I made big progress and got the whole Sunflower themed Granny Square blanket all attached (horizontal and vertical) using a single crochet stitch to join the squares in both directions.
Here it is on the “Design Carpet”:
Here is another photo:
Now I am adding a single crochet border around the whole thing, likely several rows of single crochet, I’ll decide as I go along.
And then it will be time to weave in all the thread tails that are hiding in the back!
Oh I did try to make finishing the granny square blanket a portable project on like to I did with the individual granny squares, where I would work on them while riding in the car…
But it was a disaster and we had the “Great Hunt for the Lost Crochet Hook” in the car as well yarn tangling and blanket in my feet tangling disasters. So I had to finish it in my living room sitting in a chair to limit the drama – ha!
House Holiday Decorating
After I got the blanket assembled I felt very industrious and with the help of John got the Christmas tree up and the fireplace mantle decorated for the holidays!
It was fun to pull out our ornaments and various decorations and see them again! I missed these three holiday bears that I’ve had for over 25 years – they’ve held up pretty well:
I also put up this copy of The Night Before Christmas that John has had since he was a child.
The pages are on the verge of falling apart but I like reread it every year.
I’ve been looking for ways to comfort myself during strange times. I shared in the post Flowers on the Table, my keeping fresh flowers on my kitchen table to brighten my world.
Another things I’ve been doing is playing with a set of Magnetic Poetry words I found a couple months ago thrifting; and writing (albeit bad) poetry on a magnetic bulletin board.
The challenging and yet cool thing is that my poetry is limited to the magnetic words provided in the set, however Creative Limitation/Creative Constraint is known to be a good thing (*see the Postscript section below for an AI summary of the research on this topic).
Most of it has been forgettable but I really like this piece and thought I would share:
THE FEROCIOUS ETERNITY by tierneycreates
but perhaps
above a vast sacred sky
seeps only the fresh clean
liquid of time
yet with delicious rhythm
we wake
we listen
and we embrace
the ferocious eternity
of a universe
I haven’t written any additional poems since this one as I do not want to take it down right now. I find it strangely comforting and empowering.
Speaking of ways to comfort/empower yourself during “strange” times, if you don’t already follow her, my blogging friend Laura of Laura Bruno Lily has a powerful creative piece she did as part of the Fall of Freedom program where creatives express Activism through art. Here is a link to the post which contains a video of her piece:Fall of Freedom 11/21 – 22, 2025.
If you are struggling with our strange times, please share if you like, what you are doing to to comfort and/or empower yourself, in the comment section below.
While traveling in September, I ran across a framed print of the 1961 Norman Rockwell painting, The Golden Rule, and it definitely gave me a pause for thought:
*Postscript
As a creative person you’ve likely already heard about the concept of “Creative Limitations” or “Creative Restraints”. If not, here is an awesome summary by Google AI of research and thoughts on this concept.
Limitations foster creativity by preventing overwhelm, forcing a more focused approach, and encouraging innovation within boundaries. Instead of being paralyzed by limitless options, creators can use constraints to find novel solutions, distill ideas into their most impactful form, and become more resourceful. This happens because limitations act as a “creative anchor,” stimulating the brain to make new connections and discover solutions outside of standard methods.
Limitations spark creativity by:
Prevent decision paralysis: An abundance of choices can be overwhelming, leading to “analysis paralysis.” Limitations simplify the creative process by narrowing the field of vision, allowing for deeper focus on the task at hand.
Encourage innovation: When faced with a restriction, creators must find a new path to achieve their goal. This can lead to more unique, original, and efficient solutions than they might have come up with if they had unlimited options.
Force efficiency and focus: Limitations, such as a time limit or a limited budget, can force creators to prioritize what is truly important, leading to a more streamlined and impactful result.
Stimulate the brain: The brain grows by forming new connections. Constraints can act as a catalyst for this growth, pushing the brain to create new branches and associations that lead to creative breakthroughs.
I know this is why I love working with a set group of fabrics or fabric scraps when making a textiles project. One of my favorite scrappy projects was Seattle Scrappy where I was given/challenged with creating a piece from a bag of my friend’s scraps.
I only used those scraps for the quilt top. I used a recycled thrifted cotton bed sheet for the back and hand quilted it with thrifted Perle Cotton thread I already had in my stash.
Things have been mighty strange, sad and stressful here in “America-land” and this summer I decided to combat the ugliness I would see in the news (when I could bear to check it) with BEAUTY.
I decided to try to always have a bouquet of flowers on our kitchen table. I’ve continued the habit into the Autumn and plan to take this practice through the Winter and beyond.
I started with pulling flowers this summer from my garden and putting them on the upstairs patio table:
By the way here are our last roses of the season in our rose garden in the front of the house (I had some of them in a bouquet but didn’t photograph it):
Then I moved to purchased flowers each week (or every other week if the bouquet was especially hardy) and here are some of those bouquets:
The bouquets really make my kitchen table happy and add some happiness to our lives!
I was so inspired by your awesome comments on my post 137 Sunflower Granny Squares Completed that I decided to make a big push yesterday to start getting the blanket assembled from a year’s+ of granny squares made while on the road (as a passenger of course, it’s difficult to crochet while driving, ha!).
