As much as we try to not create so much garbage, we still manage to create a ton!  Every Wednesday is “Trash Stompin’ Day–YeeeHawww!!”…this week we had to stomp trash a day early because I’m cleaning/organizing our school room and we have a little extra trash this week.  I think we can get a second garbage can from the city but that would be too easy…right?!  Here’s a picture of Pete and I in action…Pete once said that people were probably driving by saying “Look at that man…he’s throwing away a perfectly good wife!” LOL!!

Now…pictures of what I tackled today.  This is our living room turned into a school room.  I love the yellow walls…they make me happy!

This is the reading area that Belle “made nice”.  Our dry erase board will go over this area…I guess when I want to use it I’ll just kick the pillows out of the way…..

This is the next corner….As I look at these pictures I can tell that things are not exactly the way I want them but if you could’ve seen a before picture I think you would be impressed! lol!!

Another corner…

And then the fireplace…this is where we are showcasing pieces of “art”!

I have some more work to do tomorrow…I’ll try to post those pictures too.

“The stars seemed near enough to touch and never before have I seen so many. I always believed the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, but I was sure of it that night.”
Today is Amelia Earhart’s birthday.

A few years ago I read a book by Jane Mendelsohn named I was Amelia Earhart.  In all honesty, I can’t remember if I liked it or not! lol!!  Maybe I’ll read it again…

“God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5

How Firm a Foundation

John Rippon

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake

I really like Fernando Ortega’s  version of this hymn…it’s more peppy!  Check out his really neat website and be sure to listen to an excerpt of his version of HFaF.

      This is my small stash of my favorite hand-quilting thread…Gutermann.  I love this thread!!  It’s a real treat to get a spool.  My grandmother gave me the spool of blue and it made my day!  I try to buy it when Hancock’s has a coupon…though it’s not terribly expensive.

Isabelle has such a servant heart!  She helped me with dinner tonight and we worked together to set the table.  I suggested that she find something for the center of the table and that she did!!  I am so impressed with her creativity…she looked around to see what we had and then she just put things together….the result?  A lovely yellow squash arrangement…simply creative!!

Here are some Milo pictures…we think he’s so cute!!

This one shows how small he is….

As does this picture….

He’s very playful…

and nosy too….

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read”.

–Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)

“Surely it is not wrong for us to think and talk about Heaven. I like to find out all I can about it. I expect to live there through all eternity. If I were going to dwell in any place in this country, if I were going to make it my home, I would inquire about its climate, about the neighbors I would have — about everything, in fact, that I could learn concerning it. If soon you were going to emigrate, that is the way you would feel. Well, we are all going to emigrate in a very little while. We are going to spend eternity in another world. … Is it not natural that we should look and listen and try to find out who is already there and what is the route to take?–Dwight L. Moody

Yesterday, during Sunday school, our teacher was discussing what Heaven will be like.  Of course, he prefaced all this with an acknowledgement that none of us know all the details of Heaven but we can and probably even should think about Heaven more than we do.  Our teacher had just finished reading a wonderful book by Randy Alcorn called Heaven and he was commenting on how good it was.  Well…an older gentleman spoke up and said that he thought our teacher was reading way too many of those kinds of books and that he needed to stick with the Bible.  I agree that the Bible should always be “stuck with” but I feel so sorry for htis guy because he obviously feels like Heaven is one of those things we just have to trust God about….not question , or imagine, or dream….So, I have been inspired to speak of Heaven daily…to imagine and dream about the place I will spend eternity with my God and my loved ones and those I have yet to meet!

Today, I’m thinking about flowers.  Here, I am a horrible gardener.  I have been able to grow zinnias in the past but it was hard work and I’m completely over it now!  I look forward to having my beautiful zinnia gardens in Heaven…where I will have a green thumb and the worms will not make my skin crawl!  I will have plenty of flowers to pick and share with my neighbors close by or with my friends on another planet.  The colors of my flowers will be more vibrant than any colors we will have seen here on earth and there will be no torn or eaten leaves.  When I pick one, another one will immediately take it’s place on the stem…there will be plenty to fill my beautiful home (that I love to clean because work is no longer laborious!).  Jesus will stop by and we’ll converse as we arrange the flowers in beautiful crystal vases…He will take an arrangement to show our Father what we have created.  Later I will rest and praise God for all the beautiful flowers….

