Day 604

Spending all day with hubby made today's picture happen.

Start by taking him for a bone scan. Add in a stop for lunch. Go to Home Depot and finally (after a few years) get the right decorative light bulbs for the fixture over the dining room table. Use up the free movie ticket found in my purse on Day 547. Hungry from not getting to have popcorn at the movie, drive hubby across the street and get a piece of pie. Arrive home to find a huge box of thread purchased on ebay on the doorstep.

Spend several more hours with hubby turning this:

Into this:

With still more thread left over. (I can only keep him so long in the sewing room before he goes nuts!)

Day 603

It always works out. I always wind up with a picture.

All day at a meeting in Boise. Home a bit after 5:00 PM. Dinner over and cleaned up by 6:00. Time to do the blog. No picture yet.

Head outside to check on the roses. Almost all dead from multiple frosts. Sunlight beginning to wane.

Lots of honking. Look up to the right. Snap picture.

More honking above. Look straight up. Snap another picture.

Two separate flocks of very noisy Canadian geese flying over my rose garden.

Day 602

Every two weeks we are reminded how blessed we are for the way things are turning out.

Every two weeks hubby has to go for lab tests to check kidney function. While we don't have the results back from today's test, they have been improving for the last few weeks. But that's not the biggest appreciation part.

It's being at the doctor's office itself.

The kidney specialist shares office space with the dialysis office. And the dialysis place is such a sad place. Patients who look so very ill and worn down. Caregivers who look just as bad. People who are in it for the long haul, most with no chance of ever returning to a carefree, healthy life.

That could have been us. When hubby was first diagnosed in July we were given the dialysis/never return to a normal life prognosis. Now every time we leave the doctor's office we can't believe the gift we've been given. The gift of returning health. The gift of seeing a sliver of normalcy returning to our lives. While not out of the woods yet, he has come so far.Yep, he's missing several months of work. Yep, he's lost a bunch of weight. Yep, his stamina still isn't up to par. But to think where he was - in a wheelchair, unable to walk - makes us realize how miraculous the recovery has been so far.

I wonder if we'll ever have the same look on life. It really has changed our perspective.

As does making quilts for a little boy who has a dad stationed far away from home right now.

Day 601

Boy, how I wanted to plop myself down in front of a fireplace and watch the snow falling yesterday. But I had to be back at work today so that didn't happen. Back to reality. Back to a kitty cat who was oh-so-happy to see us. Back to my work goal.

Last year I spent my time carrying a big bag. Full of binders and folders and papers, I carried/lugged that thing everywhere. This year I'm working on making that heavy load obsolete.

A paperless work environment, that's my goal. Every day I get closer and closer. And thanks to the iPad case I made, I'm just about there.

Padded space for the iPad. A pocket for the cell phone and a spot for a pen and small note pad (just in case). Zippered pocket for my Altoids. Handles for carrying.

Designed by me. (While I'm proud to claim the design I'm embarrassed to claim the uneven stitches.)

Day 600

On Day 1 I took a picture of some pincushions I had made. Other pictures...

Day 100 - a rose in our garden
Day 200 - a giveaway of things I had made for the tutorials
Day 300 - snowman pin tutorial
Day 400 - clouds out the sunroof of my then-new car
Day 500 - Skagway, Alaska

Day 600 - spent in beautiful Sun Valley.

What does one do in Sun Valley in the fall? Take lots of pictures, of course!

Sit in the warm sun outside the Sun Valley Inn.

Head over to the lodge. Take a peek at the swans in the pond out front.

Head out back of the lodge to the outdoor ice rink and watch up and coming ice skaters.

Snap a picture of Mt. Baldy from the parking lot. No snow yet!

Marvel at the beautiful foliage outside the hotel room window.

But, a few hours later...

Try and take a picture of the barn outside Sun Valley.

IN THE SNOW!

Head back to the parking lot to take a new picture of Mt. Baldy. Too snowy.

Find a fence made of skis.

Head to the park to take lots and lots of pictures of fall foliage in the snow.

Poor hubby. No matter how tight he makes the belt, he's lost so much weight his pants just won't stay up. He's spent the last few days holding them up by hand.