“Fantastic! A truly graphic representation of the miles spent on the road”
“All those little squares of sunshine!”
“It will be so beautiful to sleep in a field of flowers!”
“Miles of travel and happy memories, a field of flowers to keep you warm.”
“A certain amount of serendipity seems to fit in with the carefree sunflower theme.”
I searched YouTube for the best method to put them together and decided to go with single crochet. I looked at a bunch of videos and went with this simple one:
So here are 48 of the blocks joined into 4 rows and laid upon the “Design Carpet”.
I have 137 as I mentioned in the previous post on this project, and I am thinking instead of using 120 for a 10 by 12 block layout, I should use 132 for a 11 by 12 block layout.
In case you are curious of what my plan is, first I am crocheting vertical rows and once all those are together, then I was connect the horizontal rows with single crochet. So it will be a bit unwieldy until that part but it will make less ends to weave in.
It was actually very relaxing once I got my rhythm to join the granny squares together. While joining them I fell into some sort of strange YouTube rabbit hole and ended up binge watching Barry Manilow performance videos.
Okay so I shared a little about this back in 2016 in this post Shameless “Thrifting” (wow I have been blogging so long) but when I was 12 or so I was OBSESSED with Barry Manilow.
While other kids of my demographic were obsessed with the Jackson 5/Michael Jackson, I was totally in love with Barry Manilow. I remember having a giant poster of him in my room (not sure where I got it) and my father walking into my room and being appalled (my parents were more traditional R&B and Jazz music people).
So I remember when I was around 12, Barry Manilow had his first TV special. It was like 1977 and there were no VCR, TiVo, etc. recording options and most things were not replayed from live telecasts. My parents made my sister (my brother wasn’t born yet) and I go to a party with them on the night on the Barry Manilow Special.
I had a complete meltdown and thought my world was ending because I had to miss the Barry Manilow Special. My parents were not understanding and I was made to go to the party.
(Note this is not me but image from web)
While working on the blanket last evening and falling into the “Barry Manilow Rabbit Hole”, I did search YouTube for any videos/clips from that special I missed back in 1977 (which Barry Manilow ended up winning at Grammy for so it must have been good!) and I found a couple but could not find the full special. That would have been fun to sit back all these years later and finally watch it.
My musical tastes have changed quite a bit over the years but whenever I hear Barry Manilow I get nostalgic for that innocence of a 12 year old girl who thought his songs were all that love and relationships were about.
Well I am sure that is more about me than you wanted to know but occasionally we overshare while blogging, ha!
The other night John and I decided to try something different in the evening.
We both have miniatures to assemble – he has a miniature wooden antique car 3D puzzle to assemble, and I have a miniature bookshop that my stepson bought me as a gift to assemble.
So after dinner we went to my studio and sat at my studio table with the Denver Nuggets basketball game on and perhaps a whiskey (sometimes you need a “crafting cocktail”) and got to crafting for the evening!
Here is John working on his project (which had like a million pieces, ha!):
And here I am with mine:
Luckily we had our new glue gun we found at Costco as we had several incidents where tiny pieces broke as were were trying to connect them.
The Glue Gun saved our sanity!
It was a pretty fun evening, I think we crafted for like 4 hours. We are going to do this on a regular basis during the late Fall and Winter season.
Recently my friend K reacquainted me with an old quilt with emotional ties I had forgotten about.
I’ve been quilting since the late 1990s and I’ve made a lot of quilts, most of which I’ve given as gifts or in some cases sold, so you kind of forget some of the quilts after a while; and sometimes the emotional connection you had with a particular quilt.
One of the quilts I had forgotten about was a blue and white quilt that I made from a pattern many years ago (10 years ago?) and ended up sellling (for basically the cost of the fabric and the professional longarm quilting) to a quilting friend L who fell in love with it.
Last week my friend K was staying at L’s home in New Hampshire and ended up sleeping under that blue and white quilt I made (and had forgotten about) and sent me photos:
It was nice to see the quilt but I forgot the emotional connection I had with the quilt until K mentioned that the quilt had a spectacular backing.
I gasped as I suddenly remembered the backing I put on the quilt and asked K to send me a picture of the back of the quilt so I could see it again:
On the back of what one might consider a “quiet quilt” (blues and white in a traditional setting) I put what one might consider a “very bold” fabric!
At the time I made the quilt I thought the front of it was “boring” and decided to spice it up with a colorful backing fabric I found in my stash.
That fabric was from my friend Tracy who suddenly died a couple years after giving me the fabric which she found at a thrift shop.
I met Tracy at work back in the 1990s when I lived in Houston, Texas and we stayed friends for many years, occasionally losing touch but finding each other again. I started quilting while livingi in Seattle, Washington and she, unknown to me at the time, had also started quilting! When we reconnected a couple years after each of us becoming quilters we were very elated that we now shared the same hobby.
I however have some intense regret related to Tracy. Over a year before she died we were supposed to go to the International Quilt Festival in Houston in October, and I cancelled and said it would work better for us to go next year.
