sunflower

Monday morning (7/30) Michael left for golf (returning home around 1 with an 85!) and I headed to the studio.  I spent most of the morning and afternoon starting a new set of snowflakes, and starting a new set of Mah Jongg purses.  Michael came downstairs in the late afternoon, and I told him I wanted a picture: 

It is still so hard for me to believe that a small 1/2 inch seed can turn into a 10 foot tall plant.  Michael saved seeds from last year’s flower.  We had hoped for multiple flowers, but the birds ate some of the planted seeds and the bunnies ate some of the plants….so we only got one…but what a one it is J.

In the evening, I headed up to the Lake House just to collect $$$ for the square dance.  I came down the wrong way on my knee over the weekend and it is sore and swollen, so I didn’t think dancing on it for 3 hours would help.

British invasion

Friday (7/27) was very busy.  I got the downstairs picked up and vacuumed and the bathroom cleaned.  I made up the bed in the guest room.  I cleaned the upstairs front bathroom, then Jan picked me up to go to Joann’s.  I got the thin gold ribbon I was looking for, so I could finally finish those new snowflakes:

While I was gone Michael went to the grocery store and vacuumed the upstairs.  All of this preparation is for 3 British subjects, staying here over the weekend.  They are part of a brass band and they have given concerts all over the world.  My neighbors brought them over to give a concert here (Saturday night) and were looking for host families.  We are housing the director, assistant director and their sound engineer.  When I got home from Joann’s, I put together 2 loaves of sandwich bread and a bunch of cookies.  While the bread was rising I had a little time to work on the new purses (Oriental fabric courtesy of Nancy and blue fabric from my stash) and they are finished.  

I made a new pasta/chicken casserole for dinner, then headed up to the Sales Center to pick up the guys.  Our neighbors made these cool signs with the British flag and everyone’s name on them that we waved around as the bus pulled up.

 THE BRITISH ARE COMING, THE BRITISH ARE COMING!!!

Our British guests are here:

Phil (asst director), Chris (director, with sign made by neighbor) & Pete (with Cookie who they all loved and wanted to take home!)

we have the band director, the assistant director and their sound guy staying with us.

OK…here it is Sunday night and I don’t know where the weekend went.  The guests we had were AWESOME and fun!!!!  They watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics Friday night (I don’t know how they kept their eyes open) and after breakfast on Saturday (a great new casserole I made) they left to go touring all around.  We went to the concert Saturday night and it is just NOT BELIEVEABLE that these are junior and senior high kids from a regular public school…they were PHENOMENAL.  WE brought our guests home after the concert, made a bunch of sandwiches (they were starving, having last eaten a late lunch)

and played ‘screwed’ for about an hour.  Sunday morning we made them pancakes and potatoes and bacon and they loved all of it.  We went to church (the church that sponsored them to come here) and afterwards there was a pot luck luncheon and sad, sad good-byes  L.

They really were a fabulous group of guys and we would love to host them again in the future.

Thursday morning (7/26) Michael and I had early morning dentist appointments.  I dropped him off at a local restaurant for breakfast on the way home and went to pick up Nancy and headed off to quilting.  I finally finished making 300 and some 1/2 square triangles, so I got to start sewing them together.  That seems to be going much faster than making the triangles.  Nancy got all of her blocks sewn together for 2 single bed quilts.  We got home around 2 and I was so tired I took a nap.  When I finally got up, we had sandwiches for dinner then watched TV and I got 4 more purses cut out.

Willa, Rose & Jan

Wednesday morning (7/25) Michael left at 7 AM for golf, and was home by 7:30 after a torrential downpour!  I left at 8 to pick up Rose and Willa and Jan to head off to a sewing store for a seminar.  

