I am having a hard time accepting it is mid May y’all! for us spring is just emerging in the mountains of North Carolina…. and yet for my friends down under it is getting cold!!! We have had a busy week and I am excited to share below with you .. First Up … let me say 🙂

In most of the USA now… just starting this week if you are 2 weeks past your second vaccination you are free to move about without a mask, inside or out, our state has embraced this… you still need a mask if a vendor requests it in their store, on mass transit and a few other exceptions like hospitals and doctors offices… but otherwise… No need and guess what???

Neither my honey or I are ready to shed our masks so readily though so we remain cautiously optomistic… will there be a spike nationally here in 3 or 4 weeks?? That is my concern anyway!

Every day I have felt more energetic and more svelt in my healthy eating priority. After 16 days of eating low carb keto I feel like I am getting the hang of it … we are eating very low carbs both of us are feeling lighter and more energized too so that is excellent…. I have lost about 12 pounds since trying to lose weight compared to my last doctors appointment weight. I generally bounce around but since starting the keto lifestyle… I am finding I have TONS of energy and creativity to enjoy now!

My honey got all the planting and mulching for now done…

I really have enjoyed watching the front yard transform under my honey’s green thumb… slowly everything is waking up and we are guessing based on leaves emerging what each plant may be and what color it may be too! We have taken out all of the plant beds that were blocked around when we bought the house… you may can see them in this photo…

So we have added fresh rich soil and grass seed in abundance to those 4 circles in our yard and raked it all around and moistened it at dusk if there seems to not be dew … we don’t get much dew at this home like we did in Topton. My honey even mowed the front and back yard…. mainly weeds but it got it’s first trim except where we have straw to grow fresh grass…. but life is emerging!!!! I am walking outside daily now and watching it with the assist of a 4 prong cane Rick’s sister gave me just to keep me steady 🙂

I have been quite busy too… the smaller butterfly tatted by my bestie …

Was added as a garnish to the wedding anniversary cushion I made as a treat for a good friend of ours on Facebook. She made me a darling unicorn knitted to gift my grand next weekend…. and I made her a cushion memorializing their recent wedding and her new last name she is embracing 🙂 I will share the cushion pics next week so stay tuned to that as it will mail out Monday!

Last week I shared a couple photos of progress on the Colorful Wholecloth Quilt in my PVC frame. Well I finished that area and moved to the edge of the quilt!!!

These pics …no matter what lighting I use don’t catch the color you see in real life… sorry folks … I am trying for ya! lol

Above is a vintage telephone table… we added the circa 1940’s telephone as a prop and we get lots of conversation about the table and the phone! I am attempting to make a cover for the seat cushion that I can wash easily as this padded cushion is getting dirty from our pup Molly jumping up there when she wants to go out or see what we are doing as this sits in what had been the dining room space of our open concept cabin.

Below you can see the tags my bestie got made… it has been pinned waiting for this piece to get a home since several years back. NOW it will have a purpose… protecting what is underneath while showing off her beautiful hand stitches.

Linking all this fabulous hand stitching to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<< I will definitely be working on my whole cloth today and trying to figure out the best way to add elastic and Velcro to this coverlet with the straps I have added underneath already… come back next week to see what I did 🙂

Mask on or off… take time to make someone smile today… or this week! Make it a daily goal even 😀

Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms and thanks for all you do DAILY!!

Because my son recently got married I virtually saw all my kids recently… so if I don’t hear from them today specifically… I won’t be sad … I am a blessed mama of 4 beautiful grown kids who each have their own ideas about life 😀 THIS pic I asked for and got during that event! THIS makes me happy!

This week has been a great week for focus on different things since we have been home! Low carb eating and stitching and adding curb appeal to our front yard! Busy , Busy , Busy!

Since May 1 I have not had a piece of bread, processed foods with hidden bread, potatoes, starchy veggies, muffins.. I did have a high fiber tortilla a couple times in the first few days of this new way of eating we are trying out…. I am hoping to take some weight off before I see the knee specialist end of the month…. if I can I think they will agree to do my knee repairs soon. Last night I made eggplant lasagna from THIS YouTube video … it was delicious with my honey’s spaghetti sauce as the meat sauce 🙂

We are still stumbling along collecting new groceries and herbs and other properties to eat to keep us satisfied with healthy choices. Do you eat keto or low carb? Do you have any tips for us as we admit to and appreciate this way of eating??!! Please leave your thoughts in the comments below… I will be answering each personally & privately!