There was no next year quilt festival for Tracy as she passed away the following year before the festival. I had missed a glorious opportunity and memory with my friend because I delayed going to the event with her a year. I also missed an opportunity to spend time with her before she left this existence.
Perhaps this is why many years ago I decided to sell the quilt to L. L loved the quilt and the quilt was just making me sad, reminding me of Tracy’s passing and my regret on not going to the quilt festival with her.
Now of course I wish I’d kept the quilt and honored Tracy’s memory by still having a quilt a made with a backing she gave me.
However, all I can do now is be grateful that is being used and not in a closet somewhere tucked away; to remember not to wait to do special things with special people; and tomorrow is not promised.
Skipping around in my Summer of Travel stories to share a recent story (this past weekend).
I recently returned from a 3-day weekend in Portland, Oregon. I went with John to visit his son Z and decided to take a craft class in Portland one day so John and Z could have time on their own one day.
At first I looked into classes on crafts I already know – quilting, bag making or knitting/crochet. I couldn’t find any class that interested me on the weekend I was in Portland.
Then a crazy idea came to mind: I’ve been interested in learning to paint using Watercolors (not sure why I am so drawn to Watercolor but I am) – why not find a Watercolor Painting class?
I found two options at Wildcraft Studio School: 1) Introduction to Watercolor Painting; or 2) Color Theory: Watercolor.
I am very interested in Color Theory (see my post about my Colour Wheel Quilt – The Colour Wheel Quilt is Done) and the class said it was for beginner and experienced Watercolor artists.
So I selected this class. I figure I can watch YouTube videos to learn Watercolor painting techniques but I’d really like some hands on instruction with how to mix colors using the Watercolor paint medium.
Arriving to class this past Saturday I was greeted with a lovely courtyard in front of the studio as you enter (I ended up enjoying my lunch in that courtyard during our break):
I felt very intimidated as I sat down at my table – what was I thinking dabbling in Watercolors?!?!?
The class was comprised of women in my age group, one young woman and one man. They were a friendly and engaging group and I really enjoyed chatting with the two women who sat at the table with me.
The class was taught by the Seattle-based Watercolor Artist Robin Bundi who was kind, patient and an excellent instructor!
The class was focused on understanding color and color mixing and our primary class exercise involved creating color wheel mixing samples using different sets of primary color palettes.
The instructor had many amazing examples of how just a couple primary colors (some version of red, blue, yellow) can make an endless assortment of colors, tints and shades.
Here’s an amazing sample piece created by the instructor demonstrating how you can just use two colors (Ultramarine and Brick) to create a palette:
So I got to work and finally (sort of) got the hang of mixing colors.
And at the end of the class she had us each paint a small piece with basic shapes/improvisational design, using what we learned of color mixing as well as color washing techniques.
Here is the piece I made (yes, not ready for a solo exhibit in Watercolors yet, ha!) but I forgot to erase/lighten the original pencil lines I used (and then ignored) when sketching the piece.
I joked with the instructor when she critiqued the piece that it looks like I took some mind altering substances before I began painting – ha!
Now when I catch up on my sewing projects I am going to work through an Introduction to Watercolor book I found a couple months ago thrifting as well as watch YouTube videos on painting techniques.
I think my goal is to be able to make Watercolor cards to send to friends (for them to recycle – ha!)
Just a quick post and next post I will return to my adventures in South Dakota.
Recently I returned from a trip to Southern Oregon to meet up with longtime Oregon based friends and during the trip my friend MJ surprised me with yarn she had spun!
I know, some of your spin yarn yourself and this might not sounds like a big deal but it was.
MJ told me the story behind the two skeins of spun wool she handed me and here her story paraphrased/summarized:
“Over a year ago I decided that I wanted to do something really special for you as my crafting friend. I wasn’t going to start quilting, and I can knit but I wasn’t going to knit you something. I know you are always working on knitting projects and I wanted to actually spin you some yarn as a gift. So a year ago I found a yarn spinning class with a woman who has a sheep farm and a yarn spinning business. She ended up becoming a friend and I’ve taken many lessons from her and rent a spinning wheel. I even got to know the sheep that the wool fibers came from and how wool from sheep is prepared to be spun into yarn. There will be more yarn from me in your future, be patient, I am slow but getting better with time.“
I asked my friend MJ if she was gifting others her spun yarn and she said “No, this is just for you”.
Wow, I feel unbelievably special – someone learned a new hobby just to gift me an amazing surprise!
Here is the photo I sent her when I got home of me loving on my new yarn.
I sat down this morning to catch up on reading blog posts and to write a blog post and I discovered that Yvette @Priorhouse Blog has posted the interview I did for her blog.
A couple of months ago she invited me to be interviewed for her Summer 2025 series of blogger interviews. I accepted and here is the interview on her blog:
Hopefully clicking the above image where I’ve imbedded link to the interview works to open it.
I use Amazon Photos to backup my photos and to pull photos from for blog posts. I was going through my photos to put together my next blog post about my travels when I noticed this:
The search bar states “Describe photos you’re searching for…”; so I thought I would try it and I put in the word “HAPPY” just to be silly and see the search results from my collections of photos I’ve taken over the years.
