one of my favorite places

First of all, let me say that this is the first day that the AC is turned off and the windows are open! yay! The kids and I have been walking through the house taking deep lungfuls of fresh air. sigh. Too bad it wont last. It will get hot again, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.

now back to this post! One of my favorite places to be is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. Did you ever read The Yearling? ok, me neither. It is a story of a poor Florida farmer's son who adopts a fawn as a pet. But I saw the movie Cross Creek. I love this place for two reasons.



First of all, the place is a step back in time. Her house is furnished with some of her belongs and also with things that were common to that time. There are chickens roaming around, a duck pen, her gardens and her orange grove. Just outside the historic site is Orange lake with a boat ramp, large field and small playground for children. The park rangers dress in period clothes and run her farm the way she did. It is a peaceful place that I take the children to several times a year. This is the place that made me start a picnic quilt, and it will hopefully inspire me to finish it : )



I love her house. There are three parts to her small house connected with screened in breezeways and an outside porch. I love how the outside is part of the inside.

Another reason that I love this place is the connection it gives me to my own family history. My grandmother grew up in Ocala Florida. Cross Creek is just north of Ocala. This place takes me back in time to what Florida would be like when my grandparents and great grandparents were living. My great grandfather was a judge in Ocala, and they would occasionally invite Marjorie to their home for dinner. My grandmother tells a story of a time my great grandfather tells Marjorie a story of growing up in Florida and having a pet deer. I don't know how much truth this story has, and if it was true, how much it influenced Majorie's own story. No matter what, I love to hear my grandmother tell the story.

Besides telling you about one of my favorite places, I wanted to say that we are going out of town tomorrow until next Tuesday. I'm taking the kids, picking up my mom and we're going to visit my grandmother for a few days.

See you next week!

slow movin'

I was reading a new-to-me blog today. Lucky Duck Day. We are actually starting with 13 others on a new quilting adventure. You know the kind. We each are assigned a month and the rest of us make a block for that person in the style that they choose. Our group is called Sew Connected. Feel free to follow us along on flickr. The fun begins next month. I'm a little nervous. I am signing up for a 15 month commitment! eek! I'm feeling overwhelmed with what I have to do at the moment, so I just need to keep reminding myself that it is just one block a month, just one block a month, just one block a month.....breathe.

So, back to Lucky Duck Day, her post today was about finding balance between computer time and the rest of her time. This is something that I struggle with. It would be one thing if I was spending productive time on the computer. But no, my friends, I spend about 15 minutes of productive time and then fart away minutes and sometimes hours (spread through out the day) on the computer. Eeek!

And it's not that I'm am only wasting time. I feel slightly in a fog after spending too much time on the computer. I wander around trying to get myself in gear. That is not a good way to start the morning. It's like shooting myself in the foot if I want to have a productive day. Ugh!


this is my brain after spending too much time on the computer

I need to be more diligent with my time. If I spent as much time on cleaning my house as I spend on the computer, my house would be spotless. If I spent as much time on sewing /quilting, I would be able to work on more of the ideas I have in my head. But you know what it is? It's easy to plop my rear in front of the computer. It takes more effort to clean or sew or whatever.

So, here's to change! I'm going to make an effort to use my time more constructively! How about you? Ready to join me?


***and the irony of it all: i'm on the computer writing a blog post about not spending so much time on the computer! ha!

I knew I could count on you!

I have made a few changes to my blog recently. Nothing earth shattering. I changed from having one sidebar to having two sidebars. Blogger doesn't offer this template, but I found help at Three Column Blogger. I had to adjust the width of the body of the blog, and I found help at Three Column Blogger again. Thanks to Twiddletails for pointing me in the right direction. Her blog was one of the ones that made me want two sidebars. I wanted to add things to my sidebar, but I didn't want it to be a mile long either. Solution: two sidebars.

The other change I made was to add a book list for myself and one for each of my children. I always like to see what others are reading - always on the hunt for a new-to-me author. I tried Shelfari first, but their site kept getting bogged down while I was using it. So then I tried LibraryThing. Thanks Tonya for the solution. I really like LibraryThing's site. It is very easy to use, and you don't have to give an email address to join. I joined three times so that I could make three different lists. I didn't see a multiple list option. I might add one more book list to show some of our favorite homeschool books.

If you are wanting to make changes like these, I hope this helps!

another oldie but goodie:



my first wonky house
made for Kim as a thank you
6/2007

a little help from my friends...

is needed! I'm making a few changes to my blog. Not major important changes (ha!), just the time wasting variety : )

I want to add a book list in the side bar for myself and one for the kids. You know the kind. A little picture of the book cover that's clickable and the title and author of the book. I don't know how. This is where you come in to rescue me! Explain it to me like I'm very computer illiterate.

