robynsewsthisandthat

I did really well taking photos to post for last week’s Sunday Sevens but, I failed at the actual follow thru of posting. That’s okay. Natalie over at Threads and Bobbins has made the Sunday Sevens an “easy, breezy” way for us to keep tabs with one another and take a peek into each of our weekly lives in our many parts of the world. If you are interested in joining or just want to see what is happening go check it out.

                                           
1 –  One little leaf hanging onto this branch for dear life….

2 –  A tad old photo from the week before. I went shopping with my sister and we found this really cute patio tucked in behind some buildings. The residence have made it into a public area. I like this metal sculpter and she photo bombed my attempts to take a picture of it. Silly girl, I guess she has forgotten about ‘pay backs’.

3 –  My son found this board game and recommended it to me quite a while ago. I finally ordered it. Now I just need someone to play it with me.

4 –  I was diagnosised with celiac disease about 19 years ago. I have stuck to a gluten free diet ever since. But, over the past few years I am finding that I am sensitive to other foods as well. Like corn, almonds and even maybe rice. Ugh!!!! A friend recommended this book. I am trying to get to the bottom of my woes.

5 –  My daughter has been wanting to make macarons for quite some time. My nephew was visiting my sister for the holidays so we went to her house for a day-long bake off while he taught her all the tricks. He made the green pastachio ones without almond flour! Yummy! 

6 –  The table all set for Thanksgiving dinner. In years past I have had the table extended into the living room to fit our blended family of 8 children. Each year it seems our table gets smaller and smaller. We have 3 place settings here but, one of my stepsons came at the last minute and joined us for his second turkey meal of the day. So we ended up with 4.

7 – I have been working for the past few weeks making pillows for a client. 35 in all. Phew!!! I have finally finished them. She is a local artist and has her paintings printed onto fabric at SpoonFlower and then I make them into pillows  which she then sells at shows and her painting classes. In all I think I have made almost 100 pillows for her. 

Bonus pic –  I just got this new Juki sewing machine (saved my money from making pillows and teaching sewing) I had to finish making the pillows so I could clean up and rearrange to make a spot for this little gem. I am so excited about this. It deserves a blog post all it’s own.  I promise!

That’s it for my week and then some. I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead.  
    

Wow! This is week 50. That means the this regular posting of sharing our week through photos that was dreamed up by Natalie is approaching it one year loop. It would be fun to have this continue beyond. If you are interested in joining in now please do. You can go to Threads and Bobbins to get the details.

                                            
1 – I made this bandanna that slides onto a dog collar. It is the colors of the University of Virginia. The orange is representing the ‘V’ in the name and logo. I had hoped to get them in a local dog shop to sell. They didn’t like it much. “People don’t want to take the collars off to attach it.” is the reason they offered up. Okay. Sebastian doesn’t seem to mind.

  
2 – I finally went to my church for a mid-week worship service where I walk the outdoor labyrinth. I haven’t been able to join in for several months. I walked around the outside of the building afterwards and through the rememberance garden to check on the tiny fish pond.

  
3 – I found this fungus on a walk with Sebastian. It’s been getting bigger and bigger.

  
4 – Sebastian enjoyed stopping for a rest to get his picture taken. It was crazy humid here most of the week then finally the drier air moved in and I got a burst of energy as it helped to relieve my headache of three days.

5 – I was able to make 4 pillow cases (there were 2 of the ‘Cars’ I only photographed 1) for my little vistors that came to see me Saturday.

 
6 & 7 – My little visitors. My two grandsons came up from  North Carolina and my granddaughter came from Richmond. My other grandson in NC wasn’t able to make the trip with his mom so I sent his pillow case down with his cousins. They were so simple and fast to make.  We also spent about an hour and a half playing at the pool.

You get two pics of them as I had also made some chicken broth that I canned and I thought that I had taken a photo of but, can’t find it now. Oh well, next batch I will remember. I am also sewing up some coverlets and will photograph them for a later blog.
  

Hope everyone has a fabulous week.

My goodness. Either I let life get in my way or more accurately, I let myself get in my way. I really enjoy the Sunday Sevens. Natalie at Threads and Bobbins has done a wonderful job of creating this. You should check it out.

  
I have been cooking a bit more. More peach ice cream and I made some fried plantains.