Willa, Rose & Jan

It was terrific… I learned a lot, hopefully it will help me to do better embroideries in the future.  We finished up just after NOON and headed off to Red Lobster for lunch, and I got home just after 2:30.  Michael ended up heading up to the golf course again around 11 and got in 18 (very hot) holes.  I spent a tiny bit of time in the studio, then headed upstairs to get dinner going.  Jim and Marylu came over at 6 and we had a great summer dinner: spaghetti with the roasted tomato sauce I made last Friday, sautéed green and yellow squash (from the garden) with seasoned with a red onion and a little bit of seasoned salt, quartered tomatoes with a bit of Italian dressing on them, and corn on the cob.  We played cards after dinner and had a really good time.

first Mah Jongg purses

Tuesday morning (7/24) Michael took Cookie for a walk, and I finished ironing my new purses:

Does that fabric look familiar?  It should, I just finished making a rope tote out of it!  I took the leftovers to experiment with these purses.  You know all of the small purses I made during retreat?  Well, a lot of people here play a game called Mah Jongg.  They told me I should make the purses big enough to hold the cards

that they have to purchase every year…so that’s what these are.  They are wider than my regular purses, and have 2 colors instead of 3.  I may see if I can start embroidering the words ‘Mah Jongg’ on the front of them.  I headed off to Nancy’s around 9:30 and as usual, we talked and laughed for 2-1/2 hours before I headed for home.  I meant to grab a quick lunch, but had a bunch of phone messages to return and had to abruptly hang up on Janice when Joanne pulled up to pick me up for Stitch & Chat.  I worked on a hat to be donated for our sale in October, and when I came home I did a bunch of paperwork before having dinner and seeing Michael off to the movies.  He and Larry went to see THE DARK KNIGHT (I told him if someone started shooting to get behind the seats!) and I spent the evening in the studio.

Donn'a sweater

Happy Birthday to me!  Yep, it’s July 23^rd and I’m getting perilously close to 60!!!!  A friend asked if I was doing anything special for my day and I said ‘not really…when you’re retired, it doesn’t seem as if birthdays are that special because you get to do whatever you want EVERY DAY!!!’  Michael and I ate out twice over the weekend, so I definitely don’t want to go out to dinner…maybe in a week or so.  I DO want to make a birthday cake, but that might happen Wednesday ‘cause we’ll have guests for dinner.  Other than that….I got a terrific birthday present….the pasta making attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer!!!!  I am excited and can’t wait to try homemade pasta again.  I DO have a hand crank one…but it really takes 3 hands, one to feed the sheets in, one to catch them and one to turn the crank.  The mixer will take care of the ‘turn the crank’ part.  Michael was golfing on Monday and I spent most of the day in my studio, working on new purses.  Donna came over for help with her sweater….and I finally remembered to take a picture, so now you know all 3 people who are working on this same sweater:

We had leftovers for dinner, along with corn on the cob, then headed off to square dancing.  By 9 PM we had been dancing for 2-1/2 hours and we were beat to we came home to read and watch a little TV before bed.

rope tote and restaurant week

Sunday morning (7/22) Michael and I took our normal Sunday bike ride…stopping at the library and grocery store on the way home.  The milk crate on the back of my bike continues to amaze me with the amount of stuff it can hold.  On Sunday I had 5  boxes Kraft Mac and Cheese (for the shelter), 2-8 oz containers of port wine cheese, 2 large frozen lemonade containers, 5 bananas, 2 half gallons of oj, 36 eggs  and 2 quarts of 1/2 & 1/2.   Oh, and my wallet!  Michael took the dog for a walk when we got home, and I got to drink my tea and read the paper in peace!   I headed to the studio in the afternoon, and finished this:

before we left to pick up Joanne and Larry for Charlotte Restaurant Week.    Thirty bucks for 3 (or sometimes 4) courses.  I had a crab cake with slaw, spinach salad with mushrooms, onions, feta) and warm bacon dressing…then some kind of lobster medley with artichokes and kalamata olives over pesto orzo…and their almond basket (with ice cream and cream anglais and raspberry glaze) for dessert.  Michael had a scallop appetizer (although you had to look at the plate VERY closely to SEE the smallest sea scallops I’ve ever seen  L) and a mixed greens salad, with grilled mahi mahi for his main course…and a chocolate silk pie for dessert.  Luckily all 4 of us brought home leftovers, otherwise I think we would have been stuck in our seats!  I worked a bit in the studio in the evening…trying to figure out what I was going to do next, and then we watched a bit of TV before bed.

neighborhood dinner

Saturday morning (7/21) was paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork.  I got the minutes done, sent out and updated to the home page for our Volunteer group.  I got the minutes done and sent out for our quilt group.  I also finally got our membership list updated and sent out.  I got 2 sympathy notes written and mailed, and finally got caught up on blog entries.

