really is very cute!

Later that afternoon, everyone came up for a little Father's Day get-together. We celebrated with Todd's favorite; a Carvel ice cream cake. I think it may be Sawyer's too.

Just take a look at the blue from the ice cream frosting, around his mouth!

Then Todd got down to business and opened presents!

He was very pleased and surprised by the Kindle! Yay!

And I couldn't post it on my blog on Friday, but this was actually the first Kindle holder I made! One for my dear man's new toy. :)

Sawyer makes himself right at home. I found my old cell phone for him to play with. He loves to carry around cell phones and remotes!

And here are the hers and his Kindle cases! We'll always be able to tell our Kindles apart.

And this morning, I played around just a little bit with quilted postcards.

This is definitely something I'm going to need to play around with more and get in lots of practice. I did two different techniques for securing them (mainly because I wasn't real pleased with how the first one turned out), but the second one did better. This will be a fun past time when I feel the urgent need to create. I even got them in today's mail!

Whew. I need a week to rest from the weekend!

:)

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