Garden goodness continues

These are plums from my father in law's plum tree. With my Mom's help, I made big jars of tasty, sweet plum preserves. Its great on toast and as a marinade over pork tenderloin...yum!


With only 2 zucchini plants, we still ended up with over 20 HUGE zucchini....eating them sauteed, grilled, and raw in salads got pretty old, so I made double batches of zucchini muffins and froze them to snack on this winter.

Leftover shredded zucchini....Oscar the dog dined on it for dinner....and begged for more!

Tomatoes & cucumbers galore. I made tomato sauce, canned up for the winter too.

Claudine Hellmuth & beeswax collage

I had an unbelievable weekend taking a beeswax collage class from artist, Claudine Hellmuth. That's me with friends Karen & Catherine, new friend, Danene, Karen's dog Rosie, and Claudine.


One of the canvases I made & actually completed...I have 5-6 others that are at least halfway done. Already gave this away as a birthday gift to someone & she loved it!

Karen's Bingo canvas.....LOVE the white dots!

Catherine's 1st canvas.....love her blue/white background with etched circles in the wax.

The starter project......Halloween houses with glowing windows....all the students put their houses together to create a spooky village :-)

latest fish!

an unexpected call today from Patrick.....another Bluefin Tuna landed! What a season for him....so happy all of his hard work is paying off for him.

latest projects....

I am working on 2 quilting projects at once right now. The square above is for a lap-sized quilt I'm making from the fabric leftovers of Annie's Turning Twenty Quilt that I made for my neice last April....hate adding MORE scraps to my scrap bin!

the colors are a bit on the funky side in this pic....but the block above is from a top-secret quilt I've been working on for awhile. It is the biggest one I've done so far....queen! I am just finishing the last couple of blocks (56 of them), then ready to make backing, etc. I'll post more when its finished and appily in the hands of it's recipient!

puppy alert!!!

We had 2 foster puppy siblings over the weekend....the big brother is in the process of being adopted. So, we have the sweet little girl above.....she arrived with the name Brie (yep, spelled like the cheese) but I'm just not feeling it. I'm thinking she's a Pippi....her ears stick out like Pippi Longstocking :-)


on the move....its tough to get puppy pics!

the 2 siblings...he is TWICE her size & weight!

Wordless Wednesday...flowers in bloom

Wordless Wednesday....Clam Fest parade 2010

day with my Crafty girls

I had a fantastic afternoon with my 2 bestest Crafty Gals, Catherine & Karen. Catherine made us this delicious Blueberry Gelato.....yum!

Ok, I know it is July, but I started this family of snowmen last winter & I hate having piles of unfinished projects....I'll post more pics when their hats, faces, etc. I got them all soaked & stitched together today.

Catherine worked on ATC's for her Swap group....by the time she'd finished painting, those gorgeous dragonflies were shimmery green! Can't wait to see the finished product.

Karen worked on lessons from a Claudine Hallmuth class we are both taking online....she's almost caught up with the weekly lessons....I won't even attempt to describe how far behind I am. :-)

Always refreshing & inspiring getting together with them!!!

New England Modern Quilt Guild quilt swap

This is the Doll Quilt I made for Shelly in the New England Modern Quilt Guild swap. Doll quilts are basically small quilts you can use as wallhanging, dresser, etc. It was fun to make something smaller than the usual quilt that takes forever (for me anyway :-) It is safely on its way to her in NH...hope you like it, Shelly!

I loved the red print so much that I went back and bought more for the backing too!

NEMQG doll quilt swap-received!

I participated in my 1st Doll Quilt swap with the New England Modern Quilt guild recently. Laurie made this amazing quilt for me. She'd taken the time to read my blog to discover we are waiting to adopt from Ethiopia & included fabrics that she had from her trip to Uganda!!! Incredibly thoughful & kind of her. I love the funky design & the bright, cheery fabrics. You can tell how much time & care she took with this project.

I love the fabric on the back too!

This heart is probably my favorite part of the quilt. So, this quilt will hang on the wall just outside the bedroom of our future child.

Thanks Laurie for such a wonderful quilt!!!!

Sea Dogs & 2 weeks with Naj

Caught a Sea Dogs game with my hubby, Katie, Najee & my mother-in-law on a hot humid day last week.....great game, even with the showers and humidity.The kids got new baseball hats from Uncle Pat.

We had a busy 2 weeks with Naj....Aquaboggin, 3 movies, multiple "Sorry" and "Monopoly" games, library, fishing, Silly bands and baseball cards, gardening, and so much more.

Clam Fest Begins today!!!!

The Yarmouth Clam Festival is a BIG deal for us Simmons.....family comes to visit from far & wide to enjoy the parade, the food, rides, & fireworks. Its a great time.....make sure to take a afternoon or evening to enjoy it all too.....proceeds go directly to non-profit organizations as well which makes those $6 fried clams a bit easier to shell out for!

Mini Quilts

I haven't had a ton of time to be crafty lately.....with new job, nephew here with us, and taking advantage of everything Summer.....but I did manage to get a couple of mini quilts completed for my good friends', Catherine & Karen's, birthdays. And, of course, no birthday is complete without a lunch at Little Tokyo!

Karen's colors are designed to fit with her newly-designed and decorated craft room.....its gorgeous!!! We both love the egg fabric the best....my last piece just for her.

Catherine is in the design phase of her craft room re-model. She'd originally picked turquoise as a wall color so I made sure this would suit...but she changed it to pink & it still works...YEAH!!!

I also finished up a Doll Quilt swap for the New England Modern Quilt Guild......a post about that soon.

Wordless Wednesday.....garden glory

Wordless Wednesday....Simmons Family Disney trip 2010