I LIKE Thursday #274

 

The calendar says it’s Spring, we Sprung Forward on the clocks, my iPad even agrees. 

This was yesterday. But there was a red flag warning until 10:00 pm last night. Too warm, too dry, and two windy. 

I changed some of my small decor. My buffet. The Spring Alphabet Sampler cube doesn’t show up well. 

Two long-legged rabbits sit around my candle warmer. The basket has another cross stitch rabbit from Melissa at Pinker n Punkin, and some heirloom eggs.  This year I added bunny ears, just for fun.

Above is a stitchery from Kathy Schmitz. I love Mr. Bunny with his eggs in a backpack. 

Near our front door is a Patchabilities Easter skinny wall hanging . Perfect for that narrow space. 

This is another regular in the seasonal rotation. All were from a magazine I used to get. I can’t remember if it was Quiltmaker or Quilts and More. But many years ago. 

This is a bad photo, but Mr Busy and I took a short road trip to the nearest neighboring town, Moorcroft,WY. The truck stop there had this sweatshirt hanging up high. Had to get a shot of it. If you need an explanation just ask. I’ll gladly tell you.

Sunday we walked through the home show and looked at all the siding, windows, flooring booths. Our County Museum called for Red, White and Blue blocks for a commemorative quilt for 2026. I didn’t make a block, I just didn’t have the bandwidth last fall to do anything besides just exist. But Mr Busy took my picture anyway. I look sad!  I’ll have to be cognizant of that in the future. 

Mr Busy finished his second puzzle of the year. One piece is missing. I think this one was one we loaned out then reassembled. The missing piece is on the bottom edge. Can you find it? 

 

LeeAnna who hosts I Like Thursday, posed this conversation starter:

what was your favorite breakfast cereal as a kid. Would you eat it now?

My favorite cereal was Wheaties! Breakfast of Champions. I still like it and eat it now and then. I don’t eat much cereal anymore . Coffee, a piece of toast and 1/2 a banana is my usual. Though this week, DH cooked eggs. I used my new cup. Isn’t it pretty?

Ooh, this is a long post. Today I’ll be stitching with friends again. I’ll try to remember to get some photos of any Show n Tell. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

I LIKE Thursday #271

 

Joining LeeAnna  at Not Afraid of Color. Today, the conversation starter is one that brings back memories. 

March 5 2026

What was the worst haircut you ever had?

There have been a few! Luckily I don’t have photos. lol. My mom always cut our bangs. Some were good, some not so much. In fact, I’m never really satisfied with a haircut until it’s about 10 days old. But I had a friend that had a real mishap. Back in the 70’s it was popular to razor cut fringe bangs. Her stylist was happily cutting her bangs when her hand slipped and cut a slice off the top of N’s nose!

But this week no haircut problems, though I’m not happy with this current one either. 

I put away the February Valentine decor. Slowly there is some March themed things appearing.  

A Kathy Schmitz seasonal stitch, a mostly green and shamrock table runner and March Alphabet Shamrocks from  Melisa at Pinker n Punkin Quilts and Stitching and a-made-years-ago, Patchabilities Shamrock skinny wall hanging. If you click on the link to Melisa’s blog and scroll down you will find a plethora a stitch charts for March. 

I received a late birthday gift from my daughter. It’s a journal. 

Yup. I’m 80. Can you see my name as part of the flower stem?  I thinks that’s so cool. 

The color is truer in the photo of the back. A lovely lavender.

It was a sunny warm day on Tuesday. We drove to Spearfish SD for lunch. While there we checked out their animal shelter. Many, many cats, one huge dog, and 4 medium sized. Mr Busy was really interested in one. Wish I’d taken a photo, but she barked and barked and barred her teeth. The attendant said she didn’t like kids, and would take some getting used to. But she just didn’t warm up to Mr. Busy. As soon as he said to her, “well I guess you’re not going home with me” she quit barking and laid down in the shade next to her kennel. 

My holiday cactus thinks it’s an Easter Cactus, by flowering early. Silly thing. 

And my birthday flowers are starting to fade.  Such a pretty pink. 

Off to my stitching group this morning. I’ll probably work on the St Patrick’s Day themed stitch. 

I love the green color, but not sure about the white sheep. Probably should have tea dyed this white fabric first. Hmmmm?

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

I LIKE Thursday # 268

  

Shared from Sweatpants and Coffee. - not recently. 

It feels like Spring. I know I should not be optimistic.  But I even have tulips coming up. I haven’t walked to the backyard to get a photo, but I will. 

At Stitching Group we had the door open all day. It was wonderful. Here are two projects that were shown. 

 

A counted cross stitch project that I finally Fully Finished.  And a wool appliqué project that Donna says is a FO. A found object in the closet. She is doing a wonderful job. There were more, but I didn’t get photos. My bad!

LeeAnna asked about Valentines exchanged in elementary school. I’m pretty sure that yes we did. But I remember more helping my own kids decorate shoeboxes into Valentine Mailboxes. Red and pink with cut out hearts. We did Valentine Parties. As Room Mother, I made sure there were cupcakes, conversation hearts in tiny baskets.  All kinds of fun. ❤️🧁

My youngest granddaughter had a tendon repaired in her right thumb today. She is home and doing well.I LIKE that. 

