there's no place like gnome.

Throw in some beautiful weather and it has been a pretty darn delightful week.  A good week definitely includes time swinging in the hammock too.  Check.

Update: As of this morning, the dead bird on the patio door steps is gone!  My wish was granted that some animal carry it off in the dead of night so I wouldn’t have to touch it.  [But now there is a suspicious amount of animal hair spread in a concentrated area just feet away from the steps.  Connected events?  A scuffle?  An animal brawl?  An attack of birds on the animal that dared to carry their dead friend away?]

Also: A prescription for a good week according to Lindsay DOES NOT include loss of internet service.  We’ve been offline at church/the parsonage since Tuesday afternoon.  [I write this post from the place to which I’ve been exiled if I wish to be connected: the library.]  I’m supposed to call tech support tomorrow if it doesn’t miraculously return.  Enter the third evening of no television with many shows to catch up on and no wifi with blogging to do … #tinyviolin.  [I know.  There are much worse things.]  Expect no Friday Favorites this week.  Sad face.

Here’s hoping your weekend is lovely!

Sing, dance, and shuffle around the bathroom to Walk the Moon as you get ready for the day. (Favorites: Portugal and Sidekick.)

Spend a solid 20 minutes singing as many classic Disney lyrics as you can remember with your significant other.  (Be our guest!  Be our guest!)

Paint those wooden spoons.  Dream of the garden they will go in. 

 Treat yo self … to No Name salmon fillets.  (I haven’t bought them in years; still delicious.  Remember those, Mom?)

Attend a women’s lunch where they color.  (It was a BYOCB – bring your own coloring book – event.) 

 Make significant progress on The Boyfriend’s tshirt quilt.  Wander aisles of fabric with him to find the perfect backing. 

  Wake with the sun-ish.  Go for a walk before breakfast.

Sit in front of the patio door and watch the birds gorge themselves on birdseed.  (I’m pretty much on an every-other-day fill schedule.)  Continue to ignore the dead bird on the steps just outside the patio door because you don’t know what to do with it/you don’t want to touch it/you really hope some animal will just carry it off in the black of night.

The Mindy Project is back!

Continually watch the tracking data for a bundle of new fabric you ordered.

Make bacon-wrapped-goat-cheese-filled dates for book club.  Seriously yum.

Get invited to eat birthday cake with one of my favorite 2 year olds.

(This goes back more than a week but) Meet up with family in LaCrosse!  Eat lunch and shop.

Do not let the sixth grade music class intimidate you while subbing.  (aka Yell for them to pay attention until your throat has to recover by coughing for a minute.  Point – Red sweatshirt!  Move to the chair in the corner!  At minute 22 of a 25 minute class, just give up.)

With every passing day, summer grows closer (though it is hard to believe some days).  That means gardening season will soon be arriving too. How cute are these wooden spoon garden markers?  I ordered spoons on Amazon.  (12 for $6)  They’ll be here tomorrow.

Friday night at home calls for Chinese food.  I made this tonight and it was pretty darn delicious.  I have a whole weekend at home so tomorrow might call also for these (meatballs to freeze in small batches) and these (a small sweet treat to keep in the freezer).  I also have a lemon and an opened carton of sour cream so this.  (If I didn’t use those things in the fridge, that would just be wasteful.)

I bought a couple bird feeders to join the suet cakes in the backyard.  Watching the birds while I wash dishes is my favorite.

Favorite TV show: The Americans on FX.  (If you have Amazon Prime, you can stream the first three seasons.)  The main characters are Russian spies who live as a seemingly normal American family in the 1980s.  It’s a bit slow at times but the premise as a whole keeps me engaged and watching more.

So The Boyfriend is gone for the weekend.  (At a pinball convention.  Of course.)  In preparation for a whole weekend at home, I got movies.  (Three that The Boyfriend would never want to watch willingly.)  I got groceries.  I got wine.  (My favorite: Francis Coppola Claret.) I got projects.  (Oh, boy, do I have projects.  Thread spool garland.  Magazine clipping organization.  Quilts.  Embroidery hook thread holder.  The spoons mentioned above.) I got four loads of laundry already done, and my pressure-cooked eggs and oatmeal in the fridge for the upcoming week.  Sure, I miss The Boyfriend when he’s gone geeking out with other pinball enthusiasts, but by golly gee, I get a lot done.

That’s all I got.  Okay.  Bye.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times in the sewing room.  It was the age of many sewing projects, the age of ironing a lot.  And I recently learned that I was doing it all wrong.

Say hello to Vintage Sunbeam.  She comes with this awesome wrapped blue cord.  It’s the cord that sold me on it.  I stole borrowed it from the boyfriend who had scored it for $2 at Goodwill.  (In exchange, I gave him my newer, steam-impaired Sunbeam to use the one time a year he uses an iron.)