This week I have been enjoying Moon River glittery grey color on my nails….

I took these beauty shots of our home on Monday…

Then my honey decided it was time to add some pizzazz to the front of our home. So he is installing shrubs … cleaning out the plant beds that held overgrown shrubs he painstakingly removed and discarded….

We plan to pick up some more mulch to add to our variety of shrubs, lilies, hostas, and a yellow rose I wanted for the yard and for mother’s day… it may not do much this year but next year I can have yellow roses anytime! I do miss fresh flowers in the house from our Topton days! lol

While my honey has been working outside I have been keeping things up inside and have been busy busy busy!

Above you can see I have really focused on the Colorful Whole Cloth Quilt I pulled out of the forgotten projects… I have it set up on my PVC frame my honey made me… as it was all pin basted and it is easiest to quilt it now with it 1/3 quilted or more from the center out.

I also picked up hand stitching a new project… it is a secret project at this point though so I will just give you a sneak peek…

Linking all this hand stitching fun to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching group of bloggers HERE <<<< Come see what everyone is stitching all over the world!

As I have been stitching and coming up with keto recipes and learning low carb healthy eating ideas on YouTube … I have also been listening to books on Audible and finding fun songs… HERE is a link to a funny Bruno Mars song called the Lazy Song… makes you wanna dance to the beat.

All of the links in this post should open a new window so you don’t lose your place 🙂

Keep my epileptic seizures in your thoughts… my last one was a couple weeks ago (just a small one but one just the same) followed by increased medication to stop them and I haven’t had one noticed since then… I hope to be back to life as usual soon again….

Thanks for visiting!

We have finally hit springtime in our neck of the woods of North Carolina USA…

Anyone know the name of this plant?? Shrub or bush??? There are 2 here in our yard:)

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However…. our friends to the north in Canada remain in lock down due to Covid and India is suffering terrible numbers of deaths daily too! We must recall world Laughter Day is today and share a a joke or two….

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This week was a crazy one for us… we left out Monday morning for Nashville, Tennessee to help my honey’s sister with some home maintenance and renovations to her home.

We got that barking dog syndrome with every person that came in the hotel we stayed in while he was doing his renovations nearby!!! It was a hoot at times and other times plain annoying.

I want to apologize to all who left me sweet comments last week… I read them from my phone as we packed and can’t respond easily in that format however…. so you may not have gotten a return for your visit… I plan to make up for that today…now that we are home and back on track 🙂

While in Nashville…. we saw Connie and I handed off the quilt I had been working on… and we saw my son that just got married and his wife and handed over some family momentos … Michael will be the keeper of the Clower family memories 🙂 As we downsize… anything from this era he will be the keeper of for our family moving forward… I like this idea too !!!!

But mainly our trip to Nashville was focused on Rick and his sister Ruthie…

But after a good nights sleep it was time to pack it up and head home… here is our first view of mountains back in our sights Friday afternoon….

Seems strange that 4 hour drive can be such a different temperature and humidity levels … but as much as we enjoyed seeing friends and family … we were sooo happy to get home!

Which brings us to World Laughter Day… Make time to belly laugh today … laughter is soooo good for the soul! If you are quarantined or locked down… don’t let it get you down…. focus on learning something new…

We are starting a keto versus low carb eating plan this week… Have you done this type of eating plan before… do you have helpful tips for us or a favorite youtuber??

While I learn more about this type of weight loss eating plan I will be hand quilting on this….

I am linking my slow stitching revival to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching Link Up HERE <<<< y’all this project is 6 years in the making already … time to hunker down and put in some stitches… this is a beautiful whole cloth quilt I am stitching in a myriad of colored threads…. more on this next week!

Please take time to share your tips and tricks as requested above regarding our proposed new eating plan … and a joke at Kathy’s if you will… Keep those still struggling with vaccine availability in their countries with outbreaks too in your thoughts and prayers!!!

Today at 4 pm CDT my son and his bride will “tie the knot” and get married…

Since they have already received the quilt I made for them starting from a Bluprint kit…. I thought today I could give you some hand fashioned artwork to enjoy ….

