♥s and rocks and candy.

♥

Once in a while the sweetest thing will happen.

.

Like when a friend sends a little surprise just for the fun of it.

And when said friend is a kindred spirit
whom I have never met in person...

...and she lives on the other side of the planet but still knows
me well enough to know that a heart-shaped rock she
found would surely melt my own heart.

♥

Thank you, Mel, for the awesome surprise package you sent me.
I'm touched beyond words by your kind and thoughtful gesture.

{And I'm spoiled forever by Jelly Babies.
Those things are dangerously delicious!!!}

I wouldn't have missed it for anything...

A few weeks ago I sent an email out to our "camping family" rounding them up to go camping this past weekend. As it turned out, none of them could join us, and by mid-week I had decided I wasn't going either. Doug never gave up ship.


When we got home from work on Friday afternoon Doug persisted, "Come on, Deb, let's go!"

Me: "Ugh. I'm totally unprepared and I have some other obligations..."
Doug: "Get ready, let's go."
Me: "But I have to wash my hair..."
Doug: "I'll wait."
Me: "And I was going to mop the floors this weekend...they're a mess..."
Doug: "The floors will wait."

~sigh~

It's kind of annoying when he's right.
Here are some photos of what I would have
missed if I had stayed home and cleaned our floors:

This was our view while we drank coffee Saturday morning.

Alright, I could have done without ant hills,
but I liked this photo so I'm gonna' share it.

They were everywhere this weekend!

Ground cover on our property. When we first got there
I was tip-toeing around trying not to step on flowers and
I had to give that up after a while. They were solid all over
the place!

Juniper berries. One of these days I'm going to make juniper berry wine.

More wildflowers - a macro look at some tiny white flowers.

A horned-toad lizard that Doug caught
and let me hold before we released him.

Prickly-pear cactus with fruit that the javalinas haven't found (but some weird looking bugs have). Prickly-pear jelly is on my list of things to make but it sounds like too much trouble. You have to wear very thick gloves the whole time you are working with the fruit because there are some crazy needles on these babies. I'll be more likely to make juniper berry wine!

Stag-horned cholla cactus fruit. Doug liked seeing
these because apparently deer love to eat this stuff!
Where there's cactus fruit, there's wildlife.

Pretty purple wildflowers.

More wildflowers in the foreground, Doug in the background.
This is the Sunday Tree where Doug's mom's ashes are laid
to rest. It's a few miles from our property and the view there
is spectacular. We visit every time we go to our place.
♥

I think these are black-eyed-Susan's, but they may just be
some sort of sunflowers. They were everywhere and I took
about a hundred photos of them. LOVE these!!!

Even our fire-ring had wildflowers growing around it.
I'm so glad I listened to Doug.
If you visit my house this week, don't look at my floors!
xo

***********

Somehow my blogger settings were changed to upload photos on "medium" so these aren't as large as I had hoped...and too many to start over once I published the post and noticed them. Oh well. Here goes a week ahead of rolling with the flow... ;o)

IKEA - full assembly required.

Last weekend Carrie and I went to IKEA with our friend, Janae. We had a great time, and Janae and I finally got a fabric fix - found some cool IKEA fabric on sale. I was shopping for a sewing table for my craft room and ended up finding something that would work - along with a cabinet with drawers that was marked way down too. Nice!
.
If you've ever bought furniture from IKEA you know that it comes in a super flat box with a bag of screws and random parts. Doug had to work on Saturday and I knew the last thing he'd want to do after working all day was put something together from IKEA (actually, even on a day when he's fully rested it's not his favorite thing to do!). I decided to tackle the project myself and it really wasn't too bad. Funny how that works when you follow the step-by-step photos, eh? (Don't know about your household, but in mine boys "don't need directions.")

I did have to borrow a power tool from Doug for one step of the process and Carrie was quick to help with that. In fact, she helped with some of the tighter screws to save my shoulder.

Now I have a nice workspace where my sewing machine can stay out all the time! And some bonus drawers to store sewing supplies that I hadn't even counted on in the beginning. I love it!

