Happy Things on Your Monday

This is a happy thing: a dog who drinks  Starbucks.
(via) 

(Win something! Handmade by me! Go here!) 

In lieu of my regularly scheduled post, I bring you this: Happy Things. 

If you click on any of the pictures in the link you should be redirected to the original sites. 

To Someone I Don't Know

To the person who taped silk flowers and a pinwheel to the park bench:

I wonder who you are. I wonder if you are someone who is struggling with difficulties and you placed those flowers on the jogging path to get outside your immediate thoughts and remind yourself that the circumstances of your life won't always be a struggle. Or I wonder if you are someone who just likes to do little happy things for strangers.

Whoever you are, thank you. Thank you for reminding me that not everyone cuts people off on the freeway. Thank you for reminding me that not everyone is rude and miserable and looks away when I smile and say hello on my daily jogs. Thank you for reminding me that there are nice people in the world. (Not that I had forgotten, but some days it seems that nice people are few and far between!)

Thank you for making me smile.

I hope that whoever you are and whatever your circumstances you have a lovely day!

Celebrate!

One week from today my daughter will no longer be Miss, but Mrs. (!!!) In light of this upcoming celebration, I want to share the celebration you see below. L.O.V.E. I.T.!!! I have posted this before, but in light of this Month of Thanksgiving, I want to repost it, and say that I am thankful for such an incredibly fun and joyful outlook on life! This video always makes me smile! 

It's Raining, and I Love It!

I mean, what's not to love when you can wear boots like these?!!!Aren't they too cute for words? Love them! They are a "happy thing!" I wish I knew where to find them because I would buy them! They are totally me!

Rain. When we lived in England we had so much rain and grey skies that I thought I'd never be happy to see the rain again. I'm a desert rat at heart. I grew up in southern Arizona where the rain blows through in huge beautiful monsoon storms in the summertime and some gentle rain in late winter. That's it. Mostly we had dry hot weather and I grew to love it, though when the rains came though we got as excited as kids at Christmas. The weather in England was a novelty at first, but the constant grey and drizzle quickly grew old and downright depressing. Move forward eighteen years, and here I am in Northern California with beautiful, beautiful weather. Lots of sunshine, hot summers, beautiful fall color, mild winters. Perfect for me. This would, however, exclude San Francisco, where we lived for about a year when we first moved out here. For geological and meteorological  reasons I don't understand, San Francisco gets a lot of cloudy grey chilly weather. Someone said that the coldest winter they ever spent was summer in San Francisco. So true! I'm sure I could find the quote if I looked, but if you really want to know where it came from I'm sure you know how to Google it. (I wonder how long it will be until "google" is officially a verb in the English language...) SF is too much like England! Some love it and the fog is beautiful, as is the city itself and I think it's an amazing place that I love, but I had enough grey to last a lifetime!

Anyway, back to my point.

Rain. It rained last night and it's still drizzly this morning and you know what? I like it again. Never in a million years did I think I would say that, but I do! I like the rain! 

It's so much more satisfying to be content than to always be fighting against whatever life throws at you. Not that we don't contend for what's right, what's good, what's pure and lovely, but there is great gain in contentment. 

So, bring on the rain in the Bay! 

Image credit

Some More Random Notes for Your Reading Pleasure

A few more notes before the "big one." I am working on a long post to detail some stuff that's been going on, but it's not ready for posting. So...in the meantime...some more notes. I know you are thrilled, and thank for bearing with me and my sporadic/non-existent posting schedule.
 
*I won the book I wanted! It was sort of the grand prize of the drawing (see my last post) and I won it! Yay!!!  Here is the image from The Jolly Jabber, the site that held the drawing.

I was after either the book or the pattern for the quilt shown on the right. So...I scored! Yay! And thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop!

*I have sunk (sunken? sunked? whatever) into a habit of sleeping all morning. I get up daily at 5.30 but I usually hit the sack again at 7.30 or so for about three hours. I need to be up at 5.30, so getting up later isn't an option, but seriously? Do I really need to waste the whole morning? What the heck??? I can't seem to get out of the cycle. I'm not over-caffeinated at night, but I'm not sleeping well. I'm one of those people who need eight hours, but I think I've got my circadian rhythm out of synch. Or something.  Maybe one of those alarm clocks that slowly brighten the room to simulate daylight is in order. I didn't seem to have this much trouble in the summer when the sun was blasting in the bedroom windows early in the morning. Maybe it's just that I don't want to drag my butt out of bed when it's still pitch black outside. I mean, who does? But seriously. Gotta get my act together.

*I've been doing some long power walks lately for the cardio. Four and five miles. Want to work it into a jog. Feel great about that! Getting my act together on that front!

 *Counting down now until my daughter's wedding. The whole thing still has an unreal, twilight zone (who else besides me is old enough--ok, so it was reruns when I was watching-to remember that?) quality to it. I can't really believe it's happening! Maybe I feel that way because she lives out of state and the wedding is taking place there. The preparation and anticipation levels are mostly amongst her friends there so it's not so intense for me here. Anyway, I'm making my dress, the wedding is in less than three weeks, and I haven't started it yet so methinks I'd better get cracking.

But for now...bedtime. 5.30 comes early.

Great News!

I could just repost my last short post where I begged off because things are busy.

I'll add to it though...my daughter extended her stay here by another few weeks! Yay! Still want to squeeze in lots of stuff but we have a bit more time to do it.

One of the things I want to do with her is hike to the top of Sweeney Ridge. The picture is the view from the top out toward the Pacific. I did not take this picture, by the way...image credit below. You can see both the San Francisco Bay to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west from the top. Good cardio on the way up, too! Always a benefit...

Also, my other daughter has a blog. She just started it yesterday, so please head over and say hello. You can click to it here.

Ok...that's it for now...I do want to get back here soon though.

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The Ongoing Saga of My Quilty Obsession

 Continuing in my current subject of all things quilty, I went on a reconnaissance mission yesterday. I had heard about a quilt shop located fairly close to where I live and when my husband asked me to do a freecycle pickup in that area I couldn't resist stopping to check it out. What a treasure! Loved it!  I was chatting with the nice lady there and telling her I am teaching myself to quilt. I inquired about classes and was intrigued by the long arm quilt classes they offer. Apparently after a one day class I will then be accredited and qualified to use their long arm for $12 an hour. The lady there says that once I'm in practice I could do a queen sized quilt in under three hours. That's a HUGE savings on sending it out to be professionally quilted (something I don't like the idea of anyway...if I'm making a quilt I kind of want to do the whole thing myself. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Only time will tell. I'm a purist and a newbie). It's also a huge savings in frustration of trying to quilt a queen sized quilt on my sewing machine at home. Tying a quilt is fine, but it's not always the look I'll be going for. So. Methinks a long arm class might be a good thing to put on my Christmas list. ;-)

What?

I know it's only August. I'm just thinking ahead.

Maybe once I get my shop happening I'll pop a few quilts in there along with the other things I plan to stock. Hmmm....the wheels are turning.....

I also picked up a copy of Doodle Stitching The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray. I've been eyeing it for ages and found it for a reasonable price that I was willing to pay. Yay for reasonable prices (and 40% off coupons too)!

I'm such a tightwad. In a good way, of course! ;-)

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Cat In a Quilt

A cat in a quilt. What could be better? I have the cat already. Just need to make the quilt!

I know. If you read my last post you'll know I'm slightly obsessed with quilts right now!


Found the picture here.

Happy Things

Happy thing for April 17: Cats have a private entrance at the vet next door to our church. They don't have to use the same door as the dogs and other riff raff.