In the afternoon I got to read a bit while making sandwich bread (we gave 1/2 a loaf, along with 16 napkins to Gale and Phil to thatnk them for loaning me a car while Michael was out of town):

 and rosemary bread for dinner:

Around 6 we headed on over to Susan’s house for our bi-monthly neighbor’s dinner.  We had 2 salads, shish kabobs beef and chicken and these incredible potatoes.  For dessert, we had a peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream that was out of this world.  We all sat around the table for several hours of talking and laughing and finally got home after 9.  Michael watched TV and I read a bit before going to bed.

tomato processing

Well – the thunder rolled in Wednesday afternoon (7/18) and Jan and Walt and I thought that being outside wasn’t the smartest place to be for dinner…so we headed to the Mexican restaurant instead.   Oh, my goodness…it has been SO LONG since I had Mexican food…and it was HEAVENLY!!!!  I even got to bring home a bit and had it for dinner on Thursday as well!  Thursday morning (7/19) I headed off to quilting after picking up Nancy.  I think I am finally finished making the 300 and some 1/2 square triangles, so I finally started to sew them together into blocks.  It will probably take me many more weeks to get the blocks finished…then I’ll give them to Michael to arrange into a charity quilt. One of the ladies at quilting (Loree) has a large garden and brought in a bunch of produce for any who wanted to take it home.  I told her I was waiting until the end, and then I was going to grab any remaining tomatoes.  She said she was ready to rip up her TWENTY_FIVE tomato plants because she was tired of picking – processing-canning-resting, over and over and over again.  I told her I’d love to have any extras she had.  Well, once I got home she called me to ask if I really did want more tomatoes…she and Reg (her hubby) swung by my house and dropped of a peck of tomatoes, some squash and 2 LARGE cantaloupes…what a great haul.  When I went to bed Thursday night, I was still trying to decide how I was going to process those tomatoes, but by the time I woke up, I knew.  I certainly felt like ‘becky-homecky’ on Friday morning.  This is what I started with:

I cored and mostly seeded the tomatoes over a sieve, so that I could save the tomato juice:

 and then I halved or quartered them placed them on a greased cookie sheet (I don't know why this picture is so blurry....I wish it had shown that way when I took it so that I could have taken another one....oh well...you get the idea!):

I mixed up some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, tiny bit of sugar, salt and 5 large cloves of garlic that I had hoped to drizzle over the tomatoes.  Well, for some reason, the consistency was like toothpaste….so I kind of dabbed on with a brush instead:

I roasted each sheet at 450 degrees for 30 minutes (until they got a little carmelization), then started to put them into baggies for freezing.  After I had a couple filled, I thought better of it and ran downstairs to write BG and ask her opinion…we both agreed that they should be whirled up before being frozen, so I got out my stick blender and went to work.  After tasting, I added a couple of gobs of the olive oil/balsamic mixture…..OMG…..I can hardly wait to eat this sauce!!!  This was the final result, 4 quarts of sauce and a quart of juice (for winter soups)…AND all of the ‘waste’ got buried in my garden to enrich the soil:

This took 3-1/2 hours to complete and clean up from, then Donna came over for a bit of help on her sweater.  She left about an hour later and I cleaned the house and myself and settled down to wait for Michael to get home.  They got caught in Charlotte traffic and he didn’t make it until 7 PM.  We popped the champagne and collapsed on the couch for some TV watching and snuggling!

rope tote & ironing board cover

Well….it’s Wednesday (7/18) around lunchtime and I’ve been both productive and lazy!  I’ve done a lot of reading, and some knitting and some sewing and some snowflake making and some eating.  Here’s what’s totally finished (a new rope tote): 

and here’s what in process (because they take a long time to make and are a pain in the you-know-what):

I got the idea to put shiny fabric on one side of the snowflakes….great idea….but the fusible that I used on it, bled through the fabric and ruined my ironing board cover…so a good bit of Sunday and part of Monday I spent make a new ironing board cover (luckily I had fabric I could use in my stash): 

My pressing cloth was also ruined…haven’t looked through my muslin for a replacement yet.