This quilt is a wall hanging with a hanging sleeve I added to the back for easy hanging with a rod or push pins in the sleeve part. It measures 40 x 60″ approximately and was soooo fun to embroider by hand, pieced by vintage 301, and layer up and hand quilted … first in a PVC square hoop…

Then once moved I put it on my frame to add more stitching! This is the look I was going for…

Thanks to Shelley my facebook friend for helping me out with focus on this project…. I am not a trendy quilter and she definitely is… so I asked and she helped!

This is my favorite piece to date that I have fashioned 😀 And for this sweet couple!

I will now tell you because of covid … My honey and I are going to see the wedding via a zoom call and interact with the reception crowd on video chat with my daughter and my daughter in law as well! I am so excited for the technology to keep me away from the germs of covid yet allow me to participate some how. Also we are hosting their night after the wedding at a local high end hotel for great honeymoon memories 🥰

So as this big event has been nearing…. I have been quilting like crazy! Because all us hand stitchers know this makes everything more calm.

Last week I shared this photo…

This week I have rolled two times and now I am halfway across this row…

To back up just a bit… my new blog header came from progress made THIS WEEK!

I am enjoying this hand quilting project for sure!

Linking all this hand quilting successes and progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching crew HERE <<<< Come see the embroidery of an art piece she is sharing this week and a victory lap for her too ❤

More to come… refill your cuppa and keep reading! Our home is done being painted!!!!

We love the grey paint and accent caramel colored shutters… it really brings out the wood on the porch and coordinates with the new roof we just had put on too!

Since these photos were taken yesterday… my honey has installed a new wood screen door to replace the white vinyl one… we will stain it to match the porch and paint the front door the caramel of the shutters 🙂

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead… I plan to soak up the joy of this day in our family life… and quilt between calls and shower and getting dressed for the event from afar….

God bless each of you and bring on the vaccines!

Spring is coming to the US finally and April is sprouting all kinds of new life at our new home!

We changed over our wooden calendar too…

This sweet hummingbird calendar came with the cabin… it was a keeper! And today is Easter Sunday too🥰

And the last day of the month we celebrate 10 years together!!!

It has been a busy week around here… how about for YOU????

Lots of fun colors there… I am using the last of the light lavender color above now so it was time to restock 🙂

I have made stellar progress on the Boho Quilt Along… the was a free week for catch up and I caught up and moved ahead!!!

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I finished where I was on the quilting and moved to the 3rd row of blocks (there are 5 rows to stitch ~ So I am over halfway now!!!!)

Here is where I am this morning!!!

Linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday linky party HERE<<<… Come see what everyone is linking up today 🙂

Today I plan to re-make a mutant block I pieced yesterday… and I plan to slow stitch too.

My honey has been working really hard outside and finally got all the dead leaf piles gone and trimmed the bushes/trees we think will be able to stay… we got rid of all the saplings growing here and there unchecked as we have PLENTY of full grown trees … we don’t need MORE!

We are due to get our home painted this week so check back in next week and see how that is going too! Our painter got hurt last week and has been recuperating all week this week. Rick is ready to rent a lift and get this house painted but as it is cedar wood there are knots in the wood that need to be primed with shellac first and there is caulking to do too… so it will be a process. But we are determined to get this home looking like we imagine it and getting the exterior in order like it NEEDS!

Thanks for visiting… now go visit Kathy’s and slay a dragon or two this week 😉

I wonder what April will be like as we continue to shape our new home…

We have ideas on things to plant… we are currently waiting for rain to stop so that our hired painter can come caulk and paint.. he has washed and did a great job… but now we gotta get on with it! lol

Meanwhile I have been quilting like crazy on this fun quilt. Here was my view on Monday….

And now I have rolled that whole row of “cupcakes” I call them LOL down to the 3rd row showing…

Meanwhile, this week I pondered my marking of the medallions…

Here is what I wound up doing using what I had on hand…

Starting at the top of the above photo… I have my stencil. Because this stencil is fairly complex I decided to pull out my pounce chalk pad and swipe over the stencil. Then when I lift it I am left with the chalk impression… then I take my chalk pencil fed into a regular mechanical pencil for that size lead 0.9 mm I think…. and go over it all to keep the pounce chalk I swiped on from bouncing off as I stitch the image.