And a couple of extra photos that belong with this post:

Whisky Jay the Rotten Cat - supervising the action from my craft chair while we put the cabinet together.

And my pincushion now has a home on the top of this new table. I made this about 20 years ago from scraps left over from a quilt that I made for Carrie's first "big girl bed."

I love how fabric scraps can bring back memories,
kind of like an old familiar song that takes you back
when you happen to hear it.
♥

Thanks for visiting my craft room.
:o)

Hello paper, remember me?

Seems like I've been attached to my sewing machine for the past
few weeks. This weekend I needed a paper fix, and I got it.Love me, love my mess.
♥

If you've never had a fish taco...

...you're missing out!!!

.

My part:
salsa
cheddar cheese
shredded lettuce
lime slices
avocado
chipotle sauce

(sauce is equal parts sour cream and
mayonnaise with chipotle seasoning)

.

His part:

tilapia fish fillets cooked on the grill

.

Me: "Yummmmmmm...sooooo good..."

Doug: "Uh-huh!"

Me: "...only way these could be better is if we had fresh cilantro on hand..."

Doug: "Or if we were looking at the ocean right now."

.

I love how we think alike.

♥

PS: I realized after I finished this post that the avacado slices in the last photo look like limes in my tacos! Ha. They aren't - we squeeze the lime on top for juice flavor! And I leave my avacados in slices rather than dice them because they stay in the tortillas better. :o)

Have I told you lately...

...how much I appreciate the sweet comments you all leave on my blog?

...how your kind words of encouragement and validation are a bright spot to my day?

...how I value our online interactions as much as I'd value a face-to-face encounter?

If I haven't, please allow me to do so now.

If you are a fellow blogger, I don't have to tell you how much it means when readers leave comments.

If you don't have a blog but still leave comments here on mine, I want to tell you how much it means to me (and other bloggers you may visit along the way).

If you are a reader and don't leave comments, that's ok too. I appreciate the time you take to stop by and take a look.

When I see a new comment I always have the same thought: "Oh good! [insert your name here] left me a comment!"

.

So, as I try to find the right words to express my appreciation and gratitude I am... well... somewhat speechless {if you can imagine}. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to each and every one of you! It means the world to me and I am honored to know you through this amazing, surprising, crazy blog world!!!

xoxox

♥ ♥ ♥

Stone's car track. :o)

Happy birthday to my sweet nephew Stone who is two years
old today! Here's a picture that my sister sent last night, just
after Stone opened the package that the mailman delivered.
:o)

Hooray! He likes the gift I made for him. :o)

When I saw my friend Corri's "town" that she made for her boys I was so inspired. Then I saw this little travel track on Daniela's blog and that's when it hit me - I'd do an in-between version for my nephew's birthday.

.
Such thought was followed by a few sketches and some sleepless nights lying in bed trying to figure out how I'd put it together {the creative process in my mind won't shut off when the lights do}.

,

I used canvas for the base, and fabric scraps for the embellishments - ironed on with fusible webbing and then stitched around. The finished size measures 32"x 24". {I probably should have photographed this before it had been folded and wrinkled. ~oops~ and ~oh well~ }.

I designed this to be portable, so it folds in half,...then in thirds,

and then buttons up. {I had issues with the strap and a few choice words, but at that point it was too late to modify. So, if by chance you plan to make one of these, let me know and I'll tell you my woes on strap design...}

This was such a FUN project - I loved every minute of it.

Happy 2nd birthday, sweet Stone!
Your Aunt Deb loves you very much.

♥ ♥ ♥

A little something for a friend...and a tutorial.

I met a friend this afternoon and wanted to take a little something to give to her, so I whipped this up before I left the house. {Yes, it was that easy!}
.

>^..^<

~ note Fancy Jane in the background ~

I used two pieces of unbleached muslin, cut the same size, and
stamped a design on each piece with some StazOn ink.

I sewed the pieces together, trimmed the corners...

...turned, pressed, and filled with chocolate.

Gave it away to my blog friend, Marlene who
I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time
today at our local scrapbook store.

♥

PS for Marlene ~ Thank you SO much for the fun book you gave me! I love it! And I love that you thought of me for gifting it. ♥