Jan and Walt are picking me up in the golf cart at dinnertime and we are going down to the softball fields for hot dogs from the Tailgators for dinner and tomorrow night we’re going out to a Mexican restaurant.

Sunday morning (7/15) we were up early to pack the car and get breakfast out of the way.  Michael left at 9 AM…and I’ll be eating lonely burgers ‘til Friday night when he gets home  L.

For the rest of the day, I did a bit of reading, a bit of knitting, a bit of sewing…some TV watching and a little eating.  I heard from my honey in the evening and he was excited about the course they were going to play on Monday.  He is in Alabama and is ina different time zone!  They are following the ‘Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’.

knitting clinic guests

Michael left for golf on Saturday (7/14) before I even got out of bed to get ready for walking with Beth!  I guess during these hot weather days, that is best….it was supposedly only 74 degrees when I took Cookie out…but I felt like I got slapped in the face with a big, wet towel as I stepped out onto the porch….the humidity must have been 200%!  Anyway, Beth and Cookie and I took our walk and when I came home I had breakfast and then took a nap!  I don’t know whether it was because I missed my thyroid pill yesterday or what, but I felt exhausted.  Luckily Donna called at 10 (and woke me up) to say she needed help with her sweater.  I told her all of the knitting ladies would be over at 11..and then I ran to redd** up the house a bit, take a shower and change my clothes.  I was ready for everyone who came, and what a nice crowd we had:

Nancy with her entrelac sweater

Jen with a lace shawl and Jan with a scarf for her granddaughter

Connie (former student now friend) with her baby blanket and Barrie (knitter extraordinaire!!)

Joy with her poncho and Beth with a Christmas present.

 Michael came home from golf near 1 when everyone was leaving.  When I asked him how he did at golf, he calmly replied that he had hit a 77….a SEVENTY-SEVEN!!!!!!  First time ever in his life!!!  How thrilling was that….he had 3 birdies on the course and scorched out a 77!!!!  He was thrilled and I was thrilled for him.  We relaxed and read a bit in the afternoon, then headed up to a golfing buddy’s house.  Michael is leaving for a 6 day golfing trip on Sunday and at the last minute, the driver for the trip fell and hurt himself…so he is not going.  Michael will be taking our car, so we stopped by to pick up all of the information.  We picked up a chicken sandwich at Wendy’s for Michael’s dinner on the way home (I had lots of leftovers), and spent the evening knitting and reading and watching TV and packing.

**The terms redd and redd up came to the American Midlands from the many Scottish immigrants who settled there. Meaning "to clear an area or to make it tidy," redd is still used in Scotland and Northern Ireland; in the United States it is especially common in Pennsylvania as the phrasal verb redd up. The term, which goes back to Old Norse rydhja, can be traced from the 15th century to the present, particularly in dialects of Scotland and the North of England.