Well, here are most of the images I got that it pulled from my collection of photos and they made me smile:
It’s been a year since Mike the miniature schnauzer who was a “guest blogger” on my blog (smile) suddenly passed away at 14.
I came across this video which I uploaded to YouTube, which showed Mike enjoying life: instead of actually hiking at Castlewood Canyon, he was being carried around by John!
Just sharing this in honor of Mike…
Hopefully, you can recover from my terrible singing. While we were on our hike, I was composing silly impromptu songs!
It is getting close to the one year anniversary of when we lost our beloved Mike the Miniature Schnauzer. We don’t have any immediately plans to get another dog in the near future (we want to keep being able to travel on a whim right now) BUT we are enjoying other peoples’ dogs!
A couple days ago we went over our friends house for dinner and got to enjoy their 3 days and 2 visiting dogs. Especially Olso the sweetest little doodle (not sure what kind of doodle mix) who took to me and made me his own for the evening:
What a cutie pie! I kept kissing on him all evening, I was in love! He didn’t want to get down from my lap and would growl at the other dogs when they got near me!
Here are photos of the rest of the dogs:
In the photo above, Oslo is asking to be put back on my lap and not have to mingle with the other dogs. I wanted to sneak Oslo into my tote bag and take him home with me!
In addition to visiting with friends’ dogs, I appreciate all the nice people I meet on my daily walks who are walking their dogs and let me pet them! (The dogs I should clarify, I am not walking around trying to pet people – ha!)
I’ve enjoyed the posts some of you have written showing how you’ve reinvented, remodeled, revitalized, refurbished, rescued, etc. an item that was headed to the rubbish heap/landfill; and made it useable again. I wanted to share how I rescued/remodeled a blanket that was not working.
During the pandemic I discovered at Costco these magically soft and cozy blankets: Pendleton Sherpa Fleece Blankets. They were on sale and I bought it in King size.
Found this photo on eBay, I bought the King size version
Photo credit – eBay
Well the blanket has become worn out and I ended up buying a newer one a couple years ago. It is still a super fleecy cozy and I was using it as a blanket in the basement, however it was cumbersome to use to snuggle under on a sofa as it was king-sized blanket (meant for a king-sized bed).
My initial options were to 1) keep using the huge bulky blanket; or 2) donate the blanket. I was leaning towards option 2 but then I realized that the charity thrift shop I donated it too would like throw it own as it the blanket was worn down in several areas and it might not be resellable.
So I decided to cut the king-size blanket in half, overlocked stitch the edge and turn it into TWO blankets!
I don’t have a serger so I had to overlock stitchthe blanket and then I trimmed as close to the edge as I could to clean up the fibers (I didn’t take a photo).
John and now each have a cozy large lap-sized fleece blankets to snuggle under when watching TV in the basement!
Cabinet Building in Progress
While I was remodeling a blanket, John has been busy in his workshop making a cabinet for the upstairs primary bathroom. For years I’ve just had shelves about the “water closet” room the toilet in the primary bathroom resides in, and finally John is adding a cabinet.
Here are some images of his project in progress:
When he finishes the cabinet I’ll share the completed piece in its own future blog post.
We spent the week of Christmas (12/22 – 12/27/24) in Miami, Florida with my family. One of my stepsons joined us along with my siblings, their kids and my sister-in-law. We came from Oregon, Virginia, Delaware and Denver to meet up for Christmas week!
Here is John on his way to get our rental car in the Miami airport with the artificial Christmas tree we brought along on his back!
John and I rented a couple loft condos in a converted former industrial building so the 8 of us would have plenty of space; and made our condo the main Christmas area with the tree, stockings and meals served there. I put on a fireplace video with Christmas music from YouTube and hung the stockings on the entertainment center for ambiance – ha!
Here’s what our condo looked like with a view of Miami’s skyline:
John made several wonderful meals and it was so good to sit down with the family from all over the country and share his yummy cooking:
I spent an evening on Espanola Way in South Beach with my siblings and their kids wandering around and it was magical!
John got to go on several rented bike rides along South Beach with his son Z who is an avid cyclist in Portland, Oregon (they didn’t appear to take any photos).
Miami was beautiful and decorated for the holidays:
I got to spend a morning wandering around downtown Miami with my sister and visiting the really lovely Brickell City Centre shopping area.
We stopped for some amazing pastries at the Rosetta Bakery.
Our family was so sweet and the day after Christmas they threw a surprise party in the afternoon for John and I at the other condo to celebrate our love and our commitment to family. They decorated the table with my favorite – sunflowers!
My brother, sister and stepson all made amazing speeches and John and I got pretty choked up! It was a very special afternoon.
On our last day in Miami, before heading to the airport, a couple of us went to Coral Gables and spent time in a delightful independent bookstore – Books & Books. It has a cafe, a bar, and endless rooms of books! I didn’t want to leave but eventually we had to head to the airport – ha!
I loved the cozy looking windows looking out to the outside dining at the bookstore.
The week flew by fast and we didn’t get to do all the things we planned (like go to the beach!) but it was a very special Christmas!