I know I can count on you!

Thank you!

Your ever grateful friend,
Sarah

and because you need a picture:



my first forray into wonky piecing! 8/2006

Gonzo ~ a love/hate relationship

We have two dogs. A dachshund (Penny) whose only offenses are barking too much and bad breath, and a pit bull (Gonzo) who is slowly chewing down our house and everything in it. Penny was the dog that I really wanted. She is the best dog I have ever owned. We all love her so! Gonzo is the dog my husband wanted. He insists that I was the one to encourage him to get another dog, but I'm in denial that I would ever let such a beast into our home.



Gonzo is almost two - just a few more days. I've heard that bigger dogs are puppies longer. Ugh! What would take Penny an hour to destroy takes Gonzo two bites. The list is long of things that he has destroyed: paper, pens, pencils, toys, blankets, couch cushions, pillows, chairs, carpet, doors, baseboards, recliners, bed frames, towels, washcloths, clothes, rugs, rags, and QUILTS! Did that get your attention?!



Part of the problem, besides puppyhood, is that he has a lot of energy. Lots! And if he can't find a good outlet for this energy, he takes it out on the house. He's not spiteful, he's just bored. Billy used to walk him twice a day. But in the past months, Billy has been unable to walk him due to pain in his hip. After surgery and with recovery, Billy is still unable to walk him at least for a few more weeks. "How about you walk him?" you ask. Well, sometimes I did, but not faithfully. Usually at the end of a long day, I either didn't have the time or energy to do it.

Cue the heavenly music.

Recently I saw a women riding her bike with her dog on a leash trotting along beside her. Gee! Why didn't I ever think of that! Well, we did a long time ago. But Gonzo promptly stuck is muzzle into the moving wheel spokes and that ended it. I thought it was time to try again. Introducing the bike run! I ride my bike and he runs along beside. We've been going everyday or every other day and we both enjoy it. I like that it only takes a few minutes, and Gonzo is pooped by the time we get home. And I've managed not to fall off the bike, and he has managed not to stick his face in the spokes or get run over by me. He hasn't been so destructive, and I haven't had murderous thoughts about him. A win win situation.



after a bike run (I would like to take a picture of us in action, but that is just asking for an accident!)





I even kinda like him again.

oh how i love fabric...

i'm a fabriholic. i really don't like that term. fabric-head? any other terms out there? how about you? raise your hand if you love your fabric. mm hmm, i knew it!

don't get me wrong. i don't have one of those crazy stashes, but i do have plenty. after tidying up my sewing space recently, i realized that i do not need to be buying anymore. and if i do, i need to absolutely love it (notice i gave myself an out?).

and do you know one of my favorite parts of my fabric stash? that's right! my scrapbox! i've been stuffing scraps in it here and there recently but haven't really dug around in there. i got it out today. boy does it get my creative quilting juices flowing! i was digging around for some fabric for the sept. mini quilt swap. the theme is owl and/or mushrooms. i found almost everything i need for the mini in my box.



i also found some vintage mushroom fabric



and strawberries (i'm lovin' strawberry fabric right now, especially the vintagey ones)



and i also found the last tiny bits of some favorites. are you ever sad when you get down to the last tiny bit of your favorite fabric and wished you had bought enough to last a lifetime?



how about you? have any old favorites that you just love? come on! i know i'm not the only weirdo out here!

back to school

We started back to school today. In case you're new here, we homeschool. This will be our sixth year. Yikes! We don't school year round, but we take breaks here and there and our summer ends up being short. Last year we didn't have a summer break. This year we had the month of August, and it flew by. I had high hopes of doing some more fun schoolish things during August like plays, science experiments, etc. But none of it happened. Oops.

We've been having a hard time getting up early in the mornings lately. And all you mommies out there will appreciate this (or hate me) - my kids were sleeping until 8 or 9 in the morning. Delicious. So this morning I set my alarm for a few minutes after 7 thinking I would have a few minutes to myself to collect my thoughts and prepare for the day. hmm, no. A few minutes after my alarm went off, I hear my door creak open and close. Someone was up and seeing if I was up yet. Not good. OK, I will still have a few minutes with just one child. So I get up, come out to the kitchen, and my son is up too! Not only up, but his morning chores are done, he has partially set the table for breakfast, and is halfway through eating his own breakfast. He's ready! He was able to get some of his independent work done before we even started this morning.

It was a good day.

We're off to soccer in a few minutes.

In case you want to know. We use Ambleside Online curriculum. We don't follow it exactly, but we do alot of what they suggest.

And because you need a picture....



my next project
a four way doll quilt swap and challenge between LauraJay, Lucinda, Kim and myself (me, I?)