Friday (7/13) was a busy day.  Once I got home from walking with Beth (Michael was out walking with Cookie) I got a coffee cake baked, as well as a new brownie recipe (Michael and I thought the texture was good….chewy and fudgy….but it was missing the intense chocolate flavor  I was looking for L).  At 9 AM, Dennis showed up and we talked for over an hour about getting a spousal bereavement group started here at Sun City.  Luckily he only needs me to get the ball rolling and then he will take it over, because my plate is FULL!!!  I have a list of things I have to get done to get it started, and hope to be completely finished by end of next week.  After he left I ran up to the Lake House to submit a room request for our meeting, then headed on to the library to pick up a reserved book.  When I got home, Michael was ready to leave for his (routine) dermatology appointment, and I got ready for a memorial service.   Rose picked me up at NOON and we headed out.  This was a woman from Volunteers, who had had back pain for over a year.  When they finally diagnosed it as cancer, it was stage 4.  This is the 3^rd person I know of who had exactly the same symptoms….back pain….no diagnosis for a long time…then cancer.  It was very sad.  Her husband asked for donations to our Volunteer Group as he is sure that’s what Teresa would have wanted.  That is incredibly nice.  Once I got home I changed clothes and ran a bunch of donations for the Children’s Home up to the Lake House.  There were people from volunteers hosting a hot dog party there, and I had a bunch of stuff for them to take down.  When I got home, Michael had showered and changed and we left to pick up Sally and Jimmy and headed out to a new Italian restaurant in a nearby town.  Our meals were HEAVEN!!!  Michael and I both had the ravioli, but he had meat sauce and I had alfredo sauce.  Sally had the gnocchi and Jimmy had a seafood medley.  Jimmy shared 2 of his large and perfectly grilled scallops with us, as well as a large butterflied shrimp.  We were all stuffed when we got to S&J’s house, so we just relaxed and talked for a couple of hours before heading home.  I read for a bit while Michael watched TV and then we headed for bed.

Michael & Deb at wedding

Thursday (7/12) morning I got roll dough made before walking with Beth.  After walking I got them shaped and put into the fridge while I showered and packed up the car for quilting.  We had a wonderful meeting and I got lots of 1/2 square triangles done before our luncheon.  The food was wonderful…lots of summer-type things, salads, fruits…and of course…hot rolls!  I spent the afternoon and evening reading and working a bit in the studio.  Michael and I watched a little TV right before bed and I got a hat started to donate to our Stitch ‘n’ Chat group for the fall craft fair.

A lot of you have asked about my dress for the wedding.  Thanks to fitting help from Jan and Rose…and the making of 2 muslin shapers, the dress fit very well.  But you have to understand, the dress was really only the blank canvas for the wrap I also made (someday I'll post a pic of just the dress)….here’s a pic of the whole thing (note typical red face due to HOT weather...and also note my handsome hubby!)

Emily & Pete, Charlie & Sue

We are here; we are here; we are here!  Wedding went off without a hitch:

Emily & Pete

parents of bride: Charlie & Sue (Michael's sister)

  

and weather was beautiful (if hotter than I had hoped and WAY more mosquito-ey than I had imagined!)  Home safe and sound that is….bags all unpacked (only because of Michael.  If left to my own devices the opened suitcases would sit on the floor for a couple of weeks as I rooted through them for things I need), laundry done, and sleep schedule almost back to normal.  Monday night dinner was champagne and puffy things…heaven!  I got to spend Tuesday morning with Nancy, and even though we spent 2-1/2 hours together…with not a moment of silence….we didn’t get through everything we had to talk about since we had to skip last week’s visit (due to my procrastination on the dress).  Tuesday afternoon was Stitch ‘n’ Chat and Tuesday evening Michael and Walt went to see the new Spiderman, while Jan and I stayed home and solved ALL the problems of the world!  Wednesday morning Michael left for the red-white-and-blue tournament at our home course.  The bad news is that his partner left during the round with stomach problems…but the good news is, he teamed up with someone else for the putting contest at the end, and feels that he was ‘in the money’ when he left.  I hit the farmer’s market for cantaloupe and peaches, and met with Donna for awhile to help with the progress of her sweater.  We had yummy, yummy ‘mater sammiches for dinner (with tomatoes from our deck tomato plant…the larger ones in the garden out back are not yet ripe) and just crashed for the evening

Entrelac sweater 9 rows

It’s Thursday morning (7/5) and we are all packed for the trip to Maine.  Dress was finished and pressed before dinner last night.  Like the dress....LOVE the shawl I made to go with it.  I haven't sewn clothes for myself in years and years and years, but have been encouraged by making this dress.  The fitting wasn't really hard at all and I hope to make a few more things in the future.  Dress and shawl will be worn on Saturday for the wedding....so pictures then.  I even got to knit a little in the evening, and got one more color put on sweater:

The only break I took from sewing during the day Wednesday was to watch the golf cart parade at 10.  I sat (in the shade....whew!) with several neighbors as the parade went by.  It was great.

entrelac sweater - 8 rows

I blew off Nancy for our meeting on Tuesday (7/3) because I had to work on my dress!!!  I did that for the morning, then left to have my hair done and hit Stitch ‘n’ Chat for an hour before heading home.  Worked on the dress a bit more before Jan and Walt came over for lemon meringue pie and pool in the evening.  Here’s the latest progress report on the sweater: 

And this will be the last post for several days.  We leave tomorrow for Maine and the wedding of Michael’s niece, Emily.  Meg is living at our house while we are gone to dog/cat/garden/house sit and we will be home on Monday.

bread, lemon meringue pie

Michael left for golf (coming home with an 86) on Monday (7/2) before I got home from my walk with Beth.  I decided as long as I was already hot and sweaty from the walk, I would get all of my baking done right then, and clean up afterwards.  I got 2 loaves of bread baked:

a lemon meringue pie (which I definitely would NOT have been able to complete without Paula’s help…she came by for a visit and there are just too many steps that have to be done at the same time…so she spent her whole visit stirring stuff on the stove!):

mile high meringue...doesn't do anything for me, but that's what
Michael likes!  I was supposed to use 4 egg whites, but I've
been saving them and I used 9!

about a dozen spice cookies from some leftover dough in the fridge…and I also got chocolate decadence ice cream made.  I’ve been dying for some really good brownies, but I ran out of time, so it will have to wait until we get back from the wedding next Monday.  All in all it was a very productive morning, but I was glad to get down to my studio to finally start cutting out my dress around 2 PM.  I had to cut a little, then sit a little because my feet were really acting up after being in the kitchen all morning.  I got most of the dress cut out before Meg showed up.  Meg will be dog/cat/garden/house sitting while we are at the wedding in Maine.  We showed her all through the house, gave her a list of instructions and a key and sent her on her way.  I left shortly afterwards for square dancing.  I collected money for 1-1/2 hours, then came home to relax and knit (my feet had had it by then).

entrelac sweater - 7 rows, garden flowers

Sunday morning (7/1) we had waffles and potatoes for breakfast, then I made the toasted almond ice cream so that it could set up for this evening.  I tried to cut out my dress and found out I didn’t have enough material…..agrh-h-h-h-h-h-!!!!!!  So, Michael and I took a quick trip to Joann’s, hitting LOWE’s and Aldi’s on the way home…still couldn’t work on dress because the fabric had to be washed and dried.  Ended up doing a lot of knitting….got another color added to my sweater….it is actually the 7^th and final color:

   For dinner we had sautéed zucchini and yellow squash (from garden) with an onion, tossed with spaghetti and pesto (basil from garden last year!)

I just had to take another picture...the bouquets that Michael keeps arranging for me just keep getting prettier and prettier:

knitting clinic guests and Deb/Cookie sleeping

Beth and I walked Saturday morning (6/30) and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy with our temps over 100 every day for 4 days  L.  Michael left for golf and came home sweat soaked, having also skipped a few holes due to the heat. 

Rose came over at 10 to help fit a dress that I am making and a group of knitting friends showed up at 11:

Nancy (who I spend every Tuesday morning with) and her daughter Jennifer

Joy and Barrie

Beth (who I walk with in the morning)

 Michael and I were both tired and I tried to take a nap in my chair (with a guest): 

 but finally ended up in bed for 1/2 an hour.  After dinner I got toasted almond ice cream base made, and then worked on my dress and did a little knitting in the evening.  Around 10 PM my brain woke up and said 'Michael wants waffles for breakfast tomorrow', so I put together the waffle batter, but then we had to stay up for an hour while it sits out and rises (it's a yeast dough) before putting in the fridge.