Summer is here ...

And baby is it hot outside.

I've been pretty busy these last few weeks, though I guess it has been months since I last posted.
Here's what I've been up to:

Finished the baby blanket I was crocheting. It look very similar to the one I made year before last for Hannah's baby. I think I did a better job this time as it is mostly square.

Started a quilt-a-long (and a new blog, Kudzu Kwilts). We are making a twin size bed quilt. It will go on the trundle bed in my office.

Harvesting the garden has begun. We got lots of lettuce this spring along with broccoli and cabbage. I have frozen most of the broccoli and the cabbage is in the fridge. Fortunately cabbage keeps a long time. Started with squash and zucchini in the last week or so. We're having better luck, so far, with the squash and zucchini. The vine borers haven't been as bad. I'm trying to be better about spraying and that seems to be helping. I have more than I can handle at the moment. I've put up 5 jars of squash and 5 jars of zucchini the last 2 days and I have more to do today. I've made lots of zucchini bread too. Enough to start giving away.

Lawrence is out of town until Thursday with his sister and BIL. They will be staying here Thursday night. I'm sure I can get them to take some squash and zucchini when they leave to go home Friday.

It's been a long time.

Well, it looks like I'm terrible at blogging. But I'm going to give it another shot.

I have a new hobby, quilting. As if I didn't already have enough. I'm working on about 7 projects right now.

1. Cross stitch. I'm almost done with the last carousel horse for Ky. The 4th of 4 that I started when Ky was a baby. She is now 18 and in college. But I'm finishing up the backstitching now. Soon, real soon now.
2. I quilted a baby blanket for my niece who is having twins this summer. It was from a kit and I just need to sew up the seam. Should only take a few minutes, don't know why I'm delaying.
3. Quilted placemats. All I need to do with them is do the final sewing on the binding. I'm waiting until I finish the cross stitch so I can do it while watching TV.
4. Bed Quilt. I took a class at JoAnn's last October and I've been slowing working on finishing the quilt. I finally quilted the center parts yesterday. I'm not sure how I want to quilt the borders. I need to get an embroidery foot for my sewing machine so I can do a curvy quilt pattern. Then I need to practice on something else to see how it goes. If that doesn't go well then I'll just do some straight lines and a diamond pattern or something similar.
5. I'm braiding a new glasses holder thingy. I made a beaded one a couple of years ago but it keeps getting tangled up so I thought I would try a new way. It is taking longer than I thought.
6. Gardening. It's that time of year again.
7. Riding - I'm still working on the canter. I'm not sure we will ever have a good one.

I still need to make 1 more baby blanket for Sarah. She is having twins so one won't do. I will either crochet on or make another quilt. They will not be identical (neither the blankets or the twins). Hopefully Sarah is ok with that. I also have several crochet projects I want to do.

And I'm back on the diet. I gained about 5+ pounds last year so I've been working to take them off since the first of the year. So far so good, I'm down to 130 (on my scale which weights you in about 10lbs light, so I really weight more like 140).

I guess that's about all for today.

Lost 2 more pounds

Well I got a surprise when I got on the scale this morning. 130 I got on the scale twice to make sure. It will probably be higher tomorrow but hopefully not. Now I just have to keep it up. I was really hungry last night a couple of hours after dinner but I didn't succumb and by bed time I wasn't hungry anymore. I did 45 minutes again on the treadmill yesterday and rode Jolie for about 40 minutes. She was very good. It is important though that I don't get too excited about it and start thinking we might do well at the shows this spring. Invariably that happens and I start trying to force it to go well and then it doesn't. You can't force things with her, she just tenses up and tunes you out.

I finished the cap I was crocheting. Ky doesn't like it. I was planning to give it to her but she thinks it looks weird. She had the same reaction to the neck warmer I made. So I guess I will either keep it for myself or give it to someone else that will be more appreciative for Christmas. I like them because they are a little different than they usual knitted scarf and hat. A friend's mother knits plain ole scarfs and gave one to Ky at Christmas time and she likes that. I personally thought it was -- well not ugly, just plain. I like the neck warmer idea because I find it hard to keep a scarf wrapped around my neck especially when working outside with the horses. I'll probably give away the one I just made because it is pink and green. I have already bought some blue/black/white yarn to make me one.

I pretty much finished up organizing my records yesterday. I guess I need to do Lawrence's though they are pretty much the same. I then need to figure out where to get our wills and powers of attorney notarized.

Watership Down

I just finished reading Watership Down today. I had never read it before and didn't have any thing else to read at the time so started it just before the New Year. Pretty good book. I was very glad that nothing bad happened to the bunnies. I'm sure there is lots of symbolism in the book but I have never been much good in figuring what books mean. I started reading one of the books I got from the library on funeral planning. The symbolism in it is more obvious.

Because I was near the end of Watership Down, it was easy to do 40 minutes on the treadmill today. I read while I walk. I don't think funeral planning will keep me interested enough to make walking enjoyable so I will start a new book tomorrow.

I was also able to ride today. Jolie (my horse) acted like it had been 2 years instead of 2 weeks since she had been ridden but we did finally end up with some good work. I attempt to do Dressage and have been working on canter transitions and sitting trot. Both are finally getting better and, in fact, I am starting to prefer the sitting trot. I still bounce a lot though.

I finished the neckwarmer I was crocheting for my daughter, she thinks it looked funny when I tried it on so maybe it will be for me instead. Started on a cap to go with it. I'll try and get a picture up tomorrow.

Crochet hook holder

Today I made a crochet hook holder. When I went to start a crochet project last week I couldn't find any of my crochet hooks. I had to go buy some. I decided to go ahead and make the holder to hold them all (I bought two sets) so I wouldn't loose these as well. I guess the others will show up someday. The holder was another great gift idea found on Sew Mama Sew. I plan to make a armchair organizer and hook holder for my sister for Christmas so these were good practice. I need to find some great fabric for them though. I've been using old sheets for these.

I managed to walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes again today and I checked the books on funeral planning out today.

Monday is Lawrence's birthday, we are taking him out for supper tonight since Larry has to go back to school Sunday.