Cutting out a new one!

 I started cutting out one of the old kits that I had.  Not finished with it yet but hopefully I will have it all cut out today.  This will make a nice sized lap quilt. 

 While on vacation we were at a gift shop and I was paying for some postcards and when I finished I saw Andrew go to the counter to pay for something, it was this beautiful Jim Shore Santa.  You all know that I love Jim Shore and do collect it.  I tried to tell him no because I hate for the boys to spend their money on me but his response was, "mom, you looked at it 2 or 3 times and obviously you were not going to buy it."  My sweet boy...love him so much.  This was in their Christmas in July section.  I love it!

 This is one of my favorite vacation pics!  Look at mom, she is laughing so hard.  I love this as she looks so happy.  My brother, John would rather aggravate me than anything in the world.  LOL!  We were trying to take a pic with mom and he kept pulling my hair.   There are only 4 years between me and John but Chantal is 13 years younger than I am. 

 I have got to get my butt in gear today!  I didn't accomplish anything yesterday.  I just bounced from one thing to the other and by days end...nothing.  LOL!  It's always hard for me to fall back into my routine.  

I have a couple of quilts that need to be quilted real soon and then I will be trying to work my garden goodies in between everything else.  I see lots of canning in my future.  LOL!  Next up will probably be beats and some green beans.  I will have a lot of tomatoes too. 

Back to the real world...

We got home late Saturday night so I guess it's time to get things back on track.  :(  Sunday morning we were dragging and sadly we didn't go to Church.  I just couldn't seem to get things going.

I did do a little sewing while on vacation.   I know it's wrinkled but you can still see my progress.  I have several more sewn into strips and I will keep working on it during my down time.  I love EPP and handwork.  

 

 I did pick these fabrics up while on vacation.  Nothing really special.  The dark blue and the red ones are 1 yard cuts.  I thought the little fat quarters were cute and also beach themed...starfish, seashells and such.  Not sure what I will make with them but I need to find a pattern to use them with then pick up some white for background and maybe some light grey as these fabrics have a little grey in them.  A total of 10 fat quarters with 2 of each.  I'll have to find something to make that will remind me of this vacation.

 So this week things should get back to normal and hopefully I can get back to sewing.  I have big plans!  LOL!  We'll see how that goes.  

Richard went back to work this morning.  Mom and Andrew had to go back to work yesterday (Sunday).  :(  They were really tired.  We all had the best time!  14 people in the same house for a week and we all survived.  

A few more vacation pics...  This was as we were leaving early Saturday morning. 

Here we are just goofing off...

Us on the beach....

My world...

That's all for now and back to quilty posts.

Another Awesome Day

 Another awesome day!  We woke up to another beautiful sunrise.  I woke up at 4:30am, drank some coffee, snapped some pics and went back to bed around 6:30am.

 Then everyone got ready and headed back down the beach to Corolla to do some shopping.  The younger kids wanted some hermit crabs and a few other things.  Then we stopped for pizza, which I hated.  Everyone has different tastes but I didn't like it at all.  The sauce was way to sweet for me.  

Then on to the lighthouse with everyone else.  We took a few pics again.  Here we are with the boys.  Andrew looks like he is choking me.  LOL! 

 Andrew with my precious momma on the lighthouse grounds. 

 Our precious little Addie!  She is doing so good on this long trip and she is only 2.  She is a little cracker jack!  Her favorite words right now are "NO" and "GONE" 

 Here are my guys in a live oak.  They are my world. 

 Another pic on the way back up to the beach house. 

 Today part of us will be making the 2 hour trip south to Roanoke Island. 

Corolla Lighthouse

 Yesterday Richard and I stopped by the Corolla Lighthouse for a few minutes.  We are ALL going back today as that was one thing that we all had planned on doing anyway.  It was beautiful!  Built in 1875, it is just awesome!  We didn't make the climb to the top as we just stopped by quickly and not to mention that is has 200+ steps and I just don't know if my back and hips can handle that many steps.  

