A dogs day

My dog has the perfect life (except for dog food). He sleeps, rolls in the grass and gets petted on all day. He for some reason was terrible in love with one spot in the back yard. He kept going back to it and rubbing his face in it and rolling all over the grass on his back. I tried to get a picture, but he has camera radar, sort of like vacume cleaner radar. He does not like to have his picture taken.

Other than enjoy his company I was very on task out finishing the last three blocks from 2010 WBH.
I also finished sewing on the label for my Crimson  Tweed quilt. I am proud to say that I quilted it myself.

Time well spent

I am enjoying several days of quiet, just me and the dog. DH is in Minneapolis playing golf. I have always been a person who enjoys my own company. So I have been up reading and sewing all day. Actually I am working on completing the embellishment of blocks started at Workt By Hand 2010. My dad had died shortly before the retreat and I was feeling very calm and quiet and my blocks reflected that. What I thought was very nice needed work and it is getting it. These pictures show the progress I have made, but by no means am I done.

These pictures don't show well all of the embroidery I have done. Lots of bullion stitchery.

This is a small sampler I made while in Baton Rouge last time.

 I finished my bird sewing pouch from this year's WBH. It is at home with things I brought from my mother's house.

Speaking of my mother I got a call from the home that she won't wear anything but her night gown to meals and programs. I had to call her and speak with her about it. She thinks that it is no big deal, but she is upsetting the other residents. I am worried about this. I had told them she was difficult, but maybe she is more than they can handle. She has told everyone there that she is on the hunt for a wealthy man and may be behaving inappropriately in that arena also. ARGHHH! I am heading for Baton Rouge to sign contracts to list the house on Tuesday. It is going to be a real quick trip with me coming back on Wednesday. I am not going to see my mother because she will not understand me not staying for a week and I just cannot do that right now.

The Guest Room

My son moved out a year ago and now has an apartment. He thinks he still lives at home, but I have been slowly but surely converting his bedroom into my guest room. He is coming home tomorrow, but is destined for the couch and his girlfriend will sleep in the guest room.

My mom usually gives me money at my birthday and this year was no exception. I took myself to one of my favorite antique shops, the Rusty Rooster, in Denham Springs, Louisiana and bought myself an antique window which was converted to a mirror. I have been watching too much Sarah's Summer House I guess.

This is the mirror I picked out. Note the small figurines are hiding the large ugly picture hangers my husband used.

This is the bedside table. I am trying to find a balance with a full look, but still leaving room for my guests to use the bedside table. More pictures to come as I work on completing this room, which is my pet project for now.

There is just about as much work in Memphis to be done as in Baton Rouge. Actually my mother's house is fixed and painted inside. I left Charles to finish up the outside which includes: power-washing the entire house, painting doors and shutters, replacing the doors and wood work damaged by termites and completing mulching the yard. I could not have done this without him. He is the best handy man in the world. The second best, but best to me is my DH.

I wish that I had taken pictures before Charles and Dee took down the jungle surrounding my mom's house. You could not see any of the house or the lovely picked fence or pergola from overgrown crepe myrtles, shrubs, weeds and trash trees. My mother thought it was beautiful. I cried from excitement seeing the house for the first time in over a year.

My mother would be so disappointed in this neat bed. She preferred a jam packed flower bed with no room for anything else. She had over planted it so badly I could not get in it to weed. She had 4-5 rose bushes planted in a two foot area.

This is the view from the kitchen door. No furniture and it looks so big now. My mother had it wall to wall with furniture, knick knacks and pictures. It is also clean. The woman living with her had not done a good job taking care of just basic house cleaning.

  Now you can actually see her custom kitchen installed five years ago. All old lady wallpaper is gone and everything is painted light colors.

Self portrait on the way home. I was so tired and not used to taking my own picture.

  Photo of the back of the car. It has taken me three car loads to get what I wanted home, which was mostly pots and yard art. I did salvage one small table my mother and I picked out together for my room in her house.

Walt while riding around with me. He fixed my mothers bed and moved her furniture around to her liking.

While on my way to Baton Rouge I stopped in Canton at the "P" and picked up my rug pattern.

This is the pattern I bought. Lisseanne Miller hooked it to look like her cat, Lowdie.

I am so grateful to be back in Memphis. Repeat after me "there is no place like home, there is no place like home...." I am cleaning and preparing for a visit from my son and his girlfriend. It just feels right.