Hope your holidays were wonderful, I’ll be catching up on my blogging buddies’ posts I’ve missed in the near future 🙂
This is a continuation to yesterday’s post (Paper Piecing Paradise) where I shared that a week or so ago quilting friend and her partner; and attended the opening of two quilt shows at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.
The second show opening at the museum was SAQA Wild. Per the museum’s website the show: A collection of Art Quilts submitted by Studio Art Quilt Associates members from an invitation to let their imaginations take them on a journey to a WILD place – ANY wild place. The exhibit includes pieces from 30 artists, many from our own state of Colorado!! WILD is a small word, with BIG opportunity especially when you live in the area of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. These art quilts use texture, shape, color and a multitude of techniques to take you to their WILD places.
Here are my favorites of the art quilts on display in the show:
Lots of art quilt inspiration in the show!
If you aren’t familiar with SAQA, it stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates. When I lived in Central Oregon I was an active member of our local SAQA group which at first was headed by Jean Wells an international known art quilter, author and former owner of the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon which held the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.
I participated in their local shows and challenges for about 5 years.
After moving to Colorado in 2019 after my life partner, “Terry the Quilting Husband” died in 2018, I lost my “art quilting mojo” as well as my tolerance for group activities so I didn’t join the local SAQA group. (And in 2020 we had the COVID pandemic that stopped group activities for quite a while).
I’ve met some wonderful quilters in the 5+ years I’ve lived in Colorado and have been invited to join various guilds and groups but so far I’ve declined.
I remember the card my friend W sent me in 2020 that reads: “Give Yourself Grace“, and I continue to remember to do that. Perhaps I will join a quilting group in the future, perhaps not. Currently I am enjoying just working solo on project ideas and catching up on my backlog.
The middle of October, John and I went “Pumpkin Picking” at a Rock Creek Farm in Broomfield, Coloradowith his 15 year old granddaughter, her parents and their dog. It was a gorgeous day.
I made my stepson, his wife and his daughter all “Fall Fun Bags” for the day with Autumn themed snacks, tea (all three of them love tea like I do), and other treats. I used recycled paper handle bags and decorated them with customized gift tags.
Here are some photos from our pumpkin picking fun include John and his son E being silly in the pumpkin field:
We also took them for their first trip to Buc-ees, a place I am not sure how to describe except as a “convenience store on steroids with a gas station”, for lunch.
I waited in the back of John’s truck with their dog (we sat outside in the truck bed), while they got their food (and treats) at Buc-ees.
John’s granddaughter had an awesome time (it’s a success when a teenager is fully engaged and having fun on a family event, right?) and we had a family picnic in the parking lot of Buc-ees using the truck bed!
October 2023 I posted about a house in the neighborhood I often walk in that I felt “won Halloween“ – The House That Won Halloween – due to their extensive and creative decorations (tastefully done and not too over-the-top):
(see the October 5, 2023 post for all my images of their awesome decorations)
Well, I was walking by the house the other day and once again they have their awesome Halloween decorations out but this time they added a BIG item to the group – a GIANT skeleton coming out of the ground!
It is massive and just compare it in the image to the house in the background which is a large house to give you an idea of the size of this skeleton!
Yes this house is so fun to walk by; and it continues to “Win Halloween” in the neighborhood!
The leaves are really starting to change in my section of eastern section of the Denver Metropolitan area of Colorado that we live in. I thought I would share a couple photos from my recent daily walks and a hike we went on at Castlewood Canyon State Park.
And of course I had to take a Black & White photo of the Autumn foliage scene during my daily walk:
Looks mysterious in B&W!
We’ve had some lovely Autumn evenings enjoying the cooler weather. Here is a photo from last week when John and I were hanging out at our friends’ home on their patio visiting with one of their dogs. We still miss our Mike the Miniature Schnauzer terribly but we appreciate our friends sharing their dogs with us!
Of course I took a ridiculous number of photos and I thought I share a few (giggle) in this post, to provide you a little bit of full summer bloom floral color added to your day!
I think we spent many hours there, I lost track of time. It was an overcast day but that did not detract from the beauty of the gardens.
They had wonderful structures and sculptures throughout the Botanic Gardens including these whimsical/fantastical animal structures:
They had an amazing Dale Chihulyglass structure in a beautiful pond:
Throughout the Botanic Gardens they had structures for pollinators, which are very important to gardens!
They have a large number of lily ponds, well at least for a non tropical climate. My friend L told me most of the water lilies are in pots sitting on the bottom of the pond so they can pull they inside during the cold weather.
I love the reflections on the water in the water lily ponds. In the image below you can see the overcast sky reflected on the water:
The Botanic Gardens has a breathtaking waterfall display with mist rising around it:
And to close out this post here is a tiny sampling the amazing and beautiful flowers and foliage at Denver Botanic Gardens – enjoy :-). (Visiting made me want to run home and plant flowers throughout my entire yard!)
When you are a crafter and someone gifts you a wonderful handmade craft it can really make you smile!
Back in August 2023 my friends J and MJ came for a little retreat at my house (see post Another Scrap Happy Quilt Retreat (Sort of)). J had this amazing bag she had made and I was obsessed with it. She said she would make me one someday.
