Jacksonville Turtles

I totally forgot that I took these pictures! Joy and I were stopping by Chamblin's Book Store in downtown Jacksonville, FL when I stumbled across these guys. There was a similar display in the Mystic and New London, CT areas using whales, Pawcatuck had a rocking chair display around town, and up near Woodstock, CT they had cows. There were a few other turtles in the area, but these two were my favorites.

My friend Jessie is ready and excited to start on a new quilt, so we took a trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics on Sunday. It was the first time I've been to the local Jo-Ann, so of course I had to buy something! I picked out a few fun prints to try out a pattern that I want to use for a bigger quilt (but figured I'd rather make mistakes on a small quilt instead of a full sized one!). I know that it's almost ridiculous to buy fabric when I have SO MUCH at home already. But the fabric I got from Mom's stash is just that: stash fabric. There are very few "sets" of fabric to make coordinated quilts. The stash is great for making scrapy quilts, which I plan on making for general gifts. I know, really, this is just justification for buying more fabric! I also picked up a new self-healing rotary mat that is much larger than my old one (which is looking pretty rough for 10 years of wear and tear).

While we were flipping through books for Jessie to pick out a pattern, I stumbled across this adorable sheep quilt! The picture from my BlackBerry is a bit fuzzy, but it's clear enough to remind me when I finally get around to trying to make it.

Knitting and Pickling

Joy and I had a great time hanging out this weekend. We did a fun bit of shopping and were finally able to check out two local book stores, The Book Lady and E. Shaver Books, where I picked up Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food." I had a gift certificate for Barnes & Noble, so I picked up a beautiful bound collection of Jane Austen's seven novels (that's right: seven. I had never heard of "Lady Susan" and can't wait to read it!).


We had a blast poking around the World Market (cheap, flavorful herbs and fun home dec). I was able to get three vanilla beans for $5 instead of one bean for $9 at Publix. Sad, but that is the kind of thing about which I get excited. When I made a new batch of yogurt, I steeped a bean in the milk while it was heating and made vanilla yogurt! It is still not as sweet as store bought yogurt (which is fine, in my opinion) but it did add a nice hint of flavor; subtle and not overpowering.


I also had a gift certificate to Michael's from Christmas two years ago and used it up buying supplies to make stitch markers. I am much happier with this set than the beaded ones I made two weekends ago. And I have found that stitch markers really are helpful when learning to do lace patterns.

Harley was not happy about going to the groomer, but I think she enjoyed having an extra set of hands around to pet and scratch her. Joy got messy in the kitchen using my friend Diana's zucchini bread recipe and made two booming loafs. Silly, really, to call it zucchini "bread" because the loaf shape is the only thing to which that name applies. For all intents and purposes it is a cake. But if it is called "bread" then it is acceptable to eat for breakfast, yes?


Speaking of Diana, I remembered the amazing dill pickles she and Jay used to make. Having just enjoyed homemade pickles at the Dover's, I was inspired to try my hand at it. Making dill pickles was really much easier than I expected. Though it is disappointing that I have to wait three weeks before I can try them!

Pics outside my apartment

When I talk to friends on the phone, they always ask what I've been up to lately. My usual answer is "not much," which is only partly true. My job keeps me very busy and is wonderfully stimulating, but nothing that I really want to bore people by talking about for any length of time. I haven't been doing much that would be considered thrilling or exciting. I've been pretty content, after all the upheaval of last year, to be rather boring for the time being.

I had two fun, though rather uneventful, trips to Detroit for a financial coaching training. I spent two days in Atlanta attending a training on home buyer education. I got to visit the Dovers in Habersham for a few days, which is always a pleasure. But when it comes to day to day life, it's pretty quiet. I take Harley for walks, work on craft projects, read, cook and look forward to the fall (when I can go for a walk and not come home drenched in sweat!). Joy is coming to town this weekend, and we're going to explore some of the bookstores in town (not that either of us really need any more books...) and some very dear friends will be visiting at the end of the month, so I will try to fit in touristy sightseeing with them.

