Last weekend...

...started with an early trip out to the farm.
We beat the sun...and then got to enjoy a gorgeous sunrise!  I'm used to getting
photos of the sunsets, but, oh, this sunrise!

The guys are making progress on the shop!  The roof is on, the front wall has been rebuilt (that'll be a sliding door there on the right), and now they are working on putting in the insulation.

Digging the trench to run electricity from the house to the shop.

While the guys were slaving away outside, the girls were slaving away inside.
I bought $17 worth o produce at a local fruit stand and came home with...

...28 jars of delicious salsa and 7 jars of stewed tomatoes.  Yum!

We made two double batches of chocolate chip cookies for Mom and
Dad's freezer...

...and enchiladas for dinner.  All of this cooking was happening at the same time...I imagine it was
an interesting aroma when you walked into the house.  :)

The fruits of out labor.

While the guys took a trip to Lowe's, Mom, Emma and I enjoyed the cool evening air. 
If you look closely, you can see Emma standing using the fire pit as a stage while she entertains Mom with a story.  :)

Me and my little nut.

Yep...she's  a nut!

The shop originally had four large doors on the front.  They were built about 50 years ago out of wood from a very old house in Richland, Oregon.  We figure the wood is at least 100 years old.  Over the past four weekends, Ryan has been very carefully taking the doors apart.  He hopes to sell the wood to someone who will use it to make picture frames, etc out of the old wood.

Even Emma gets to help on the shop!
~~~

Scenes from this past week

This was the view out our back window earlier this week.  This little building is Bob's shop.  It was a work bench, peg board, and even some tools.   What it hasn't had is anyone using it!  It's so nice to see those lights burning in the windows as the days get shorter and cooler.  I hope it becomes a
common sight here.

Dear Tomatoes,
Please ripen.  Soon.
Thanks,
Katie

I love that we still have gorgeous flowers peeking out here and there.

Emma's been home sick with a cold these past couple of days.  Luckily, she's
very good at entertaining herself.  On this particular day, she decided to
spend some time on the river in her own little boat.

And on this day, she was Queen Starbucks.  We'd stopped earlier for a bit of caffeine, and she picked up an extra cup sleeve.  When she got home, she started right away with her scissors. I was quite impressed that she figured out on her own how to cut the holes in the sides for her headband to slide through.  When Bob got home, Emma was sitting on the couch wearing her crown.  Bob happened to mention it to her, and she replied, "Oh, I'm sorry.  You can't talk to me while I'm wearing my crown."

And today's entertainment was a bit of handsewing. 
Tomorrow?  It's back to school!

My projects this past week include a flannel lap
quilt for a dear elderly lady.  So soft and cuddly!

My bright yellow and red bag is definately a summer bag.  And, even though it was 101 here on Saturday, it is Fall.  I decided that I needed a new bag.  Now I'm trying to decide if I like it.  Hmmmm...

Emma's class is incorporating apples into their lessons this week.  I happened to come upon a recipe in the most recent "Women's World" magazine for apple cupcakes.  These did not turn out quite as perfectly as the ones in the magazine, but (luckily) my intended "audience" is made up of 6- and 7-year olds.  Whew!  :)

That's all for now.  I was considering closing up shop on this little blog for several reasons.  However, I'd decided to give it a bit more time.  Posts will likely be not-so-randomly once a weekish, so keep checking in!  And I'd LOVE to hear from you lurkers out there.  :)

Bob has been helping Dad with some work on the farm, so we've spent the last several weekends there.  It's been wonderful to enjoy the awesome fall weather on the farm.

Teaching the next generation

Look at how happy my CPA husband looks getting all dirty and sweaty!  :)

It's hard to keep Ryan on the ground!

Girls' Weekend

While the boys headed out to the Poor Farm to help Dad put a new roof on the shop, Em and I had a great time spending the weekend together.  On Saturday, we had about twelve ladies over for a Craft Day.  It's our first of the season, and it's such a nice way to spend a few hours.  I'm not sure that many of us got very  much done, but it was so nice to sit and chat and find out what others are working on.  Emma's friend wasn't able to come, but she still had a fun time.  She probably got the most done of anyone!  She even had her own little table set up, although she tended to move around the room getting ideas from everyone else. 

Just a few of the crafters.  I didn't get my camera out until later in the afternoon and some had to leave earlier.

That evening, we went to Arts in the Park with some family and friends.  Emma had never been, so she had fun checking everything out.  This was her favorite spot!

Here's my favorite artist in the park!
She was very annoyed when a teenager walked by and stepped on her drawing!

Here's a few of the cards I worked on this weekend.

This one was copied from a friend's design using different colors.

And one more card holder. 
I LOVE this fabric!  The inside is a solid
plum that matches some of the flowers.

Scattered Bliss

I've been posting my crafts over on my other blog and tried to keep this one just
family stuff and my late night babbling (which I really should avoid!).  However, I just had to share this baby quilt with all of you!  If you've followed this blog for long, you know that I started quilting in 2010.  I love to look at the traditional quilts, but I really have no personal desire to make a quilt using those patterns.  So, all but one of the quilts I've made have been my own design and are all pretty simple.  This one is my favorite so far!  I started with a jelly roll of Bliss by Moda.  I LOVE this line of fabric.  I've even made Emma an outfit with it (that outfit can be found in this post).  I designed the quilt on a piece of graph paper and took it from there.  It was so satisfying to watch what I could see in my mind come to life in front of me.   

Aren't the colors amazing?

This was also my first attempt at stippling (or free motion) quilting.
All of my past quilts have been quilted with straight lines, usually using the masking tape method.
I felt that this one needed something more ~ and it wasn't so bad after I got the hang of it.
Now, if anyone has an extra long arm quilting machine sitting in storage that they'd like to get off of their hands for cheap, please give me a call!  I can't imagine stippling anything larger than a baby blanket on my little sewing machine.