Well today in the mail, a year later, an amazing surprise arrived in the mail – a handmade bag from J!
Here are the photos I took of it to include inside the bag and the bottom of the bag:
J is an accomplished pianist and she put a little piano zipper charm with the words “make your own music” engraved on the back of the charm:
Here’s a little clip of J playing her piano I included in the November 2022 post Guest Blog Post: The Fayetteville Friend’s Studio Project, Part II from when our mutual friend MJ and I spend a couple days in Fayetteville, North Carolina helping J reorganize her studio.
J also included this nice strap if I want to travel with the bag and attach it to my suitcase:
This bag arriving in the mail today was an exceptionally awesome surprise!
I actually have the pattern for this bag (I bought it after I saw J’s bag) and I might try and make one someday!
Well it’s been 2 weeks since Mike the Miniature Schnauzer passed and I thought I would give it a go on returning to blogging. I struggled to decide what to do first: 1) catch up on my blogging buddies’ posts; or 2) write a post myself. I decided to just go with writing a post first and then work on catching up on others’ posts.
The BIG Decision
They say that the best way to heal a broken heart from the loss of your dog is to bring a new puppy or adult dog into your life. John and I have made the decision not get another dog anytime soon. I am going to ramble on a bit about that decision.
Before I met John over 5 years ago when I moved to Colorado in 2019, he’d lived without a dog (he formerly also had a Miniature Schnauzer) for a couple years. His dog had passed and a couple years later his wife passed after a long difficult illness. But when I added Mike to his life he was very happy and realized the intense grief that followed his wife’s passing might have been eased a tiny bit if he had a dog to comfort him.
I’ve lived with at least one dog since I was in my mid 20s when my late husband Terry, a dog-person like me, insisted that we adopt a little Miniature Schnauzer Kerie that had been found in a drainage ditch by firefighters during a hurricane when we lived in Houston, Texas, and were volunteering with a local shelter as Animal Assisted Therapy Volunteers.
Terry and I adopted many rescued Miniature Schnauzers over the years and for the past 30+ years I’ve not had a period without at least one dog in the house. Usually we had two dogs and as soon as one passed we got another one as soon one was available (usually through Portland Miniature Schnauzer Rescue contacting us that they had a Miniature Schnauzer that needs a home!).
When Mike passed, I realized that for over 30 years my life decisions (primarily travel plans) have been guided by the fact I had a dog(s). There were many trips I did not take because of not having someone to watch the dogs or not wanting to be away from the dogs very long, etc.
John and I discussed: what would life be like if we could just travel when we wanted and not incur the cost of dog camp/dog sitters. What would life be like it we could just go out to dinner, see a movie, wander around Denver, etc. when we wanted and for as long as we wanted during our free time?
I never considered life without a dog as it is all I’ve known since being a young adult, and there are so many benefits (and just basic joy) that comes with having a dog that outweighs any sacrifices you have to make. But John and I made it through the greatest losses of our lives (our life-partners of over 30 years), what if we took a break from “responsibility” and just lived life for ourselves for a while?
Later on when we’ve gotten the travel and adventure bug out of our systems we might add a dog to our life (no cats, John is very allergic and I am mildly allergic); but we don’t have to decide anytime soon.
I’ve spent what seems all my life (yes actually all my life as I loved dogs as a child) as a “dog person” and it will be strange not to be a “dog person”. But I realized I am still a “dog person” as we recently returned from a couple days visiting Breckenridge, Colorado and I visited with many dogs wandering about – dogs are part of my heart, I just don’t have to live with one to still love them.
So not having plans to get another dog right now is a HUGE decision for me and I wanted to share my musings about it.
Dealing with the Loss of Mike
Mike was a huge part of our lives. He was more than just a “guest blogger” (ha!) on this blog. Our lives sort of revolved around Mike. So life without Mike is very strange but we’ve been adapting. The grief comes and goes and John and I both remind ourselves that we made it through the loss of our life-partners, so we can make it through this loss.
We’ve been trying to distract ourselves with various projects including re-arranging the furniture in our basement where Mike laid in his cushion everyday next to John while he telecommuted for work. It was difficult for John to go to the basement and log into work each day without Mike by his side. (By the way, Mike was the “dog love” of John’s life – see the Postscript section of the post Misadventures in Ice Fishing) So we moved his desk to another area and rearranged the basement layout.
John’s been staying busy with woodworking projects and recently a couple of small and lovely 3-D cutting boards, one of which I had to keep for my own:
I’ve been working on some crafting projects and will share them in future posts.
It was difficult to clean out Mike’s stuff (his stuff was integrated into the whole house) but we were able to donate his stuff to several other dog households including a couple who is actively involved in animal rescue and have 3 rescued dogs themselves.
I appreciate all the thoughtful comments people made on the blog post about Mike’s passing. I received thoughtful condolence cards and e-mails; as well as an out-of-state group of friends sent us a delicious box of ice cream from Salt & Straw that we got to share with a local group of friends at a dinner party we had last week.
