there's no place like gnome.

Here’s the update: the bernedoodle pup plan I mentioned ended up not panning out.  It’s okay.

It’s okay.

Because The Boyfriend, through a wonderful, awesome work connection, got us on a list for a litter of f1b goldendoodles.  (F1B = goldendoodle + poodle.  As Dave would say: extra fluffy.  As Lindsay would say: zero shedding.)  Bless his heart, he didn’t want me to have to wait any longer and thought my dream dog should be my next dog.  (And he’s super excited too.)

The puppies were born yesterday!  We are #6 on a list for eight puppies so the gender/color that will come home with us is not yet known.  But they’re here!  And one will come to live with me/Dave towards the end of March.  (Shared custody-ish?  Mostly with me.  But probably some back and forth, house to house, as schedules need.)

So super excited.

It’s been a busy sewing year.

Top, left to right: a massive (aka hard to take a picture of) tshirt quilt for The Boyfriend (We paid someone to quilt it.  No way could I do that heavy, big quilt on my machine!); my weekender tote with yellow flamingos; a baby girl quilt for baby girl Kelsey (daughter of a Banana) full of farm fancies that are hard to see – chicken wire, eggs, and farm scenes.  (Note for 2017: Improve photography of quilts.)

Middle, left to right: a low volume quilt that now resides on my bed (Ironically, the pattern name is “Sunday morning,” the one morning I can’t stay in my bed any too long.); a set of quilts for a set of baby boys; Legendary, a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, completed just in time for my younger brother’s Christmas gift (a quilt I can barely believe I pulled off).

Bottom, left to right: a nautical baby quilt for another Banana baby; a set of throw pillows for my aunts made out of Grandpa Sid’s overalls; a baby quilt with Japanese flair for a baby who calls Japan her current home.

2017?

I’ve already began cutting fabric for a quilt for my older brother, which will be his delayed Christmas present.  While I wait for a fabric order to arrive for that quilt, I pulled out some blocks I made in years past; perhaps this is the year that the piles of red and blue half square triangles get sewn together.  There will undoubtedly be a few baby quilts to be made and there is a pile of Christmas fabric waiting to be made into a Christmas quilt (hopefully by next holiday season).  There are also oodles of scraps begging to be made into something.  There is never a shortage of sewing to be done!

Two words for the new year.  Quilting and a Doodle.

First, quilting.  Remember how I told you last time that I did something crazy upon returning to Austin?  I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.  The opportunity presented itself and I seized it.  And so, in November, I’ll be heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a weekend quilt retreat called Glamp Stitchalot hosted by Pink Castle Fabrics, one of my favorite modern quilt shops.  And I’m so incredibly, absolutely excited.

It’s a weekend that often sells out – its 150 slots fill pretty quickly.  I got an email announcing the dates and ticket sales and I jumped on it.  I might be a bit out of league skill-wise and money-wise, but I will make it work.  I’ll account for it in my upcoming months’ budgets (Maybe that’s cheating a bit, eh, Dave Ramsey?) and perhaps find a way to rent a sewing machine/borrow my mom’s so as not to show up with my super noisy $99 Kenmore.

Second, doodle.  By the time I head to MI in November, my doodle will be ten months old.  (Hopefully.  The doodle isn’t born yet.  Cart before horse.)  If all goes as planned, I’ll be bringing home a doodle puppy in March.  It’s been the plan since Mabel died in July – to get another dog eventually – and the opportunity presented itself through church connections.

The original plan was a goldendoodle but when the golden retriever didn’t want to be any kind of friend with the poodle, that plan changed.  This doodle that I will call my own will be a bernedoodle – a cross between a poodle and Bernese Mountain dog.  Oof.  Big dog.  Hopefully low-shedding dog.  I’ve started to prepare – new dog kennel (I never had one with Mabel.), toys (Christmas presents from Mom & Jeff!), gathering of tips from other puppy owners, potential name (Luna Lovegood) – and I’m getting so. darn. excited.

But that’s nothing new.

Let me catch you up a bit.  (And then expect another post or two over the holiday weekend.)

Hoping your Christmas was merry.  Mine was a bit of a blur.  Celebrations started early in the month with The Boyfriend’s work holiday party.  I sewed my own dress.  (Hey.  I sew dresses now.  That’s new.  The holiday gnome dress is the third that I’ve made with the Washi dress pattern.  It has pockets!  More to come – likely coordinating with holiday themes.) 

As I prepared to sew the dress (I’d had the fabric forever but it wasn’t until the morning of the party that I started to sew.), I wondered … if I had extra fabric and time to make a matching tie, would Dave wear it?  You betcha.  Absolutely no arm twisting necessary.  (I wore the dress again Christmas Eve.  Dave came to church in the matching tie.)