  
I also purchased this Spiralizer using a gift card I received for my birthday in June. It makes miles of zucchini pasta, super quick. I made this Spiralized Zucchini Pesto Pasta with Peas and Pancetta by Danielle Walker.

  
I walked around the University of Virginia campus with my daughter to locate her classes. It is a beautiful campus.

  
They have an exhibit of a section of the Berlin Wall on grounds.

  
Hubby and I went to New Jersey for my MIL 80th birthday celebration. On the way up we stopped for ice cream (for lunch–we’re so bad). We couldn’t resist. There was no line! But, it was grizzling and only 68 degrees outside. It is really, really excellent ice cream.

  
In NJ we had sushi for dinner. The restaurant carries gluten free soy sauce. I was so happy!! 

  
We slipped away to Seaside Heights for a stroll along the boardwalk. It was very windy and they had red flags out and would not let people go in above their knees due to rip currents. So we didn’t pay the $6 per person to go onto the beach.

  
We enjoyed a wonderful seafood meal with the birthday gal at the marina in Point Pleasant.

   
 
I apologized for posting more than seven photos. But, I did miss a couple of weeks of posting. I promise to do better.

Have a great week everyone!😘

This is kind of how I am feeling…tired, overwhelmed, fighting a bit of a cold and just plain weird. Let’s make the most of this past week.

1 – Smoked ribs! ’nuff said! My hubby is the master with his smoker!

2 – Bright blue skies mean low humidity and that is rare at this time of year in these parts. Definitely enjoyed that!

3 – This is evidence of all the rain that we have had this summer. I saw some really huge mushrooms the other day. (of course I didn’t have my phone)

4 – Waiting for the bus…on my way to work at the fabric store.

5 – Finally took some time to pamper myself with a pedicure.

6 – I apologize for this really poor picture. I spotted one of the baby wrens in the nest on our deck.

7- We went to another track meet this time in Alexandria, VA. It was an ‘all comers’ meet. One only pays one fee and can enter to participate in as many events as one chooses. As you can see the storms brought back the humidity and it got very hot!! My hubby is throwing the discus in the below pic. I threw discus, shot put and hammer. This marks my first measured hammer throw.

That’s my week all neatly wrapped up. Check out Natalie’s blog at Threads and Bobbins to join in the fun or just to take a look at what we are all doing.

Hope everyone has a great week. I hope to be able to get back to sewing again soon so I can blog about some projects I am planning. Bye for now!

I think that I am finally getting the hang of recording my day-to-day doings thru pictures.  I am also really enjoying following others who are participating in this Sunday Sevens Challenge. If you want to find out more about it check out Thread and Bobbins which is Natalie’s blog. She’s the clever gal who started this way for all of us to share a bit more of ourselves every week (and she has a lot more fun things going on over there too).

My past week was crazy busy. I will begin with a calming photo.

1 – Our Butterfly bush is ready to pop with tons of white blooms. We put this in 2 years ago and last year it provided us with lots of butterfly and humming bird visitors. Both have already begun to show up this year and I can’t wait to enjoy more and more every day.

2 – This is the classroom space that I use at the city Parks & Rec. I have 2 tables and 5 sewing machines to use. I teach 3 summer camps and 2 evening classes per week in this space. I have to set up and tear down for each class as this space is used for other activities during the day. I have it down to a pretty tight system now and allow myself 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to put it all away.

3- This is the space that I used at one of the private schools for my 3 hour per day, one week long summer camp in the afternoons. It was in the school’s art room. I had the space to myself for the whole week so I set up once and tidied up every afternoon. I just packed it all away at the end of the week. I had 3 girls ages 7 – 10. It was a blast and we completed 4 projects.

4- More calm and beauty in my backyard. Hanging pots bursting with flowers. We have had so much rain this summer. The plants are quite happy.

5- Little sewing hands. In this sewing camp I have more boys than girls. This day they made up cookie coin pouches. Then the boys got really creative and made hamburger pouches. It was cute and they had a lot of fun.

6 – Crazy rain. It poured down, then stopped briefly, then poured down again. And then again!! Don’t worry. I took this pic while sitting at the red light. We had 1 inch of rain in a very short time. And then another 1/2 inch overnight. No wonder my plants are so happy, amIright?