This same group of out-of-state friends sent us a custom wind-chime with a Miniature Schnauzer on it and Mike’s name which we hung in our backyard where Mike loved to play ball.
John and I have begun planning/discussing some big trips in the future now that we no longer have a dog to include an across Canada train trip, and traveling to Japan and New Zealand. We’ve listed out all the places we’ve ever wanted to travel and we are constantly discussing what to do with our new “freedom”.
We get to test out a life of just being caretakers of ourselves (John raised kids and then was primary caretaker of his late wife who had a long illness; and I cared for an endless stream of rescue dogs…which was of course a much easier undertaking than of course John’s journey) for once in our adult lives.
Remembering Mike
Many of your have followed our adventures with Mike for many years and I thought I would close out this post with a gallery of photos of Mike from my blog posts over the years. Thanks for sharing my Mike journey with me and if you want to read the story of how Mike originally ended up in my life see this post – Taking Chances: The Mike Hogan Chronicles (re-post).
I like to think that Mike’s spirit is traveling around in the afterlife in a grocery box and a shopping cart/trolley, his favorite mode of transportation…perhaps my late husband Terry, the reason why Mike was even in my life, is pushing that shopping cart.
Postscript
Perhaps to end this post with smiles instead tears, here is a classic moment from “Dog Camp” where Mike was always popular with the ladies…
Well, I guess I better get a book written and published to keep up with my 11 year old nephew…
In 2018 my brother, Raoul Davis, Jr. who owns a Branding and PR firm, had his first book published with two colleagues – Firestarters (available on Amazon)
Image credit: Amazon.com
Then in May 2024, his son, Austin Davis, who is 11, had his first book published – Dogs vs Bears (also available on Amazon):
Image credit: Amazon.com
Per the book summary:
“…Austin Davis introduces a new way for kids to learn about diversity, appreciating differences, and teamwork.
Austin’s never known the truth—that his stuffed animals come to life whenever he leaves the house! Every time he goes to school, his bedroom becomes a brutal scene of battling teddy bears and stuffed dogs. Minion, leader of the bears, fights fiercely against Woof Woof, the dogs’ commander, over who will reign supreme.
But after years of fighting, the bears and dogs discover a new threat. Will they be wiped out by an invading species, or can these two groups put aside their differences and face it together? The future of the fortress—and Austin’s realm—depends upon it!”
There is a website set up for the book – www.dogsvsbears.com and this site has a more extensive blurb about Austin the Author than Amazon:
image credit: screen shot from dogsvsbears.com
Austin is very brilliant – he is nearly fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has been studying it since he was 5 years old in a special program in his school district. His parents figured out early on he needed something to occupy his big brain! (I remember when he was 6 years old or so and he was watching YouTube videos on human physiology and knew more than I remembered as a former clinical nurse!)
I was joking with my sister about feeling like an underachiever as my 11 year nephew has a book out before I do but seriously I am super proud Aunt! I of course bought a couple copies and have one displayed in my home library!
It’s a really fun book and it came out of all the stories Austin, an only child who really bonded from a young age with his huge collection of stuffed animals (and yes I contributed to his stash), would share about stuffed animals’ adventures.
I am glad my brother, who’s PR firm helps sports figures and company CEOs write and publish their stories, helped facilitate his son’s first book!
Okay I will start working on my first book, as soon as I clear up all these quilting unfinished projects – ha!
I’ve been away from blogging for a little while because of travel. I celebrated my birthday at the end of May and John and I recently returned from a 4-day road trip around Colorado that I will post about in the future. Before that we were in Estes Park and Fort Collins for a couple days (will post about that trip too). I look forward to getting caught up on my blogging buddies’ posts in the near future.
My husband John is a good man and he continues to reinforce this fact all the time.
Our homeowner’s association (HOA) can be rather strict at times (and rather lax at other times when you want them to reinforce the rules), and our neighbor was in danger of getting fined for not finishing a fence he started on this property (our neighbor only got around to putting in two fence posts to start the fence).
Our neighbor is a busy father of two young children and commutes over an hour to work each way, Monday to Friday. He’s exhausted by the weekend and most of his energy goes to time with his kids.
So John offered to help him complete the fence and ended up purchasing for the neighbor (who paid him back of course) all the fencing materials, AND building the fence and gate on his own for the neighbor!
Here is the neighbor’s dog waiting for John to finish the fence so she can now have a fenced yard:
I got some cool gifts for my birthday including a lovely home decor book and collection of stickers (I love stickers) from my friend J. My brother and family sent me the cutest schnauzer themed T-shirt inspired by a Van Gogh painting:
The Starry Schnauzer?
John got me a new iPad (I think my previous iPad belonged in the Apple Museum as it was many many iPad generations old); and my awesome stepsons were very generous for my birthday. One got me a gift card to my favorite used bookstore, and another got me some very yummy books!
I can’t wait to dive into this pile. But first I have to finish the two books I am currently reading The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi; and Fairy Tale by Stephen King.