After the holiday party, it was soon time for me to host the church council Christmas party at the parsonage.  And then it was the Christmas program.  And then trying my darndest to visit the 25 homebound members on my list.  And then a million bulletins for Christmas.  Some frantic Christmas sewing.  And then –

A deep breath.  Christmas afternoon was a nap, lazy lasagna, and movies.  The next day I retreated to my mom’s for four nights.  Siblings, extended family, friends.  Reading for fun.  A little shopping.  It was quite delightful.

As of today, I’m back in Austin.  Unpacking, cleaning, prepping for a week back at work.  I also did something a bit crazy upon my return.  Stay tuned for that.  *insert winky emoji*

You know what I mean?

Tonight marks the end of a week away and, frankly, I’m in denial.  I’m not ready to return to the hustle, bustle, and stress of work.  (And, oh, this week is a full one!)  I’m not ready.  But tomorrow morning will come all the same.  (And it will be a good morning as our confirmation kiddos will lead worship!)

I’ve already told you about the first part of my vacation – reconnecting with my best Bananas.  Part two was a cold adventure: camping.

The location: Great River Bluffs State Park in Winona.  At the park, there were seven overlooks to hike to; we checked them all off the list.
The tunnel: A part of the Elroy-Sparta Bike Trail.  (A converted railway.  Super fun tunnels – they are so dark inside you need a flashlight and must walk your bike.)
The mug: I like a good play on words.  I found it on Etsy.
Best campfire meal: Pizza in a pudgy pie makers.
The average overnight temperature: A chilly 48 degrees.
Nights spent: 3.  We reserved for 4 but skipped out early.  (It was cold!)

You may know that my high school friends and I call ourselves the Dancing Bananas.  If this is new to you, it stems back to our early high school days when performing in a talent show, and we needed a group name for the program.  Don’t ask me how we arrived at a yellow fruit getting jiggy with it, but we did.  It’s stuck ever since.

It’s been 14 years since we graduated and we are pretty great at staying in touch via email.  But it was time for an in-person gathering.  After months of saving the weekend, weeks of planning, five of the seven Dancing Bananas arrived at the Wilderness at the Lake in Wisconsin Dells this past Friday.  And it was all things a gathering of dancing fruit should be.

We laughed until we cried.  We laughed all weekend about frickin’ gourds, ticking me with feet, and Moroccan carrot.  (You had to have been there.)  We shared our favorite things. (We each bought something that is our favorite to give to each in the group.  I gave Method kitchen spray and paper straws.  I received makeup, hair product, appetizer plates, and a banana necklace.).  We played in the wave pool and lazy river.  We ate bananas.  We tried to finish the timed challenges at Wizard Quest (and failed).  We walked the WI Dells strip, sat on a patio for a drink, and later played laser tag.  We shopped at the outlet mall and ate cold, leftover pizza in the parking lot before driving our separate ways.

And it was all the best.  It was simply good for the soul to be with friends that date back to high school and earlier.  (I’ve been friends with Kim and Krissy since kindergarten!)  We talked about life, work, relationships, dreams.  We were silly, serious, and everything in between.  Good for the soul indeed.

Like I mentioned earlier, the bunch wasn’t complete.  We were missing two of our friends who we hope will join us next year or the year after.  This weekend-away-with-girlfriends must become a tradition.

Well done. 

I looked at Pinterest this morning to find they suggested this pin for me. Sew your own snakes. 

Well played. 

It’s as if Pinterest knew that I walked home from church yesterday to find a snake on my sidewalk. It’s as if Pinterest knew snakes make me scream/jump/shake thirty times more than mice. It’s as if Pinterest knew that snakes are one of my greatest fears ever since I mowed over one a couple summers ago.  It’s as if Pinterest wanted to rub it in that I’m now scared to walk in the grass around my house. 

I walked home yesterday after a kind of long morning. Baptism, communion, ANNUAL MEETING, brunch. As I left church and walked across the parking lot, I called The Boyfriend to solidify later plans. I was on the phone with him when I saw it. The snake. On the sidewalk outside my back door. 

I screamed. I could barely get out the words to tell him there was a snake ten feet from me. I finally explained what was happening. One guess what he did on the other end while I screamed, shivered, and was bent over in fear: he laughed.  He laughed. Are you surprised?  I’m not.  I said/yelled, THIS IS NOT FUNNY. He continued to laugh. 

He then suggested I take a shovel to it. (Yeah, right.) Or run over it with the lawn mower. Nope.  I walked quickly to the front door and then watched out the window as the snake slithered off into the grass. And then I shivered for the rest of the day. And all day today as I thought about it. 