Vintage Sunbeam and I.  We were happy together.  Ironing wrinkles and folds.  Ironing sewn seams.  We were a happy pair … but, it turns out, only because of my limited iron knowledge.  I didn’t know how much better I could do.

My friend, Sabrina, opened my eyes.  She had bought a new iron.  She researched and landed on a Rowenta … with 300 holes on the plate.  300 holes!  I witnessed its power and steam, I went home, and I counted the holes on Vintage Sunbeam’s plate.  36.  36 holes.  My face fell in disappointment.  The seed of discord had been planted; our relationship only went downhill after that.

I bought new curtains for my bedroom.  Clearance $6 curtains.  (Target aisle-end-cap score!)  I wanted to iron them and hang them up as soon as I could.   But I soon learned that Vintage Sunbeam wasn’t up to the task.  Try as she might, she couldn’t adequately iron the folds out of the curtain.  I had to wash them and let the dryer do the work.

From that point, it was over.  We had to break up.  I needed a new iron in my life.  And it was only after a new 300-hole iron arrived in the sewing room that I realized ironing didn’t have to be so hard!  With Vintage Sunbeam, it was work to iron.  With Shiny New Rowenta, it’s a breeze.  (Can you see all the holes?!  >>>>>)

My relationship with Vintage Sunbeam was no longer making me happy.  She still sits in the sewing room because she’s pretty.  But as long as Shiny New Rowenta is working, she will be the one on the ironing table.  I am hopeful that our relationship will be long and happy.

Hey, peeps.  You made it.  Happy Friday!

A favorite moment: There was visitation last night for a funeral being held at the church today.  A dear member, Kenny, died, and somehow, I rank pretty high in his granddaughter’s world.  She’s a third grader, she lives in Des Moines (so I’ve only seen her a handful of times), and she met me at the door of the funeral home with a hug. (And then later told me I couldn’t leave because I was her babysitter.  Okay?)

Lately, I’ve been plugging away on a tshirt quilt.  While I spend time in the sewing room, I watch tv.  Often something that doesn’t require my full attention.  Lately?  Gilmore Girls reruns that I’ve seen three hundred times.  It’s oh-so-exciting that Netflix is bringing it back with some new episodes AND I learned about this tonight.  A Gilmore Girls cookbook?  Yes, please.

On Sunday, Dave & I watched The Big Short while eating our Easter lasagna.  It was clever.  It was funny.  It was educational.  It was goooood.  Lindsay seal of approval.  (Dave seal of approval too.  And not just because he spotted a pinball machine in the background of a couple scenes.  And then had to rewind, analyze, rewind, pause, research online, stand five inches from the television for a closer look, and email a guy about the name of the mystery game.  I’m not even kidding.)

The first bike ride of the season is in the books!  It wasn’t terribly long because it wasn’t terribly warm; just a jaunt to Kwik Trip for supper supplies and a quick ride around the neighborhood.  But still – a sign of bike rides to come!

Aldi.  Seriously, people.  I stopped quick yesterday and bought the following: a 5lb. bag of red potatoes, two pounds of strawberries, bananas, a carton of raspberries, a pound of fresh green beans, and a bag of their organic popcorn.  Total: $10 and some change.  So wonderful.  (And then I stopped somewhere else and accidentally bought a package of paper straws BUT THAT’S NOT REALLY IMPORTANT.  Shh.)

Not my favorite this week: folding laundry, early mornings, Daddy’s Home, the spider in my bathroom, and how my hair is looking awfully frumpy these days.  #curlyhairproblemz

Lastly, I saw this on facebook and it made me lol.  Probably because I have been a victim.

It’s here.  Friday Favorites!  Maybe not every Friday, but at least periodically, it’s back!

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.  I’m hooked.  Addicted.  Laugh out loud every time. (And it’s only on once a week!  Boo.)  Mr. Oliver does something I love – he doesn’t have a guest like Jon Stewart always did.  He does one extra long focus story.  And it’s everything I’ve ever wanted from a satirical news show.

Have you heard about the new boat that the internet voted to name Boaty McBoatface?  This story wins the internet this week in my opinion.

If I could go on and on about a specific type of beverage container, it would be Hydroflask.  (If you gave me the opportunity, I probably would talk your ear off.)  I’ve been in love with these bottles for about four years.  It’s all I use … and they recently released NEW COLORS!  I want them all (which is super impractical since the bottles are made of metal and pretty much last a lifetime).

Costco.  I got a membership through LivingSocial with a couple perks, and I’ve been to the one in Rochester a couple times.  The best Costco things so far?  Four pounds of delicious strawberries for $7.99.   Egg whites.  Caribou coffee beans.  Roaster chickens.

In honor of Easter, here.  Make some peepshi.

Also Easter: Replace “hubby” with “the boyfriend” and I’m using this to hide Dave’s basket (which is filled with a new card game and a box of quart ziploc bags).  He’s going to come over after my three services for the day.  We will eat frozen lasagna and I’ll probably fall asleep by 8pm.  So, you know.  Big plans.

