More camping pictures

As promised! Here are more camping pictures. Are you as bored of seeing them as I am of doing camping clean up? How can there be THIS much laundry??????

well, here I am delivering morning coffee.

and here I am with my good friend Cookie, though I have no idea what she is doing to my hair???

And here we have the lovely Miss V and I wading right away in the morning

Now this really is the best for last. Every summer we count eagles! This summer there was this gorgeous patriarch, and two young ones. One summer there were 8 of them nesting along the river.

Last summer, my husband Jim was swimming out in the middle of the river and one of our camping friends started yelling to him to look out, and sure enough a HUGE eagle was coming in for his head! He said it was really hard to look big while you are swimming, but he flipped over and waved his arms and yelled and it swooped back up and went and sat in a tree and watched him.

This one came and watched the guys fishing, he was probably trying to decide if he wanted to show them up or not.

Camping fun!

Before we left for camping, of course I got food plans made, clothes packed, all that camping stuff, and I made postcards to take a long to mail to my co-workers!





Here is our camp spot in Iron Mountain Michigan.




and here is my favorite way to start the day............ ahh,

my coffee god Nick recommended and ground "Cowboy Java" for our trip. Life is good!




And here is the lovely Miss V enjoying a Michigan size ice cream cone............


Yes, I have to play with depth perception, it's just something I feel the need to do.
More photos when I get caught up on laundry............
sigh!

Off to the wilds of "Up Nort"

Well, Bag Lady is back! I'm online at etsy! If you haven't browsed Etsy, you are in for a huge treat!!! Loads and loads of awesome handmade items! Everything is sooooo cool! I'm excited to be part of it. My shop is at greenmare4.etsy.com

Meanwhile I'm getting ready to brave the mosquitoes in the wilds of upper Michigan. I've got my handwork and books all packed! See you when I get back!!

Still sewing away!

So, after making loads of bags, I'm now working on aprons for my "big guild" picnic. The "Big guild" is the one I belong to locally, not the totally exclusive 3 member guild. We are doing a traditional picnic, with a sort of country theme, not country music country, but country as in fried chicken, lemonade, wild flowers in mason jars, grandma's apron....... that sort of country. When I was a kid and one of 24 grandchildren, we got together at grandma and grandpas farm every summer for a big picnic, and grandma always made the absolute BEST lemonade. She would grab a few of us grandkids and set us to rolling lemons on the kitchen table to get the juice going,

and then she knew how much water and sugar to add and it was heaven on earth!!

The closest I have ever come is the recipe on the Real Lemon bottle. Anyway, some of us on the committee are making aprons for everyone, and we will put a napkin and silverware in the pocket

and use them as place settings too.

Lovely Miss V is modeling the ones I made so far. Finally I was able to get her to look up and smile!!

I also snapped up a few aprons at thrift shops and antique malls. The second one is for another committee member named is Ann who has a bathroom decorated with Raggedy Ann.
In other matters I discovered that drinking 5 shots of espresso has a very uplifting affect on your blood pressure. Mine is normally in the range of 116 over 84, however after my little coffee jag I stopped at the blood center to donate and it was 142 over 86!!! oops? well we decided that whatever lucky soul gets my blood will be feeling zippy in no time at all!
Happy Fourth everyone!!!!

Mosquitoes are good for something

See all these grocery bags I've made lately? There are more that I have already given to people and two of the bags in back each have 4 more bags rolled up inside them. Over achiever huh? The mosquitoes are sooooooooooooo BAD here that I can't go out to work in my yarden, and just taking the dog for her walk is sheer torture. They bit through everything I put on, and they laugh at the deep woods off with 40% deet. So, at least I'm getting some little sewing projects done.

This is what is left from my Bag Lady inventory at the local craft shop. The owner is moving to Florida and I'm going to attempt to sell online.
At least I've got a good start on supplies! I hope where ever you are, the mosquitoes are leaving you alone!


I have a new blessing I say to Jim as he leaves for work; "May you walk fast enough that you get to your car before the mosquitoes know you are there."
Sadly, no one can walk that fast!

Miscellaneous stuff

Isn't it funny how you always think that things will slow down in the summer and instead they shift up to warp speed! Where are those "lazy crazy hazy days of summer" we heard about as kids? They are not happening here! I was 13 days behind on my 365 challenge quilt and I haven't posted in weeks!!!


We packed up and went camping for Fathers Day with Jim's side of the family.
So, it was fairly easy because we picked a state park that is about 18 miles from home so I could come home and walk the dog and feed the animals, and actually I went to work one day in the middle because it was just easier than getting someone to do my site that day.


We can NEVER go camping without lightsticks.
These are Jim's favorite camping treat to give out to little ( and big) kids.







Ahhh campfire. The best.

Camping potatoes,
which made the whole trip worthwhile for my brother in law.
It should have been two thumbs up but I was hanging onto a knife.






The gorgeous beach at the park. Isn't Lake Michigan fantastic?










During part of our camp trip Vanessa attended Camp Franciscan at our local Franciscan convent. Check out her with one of her favorite "sisters". We sure do have the coolest nuns in our area!
They did art and gardening, music and games, and of course lots of prayer time. Vanessa said one of the neatest things was doing a "Hail Mary" walk in the moonlight. And it was a full moon so it was great timing!


And here is my treasure this past week! Look at all this fabulous chicken fabric from my blog buddy Gizmo!!! http://gizmoquilts.blogspot.com/

I think I will be making that funky chicken quilt after all! Isn't this a fabulous thing to find in the mail? Yup I am totally lucky!

oh my aching everything!

This past week Vanessa graduated 8th grade, and we moved TWO kids back to school.

Here is my baby in her graduation finery and a balloon, I'm not sure why the balloon, but I have learned not to question things.

I know, it seems a bit early doesn't it? Well, one has an on campus job and is taking a summer course and the other just got laid off- yes you read that right from her summer factory job. So, since they both have off campus housing now we moved them back.

On Tuesday we moved Becky back to Platteville, see this pretty house?

It's not theirs. But isn't it a nice view?

This is their house, 2 girls and 2 boys, and they have plenty of room! Plus they have that pretty house to look at across the street!

and here is Becky with one of the roommates- or housemates, and her boyfriend Ben. This was our favorite pizza place when Jim and I were going to school here. ahhhhhhhhh memories?

Then we moved daughter number 2. She doesn't have a job yet, but I'm sure there will be many more opportunities for work in a city as opposed to out in the middle of nowhere, which is where we live.

See this pretty house? Nope, not theirs either, but another nice view.

Yeah, it's a trend with me.

So here is Melissa before we moved her stuff into her room. I didn't get an "after" picture because the room was so small we all had to leave so she could make her bed. I'm not kidding on that one.

This is their half of a house. Looks a bit strange doesn't it? It goes back several rooms, and sort of EL's into the big house that it's attached to. It's actually rather charming on the inside. I think it was added on in the 50's from looking at the tiles and the cabinetry. So, many boxes, beds, desks, and chairs later we have them both moved in, in two different cities, and now the house is almost empty again. And on the bright side we won't have to do all this in August with 81 other parents trying to use our same parking spot.