sewtakeahike

fires, evacuations, and hummingbirds

 

A lot of you may have already heard about the High Park fire and if not, you can click on the link to read a bit about it if you wish.

We had some tremendous lightening storms here last week and one of the strikes started the High Park fire that has grown like mad over the last week.  For the first day and a half after it started I thought we were sitting fine.  The fire was 7ish miles north of us and our home is on a large lake and we live on a sort of penninsula, so yeah, I thought we were good.  But then last Sunday afternoon the smoke plume kept getting closer and closer and then the call came to evacuate. 

I froze. 

I'm not proud of this next part, especially since so many people have lost so much, but then I had a sort of mental temper tantrum, thinking that if I couldn't take all my fabric, then I didn't want to take any of it. 

 

L-man promptly brought me back to my senses by telling me he needed me to get it together quickly and pile together the things we had decided we would take in case something like this ever happened.

Our evacuation ended up being like a mini vacation (still going to work, but being blessed by a friend by being able to stay in super nice accomodations with our Foz-man) for a few days until we were allowed to come back home.   

 

The firefighters were able to get part of the fire contained 3 or so miles north of us, but it continues to grow on the north and west. 

So please pray.  Pray for safety, pray for peace, pray for rain, pray for uplifted hearts, pray for generosity, pray for sympathy, pray that friends reach out to help others, and pray the fire is contained. 

The phrase "there's no place like home" had never hit me so hard as when we were allowed to come home on Wednesday evening.

 

Walking into the house I could hear the hummingbirds whizzing around looking and sounding like the jetsons and I promptly opened all the windows and put a pot of hummingbird food on the stove. 

And although I woke up very early in the darkness on Thursday morning, having a hard time breathing because the smoke was so heavy in our house, I couldn't help but think, there really is no place like home.

 

keychains and other important things..

 

Have you guys seen these? Leila has come up with the cutest little keychain fob design imo.

If you'd like, you can purchase one that's she's made from her etsy, or, for those of you who want to make one or two or three of your own, she's working diligently to have a pattern available in her etsy after the first of the year!

 

 

And then would you just look at this sweet little coin purse that Kerry sent? I am blown away with her thoughtfulness. She even put a little "P" tag on it for me! I just want to squeeze it everytime I look at it!

She also sent along this text tea towel (hint, under my new fruit bowl). Thank you so much, Kerry for your thoughtfulness!

 

One last thing before I head off this morning. This is L-man's birthday weekend, so I started the weekend with making these cake batter blondies for him.

 

 

He's not a big chocolate lover, so these were perfect for him! I'm serious guys, you need to RUN and get what you need to make them. They really are that good! In fact, L-man ate so many of them that he got a tummy ache. Awwwww! So just don't do what he did and eat 1/4 of the pan and you should be fine and very happy!

 

I hope your day is filled with peace and joy!!

~Penny

the "squeeze"

 

 

The weekend before we moved into our new home, I attended AmandaJean's weekend workshop here in Colorado. She showed us her new QAYG method. This is the quilt I made from her method. Since nearly everything I've gone through since I started this quilt has squeezed me in one way or another, I'm calling it "squeeze".

 

 

The finished size is: approximately 68X85.

I love, love, love the size and how comfy cozy it is!! Thank you so much AJ for teaching us your QAYG method!!

One more quick thing I HAVE to show you!!!

 

 

For our Christmas party at the office, our boss and our wife took us all to a ceramics place and we painted pottery! I painted this bowl with a Cathrineholm design. LOVE!!!

Hope you have a wonderful Friday everyone!

~Penny

Eventually

My daddy was the king of procrastination. Especially on garage sale days. We could be in the car together on a very important mission (like getting milk for mom), and although we would eventually get there and get the job done, our route was a meandering one, full of right and left turns, turning around and backing up, making sure not to miss a single garage sale that might or might not be on the way.

As I was growing up, that type of meandering oftentimes drove me a little mad. My personality is pretty straight to the point and going with the flow is not easy for me to do.

But now that we buried my daddy a week ago, those times I spent with him in the car, rolling my eyes at him, hoping that this was the one time that we could go straight to the store and home, are endearing to me. You see, my daddy enjoyed the journey. It never was about the end goal for him. He knew how to laugh and have fun on the way, and that's something I cherish about him. I hope that each day I will grow to be a little more like him in that manner. Quick to smile, tell a joke, and help someone out. That was my daddy.

 

 

Moving in to our new home has been full of ups and downs. If you remember, before my daddy got ill, I made this rug and the main part of the pop bottle curtain before we moved in, so that it would be virtually ready to be put in our kitchen once we moved. I'm happy to be able to share this photo with you all, and extremely sad that he didn't get to see it. My daddy and I had much the same taste when it came to decorating and I know he would have loved it.

So here's to you, daddy. I sure do miss you.

~Penny

A few things.

I can't even begin to tell you all what a whirlwind this last month has been. It has been a mixture of exciting and happy, all mixed in with sorrow and heartbreak. Why does it seem that so much of life is this way, the best of times all mixed in and swirled with the worst of times?

Through all of the happenings of the last month, I am so very thankful for so many things and believe that looking for the bright, happy moments is imperative.

Here's a bright spot in my day today:

 

We moved into our new home this last week and it seems that the local deer have taken to using our yard off the back deck as an afternoon napping refuge. Do you see her there through the kitchen window?

I'm going to break back into blogging slow and easy, I still have loads of unpacking and organizing to do. So just one more thing before I sign off.

Before we moved, I recovered our dining room chairs with some Amy Butler home dec fabric:

 

 

Just like my quilting, I couldn't help but use more than one fabric to mix things up a bit.

 

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and I look forward to catching up with you!

 

~Penny