I picked up some beautiful Chinese cucumbers from the farmer's market yesterday and will be trying Suzanne's recipe for dill pickles. I've never made pickles before, and if it works out then I will have officially started making Christmas gifts. You may be thinking, isn't it a little early to be thinking about Christmas gifts? To which I say, absolutely not! When you make all your gifts by hand, it is NEVER to early to start.

As I was coming back from my afternoon walk with Harley yesterday, I saw this beautiful banana spider in front of the house. I say "beautiful" because I can appreciate the design of this amazing predator. I was once told that they lay eggs under your skin when they bite you, but I haven't been able to confirm that anywhere.

John stopped by yesterday on his way to North Georgia. Harley was still being a bully to his dog, Colorado, but we had a nice visit all the same. In a moment of bad photographic planning, I snapped this picture with us both facing into the sun. I took another with the sun behind us, but I liked how John is making a Popeye face in this one!

Travel Bits and a Raging Storm

This will be a very, very quick post. Very.

I've been doing a small bit of traveling for work lately: went to Detroit twice in the last two months (which is twice more than I ever planned on going to Detroit). The training was great, veggie meatloaf was excellent, and I now have no reason to ever go to Detroit again (except maybe to have more veggie meatloaf).

Tonight I'm driving up to Atlanta for two more days of training. I've pretty excited about this training because it's on a topic that I can benefit from immediately: home buyer education. I teach and coordinate monthly First Time Home Buyer Education workshops, so I'll feel better having actually been trained to do so. Plus, as a bonus, I'll be spending the weekend in Habersham visiting friends! After this, not much in the way of traveling for the foreseeable future.

As to the "Raging Storm" bit in the title: we had a raging thunderstorm Monday night. Seriously raging. Like, summoned by King Leer raging. Trees were struck down, power was lost, streets were flooded, flotsam littered the parks. And I missed it all because I was teaching a credit class at South University. When the power went out, the backup lights kicked on and I just kept right on teaching. About 45 minutes later the president of the school came in and told us the rest of the school was in the dark and to go home. When the rain and winds cleared, there was a beautiful double rainbow that had me smiling all the way home.

New Crafting Updates!

I have to admit, when it comes to teaching people to quilt, I don't have the best track record. In college I got my suite-mate started on a quilt, but she had to finish it on her own after graduation. When I moved to CT my friend Jenni started a purple quilt, but I don't think we got a single block sewn. I had two more co-workers that I got started as well, but then had to move to GA before I could see them through to batting and binding. For a person like myself, so focused on accomplishments, this is a hard thing to deal with.

So it was with more than a little fear that I offered to teach a new co-worker how to quilt. Part of me figured that I just moved to GA, so the likelihood of me moving again before the quilt was finished was pretty slim. But who knows what other nefarious obstacles could arise?

About a month ago Jessie came over to look at patterns and get a summary lesson on what would be needed to start the quilt. She decided on a Rail Fence pattern (an old favorite of mine!) and we worked out the math to figure how much fabric she would need. Then she went off to Jo-Ann's without me to hunt her fabric. I didn't trust myself to walk into a Jo-Ann's and NOT buy any fabric.

The fabrics Jessie picked were beautiful! Honestly, just seeing the combinations of colors and patterns that other people pick is one of my favorite parts of social crafting. She came back on Sunday when we spent several hours quilting and, miracle of miracles, she finished the entire quilt top in one day! We spent a few hours last night adding the borders and layering the quilt, then I sent her home with my spare sewing machine and some embroidery thread to finish the quilting process at her leisure. She seems very pleased with the process so far, and has even talked about ideas for her next quilt! I may just have a new partner in crime...

While Jessie worked on her masterpiece, I put together this un"bear"ably cute baby blanket. I still have to layer and quilt it, but I love the way it is coming along. As long as my friends keep having babies I will have an excuse to work with adorable fabrics!

I have a few fun knitting projects I've been working on as well...but haven't taken pictures of them yet. However, I did finally make it down to Wild Fibre for the Tuesday evening knitting group. The ladies were all very welcoming and I look forward to going back again soon (especially since it is only a 10 minute bike ride from my house!).

The shell, and coming out of it.

From my previous posts, you may get the feeling that I am really enjoying my time in Savannah. The more accurate statement is that I am enjoying my time in my apartment, which happens to be in Savannah. I've mentioned this before, but I have been putting off really exploring my new home time, or meeting people outside of work. I've felt like I just haven't had the time or the energy to make that effort.