Graphics copurtesy of www.allposters.com

Artist:  Audrey Heard

I’ve been away from the computer for a few days organizing all the scraps and yardage of fabric that has come in for Gus’ Gang quilts.  I hope to get all the fabric in order this week and then I’m going to post some pictures.  I would love to see pictures of how everyone else organizes!

I’ve signed up for the “Take the Leap” challenge at

Lazy Gal Quilting  You may want to check it out too…this gal’s site is really neat!!

ok..ok…I didn’t meet my deadline for the “Petite Pink Lemonade” quilt and I am still working on it.  But who cares…right??  If there’s too much pressure involved then it’s not fun!!

OK…so we are all going to a family counselor to make sure that all of us are grieving  Gus’ death in healthy ways.  Come to find out…everyone’s ok except me! lol!!  I love it when I find out problems I never knew I had…as if the ones I do know about aren’t enough! LOL!!  Anyway…I have let our bedtime routine slip way away…you see, when we were away staying at the Ronald McDonald House things were very hectic.  I was in crisis mode and my main goal was to breathe….I dropped the ball and now it’s time to pick it back up.  That’s where SLEEP HYGIENE comes in…that’s what it is called!!  Geez…can’t we all just say “Let’s set up a bedtime routine?”  Well..if you must know…all the kids went to bed on time.  Belle has lost her painting privilege for tomorrow because she felt that she needed to come out of her room to find her tiara.  I hope I’ve done all this hygienically….

for school!!  Walmart had all their school goodies on sale today…I couldn’t pass up Crayola Crayons for 20 cents…it’s kind of an addiction.  I may go back and buy a few more boxes and put them in my secret box.  You know, coloring is really therapuetic!!

Bad news on the floor tile front….we didn’t measure right so the original estimate was way low….it now is around $1100.  Our kitchen is fairly small so I’m really kind of shocked at this price.  I really like the tile …but not that much!!  We’ll keep on looking.

Belle practiced her “racing” in the backyard today….until she ran out of gas(really out of battery!) and had to push her race car into the pit.

This is my first “maverick” quilt.  It is one of my first attempts at applique.  I made this quilt while Gus was in the NICU…since I didn’t have a sewing machine at the hospital, I decided to applique, hand quilt, and hand sew the binding on the quilt.  I just created…didn’t take any stitches out…just created.  Of course, the picture I took stinks…I really need to learn how to use my camera! lol!!

I named this quilt “Gus-Gus”…this is what Gus’ nurses called him.  The name Gus reminded them of the mouse on Cinderella.  When I found this giggling mouse fat square I just had to have it…then I saw the black and white spiral fabric that reminded me of mice tails.  It was one of those times where all the fabrics just jump out at you and you have to buy them! lol!!  The yellow triangle is cheese….Pete’s addition to the quilt!!

I hand quilted the circles in a free-hand spiral (I’m in my “spiral” stage right now! lol!!) and then quilted diagonally with red thread.

I backed this quilt with red flannel so it would be soft.

I am going to several quilt shops tomorrow…I am going to try real hard not to spend way too much! Ha!!

We’ve picked out tile for our kitchen floor.  This is not what we set out to get but I just love it!  This is not a great picture but it’s close…it’s a grass like weave..kind of like a grass mat…

And then later this afternoon, Belle discovered a rainbow on the den ceiling!!  She was thrilled!!  I love when God surprises with little gifts like this…again, not a good picture…does anyone know how to take a good picture of rainbows??

This is a quilt that a very sweet group of ladies (and one guy!) quilted for our little Gus when he was in the hospital.  Pappy quilted “God Bless You Gus…Giddy Up Go” on the bottom border.  I cried when they gave it to me!

This is a quilt that I made a few years back. It was an online mystery quilt and I found it difficult. I like the colors but I’m not pleased with my piecing. Nonetheless, it’s finished and ready to quilt! We named this quilt “In Memoriam: Amy (an adventurous firefly!)”. Here’s the story:

My dear son, Jake, decided to bring his “pet” firefly he had just caught into the house. He played with her for quite awhile until….she disappeared! He looked everywhere for her and quite awhile later he found her on the fan blade. We asked him what he named her and he said “Amy”. Well, the night went on and well, we kind of forgot to put Amy back out…and then Jake, to his horror, realized that we had turned on the fan! Jake looked around for Amy and then decided that she had died…sigh.