The needles you see above have a nice round hole to thread the needle with.. I find them online or at JoAnn in the sewing section (not quilting)… and they fit 12 perle cotton diameter perfectly 🙂

I am linking this progress and little tutorial to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching Crew HERE <<<

I also got nominated for the “Outstanding Blogger Award” from Kathy of Sewing, Etc. who mentioned me HERE <<< regarding this award.

HERE is my reply to her as I received the award!!!

I did do a bit of machine sewing for the Boho heart project but not enough to share this week so check me next week.

Now I have a question for YOU all…. Pondering getting my favorite and only grand a tent to play in for her second birthday coming in May…

Do you have a fave in this category?? Or a better idea for a creative play item???

Thanks for stopping in 🙂 Have a wonderful week and welcome April on Thursday!!!!

Thanks Kathy of Sewing, Etc blog <<<

The goal is not to have a shiny award to add to our blogs…. but to get to know each other better… here are the questions with answers Kathy asked of her nominees…

• How do you learn best? Lessons, watching, a mentor….. Youtube is my fave platform to learn from so I guess watching or having a mentor 🙂

• Did you do post high school training to prepare you for a career? If yes, what was it, and are still doing that? If no, tell us how you got to the career you are doing! (Or did, as the case may be.) After high school I took a year or two off then went to college and became an RN specializing in the heart… later on I specialized further in pediatric cardiac meaning babies with heart defects when they were born. I became disabled in 2009 and retired and started blogging then! 🙂

• What do you look for in a friend? Someone who will watch out for my back as I watch out for theirs… someone who has similar beliefs as me too ❤

• Early Bird or Night Owl? Early bird … My honey is a night owl so this is how we each get our Own time 🙂

• Favorite Instrument to Listen to? Piano or acoustic guitar or bass

Now to name a few bloggers I feel provide excellent content each week … places I stop every week!

Kathy found at Kathy’s Quilts

Karen found at Quilts Etc.

Gretchen found at Gretchen’s Little Corner

Cathie found at Cathie’s Craftworks

Their Questions to Answer Include:

What is your favorite color/ what color do you have the most of in your craft area?

What is your favorite time of day to craft and what craft do you choose first?

What is your favorite season outside and why?

What type of crafter do you wish you had more of in you ??? (Ex: I wish I could applique better).

While a shiny award isn’t the goal…. here is one I found and adapted for each of my nominees!!!!

So now snag your award and place on your blog or in your memory…. and answer the questions ladies 🙂

I will be back on Sunday with my regular blog post 😀

Did you have mild weather as Spring came in yesterday???

We had a lovely rain then a sunny day with the doors open and fresh air flowing through the cabin too ❤ It was divine…. but yesterday was ALSO International Quilters Day….

Y’all… I kid you not… I quilted in different formats all day long! It was glorious!!!

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I started sewing on the Boho Heart project blocks above. Then in the afternoon the mail ran… Connie and I had decided the center medallions on the quilt I am quilting needed the same weight thread as the gold everywhere else in the sashing… so I had ordered a spool of Valdani 12 wt perle cotton from Rusty Crow dot com… She has the full line of Valdani in all sizes and styles among other fun things…. and ships quick.. I ordered Wednesday and had it from western California to North Carolina with Saturday’s mail…

I am making fun progress on this quilt….

And I made this collage to help you think outside the box when using stencils.. orientation matters!

And that variegated light blue green teal perle cotton I got…

And a close up…

It doesn’t covey well in these photos… I will try to get better photos this week to share.. I am almost ready to roll… just 1 more medallion to stitch 🙂 This is a fun continous line stencil … so for this I marked it initially with my pounce pad swiping it as Leah Day recommends then went over it with a white chalk Pencil lead by fons and porter before stitching it as the pounce doesn’t stay put through sewing over well.

Now for International Quilters day me and my bestie FaceTimed and stitched together… she worked on a unique stitching pattern for this bow tie quilt she is hand quilting … this is her she shed space…

And her little container of goodies to aid in her stitching…

It was a fun time and rounded out the day well. I am linking all this slow stitching fun to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching Gang… HERE <<<<<

How did you spend the first day of Spring AND Quilter’s Day ???