Last day of July!

I am sitting here just wondering where did the month go and then I realize how quickly the year is just flying by! We have had so much going on this summer we are just exhausted and no rest in sight!

The summer started with Stephen planning on moving out - he finally landed a job and is now waiting to be bumped up to full time hours and get a couple of paychecks put away so he can make his move. Timeline end of September.

We got the pool opened but have yet to get in it! The weather has been really rainy and when it is nice we are either at work or have other committments that prevent us from getting in and relaxing. This is our second year of little to no pool use - so I am thinking of taking it down - though I know Mark will balk.

Thomas came up for two weeks the beginning of July It is always good to have him in house and this summer especially as he heads off to college in the fall.

Speaking of bad weather it's been lightning and raining and tornadoes all over the midwest. We took a lightning strike near the house a few weeks ago which fried our pool pump and the clothes washer (only 3 years old top of the line....errrrr!!!) So we replaced the pump and ordered a new washing machine and then we had another storm July 2 which evidently succeeded in breaking just one of the power lines coming into the house. Unfortunately the line that broke was not the power feed, but the line that controls how much power comes through into the house. So when we got home ready for a nice holiday weekend we could not use any appliances in the house, could not run the AC, we were getting surges and drops so we called ComEd and put in a work request and of course they never showed up. So - we decided we could use just one appliance at a time - no AC but one appliance - not having had a washer for over a week I needed to do laundry - so we put the brand new washer which was delivered in the middle of this crisis on a surge protector and I started loads. Sunday I went to throw the last load into the dryer (on it's own isolated 220 line) and when I pushed the start button on the drier I had electricity flying out of the outlet next to the drier - which of course is where the washer is plugged in! It blew the surge protector - lots of smoke and smell - but luckily the washer was safe.

Com Ed finally came out on Monday acknowledged their broken line and fixed it in 20 minutes. I was irritated no end - because I not only have replaced about $1,000 worth of appliances, there is more that I have not yet replaced and worst of all my three day weekend was ruined! All in all the storms this year have cost us the pool pump, the washer, 2 mother boards, 1 hard drive in a laptop, a hub unit, 2 surge protectors (up in smoke), and the air filter from the bedroom.

Oh well Life goes on! Last week I did a quick trip to Cleveland for work - always interesting and this past weekend Mark and I volunteered at the Lions Club Annual Senior Picnic - held at the American Legion we had lots of seniors, good food, good fun. Bingo and prizes for everyone.

This weekend - starting today I will be volunteering at the Taste of Roselle - the American Legion booth will have Dove bars as usual, and the Auxiliary will be selling quilt raffle tickets on the quilt that was donated to us by Meliss - Nancy Vrba's sister. It's a beautiful queen size - I'll try to get a pic in the sunshine and post it next week with details.

Tuesday night August 4 we will be at Turner Pond in Roselle handing out hotdogs and sodas again for the National Night Out. This is always fun as we work side by side with Harris Bank staff. Harris is a very generous underwriter for this event and many other community events and organizations - I highly recommend their banking services. That's it for today ! Hope you have a happy and safe weekend ! Ciao!!

Colors are off - but here's a new quilt/pic- Surf's Up!!

I took this picture with the cell phone in my office - which has limited light - so you can't see the beautiful turquoise and green frond border fabric or the great colors in the coins - but this is what I have - so imagine!!

This quilt started with the gift of a set of coins that are cut from the fabrics that hawaiian shirts are made of. The gift giver went on vacation to Hawaii last year and knows me so well, that when bringing back gifties instead of chocolate covered macadamia nuts I received quilt coins!! I purchased some additional hawaiian shirt print fabrics at a quilt shop in Woodstock, IL and the wonderful palm frond border fabric. It sat for a couple months while I decided on a layout and when I came up with this one I didn't have enough of the border fabric - so off to the internet I went to find more (of course I bought extra!! It's Turquoise!!!)

The back is an all over palm tree print (with coconuts!) on a turquoise background and the quilt is stitched all over in turquoise thread in a meandering pattern. The curves of the stitching bring a different texture to all the straight lines of the coins and borders.

I really loved this quilt, all the bright colors and prints kept me thinking of warm tropical beaches and luscious views but I decided to gift the quilt back to the friend who gave me the coins. She had a birthday coming up and it was perfect timing and I knew it would be a surprise. She was surprised and I was so glad she liked it. It's 72 x 72 finished so it's the perfect size for napping or snuggling on the couch with that wonderful man she went to Hawaii with!!