Always needing a project

Seems my whole life I have had to have a project to work on or a book to read...

I can't think of a time I have just sat still and done nothing....well, except visiting and driving

- things like that yes, one has to be not multitasking 😏

The basement is FINISHED...the laundry room the last of it.

We painted the walls and floors, put in a couple cupboards/counter and Doug put up a hanging rack for me.  It certainly isn't a fancy laundry room but from what it was for years it is good enough for me.

Before/during demolition

No that isn't laundry in the baskets...

it's all the rags and sheets we use for dropcloths when painting

After

I do plan to make curtain for the front of the shelves

After the basement project we tackled the outside...normally we get loads of mulch but

it needs to be taken care of right away and so this year with no help from the boys we bought bags of mulch and it worked out great...we didn't have to worry about the weather.

But first we bought a new tree for the end of the house to replace a large bush that outlived itself.

This is a 'Louisa' Weeping Flowering Crabapple

Not sure if you remember but we planted all new shrubs last Spring

They're still small but are coming in really great this year, we're really pleased with the 

Holly bushes especially - 

We had to replace two burning bushes that were under these windows

so we decided on two Holly bushes like the ones in the front.

This week I started on the dining room getting the walls painted below the chair rail.

I kept the same color as all the trim because I like it and because I didn't want 

to paint ALL THAT TRIM a different color....then I started the stenciling.

I'm loving it and I like that I decided to put it just along the openings and not in the center of the walls.

Stencil is from MB Historic Stencils

In the evenings when I get to relax I work on my rug hooking

This is a pattern I've had for 4 years now and just getting to work on it.

This is my current finish one - finished hooking anyway,

now I need to block and bind it.

Thank you for visiting me again

Karen

Please pray for our country

So much going on!!!

How does one start when there has been such a lull???
Well I guess I back up to last month - and this month is already half over.
I don't know about you all but time goes so fast and you really don't realize it until you look back...scary!  It's like you don't have a feeling of 'time' - a week or 2 weeks seems like it was just a day or two ago...okay, I won't go there anymore...but it just seemed to hit me this past few weeks how fast time does go by.

So what has been happening in my neck of the woods - well, not a lot of interesting things but we did go down to TN to visit my sister again and it was so nice seeing her and her family. I miss my big sis being close but I don't have any control over where she lives...so we travel to see her.  
While there we stopped in at a wonderful place called 'The Gallery' and I found a wonderful large basket that is going to get some Geraniums in it.

(remember you can click on the pictures to view larger)

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Two weeks ago we went to Springfield, IL for a wholesale trade show and we had time when we arrived the day before so we went to the Abraham Lincoln Museum and it was the BEST!!!  I love this kind of history and the museum left me with wanting more.
If you get to Springfield, go to the museum and his home - you won't be disappointed.
I won't show more than these three pictures as there were several.

Lincoln's Home

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I did find just a couple things at the show and one is this doll that is for sale on my other site 'KM Primitives'.
http://kmprimitives.blogspot.com/

She has beautiful red hair and carries a key around her neck.

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Well, Spring does not want to come and stay with us here in the mid-west, but we did take advantage of it last month to get the mulch down and trees trimmed and one cut down.  Good job done and we have our sons and grandsons to thank for it.

We had an ornamental Pear tree in the back corner and it seems to grow up so straight and ugly so we had our son Brett take it down....plus it was in the back and we never got to enjoy the flowers anyway.

All finished and deciding who did the most work - no, they all worked themselves bone tired.

Eventually the flowers on the Service Berry bush came out but it was so windy and rainy that they fell of almost as soon as they came on. (these are not this years Service Berry's)

There are now flowers planted in this area

Our son Dan caught this shot of Aidan under a bush - he quietly peeked around the corner of the house to get the shot - I love it.

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And again it is Rhubarb season and yesterday I baked my first 
Rhubarb cake (recipe is above under 'Favorite Recipes')

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Oh my gosh - I think my mind has kind of gone wonky as well from those pain meds...Know what this is?

It's one of these!!!  The little plastic drip tray for under the George Forman grill that I use for making Panini sandwiches  :(

I went to make Panini sandwiches Saturday and after I turned it on we smelled this plastic odor - hummmm - lifted the lid and sure enough - a perfectly formed tray totally melted but fortunately it pulled right off - and YES, I let the grill get hotter and hotter to burn off any odor.
But the sandwiches turned out delicious as usual

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Aidan did take his First Communion and it brought tears to my eyes - we were so proud and blessed by it.
He was chosen to carry the wine.

Taking Communion

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And lastly - I have Two more Punch Needle designs on my KM Primitives site and am almost finished with another.
http://kmprimitives.blogspot.com/

This one is Peahen & Posies

And this one is Watering Can & Purple Coneflowers

Thanks again for stopping by - I will hopefully get some time to do some Blog hopping later today and visit you all!

Karen