I have some surprises on the way from my sister for my birthday still, and I just received the most beautiful fiber art card from my longtime friend in Austria (my “Danish Brother”, I spent part of my summer in 1998 in Denmark with him and his parents) today in the mail:
Now here’s a quote to close out this post from the amazing (so far) book Fairy Tale I am currently reading, that make me think of John:
Well you haven’t heard from Tierney in a while so I figured it’s time once again for me to step in and update you on what we’ve been up.
This is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer who lives with Tierney and John, who despite not having opposable thumbs is able to write a guest blog post from time to time.
Tierney and John had an upstairs deck that was on the verge of collapse. John had tried bracing some of the rotting sections a couple years ago but they were one crazy human-deck-dinner-party (you know if the humans started jumping up and down on top of the deck while dining) from a total deck disaster!
Their awesome friends from Bend, Oregon (where Tierney and I used to live) MJ and J (J has a lot of deck building experience) came and visited us last week; and thus began 4 days of deck demolishing and rebuilding.
MJ and Tierney documented the whole 4-day long project with photos; and I am going to share some of their photos (it’s impressive enough that I can write without opposable thumbs, taking photos with a smart phone would be nearly impossible…but with the right dog treats offered, I could try…) in this post.
First they had to take the existing deck-of-terror down:
The backyard got to looking crazy and there was no place for them to play ball with me (humans are thoughtless)!
Plus they kept chasing me back inside because they didn’t want me to get any splinters in my paws (perhaps that was thoughtful…but I wanted to play ball!!!)
Luckily and I had Tierney and MJ (the female humans) hostage in the basement den binge watching television shows and eating snacks while paying attention to me:
Here I am with MJ, one of my favorite humans in this world (she is lucky I love her!)
John and Tierney made sure the visiting humans ate well, making what looked like delicious breakfasts each morning; and what looked like tasty dinners in the evening like the Chicken Piccata with homemade pasta and Caesar Salad they served one night:
I did get nervous while they were working on the deck as it looked like the humans working on it could fall at any time. They of course made sure I was safe (which is what is most important).
Tierney and MJ helped out the male humans John and J by running some errands including a trip to Home Depot for something called “shims”. Of course Tierney and MJ took me with them and I had to help them find the shims:
You might notice Tierney has a bandage on her thumb – it’s not from working on the deck but carelessness while chopping carrots…
I was concerned when there was an attempt to scan me twice while we were in Home Depot – don’t they know the cash value of me would break a price scanner?!?!?!
We also took a trip to Target to buy J some additional clothes as he had “Man-packed” where he forgot to pack all the clothes he needed for the trip. Little did MJ and Tierney realize that there was a “Service Dogs Only” sign in the entry of the store (oops!)
No one said anything to MJ and Tierney about how I didn’t belong in there as they wandered around the store except to say “cute dog”. Well I guess that was my one and only trip to Targetunless I pursue a career as a Service Dog (but I am too grumpy to do that).
By the 4th day the male humans finished up the deck and they were so happy! Here are photos of the last stages of putting the deck together and making it livable again:
The deck is not completely done. John has to order something called “matching trim” for the deck, add post caps (whatever those are), and do some painting. But the deck is now very usable! The humans could even have a crazy human-deck-dinner-party if they wanted.
The last day of the project, the humans went out to dinner and then relaxed in the basement den for a movie night. If you look closely at the lower right hand section of the photo below, Tierney is actually working on the quilt she is hand quilting (see her post Hand Quilting Go Boldly) and perhaps sometime this year she will finish it!
Note: J and John are only snuggled as a joke for the photo, they did spend the 4 days working hard, not snuggling.
By the time we took MJ and J back to Human Storage aka “the airport” as humans call it (see the blog post “Human Storage” and Airport Lore) I was pretty tired because managing humans is so exhausting!
On the way to drop them off in Human Storage and then when I returned home
Well that catches you up on major recent events in my life. I will work on getting Tierney to blog on what she has been up to (before the deck project she had just returned from a trip to New York City with her sister) and to have her work on catching up on all her blogging buddies posts!
I was getting suspicious about Spring in Colorado. We had a streak of some wonderful weather with temperatures in the 60s to even 80 degree F (16 – 26 C) and I thought Spring was really here (even did a garden clean out in preparation for Spring planting) and then BAM – SNOW STORM!
But the snow is gone and the first trees to really pop in my section of Eastern Colorado are really popping – the Crabapple Trees!
This scene from my daily walk yesterday made me really happy:
Yay! The smell from the flowering Crabapples was so deliciously fragrant, especially coupled with the warm weather (70 degree F yesterday).
I am starting to believe it is really Spring (until the next snowstorm, ha!)
Oh and with Spring comes new musical adventures:
John used to play guitar when he was a teenager and was sort of a guitar prodigy. He shared he could have had a career in it if he had pursued when he graduated high school. Instead college and life distracted him and he never played again.
For the past year he’s been talking about wanting to pick up the guitar again, but hasn’t bought a guitar. I found a guitar at Costco (some of you might be cringing, ha, but it is at least a Yamaha guitar) – a Keith Urban guitar with lessons included, and convinced John we should buy it.
Well John is currently enjoying relearning the guitar! If you are on Instagram you can pop over to @tierneycreates and see John practicing his guitar.
tierneycreates 