Getting Through

Thank you for everyone's very kind comments- Sometimes when I think I am just being ridiculous and that I should just get over it, I re-read your comments and am reminded that I am not the only one to feel this way, that plenty of you understand...
This week will be a challenge- oldest daughter has gone back to college, youngest daughter goes back to school on Wednesday (as a high school sophomore!), but no furry daughter here to keep me company. It will be very quiet here. I used to complain that I couldn't get anything done during the day, because I was interrupted every 10 minutes by Daisy, who wanted to go out, and then wanted to come in, and then wanted a treat..... but now, I'd just give anything.... to take her for a walk, to pet her soft fur, just one more time..... I managed to put a few things away over the weekend, but her basket of toys remains in the corner, I can't bring myself to put them away just yet.

So life goes on... I have several new patterns I have been working on, and hopefully in the next week or two I will get them up on the website. Maybe I will do a sneak peek here soon. Quilt Market is at the end of October, but I'm sure it will be here before I know it, so I really need to get to work on some stuff. And there are a couple of upcoming fabric lines to work on, so I should have plenty to keep me busy. Distraction is a very good thing.

I hope I am not too much of a downer..... I know I will get back into the swing of things, it will just take me a little more time. Enjoy this last bit of summer... I am trying to think of something fun for youngest daughter and I to do before she goes back to school in a couple of days. She will probably be happy to stay home in the air conditioning (today starts our 8th heat wave for this summer.) Maybe a quick walk around the park before it heats up too much today. Whatever you do today, enjoy it. Have a good Monday.

Daisy

We lost our dear, dear Daisy on Tuesday morning. As I write this, it has been less than 24 hours since she left us.

Saturday was a normal day for us. It was nice weather, we sat on the porch, Daisy with us, as usual. We did some work around the house, and as usual, Daisy followed, settling in in whichever room we were in. In the evening, we watched a movie, me on the couch with Daisy tucked under my arm, every now and again looking into my eyes with her brown eyes, and then putting her chin down with a contented sigh.
Sunday morning, when we awoke, she went out side but when she came in, she looked weak, she wouldn't eat her favorite food and I knew she was not well. Based on her serious health problems last fall, I took her to the animal hospital. They admitted her and she didn't seem too bad. But by evening, she had taken a downward turn. Over the next 2 days, we spared no expense and the doctors did everything they could. But she could not be saved. I will not get into the very difficult details of her last hour.
 

We are devastated. We never expected to lose her so quickly. Grief tears at me, threatens to pull me into a thousand pieces. I can't think, I can't sleep, I can't eat. Only think of her. I don't know when I will post again- there is no color in my world, and while I go through the motions, all I can think is, why bother? I don't think I will ever have a dog again. I cannot bear to give my heart away again. Over the next couple of days, I will sort through some of her things and take them to the animal shelter where they can be put to good use. I will try to get back to normal, but nothing will ever be the same again. I know that there will be good and joy again, but right now, I can not see it. My heart is too broken.....

We buried her last night in the field in front of our house. She loved being outside, loping around the fields, patrolling her yard, sniffing at everything like it was brand new even though she had sniffed it a thousand times before. Everyday was an adventure for her, and our 2 acres was her little kingdom. She was our princess. She is forever in our hearts. I don't know how I will bear the days without her. I just can't believe that she is gone. I feel like she has taken my heart with her.

 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for Him."

Lamentations 3:22-24

More England Photos

A few more miscellaneous photos from our recent trip to England.
Cows with character in the Devon countryside.

A friendly and curious pup in a window in the town of Bath (the same Bath where Jane Austen went on holiday. I liked walking on the same streets where she would have walked.)

Storefront in Launceston full of lovelies. (Note to self: next time, bring 2 or 3 empty suitcases on trip.)

We visited a natural history museum in Oxford (I don't remember the name of it- probably something really clever like Oxford Museum of Natural History.)

This photo entitled: 2 Foxes.
bwahahahahahahahahahahahahah

That's it for now. Let me know if you are getting tired of vacation photos yet. I'd hate to be like Uncle Milton, boring everyone to death with vacation slides from his trip to see the world's largest ball of string (though I hear it's lovely this time of year in Cawker City, Kansas.)

England- Dropping in for a Wedding....

Near the end of our trip to England, we visited Salisbury Cathedral.  While the cathedral and the city were both very nice, I think the most exciting part of the day was when this happened...

We were looking at the cathedral when we overheard one of the guides say to someone, "Are you here for the parachuting before the wedding?" Parachuting??? We got the details from the guide and found out that there was a wedding that day and the groom and groomsmen were part of the Royal Navy and would be jumping in the next 10 minutes...

When we got outside, we saw the plane circling overhead, and soon enough, the jumpers appeared.  Those on the ground had made a giant X out of red fabric so the parachuters would know where to land and most of the made the mark. Most of them...

This guy overshot a little and nearly ran us over!  It was quite a way to "drop in" for a wedding. It was an incredible sight. I hope they all had a good time. We had a good time watching!

England- Treasures Found

Some goodies I picked up in England- lots and lots of ribbon...

And why, yes, that is velvet ric rac in 3 different colors....
My magazine obsession is trans-atlantic... look at all of these fabulous titles I picked while there:

I even got a copy of the Jane Austen Sewing book while at the Fashion Museum in Bath. Oh, and at the Fashion Museum, we saw an exhibit of 10 of Princess Diana's dresses and gowns. They were on mannequins, of course, with photos of Diana wearing the gown next to them. Honestly, as neat as it was to see the actual gowns, they paled in comparison to the photos of Diana in the dresses... she was just so graceful and statuesque and beautiful. (unfortunately, no photos allowed in the exhibit.)
We also brought home some chocolate and tea and Cornish honey.... nice treats to enjoy in the coming months and remember our trip....

