A Dream

Warning...this blog post may cause some tears, but believe me, that are happy ones.

I had a dream last night, and my father was in it. Now for those of you that don't know, I lost my father in 2013, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him. I'm sure I've had dreams about him, but they never seemed real...this one was real.

Let me set the dream up for you...

I was back in my hometown, Havelock North Carolina, and shopping for some type of necklace, and I hear a voice behind me "not that one, pick the blue one"... I turn around, and there was my father, I started screaming and crying, screams, and tears of joy because there was my father in the flesh. We had a nice long hug, and I asked where he had been because I knew he hadn't been around for almost a full 7 years. It seems that he had been pulled for a special mission with the government and couldn't tell any of us, including my mom. Now, speaking of my mother, she doesn't come into the dream till my father and I have had a nice long visit and catching up, so much to tell him about the last 7 years, those that we had lost and changes in our lives. This whole dream took place in the store I was shopping in till we walked out the door to find my mother, and this is where the dream kind of starts going off the rails, as most dreams do. We started walking through a field, towards an old pickup truck, I saw my old golden, Stella Bear Dog laying under a tree and our old Zele girl off in the field. I hopped up into the truck to turn the key, and it wouldn't start. So out of the truck and we start walking, still to get to my mother, and we came across an old flower market. As I'm looking down on the ground, I'm noticing all of the dried flowers and leaves, and the landscape is changing, and my father is walking in a different direction...I shout out for him to come with me....before I can finish the dream I'm woken up with a tap on the nose by a certain kitty that wants his breakfast.

I so wanted to go back and finish the dream...the dream felt so real that I when I pushed the cobwebs out of my head and fully woke it was with a smile because you see...I got to see my father. And while I can't physically hug him, I know that he is in my heart, and that dream was him coming back to me to let me know that he is still with me.

I will continue to celebrate the life my father led and not dwell on us losing him...I will continue to be the woman my father raised me to be...I will continue to be true to me.

Until Next Time
Be Kind

Watch Out 2020

Before I even start this post, I want to say how hard 2020 is to type...not because it's the change of the year but because the right hang pinkie that taps the "0" key hasn't memorized that upper reach in a repeat. I find that I type 202 and forget the second "0"...silly pinkie finger.

Okay, so my Watch Out 2020 title to this post doesn't mean that I've come up with a long list of New Year's Resolutions that we all know will fall to the wayside by the end of the month, but what it does mean is that I am changing some lifestyle habits and am bringing y'all along with me.

2020 is the year that I turn 60..yep the BIG 60...that 60. I'm not one to freak out about aging, and this one I decided to embrace.

When I closed Kelly Ann's Quilting, I had made all kinds of plans to get in shape, to learn how to paddleboard with my friend, Leslee, and to just feel healthy. Well...here we are almost a year later, nope, I didn't get in shape, and we never got on a paddleboard or rented a kyack. I've always loved the idea of doing these things, but to actually get out and do them, something always came up, and I pushed those thoughts out of my head and moved on to another task. In December it hit me...

http://clipart-library.com/

The lightbulb went off...I needed to stop putting those things off and just do them before putting another task ahead of them. 

So my first thing to do was put it out there...So if you follow me on Instagram, you know that I've been posting my daily walking selfies. Andrew and I try and take a New Years Day walk, we really like to go to a local state forest and walk the trails with the dogs but this year was too muddy, so we went to town and walked the WARF - Warrenton Aquatic Recreational Facility - and we found some LOVE along the way

My daily goal is simple, to walk every day for a minimum of 20 minutes, and by posting on IG, I feel like my peeps are walking with me. 

I cook pretty healthily, but we like our snacks, and most of those snacks are loaded in carbs, so my foodie goal for 2020 was to have more balance in our eating. Cookies can happen, so can cocktails, and pasta and bread but not all the time and not at every meal. I've always posted food pictures on IG, but now I include the recipe, another little change. 

So now the "Watch Out 2020" makes sense...watch out cause some changes are coming...LOL

Lots of my friends on FB are posting their WORD for 2020, and I didn't pick a word, it picked me...BALANCE.

So now that I've put all of this down for the world to see, I have a lot of accountability partners. 

So...what kind of BALANCE are you bringing to your life in 2020

       what kind of change are you bringing to your life in 2020

       what kind of challenge will you face head-on in 2020

Thank you to everyone that is still following along on my blog and as always...

Until Next Time

Be Kind

Earth Warrior

While scrolling through Facebook, I came across this picture that my friend, Nanette, shared.

We had a little discussion about doing a challenge, I said I was in...she said: "I love you best because you are an Earth Warrior." This made me smile...and then it got me to thinking...how can we all be earth warriors? What difference can we make on this planet we call home?

When driving the roads of Virginia, I'm always amazed at the trash along the way. Watching people throw trash out the window, don't even get me started on cigarettes being thrown out the window. So this challenge discussion with Nanette got me to thinking where I could begin to on helping mother earth.  This is what I've come up with

• Get a trash picker upper and start keeping the road in front of our house clean of trash, and maybe even adopt a road area to clean up
• Carry gloves in my car, so I can pick up trash in parks as I go for a walk, you can't believe the garbage I see at the WARF in town or along the Greenway.
• Stop using plastic straws, carry my personal straw with them when I need one, or, better yet, stop using straws altogether.
• Do away with single-use plastic wrap.
• Use my own water bottle, which I do 95% of the time, need to get that other 5% under control.