Well, here's the truth of the matter: I'm scared. Not like the creepy, air-mask-wearing, looking-over-my-shoulder scared. More like the been-battered-and-bruised-and-don't-want-to-go-there-again scared. I'm afraid to start making new friends that will only end up hurting me or going away. I know this is unproductive, at best. I know that not making new friends or losing friends still leaves me in the same place: spending every night alone with my dog.

What's really frustrating is that I have never been the kind of person to hesitate about meeting new people. I have always been one to go to events, join groups, talk to strangers. But lately (and by lately, I mean the last 7 months) I just haven't have it in me to make that contact.

This weekend I had, what I believe will be, the last conversation with my recent ex. After I broke up with him and moved to GA, I humored his desire to stay in my life and be my friend. I hadn't given it a lot of thought since I rarely heard from him, but I finally realized why I was hanging on to this relationship that wasn't really a friendship so much as a continuation of his self-centeredness: I was hoping to find some redeeming shred of proof that I didn't waste two years of my life waiting for him to become a person of integrity. Needless to say, I've given up. He can continue to lie to himself and others all he wants. It's not my problem anymore (and, in hindsight, I should have realized that it never was).

So after getting that off my plate, and spending a great weekend with my Dad, and spending some quality time with a very dear friend who was passing through town, I got to feeling a little bit stronger. My friend has been dealing with some difficult relationship issues of his own, and it felt really good to be able to be supportive instead of the one needing support. I felt somehow recharged, reminded of the things that I have to offer.

After a lunch meeting with my boss, I finally got around to stopping by the Savannah Bee Company. I've been wanting to go in there for months, but always made excuses. This time I had to walk right past it to get to my car, so there was no good reason not to stop. There was a great honey bee quilt hanging on the wall and I struck up a conversation with the girl working the register. Ends up that she's a knitter, so I gave her my card and said I'd love to get together and share knitting tips. I don't know if we'll ever actually hang out, but it felt really good to just make that connection. I left the store with a bit more of a bounce in my step and my head sticking just a little further out of my shell.

Detroit and Sailing

Despite how the title of this post sounds, I did not go sailing in Detroit. Instead, I learned alot about coaching techniques and financial stuffs while at a training in Detroit.

Can't say I am a big fan of the Motor City. Well, to be fair, I'm not really a fan of cities in general (Savannah, of course, being more of a large small town). The flight was uneventful (aside from really interesting conversation with a guy who works in Iraq), the food ranged from excellent vegetarian meatloaf to utterly disgusting pad thai, and the hotel was adequate (except that the large screen TVs distorted regular television so everyone looked like really stocky linebackers). The coolest part of the hotel were the huge murals flanking the elevator bank.

As it should be, the highlights of the trip were the training sessions. I really like the concept of coaching (as opposed to counseling, which I am not qualified to perform) and the basic agreement of personal responsibility on the part of the client.

After Detroit, I got to spend a wonderfully long weekend hanging out with Dad and Joy. Besides seeing family, the highlight was our sailing trip from St. Mary's to Fernandina Beach. We had a great wind and it was really relaxing to be out on the water.

We even got to see a fast attack submarine leaving the St. Mary's River. I'm sure it would have been more exciting if I hadn't lived most of my life near a sub base and seen things like this on a near monthly basis.

Another sight I'm starting to get used to are BABs (short for Big Ass Boats). The come in and out of Savannah on a pretty regular basis, but are still really overwhelming to see up close. This BAB isn't anywhere near as big as some of the container ships that come into port.

Joy snapped a picture of me doing the only bit of crew-work the captain would allow: preparing the bow lines to docking. At least she didn't catch a pic of my snoozing on deck...

Many people have asked how I'm dealing with the heat. It has been in the upper 90s for the past few weeks, with the heat index going over 100. Really, it's not as bad as I feared, though certainly not pleasant. It's actually much hotter at Dad's than in Savannah and I can't help whining when I go to visit. It will be much more bearable after July 23 when I get air conditioning installed in my car! And I'm sure I won't be complaining in January when I'm just wearing a long sleeved Tshirt for my afternoon walks in the park...