PS Special thanks to youngest daughter for the recent blog "face lift". I have informed her that I can not allow her to go to college or ever move out, as she has now made herself completely indispensable to me...

England- Amazingly Old Stuff

The castle above is called Wardour- built in the 14th century, it is where Robin Hood with Kevin Costner was filmed.

Above, Bath Abbey. I don't remember when it was built, but most of the churches/abbeys/cathedrals we visited were at least 800 years old. To walk on floors where the faithful walked a thousand years ago.... where they worshiped the Eternal God and still do.... to touch crypts and tombs that are that old....an incredible experience.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 1:8

Something else that struck me as I gazed at the workmanship of these magnificent buildings- the incalculable hours that countless artisans and craftsmen devoted to building and carving and sculpting and creating the windows..... all to the glory of God. Worship comes in many different forms, usually we think of it as music or attending a church service..... but whenever we use the gifts that He has given us to make the world more beautiful, kinder, softer, welcoming or loving.... that is worship.

Block 6- done.....

This didn't come from England, but..... I did work on it and finish it while I was there... so I'm thinking this is kind of an England post??? You will also notice, that there is much less fanfare now when I actually complete a block for the Block of the Month than when I first began.... because I am so far behind... no more smug pride at keeping on schedule... (head hung in shame...)

I have the next block prepped, so now there is just the stitching (the fun part!) left to do. I think I have 3 or 4 blocks left to go.... I am have them here, piled on my desk... mocking me.... I will conquer! I will be victorious!!!

England- Let's Talk about Food

We found a chain restaurant called Wagamama that we loved. Now, in the UK, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one of these places. But alas, in the U.S., there is only 1, in Boston, not nearly close enough to me. So I am left with memories and photos of noodles and curry...

Another tasty treat we found is the Cornish pasty (pronounced with a short a, not paste-y). It is basically a hand held pie- meat and/or vegetables wrapped up in pastry. We tried several different kinds, and found, I am sure much to the native Brits' horror, that we actually like the ones from the chain restaurant West Cornwall Pasty the best.

 An  unbelievable milkshake made by putting actual miniature cheesecakes into the blender with the ice cream... it really should be illegal...

 

Of course, there were fish and chips, and the ubiquitous Indian curries found in just about every pub and cafe. And all kinds of sweets and chocolates. We didn't get many photos, because usually we were starved and started eating before we remembered to pull out the camera. Thank goodness we walked and climbed lots of hills!

England Photos

We took, no exaggeration, 700 photos while on our trip to England. So I'm having a very hard time trying to choose which ones to post and how to organize them....
Where to start? Photos of 1000+ year old churches? Gorgeous green rolling pastures? Wild rocky coastline? Yummy food that we ate? How about starting with some family photos?

This is Holly and Ella. My husband has a cousin who is English, and these are her 2 daughters. So cute! The outfits they are wearing were gifts that I brought over for them- it was fun to shop for little girls' clothes- mine, at ages 15 and 19, really don't like me to shop for and dress them anymore!

The 4 of us at Clevelly. Daughter on left was in England for 5 weeks studying at Oxford before we got there- and boy did we miss her! It was nice to spend time as a family again. By the way, we bought more than our fair share of scarves while there, in just about every color. The weather was perfect- 70's most of the time, and no rain (they are in a drought- which turned out to be perfect for us tourists.)

The girls on the sea wall at Clevelly, a town where there are no cars. You must walk down a very steep cobblestone street, lined with adorable little houses, to get down to the little village. Of course, that means to leave Clevelly, you must walk back UP the hill. We got a good workout while we were there. Didn't feel too bad about eating fish and chips after that.

Hubby and kids at Stone Henge. Very very tourist-y, but pretty much required on the site-seeing agenda if you are visiting England.

Avebury-a little village with stones kind of like Stone Henge, but smaller and spread out and not piled on top of each other. We enjoyed walking through the middle of the sheep pastures (kids had to be careful- they were wearing flip-flops!) to see all of the stones.

My husband has family friends, Stephen & Lynda, who own a bed and breakfast called Golden Park in the gorgeous Devon countryside. We stayed 2 nights at their place, it was really lovely. And Lynda is a fellow quilter, so there was a show and tell session, too.

Hubby and I in London. We went to London on 2 different days. One of our favorite things while in London was seeing the recreation of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's plays were originally performed. We also went to several museums and saw original daVinci's and Monet's, among others.
So there you go- 7 photos out of 700. More to come....

Some Inspiration

We are just back from an 11 day trip to England. It was great but exhausting (my husband can be a little bit of a vacation nazi- not one of those relaxing vacations, no siree-  no rest for us-  we did see A LOT- but boy am I tired.....)

Anyway, in the next few days I will post some photos. In the meantime, here is a link to a post by Kat that I love, I just found it today. Now, I rarely link over to other blog posts, so this must be good! Be sure to watch the video and grab a box of tissues while you're at it. I promise, you WILL be inspired.

Here a couple of previous posts from my blog which relate to Kat's post.
Music Monday- Imagine Me
Faith in Action

I'm going to bed now... jet lag has still got me....

What Color Geeks Do For Fun....

What do color geeks and their teenage daughters do for fun?
1. Get piles of paint chips from the hardware store
2. Look at colors and sigh
3. Cut color chips up and rearrange them, making plenty of new color combinations/ pallettes
4. Say as many times as possible, "Ooooohhh, look at this one..."
5. Repeat as necessary

Yeah, I know... we're geeks..... But don't tell me you don't have your own weird "thing"....
PS I'd love to know what it is- what is your weird obsession??