So...any other suggestions?
are you going to join the challenge and become an Earth Warrior
Can you spread this to your friends, make this challenge go viral?

As I said to Nanette - it takes a village, to make a town, to make a city, to make a state, to make a country to protect our planet.

Are you in?

Until Next Time
Be Kind

12 Days of Kindness with Elf

I was browsing twitter and came across this article from CNN on 12 Days of Holiday Kindness

At the end of the article, you can print off the above picture and check off your kindness list.

If you follow me on social media, you know that Kindness has been my "word of the year," and I try and embrace it daily, but sometimes it's hard to remember because people can be such Cottonheaded Ninnymuggins. I really try and not let these people bring me down, but it happens to all of us, and sometimes, you want to crawl back into a quilt fort and ignore the world. On Monday, I decided that I don't want to be part of the Cottonheaded Ninnymuggins group I wanted to be part of "Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer is to Sing it Loud and Sing it Clear" group.

So I'm gonna add to the list above

• When pushing your grocery cart to the corral, instead of pushing it in and walking away, straighten up the carts, it takes a minute, and it's all organized and neat.
• Grab a few $20 Visa gift cards and hand them out to your favorite service people, cashiers, grocery cart guy, waitress, a small act of kindness.
• Let someone go ahead of in your while waiting in line to checkout
• SMILE - A LOT!
• ^^that one again
• Don't just walk away, wish them a good day, Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas...whatever salutation use it and use it with a smile.
• Don't grump at the people closest to you. Holidays are stressful for everyone.

I'm sure there are more, but that should get us to the new year, and maybe if we all start adding a few random kindness acts, more people will smile, and maybe, just maybe, there will be less Cottonheaded Ninnymuggins in the world.

Until Next Time

Be Kind

I did it...

I did it...

I finally sat down at my sewing machine and finished a quilt top, took it to the quilter, got it back, and put the binding on.

Baby Quilt 

The pattern is from the book, Baby Quilts by Susan Emory, and you can find it on my website. I saw the sheep fabric on the Mountain Creek Quilt Shops website and had to have it. The arrows are from my stash, it's jumbled letters which I thought were perfect for a baby quilt, this is the black with white letters, and then I used the white with black letters for the back. The quilter, Hilda at Phantom Quilters, did a cute sheep design, and I had it back in just a few days. Now all that is left is to get a cute bag and deliver to the new mama.

So there ya have it... the first quilt that I've made since closing the shop that does have anything to do with work. I gotta say, it felt good sitting down at the sewing machine again, so good that I might try my hand at doing one for me.

Until Next Time
Be Kind

Cup of Joe

Have you ever wondered where "cup of joe" came from in referring to a cup of coffee? Well, I did so I went to trusty Google and asked...omg...there are a few different definitions, but the one I like is this...

You can read more from Wonderopolis

I stopped drinking coffee a few years ago, I know what is running through your minds right now...WHAT...but between the acid in coffee not agreeing with me and taste buds changing I wasn't enjoying it. I would have the occasional Starbucks, but I would have to order something with lots of sugar and cream, or I couldn't stomach the bitterness of the coffee. 

But...

All of that changed when we went to Miami before our cruise in October, I was introduced to Cafe' Con leche, WOW, tasty, rich coffee with scaled milk, and I would add sugar. Low and behold, we got on the cruise ship, and there was a little coffee window buried on the ship that served a few specialty coffees. They made Cafe' Con leche using Cafe Bustelo, you can find it in your local grocery store or order directly from the company.

Cafe Bustelo

I came home, and because I don't have a way to steam my milk for my Cafe Con leche, the Cafe Bustelo is a little too strong, so I turned to Seattle's Best Henry's Blend. It's a beautiful smooth Dark Roast, not too bitter and not too strong, and so far, the acid isn't killing me. The only problem with me and Henry's Blend is that I have to travel from grocery to grocery store in search of it locally but find it I do and enjoy a cup every morning.

Henry's Blend

I do have a favorite mug...

I toss it in the microwave with water to heat the mug before I pour myself a cup; this helps keep my coffee hotter longer because while I'll drink iced coffee, I don't want a cup of cold coffee.

So this post that started off with me wanting to share my cute little mug that I've had for 20+ years turned into telling you my coffee saga...o'well now ya know...so bottoms up!

Until Next Time

Be Kind

Bird Watching

We moved into this house in 1998, and one of the first things we did was put up bird feeders. I think it's in my blood because my parents have always feed the birds...and the squirrels.

Our feeder stand is a 4x4 buried in the ground with four hooks for four feeders. We have two squirrel baffles...yes two...we have brilliant squirrels. But, we also have bears, and when you have bears, you either bring in your feeders nightly or don't put any out. Not having feeders wasn't an option, but I read that if you use platform feeders, bears will dump the seed but not destroy the feeder. So off to Tractor Supply Company to pick up a feeder.

3 in 1 Platform Feeder

It's been up a week, and I'm sitting here watching the birds have a daily buffet. In the last hour, I've seen both the male and female cardinals, tufted titmouse, juncos, wrens, mocking bird, bluejay, carolina chickadee, and a few different finches. I also pick up the birdseed at TSC, great selection, and affordable.

So...if you have bears in your neck of the woods and want to feed the birds, grab a platform feeder or two and enjoy the show!

Until Next Time

Be Kind