Baby quilts x 3.

Two just went in the mail this past week and one was gifted months ago.  Here’s the breakdown:

Left: A quilt with Japanese flair, made for a sweet girl born in Japan while my college friend and her Army husband are stationed there.

Middle: A nautical quilt (My first attempt at triangles!) with anchors and waves and boats for a baby boy born to a Dancing Banana and her submarine-ing husband.

Right: This has got to be my favorite pattern – plus signs.  (It’s currently in progress in queen size for my bed.)  This particular quilt went to a boy named Henry, son of dear seminary friends.

Next up:  For a while, I was quite backlogged with quilts of the baby size but these were the last three (that I know of right now).  On the cutting table now is a quilt for my bed in chorals and yellows and grays, and a mini quilt to hang on the wall.  Then there are always the EPP stars and about three other quilts I’m itching to start for no purpose but to start a new quilt.

I feel the strongest urge to share with you my love for paper straws.

I had a l-o-n-g (and wonderful) Palm Sunday.  The end of the day found me wandering the aisles of Target in Rochester at 7pm, recharging my introvert batteries after gathering with a family around the bedside of a loved one, sharing stories and laughs.  I couldn’t quite drive home right away; I needed to recharge.  Walk.  Take a break.

Hello Target.  Hello new paper straws.

It’s my retail therapy – buying more paper straws.

This jar sits on my counter, a product of years of buying a packs of straws here and there.  You could have no idea how much joy it brings me to pick out a straw each morning to drink my iced coffee.  Some days it takes many moments to choose the perfect one.

The striped ones?  Those are my favorite.  Only for use on special mornings when I need a particular boost.

I try and keep a good mixture in the jar.  The rest live in a gallon ziploc in the cupboard, years of collecting gathered together.

It’s grown quite out of hand but it doesn’t necessarily help when Target carries them in their dollar section.  How can I turn down $1 paper straws?

Answer: I can’t.

Today, in the latest episode of “Things I Really Don’t Need to Sew but Do Anyways” are cloth napkins.

I’ve been a pretty big fan the last couple years. Of cloth napkins, that is. I’ve got a stack that have served me well. It’s all I use – whether I’m by myself or have guests at my table. It just makes me feel fancy and put together, even if it’s grilled cheese on my plate. But here’s the thing: these cloth napkins I’ve been using, I didn’t make them.  I bought them. And it had just gotten to the point where I couldn’t live with that. Plus – they were all the same color. Or the same design. I needed some homemade variety!

The push came when I was the first host for our Lent book&supper club. We are reading this book (It’s quite delightful with delicious recipes.) and there is a group of women who are meeting weekly over supper to discuss what we’ve read. I hosted this last Tuesday. I NEEDED to have new cloth napkins by then. There was no other option (in my project-minded brain).

So I set about cutting and sewing napkins. I made five. The five pictured below. But five isn’t enough!  And so there is a stack of seven more waiting to be sewn in my craft room. Why does a person who rarely hosts more than two or three or four people at her house for a meal need a dozen cloth napkins?  (When, mind you, all those cloth napkins she had before are still in the drawer too.) Because the fabric is pretty and I simply couldn’t stop.

My weekender tote and I are in Montana. We arrived by train last Thursday and have been hanging out ever since. Here’s what’s been happening:

Thursday: Train arrives on time to Havre, MT. Picked up at the train station by Melissa and her three adorable munchkins – H, H, & H. Meet newest munchkin, Hadley Hope. We paint. Settle in. Meet Melissa’s twin sister and her daughter, who have also come to stay, all the way from Alaska. YAY to it all!
Friday: Travel to Fort Benton for our annual lunch trip to the cutest little coffee shop. Make glitter playdough and hang out for the rest of the day. Sprinkle pancakes for supper. YAY!

Saturday: Cookie day! Mix dough, roll, and bake. YAY! Saturday afternoon it all began to turn into a BOO. I started to not feel well; retreated to my room. Stomach flu hits. Huge, gigantic BOO.

Sunday: This was to be the day that Paige and I officially became godparents to Miss Hadley in church. I was sick in bed instead. BOO. Eventually return to the land of the living by evening for some toast, after naps and many episodes of Game of Thrones on my iPad in my windowless basement room. 

Monday: Head for Essex at Glacier for our conference. Snow, mountains, and trees. Feeling better. YAY.

Today: Currently on break from class.  Hanging by the fire at the inn, cross stitching and quilting. Class again tonight, once more tomorrow morning, and then we are back to Big Sandy for one more night before the train ride home.  It’s gone too quickly, especially with losing two days due to icky sickness!

Views of the afternoon (You’ll have to tilt your head on the last one – the WordPress app won’t let me edit or delete it.):