Bear with me...I kind of got picture crazy for Day 600! There were just too many beautiful pictures to be had.

 

The best Day 600 ever!

Day 599

Not knowing the next time I'll be in Twin Falls, knowing the wind wasn't blowing too hard, and knowing that it was a gorgeous morning I decided it was time to walk the Perrine Bridge (the one from yesterday's picture).

I looked up river this time.

I spied a couple of waterfalls coming from the canyon walls.

And to prove to myself I was on the bridge - with no fear - how about a picture looking straight down on the Snake River? (Yikes!)

Day 598

Whenever we drive to Twin Falls, Idaho we have to drive over the Perrine Bridge. In all these years of driving across the bridge I've always wished I had the courage to walk  it, but my fear of heights has held me back. Fortunately after my suspension bridge on the Alaska trip (Day 494) my fear of heights is pretty much gone. Unfortunately because of the high winds I didn't think it was much too safe to walk across this time. But there is a viewing platform that hangs over the edge of the Snake River Canyon.

That I did do.

I snapped a picture of the bridge.

I snapped a picture down river.

And to prove I was standing on a platform hanging off a cliff, I took a picture looking back to the cliff.

Day 597

Enough with the "F" word in regards to the snowman quilt.

How about the "B" word instead? (Border.)

Day 596

I was so excited to show off the work I did on the snowman quilt that I used the wrong "F" word.

I've heard about these things quilters use called design walls. Basically it's a section of wall covered so you can lay out and arrange/rearrange quilt blocks until you get them organized the way you want. With as many quilts as I do, I decided I wanted a design wall. 

I had some felt left over from the Christmas stockings and an empty section of wall. I stuck the felt up on the wall and arranged my snowman blocks. But the blocks kept falling down! Doggone design wall didn't work as well as I thought it would. I barely got them to stick long enough to take today's picture.

I had used the wrong "F" word.

I wasn't supposed to use felt for the design wall - I was supposed to use flannel.

Day 595

Today was one of those days where I planned one picture but decided on a better one(s).

Our burning bush has been very colorful so I headed out early before the sun was up to get a spectacularly beautiful picture. The camera certainly didn't capture the true colors, but I found some things in my rose garden that are really, truly, spectacular.

Day 594

Stepping out the door this morning didn't give many clues to the weather ahead. While the clouds were a bit dark, the sun was shining behind them and the birds were still flying around so it couldn't be that bad.

But as I drove to work the clouds looked more menacing.

Even before my meeting finished, it hit. Heavy, pouring rain. More rain than we had all summer long.

But those pictures aren't the coolest thing about the day. Thanks to the elementary school secretary, this picture is. She stitched up some stockings for soldiers! And today I sent a package containing 202 Christmas stockings to the Stockings for Soldiers organization. Thanks, P-- for your help!

Day 593

The snowman quilt continues. Today's picture is of the other blocks that'll be going into the quilt.

But might I just add a thought?

I wish I had some directions for this thing. I wouldn't shell out the $30 they were asking for the pattern so I'm working off a picture I took last year. Man, it takes some brains to figure these things out!

Day 592

My daughter gets perturbed at me for spending so much time in the sewing room. She thinks I go overboard on making items for charity and spend too much time and money on fabric and postage just to send things to other people. She also thinks I need to sell the things I make as a way to help out with the household income.

So I wasn't surprised when she called the other night and asked what I was doing. I, of course, was in the sewing room. And it bothered her. But when I told her I was making something for me, she was okay with it. Even tonight when she called and I was again in the sewing room making something for me, it was just fine.

What am I making? Well, here's the start of it.

Day 591

The best part of the day came this morning when I found out about this cocoon from Day 587.

According to my mom's friend in California it's a praying mantis cocoon. Only makes sense being that we've seen several around this summer. We'll take that metal sunflower back out of the shed and keep it in the garden for the winter. (Hopefully that's the right decision.)

Worst part of the day was this morning, too. My sewing machine has been acting up these last couple days and when I took the bobbin case out, I saw why. The green and red colors are a giveaway as to the cause. Green and red felt from all those Christmas stockings, perhaps? What a mess.