When I decided to try the online mystery quilt, I picked out firefly material because it reminded me of Amy! lol!! I had no idea how the quilt would turn out since it was a “mystery”…did you notice what the pattern ending up being?? Yep, a Fan Blade! Now, that’s a quilt that was meant to be! LOL!!

I really need to work on displaying my quilts for photos! That brown rug in our schoolroom is not cutting it! lol!!

This will probably be my last post about anything dealing with hotdogs…I know, I know…you are terribly upset but the craziness has to stop somewhere! lol!!

Have you seen this thing?

I MUST have one of these things…I have tried to make octodogs before (I saw it in Family Fun Magazine) but they are way too much work to cut 8 legs so our octodogs have only 4 legs!  I guess then it would be a quadog…..

Here’s the link:

http://www.octodog.net/

Enjoy!

This is “Mr. Penn’s Wild Ride”.  I’ve quilted free-hand spirals and in one square, my handprint.  I’m finished with the center and now I’m starting on the black border.  I’m going to do free-hand swirley things in hot pink thread.  I wish the picture was better…I bet it would be if I were to take more time taking it? lol!!

I have almost machine-quilted “Petite Pink Lemonade”….I’m pretty bad at machine-quilting.  Hand-quilting is my favorite but I’m afraid these quilts I’m making forGus’ Gang  need to be sturdier since they will be washed often.  I’ll keep working on my machine-quilting skills….

Did you all see

The Contest
today?? Be sure to check out

The Eaters
.  Look for #16 Carlene LeFevre…you go girl!!  Oh, btw, there is a little blip on the site encouraging people to NOT try speed eating at home…ok…I won’t!!

A couple of years ago, my husband and I took a trip to St. John, US Virgin Islands. We decided to take a taxi tour of the island instead of renting a jeep. Our driver was a very funny man with a ton of character…and of course, if you have ever been in an island taxi you know that the ride is certainly wild! The inspiration for the triangle blocks came from Pieces from my scrapbag and the lettering was inspired by tutorials I found at Lazy Gal Quilting This picture was taken before I started the quilting. I will post my progress tomorrow…

I really like the warm colors of the inspiration quilt and that’s what I strived for…but sometimes you just go in a slightly different direction and that’s fun too! And the lettering was really fun…I really like the wonky feel of the words.

We took a quick trip to Myrtle Beach, SC  this last week.  It was rainy off and on and really hot.  We stayed at the

Gazebo Inn
which was cheap and clean.  They need to do some painting but other than that it was just fine.  We like staying there because it’s family-friendly….no noise after 11pm!!

This was one of our rainy days:

Here are some neat pictures from the

House of Blues

I think maybe I could be a folk artist!  You could never mess up!!

didn’t get pictures taken of  “Mr. Penn’s Wild Ride” like I promised.  But I did get pictures of a small quilt I’m working on for one of our Gus’ Gang families.  Gus’ Gang is a small ministry that we started to encourage families with chronically ill children…this ministry was inspired by our 18 mo son, Gus,  who passed on May 31st, 2006.  Gus was awaiting a liver/small bowel transplant but due to the extreme shortage of organ donors, he did not survive.  You can read more about Gus and his story at www.caringbridge.org/visit/gusdoriot .

This is the center:

I decided to audition my polka dot fabric for the border:

Now all I have to do is machine-quilt (which I’m not good at!) and applique the little flowers on.  My goal is to have this completed by the end of the week.  I would love to send this out by Monday.

A couple of years ago, my husband and I took a trip to St. John, US Virgin Islands. We decided to take a taxi tour of the island instead of renting a jeep. Our driver was a very funny man with a ton of character…and of course, if you have ever been in an island taxi you know that the ride is certainly wild! The inspiration for the triangle blocks came from Pieces from my scrapbag and the lettering was inspired by tutorials I found at Lazy Gal Quilting This picture was taken before I started the quilting. I will post my progress tomorrow…

I really like the warm colors of the inspiration quilt and that’s what I strived for…but sometimes you just go in a slightly different direction and that’s fun too! And the lettering was really fun…I really like the wonky feel of the words.