Drinks on the Veranda

When I was shopping for building supplies for the quilt studio a couple of years ago, one of my "shopping sprees" was at Lumber 84 in Statesville.  Shirley Bailey's sister, Deborah happened to be in the shop on day when I was talking about needing windows which is how I ended up meeting Deborah's husband, Rick the next day to shop their sidewalk sale a day early.  (Sometimes you're just at the right place at the right time running your mouth about the right things.)  I ended up buying four windows, a bathroom door, siding for the entire studio and a sliding glass door.  The sliding glass door was a whim.  There was no plan but I couldn't pass up a $100 Pella sliding glass door.

And that's how I ended up with my little 6' x 8' deck on the backside of the studio.  We call it the veranda and it has become a source of great joy.

We have become bird watchers though I need a better camera than my phone.

Nuthatch

Male goldfinches

Baby red-bellied woodpecker

The chipmunks and squirrels are hilarious entertainment.  They have their own feeders at the edge of the woods but will still come check out the veranda just in case I dropped a seed or two.

 Almost every evening, I get a text from David when he's leaving the office that asks for (or demands depending on how the day has gone) "drinks on the veranda".

So we get to sit and unwind: catch up on the happenings of the day, watch the birds, laugh at the squirrels, ahh over the baby rabbits, hold our breath when the hummingbirds fly around our heads all because of a $100 whim.

Sometimes you just can't imagine how much a door can really open.

One More Time with Feeling

This blog is something that is on my mind occasionally but I just never seem to get back to it.  The reason I started the blog in the first place was to remember things that happen because I often forget...especially the little fun things.  I have no problem remembering the crappy things - mistakes, missteps, stupid things I wish I had not said out loud, rude people, criticism.  I run those things over and over in my head like a treadmill. I think the reason I stopped blogging was (1) it's time consuming and time moves fast especially when you're spinning a lot of dishes and (2) it's so easy to snap a photo and throw it on facebook and instagram and that became my "blog" so to speak.  But, oh I am so tired of facebook.  If we could just go back to seeing everyone's dogs and cats and kids and grandkids and gardens and roadtrips, it would be just grand.  I don't see it happening.  So, I'm going to give this another try, just to record the good things in my day. 

I've been trying to work on my own stuff on the weekend instead of longarm quilting for others all weekend.  So, today, I quilted two samples using a new panel that is coming from Hoffman Fabrics.  Because the new Hoffman catalog hasn't hit the streets yet, I can't show the quilts, so here's a photo of the derpy doves hanging out in one of my feeders today.  I love them especially the goober peering out at me from inside the feeder.  See...joy in the little things.