 A few more beautiful pics of the grounds around the lighthouse...

 And last but not least, a pic as we were driving the 8 miles back up the beach. 

I had a few ask where this was... Mom rented a beach house for the whole family on Carova Beach which is on the 4x4 section of the Outer Banks of the coast of NC.  It is only accessible by 4x4 and is very natural other than the houses.  There are no stores or restaurants in this area but are only 8 miles away in Corolla.  The only building that I have saw in this area that is not a beach house was the fire department.  The wild horse roam freely and most mornings they are in our yard.  It is just awesome and so relaxing.  This is by far the best vacation that I have ever had.  14 of us in one house and everyone is getting along great, we are just all glad to be together.  Truly Blessed! 

Busy Times and Happy Birthday to my BABY!

 Soooo....I did not get the last two quilts finished that I wanted to do before I left for vacation!  That's okay, I'm not got to sweat it.  I had one loaded on the longarm and as soon as I started on it, my machine started breaking top thread.  Not sure why and I did try to figure it out but then time got away and I realized that it just wasn't going to happen so I stopped and moved on to something else....cleaning my house.  LOL!  

I have some EPP packed and ready to take on the trip as it will be about a 12 hour or so drive by the time we have to stop several times with the kids.  As I mentioned before there are 14 of us going.  I also decided to take this quilt along and sew the binding on. 

 It's hard to tell much about the quilt in this pic but it is called, Indian Star.  I quilted it sometime LAST year and never did the binding on it.  I looked back through my blog to see when I pieced it but didn't find it right off, but I know it has been YEARS.  LOL!  

We usually take a small quilt on trips because Hunter always wants to sleep and have something to cover up with.  I also wanted to take a smallish quilt to use on the beach as they all want to lay on something and the beach towels just are not big enough.  Last year when we went to VA Beach I took a small quilt too.  This is a quilt that I plan on "using" so I don't care to use it on the beach.  LOL!  So I figure I will do the hand work while Hunter is not using it to sleep with.  :)  

Richard has picked over 8 quarts of raspberries so far and I made a cobbler a few days ago.  They loved it!  I didn't eat any as I am a diabetic but it sure smelled good. 

 I also had a bunch of zucchini that I needed to do something with before we left.  I shredded it up and put 2 cups in each freezer bag.  That will be enough to make 8 of these Chocolate Zucchini Breads.  Richard's grandmother used to make this for him and she gave me the recipe a few years before she passed away. It is good and to me it tastes a lot like German Chocolate Cake. 

 Today is Hunter's 15th birthday!  Where does time go?  Shew...I miss my boys being little.  I took this pic of Andrew and Hunter a few months ago at mom's.  They are such close brothers even though there is a 9 yr age difference.  My boys are my world! 

 Richard has to work today and will not be home until 8pm so we will just have a small celebration as we will be leaving on vacation around 2:30am so just a few hours after Richard gets home.  I told Hunter that sometime after we get back that he could have a few friends over.  

Speaking of friends...last night one of Hunter's best friends had an ATV accident and had to be flown out to the hospital.  I sat up until after midnight waiting to hear something as Hunter was very upset and Richard and I also grew up with his dad.  They flew him to a hospital over an hour away.  We finally heard that he had several broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a fractured neck.  That is all that we heard last night but they were still running tests so I will check again this morning.  Shew....things can change in a blink of an eye.  

So we will be leaving very late tonight and I have a million things to finish up today.  As I mentioned before my MIL is house sitting for us and I need to do a quick once over on my house before she comes late this afternoon.  We also have a good friend/neighbor that is going to come up and feed all of the animals as my MIL is not able to feed the horses, chickens and such.  I also have a few errands to take care of then come home and bake a birthday cake for Hunter.  

I will probably overload my blog with vacation pics!  LOL!  I'm also on Instagram if you want to pop on over there and follow me.  I'm on there under "The Quilted Mule"  :)  

That's all for now....gotta get my long day started!  Please keep us all in your prayers as we travel.