At the Beach

We've spent the week at the beach and we'll be on our way home today. Here's the view from the screened porch of the house where we stayed.
My sister, my niece, and I had a fun time shrimping and crabbing at the pier at Fort Moultrie. We didn't catch any crabs big enough to keep, but we did get plenty of shrimp (mostly bait-sized) and more fish than the fisherman! We caught mostly mullet and spots in our cast net, along with a couple of puffer fish and squid that we threw back.
Here's how I do the beach these days, along with being slathered in SPF45 sunscreen.Just about all the amenities of home, but it does get rather warm in there.

Way Past My Bedtime

It's Friday night at 10:35 as I write this. It seems I haven't had a spare minute all week. (But it was fun, Liz.) Part of my busyness comes from the fact that this time tomorrow night, I'll be asleep at the beach. At least I hope so. Anyway, you'll have to make do with a few pictures this week from Caleb & Alexa's birthday party last Saturday.

Another Selvage Purse

I said I wouldn't do it, but I did. I made another purse from selvages. This time, the purse is a bit smaller, and there's far less detail on this one than on the one I made for myself. Even so, I estimate that there is an investment of twenty hours of labor.

Here are the blocks that I started with.Blinky watched from a peculiar angle. At least she wasn't playing the game of trying to catch the thread that's unwinding from the spool as I'm sewing..
When I made the first purse, I started with squares of selvages that I had made with no particular purpose in mind. This time, I knew I was making a purse, so I made the blocks rectangular instead of square. I also chose particular selvages, working from dark in the center to lighter on the edges, knowing that I was going to surround the blocks with black fabric. This time, I did far less ripping out and restitching due to the fact that I got smart and basted the seams first to check for accuracy. (What a novel concept! I've been sewing for so long that I hardly ever baste anything anymore.)

Here's the finished purse, along with some of the detail.

If you're interested, it's for sale in my Etsy shop. I give a Family and Friends discount.

Favorite and Not-So-Favorite

To me, this was a great week as I had three days where I didn't go anywhere. Thus, no make-up, hair in a ponytail, and wearing my ratty, baggy, denim capris.

One of the reasons I didn't go anywhere was that we had both cars in the shop for maintenance. The yellow part is definitely not among my favorite things.

Garden Bounty

I don't supposed you can call three squashes bountiful, but we did enjoy them one night this week. At least they grew up a little more than their pepper friend did.

One of Those Days

One day this week, I made a mess with everything I touched. First, I got steak sauce on my pants (pictured here with stain stick added). Then I hurriedly went to put a plastic glass in the dishwasher, unaware that it was half full at the time. Oh well, at least this was just water!

Monday - Good Shopping Day

I rarely hit this level, but I saved 78% at Publix this week. Here's what I got and what I paid:

• $2.45 - two rolls of aluminum foil
• $1.00 - two tubs of French onion dip (going to the beach)
• $3.99 - two bags of chips (beach)
• $0.40 - two ears of corn (not nearly enough for the beach)
• $0.01 - bag of Publix chips (going for a "dip" at the beach)
• $0.29 - three bottles of A-1 sauce

Total - $8.14; savings $29.07. I got the two bags of Lay's chips so that I would hit the $10 mark required for the penny item, but I still didn't get there. But the nice cashier gave it to me anyway.

I'm not sure I can even figure out what happened at CVS, but it was good! There was free scotch tape after Extra Bucks, and I picked up two rolls that were with the EB sign. After I paid and got to my car, I looked at everything and realized that I had gotten no EB for that item because I had picked up the wrong tape. It was supposed to be 700" and I got 1200". Bottom line: the manager who had also rung me up the first time refunded the difference in price, let me keep the 1200" rolls, and when she went to manually print the EB, instead of $1.49 each, they printed at $2.00 each! So, I made $1.02 bringing home 70% more free tape than I was supposed to.

Fourth of July

The full extent of our Independence Day celebration last Saturday was inviting "the kids" over for a cookout. Wild and crazy party animals, we are not.

There Are Days...

There are days when this says it all:

Birthday Girl

Alexa turned two last week. Here are some photos of her birthday. Opening gifts with Mommy.Showing Gramps her new jewelry.

Caleb, trying out Alexa's gifts.The princess in her tiara.I keep reminding Emily that for this third one, due in December, I have my order in for a blue-eyed blond. My folks have eight grandchildren and eight (I think) great-grandchildren (so far) and the two pictured here are the only ones that don't have blue eyes. But this week, something hit me. (And I'm not referring to the lovely red vein.)

See that brown spot up at the top of my right eye? (It's not in the left eye.) I guess even though I have two blue-eyed children, I'm partly to blame for those brown-eyed grandchildren.

You Knew It Already

But I'm dotty. Thus, my sewing room is sporting a new look, which Blinky had to investigate.

The dots are removable vinyl. They do indeed come off very easily now, and I sure hope that trend holds or I'm going to hate myself someday. (See the wallpaper posts.)

In related news, Angi and I went shopping and eating (not necessarily in that order) for our annual dual-birthday celebration. We went to Ikea because I had seen a lime green wall-mount shelf (to hold my quilting books/magazines) at the Ikea in Florida, but I didn't get it since I was flying. Well, the Atlanta Ikea didn't have it, so I chose a substitute. As we were nearing the check-out area, we decided to take a look in the scratch-and-dent section. I found a 6 ft. royal blue bookcase that I knew would be a perfect addition to the sewing room. No assembly and no painting required. But there was no way it would go in my Cruiser. Upon inquiry, I learned that I could pay for it, leave it in the furniture delivery area, and pick it up later. So, I called James, (after 33+ years, he's used to responding to these types of "situations" that I create) and he decided he'd rather come with the van immediately rather than the two of us going back later in the evening. Angi and I parked ourselves, along with cold drinks and my bookcase, outside in the loading area and waited. Without any back seats in the van, the bookcase fit perfectly. James brought it home and Angi and I went for cheesecake. And lunch. And more shopping.

Blinky had to snoopervise the securing and leveling of the new bookcase.And here it is, all filled up with stuff that had been stacked on the tables in my sewing room. I knew I could fill it up!

Growing, Without Weeds

Here's what my garden looked like about a month ago.
Here's what my garden looks like now.

I've picked one squash, and I sincerely hope a couple of his friends grow up this week or only one of us at the dinner table will have fresh summer squash.

A Wee Bit of Sewing

I made two fabric postcards this week. This one went to some friends who just had a baby boy.This one remains in my stash. It could be coming soon to a mailbox near you.I got a remnant of Cars fabric and decided to make a pair of shorts.
You'll be glad to know that they weren't for me.