Geico, geckos and Tootsie Rolls

Well, the insurance company decided that my car was a total loss. I got a decent settlement, considering the age and mileage. The insurance guy was pretty surprised that I was moving around as well as I am, considering the damage. I was amazed at how fast Geico settled this: I had my check a week after the accident!
The body shop actually had to use a winch to pull the fender out far enough for me to get my stuff out of the trunk. Poor little car.


When I was heading to bed last night, I found this little, tiny gecko hiding in the corner of my dining room! I have no idea where he came from or what kind of gecko it is, but he was adorable. I mean, I have seen roaches bigger than this guy! I almost felt bad letting him loose outside to fend for himself, but I did anyway.

A few months ago, Dad and I had an amazing Sunday Brunch at the Firefly Cafe. As we were walking back to the car, this clever squirrel was munching on a Tootsie Roll. The cutest part was the way he was holding the candy, and even pulling the wrapper back. It made me think of the old book "The Rats of NIMH."

Finally, something exciting

I have been a bit worried lately that my blog might be kinda boring. I mean, who really wants to hear about pickles or knitting all the time, right?

Well, I finally have something kinda exciting to blog about. But, by "exciting" I don't exactly mean "fun." Yesterday I was in a very unpleasant rear-end collision. I'm fine, just a bit sore. Really, I even went to the hospital and they X-rayed and CAT-scanned me. My poor little car, however, is now virtually a hatchback! Still waiting for insurance to tell me if it's totalled...

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!).