7- This is the other side of Afton Mountain thru the Rockfish Gap. Afton mountain is really part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I guess it’s just named specifically as there are a few places to cross the Blue Ridge. During the summer it is usually too humid to have a clear view. It is especially beautiful in the Spring and Fall. We were on our way to enjoy a late birthday celebration dinner that my sister created for me. She moved here last June and I am so happy that she lives so close to me now.

So, I had 10 classes this past week. Whew! I was really tired on Wednesday but my week got easier from there. Now I am down to 5 classes for the next 2 weeks. Should be a breeze, right?

I hope everyone has a fabulous week and I am looking forward to taking a peek into what goes on in your world. See you all next week.

My 4th attempt. That sounds so lame. Especially since I somehow missed posting my 3rd attempt last week. Well, I am enjoying this. And I think it is helping me to be more aware of my daily surroundings. At least it’s training me to have a more observant eye.

Thanks to Natalie from Threads & Bobbins for creating the Sunday Sevens as a way to share a little bit more of ourselves in a fun, picturesque way. Hop on over to see what it’s all about.

1 – We headed up to Maryland for our first Track & Field event of this summer. Hubs was to throw all his events on Saturday (hammer, weight and super weight) and I was going to throw discus and shot put on Sunday. It was pouring buckets of rain when we got there and hubs was only able to get his hammer throws in. They postponed all the rest of the men’s throws to Sunday as they were predicting thunder storms. It was a beautiful day. That’s him in the throwing circle behind me. (he achieved All American in the super weight) I did not do so good. But, I will keep trying.

2 – From the parking garage on the downtown mall you can see where they city is trying to make efforts to be environmentally conscious by planting green on the roof of the police station. I feel there needs to be more of it but, at least they are trying.

3 – Another pic from the downtown mall. As little as 40 some years ago this used to be Main Street. Then on July 3, 1976 it was opened to the public as a pedestrian mall. There are lots of cute little shops and many restaurants. Outdoor dining is very popular.

4 -I have had a dream of covering my flower beds in daily lilies. They are so pretty. Lots of people have beautiful patches of these lilies in their yards and I am so envious.

5 – Because the deer love them as much as I do. I try to spray a foul smelling product called deer-be-gone on these beauties to keep the night visitors away. Seems such a shame to make a flower smell so bad. And if it rains I need to spray more often. Lately we have had a lot of evening and night time storms come through. So sometimes my efforts are fruitless. I swear I can hear them giggling sometimes.

6 – But, this area is beautiful. Hubs and I took a quick ride out to the country to get some peaches. This is a view at the orchard outside Crozet. If you have ever seen the movie “Evan Almighty” you can see many views of these Blue Ridge mountains as part of the movie was filmed just a few miles from this spot.

7 – Peaches are so good. We made peach ice cream last night. Yum!!

That’s my week…the week ahead will be super crazy as I am teaching a total of 10 classes. Whew! I will try to remember to grab some pics of those classes and projects to share with all of you.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! And thank you for your patience as I am learning to become a better blogger.

I had a request from my daughter-in-law to make a bathing suit cover up for my granddaughter. She sent me images of things that she liked and I tried to find a pattern and fabrics to mimick them. I am afraid my attempts were a bit lame and then time started to get away from me and then I panicked and just made one up without adding too much creativity to it. (sigh) I hate that when that happens. Not that this isn’t cute. I love the color. I am afraid it may be too heavy for their tropical climate.

I used Kwik Sew 3998 pattern and the modification that I made was to make it short sleeved instead of long. I was going to put a zipper in the front but, I was on a roll and didn’t have a zip long enough or the right color to insert.

I used the zig zag stitch over cording method to create the ruffle. I have come to love this method. It is a little more time consuming but, I love the results. I have a gathering foot for my machine. One day I will give that a try.

And you cannot see it here but, I am famous for attaching my ruffles onto the wrong side. Partly caused by being in a rush and partly caused by a touch of dyslexia. I know better than to start sewing without checking after I have pinned something in place. I may never learn that lesson…

At any rate, this pattern is a quick and easy pattern. The instructions were simple. I like raglan sleeves for kid’s things as it allows for room to grow. I have many more opportunities to make this up again. Especially if I can find the fabrics that DIL asked for and I know that my other granddaughter could benefit from one as well. I think that I could even make one (or 3) without the ruffle and add a zippered front for my grandsons. Hmm, I think that could work out just fine.

Do yo have a favorite pool or beach coverup? I would love to see them.