Here is my February buffet decorated:

It’s confusing, but the small heart topper is on top of two side by side while placemats. Otherwise it looks too small. The candle in the warmer is peppermint, the tall bottle is ChocoVine. A blend of red wine and Dutch chocolate. I haven’t tried it yet. It was a gift from my friend at Christmas. She puts it in her  coffee!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

I LIKE Thursday 11-13-25

 

LeeAnna suggested this conversation starter:

Nov 13 2025

Do you decorate at all for Thanksgiving? Special dishware? Wall hangings? pumpkins lining your  walkway? whatever!

I do. Some examples. 

A Turkey Banner from Patchabilities. It is not new, but a favorite.

This is a  wall hanging I made last year!  Oh, look!  The electricity is back on! 

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And a shot of my small buffet. Full of some old favorites and a couple of new stitches. 

I want to see the aurora borealis so badly. We tried last night. But saw nothing. Maybe too many clouds.  We drove 20 miles out of town and got only a really dark sky!  POUT!

When I was at my stitchers group, we lost electricity. Luckily there are lots of windows, we opened the door and the sun was shining. The whole town was without power for several hours. That’s unheard of. Now we know that a huge problem at a power plant near the Utah border was at fault. I was wondering how I was going to fix supper, but it’s back on at this writing, 4:29 pm MST. So no excuses in the kitchen tonight! 😆

Thanks LeeAnna for keeping this going!

Check out The list of participants at I LIKE THURSDAY over at Not Afraid of Color. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Slow Sunday Stitching

  

A few finishes this week. 

The THANKFUL Doodle from Heart in Hand is fully finished. I say this idea first when a friend brought hers to Show n Tell at our Thursday Stitchers.  I’ve learned, since then, that Heart in Hand calls it a FRILL. They have a tutorial on YouTube. 

Frill Finish from Heart in Hand   I don’t follow all her steps, but it is very close. I had a slab of green florists foam from Hobby Lobby that Mr. Busy cut for me on his scroll saw. An electric knife works or a serrated knife from the kitchen drawer. I wanted this thicker so we glued 2  pieces together. I used a scrap of fall colored fabric and a piece of 2” wired ribbon rescued from a floral bouquet a long time ago. 

Then I finished  HELLO AUTUMN into a larger than normal dough bowl filler. There is no real technique, but there are several videos on YouTube for finishing dough bowl pillows. No room on the buffet for my dough bowl, so I propped up AUTUMN against a paperweight. :)

I work on the octopuses at my stitching group on Thursdays. It’s getting closer to the finish line. 

And the Gingerbread Saltbox from Melisa at Pinker n Punkin Quilts at home in the evenings or during football games on the weekends. 

 There is always another design calling me. 

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching event 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful.

First October - I LIKE Thursday

 

 

Decided to share this from Ordinary & Happy. Maybe you can find one to be grateful for. 

I’ve taken a bit of a break from posting here with LeeAnna and Friends from not Afraid of Color. 

But this week there are a few things that I remembered to document.   Backwards from most recent to a couple of weeks ago.  Finally the Hometown Christmas quilt is done and ready to be hung at our Quilt Show this coming weekend. 

The Downtown Association has been busy decorating our street corners and planters with Fall Wonderfulness. 

These on the corner near the shop where I like to get my coffee on Thursday mornings. 

I still have green tomatoes on my lonely tomato plant. We haven’t had a frost yet. Unusual!.

My great granddaughter wanted to learn to knit. I had to brush up on my skills before I could teach her. Her recommendation was to ,”watch some YouTube Videos, Gramma”.   I did, and these are her hands. She picked it up really quickly. I’m happy. I will post the finished item, when it is completed. 

And finally, I think the doctors have finally tweaked Mr. Busy’s heart meds to be helpful. Off the BP lowering med and now on one for the NSVT Non-sustained Ventricular Tachycardia .  He is feeling much better overall. So I am deeply grateful for their continued monitoring of his heart issue and working to find a remedy. 

This is just an image from the internet, not Mr Busy’s actual strip!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

A Fall Wall Hanging

 I've been reading From My Carolina Home's Fall Fortnight Posts. Although I didn't join in, it did inspire me to get out a UFO from last year. 

This kit was a gift and I started reading directions and cutting fabric. Then came the direction to use a bias tape maker for the leaf stems. I don't own one. I put out a call to see if I could borrow one. I received an answer. I did not know anything about the maker and when the owner asked me what size I needed, I couldn't say. The instructions were not specific. That sort of stalled me. I made the HST for the leaves and then got disappointed that I couldn't go forward. 

Long story short, I dug in again last week. I read and reread the directions and finally decided I would just make the strips by hand!  1 " strips were pressed in half, then opened and the edges were pressed to the middle resulting in a 1/2" strip. I seemed to work. I continued. 

Yesterday morning , it looked like this. All the parts on the design wall, some stitched together, but more to do. 

Last evening it looked like this. The pumpkins are complete, the leaf sections are complete, the center 36-patch is sewn together.  Next the sashings and then a backing and quilting and binding. I'll hang it for November. It's not really Thanksgiving, but definitely Fall. 

So , I'm back in the sewing room and feeling productive.  I'm joining the linky party at Midweek Makers, hosted by Susan at Quilt Fabrication.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!