Be proud of me, though. I mowed the lawn tonight. And then I walked on the grass to the garden to grab a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes.  It’s all about the baby steps as I learn to be outside again. 

Baby steps. 

(Do you think there is enough time for enough baby steps before I spend next week tent-camping and state-park-hiking?  I sure hope so.)

Way back in March, I wrote a blog post about three baby quilts that had been finished and sent off.  At the end of the post, I mentioned that those were it on the baby quilt-making schedule.  I knew of no more babies.

My friend, Adam, read the blog post and texted me that same day: 

Adam and his wife, Kara, had twin boys three weeks ago now!  They’re adorable and I hope to meet them sometime soon, but in the meantime, I sent the quilts via USPS this week.  (Before, the baby quilt wait was, like, six months after baby was born, so I’m on top of it now!)  A colorful pair of quilts with elephants and safari animals.  Backed with gray flannel, they should be super comfy as colder weather arrives. 

Dave has vacation to burn before the end of October so we planned a #minivacation.  He took off Thursday and Friday, I took off Thursday (Friday is my day off.), and we made a plan to go camping.  We were going spend a couple nights in Decorah, sleeping in a tent, riding bikes, exploring.  But then I looked at the rainy weather forecast.  Camping was not going to happen.  (Lindsay gets crabby when soggy.)  And so this was Wednesday night:

L: Where do you want to go instead?
D: I don’t know.  What do you want to do?
(several phone calls and hours later)
L: What about Mankato?  It’s far enough to not be here but close enough that we won’t spend the whole time in the car.
D: Deal.

Off to Mankato we went with no plan but a place to sleep.  We’d both passed through the town but never spent much time in it.  And so, an hour and a half later, we arrived just after lunch.

D: So.  We’re here.  Now what?
L: (sees a Goodwill right off the highway) Need any clothes?
D: Actually, yes.

Our minivacation started with a stop at Goodwill.  Dave buys a lot of his clothes there – that’s probably part of how he has money to have 23 pinball games in his basement.  He found some clothes; I found some board games.  (Ever heard of Qubic?  It’s basically tic-tac-toe of the 1970s played on four stacked boards.) After Goodwill – are you ready? – we spent an hour in HyVee.  (I’m so serious.)  First, we ate salads at their awesome salad bar.  Then we explored – this HyVee had so much more stuff than our HyVee!  So that was fun.

I’ll stop with the play-by-play, even though we obviously are some of the most exciting and adventurous people ever.  (That, my dear, is sarcasm.  Our travel style seems to be pretty darn low key.)  The rest of our #minivacation included laser tag/bowling/arcade playing (our skeeball tickets got us the sweet bracelets below)/mini golf; eating supper at a local establishment and sticking around until 10pm playing trivia; bike riding the Red Jacket Trail; drinking beverages at Mankato Brewery; playing Qubic in the hotel room while watching one of the newer Star Trek movies on cable and eating take out pizza.

We arrived home again Saturday afternoon.  It was a quick, relaxing getaway, perfectly timed in the midst of a busy time.

Other things that have been going on this summer –

We grilled pizza.  It has been a life-long – okay, YEAR long – dream of mine to grill pizzas.  I wanted to last summer but we never quite got around to it.  We did this past July and it was amazing.  Here is a photo of our dough balls and toppings all ready to go.  (It cooks FAST so you have to have everything handy.)  Fresh mozzarella, ricotta, parm, bacon bits, grilled chicken, herbs from the garden, yum.  It was pretty easy and delicious.  Here’s the info and dough recipe I used if you’re interested.  We’ll be doing it again once my tomatoes are in abundance.

In the project realm of life, I finished a tshirt quilt for The Boyfriend.  It was a beast of a quilt (large and heavy) and so we sent it out to be quilted.  Upon return, I attached the binding and completed it with one of my favorite parts of quilting – hand sewing the back of the binding.  All while watching much Stranger Things and The West Wing.  (Photo on the top with my favorite binding tools – a trusty thimble and clover clips!)  Also in the project realm, I took the green dresser upon which sits my television and gave it a makeover.  I painted it to match the accent wall in the living room, stripped the drawers, and stained them to match other living room furniture.  I’m pretty thrilled with the result.

It’s Hormel’s 125th anniversary this year and so they organized many city-wide activities.  One was a “food truck frenzy” – five Hormel product food trucks were spread through the city.  Visit them, take a selfie, get a sample or a coupon, and be entered to win in a drawing.  We didn’t win but we did have fun biking to each of them. 

Drive-in movie: ✔️. We moved in with an air mattress in the back of the truck with quilts and pillows galore. It was quite a comfy way to watch a movie out of doors.